001you evening everyone the Durham public schools Board of Education is now convened in its regular monthly meeting we wish to extend a warm welcome to everyone who has come who has come to join us this evening as well as our television viewers 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 serve and lead the administration will be presenting information that will keep you up to date on our strategic plan thank you for taking time to join us tonight let the celebrations begin what did that come from okay all right so all right we have two interpreters tonight proofread this stuff right we have two interpreters tonight and we're gonna ask I guess both of them
002to come both of them to come up after I read their BIOS Martha Grimm sir Ramirez will be our interpreter for tonight's meeting one of our interpreters for tonight's meeting miss Ramirez is the ESL teacher at Jordan High School and Durham School of the Arts she is available today to provide interpreting in Spanish to anyone who needs it buenas noches way Monty Ramirez so my son DSA ela Jordan estoy aqui para provide interpretation in espanol a quirky persona que lo necesita tenemos lo saw de fauna Sephora and Paseo the native flowers community liaison and Spanish interpreter with Durham public schools is the second translator for tonight that's so great ok she's gonna come in a little bit later she's an alumnus of DPS Riverside High School has a BA in English linguistics with a minor
003in hispanic studies in spanish as flowers will be here this evening to assist our spanish-speaking families and community members the next item on our agenda the first item on our agenda or the next item is a moment of silence and I ask in our moment of silence ask for us to just think a moment for the federal workers right now who are furloughed or out of work due to everyone everyone knows a story about why yes stupidity so just think about those and think about what it means if we were to miss two paychecks just out of the blue you know what does that mean in your life and that's what they're experiencing now so please join me in a moment of silence thank you dr. bubinga Thank You chairman Lee I'm glad to see
004so many of you here this evening because these meetings are really important conversation that's gonna happen in the last week many of you share with me your concerns about two issues a parents experience of joining a child for in school suspension last April and an awful bullying incident on one of our school buses last week these issues do not reflect the ideals of their own public schools or the Durham community our schools are doing important work with a community to ensure our students are safe secure and respected regarding in-school suspension many of you in this room have hop off schools improve and make more equitable our Student Code of Conduct we have been transforming our schools approach to discipline we believe in restorative justice and turning our in-school suspension program into restorative practice centers and
005regarding the incident on the bus we do not tolerate bullying and we will take appropriate disciplinary measures involving any students involved in bullying acts as well as any adults who fall short in their responsibilities to protect our students a super tenet it's vital to me that we are we say we are and that every student is valued I look forward to hearing from you tonight Thank You mr. chairman thank you dr. Medina next item on our agenda then the next two items is be our guest dinner invite and by T's and the celebrations good evening everyone in order to help us meet the goals set forth by DPS strategic plan until aligned we and to align our BR guests to the new mission and vision of DPS our dinner provides an opportunity for stakeholders in
006the durham community to meet with the DPS Board of Education and a small group casual setting to discuss how DPS and the community can partner together to ignite the limitless potential of our schools our students and our staff this evening we welcomed several representative several excuse me several representatives from Durham's Latino community and had a robust conversation around the question what resources are needed to ignite the limitless potential of DPS students thank you all for giving of your time and providing feedback and insight to us how we can work together to embrace educate and empower every student to innovate serve and lead so we want to make sure we recognize you all come walk the red carpet we also had delicious food prepared by our northern culinary department if you have not had it you
007need to have some they do really really great work so as I call your name please come up to the red carpet reverend julio ramirez reverend habakkuk ramos jose rodriguez [Applause] Alexis Padilla avi Castillo and henesys Sanchez thank you miss instead and we are now going to move to the celebrations portion of the evening with the durham public school student of the month our student of the month program spotlight students who distinguished themselves with character and integrity who are active in their schools and community and who maintain excellent academic standards we didn't have a board meeting in December so we have the pleasure of introducing to you both the December and January students of the month we will start with December so I'd like to ask Keisha Patrol principal of Durham's performance Learning Center to
008introduce our first student good evening distinguished guests and the board is so nice to be here this evening I have the pleasure of introducing to you a remarkable student from PLC who exemplifies the characteristics of a Phoenix anion has been a strong student since her arrival at D PLC she's a pleasant to talk to she works hard she's ready to do whatever is asked of her and she consistently has demonstrated the characteristics of a Phoenix resilience and being ready to rise she is kind and courteous to everyone she meets her English teacher mr. Christopher Forbes said that she has consistently been one of my hardest working and highest achieving students Anaya Saul's will be graduating from during performance Learning Center in June 2019 and plans to attend North Carolina A&T State University to major in
009fashion merchandising I give you an AIA song [Applause] and now for our next act I like I would like to ask dr. Gloria woods weeks principle at JD Clement Early College High School to come introduce our January student of the month good evening intelligent brave hardworking motivated and dedicated are just a few words to use to describe this student Anika was stricken with a very serious medical condition that kept her out of school for almost an entire semester however it did not stop her from achieving academically at the highest level Anika is very responsible motivated and passionate about everything that she does she exemplifies all of the characteristics of a student of the month her determination perseverance and positive attitude are contagious to everyone she meets she has a very very pleasant disposition and a
010very cooperative spirit with encouraging words to speak at all times she exists excels and all of her classes maintaining a 4.6 weighted GPA and more importantly a 4.0 unweighted GPA doing her treatment she never complained about her course workload and was very resilient and stand current and completing the semester strong with all A's she is a true champion this driven goal-oriented student is also dedicated to serving others in and outside of her community as a Girl Scout she has contributed to her community in many many ways she has volunteered for many organizations including the Urban Ministries C's community garden and the Ronald McDonald House she plans to attend UNC Chapel Hill with aspirations of becoming a nurse practitioner ladies and gentlemen it is my honor and privilege to introduce our student of the month miss
011Anika Ford [Applause] Durham public schools has some awesome teachers I'd like to invite dan Guilford from Northern high school to come up and tell us about one of his good evening optima bingo board members mr. Jack Brown is an agriculture teacher in northern high school this is his fourth year there last year mr. Brown and his students planted 300 native t- trees at a durham vineyard as the streams tried scream site restoration project they also grew over 2,250 native pollinator plants which they sold and distributed throughout the community in May 2008 een he received the Durham Soil and Water Conservation Teacher of the Year award to an ero for northern and on genuine were in January of 2019 he was honored for the North Carolina conservation Teacher of the Year award mr. Brown received this
012award for his leadership community involvement and his students knowledge arrest natural resources conservation outside of the classroom mr. Jack Brown [Applause] last but not least I would like to invite Mary Griffith director of marketing community engagement for Durham public schools to introduce our next honoree Thank You chip good evening board members dr. mu Banga it's my pleasure to introduce mr. Krause Parker Miss Parker is a teacher at Glenn Elementary and the organizer of the fourth annual mrs. Parker's professor's food razor turquoise Parker had one goal to provide her students and their families with a bag of food to enjoy during the holiday break she started this project four years ago while teaching in Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools yes we stole her and during the first event she raised roughly five hundred dollars this year
013she far surpassed her goal she raising over seven thousand dollars in food donations and cash for purchasing stood and supplies for all Glenn students mrs. Parker had more than a few helpers some of you are even here today former students current students and community members came out to support the project and to help had bags for distribution she's already planning for next year and this was just a remarkable event to observe and to participate in and her leadership and commitment is just invaluable to us all I'm also proud to share with you that the Office of Public Affairs recently launched a new pinning initiative you'll hear more about that and dr. move-in goes remarks but Miss Parker is an excellent example of a spark igniter someone inside or outside DPS who provides hands-on or direct
014impact to our students to recognize miss Parker's extra efforts we would like dr. move anga to pin her with a spark pin congratulations miss Parker for igniting the limitless potential of our students [Applause] I would also like to observe that these are the most spectacular shoes that this red carpet has ever seen this concludes our celebrations thank you very much all right our next item on the agenda is the superintendent's update document thank you again chairman Lee both members I'm pleased to share this further update with you we are proud to have moved the involvements date for kindergarten up to are from mod first to February 1st this year we are committed to increase in outreach and communication to a rise in kindergarten families in Durham we plan to provide easier access it smoother transition
015and earlier kickoff for kindergarten recruitment many department are working together to support sharing the good news about dps and helping families to choose us on their notes I am excited to share a positive data points although we have seen a decrease in enrollment in overall district under the leadership of principal Jason towers that's y'all can see back there the principle of in ivali elementary school we saw an increase in a roll made with growth of more than 130 students since we started this year what is doing we can replicate that across our district thank you Jason next we're extremely proud that DPS magnet schools are receiving national recognitions for the exceptional work that they do to provide innovative programming for our students ten of our magnet schools receive merited words from magnet schools of America
016this is the highest number of words that DPS has ever received and we excited to put Durham on the map as we offer excellent school options for our students and our families we look forward to recognizing our magnet schools of distinction and magnet schools of excellence at the nest board meeting finally this week our public affairs office roll out this pack initiative through this initiative we are going to recognize our internal as well our external stakeholders we have gone above and beyond to advance the priorities of our strategic plan and our visit our vision of ignoring the leibniz potential of our students we look forward to pinning our incredible influencers in the upcoming weeks and we mentor of the year so we started today before our excellent candidates that's all I just spent few minutes
017ago and we excited that we're gonna continue this work in the year to come Thank You mr. chairman and that's pretty much conclude my remarks thank you dr. Matanga thank you very much the next item on our agenda is to agenda review and approval any updates to the agenda mr. Chairman I would like to add an item on the calendar for 2018-19 perhaps under operational services could be 10 that's our 11 B 11 being anybody have any objection to that okay and I'd like to add under 12 be an item of a discussion of a letter to the State Board of Education regarding discovery charter school okay any other additions I'll accept a motion to approve the agenda as amended move that we approve the agenda as amended second then moved and properly seconded that
018we approve the agenda as amended all in favor say aye all opposed please use the same side passes unanimously the next item on our agenda is public comment we have 27 for public comment so I'm going to move the lot of time from three minutes to two minutes just to keep track of our time I will also just want to talk about the public comment rules really quickly just a quick review of the rules first please state your name if you're speaking for an organization please state the name your name and the name of the organization second speakers will be asked to present their comments in a specified time as noted to be two minutes when a yellow light comes on you have about 15 seconds left I think there's actually a countdown where you
019see the numbers countdown but just so you know visually 15 seconds left at the yellow please start to wind up your remarks when the red light comes on it will be twitch indicates your time is up complaints about named staff students or parents should not be should not be voiced in open session so you can't use names all right that's that's what we're saying with that sentence you can't use specific names as far as staff students or parents I can't use their specific names however we are very interested in hearing your concerns with regard to public education safety of students or the operation of the school system finally the board members will listen carefully and consider the comments but we do not engage in discussion with the speakers and with that our first speakers are
020I'm gonna list five of four or five and you guys are kind of lined up as you come up all right so we have Fred Evans Edie Richardson and rebec Chris Tiffany and Millicent Rogers Millicent's I guess she's supporting Cedric Rogers when you're ready sir my name is Fred Evans I'm the director for the Bull City Bull does mentoring program community based here in Durham and in light of recent video we went to see if that little girl today at her school and give her balloons and things like that to try to give her a chance to get past this a little bit and it's been going to the schools in that area we we were wondering actually how we could be more involved with the school system itself and where we on a limited
021budget but we're willing to be part of the solution work towards it but I have a question water a remark I'm trying to find out how do we go by finding out whatever news we need to take where we need to go in order to get more involved because I mean we got to bridge the gap somewhere so we're more let's just if something I mean I don't know how I can find out but we're there instead of getting getting big getting big part of the solution like I said yeah like so mr. Evans we have we will have somebody meet up with you but we have your information here someone's going to get it okay and so we will definitely be in contact with you did we start the time on that saundra okay
022that wasn't two minutes I was just wondering all right good evening panel my name is Ed Richardson I am a commissioner of the Bull City Bulldogs Athletic Association I'm speaking on behalf of bullying myself as a child I was bullied and I know the feeling at some point time the school steps up in our community to step up and make a safe haven for these kids to learn when these kids are afraid to go to school to learn there's gonna be issues it's gonna push them out the streets I said the bull see the Bulldogs want to bridge that gap and be mentors for individuals we're gonna come in the school system we're gonna put on exhibition we don't give what if happens to these individuals because we want to help them not being bullied
023as a child I understood the Avenue you got to tell somebody that's what helped me I've been here for awhile about three or four years and I get depressed and real sadness I cut the television on every morning somebody's shot killed found deer drugs etcetera etcetera so we are giving ourselves to be a solution instead of part a problem and I feel if we work together we can do this now I'm gonna take to the sports side to get your education as always first my mother was a teacher get that education first then you get your books and your education your books and Digger athletics at some point in time with this combination giving you don't get a scholarship you can give them the chance and the opportunity to move forward in this thing called
024life as a community these youngins we need to take them and hold them close to us because these are future this cycle that we got now we got to break that cycle cuz they're not we're gonna be in a world of trouble the guys that I have working with me now and come say coach how you doing today I said I want you to do what you supposed to do respect your parents respect your family be uplifting citizens in your church and community because as you get older tapped me on my shoulder said coach I got it from here we're gonna do something different and we appreciate everything that you've done for us they help us be better in this thing called life because it's rough out here whether you know it or not its
025rough and I don't want to see it coming to your front door before you say I need to do something about it thank you thank you [Applause] good evening my name is andrey beck my daughter is in her fifth year at the durham school for the arts of the arts oh my gosh she has skilled had skilled teachers engaging lesson plans and except for one instance has mostly been left alone by the leadership she recently received a golden key award from scholastic for her art and has thrived in the theatre department my daughter has done well at DSA I am here to challenge you as a leadership team I predict that you are going to hear from many parents who look like me with a similar story my daughter's success should also be seen in
026light of the fact that she is swimming in a sea of white privilege at her school and in this country this will support her through her whole life and aid in her success please don't get distracted from really digging into the situation by people like me telling you that everything is fine embrace this as an opportunity for deep and lasting change in our learning environments please honor the story Melody's name's the Reverend doctor has told our community I for one and personally very grateful for her and her family's courage since I have 45 seconds left I do want to say thank you also for later in the agenda I believe you're going to be putting a resolution forth for about calendar and I just want to say thank you for being leaders again in the
027state on important issues thank you thank you [Applause] hi my name is cristy Feeny I'm a resident I used to be a tutor math tutor the Youth Justice Project was created under the leadership of Anita Earl's to access racial equity resources visit youth justice NC dot org slash learn racial - equity - report - cards I'll repeat that I think I might have left a slash out anyway to access racial equity resources visit youth justice NC org slash learn slash racial - equity - report - cards and that's the Youth Justice Project created under the leadership of Anita Earl's there's much more information at that site and I have a flyer with that address and a little bit more commentary that's cuter I can't count it thank you I'm Millicent Rogers and I've shared widely
028I'm a parent graduate of DSA Class of 2002 I've responded to letters on Facebook and shared with the district my feelings from my tenure at DSA but I want to talk about the statement from the superintendent's office that the Durham public school 2018 2023 strategic plan will take time to implement regardless of behavior and fraction it's treated with mutual that students are treated with mutual respect have the opportunity to be educated equal men and treated fairly one of the strategic plans 5-over our priorities is to strengthen school family and community engagement to support implementation of the strategic plan in the first year of operation the school board authorized the spending of five point five five million from the district's reserves the additional funding will provide and one of the listed items is restorative practices centers
029coordinators in all Middle School's comprehensive high schools Lakeview school to improve social outcomes and reduce suspensions I request that you update your online policy manual to reflect the new restorative practices policies and programs when the policy is updated please demonstrate with full transparency that the policy is being implemented at all schools in the district with an urgency at schools like DSA that have been known not to treat students in a fair and equitable manner be clear with teachers school administrators and parents about the guidelines set forth of this program if our students are not being served according to the standards we deserve to be able to quantify that and know who to contact from the outset I said you let it be know the coordinators of the restorative practice programs are in the same manner
030that administrators are named parents first interaction with the program should not be when their student gets in trouble that the process should be clearly outlined and developed so that we can respond in a manner that is conducive to and productive to the school environment administration and the success of our children [Music] the next five will be best newsom Reverend dr. 14 masala Micah sorenstein jacket Wagstaff and joinha Lewis hello I'm Beth Newsome and I am a parent of a daughter who's in the fifth grade now so I'm in the process of exploring middle schools and looking at all the options in Durham public schools going down that road I started talking to parents and teachers that I know and a lot of times I heard DSA is great but and I heard anecdotal stories that
031when I read the Reverend doctors letter it spoke to me because I mean now this is what people were talking about and then talking at the open house on Tuesday night asking the principal what is different I mean and I know that this is no longer called ISS but what what has been done and nothing could be listed or mentioned and that's a problem and it's a problem that needs to be dealt with quickly because children are being harmed and also parents are trying to make decisions so we need to come up with a transparent way that this problem can be addressed and that's all I'd like to say thank you thank you I am the Reverend dr. Fatima sali I am a mother of four brown black children and in four and three different
032Durham public schools I am the one who spent two days and I assess a Durham School of the Arts I am the one who waited nine months because I was hoping that the restorative practice had taken place in DSA and when my second son was placed in ISS and he told me nothing had changed but the painting and the and the letter and the letters outside the wall I am the one who only told you four hours of a fourteen hour experience in that room I am the one who watched students have no work at all and face a wall I am the one who was surrounded by black brown male bodies in a room for hours on end I am the one who decided to finally write this letter I have my son and
033my husband with me today I'm gonna ask you for a few things in my last minute and 14 seconds I'm gonna ask you to be accountable and hold our schools accountable to making sure that that room is not filled with disproportionate black brown bodies that we at Durham public schools can be accountable to us as as teachers as as parents because I love this school district I love it my kids are happy but you have an underbelly that we're not addressing I need you to be accountable I need you to have your equity teams come in there and see what's going on I need you to sit in those seats and see what is happening there's no way that an expose an open letter should be able to tell you about your schools you should
034know that you should know what's happening down there you should know what students are dropping out and you should know what's happening I asked you to be accountable to us and we will be accountable to you I want I want to believe that when I send my child to school and he doesn't behavior just something Rhonda if you sent him to a restorative practice center that it is actually he is still learning he's still being a good human and he's still accountable for his behavior I need to find out I need you to be accountable to why so many black brown boys are down there I do I need you to find out and I need what would happen why is this happening and hold us in community as stockholders to work with you to
035hold that accountable visit your schools sit in places nobody wants to sit and don't sit there for 15-20 minutes you sit there all day you talked to these students let it change your life let it empower creativity in you because certainly if I believe what God roles on three days ISS can end at D si and every school the way it is right now my name is Micah I'm a junior at southern spent my ninth grade year in 10 per year at D si I loved all my teachers photos who's a good school um I was sent to Isis for two days which my which my mom came with me from both days back to back um a store that I have is my friend from last year in tenth grade he was he was
036a nice s for maybe uh I think a week about four to five days and I remember when he had came back to class that he was so lost and just he didn't know what's going on and this friend of mine who was one of the smartest people I knew just naturally smart and when he came back he was just lost didn't know what to do and he told me that he was planning on dropping out and um at first I thought he was playing I was like you know stop playing cuz Nevers nobody's ever like told me that was really gonna drop out and he did he was dead serious so I guess the point of the story is just you know before for anybody else just drops out due to being sent to
037ISS or what's going on there I just some hope there could be a change Thank You Becky Wagstaff Javon your Lois Kelly Cosby good evening I'm really feeling somewhat disappointed in this board and it's it's really appalling to me to know that from 2001-2005 when I set right there I went through this same thing I listened to these same cries matter of fact when I attempted to try to go into schools to see what was going on we had a superintendent at the time that threatened to arrest me as a board member so I understand what this parent was going through with this is my kids came through Holloway Street East Way Shepard and hillside and I sat in East Way and I watched black children be trotted off into the ISS room to do
038nothing and there were times that into between 2005 2001 2005 I traveled to DC I would leave the board meeting and then go to DC on the next day because I was so disgusted and I went to the Office of Civil Rights along with Missy even she would go with me and we filed these complaints about the inequities in the suspensions in school and outs out of school and this is still here now this board has to do something they have to we tried to do it but we got resistance as a board member then we we we have so much mr. casing you know how was that I came to your schools you saw the arrest you saw the cops trying to pull us out of the schools all because we were trying to
039stand up for these kids these same kids the Reverend was soft with a her son has experience and you don't you don't know about it until you go in those schools it's safe to say that people come and they tell these stories and as long as you don't go there but I was one of those people that would actually go into the schools I still go into the schools my baby is 30 but I still go into the school's East Way is still my pet my pet Pete but this has to stop you have to do something about this the bullying the all of it you have to do something about it good evening my name is Shivani Lewis and parents of parents of African American children and the Durham committee on the affairs of
040like people have continually opposed the over-representation in school discipline of black and brown children as this concern has been presented to this administration we were told that one there will be training of the implementation of the newly revised Student Code of Conduct over the summer two that restorative coaches were being brought to every middle in high school and three $800,000 is being put towards these efforts also we were told that restorative coaches will receive additional training throughout the school year with these plans we need even more transparency we need to know how many people are being trained how many trainings have they attended how many trainings are they scheduled to attend we need to know that more than one person is at each school and if the training is to be effective we need to
041know whether the assistant principals who administer consequences have been trained and in conjunction with the restorative justice training we need to know the plan for anti-racist education training which personnel will receive this the disparity data that showed that black and brown students are disproportionately giving ISS we need to know the offenses for which students are being given the consequences we need to know how often other interventions are being used instead of ISS for the same offenses we need to know how many other children did the same thing and received a different consequence we need to know which teachers are using which interventions we need data to show where the disparities are greatest which schools which teachers and for which offenses if it is not about race then what is the evidence that brown and black
042students more behavioral problems at ESA there needs to be a climate and culture change it is unacceptable that resources are spent at the district level and school personnel use their own discretion whether or not they're going to implement these policies for policies implemented at the school level by personnel who may not be adequately trained that is my time if allowable I respectfully cede my public comment time to Jeff Anya so she can finish there needs to be a climate and culture change thank you there needs to be a climate and culture change it is unacceptable that resources spent at the district love for school personnel to use their own discretion for implementation for policies implemented at the school level by personnel who may not be adequately trained especially when we know there's already an identified
043problem and disparity there it is unacceptable unacceptable to hold a charter mentality with commas that you don't have to be here it is unacceptable to stand in a on a misperception that the academic success in this school is because the students choose to be there other variables may explain differences in academic success explanations of this kind come out of a culture of social advantage that Brees racial disparities in a system of oppression enforced by white and black personnel I would request prioritization of resources going to schools with the greatest need but the district is already doing that the priority seems to be without a school suspension and revamping Lakeview I would request regular visits to these schools to see for yourself if the changes are being implemented but the district is already doing that either
044there was a low expectation of implementation when a visit previously occurred or the school personnel refused to implement both are unacceptable therefore my request is that an independent contractor evaluate this transition from ISS to RJC and that an implementation plan is executed and evaluated Wake County Public Schools has an evaluator helping with their rjp operating by grant funded by the Kellogg Foundation we cannot be in watch and wait for people to do the right thing lastly I have informally begun to seek past members of the Student Code of Conduct task force that was created two years ago to conduct it I mean three years ago to conduct a three-year review for community engagement forum in light of the issues brought to the public scrutiny my last request is that the district formally assemble the Student
045Code of Conduct task force for through year review to report what is working what is feeling and what needs fine-tuning and I would be happy to serve our next speakers I'm not sure the first name it I think is Seletar and bill Garrity dr. Rhonda Taylor book Leslie Cunningham / Brittney Copeland me my name is Lou Salazar my English is not very good looking but I would try to do my best pretty much everybody talked about you know what's happening in schools as a Latino it's not only black America is Latino also it's been a lot of issues with Latinos - thank you for all you members name for being in December with us we believe that everything is gonna change we believe it all of you guys change this comment and we believe good
046positive things but it's that how is it's be just hear the mom to say that the key was in the wall it's sad because the kid they need to go school to learn and we don't know what's going on with the families in the homes so we that that that system is creating like more anger to kids and getting more bullying expressing to to their friends and and and and that's not fair the kids the needs hope the need like humans we being forgetting love kindness we will loosen respect I hear a lot of things really bad like things I happen in school and he's very sad and he's very sad the future is turning completely different and as a mom I just here to spread their feelings and and and it's very sad that
047everything is happening and it's not only black people it's only its Latino too so we we hope we have hope and that everything's gonna change and like should be something that have benefits for the kids like maybe involved those keys for sports or anything my sister she used to teach in my country and does she just to do just help the kids you know be sports or something that is benefit for them thank you I was told by the man at the door that to tell you guys that I had prepared a three-minute speech and you would allow it it's between actually two and half in three minutes what do you think thank you I'm bill Garrity acting president of the North Carolina Education Workers Union we education workers have suffered unacceptable working conditions for
048decades we are now being forced to work for free for part of our day our custodians are being ordered to clock out and then go back to work on their own time for as much as two hours a day our teachers are covering for their absent colleagues during their planning periods our substitute teachers get blacklisted for asking for help when classrooms get out of control and our cafeteria workers are somehow expected to take subpar ingredients and turn them into good healthy meals our students who have a gift for art for example are forced to work harder in math and science than everything else put together every day 75% of our schools have no nurse on duty and that's across the state when I was a kid a school wasn't even allowed to open if there
049wasn't at least one nurse on duty this year North Carolina cut its education budget by another three hundred and eighty eight million dollars while mega-corporations are being gifted billions each year by the very politicians they planted in state government there is enough money being given to corrupt or corporations to more than double our education budget without raising taxes one penny and they've got us thinking that we can do nothing about it but if our substitute teachers decide not to and not to answer the phone one day it would shut down the entire system if just 10 percent of our teachers called in sick one day it would shut down the entire system they can't put 100,000 of us in prison and if our students and parents are behind us there's nothing we can't do and
050the NCAA II will do nothing but pretend they're working on it because the NCAA do n CA e does what the state tells it to do if you're an education worker in North Carolina and you're tired of being pushed around or if you're a parent or a student who's frustrated by the agitation system then reach out to the North Carolina education Workers Union we are teachers maintenance workers custodians nurses teacher assistants substitute teachers etc who are committed to making public education about education rather than the bureaucracy and culture of intimidation it has become if you work in North Carolina public education in any capacity except administration and you're interested in becoming a district representative then reach out to us we're on facebook and twitter and our e-mail address is MC education workers union at gmail.com
051all one word we're setting up town hall meetings in each school district and as soon as every district is on board we will take action I'll be out in the hallway if anybody has questions comments suggestions and arrest warrant handcuffs whatever okay all right thank you thank you thank you good evening my name is rhonda taylor bullock and the first part of me speaking here is as a parent and as a community organizer and community activist i stand in solidarity with the parents and former students who've spoken out against ISS system I want us to be transparent as we as a district work to rectify the issue and I think that it's important that we don't be afraid to name that race and systemic racism is at play DPS is not exempt from the social
052ills that plague almost every school system in our country and the transparency and being able to name what's that play will help us to move forward and to rectify it it's hard to fix something if you can't see it I also want to say that it's important that saying that race that there is harmful to say that race is not at play and what's happening here when we're seeing significant proportions of black and brown children and ISS if we say that race is not at play then we're basically admitting and condoning that black and brown children misbehave more than white children and in that race is bound up in that analysis as well so it's important that we name it and I want to say that if it was white children disproportionately represented I assess
053we think it was an issue right but because we we've all been reading the same racist smog and we're conditioned to believe that black and brown children misbehave the alarms aren't going off as they should right but for those of us with a racial equity lens who are fighting against the system our alarms and our triggers and as parents and community activists they've been going off as we've had other folks talk about this for the past few years and so we just need to sit with that and figure out how we gonna name it identify where the issues are and then move forward I want to say that one suggestion that I have is that we do listening sessions with the kids at the schools where the ISS and OSS suspensions are greater I think
054it is important to hear the student voices hear what they're saying because they also can be a part of the solution the last thing I want to say real quickly is switching hats I'm also the co-founder and director we are which transfer working to at least an anti-racist education and I like to extend an invitation for all of you all to participate in our less hot racism conference which is a co-sponsor with North County Central University School of Education the Sammy Dubois cooks it on social equity and Ben and Jerry's ice cream is Saturday March 23rd registration starts at 8:30 this is our fourth annual conference we're expected to see about 300 community members mainly local people but some from abroad and not that I want to give Natalie a pat on the back or
055an award but she's already registered and I believe she's attended almost every single conference that we've had and she stays to the end so I just want to make that visible and invite you all to participate thank you all right do you guys have two separate things to say no okay my name is Leslie Cunningham I've been in Durham for 20 years this is my daughter Brittany she was raised in the Durham school system and her son is now at DSA we have a problem I'm pissed we have a problem at DSA and it needs to be resolved as soon as possible we were forced to write this letter today we requested a meeting with DSA because he is failing our son and other african-american boys with their harsh zero-tolerance discipline policies which fall into
056the school to Prison Pipeline culture it's being perpetuated at DSA and NC school systems it must be stopped immediately our son is in the sixth grade he's fun-loving he's talented bright he has a safe home and a supportive family we were excited to send him there we thought he would soar academic academically and creatively but he is not in a short time at DSA his light has dimmed his spirit has dimmed yesterday while he was in RPC or ISS for a very minor infraction he had an altercation with a teacher because he had a cold and got up to blow his nose the teacher told him he wasn't sick and to sit down they got into an altercation after that the sixth grader my grandson ran away basically his mother was able to contact him
057he was crying he said he didn't want to go back he just wanted to run away he is under extreme stress he is suffering from depression from the acts that are happening at DSA he's perfectly capable he's well-meaning but he's being sentenced to suspension and ISS at alarming rates along with a lot of other young african-american boys that dsds a this is a result as a result he's underperforming in the school he's unable to do his extracurricular activities he's showing signs of depression and I feel like we need a resolution right now I can't sit and wait for you guys to change this policy we have pulled him out of that school because he is suffering as well as many other other young boys we have told him they that they need to immediately change
058these policies these in-school detention policies they need to bring in behavioral specialists they need to do some creative teaching techniques personal attention is what these children need and it needs to be changed and needs to be changed right now I'm a documentary filmmaker I am in contact with the national media this needs to change immediately thank you our next speakers are Brian Calloway Delores Eaton Minister Paul Scott and Evelyn Parker Elijah Kane good evening evening I come to you as a retired educator and one who has worked in the corporate world the corporate world was too cutthroat so I went back to education because it is a calling I am qualified I have done my work and I've done it well I will soon be 90 years old I am retired I did work with
059Jacqueline with Jackie Wagstaff because I was retired and I could go in and help her to assess certain realities now I need to give myself some credibility because you don't know who I am I have a European education I have a bachelor degree in a black historically historically black college that has become a university in Montgomery Alabama I could not do graduate work so I got on the train as a young woman and went all the way to the University of Southern California where I completed my work even though they did not want me now enough about me I refer to you if you haven't read it dr. Michelle Alexander's book from school to Prison Pipeline in which she documents a prevailing reality in this country that says at this moment there are close to
0603 million brown and black people incarcerated and that is by design and you have the nerve to talk about restorative justice America was not so did on justice it was founded on a lie and it hasn't been corrected a value an education that I got outside of the former walls when I said at the feet of black scholars who also had graduated from Ivy League schools in this country but they knew there was something wrong with what they would be in taught so they journeyed to the continent of Africa where they did research and I said at their feet I had finished my work at Southern Cal I said at their feet for 22 years under the name of the Association for the study of classical African civilization all of you come from Africa whether
061you are blue-eyed blind Norwegian or whether you look like doctor my bingo and that is a compliment to him and until you correct the lie that the American school system is predicated on you're going to do what mr. Wagstaff said we will be coming back here year after year and since I appear to have a little more time I want you to know that all of my children and grandchildren are extremely extremely bright and also have finished at Ivy League schools and at HBCUs and have credentials to prove how smart they are I picked up a copy of the triangle tribune when I walked through the entrance downstairs and it talks about North Carolina prepares for and my criminal justice and I hope I have time just to share and you get a copy too
062although it won't be enough you can't stop there raising the age of you know justice in North Carolina this year is going to come with the steep price but they have 20,000 peers with their futures at stake counting the only adults in charge to get it right I wonder when would you get it right the romanum have failed the Sun set on the British Empire and it can set on America and what you call Western civilization I used to have a lot of hope and I don't say things to kill the motivation of young people but at almost 90 years old I wonder when I don't thank you I originally wanted to speak and reiterate the request for an event an independent investigation into custodial waste topics and I mean I realized we're in a
063moment here at Durham public schools and financial mismanagement dishonesty by administration and abusive workers seems to be a different side of the underbelly of our organization and I want to speak more broadly than esse quam mederi is our Latin state motto for to be rather than to seem and I wish that that were our motto as well here at Durham public schools you know there there are a lot of issues we face it's been said before we have to be self-critical to forces that I see that oppose that or an institutional lack of interest in investigating the truth it spans a lot of what we've heard here it spans our operational side as well I'm afraid second is a our our administration lots of pockets of it operate and in a deep level of autocracy
064and we have heard calls to work with the community listen to the community I mean we've been saying that and asking for that within the custodial topic as well over and over and over without that result to forces of they give me hope or the community coming together to demand accountability even when those that we've asked to govern abdicate those duties some of the time I hope that this is a moment where that is a point of inflection and can change another force is a like like the earlier gentleman mentioned about workers coming together in meaningful ways to make DPS demand the DPS be more responsive and less autocratic so I appreciate all see you all in February at the work session [Applause] good evening I don't know if you all I'm sure you did
065watch burr box on Netflix last month but as I look around what's happening in Durham North Carolina where you're whether you're dealing with school suspension I assess what's happening in the streets it reminds me of the show burr box because everybody's walking around blindfolded especially when it comes to race and class issues in order for us to solve these issues that are facing down the first thing we have to do it's open our eyes and take off our blindfolds if we do not believe that something is wrong with Durham we're walking around blindfolded I don't expect for you all to have all the solutions but I do believe that some of the solutions for Durham whether it be this in-school suspensions whether it be the I assess whether it be was happen in the streets
066or in this room and in their hallway so I leave you with this a suggestion we should have a public forum dealing with the issue of race and class in Durham North Carolina and not be afraid that close eye is and most importantly not put on blindfolds and close our eyes thank you Thank You Evelyn Parker Elijah King Madeleine Laurie Alexandria ladoris good evening everyone I am Evelyn Parker a parent a compassionate voice for our children children's education and their safety and Durham County Public Schools in every school I currently deal with the issue with my son being discriminated Carentan middle school also as a result to me reporting the discrimination has led to retaliation my son is an african-american black boy who is 14 who has been singled out my son has a disability
067his teacher told me after telling her that he had issues focusing and that he has medication to try and help him that I needed a magic wand I was very very hurt okay and the issue at hand is if this a disability is something we can't change it was something he was born with okay that's his condition his medical condition also the teacher was very rude disrespectful and judgmental I did contact the superintendent's office here in Durham County Public Schools and yet there has been no resolution to the problem and this started January the 4th 2019 also I would like to add experiences of my family and friends and neighbors nill middle school bus drivers who has closed doors in children's faces and on their bodies because they were not at the bus stop Department
068of Transportation issue with Durham County Public Schools sexist teachers at Holton boys received more write-ups sent to referral and ISS being suspended more than girls by certain teachers also issue at hand a little girl eight years old told her mother that she felt dead after being bullied at school and the bullying continued for weeks at Oak Grove Elementary as well as our children is okay our children are our future someones doctor lawyer judge our leaders our reflections who watch us who listened who followed us who are influenced by us and now do what they have witnessed by us they reflect us for who we are what we have shown them leaders lead followers should be taught to be leaders that's all thank you thank you Elijah King I'm sure it's something I'd say Justin Mike
069I just want to like say thank you to all the people outside that spoke earlier tonight I really found cheese um but I came tonight um I'm gonna start now this saddens me because the last time I came here we're speaking about the same topic and it doesn't seem like much has changed now we're at a phase where has gotten much serious now it's not only students you serve complaining it's the parents it's totally ridiculous but most of all it's embarrassing parents trust you and parents also trust their teachers and faculty to provide their students with a place of support learning and etc and now we have a parent that has seen the truth of the schools you all operate although I've been lucky enough to never experience such a place I've been in the
070ISS room and I've seen how they operate and it's like a glorified president just for schools I thank you Reverend doctor for having the strength to speak of about your experiences and I don't have enough time to express the amount of anger and where I have but I want to leave you with a recommendation today I asked several teachers about recommendations that would take place of ISS and they all expressed a need for something in place but couldn't think of a better way to discipline students from a student perspective I definitely agree with Miss Lewis and I think we should have a restorative justice programs with an outside person to come and evaluate the program to make sure it fits the best way possible but if you don't if you hadn't paid attention to anything
071but this please pay attention the Japanese say that you have three phases the one don't you show the world the one that you show your friends and family and the one that is the true reflection of yourself tonight if you won't show us the true reflection of yourself please treat us like friends and family like we are of durm and show us and treat us like you care thank you Madeline Laurie oh did I skip good evening a study released by the US Department of Education in 2012 found that African American students are three and a half times more likely to be suspended or expelled than white students and 70% of students arrested or referred to law enforcement for disciplinary problems are African American or Latina 'kz there are alternatives to expulsion z' and suspensions
072and other harmful disciplinary actions alternatives in terms of interventions and training teachers to do a better job of classroom management and in terms of figuring out what's going wrong and that certain kids life that is causing them to act out fixing our schools supporting our teachers intervening with our kids in a way that involves searching for a strategy that works for each kid are all steps DPS should be taking firstly I implore the board to conduct an evaluation into all in-school suspension programs in the district and issue a public report on their findings secondly I implore the board to enact immediate changes in the in-school suspension program at Durham School of the Arts or any other schools and DPS with similar ISS conditions to make schools less punitive and prison-like thank you thank you good
073evening board evening I want to thank you and I thank you all for making parent engagement a priority I know that you have come out to our communities we've talked to you we've told you what's going on and I know that this situation here that we're talking about discipline suspensions and all that is not new to you so I really appreciate the fact that you have listened to this and right now I want to tell you that I'm standing here as a parent my advocacy is based in my experience I have skin in this game completely my advocacy is based on the pain of knowing that I went to school and I have great experiences I can still smile it's my smiles not gone mr. Casey it's not Scott it's not gone teachers impact kids
074in a positive way in a way that when I listen to an opera I remember mr. casein oh she's that did he I got me Olesya Timmy motive or it could be just that memory that never goes away when you have a teacher that tells you that you know get out of my class my kids are in Durham public schools I'm a Durham public school parent I want to support the schools but I brought my daughter here my daughter has been impacted she is a de sá student Victoria come on over come on my child has a heart it's not just about hurts about her in her community she has her friends she has her friends stories she has a community at the SA they've even made raps about ISS I've been there after school
075where they have you know all sorts of raps going on about what that room looks like in her classmates they all talk about it she feels as heavily and she's a community oriented person and I don't know where she gets that from but you know if her community comes up she's gonna come up everybody's gonna come up I think that we need to build this we need to build students we need to ensure that the students feel like this is their school this is their community DPS is equally invested in each child hi I'm Victoria I'm a student ESA and I like to talk about how we don't we deserve to be treated better and we get ISS for unacceptable reasons losing more class time getting behind on work and it's just it's just like
076too much and I feel like like substitute teachers sent us to ISS for getting up when we're following two directions for example one of my friends got up to get a book and then she said oh like she's she's following directions getting ISS and most of my friends me very like little reasons like that don't deserve to be in in a room doing nothing not learning anything getting more behind and yeah that's just thank you thank you Nathaniel Shanahan Brian profit Gregorio Cruz Paul what's his name yeah yeah go ahead go ahead but we have Nathaniel Shannon you could go ahead then we'll start with we have Nathaniel Shanahan Brian profit Gregorio Cruz Paul rosetta and windy Rosado okay and this is Paul yes are you Wendy yes okay all right go ahead okay um
077my name is peridot and I'm a student at DSA I've went through a lot IDSA I've gotten ISS oh it says for unexplainable reasons I've went through a lot like reasons that just are things you can't explain I when I come from I come home I'm like my mom's proud when I've been good but I feel sad inside when I know that if I did something that teachers say I did but me knowing that I didn't do it on the inside and when I go home my mom is sad because she feels sad about me how about what happened to me and when I step out of the house and I'm walking home I'm walking to school I'm just praying that I don't get in trouble because what it is I'm losing class time like
078she said and I just don't think that ISS is what what should be happening I says it's just a punishment but you stare at the wall you barely get work teachers really don't pay any attention to you when you're there and when you act bad you're known as a bad kid and you really don't have a reputation that's good to teachers to know that here's actually somebody we have something in us everyone that shouldn't be tooken away from us just because any reason I've got an ISS for just like running in the hallway or talking too loud supposedly or doing something that teachers don't like that's not what you should think of a child but we all have our inner self that shouldn't be taken away by other people we have our own rights we
079as students should be treated well and that's all I have thank you thank you [Applause] well I know Jamie nombres Wendy Rosado so in a moment Paul no de acuerdo con rasa Pensione dentro de la escuela creo que es una Pell do de tiempo porque no hacen eso lo mirar la pareja creo que es algo y no tiene sentido Eva Tsui Pensione nunca me ghurabaa entonces oh no funciona el MPEG urado porque el Rossio que él era un Nino Marlow feel like he was bad cuando cuando we examine CLS Thomas suspend ido l-pill de los examining nico que lo mejor o él está mejor lo que lo mejor ofyou que yo Tommy la decisión yo yay ah terapia you enter a petal oh you doe entonces wearin Dos Palmas Punto EF y la Sol Pensione
080tanto de la escuela que se sentía you Nino Malo en tose nunca mejor Oh was when I took him outside your therapy and there this helped him and no get closer to the mic and then he was feeling like he was a bad kid that was two different problems one was a suspension because his feel like is a bad kid and the therapy was the only thing I really helped him Yasu Pensione arrests on pole causes no tang malice doce y cosas que no song tan mana para su pendejo por una dos tres Diaz solo un cuarto Miran Dona Perret sometimes the ISS is a sign for things that aren't really that bad they're not really that major and they might just be in there for two or three days just staring at the wall
081or something small you know Podesta Satoshi aunque recalled oh dear okay focus ooh Papa yeah yeah Lenny Harris 18:02 gusta las reglas de aqui better para two pies and so far okay lo que lo mas Arriba que una pluma story puede SI rahul Nino sólo por que sus Padres no son de aqui the worst thing that happened was when my husband went to speak at the school and somebody said that if you don't like the rope the rules here then go back to your country and that's the worst thing that anybody could say that a teacher could say to anybody just because you're not from here it doesn't mean Huma dijo mami i porque es eso yo no soy de aqui y da si tu eres de aqui to spare no no ciarán aqui pero
082esto no significa que tu no eres de aqui y ESO Lucado area so few entonces la soupe Enzoani fueron trauma otamatone fue MPO Rondo Cola super Sione he asked me is it true that I'm not from here and I said no you are from here your parents were not born here but that doesn't mean that you're not from here and it was trauma after trauma with all the suspensions eat a Macondo cuando los uh spent a - un problema y de este problema de puede siempre Sulaco he aaron khmer por que eran cosas tonta cassia y siempre taba en su Pensione siempre se fueron no se madre da Chiesa pensiones LED arrow no it was like one thing after another for every little thing he did he was suspender was more than like 10 or
08315 different times that he's getting suspended if we don't Antonis upin Sione Kaiba may Amaro al Purcell dia que empezar escuela wala semana y media herro su hijo tiene que que da sin detention porque el año pasado nola can sorrow los días para meso pension email O'Hara MRSA pensiones este año from being then at the beginning of the school year the first week of school they said that um he had to start off in ISS because he didn't have enough time to make up all the days that he owed from the year before so he had a start off the year and do more ISS time yo I repeat o la Sol pencione know I do dong EMP or a los ninos por favor para la soupe Asiana dentro de la escuela no a justo
084para uni no estar en un cuarto de nueva que c'est quoi tricky se en un cuarto me rondo una para es una fecha Isola said Daniel estrosi ho it's not it's not right ISS is not right just for the have them in there from 9:15 to 4:15 just staring at the wall is doing damage to our kids or favor por favor por favor para la supersonic porfavor yo SE que cosa sky kakora here pero iu Demoman los ninos no solo como un cuarto ESO no no por favor no please please please let's find other ways to help them I understand these things that need to be corrected but just having them in a room and suspension is not the answer [Applause] Nathaniel Brian thank reg are you Cruise sorry give me one second all right
085hi my name is Nathan Shannon do I need to press a button no we're good I have 5% on my phone battery so let's hope it doesn't die huh I was a class of 2018 at ESA I loved my time there but I had is s for x and me as well as obviously many other people have been waiting to say something about the conditions there and what it's like and whether or not it's helping our students and empowering every student to innovate serve and lead I've actually been in front of this board twice and they were both in 2017 for Governor's School and also the budget cuts that I spoke against so usually that doesn't accompany ISS but I figure that the credibility that that lends me and what you know just turned 18
086you know what that what that what that means is that I can speak on this and and and make a difference since it's become a topic of contention III really think something needs to be done and I would ask you to please take responsibility it can't be a first resort like it has been at DSA and it can't be a place where we gave up on so many students especially those who don't look like me I broke the rules many times and most of the time was under a less watchful eye in my opinion than my peers of color when I got ISS in seventh grade and just take a second to think about a seventh grade student sitting in that room not all of my assignments were sent down that day I knew immediately
087something was wrong there were a lot of things on the walls that said this is we we believe in our students and you can achieve anything and like we respect you and it was just all in oxymoron it must be remedial again you can't keep being sadistic and preparation for incarceration with all respect I ask you if it's this bad for someone like me imagine what's probably happening to everybody else thank you thank you good-evening yeah so in in the dermis association educators we like to use the expression in the slogan that we're in this together and for us this is exactly the kind of moment that calls for that kind of thinking as educators a lot of time this conversation is posed as either my classroom is gonna be crazy and out of control
088or we're gonna suspend all the kids both of these poles are really terrible neither works because what we're actually talking about is the entire legacy and history of racism and the way that our society deals with discipline and it's complicated it's not a simple to poll answer and it's also not just something that happens at DSA so when something is complicated I stopped to think about what it is that I know here are things that I know school should be places where we are actively and daily practicing the undermining and dismantling of racism all of our students especially black and brown students demand that we treat that with urgency not all of our educators in our classroom as we've heard tonight are there right now or have the resources or support that they need to
089get there and some of them quite frankly are never going to get there and those folks shouldn't be teaching kids all of our educators are always asked to do more than we possibly can with less the resources than we can possibly do it with our students should never be subjected to anything that feels like punishment or as dr. salia told me in her house the other day feel like prison school should never there should never be in a space in a school that feels like prison punishment and consequences that help students learn are different things staring at a wall all day as punishment if parents choose to do that that's their choice schools should not do that educators in classroom need resources and time to create meaningful lessons and activities that engage our students daily
090it should not fall on individual educators or overworked administrators to solve the problems of disruptive students in an init classroom our whole school community should address those issues by considering the whole students life our students deserve to be in classes that are safe and orderly and focused our students deserve to make mistakes learn from them and be back in the learning environment they deserve as quickly as possible and our educators deserve to be able to sit down with those students and rebuild trust after after things have been broken right I'm not gonna take more time but I just want to reiterate to folks that any solution that comes out of here has got to be as complicated as the present problem itself we're talking about racism mass incarceration and budget cuts and austerity and all
091that and so we need to be we need to have parents we need to have educators we need to have students we need of administrators at the table and create the complicated solutions that this is that this situation deserves and we need to do it urgently so we're into that REO buena noches I mean hombres Gregorio Cruz a lingua key culturally Selvam experiencia he causes muy importantes para nuestra a new history to be antes maintained Aaron todos I started in Spanish because I want for you to understand little B where what difficult if for our Latino students especially for the ones that coming just one years ago or less than one year for our countries that never speaks English and it's very sad to hear a lot of parents that is worrying about the issue
092that their son happening at the school but let me do now in Spanish because I wanna stop any important things that I want to share with yours okay c'mon lady he mean hombres Gregorio Cruz e we need mi pase as a venti três anos mi Pais we maestro education primary Oporto Serrano's yella Bey's era director de una escuela de Lucas on prime area I came from my country 23 years ago and I was a teacher and director of a school an elementary school there when the este pais to la idea de trabajar en education porque como en cioud Oceanos manejando estudiantes para de familia compañeros maestro's a pence a capo de port are algo en el que she owned in este pais I had the idea of working in the public schools when I came
093here because I thought that with my experience 12 years in the school in my country that I had something to contribute to the schools doing oportunidad elderman says despues de barro tenido UN s tattoos temporary o de protección en este policia mala tape a say in 2006 I had the opportunity after receiving a TPS temporary protected status the ingress our our North Carolina Central University determine Army Studios universitarios in s escuela to finish my studies at NCC u ID army my stress or Acadia semi practical maestro para poder ver sequence AME licencia a comenzar a trabajar a mr. PI's during a special maintain I asked if I could get a student teaching placement in order to finish my studies and work in the public schools of Durham quiescing nada en ese momento de minimis classes
094excelente if we ask na de la escuela low-lows Grove middle school sexto grado eco he sex tirado porque de hijo pays ya penguia DNA sequence x tirado la cerva assertive see I was assigned at that time in los Grove middle school I chose sixth grade because I had already experienced at that level if we wanna put in some poco agree Dulce triste ila releves porque - April Emma's come letici plea not entry-level other classes I was an experienced sweet and sour and difficult at at the time challenging because I had some challenges with classroom management in my extra signal a DES extra sexto grado me dijo Gregorio - no puedes Grado art a New York tenor - licencia de nuestro porque no tienen la capacidad de controller la disciplina en el Allah and my my
095supervising teacher or professor the professor told me that I couldn't graduate and get my degree in education because I didn't have the ability to control and the student behavior in the classroom pienso que eso no fue suficiente por que pues Solera you maestro deepest antia podríamos decir solar entre me a squib estar en s escuela era / me primera vez con los estudiantes era logic ok yo me even a repeat our alcian por ciento Como respite our azuma estro de grado and I think it was a little unfair because I was only there for temporarily as only there for 3 months and it was to be expected that they weren't gonna give me the same level of respect that they would give to the regular teacher right away pero el mas triste para mi few
096a que la maestra 10 e organized odd o una Mesa de lado de hecho con Oh Cho estudiantes afro Americanos lo primero que me dijo no te preocupes de estos muchachos que yo no imperiling goon lado but the saddest thing to me was that she had a table with eight african-american students to one side and she said don't worry about those students because they're not gonna amount to anything a parte de ESO Pudi oxr bar que los estudiantes massive an Sado lost any assent ADO's I for Intel I'll be sarong and I also saw that the more advanced students were sitting like closer to her in front of the board y los estudiantes que tenía un IL m'a bajo esteban sentados alpha al fondo de la ley de clases a pope we do you do
097sir Barlow's de que ellos se preguntan entre ellos mismos que hacer con el tema a signal in ese momento I saw that the lower level students were sitting in the back of the class and they were like asking each other what what they were supposed to do with the assignment déjeme decirle que fueron creo que esta maestra nunca se acerca a preguntar ESO estudiante Beatriz siente Indiana la clase oh no line 10 dia mucho menos all those archers to the antes que estaban in the middle of the region let me tell you that the teacher never approached those students in the back of the classroom to ask them if they understood what she was teaching and much less the group of eight students that was sitting off to one side if we can come start
098coming to work solo at Maria termina para decir ley de que commence a immediate Ament a con esos Ocho muchachos que tenia que ya sentados mia sir k durante todo lo dia de my classes a print are lazy intend en la clase fue increíble que dos semanas de puedes comenzaron a yo hot rare sus Tereus del lugar y SI sorprendido porque ho incredible a esto nunca truant area de su casa i started working with those eight students and working with them everyday and within two weeks they started bringing their homework and the teacher was surprised she said well they never did any work before Rio que necesitamos poner maha tension a esos - yon take on necesita especiales y esto y contento porque esto le yendo el nuevo planning strategic o de dps para penter
099so stinko a nose amia me Contenta mi Allegra saber de que Bona mplayer ma profesionales Latinos porque esto Bayou garkon la cultura nuestra muy diferente a la Blanca y un poco para serie a la afro Marikana I'm I'm very glad because the new the strategic plan I believe it's going to be helpful and that it mentions that we're going to bring on more Latino teachers because our culture is very different from the white culture and somewhat similar to the african-american culture gracias para ver empleado un nuevo coordinator de es el que sabemos que ahora si part amento ba mejor are a si muy mucho mejor oh and thanks for employing new coordinator of the department of interpreting a family engagement because we know that that's going to make a big difference alright thank you that
100was our last public comment break all right next item on our agenda is to approve of the number of a 15th 2018 Board of Education minutes we've brought board approval second it's been moved and properly seconded that we approved the November 5th November 15 2018 Board of Education meeting minutes any further discussion all in favor say aye all opposed please she's the same sign passes unanimously and and just one more comment mr. Hawkes Thank You school board and doctor bubinga for allowing me to speak I'm most appreciative this opportunity as I feel I should be here to provide clarity first DSA is a great school with a great faculty and great students again great students no matter what choice they make ever there's still great students as great as we are as a school we're
101not perfect and we continue to strive to become better each day one area that we acknowledge in which we must do better is fully developed on our restorative practice center which is a new concept this year as principal of derms Kalia Hertz I don't want any child to be penalized emotionally or academically if I participate in the intervention of our PC this is a legitimate area of concern and we will improve we want our students and parents to feel secure cared for and appreciated at our school the DSA administration faculty do believe in restorative practices and we practice preventive interventions as well our goal is for our students to have a focused learning environment built upon strong relationships and high expectations for success of all our students under dr. mabini's leadership D ApS has implemented
102some great alternatives to suspension that are aligned with the restorative practices but providing each middle school in high school with an RPC class as well as other interventions that keep students from being suspended out of the schools such as new directions from middle school students and rebound for high school students that have reduced suspension of the Durham public schools and at Durham schoolyard we appreciate all the insights and suggestions that dr. Maddox Perry's Department has made to help us continue to improve our restorative practice at DSA as I've called upon them DSA is committed to the DPS mission to embrace educate and power every student to innovate serve in the lead we appreciate all the recent feedback we want me to know that your input has already had a positive impact on growth - restorative
103practices at DSA we own this situation remain hopeful that through strengthened partnerships with district and community support we'll be a stronger school for it at DSA we dedicated to continuous improvement and restorative practices student equity and excellence in all areas thank you for your time thank you consent agenda the next item on our agenda the consent items I'm sorry we have three the budget amendment one the Bethesda chiller replacement and then temporary construction easement near Sheppard middle school these items were discussed in our work session work yeah yeah after sent a consent that means they were discussed previously right we've read them in the packet okay ahead of time all right I don't consent agenda second all right it's been moving and properly seconded that we approved at three mentioned consent items any further discussion
104all right all in favor say aye hi all opposed please she's the same sign passes unanimously next item on our agenda is the DPS found an update with Megan Gonzales Smith and Jim King the Superman himself a foundation good evening dr. Medina Board of Ed Durham community my name is Jim key and I am the chair for the newly launched Durham public schools foundation we're a nonprofit that officially launched in August and our sole purpose to support our students our educators our families and our community all of whom make up during public schools we came before you this past spring and provided an update I had the distinct pleasure and honor of sharing our mission and goals with the entire term Public Schools employee and staff team during the convocation that took place in August
105and that was a wonderful event I think as we all can see here tonight that Durham our school system and all of us as community members face a lot of challenges and of course we've heard a lot of concerns here too this evening however I hope we all can agree that we are seeing an incredibly passionate and engaged community filled with students educators parents and the community as a whole and I'm very confident that together we can solve all of these challenges and together we can make Durham public schools a shining light not just in this region but throughout North Carolina at this this entire nation and we're here this evening to show our commitment and dedication to working with this entire community this school Burr School Board dr. Mabini and his team as well
106as everyone who's spoken here tonight again all of our students all of our educators all of our parents all of our families the most exciting news I have to share tonight that since we came to you this past spring we have fortunately launched we now have a full-time executive director she is the brains of our organization she is the heart of our organization she is making Gonzalez Smith and now she's going to share with you a little bit about how we hope to work with you in the entire community to make during public schools the best school system in the country thank you thanks so much for having us here to give you an update on the Public Schools Foundation I will keep it brief I'm handing out some more materials and also let everyone
107know that you can find more about us at full city schools org and my email address is on there and this is really for the whole community and everybody who's here we're really looking to build this as a collaborative effort I'm so hope that you'll reach out to us as you learn more we're very much in the early stages of building this work and want to do it in partnership with our students our parents and our families who make up durham public schools so really want to be in conversation with all of you so please reach out oh there it is yes sir there we go I don't think that won't work because okay great there you go thank you dr. hardy so the Durham public schools foundation is really grounded in this belief that
108Durham success is linked to the success of our public schools dps is always going to educate the vast majority of students in Durham and when our students the 33,000 plus students who are enrolled in Durham public schools are successful than Durham will be successful we know that our students or in our schools today are the future leaders and entrepreneurs of Durham and we need to empower them to be ready for leading Durham in the future over the past year we've been building the Durham public schools foundation really as a collaborative effort with business and community leaders educators parents and dps alumni who share this vision and belief that Durham can be a national exemplar for an innovative and equitable public school district when our whole community is working in support and partnership with our schools
109here you can see our whole team our board and advisors who are really leading this work in addition to a lot of other volunteers who are working with us and all of these folks you can find on our website as well we really believe that we have a moment now to bring the talents and the resources that have been leading the transformation across Durham and bring those to our public schools and really lead a renaissance of public education in Durham the Durham public schools foundation is really committed to approaching this work through driving systemic change we are gonna do that through three priority areas one we're gonna be champions for public education we are gonna change the narrative of how people think about and talk about public schools in Durham and get more people in
110our community feeling invested in our public schools and encouraging more families to enroll in door public schools so that our students across Durham are going to school together in public schools at the same time we're gonna be investing and the people in our schools our students our educators and our families our approach is really grounded in listening to and uplifting the ideas of our students teachers and families who make up our schools we're not coming in with answers of how to fix Durham public schools we're saying that we believe that the people on the ground in our schools have the ideas they know what they need and we're here to listen to them and empower them to make those a reality we're also gonna be working with our students educators and families to foster new
111innovative and equitable strategies across our schools we're really not interested in creating an incremental change here and there and plugging little funding gaps where they exist we're really trying to build an approach that is aimed at systemic change that can lead to the kind of transformation that we need will be working with schools that students and educators and families who are in our schools to develop and incubate new strategies and then measuring the impact of those and scaling things across DPS of work to reach more students and we also will be building our networks across the state to share the success stories of what's happening in Durham in really positioned Durham as a thought leader around innovation inequity over the coming months we're gonna really be working on two tracks so one is continuing to
112build our develop our strategic approach and this is where we really want to be in conversation with the community and we're gonna be talking with the folks in our schools our students our families and our educators to continue to refine the role that the foundation can play to best be a catalyst for innovation and equity and transforming our schools together we will come out of that process by developing three big measurable goals and some benchmarks and a process to track those so that we can really hold the foundation and our partners accountable to achieving the kinds of outcomes that we need to see and not just tracking outputs that we can do at the same time we're gonna be piloting some initiatives lined to each of our priority areas so be getting to do some
113storytelling to lift up great things that are bidding in Durham public schools working with a partnership with Duke to develop some evidence-based strategies around how we can encourage more families to enroll in Durham public schools we're also going to be piloting student and educator fellowships and micro grants to provide funding to our schools and start to lift up with the great ideas that folks in our schools have and let's serve on fostering innovation and equity we're looking to work with you all with our school district and with community partners to develop a vision around transformative culturally responsive frameworks so much of what we've been talking about tonight we want to continue to be a part of this conversation in partnership with our community members in the district to really create this vision of what this
114work looks like in a transformative way and how we'll be able to know what's happening in our schools I'm in an ongoing and accountable way we also are going to be establishing a student leadership team for the DPS foundation to be really informing and driving our work and having students deeply involved in the leadership of the foundation I also want to let you know that we rolled out a first round of pilot grants in December a small round of micro grants to begin to get the word out I'm and start to get a sense of what the ideas and needs are we had student grants teacher grants and parent engagement grants all opened and total we got over 70 applications for over $200,000 in funding requests so we're gonna learn a lot from those we'll
115be announcing in February the pilot grants that we're gonna be able to fund this spring over the next few months we're also building relationships with the business community and other foundations and partners who will be able to invest in this work I mean really build a long-term sustainable foundation that can be supporting this work over many many years to come and so we are building investment and partners to help us carry this forward I'm happy to take any questions or feedback from you all if you have them at this time thank you for the opportunity and we look forward to working with you and all of DPS once I say thank you yeah thank you this is super helpful we're looking forward to to seeing this work grow and develop over then especially over the
116next six months as it kind of comes into fruition we appreciate you bringing an update congratulations Megan on the job Jim key good eye our nice choice and just continue to keep us posted this work goes forward we're looking forward to seeing how this can can impact the children here in Durham thank you thank you [Applause] okay alright the next item hold on Erin we have a public comment for our next item all right all right next item is operational services it has an update on the integrated planning for school and community we do have a public comment and that is for Antonio Jones I'm do I get two minutes or three minutes you have three minutes it's a clarification good afternoon the board my socks met thank you Lex up not where I like
117it really pretty good so I want to talk about the other the item that's up for all of the attention next dealing with the student or the proposed student assignment or potential student assignment I think if everything we heard tonight I think some of those issues are rooted in a space to where we have neglected that piece of durham public schools for a long time in terms of where kids are really going to school I think it's problematically and almost half of our schools on magnet schools that's we bust kids all over this County I believe Aaron has eloquently made that point for many years now and one of the things is in 1994 they talked about the rationale or emerged and some of those rationales don't really hold true today in 2019 and I
118think as he as the group from NC State shows up next dermis growing I think what he gonna show us what 113 plus plans that are on the books now and if we fail to act now in this space in terms of students on whatever that looks like we seen a trend last work session people are making the conscious decision whether to come or to leave Durham public schools and I suspect a few people who was in here tonight if it had their resources they probably would leave Durham public schools because we're not listening so what I would encourage each of the board members to do is to go to the schools in your district walk down the halls to the schools in your district that you are voted to represent and understand what's going
119on I know that some of you having visit some schools in your district because the principal's teachers and parents tell us all right so I would encourage you do that cuz you look so my perspective is if you understand what goes on into the schools some of these cases would not have happened so we can't wait for dr. Bing and staff to fix everything you have to be the eyes and ears of the community too you have to understand what's going on and if we look at some of the trends you know I'm a good I'm good numbers guy I like the data but the administrator than me have to ask what's next what are we doing if we look at some of these trends that's gonna be coming up in particularly the charter school
120trend look at where those schools are in the county most of those schools are in my South County where I live been living over there almost 15 years my neighborhood my specific my specific neighborhood have all but abandoned Durham public schools there are more charter school buses that come through my neighborhood then Durham public schools buses okay so I need you understand that that's just not my neighborhood on that particular side of town which is gonna be your merit more Oak Grove Spring Valley Bethesda side but if you look at the training growth in Durham that's where the new homes are being built some of these homes are pretty pricey half million dollar homes those folks have to send your kids someplace so when we active so when we talk about enrollment at Spring Valley
121in Neil middle school in southern high school these are some of the conversations that we have to begin to start having my time is up but I look forward to and I think that this is the time this is a place for us to do something this $25,000 study cannot go on the shelf that will cost the district millions if we let this $25,000 study sit on the shelf and I leave it alone thank you all right Aaron I'm good evening thank you for this opportunity I think what we have before you tonight as we said is the foundation of data that will help us make future decisions we look through many lens to what are some of the needs across Durham public schools as mr. Jones eloquently said we're very fortunate to have this
122group from NC State working with us they are the foremost experts across the state in providing this kind of information for us I think this is just the start of the fruits of our Labor's to benefit us on making those decisions so with that tonight I'd like to bring back Thomas Dudley and Matthew Palmer and then we'll be all be glad to answer any questions you may have at the end thank you dr. mu Benga members of the board good to see you again what a quite an evening and we've been listening as well and I know that our work tonight is is very much about the next 10 years what comes next there there are three guiding questions that have driven our work and tonight is very much about the first one what's likely
123to happen with student enrollment if things stay as they are over the next 10 years we've collected all the quantitative heart information for you and tonight we're gonna give you a very strong statistical model on what you're likely to see okay there's two other questions that emerge out of that question why is that happening and what can be done those are for additional exploration that we'll get to you but tonight is really about this core question what does the math say what is the developers and the community planners what are they sharing with us we've distilled all this spatially and numbers-wise we'll walk through all of it a couple points before we get started if you have a question about a specific school or a specific neighborhood project that you're aware of please earmark that
124and share it with us at the end and we can follow up with you offline but with a hundred and thirteen projects and more than more than a handful of schools I don't want us to lose track of the bigger picture here okay so with that we're gonna get started again my name is Mathew Palmer I'm at NC State University with the operations research and education lot and this is our third presentation with the board and once again it's a pleasure to be here with me tonight as mr. Thomas Dudley who manages the ored project and in addition to that back at the home office at HQ is Elizabeth Daniels who is our GIS analyst so tonight I want to review the project milestones with you and kind of show you where we're at in
125this in this larger framework and we'll really be talking about part one here development and enrollment in Durham at large the who what where and when aspects of this the questions that follow the next steps if you will again they deal with the why and the what can be done elements of this so to start when we look at this really breaking it into two components here issue identification what are the things that are emerging out of this analysis will cover the line you study in our GIS analysis will produce a ten year enrollment forecast we share in a moment here and then look at the add of capacity analysis or which you might consider to be a utilization analysis at the at the school level and give you a sense of that over time
126a retain your horizon that leads into additional questions about again we've talked a bit about community engagement but that gets at things themes that you've heard even tonight about the the why aspect and then getting into solutions what can be done we're looking at questions that are both measurable but also in their personal right questions related to quantitative research and qualitative research we can optimize different scenarios based off of what the priorities of the board are we can consider transportation impacts that might have to be associated with those decisions at the facility or enrollment levels and we can even I think most importantly take your feedback and your priorities is the Board of Education and integrate that into a prioritization model so once again we've been working in this space for a very long time
127we're working currently with Wake and Orange County and so forth so in that sense we're excited to share our findings tonight and appreciate your time and patience I won't go far into this but again to recap there are really two types of questions there are those that are measurable that are numbers based quantitative research the what where when type questions the qualitative aspects of the why and the how why are we seeing these trends and how have school leaders in the u.s. and North Carolina addressed them and what could be done perhaps more specifically here in Durham so in part one looking at development and growth and during public schools question 1 what are the student enrollment trends and problems at Durham public schools is facing in the next 10 years and we answered this
128through bringing together the three parts of the land you study the enrollment forecast and the out of capacity table for the line you study we interviewed three members of the Durham Planning Department this is again the folks that are most in the new on these topics that are looking at questions about not only what's been approved but what's in the pipeline what's under review what's being revised what are their build-out time horizons like how big are they and I think of central relevance for you all are they age targeted projects we'll talk about that in a second so big picture 113 projects approved of exceed me approved under review or out for revision of these interestingly 64 on the suburban tier that's really looking to the eastern part of Durham as well as the southeast
129part and then Southwest so right on that sort of fringe of southern and eastern and two-degree southwestern Durham the projects that draw our attentions the ones that we see every day The Horizon impacts right the large condominiums and townhomes that are going in downtown we do see 23 of those but the most impact that we're seeing from a student perspective really has to do with those suburban projects that we'll talk about here in a second of these we have 40 single-family detached projects and that's the one that's generating your highest students at the household level okay Oh townhome projects 30 of those that's a sizeable number and to think about suburban projects that are townhome in nature we're seeing a lot cluster around the RTP area so that's like Davis Drive in the area to
130the sort of directly adjacent to RTP and that's in coordination with some of the other development initiatives RTP itself but we also see this kind of rounding into the southwestern portion as well 19 apartment projects and you can see that of the majority of the projects that have been approved or under review our rather dense in their nature I think that's a larger theme that we're seeing in Durham right now in the development community is the densification especially there was a lack of development in that space in the early to mid 2000s and nationally we're saying this is a trend as well so it holds for Durham this is fine prints and I don't want to draw your eye to one specific project they're sorted by the number of units that are associated with each
131of these single-family detached neighborhoods the one that I would earmark for you to just be aware of is the largest of these projects is Creekside at Bethpage and that is age targeted for 55 and over okay so once we take that off you'll note that each of these single-family detached neighborhoods is in the suburban tier and when we talk about Geographic tiers we're talking about the future land use map of Durham ok so again our single-family detached projects are happening mostly on the edges of the Kami when we look at the townhome projects there's a little bit of compact neighborhood in urban but in general again those are clustering on the suburban edges you see the terms that are familiar like Ellis Road Andrews Chapel again this is getting to the eastern portions of Durham
132as well as the southern portions of term mr. Baumer before you get off these charts do you mind can you explain to me what's in these K 5 6 8 9 12 like I'm asking absolutely so and this is an acknowledgement and an appreciative mention for the durham planning staff they've gone and collected historic enrollment data and looked at of the projects that fit into this similar development tier and with that housing type that's important so let me flashback to the single-family detached for a second here you can see at the K through 5 level we're looking at 0.125 students for a single-family home in the suburban tier point zero six to four middle school and then point one for high school now that changes as we go from housing types and as we go
133across different suburban urban and compact neighborhood says we look at that we see those numbers in the town home as you would anticipate do fall as we go across there and similarly as we look at apartments and multi-family homes those numbers actually can increase depending again on where we're talking about downtown versus urban and suburban of note you'll see that the number of units overall in the biggest picture the bulk of your development projects is happening in this in this town home and condominium space so that's really seeking to attract certain demographics from an age perspective typically you would be looking at either families that have that don't have children yet or those that are downsizing and looking for a place to live on the other end I think that's what's up maybe Natalie followed
134that but I'm not sure I did so if I'm just looking at the top column mm-hm big site at Bethpage yes sir 0.125 k5 so that means essentially if I understand correctly for every eight units there would be one student in k5 or put in an equivalent sense for every 100 units you would have chopped 12 children okay twelve and a half but we don't have a half child part I have half the child and and I would also know these are numbers that were shared from the durham planning staff and it's to their credit that they're tracking this information and being aware of it but it also must be noted that for example with Creekside at Bethpage because that is age targeted in our efforts to be as accurate as possible there are no
135students that are coming out of that neighborhood maybe perhaps one or two that are looking for under unique circumstances but in general given all factors we're trying to be as accurate and precise as possible down to the neighborhood and home level does that help thank you and and to that point when we start looking at some of the multifamily and apartment complex projects you can see like Highland Park that's at 0.225 right so that's twenty two and a half students 100 units hence as we get to the apartment in multifamily or generating more students so with that let me change over to mr. Dudley who's going to talk about the enrollment forecast itself and take all this land use information and take it over a 10 year horizon line Thank You mr. Palmer so as
136we look to create a 10 year forecast we incorporate four major separate factors we start with your resident live birth information also look at your historic enrollment and membership trends then move toward looking at and adjusting for presidential development information as well as handling charter school impacts so I'll talk very briefly about each of these over the next few minutes here we'll start with resident live births for any demographer interested in forecasting student enrollment or general population resident live births are a major factor to take into consideration you'll see over the past six years that there have been no real trends going on with your resident libraries and that's true for so every several years before this going all the way back to the recession as far as how to handle that how to move
137forward what we anticipate is that there would be a slight uptick in your resident live birth information to the order of one percent increase per year and that is in line with the increased residential development that you're experiencing so moving forward we model a 1% increase per year so you'll see on this next slide we have your membership information looking back over the past six years over the past five there's been a steady decline of roughly 1500 students an average of 300 students per year we know that that that difference in that change is not spread evenly across the district we know there's a geographic component to it as well so hopefully this slide helps illustrate that to some extent so you'll see on this slide green and yellow would indicate areas where there have
138been decline in student population and red would be increases in student population this is based on what we call geocoding we were given the addresses of all students from 1314 and from the current school year and we geographically located 99.9% of them into their correct homes and by sort of aggregating that up to the elementary attendance zone that's how we're able to show these trends spatially so you'll see from the most part their losses in most areas we know there's residential development in the current red areas as you'll see oh sorry that one was striking to me in several ways but Little rivers conversion to a k-8 should have been counted in that but it still is showing essentially staying flat in enrollment over that time period so that was interesting to me that that
139probably would have been a darker green have we not done that change yes this would not be at the school level those who the switch in the enrollment at that school would not be reflected here it's just the number of student dots that fall within that attendance zone okay I'll think about student dots but you're saying this reflects students that would be zoned to those schools not who's going to wait schools absolutely that's not what we're looking at we're looking at who is target for those schools correct yes on this next slide you'll see plotted the residential development information which we receive from City County Planning and there's a component there with the different symbology to indicate larger versus smaller developments that's either single-family lot counts or multifamily unit counts it can be a little
140difficult to see exactly where all the activity is occurring but over half of the total development activity that's going on right now is occurring within the two southeast Elementary attendance zones and the reason you cut off the north part of the county is there's no development and planned north of Nina Valley I mean that one dot that's that's correct yes the next factor that we take into consideration as part our analysis is looking at charter impacts and this should mention upfront this does not include private school students it does not include homeschool students but looking at the total population of DPS students plus charter students what percentage of those students are charter students and again this is just visually grouped up at the elementary attendance zone level so you'll see obviously a difference west to
141east and from south to north as well and so we haven't seen this data before can you tell me more what this is this is elementary students only that are in charter schools back their addresses back to where they live this is all based on where those students live and grades K through 12 that's correct oh it is k12 data it is k12 to my knowledge this is probably the most thorough examination of where charter school students live of any district that we've worked with before there are other districts that are starting to get some traction with this and start to ask these questions but this is the first time we've I've been able to analyze the state and be able to geographically locate where these charter students are and be able to compare that
142population density to your current student population density as well with all of these factors in mind I know it's a lot going on resident live births all the way through charter school impacts we're able to construct what we call our out of capacity table which is a school level forecast and what we really like about this graphic is it's a quick visual way to try to describe and show where your capacities issue issues exist and where they are expected to exist in the future so working our way from left to right of course you have the school name and it does indicate whether particular schools at k-8 or year-round or lottery school and then working to the right we have the listed capacity of the school and I should note this is just the elementary
143slide we have additional slots from middle and high school the first column that has the coloring is your current observed MLD data which you're familiar with and then moving to the right we have the forecast for each school going out a full 10 years how does that account for the k3 class size does it earth the newest the k3 class size capacity calculations are what's used for the capacity calculation so the current full implementation of k3 has that as part of the current capacity calculations so you've gone to worst case scenario where the law takes us and I'm sorry so these these numbers I think's the first column is who's in this now the first column with coloring right month one is the current enrollment essentially yes and then so the next column tell me
144exactly what that yeah so that's a little just put that cell eventually the next column says 686 what is that number so that means we anticipate that number of students at that school next year okay so forgive me if I missed it but what's the what's the quick and dirty about how how we should have confidence going that far out I mean what what is in the algorithm is it is it just based on your experience and is there a quick way to explain that or I'll do the best I can okay we it's based on a cohort survival ratio which is the standard way of doing this type of enrollment forecasting so the simplest way that anyone could possibly do this would be to look at a straight line and say this school is
145going down 20 students every year so let's assume it's gonna go down 20 students every year that would be the simplest thing to do which is not what we do but if you examine those trends at a grade level and at the school level you start to see patterns so you say X percentage of 6th graders at this school become seventh graders X percentage of these seventh graders become eighth graders you make those connections in between schools and your feeder patterns to be able to make those solid forecasts based on moving the cohorts that are currently in your system forward and then filling in back behind those students with a set percentage of the resident live births that we covered up from okay so all right so just flipping between the last slide and this
146line let's stay on Bethesda okay we're thinking about Bethesda which is the first line here all right so if we look at the last line which is the Charter percentage the forecast charter percentage right in the podesta zone Bethesda is pretty red so that's like 21 to 24 that's what it looks like right but in the our enrollment forecast it looks as if we're increasing right the Bethesda participation is increasing how can we be increasing charter enrollment I mean I know there's a lot of development down there I know but it looks like the Charter percentage is continuing to increase but so is Bethesda participation how does that square so the previous graphic which I shouldn't bring it up again that is observed to day current charter percentage so there's no attempt at making that
147a forecast right okay so to the extent possible where there have been additions in charter school grade offerings and things like there are new charter schools going in we adjust for that separately than what you currently see on this right so as far as let's see looking at Bethesda currently you hit the nail on the head that's the extent of the residential development that you have occurring within that elementary attendance zone yeah I see that yeah and that's why I said I know that there's like I guess what I'm missing here is not really sure how to phrase that although there's development they're still increasing it looks like what we're looking at is charter school participation increasing but there's this kind of a higher level but what what what we're looking at here is you're
148saying that there's there's I guess a term I can't think of a turn terminal velocity of the number of kids that are gonna be going to charter schools and ended up going to Bethesda right because but this is gonna get out of capacity like really quickly as it turns red in what four years so are we saying there's just it's just gonna come to a point to where what charter school is not gonna be available what sounds like weather saying is it both well the des is gonna grow and the charter schools are gonna grow that there's so much development there is that right that's how much development there that both are going to grow well did you assume that charter schools would continue to grow at the same rate that they have grown in
149this community it was that part of your assumption as well or did you it varies drastically across the district so I can't speak specifically to Bethesda right now but what we do what the model does absorb is where there are existing established charter schools assuming that those percentages are gonna carry forward and then again adjustments for where additional grade offerings are going to be had for example but it doesn't add and doesn't add additional schools at the rate that they've grown doesn't do that right so we do we do not account for trying to predict where a new charter school would go in for example I want to reiterate the the charter school a vision what you put up did not have a ten year view the way they're out of capacity does so we
150really can't compare those two the apples apples right that you're correct absolutely that was prepared to give you all a bonus if you're able to figure out a lock I'm sorry so as I look at that also I see you're still productive predicting our overall enrollment to decline like when I look at your bottom line elementary students are going from 15,000 to fourteen six is that do you have a district total for that prediction ten years out yes let me move yes so this includes the high schools the 612 schools and then also at the very bottom of district and you will see a decline your model must be in some way increasing charter I mean that's the only place they're going besides home school but I'm just asking dad is starting four thirty two
151thousand four thirty and ending ten years from now with an assumed growth projection and new development you have us at 32 Oh 76 that's correct the birth rate didn't look steady no but he said he has assumed a one percent birth rate growth right that's correct year-over-year cute babies every year um it was just puzzling it out I don't maybe the math teachers can explain it well I think it's a legitimate question so you have 1% growth over over ten years and we're talking three hundred students coming in by just live population growth roughly and then you have you have development and the student and the school population is not going so there's only the number of children is growing based on the development coming in and people and the increase in birth so where
152are you projecting that those students are going to go to school DPS schools right so so I do you I mean are we gonna be given something that shows us that are you are you started do you limit yourself so this is what we predict for DPS we do to the wealth of data that we have on public schools that's the enrollment forecast that we predict we we have never created a separate forecast for say charter students within a district before or homeschooling or that's correct I also puzzle but I'm sure you guys have been doing this for a while I'm with mad as it gets I'm sure you guys would agree it's more dicey the farther out you go but it was certainly there's simple numbers are pretty straightforward here we're growing as as
153you see at the beginning we're growing in there in the south and the east and we're decreasing in the north and and the west and that's what however you tweet those numbers that's pretty obvious and that's the to me that's the key takeaway from this and it's for it to be instructive it's that's that's what it's for so now we know where to care where people are gonna have the babies so we need to get our team out there with baskets and welcoming okay oh we bring them too so let's elsewhere work needs to be done all right welcome baby no I don't want to begin to even try to they go to the algorithms their formulas or whatever but they look at historical data and again Durham's grown for a number of years and
154our population is stayed flat or declined so again those variables are worked in moving forward as we said starting this process this is very good quantitative information for us to look at as a district of what does the district look like where's where our numbers coming from but then also associating any district that has clean feeder patterns it's a much easier thing to predict but when you have the magnet population you have the people making the choices that they are making here again it just complicates it but looking first and foremost across the bottom line of what's going on in the district the school by school data as is mentioned gets harder and harder to take out the farther you go my previous district was their longest standing client and that not to say but
155they've had relationships where again the more work they do with a cow the more they familiar they are with the variables and we've worked very closely with them and they've done a phenomenal job bringing the players to the table but this is an ongoing fundamental structure that needs to be maintained so this information can become annual and routine so as it's changing it can be better predicted for forecasting and moving forward I almost feel like mr. Dudley that we are an intermission trying to talk about the interplay I know you have more say but let me throw a commercially while we are there and just again for context these these numbers are based on where we are and will be been for last few years and as superintendent just had one of our principal standard
156of probably hours ago just talked about in the in the short time he's been in place and the enrollment growth so again I just look at context and organizations are systems in plan said that people make the difference and so these numbers can't tell us about the people that are gonna be in the positions to make the changes that will bring parents then that are zones are those schools into those schools so that was just my commercial I think mr. Kazan made a good points this forecast is based on historical data and if we don't do anything that's gonna stand true five ten years from now so it's giving us good baseline of looking at the things to put in place so that these forecasts will not stay true we have to do things differently
157good quantitative data that's we cannot dispute at this point but at the why behind these numbers can change the story I would look back at the middle school data as potential opportunity and you know in a focused way so you've got lows Neil going out of capacity really quickly and those are big school communities where we've put a lot of resources into leadership and STEM resources but they also are going to need all the support we can give them if they're gonna operate it at any time near those capacities I mean we're gonna have to look at some attendance issues and things there's lots of micro Studies on every piece of data you've shared and the rest of the story the rest the story that leads directly into my colleague Matthew Palmer coming back up
158to discuss the next steps well as much as I tried to make sure that we didn't dive into one school I'm glad that we have because it's a very curious situation a hundred and thirteen residential projects in our city and county and a relatively stable student enrollment projection over ten years and I understand how that can be contradictory right the one thing I didn't want to shout from the from the gallery but I did want to mention do be aware that the majority of the projects that are under construction right now are smaller in nature denser in nature and not more than typically either a studio or one-bedroom so when you think about school-aged families yes we see a lot of you know at the in the aggregate since there are a lot of projects
159there is a lot of growth demographically a number of residents in the county that's true but when we think about the modeling out of children particularly all of this loads into the work that we do so I just wanted to we highlight that and again acknowledge the steps that we've taken particularly in really deeply exploring the geographic elements of the charter students know district in North Carolina has gone to this length and that's as as really a hat tip to your district leadership to instruct us to say we need to know this information and look deeper into it so with this first question what are the student enrollment trends and problems the Durham public schools is facing in the next 10 years we have a bit of an answer is that in an era of
160population growth and the city and county at large we are seeing declining to stabilizing student enrollment trends but that leads us to a second question why is student enrollment declining decline occurring in this era of growth and our proposal or recommendation is to explore that qualitatively you know we talked about the importance of listening we talked about the importance of public and community engagement at workshops one of the roles that we're serving right now which Adam County is to be the third party that's going in without direct affiliation but there on the instruction of leadership to say tell us what's going on tell us about the decisions that you at the family and neighborhood levels are making and to collect that information and aggregate it back up to district leadership so you can make important
161curricular or programmatic or enrollment based decisions so that is very much what we believe certainly in partnership with the district should be explored further and that leads us into our third question how can DPS address the declining student enrollment issue what you can do with that workshop feedback is integrated with national and state-level best practices the issues that Durham public schools is facing are not unique only to Durham public schools the emergence of charter schools nationally is a trend we see it in Washington DC for the Delphian or leans Detroit it is very much at the front end of urban education and so you know taking that community workshop information and integrating with what has what is Kansas City done looking at different examples of that could go a long way in helping you address
162some of the rather than us coming in as a consultant and saying here's what should be done though we know the answer our proposal is more to work closely with you to find that answer one of the ways that we can uniquely help in that respect and again this is acknowledging in particular one of the specialties of our group is to be able to do optimization too when you think about facility and enrollment decisions to take a suite of priorities that you may have whether that's minimizing transportation district or balancing at the classroom level based on end of grade test scores whatever those priorities are that are coming from you as the board as your stated objectives we can help integrate that into a defensible enrollment plan that looks at things spatially and as bringing
163that information together to help you balance things out at the school and classroom levels that is a very there is not another group certainly in the state if not the u.s. that can do this type of work specifically for operations research and education so I wanted to you know it's one of the reasons I wanted to join this team was because we do this work and we do it all over the state much of waiks enrollment plan is emergent of our partnership over 20 years Aaron alluded to it earlier but when we think about sensitivity analysis in this enrollment model that we've shared with you tonight it is very sensitive right you have magnets you have charters you have many things that are loading into some of these trends and subtle modifications that you may
164make even the Foundation's presentation tonight the emergence and presence of their involvement all these things will have ripple effects that need constant monitoring and feedback so I hope that you know in and I will even go to the language part we're just really getting started on development in Deraa me when I was shared with you tonight with 113 projects that's what they had in hand in the fall of 2018 if we come back in the fall of 2019 there may be another hundred projects or there may be ten you're gonna want to know that so thinking about the milestones tonight was our first look at the issues regarding the what the where in the why is it happening on what can we do about it those are the next steps this is really as you
165use the term intermission I like that we very much are at the first end of this of trying to grapple with before we start proposing solutions let's understand the problems and those problems have multiple facets to it so with that we leave you kind of with the timeline in general we've collected the student enrollment information back from this fall produced a facility capacity analysis that we shared with you this evening and moving forward we're hoping to explore the solutions with you in a collaborative fashion so we leave you with two questions and these don't have to be answered tonight but there are questions to think about so after reviewing the answers to question one regarding the student enrollment trends would you like us to look further into why this is happening and then taking that
166information and pairing it together with best practices how can we advise you as the board to make some decisions accordingly so with that open it up to broader questions you may have and again I appreciate your time in and partnership on this project my question has to do with your second question about finding solutions Darry hear you say that you hadn't done this project this yet delved into this level before I was referencing the effort to geolocate the charter students at the district level charter students okay but as far as finding solutions what Aaron alluded to it but doing it down in Pitt was it in Pitt County that um you've done that before yes ma'am and were you successful remembering that we provide advice in that yes if you provide advice whether or not
167it was taken what measures of success for us ultimately have to do with if words of education in North Carolina are making decisions informed by data and science then we consider that a success and in that respect we do have over 25 years of success yes wait and as an educational board we are to let data be the driver that's what we're supposed to do let data be the driver so we'll be successful I appreciate so much that the data and and the meticulous work you've done with city and county planning especially I think having that charter data the question that comes to my mind is and it comes to my mind as a school board member because if charter policy you know changes in the state at the state swim you know things could
168change very drastically in different directions but if charter schools were closed this district also needs to be ready to accept those students that are out there have you is it possible with your model since you've geo coded addresses to add them back in and tell us where they would be and for planning does that make any sense as a question it does absolutely I have my thoughts but let me defer to Thomas for a moment and we'll do our thoughts together yes absolutely we could handle the dps in charter yes absolutely we could handle those two student datasets together as one and project forward how those populate how that combined population would move forward over time I mean I think that would be incredibly informative for planning but I also think that the questions you've
169asked about how we might address the issues and and hear that feedback from the community would also be it's easy for us to think we know what the community wants and why people are making other choices sometimes I think actually we talk about people leaving the district and we never had them to begin with the notion that that people can make their decisions without even walking into the door of one of our school is heartbreaking to me and something that I think the foundation's going to help with the restorative equity work that we are steeped in every day so I look forward to hearing ways that we can listen to the community more and in forming this going forward and the only other question that came to mind when you guys were working with City
170County Planning I know they're just receiving whatever builders and developers are doing but it seems incredibly strange that there's not much affordable young family housing coming in this next stretch of development do you think they the city county planners also have awareness that that'sa that's strange or is that just a certain there's unquestionably a larger awareness about the increasing lack of affordable housing in Dermott large and I think that the planning staff is well aware of that that being said you know in the u.s. right now the term reppin ization is very in vogue right a lot of Millennials and baby boomers are moving back to cities and I think that that challenge is something that only a few cities have fully embraced Vancouver is one early example of saying if we're building things that
171families can't live in then they won't live here and so that's a larger conversation that would happen you know that's a that's a much higher level conversation but I would I would absolutely as a as a researcher in that space where you're going with that that's a that's an insightful question thank you all so much for did this work and the level of detail is pretty incredible I when you talk about doing the community engagement I'd Natalie spoke a lot about that's really important how do you go about that process I think there's so many voices in Durham to hear from there's the people who we never had there's the people who are on the verge so the people who committed so how do you gather the right groups to get that information and I'm
172glad you asked that so I am a city and regional planners so I come very much from the Community Planning perspective of understanding first and foremost that there's a very strong cohesive and social system already on the ground and at the community level and I think what I also learned in the hallway this evening and talking with many DPS employees is that you know you have public information officers you have folks that are in marketing and communications and I think you saw earlier we have a roster of folks that we consulted when we were trying to figure out who to interview on the planning side I think that's a good example in template where we work with the district and the board to make sure you know whether we're talking about religious institutions neighborhood associations
173thinking about those folks that might be big conduits where people feel they're in a safe place to be able to share their decisions these are personal choices many times and the feedback could ideally you would want as candid as possible so first and foremost is developing a strategy of are you looking at the county at large or are there particular areas that you would want to know more about I think that's the first step and then secondly is on the ground in those communities who are the institutions and partners that we could work with in order to organize listening sessions public workshops on that and then thirdly is really getting at you know a facilitated series of focus groups that are getting feedback you know surveys are possible in that space as well a little
174bit more removed as far as giving probably the volume of information you would want but we can use in techniques like Atlas TI which are coding on themes based on what people are sharing and then you do basically word clouds and points of emphasis so I'm going far with this but the answer to your question is we would you know take our time and get it right and make sure that we answer the question not only who should we talk to but who are we not talking to that we need to make sure that we talk to the second part who we need to talk to you but not talking to is really important to me so that as we do this we're getting so many representations and different voices heard at the table so
175I'm glad that's a part of your process I feel like generally the and I'm fine with it I'm not passing any judgment but I feel like we're jumping around a lot because I think what I heard was an offer of service and I assume we need to take a direction on this at some point maybe that's not for this discussion you know including the you know going down the path around individual schools and what that means in middle schools Natalie you brought up so I'm what are we doing where are we going what are we doing it that's that's what I'm wondering well I mean it's up to the pleasure of the board I mean if you guys there's two questions here do you want them to continue on and do you want them to
176come up with solutions well those are their questions but what's but that's for something something for us to answer do we need do we want them to continue forward I'm sorry I was just going to ask if there was a direction erin was headed with this or thank you thank you for asking yes we believe we brought them to the table to again form that partnership in order to go down the road of solutions some of these solutions have been solutions that may have been or may not have been needed to been looked after years I don't think they put it up on this on their PowerPoint or maybe they didn't quickly went through it but again looking at assignment priorities around balancing of utilization age of facilities different configurations of facilities we believe all
177of those need to be looked at as possible solutions move forward so the board blessing staff to continue this relationship continue to work in this capacity to bring solutions to the table is what we're here for this evening not I don't think for the board to pick any one solution or any one option at this time those are things that have to be brought as part of the next evolution of this process okay I would I was just like I would love to see an example of the of your work from somewhere else on on those two issues is that I assume those are public documents they are well let me phrase it in the sense of and again ultimately the objective here is to give you information to help you make decisions we have
178reports that we've produced four previous school districts as recently as this year that are following through this planning process right to go from issue identification to solutions if you receive approval from those districts to share those oftentimes I think that's standard practice and I'm sure we'd be happy to produce that be great I would like to see I'd like to see one right this is a patient right all right thank you all very much we really appreciate it have a good evening now during our agenda approval we added a B here that was for the calendar sync spring Spring Break sync oh the the background of this or do you want it right time with no that's just somebody has to go ahead the background of this is I think it was in our last
179meeting last meeting we approved the calendars for the 2019 2020 school year as most of most of you know we have year-round calendar we have different various calendars but the two we're talking about here is a year-round calendar and the traditional calendar the point of contention is the spring break so the process was we the administration reached out to the schools the principals and the staff to vote on which calendars worked best for their particular school the year-round calendar year-round schools chose the calendar overwhelmingly I think it was a hundred percent chose one and then overwhelmingly the traditional calendar schools chose a different calendar chose their calendar and just how so happened to be that the spring breaks were off by a week we adopted him but we didn't really think about the lining up
180of the calendars however we got a few emails and a few complaints about parents who have children on both calendars and that's that's a normal thing you know for example someone might go to from elementary school the School of Creative Studies which is a year-round school and that the sibling is still in elementary school which is a traditional calendar school so the idea which Steve Steve can't see Matt and Natalie asked the administration to see if they could speak to the principal's it was a thought if they heard any more complaints or if there's anything we could do and so now we're turning over to dr. hardy who said she would entertain the possibility of speaking to going back speaking to the schools and see if there's any kind of association or a compromise we
181can do then maybe line up those spring breaks happen at the same time dr. hardy thank you chairman Lee what I've distributed is just for the so that you can see the two calendars that went for the traditional and the two that went for year-round as well as the school vote we're definitely happy to take direction from the board and work with our principals and bring back a recommendation for you on February 7th that's your work session to see if we can align the Spring Breaks we did have this conversation as we were working with the calendar committees each school our process is that each school gets their to calendar drafts that the committee works on and then they submit their vote and we did have what we presented to you at the board meeting
182for approval was the overwhelming vote for both the traditional as well as for the year-round however we will work with our principals and bring back and recommend if the board would like us to do that on February 7 okay and just for clarity it calendar be for year-round and calendar be for traditional actually have the same a same Spring Break yes sir is that correct yes sir okay so we do have options where there's two it's just the schools right so they they yeah so I think for myself it's not clear to me whether when the when the school's made that vote they realized because they voted it in isolation of each other that's correct and so to me this is a fairly simple request to go back ask the schools to consider given that
183the that the other option would have that would have both Spring Breaks to be the same whether they would want to change their vote completely open to the to the schools saying you know we we looked at that it's a concern but it does not outweigh the other concerns we want to stay with what we voted but I think is important just for our parents to know that that we've looked at the issue and that way and that we look to our schools for guidance from that because it's not clear to me that schools took that particular piece into into account and their first time around and that's all we're that's all these for me that's all I'm asking is that they take a look at it and and give us guidance because I want
184to try to follow the guidance from the schools but didn't she just say didn't you just say that you all talked about these these calendars are not synced and the traditional school said this is the one we choose anyway is that so the process is twofold the first part of the process is where the calendar committees come together to select the draft calendars the first group that selects the draft calendar are the traditional schools the next week we brought in representatives from the year-round schools we were clear with that group as they were drafting their calendar that these are the drafts for the traditional schools and we flag for them that this is what are in those two calendars we want some things to align as they were selecting the year-round calendars year round is
185a little bit more complex because we try to stick to as close as we can to nine the nine weeks on three weeks off we also want to make sure there's a good circadian rhythm around the workdays and so it's a little bit more complicated the year-round committee did draft one calendar where the spring breaks were in line however there was also one calendar where it was not aligned so that's the first part of the process the second part of the process we sin both drafts of the calendar out to the school so year-round gets their two drafts traditional gets their two drafts and they make the selection nice listen isolation right but but I mean the number of people that touch this I mean are we confident that the faculties of all the schools
186had this put before them we're a hundred percent confident that each principal makes sure that their faculties and their parent group have input and then they submit to us the vote for their calendar but they vote on either year-round or traditional in isolation they at the school level they wouldn't have seen this conflict so the traditional schools have their to traditional calendars and the year-round schools have their so they do not have all four of their calendars and so it looks like I'm go ahead and now I'm sorry I'm sorry oh I was going to shift this a little bit dr. hardy I think it maybe if we send this back to school so we can give them both I think I wouldn't have caught in an isolation either unless I had a child in
187a year-round school right so maybe we can send it back and give them both and then that might help schools facilitate and vote maybe they vote the same maybe they mote vote differently but at least they have both sets of information however what I do want us to be clear on is whatever the vote comes back from the teachers is what it will be is that clear I just want our parents to understand that that when we send this back that if in fact the teachers say we voted the way we wanted to then that is done because when you send your child to a school that has a different calendar it's like if you're going to college and you and they don't always align so I mean I want us to I want us
188to do not make a whole lot of busy work for people because because it's not always gonna be that way some kids are gonna get out of school early and others are not it's just like if you go to your boss and say well I'd really like for my Christmas vacation to align with my child I want to think about it in a little bit of a different way and and the point that is resonated with me from the parent emails that I've seen is that this is a value that we have respected for many many many years in calendar planning in this community that at least families that have chosen different calendars and different schools share a spring break and I think that somehow in our process this year has gotten lost and if
189we set that as a guiding principle for our calendar committees that I think that would is one that actually makes sense when we think about how many families that might be impacted and it's something that I think folks can make work and I'm not clear that the Spring Break was what had them prefer a or versus B or you know if there were other things about the calendar that were that different so while I respect totally the input from the schools and their voice in it if we if we have a tradition and a guiding principle of let's try to have a common Spring Break if we can then I think we wouldn't have gotten to this place and we should just have that as a manta if that's something that we do then we
190should just say that's my question is has that been so taking it back to the schools I think is a fine strategy but if it has been a part of you know the framework and I'm kind of looking back at Deb because she's been a part of this presentation for many years did was it a part of the framework and did we decide it wasn't that critical or is it just something where they just happened to a line for you know 25 years happy to ask dr. Pittman to come forward I did participate as well with her facilitation to with the year round where we were very clear with the year round group that the Spring Breaks did not align however we also wanted to honor the input of that group in them creating a
191calendar where they were not where it was not aligned that's exactly right dr. hardy has captured the essence of the guidance we provided to the year on calendar teams and they knowingly produced two different calendars that did not that both versions did not overlap and I just wanted to offend the question for a minute so like 1011 emails when I don't think people are this didn't hit the newspaper there wasn't a connect dead district-wide whoo-hoo the calendars are out like that this is a fact that that's a significant number that this is a disruption to to what their how they go about their schooling life thanks so now you know the for the fall for the spring of next year that your calendars don't alive you know that a year in advance it's not like
192it's happening this April you know a year in advance the calendars don't align and you govern yourself accordingly what I don't want us to do is to somehow go back to our educators and say now okay you want make the wrong decision you need to you need to kind of switch this they already made it I don't know that we're advocating for either way I think no I'm be what how would you would you consider this if they say we've kind of want to keep this calendar that's fine because somebody may have children on both right but just the effort say so hey look you know they this year it didn't line and so would you consider I think it's really it's really the year-round would you consider moving your intercession down you know going
193with the other calendar going with a bee instead of a just a consider if they say no this works best for us I think it's fine that's that's just my my opinion on that I'll say well nodded oh we're gonna take you back if that's the pleasure of the board with a clear guiding question just being able to look at that spring break they say yes we're bringing back to you if they say no we'll bring you back to you as well so I think it's well noted thank you we take you up there all right the next item is Board of Education items there's a resolution supporting local control of school calendars speaking of calendars maybe if we had control that's the calendar we wouldn't be in this thing okay that's the flexibility that
194we need all right Natalie so I appreciate y'all's feedback I had drafted a resolution supporting local control of school calendars that would help us going forward the the one that is in the packet did not incorporate those suggestions and I sent it in an email to you all this afternoon as I add its and a revision from Steve and a revision from Bettina I'm a little weary and not sure we need to read it but if you want to read it I think we should read the one from the email version which I just lost from my email push the button what do you guys what's your pleasure I don't the one that I the one that I said had to change okay well then that one is the good that's a great one in
195the packet thank you in terms of reading it or not it to me a more important question is where are we sending it we're gonna we're gonna approve it we're gonna sign it there's no press covering this YouTube millions of people on YouTube watching us are we sending it to and who are we communicating it with I think our legislative aid needs to layer on needs to perhaps set up a schedule when we need to go over to Jones Street or whatever was so we need to do what we need to do I just making these resolutions like you're saying and just putting them into file it's not doing anything and we've got a whole new crop of legislators coming in that perhaps will vote differently or have different things to say different comments to
196say about calendar flexibility if we make it known that that school districts really need it so I think this is the time you're exactly right man what are we gonna do with it well I would say we could share it with our delegation and in the upcoming legislative breakfast or whatever we have scheduled and it's gaining some momentum and support from both sides of the aisle so it might be something that might move in the nineteen second we just never know want to read it I mean if you're less weary than I am you good what I sent to you is in is in this yes Sondra just clarified that she did yes this is correct so then it's then in minis excited to read off it's on I'm lit let's go Oh many go
197well just anybody resolution supporting local control of school calendars where's North Carolina General Statutes give local Boards of Education powers of supervision in control of local school systems and whereas local control over establishing school calendars is an integral component of school supervision and administrative powers with which local Boards of Education have been vested and whereas in 2004 North Carolina General Assembly seized control of setting school calendars and imposed a one-size-fits-all mandate on how school calendars are to be set whereas the current school calendar start date is no later no earlier than Monday then the Monday closest to August 26th and the end date is no later than the Friday closest to June 11th and whereas the state mandated late start date means that all schools could not complete the first semester until mid to late
198January most negatively affecting high schools and whereas the current calendar law essentially requires high school students to take first semester exams after the winter break which negatively impacts teaching and learning according to educators and students and whereas the second semester for high school students starts two to three weeks later than community colleges and universities and whereas calendar misalignment makes it nearly impossible for high school students to or recent winter graduates to take classes and local community colleges or universities during the second semester and whereas exams for Advanced Placement and international baccalaureate classes are given on the same day nationwide and the current calendar law shortens the amount of time North Carolina students have to learn the material before test day and whereas it is well documented through multiple studies that students experience summer learning loss
199which disproportionately impacts children living in poverty and where as long summer breaks can also negatively impact child nutrition health and wellness and whereas with little flexibility built into the school calendar due to the rigidity of state legislation scheduling makeup days is extremely challenging and whereas major hurricanes snowstorms ice storms and other weather-related events have caused Durham public schools to miss numerous instructional days over the last several years and whereas restart schools and publicly funded charter schools are currently granted calendar flexibility and control and that is best practice for all public schools and whereas local Boards of Education are best equipped to understand the balancing act of meeting the community's needs and maximizing student success and whereas restoring local control of school calendars will allow local Boards of Education to best meet the calendar preferences of
200students families educators and businesses in our community Wow allowing for innovative approaches to improve student achievement therefore be it resolved that the Durham public schools Board of Education urges the North Carolina General Assembly to restore calendar flexibility and governance to local Boards of Education as quickly as possible during the 2019 session sign the 24th of January 2019 move approval the movement properly seconded we approved the Durham public schools resolution support and local control of school board school calendars all in favor say aye aye all opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously all the control of School Boards it probably a good idea yeah that would be nice but Durham I do all right okay all right we added a B here it's a letter to the State Board of Education about the pending
201discovery charter badly oh very recently we learned just through media reports that the charter school advisory board largely comprised of charter school principals statewide was considering two amendments for a new durham charter school which would be a the fourteenth charter school in durham this charter has not been able to open because it is proposed to be in North Durham near a sensitive watershed and has several lawsuits pending and the State Board has given it extension after extension and through social media right around the holidays we learned that Discovery Charter plans to open in the fall of 2019 in Durham in the old st. James across from Walton Community Theatre rather than opening as approved by the State Board of Education in 2016 with over 500 students because that space is small they only plan to
202open with 200 students for two years in that space while they continue their litigation because I had significant concerns about that and I knew it was coming quickly on that charter school advisory board agenda I drafted a letter of those concerns that Steve and Mike were kind enough to sign on to that we sent to the charter school Advisory Board unfortunately that board never replied to that letter and we learned through media accounts that they went ahead and approved those two amendments and making that recommendation to the State Board of Education so it is my understanding that the next consideration will be at the State Board of Education On February 6th and 7th at the their two-day meeting I think the State Board of Education changed composition since the Charter was it originally approved in
2032016 I think of an ER Cooper has put some new members on that might be listening in a different way and I'd like us to consider sending a similar letter to the State Board for their consideration and I emailed that to you guys late today and it just essentially is the same letter that we sent earlier to the Charter advisory board but it it reflects the timeline moving forward and the the recommendations that the Charter advisory group made so I hope that's a helpful exercise I don't know how you all are feeling about that but I didn't want to not have this discussion before the State Board of Education meets to consider this further having been at the education policy retreat for the Hunt Institute last week and having been on the school choice panel
204and the National Alliance for charter schools representative served on the panel with me governor hunt sat in the audience knew legislators were in the audience as well this conversation that you're having from the National Alliance of charter schools is saying that we're looking at North Carolina and the authorization of charter schools not being not being done correctly that was a voice that was coming through the education governor governor hunt saying that we need to slow down this process of approving charter schools stop have a moratorium for some time it grabbed hold this is the time for us to continue like you said their composition has changed on that board we need to they've talked about charter schools that the specifically the virtual charter schools that have not made growth have had failing marks and have
205still gotten approval the National Alliance I said that is what we are definitely against so this is the time for us to continue to push what we have Thank You Natalie for doing that February 6 we need we need to make sure that that letter is there and we need to continue to push to close those charter schools are ineffective and to and to have a moratorium again coming into our neighborhood I support us sending the letter they can a deliverer working on second that motion I mean I clarify for myself yeah I mean I I appreciate Natalie writing letter more just bringing the information to us you know my I'm speaking just for myself we we don't have a policy on charter schools we know we talk about it a lot I there are
206things you know people choose charter schools are the reason people choose charter schools oh I'm not speaking about that to me the issue here is it is a very conservative one accountability for our tax dollars and we're we're being asked in Durham to contribute tax dollars to to a take the creation of a school that has no accountability to local government in any way and and to me that's just fundamentally wrong I think there are there are many places as many was pointing out there are many places that have an effective charter school program in which charter schools work with local government and there's accountability to local government to me you know I'm ready to throw that the tea box is off the edge if we're contributing our our tax dollars then there needs to
207be accountability to local government to the Commission and to the school board to have to find out about this from reporters is crazy that's just there's that's no way to run a government and so I I'm not speaking at all about the just discover school and what their plans are I would love to see it I would love to see proposed in a way that local governor had a chance to look at it but I'm totally opposed to this kind of free-for-all people putting up a school without any accountability to it I just think it's a bad idea so just for our audience we will post this letter or I don't think it's I don't think we're reading tonight is just pretty long you know natalie is very detailed with her her information so we'll
208post this letter immediately well tomorrow or or Monday you know we'll have it up there by Monday but I prove this letter on this is basically the letter that me and Steve signed off on we signed with Natalie and sent it to the committee and I proved it I support it could we send it to county commissioners and City Council as well yeah that's theirs I believe they were interested in sign it sign it as well as a as a board as well yes we will we will do that okay so disapproval and we're not allowing many to read this correct right all right so was it moved he said I support it okay it's been moving properly saying that we approve sign and send this letter to the State Board of Education also sending
209it to the Durham Board of County Commissioners to sign as well if they're interested any further discussion all right all in favor say aye aye all opposed please use the same sign passes unanimously I will accept the motion to go into closed session move we go into closed session for the reason stated on the agenda second it's been moved and properly seconded that we go into closed session for the reasons stated on the agenda all in favor say aye aye all opposed same sign we're now in closed session you I'm gonna I'm gonna have to do it tonight get on camera bill parts yes we got any corn all different kind of ways all right we're now we're now back in open session with him from many dr. what members I'm here seeking approval of
210the personal report has discussed at a closed session approval of the personnel report dated January 24th thank you the mood and probably second it that we approved the personnel report for January 24th 2019 any further discussion all in favor say aye aye all opposed please use the same side passes unanimously and that we are adjourned you