001you one oh I did not signal the the television yeah I'll take that back all right good evening everyone thank you all for joining us tonight I'm gonna call us we're gonna open up the meeting here I usually have a statement but I don't have it in front of me so we welcome you to the Durham public schools Board of Education monthly meeting we appreciate each and every one of you for being here the purpose of the meeting is for us to discuss items that come before the board at our work sessions most of the time is the entire board at our work sessions and we thoroughly discuss the topics that are that come before us sometimes we vote on them sometimes we put them we put them on the agenda for our large board
002meeting which is tonight we expect this meeting to be very rich in information and that all of our stakeholders our parents teachers administration friends county commissioners city councilmen who are in the audience and those who are watching be very rich in information about our school district your school district I would like to note that we do allow public comment at the beginning of our meeting general public comment and public comment on each item although the board takes each comment very seriously and we consider the information we do not respond to the individuals who are doing public comment we will take the information into consideration and if there is follow-up and a person in the administration will follow up that's the best I can recollect that statement that we do in the morning do at the
003very beginning meeting so with that the first item on the agenda is a moment of silence and while we're doing this moment of silence I just would like everyone to think about what's happening in our country right now there are so much turmoil there's so much there there's there's so many things that are happening that that can cause stress on on anyone especially our students we have a topic today we're going to be talking about dealing with some of those issues but just in this moment of silence just think about our country and how we can move forward and in peaceful ways thank you the next item on the agenda should be is superintendents update all right superintendent's update mr. Lee and members of the board in place of the superintendents update this evening I
004would like to do a celebration I'm going to begin by saying a few words and then I'm going to ask a couple people to add to my comments 22 years ago Hugh Osteen started working for Durham public schools in that time he has been part of more renovation projects new schools and other improvements to the operations and infrastructure of Durham public schools that I can count as deputy superintendent for operation he saw to it that our business and support services made it possible for our academic services to thrive you can't have strong teaching and learning without effective technology reliable transportation responsive humans resources and healthy school nutrition Hugh can be counted on to have the big picture in mind and I give him full credit for his leadership in putting together a building program that
005was overwhelmingly supported by Durham voters in last November's bond referendum Hugh also kept the main thing the main thing he saw operations role as supporting our educational mission he was humble and generous as he rose through the ranks and that made him the board's perfect choice to serve as interim superintendent before I arrived he was a calming influence at a difficult time Hugh made the decision that it was time to leave Durham public schools to focus on his health and his family anyone who knows him knows how difficult that choice was he feels so much responsibility for our schools and so much pride in students and the staff members he supervises and represented I always say of our retirees that Durham public schools has a bright future because they have built a solid foundation from
006which we can build to new heights that is also true of my friend and my trusted advisor this plaque is a small token of our school system's appreciation and my personal thanks for all of the time talent and sacrifices hew has given for our students and schools and the plaque reads presented to Hugh Osteen in gratitude for 22 years of steadfast and honorable service to Durham public schools on behalf of our students and our staff and families in our community we say this with enormous gratitude and appreciation August 24th 2017 but don't get up right now because I would like to ask a couple people to come up and give a few words and we do have in our in our audience this evening Heidi Cotter who was for 12 years a member of board
007of education and worked very closely with you during those 12 years so I'd like to ask Heidi to come up and give a few comments good evening everybody and thanks I must admit that no matter how many times I come into this room I still have butterflies in my stomach something about this room perhaps and the importance of the work I guess so there were two constants when I was on the school board during my 12 years on the school board and one of those was many my friend and colleague and the other was uhyou you were there from the beginning and for my entire 12 years and hew was all it has always been still is a rock-solid leader and he kept our school district has Bert said running like a well-oiled machine and
008you know it if it would he dealt with everything from from buses to to buildings to the cafeteria - student assignment lines for the attendance zones HVAC sand roofs and painting and you name it he was able to keep to manage it and he always managed it with such a high level of competence and integrity and with just the right balance of regimen and regard what's more we could we could always count on Hugh we can't always count on you and at a critical juncture when we needed you the most you you were willing to step in and act as our interim superintendent at a very difficult time and it was a challenging time for DPS but you helped us to reforge we're all in this together spirit and rapport and that was really important
009but most importantly of all you've just you've kept us steady you've been a pillar of stability for Durham public schools and I feel so grateful to have had the opportunity to have worked with you to work alongside you and I just want to thank you for your dedication for dedicating your life's work to the most important institution in this community Durham public schools thank you and I want to make sure we got the partner mini please come forward in these are these are the two people who worked with Hugh the muck in the last couple of years the best leaders demonstrate the force of character and are guided by strong moral compass they are loyal and they know the importance of trust these are both descriptors of your leadership you you have we've been together
010like hi well had he left us but we've been together for 13 years and then you see Steve Sholes sitting back there he left us too after only four years but we came on this on this journey the three of us came on this journey together and you were here you've been steady dependable trustworthy and responsive I have your cell phone number I have called you to get the lights turned on to get the grass cut to see if something wasn't going right I started to call you other day when I was locked out of the fence over there bacon Street I called everybody else I called everybody else and we finally got Stacie I got sexy but Erin you on the call too okay you've always been responsive you've always loved Durham public schools
011you are Durham public schools graduate but all your family has always come first in your decision-making you've always been a considerate of the opinions of others you've been a respecter of all persons and you've led this district through turbulent times through tough bond decisions and questionable construction projects you stepped up to serve as superintendent when we needed one your bull said strong and you're a northern knight tough trusted and honored for your merit and your service that's what a knight is here we have you have left us with a great model of leadership enjoy your retirement my friend you certainly deserve it [Applause] after 22 years I can tell a few stories thank you all so much for the recognition in the moment very very important to me I couldn't do it at all without
012my wife Beth I was tensioned to go to adjust the air when I came in the room a couple of you mentioned being asked to be the interim superintendent before Burt got here and I was so excited about his selection and still in he's a man of integrity and decency and I've really appreciated his leadership in his friendship one thing they wanted to say was I was honored and thrilled to be interim superintendent but the highlights really that come to mind most are the people here you've talked about the way we treat people the way we trust people one of the best comments I heard when when news came out about my leave well if somebody thanked me for how I handled him a hostile crowd and that made me feel good that I'd made
013a difference somewhere long because you've all dealt with a few hostile crowds once in a while so I just wanted to say thank you for the opportunity thank you for the ability to be what we need to be here take care of the dps family because I think that word really strikes at the heart of it we need to be a family I appreciate it thank you very much [Applause] [Laughter] alright that was a great use of a superintendent update definitely worth it the next item on our agenda is agenda review and approval jim and leagh I'd like to add a couple items the first one is that and is the naming of the car building at the Durham School of the Arts it's possible if we could have that right after 8:00 between 8:00
014and 9:00 okay I think it fits their academic just a completely different thing or just 8b oh you could put the beat okay that's good alright karbala and jim and leagh we would we will need a closed session for personnel and a closed session for mr. sue for fur per student assignment can you tell me what the correct way to say that to protect student confidentiality under US 2012 32g thank you about 32 G is it us RNC the US but you can just say for the purpose of preserving student confidentiality I don't write that fast okay hello alright that's it from me okay so we have the car build in a closed session mm-hmm okay I'll accept the motion I move approval of the agenda as amended second it's been moved and properly seconded
015that we approve the agenda as amended any further discussion o favor say aye aye all opposed please use the same time it passes unanimously the next item on the agenda is general public comment and we have a few for general right then one for salary compensation alright so we have six for general public comment the first speaker will be brian prophet thanks we'll do three minutes good evening everybody so usually I'm here to cause trouble that's not why I'm here tonight and I actually really wanted to come tonight intentionally to not cause trouble um I really want to come tonight and offer some gratitude there's there's problems in every school district in the country in undoing the legacy of racism that goes back hundreds of years on this land and I think that that fight
016is one that schools public schools are largely the last institution that are left productively dealing with in our society and so yes we've got problems yes we're still struggling and even inside of the fact that it shouldn't all be on the school systems you know under our responsibility I think there's still some things that we can be doing better however right this school district in the last several years the stand that the school district took to stand with Wilden acosta right when he was kidnapped by police by immigration police in the front yard hiring dr. Kelvin Bullock and creating an equity Affairs Department standing with our students and releasing a statement after the election right when a lot of anxieties for our kids were really high working with us last year Dae on the on
017the law enforcement policies to give more protections for our students in the schools the change in the discipline policy to try to reduce suspensions and deal with the school to Prison Pipeline the recent statement you know rejecting white supremacy in the midst of a you know really intense national debate all of these things are incredibly important none of those things on their own are gonna end the impact that racism has in our schools but the example that you all set at the top of this organization trickles down and the conversations that you're hoping to have in common in classrooms are beginning to have it are we beginning to happen in classrooms and in buildings and it says a lot for the leadership that you all have been unwavering in your commitment to these principles so
018I want to say thank you ii thank you i want to give is personally to kim Hagar she stepped into a really challenging role in a really challenging moment in the last period and I have had nothing but incredibly positive interactions with her dealing with personnel issues with members of ours who are trying to navigate complicated situations with principles revamping the transfer policy to make it be something that works better for our students working hard with us over the summer despite being overwhelmed by a whole host of tasks to try to get this substitute you know issue that we raised last year fixed Kim has just been an incredibly positive problem-solving student-centered people center leader and I just had to come here tonight and shout her out because I'm just really really grateful that I've
019gotten a chance to work with her in the last period so Thank You Kim and thanks for everybody who helped put him in that place so it's all I got no trouble I promise all right thank you our next speaker is Antonio Jones pull this down from profit so I'm a Antonio Jones and I did it with the Ryan prophecy I had a chance to work with Miss Hannah before I left Durham public schools one of the things I want to talk about tonight is this is equity so early this week I had the pleasure of going to the exhibit on race at the North Carolina Museum of Natural History so if you hadn't had a chance to see that I would highly recommend dr. long doing the organized field trip with the school board
020members in the senior administrators staff and just gonna go see that that's probably one of the most common yeah probably one of the most comprehensive exhibits on race I've seen so with that it kind of there's little exhibit where talks about racism and equity and schools so I start looking at how we doing equity in Durham public schools and I thank you for promoting dr. Bullock to handle that tremendous task but one of the the bullet points within his responsibility two of them kind of struck my attention was point number two was delivering the professional development for teachers and administrators focused on anti racism anti-bias of multiculturalism and cultural relevance and point number six was working to secure sources of additional grants and funding to increase equity in DPS and when I'm started thinking about
021it that is a big task for one individual so what I'm proposing in Wake County took a tremendous leap and funding there officer equity for with four hundred eighty seven thousand dollars so I I suspect that's not his budget that breaks down to his Wake County spend about $3 and $0.11 per child okay so if we took those same numbers and use the data from Durham for the schools that's listed on the Durham public schools website and we was to fund that saying rate s wait public schools his doctor Bullock's budget would be a hundred and two thousand dollars seems pretty aggressive huh but as you look at the chart and it goes down from $3 $0.11 down 25 cent per child if we use the per pupil allotment formula based on equity so that
022kind of tells you where this but it should be so for me as we have this conversation about equity in my profession I follow money okay so with that being said within the next 30 days and fire I'm gonna submit a request for public information to see what his budget is and that's going to truly let me know how serious we are as a district in dealing with this issue of equity also I came across two studies and I'm almost done so but then that exhibit on about school two studies that was reference was talking about this stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance on african-americans and a threat in the air how stereotype shape intellectual identity and performance I pulled them these are some interesting studies I'm going to email this to the board
023so when you get the moment they're like 15 pages long so if you get a moment some really serious information in here and that's my time dealing with this all right thank you thank you mr. Jones I'm not sure what the last name is but Robert as Robert s there Robert here signed up for public comment alright I'll check later the next speaker is Giovanni Lewis good evening as we're getting ready for a great school year on the traditional calendar because I know some schools have already started and I just want to express and reiterate how important it is to the Durham Committee on the affairs of black people and parents of african-american children committee that measures of and past experience of a proven track record of equity and equitable education is one of the
024greatest qualities from the candidates that you all are starting interviews on this week I hear and going through so again wanting to re-emphasize the importance of this person having an experience track record of equitable education for us as black and brown children strive to meet these testing proficiencies and exceeding growth from beginning of the year to the end of the year and here we are at the beginning and we're gonna be looking at the growth that our children are making it is so important from the top down that that superintendent who sets the agenda and lays forth the goals for all schools and students really understands and appreciates equity as I know that's so important to many school board members that we met with and have expressed that again and again I just can't say
025it enough you know one who is unapologetically forthright and progressive and solidifying the foundation adding to the work that has already been begun in the equity Affairs Office again as 76 I believe with 76 teaching positions were added that we were told about on August 10th and operations meeting the board meeting then it will be in vain if the measures of equity and distribution of the teachers and teaching aides and instructional facilitators is not intentionally considered it is in vain if those teaching and administrators like racial and culturally sensitive training awareness and ways of educating it is in vain if black and brown children are not equitable assess and encourage towards AIG and AP and honors courses which I believe that you all will be in agreement with I am hopeful for a successful year
026and really working to close the opportunity gap as I know you all have and the measures you begin to take as well as we await the right person to the leadership position of Superintendent parents of color look to the leadership of the board the deputy superintendent and the assistant superintendent to set the course of protecting encouraging our black genius pushing policy that requires racial equity training of staff and creating a pipeline to increase diversity in hiring and holding administration accountable to equitable measures being implemented within the schools thank you thank you thank you miss Lewis our next speaker is Rhonda Tyler Bullock good evening I'm here this evening as an activist and as a director of we are which stands for working to expand anti-racist education and I just wanted to give a shout out
027to administrative leadership in Durham public schools who paid for educators who participate in a three-day educator Institute that we hosted this summer at Hillside High School of the 46 educators community members parents who participated 34 played a role in Durham public schools there were seven different schools represented there were people from central office represented we had a school resource officer attend and we also also had a lot of overlap with da e and so I'm very happy and pleased at the at least the principalship level that administrators value the work and doing anti-racism work and thinking about it from a systemic level and how it impacts our schools I hope that we continue that tradition and while we are officers work we're not the only ones we don't have the capacity to serve every school
028in the whole district but I also wanted to shout out just villages of wisdom excuse me village of wisdom spirit house the racial equity Institute D our works are just among some of the other organizations who can also be a resource to help doing this work it's a lot and I think we need all hands on deck coming from multiple lenses and multiple perspectives from the student perspective to the parent perspective community the educator perspective is this is an all-hands-on-deck type of situation that we're dealing with and trying to dismantle systemic racism and white supremacy as it is in our school system every school has different needs and that's why you need different organizations to help address them this is a pivotal moment where we need to decide as a district and where you all
029as a school board needs to decide which side of history will you be on Durham is in a position to be a model district for racial equity I believe we have the right school board in place we have the correct director for equity Affairs I believe we have the correct principles I believe we have committed teachers faculty and staff students and parents who are already committed to doing racial equity work we can lead and not just first some perfunctory is a purple is reason to have a leadership role but because we have so many black and brown geniuses in this district who deserve it that is not a slight to our white students they currently are doing very well with the way things are right but our black and brown students deserve this racial equity
030work and our white students deserve it too they deserve the opportunity to be connected to their humanity and develop healthy racial identities just like all of us at the end of the day if we don't take advantage of this time of our local resources and Durham's talent to provide a racially equitable school system we will have no one to blame but ourselves not a disruptive child not an absent parent and not a community in poverty but us the educational system that failed to deliver so again which side of history will we be on thank you thank you and our last speaker for now is bill Garrity thank you first I'd like to say that I appreciate the enormous challenges you guys are facing this year there has been in this year's state budget requirement for
031lowering the maximum class sizes and as I see you guys nodding your heads oh man why is that a bad thing it's not a bad thing it's a good thing when I first heard about it I said this is great we're lowering class sizes however it somehow didn't come with the appropriations bill that is supposed to correspond to that requirement that is going to cost our schools a total of three hundred and eighty five million dollars though we're getting squeezed financially and I'm wondering why that is why would our state legislature forget to put an appropriations bill on something that's going to cost three hundred eighty five million dollars when an appropriations bill goes along with every law every rule every requirement but this woman Wow so I thought about that and I couldn't come
032up with a good reason where if the legislature the legislators they care about education they care about students you guys didn't have any control over it you've got to deal with the consequences of having three hundred eighty five million dollars less in an already tight tight budget I also noticed that in virtually all Durham County Schools there is a nurse one day a week when I was a kid if somebody said let's save some money by having a school nurse four days a week instead of five they would have been laughed out of the room now it's something that movements the way it's done and since I've taken something of a leadership position in this area I've heard so many stories about kids who got an allergic reaction to a bee sting or something and
033and the EpiPen was locked in the nurses cabinet and the nurse wasn't there and several kids have nearly died because of that so why is this happening we've heard a lot about privatization of the education system all over the country but especially in North Carolina which will likely be the first to privatize is that it okay to be continued thank you all right thank you okay and just one last time Robert Green Mill Road but I'll just I'll open it up just for if you didn't get since you didn't get to sign out I didn't I appreciate that I really do you know after no my name is Waldo Fenner I was here a couple months ago in regards to the situation with substitute teachers being paid twice a month based on stairs that you
034already paying the cafeteria and bus drivers twice a month also I'd like to make sure that you are still taking into consideration and hopefully you can do that before the years out but also want to say is that everyone's taught my equality and equity and things that nature there I would like to see Durham public school system interact something regards to teaching black history a lot of kids can get enthused and white kids about what they answers has and contribute to this nation you can't ask kids to be happy and go-lucky if you're not teaching them anything a lot of these kids don t know about the wheel who invent the wheel who they traffic like so they give them something to be a proud of the come to school to want to learn so
035we can talk about all the other things you want to talk about but kids when they are learning to their inner fender inner soul inner spirit they are more likely to go out and do positive things so I say that much I really believe this go ahead and pass that try some other thing I sure need to help thank you very much thank you sir okay that's the Chairman may I make a comment please in public come in this is probably coming sure but I'm gonna make it from the sea on Saturday September 2nd the south side st. Theresa community we used to call it the bottom sometimes will hold its annual Southside reunion at the newly renovated repurposed historic Witek junior high school they are inviting all school board members I know that it's
036Labor Day weekend but they are so thankful that they will be the first to come into the gymnasium to hold that reunion and they want it to something you know so many of them have walked the halls and played ball in that gym so they wanted to make sure that they recognize the school board so if any of us are able to come for just a few minutes they certainly want to tell us thank you and thank you to Durham public schools for being gracious enough and supportive of that event Steve Chalmers former police chief is heading up that reunion he was supposed to be here to make that announcement but he said in the event that he didn't come many please do it I've done it Saturday September 2nd at what time now that
037I don't know he was supposed to tell me okay we'll make sure we get them all right here no further public comment what's it oh yes sir there's two people okay well mr. Williams will will get you second my name is am Whitfield and I'm a substitute and there have been some concerns a lot of appreciation for what Durham is doing the concerns I would like to yield a few extra minutes to bill Garrity and thank you for your good work when the government wants to destroy a popular public program they defunded now the education system is a popular public program now I talked about privatization a little while ago if the legislature wanted to hand over public education to a private corporation well they couldn't just say well we're gonna have Duke Energy take
038over public education because there would be an outcry from parents and teachers and and everybody so instead they are defunding it and the purpose that serves is to put the squeeze on the public education system and cracks and strain appear in the school system and we've all seen it and you guys have probably seen it as much as anybody has and seem hostile parents teachers whatever so when that program shows clear signs of collapse that's when the legislature comes in and says obviously public education does not work we're going to bring in corporation there's the best candidate you know who that is to rescue public education now there has already been plans put in place to build dormitory style housing next to schools to house teachers but I want to get back to the nurse
039issue why is there a nurse one day a week I figured this out they are waiting for something to happen where the parents will say something needs to be done now and that's something that will happen is for a kid to die when that happens with a nurse on one day a week I've seen so many close calls I was involved in one I've heard about many when that happens they will say all right we'll rescue public education and we will privatize it that is the way it's going to happen and again you'll be hearing from me thank you hi my name is William Jackson wanted to okay wanted to make a comment about again the timing of this particular board meeting and schedules so I reached out to a couple of different parents and
040apparently it's the open house for a couple of different schools and I don't know what could be done about that but I just know that somebody replied to my question on Facebook with an angry face and this person was a parent and I know her kid wasn't that Georgia high school and I know somebody else couldn't be here cuz they were at Jordan high school so I was at least a few schools that was the first statement I think with the rest of the time previously I've been talking about you know different ways to kind of discern whether or not superintendents are actually bringing an equity lens to this work and so I wanted to offer some different research points right and I also wanted to ask the school board about which school systems in
041particular you all have been looking at that seem to be beacons of racial equity I think the public deserves to be able to see whatever that research is and the folks that y'all been looking at outside of whoever is presenting this this information so that we you know are able to tell whether or not folks have that kind of equity lens to make that analysis so the brother earlier brought up stereotype threat research so claw and steel actually did a study after that and showed that growth mindset can help disrupt negative stereotype threat researchers have also shown that the injection of social justice into curriculums has positive effects for black students even when they experiencing experienced discrimination certain studies when they've asked students over three my period had they experienced discrimination those rates go up
042to as high as 93 percent for black kids so frequently when I talk about whether or not black kids are going to experience discrimination in schools it's not a question of if it is win and so I think it would be really interesting that if you ask these superintendents were they able to talk about the cognitive ramifications of experiencing racial bias and schools and actually be able to give you an answer that's based on some type of research right so we know that working memory is interrupted by emotional stress and racism causes emotional stress and so when racism causes emotional stress and we don't do anything to speak directly to how we help kids cope with racial stress then that means that we are looking at a candidate who was incapable of actually leading pedagogy
043that would allow for kids to be able to deal with say racial stress and so I just wanted to give an example of the level of like ability and I think research that somebody needs to be able to talk to when they come in the room because if they're talking about a whole bunch of stuff that doesn't have anything to do with nebula or Stevenson or Gloria ladson-billings or Christopher emdin or Bettina love then I would say they haven't been students of racial equity education Thank You mr. Jackson I fully understand what the parents were feeling I just came from an open house also that's why I was I came in here right on a couple minutes late I had we had open house at my children school so I ran there for a moment
044yes ma'am just a point of clarity and and I appreciate all the public comment I do want to make clear for people in our audience and people that might be watching at home that it was actually a Durham parent that passed the EpiPen bill for our schools and that all of our staff have recently undergone training and we do have epi pens in every school so I don't want it unlocked and and so that is a point of clarity that I just wanted to bring for folks that might be watching at home thank you okay next item on the agenda are the minutes for approve of the minutes for June 22nd 2017 and July 18 2017 move approval second been moved and properly seconded that we approve the minutes from June 22nd 2017 and July
04518th 2017 any further discussion all in favor say aye aye all opposed please use the same sign it passes unanimously next item on the agenda is there's 12 items on the consent agenda the consent items I move approval of the consent agenda second been moved and properly seconded that we approve the items under the consent agenda any further discussion all in favor say aye aye all opposed please use the same time it passes unanimously academic services academic and student services work session information so dr. Lowe chairman Lee members of the board in our community our school administrators report that display of Confederate battle flag and the Nazi swastika has caused conflict between students and other disruptions in our schools these symbols are associated with a rise in public activity by the KKK and other white
046nationalist organizations the death of three people at the recent white nationalist march in Charlottesville Virginia has galvanized counter protest in Durham were intense and organized opposition to hate groups has developed a large group of protesters last week pulled down the statue of a Confederate soldier which stood in front of the Durham County offices a few days later more than a thousand people gathered in downtown Durham after the circulation of reports that members of the KKK planned a march there against this background we forecast that the display of the Nazi swastika the Confederate battle flag or Ku Klux Klan symbols by students at schools is likely to disrupt schools through rapid mobilization of protests in or near schools such displays also pose a significant risk of spontaneous confrontation between students at school which the district already
047has experienced principals have authority to limit the display of symbols and other speech that pose a risk of significant disruption at schools however it is my judgment that the Nazi swastika Confederate flag and KKK symbols pose a particular risk of disruption I recommend that the Board of Education revise our student dress code to include a specific ban on those symbols as follows the revised provision will ban items that are reasonably expected to intimidate other students on the basis of race for example the Confederate battle flag Nazi swastika and Klu Klux Klan or KKK religion ancestry national origin gender socioeconomic status academic status gender identity physical appearance sexual orientation mental physical developmental a sensory disability immigration status or any other classification that is protected by law regulation or board policy members of the board upon the
048screen you will have a copy for everyone to see and how we would like the yes dr. Pitman could you read the red portion of that so whatever a portion of it that makes it makes sense certainly and if I may this is coming from your work out of committee our academic Services Committee last week and also we were able to receive impact input from our task force on the Code of Student Conduct who heartily endorsed the language before you this evening we remind the board that we have two versions of the Code of Student Conduct one for elementary school and one for secondary are middle and high schools this particular provision in the policy is identical in each of those codes of conduct so the wording is will be the same in both should
049they be a passed and adopted and so the introduction to the code is important to us and want to remind it is to provide a safe learning environment our code of conduct so that students are able to achieve at their highest potential and the very opening of this begins with a subsection of in support of these goals and expectations the board establishes the following dress code for our students the first section a says students are prohibited from wearing clothing or jewelry book bags or other articles of personal appearance which and it picks up in our policy are reasonably likely to create a substantial and material disruption to the educational process or to the operation of school and here's our new language including items that are reasonably expected to intimidate other students on the basis of
050race parentheses for example the Confederate battle flag swastika and Ku Klux Klan or KKK color national origin sex gender sexual orientation disability age or religious affiliation and tonight the administration is recommending that the board waive first reading on our policy and to consider adopting this or whatever version of this wording be determined on second reading for passage and adoption this evening comments I move that we accept the language that was brought to committee and passed that this evening we have to we have to we have to do we have to make a motion to waive the first reading or I move that we waive the first reading and go right ahead and pass this in this reading sec in this first reading in second so there's a motion to waive the first reading to waive
051our policy for the first first reading I think it's the motion to adopt the policy on first reading okay I would second that with the notion that I would still like to discuss this if we can okay yeah I'm announced the motion I ask for discussion it has been moved that we adopt a policy on first reading and properly seconded discussion so I'm so appreciative of the work that's gone into this and the responsiveness of administration to this compelling concern we did talk at the work session about the challenge with teenagers looking to stretch limits and things and I wondered if it would be stronger and permissible to for it to say including but not limited to items that are reasonably expected to intimidate so that it is clear that that is not an exhausted
052list with it would that pass attorney muster including but not limited to yes and I accept that as a friendly amendment to the motion any further comment well I appreciate the no go ahead I just want to say that I strongly support this and I'm very appreciative of the work I do want to call out I I just I think that we need to explain why we're doing this you know I think sometimes we think that that that we're more clear than than we have been in the community and I think the need for our students and families to know in a very deep way that our schools are safe he is is a critically important part of our role and I am aware of that every symbol has multiple meanings to two individuals and
053yet the historic import of certain symbols can't be ignored and and and simple fact that they that the meaning that they convey is one of intimidation and threat to others in the end for me is the compelling reason to support this this change in the policy I do want to I just want to caution us I guess myself I personally don't think that this change is going to affect on the ground what happens in the schools that we are still going to be asking our principals to be making very difficult decisions in in quickly in circumstances where there's there's a lot of moving parts and they're gonna make some mistakes doing that and that we have to we have to be aware that that a principal he's going to make decisions at some time that
054two weeks later as we hear about it and in a in a meeting would seem like it was not a wise decision the and I was just as I talk to people who have been principals and in the schools you know as a simple example that folks came up with this football game and parent shows up and and and the parents car has a has a rebel flag on the bumper oh and then another parent comes the principal says hey you know this is these are not allowed in our school and all of a sudden this principal has a very tough decision to make it's not it's not obvious what that decision yes so I don't think I think sometimes we think that a policy solves problems and and I think really the point of
055this policy is to convey a message to our community that's important and and so I'm in support of it but but I wanted to do that cautiously and and and knowing that this is still leaves our administrators to make these decisions well thank you Steve I am I'm not sure that I had the expectation that this policy change would actually change anything that our principles are already doing the actual wording here is just mainly examples of the types of things that could be affected in this policy I was doing an interview today over a daily tar Hill and I was expressing and one of the questions was why is it important to do this and and I and I explained that I believed that you know some symbols meant different things at different people and
056so some sometimes they sometimes the reasoning for ignoring the outrage of a particular issue a particular image was well it doesn't mean that to me and it's because you received it differently than what it's meant than what is meant but the key here and what we're doing here with these examples now that are in the policy is explain and well these are some of the examples of the things that the principles have to deal with and and we're setting that example as these things historically were meant for hate or or at some point in history meant hatred or some sort of intimidating type message and so we want to make sure that we include those we want to make an example here the principles their decisions has not have not changed one bit just by
057the adding of this because they were covered they recover covered by saying you know depict profanity vulgarity obscenity violence all of this kind of thing is already in the in policy but I felt it was really important for us to get a specific called out examples of some of the things that are starting to bubble up now now one of the things you spoke about in the work session was some things overnight become offensive and that's just a matter of you know our principles are probably the most connected to the youth people that we have in our district you know I mean I have kids but principals are a lot more connected to them you know as far as you know current affairs then I than I will ever be and one of the examples
058we talked about after the meeting was the wall you know our president famously ran our current president some somebodies president currently ran on building a wall and so there were some students that were wearing t-shirts with a wall saying build the wall now continent now before this presidential election though a wall meant nothing you know for the most part but overnight it turned into a hate symbol because they were some kids were in schools were carrying around walls and build a wall build a wall and the cafeteria and things so overnight and so this policy allows principals to flexibility to understand current affairs and how it affects the students in their buildings and just cause our specific specific examples of what it was what has historically been an issue but still allows that flexibility and
059that's the way I see and I'm not disagreeing with you I definitely think there's gonna be some very hard decisions moving for cuz there always has been but I just wanted a I thought it was important like he said and you kind of stole my fire of course like you always do about saying why it is and I think this was important for us to do but but I do agree that there's going to be continued it's going to continue to be hard decision that principles have to make sure the policy also gives very clearly gives principals the the direction in the tools but more than that I think that this policy is a message to our students and to our community and to our families how important their safety is and just not physical
060safety but psychological safety emotional safety so yes I do think that they had the authority before this clarifies their authority it gives places in there some words that are very important to us and which is reasonably that in their judgment it reasonably could cause a disruption and yes I do think that sometimes we are going to make a decision maybe too early but I think we as a as a board and as as a Durham public schools we need to be able to stand with our principals and making those decisions so this is this is very important and it is a terrific message and it is and I also probably don't think of it this way I think this is a lesson this is a lesson to our children about the way government can work
061and and I think that that's that's more valuable than almost anything else that this policy does I have a I agree with the statements have been said before I think the historic nature of these symbols and the hatred that they bring is something that we definitely want to go ahead and say no this is not allowed in our schools we'll make a different point that points to gender in this description um and I think I would like to use the word gender identity here it also covers some of our students who may not or do not their assigned gender may not be what they identify with and so I gender if we can expand after national origin sex gender we can change that to gender identity they will make sure we cover all of our
062students that friendly amendment is accepted as well thank you okay I only wonder if we could do a show of hand I mean I just feels like this would be an important vote to just okay and and just for information the reason she's saying the friendly amendment was because we're in the middle of a motion for those who are wondering why that's why that's necessary we're in the middle of a motion to discussion all right any other comments okay so hearing no further discussion all in favor please raise your hand all opposed please use the same sign thank you it passes unanimously chairman Lee I've never in the past three years I've never sat up here and wished that I could vote with you but tonight this was the one that I wish I could
063have voted with you but this is really has not only my support this has the support of our of our senior staff and our principals feel freedom vote on some of these other issues as well this one next one I could handle too okay alright that is alright the next item on our agenda is the renaming of the car building in the wake of the controversy of a Confederate monuments we are reviewing the names of each school in school building last weekend the naming of the car building at Durham School of the Arts was brought to our attention julian shakespeare car is a prominent figure in North Carolina's history he supported John Merrick and founding the North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company helped WG Pearson go to college and graduate from Shaw University he was friends
064with James E Sheppard and provided financial support to found North Carolina Central University however he was also undoubtedly a white supremacist when he spoke at the dedication of the Confederate Memorial at UNC Chapel Hill which is today called silent Sam Julian Cara spoke about the purity of the anglo-saxon race he spoke in explicit detail about beating an African American woman describing her using words I will not repeat here well until her skirts hung in shreds unquote well the sin of insulting a white woman and running for protection to the federal soldiers garrison there I mentioned the complex mentioned the contributions of car made in our community to illustrate the complexity of some of the choices before us as we reviewed the background of other historical figures whose names adorn our schools and school buildings we
065will need to be thoughtful and thorough but for all his contributions the values he espoused and the brutal actions he claimed to take in no way reflect the safe and inclusive community that we are building in Durham public schools we are under no requirement to continue to name any of our school buildings after white supremacists I therefore request that our board immediately authorized the removal of Julian cars name from the Middle School Building at Durham School of the Arts so moved second second we'll do a show of hands on this one - it's been moved and properly seconded that we authorized an administration that we removed the name jewel the name of Julian car off of the middle school building at Durham School of the Arts any further discussion I would like to request that
066I think it has to be part of that the direction I would like to request that we place a plaque I believe there's a plaque already at the school that commemorates the McKissack family and others that integrated that this school and I would like to see us place a plaque next to that one that would describe this decision and some of the complexity that that you mentioned I think our job is to be educational yeah and I think that there's much discussion about the statues and and and so on and preserving history and and to me this is it goes hand in hand that that we preserve history by talking about what we're doing and we make a statement that we're not honoring that particular action but we want our children to know the complexity
067that that makes up our history I I personally think that's a really great idea this is what teachers would call a teachable moment and that and if you remember your history and especially during the civil rights era during here in Durham with the I meant during the blank and sometimes the Royal ice cream company but I'm thinking more of the teachings like the shiitakes and the Chautauqua movement in North Carolina Central University that's what I'm thinking of and I think that that makes it very very important I also anticipating you're all vote this evening Durham public schools and our maitenance department is prepared to do that tomorrow so that when students return to school on Monday that will not be there I think it's also in addition to a plaque explaining I think that the
068next newsletter that goes out you know from Durham school the arts should contain that because I do think it's we don't do things for no reason at all we're doing this for a very grave and heavy reason and an important reason thank you I think not just for Durham school the art families but for all of our all of Durham needs to know and I think we don't learn from that history if we don't keep reminding ourselves of what did happen we'll repeat it and we're seeing that starting to happen in our country now history so did your boat all right any further discussion all right all in favor please raise your hand all opposed please use the same sign thank you it passes unanimously members of the board I applaud you for this it's
069very decisive and Swift a decision all right next item on the agenda operational services work session updates yes I'm going to ask mr. Boyer to come to the the podium but as he's arriving I have a few comments tonight we bring to you and updates on all the revised certified salary schedule for 2017-18 the majority of them are legislatively directed I can't help but add to this is that when mr. Garrity talked about this unfunded mandate this is just one of scores of funded mandates Jim Hager will present to you the detail of those schedules but before she comes forward boy I got this one wrong sorry about that mr. Bowyer before she comes forward I'd like to comment on our proposed principle salary schedules I am very pleased that we have moved up our
070timeline for presenting on new principal salary schedules these schedules reinforce our district support for all of our school administrators but deliver on providing a fair and equitable structure that allowed durham public schools to be very competitive in retaining and recruiting future administrators I'm sorry hold on a second there's another page here these schedules are very transparent and provide a clear understanding to how and where individuals are placed on the schedules we do feel the need based on feedback to look at the issues around specialty high schools in their placement on a schedule it will be my recommendation that we fund the increase for the cost of these schedules for this year out of the vacant positions that we currently have in central office the next step will be for the administration to bring forward any
071changes in central office salary schedules and classified salary schedules as you know we're responding to the General Assembly's new statute but you also know that we're in the midst of this salary study and this is obviously step one okay and before mr. Buller comes we did have a public comment here and I apologize mr. Antonio Jones he had a he had a public comment on this this item good evening again so this time I appreciate your statement dr. llama so this time I'm actually speaking as a former durham public school employee so one of the main reasons I decided to take my services elsewhere we can use that word was this notion behind classified employees not being compensated for additional degrees that are directly related to the job they were doing and I've talked to
072think several folks here and seeing administration and some of your board members so quite a few people left the same year I did we we were not being fairly compensated for additional degrees juxtaposed to other employees who didn't have a degree at all handling millions of dollars of district money and resources so that's some of the things that we're dealing with here within Durham public schools so and we have this conversation about equity we talk about students but we have a equitable situation when it comes to compensation of classified employees so the brother alluded to earlier about the substitute biweekly pay now in my time at Durham public schools I probably processed I don't know a couple thousand substitute payments and for the life of me I can't understand how a system this big and
073this rich cannot figure out how to convert monthly employee to bi-weekly employees I think the first conversation started back in March so I am NOT a substitute teacher I have never substituted in the class before however I know plenty of them in my work at Durham public schools so when we have this discussion about the lack of substitutes the pay is a huge thing the discipline is something completely different now bus drivers child nutrition and community ad are all being paid bi-weekly if I understand this correctly so I don't think it's as much of a stretch to move to substitute payments to that same schedule also we have a quite a bit of quite a few of site based front office personnel who are multilingual bilingual and we have no way of compensating them the
074market says that you are bilingual you are most likely to make a few more dollars but at Durham public schools we have no way of knowing number one who is bilingual number two compensating of them because most of them do an outstanding job and do things way beyond the scope of their job in terms of communicating with parents and administrators I'm not sure maybe some of your teachers have former teachers when you see a parent coming to school who has limited English and administrators scramble to find someone in the building who speaks Spanish I don't know the last time you've seen that happen but number one it's a sad situation number two you gank someone out of a class to stop them for what they're doing to translate an entire conversation in Spanish FARC's whatever
075whatever language it is and we have no way of compensating them so without what I would like to see we talk about salary reviews for principals and teachers and assistant principals thinking maybe time of us looking at the classify ranks see who actually is qualified to do the job they're doing how much they're getting paid and what does that look like when you light up against everybody else and other jobs similar in other districts also and compare that to market cops the degree I have well I'll leave that alone the market told me something different I was satisfied and actually I love working at Durham public schools but I think some of the responses that I received I knew it was unfair in comparison to what was going on and in comparison to of employees
076and oftentimes people leave and not tell you the real reason why because it's not really listed on the resignation form but I promise you I can get about twenty employees who left about the same time for the same reasons so when we wonder why we can't keep HVAC techs we don't pay them enough the market says we can pay them more some of those guys pay money out of their pocket to stay caught up on these certifications through Durham Tech and other entities but we have no way of compensating them so in closing I would likely have to be added to the study as well and of course I'll be requesting a public records request and a few months to see how far we got on that all right thank you all right good evening
077tonight we are going to give you the salary schedules that we've been discussing we've moved it up a bit so we're excited about that and right now we're going to show you the certified schedules including teachers APs and the proposed principal schedules it's a little weird all right so our teachers this year will see some increase across the board so starting with teachers who've been here for a year they can see a slight increase our first-year teachers last year did receive an increase so the annual monthly amount is 35,000 and with our supplement on top of that new teachers can get about thirty nine thousand three hundred seventy-five dollars so you'll see that the supplement rates range from 12.5% all the way down to 18% so you can see at the bottom those are for
078teachers who 18.5% so those are for teachers with 30-plus years of experience so everyone in those categories are seeing some increase and those are our teachers and I just wanted to add some notes that I jotted down preparing for today one of the things that Aaron and I have been working on we've been tasked with this enormous task of just salary studies just as mr. Antonio Jones has talked about it's enormous for us so fairness transparency and being competitive with our sister districts so those are some things that we are looking at so those are our teacher and the board's had some time I think I know you guys have been busy to look at our teacher salaries so you'll see teachers then you'll have teachers with bachelor's degree who are nationally board certified again
079these teachers are seeing some increase just like teachers with bachelor's degrees and again the supplements range from 12% on up to 18.5% and it skipped through this and as you can see teachers are still recognized for their masters National Board Certification Doctorate and advanced degrees so what you have are the state salaries plus this local supplements on top of those also in your packet we included the get in there the doctorates you will see the school psychologist schedules those are state schedules again with the devant advanced degrees included in those and again you see the local supplements on top so a school psychologist with one year experience can make upwards of forty seven thousand someone with five years experience fifty thousand and you go on up so again the school psychologist just like the teachers
080did see some increase which is good for our teachers we're still trying to get to a national average which is good we're excited about that we'll take the increase now we get to our assistant principal schedules our assistant principals just like our principals were put on to a new salary structure this year so this year the APS as we call them are no longer eligible for longevity pay so under the new state plan longevity pay was eliminated okay and it was included in the base salary for each so you'll see that for an assistant principal with one year elementary would see a local supplement of 12% and the middle school in high school ApS would see a supplement of 14% and the same no ap is going to make less than they're currently making when
081they move to the new salary structure so they're not going to make less than they would as a teacher but they're not going to make less than they're currently making by moving to the new salary for 2017 2018 and for AP as you can see the APS with an advanced degree so they're still recognizing the state still recognizes ApS with the advanced degrees as well as the doctorate so we are consistent with what the state is doing and there's the doctorate now we'll get to our proposals for our principles now many of you know that we met with our principals about 28 of them and we received feedback from most of them just about what the new principal salary schedules would look like when we were in the operations meeting earlier this month we looked
082at the salaries this year are based on performance so performance and the size of the school so what you see at the top a DM 0 to 400 401 is 700 701 to 1,000 so looking at the size of the school and that's based on right now we're school hasn't started for traditional schools so we're waiting for the second month a DM for the final numbers to kick in so we'll know the exact size and then we're looking at years of experience because for principals the longevity has been taken away so we've included in our proposal years of experience the state base times a local supplement of 20% plus an annual step this is for elementary so you can see a principal with five years experience we get an annual base of at school with
083four hundred seventy five thousand right but if you look down the principal has the ability to meet growth if they meet growth they're going to make a little bit more so they'll make the bonus 4175 if they exceed growth they're going to make I'm sorry I can't see it 12350 okay so again it's based on performance met or exceeded growth so a principal has the ability to make bonuses on top of their base salary what is the g2 g3 g4 wouldn't what is that those are our codes for payroll so it's just basically when we send it to payroll we wouldn't send an amount we just send the g1 equals four 175 right okay okay so those are four elementary schools and then for our the next level we put the middle dismissed it we
084put the middle and specialty schools on the same page we value all of our principals when when we took all of the information and we started to look at where the schools would fall just on it the calculation so again middle schools we looked at the size of the school specialty schools we looked at the size of the school can you give me some water mr. C Heidi had butterflies I've got butterflies talking about this so again middle and specialty schools we value all of our principals and we heard from all of our principals about the things that go on in the school for example especially high schools they involve graduation games middle schools have games after-school activities etc so our specialty schools are the ones listed here CMA Early College Little River Lakeview PLC
085middle college and new tech so these are our specialty high schools if we go back and I'll show you we include hospital schools on the elementary school page all right and longevity has been eliminated but what we did do was include a step each year principals would be held harmless so anybody would not make less than they currently make right now and the last one would be for high schools the proposed salaries for high schools are here so again you can see based on the size of the school the state base which is the second row sixty one thousand is always the base for the smaller school 64 for the middle school 67 for the next 1071 then the further that stuff 74 and the local percentage for the smaller is 35 percent for the
086larger is forty percent so you've got the Southern's the Jordans much higher and again the salaries are based on the performance so the principals have the ability to add more money on top of their base stuff for school for somebody with 30 years experience they're going to and they have a base salary of 122 and they've exceeded growth they could have an additional $12,000 so those are our proposed schedules and miss Hagar to be very clear is that the proposal for of principal salaries is a proposal that is base salary and the local supplement correct and that is adjusted for their size in the number of years correct we should not completion not confuse a bonus with about with a base salary correct the bonus is on top of the base salary and the base
087and so principals have the ability to earn this extra money on top of the base salary so for example if I'm an elementary school principal and I meet growth this year and I'm in a school a small school and with 400 students then an app 30 years of experience I make a hundred thousand base plus the four thousand on top of that and just add one other thing this Hagar is that not only did the General Assembly remove their longevity pay but also pay for advanced degrees that is correct so what we've done in consistent with the General Assembly is we've removed the doctorates the advanced degrees which is consistent with what the state has recommended correct but I think that we the the work that you've done was to attempt to make that up
088in their base salary and with the local supplement that is correct and what we've done is look at all of our schools taken into all of the feedback that we received from the principal's regarding after-school activities football games graduations and we heard from the specialty high schools we heard from the larger high schools about the activities that are involved graduation we also heard from middle schools that they are also involved with graduation or promotion ceremonies they're also involved with sports after school so those were all things we took in but there is but let's let's be let's be real transparent now there is a difference these guys middle school all this stuff is right after school and everything in high school is later in the evening that is correct so when I I do ask
089principals those questions and especially our high school principals of comprehensive high schools I think the average late-night work for a comprehensive high school principal is at minimum of four evenings a week and they're there early well they're not there that early in the morning anymore because you all change that change on schedule they're still there so I do think there is a difference and when you have two thousand students in a school is different from having two hundred and fifty kids in the school that is correct and we've taken all of that information from our principals and definitely taking it into consideration but one of the things that we're also thinking about not only retaining our principals and wanting to keep them with us we want them here but we also want to be competitive
090to attract principals to our schools are hard to staff are hard to fill some of our schools I know some principals have asked me well Kim how are we going to attract principals to come to some of our schools we want to be competitive it's they've asked and being totally transparent they've asked how are you going to attract people to the schools where they may never be able to the likelihood of getting one of the bonuses on top so we've got to make that base salary with the local supplement piece really competitive and add in that step each year makes us competitive we believe we want to be able to attract people to Durham we miss hey q thank you for that hard work that you and Aaron have done of course I do want
091to caution that principal that said that they may not ever make a bonus to be careful about that because if they are thinking that then they may be on their way out however I do want to say that our specialty schools if we could just make another category for them I one of my specialty principals said well I don't want to be grouped with the middle school so if you just put them they weren't complaining about the salary they loved everything about that they just wanted to be categorized in a different skin on a different shape we've heard it loud and I know you have and in hindsight we we all looked at each other and said we should have done that at the beginning so thank you very much for that oh I'm sorry
092yeah I also wanted to thank you for the hard work and as you say it several times it you're showing that you value our principles and this is a time where you know principals are getting raises from just after being ignored for a long time so I want to step away from the great ways that you're supplementing what the state has not done and get on the soapbox about the state for a second because I was one of those teachers who as I was it just as I was getting eligible for longevity I might have gotten it a couple of years maybe three or four and then he took it away and the big picture and it kind of goes back to some things that mr. Garrety was saying earlier the big picture is you
093know as a I have several former students who are now in education teaching so proud of them one of the ways I was able to really encourage them to go into teaching was for benefits for the fact that that longevity was a part of what was going on and you know in not just in government base careers but now in the private sector too you know benefits of longevity all things are being taken away from us and you know working for the state was one of those last places where you felt safe that those things aren't happening so again big picture wise for those of you who are voters please pay attention to those things we're working in a school system thankfully that is still looking out for its employees but how long can that
094go on how long can we supplement things that the state has taken away and so I'll just get off my soapbox but that won't be my last thinking about state politics do we approve this disinformation the principal salary schedule is here for action this evening yes questions I also want to say thank you to mr. Hager mr. Boyer for your work I know that I know the teachers are are happy just to have it clear so once I I mean I don't know for mr. Kaizen but I don't I was forever trying to forget what my salary was going why couldn't it be it wasn't much but it was I want to know what it was and you were the math teacher how's the math I'm gonna find it today I could I if I
095could find it I could figure it out but I couldn't ever find it it is mine was not high level math I can tell you that the I do want to go back to the the performance bonuses we talked last time and I think you were going to talk to principals there so that we so we know that the the state faint performance bonuses and they're using their same narrow state test definition for meeting growth and exceeding growth and we know that there are more accurate ways to measure whether students are are learning and growing and and so I just wonder if have you been able to talk with principals about coming over their own package that would better reflect in their opinion more fairly and accurately reflect school performance so that we could look
096at in terms of of understanding those categories the answer is yes and one of the complexities as was many it turned into about 53 different schedules because there's about 53 different ways and their minds of measuring not in every principal it's not just erm there's a lot of uniquenesses and there's no perfect schedule we're not saying these are by any means perfect but we've tried to look at size we've tried to look at the different differentiation between grades looking at those step increases to hopefully reflect that with size and population of schools could to be more variables yes but again then it leads to some additional complexity in trying to track multiple schedules from multiple schools in multiple situations we we did approach that subject again with a lot of this being new from the
097gross standard we tried to explain it to y'all last month and I'm not sure many of y'all could repeat that but you know you had to have three years and if you weren't in a school there's already a number of complexities that just make getting the current growth difficult so we'd like to see this one play itself out see where the salaries land very proud to say that not a single principal in this district will lose money this current year not from the hold harmless but from the new salary schedules there are a couple people that had carried salaries from existing positions that don't match in this our schedule but that's less than a half a dozen so again we feel that this will bring some benefit to that but some will have to continue
098to evaluate but I would like to I would like to add to that is that those who are above the the salary schedule will be held harmless until the salary schedule coach is up with them but the most important part one of the more important parts of this is that anyone anybody applying for a principals job in Durham could go to those Cowboys schedules and figure it out on their own right and and and if you're and if you're in a school of 400 kids and you got ten years experience and the guy next door has you know four hundred kids and ten years experience you're making the same thing well clearly the school with foreign kids for saying you do is he'll find one more kid another I do I do think to kind
099of go back to the issue of I I do think it's gonna be a challenge to find principals to go into schools that have historically been low-performing I agree with miss fort Brown that that that we want that that challenge in front of our principals and I want to be realistic about if I'm looking for a position and and I know that the the challenge is greater than one school than the other and the the likelihood of getting the bonus is greater one than the other that's going to influence it may influence many many people sort of to continue to look at how we whether we can find ways to to provide incentives for principals willing to take on that challenge and then finally just a kind of a concrete question do we have a
100comparison to what it how much we pay in local money to supplement principal and assistant principal pay last year and then how much under this proposal was looking at to pay this year yes we clearly have that for the principal portion it's we're paying approximately 1.5 million we'll be paying 1.8 million and that's the 300,000 projected increase and again some of the people were calculating this on our leaving us and we'll have some new people slotted that will come to join us so it's a little bit of a moving target and that's why you see a range of that increase for that amount but roughly three hundred thousand more dollars going to our principal correct great okay that's that's as so as we prepare that our budget for for next year so that could be
101clear so the public County Commission can see that we're using local money to to bring in high quality principles I think that's very important so thank you for them to give you an example in the past year we had a principal leave to get a 23-inch and this person got a $23,000 raise if they would have stayed they would have gotten a $22,000 raise so that makes us that gives you a little bit of an idea on how we're going to be at par with our surrounding counties and so we're looking to it says drafts if you're looking for us to approve this tonight yes yes sir so I just want to commend you all for the incredible amount of work that went into such a complex topic and I know that you guys had
102multiple input sessions with principals and I'm sure they'd rather hash it out even longer to me it is imperative that we move ahead with making this important clarity on what people earn in durham public schools and have it based on something so logical as years of experience in advanced degrees and and the size of the school I hope the state can take note of a reasonable logical scale that moves every year so that people are not stuck and frozen ever that's that's just insulting to employees everywhere corporations don't treat their people like that and I think you know this is another area where where with your help Durham is leading and I'm so appreciative of that work the the the principal don't interpret not having principles here tonight as lack of interest they are not
103here tonight because open houses they wrote to me we have one so think it's so yes so thank you and for considering this this this is very important and I do want to continue to point out is that and I and I truly right in sync with Miss Fox Browns attitude towards principals and their continued employment if nothing changes on the other hand this will allow us to attract good principals to go to low-performing schools that's what this is about command I would make a motion motion that we move approval of the salary schedules as presented with the addition of pulling those specialty schools out away from middle school on their separate schedule like this Fort Brown talked about second been moved and properly seconded that we approve the salary schedules as well with the
104amendment with the edit any further discussion all in favor say aye aye please use the same time okay I'll accept a motion to go into closed session to consider confidential personal personnel matters protected under you know statute one for 3-3 18 dot 11 a six and general statute 115 see there's three nineteen also to consider confidential student information protected on a general statute 115 C dash 402 and the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act 20 USC one two three to G so move what did you just move the movement probably second that we go into closed session for the reasons stated all in favor say aye same sign we're in closed session you please alrighty we are now back in open session dr. Leung chairman Lee members of the board you have the personnel roster dated
105August 24th 2017 for your consideration review and approval approval second the moved and properly seconded that we approved the personnel report for August 24th 2017 any discussion all in favor say aye all opposed please use the same sign passes unanimously we are now adjourned