001We get here. Uh huh. Thank you, Ross. You want to test it, Melissa? I see it. Yeah, you're good. I didn't ask you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Let's call this meeting to order. Again, we apologize for our late start this evening. We had some important issues in our work session that ran a little bit long. So good evening. It is Tuesday, February 1st, 2002 at 5.30 p.m. And we are calling this regular meeting of the Wake County Board of Education to order. I want to welcome those of you that are watching at home and those of you who are here in person to observe as the Board of Education conducts its official business. We do have two members, I will tell you, who are participating
002remotely today. And when that occurs under state law, we have remote meeting rules that apply. That only applies to us on the board. What that means is that I'd just like to remind our board members to please identify yourself. as you speak, especially if you're one of our remote members, and then all votes will be roll call vote, and please identify yourself as you vote. I also want to take this moment at this time to highlight Board Policy 2310, which states the Wake County Board of Education meetings are conducted for the purpose of carrying on the official business of the school system. The public is cordially invited to attend board meetings to observe as the Board conducts its official business. Persons who willfully interrupt, disrupt, or cause disturbances at an official meeting may be directed
003to leave by the presiding officer. Members of the audience should show respect for the speakers by refraining from loud comments or other disruptions. Disruptions by any person or persons of a public meeting will be subject to action in accordance with General Statute 143.318.17. And again, please remember that a properly worn face covering is required to attend this meeting. So given the six members that we have in person and our two members that are online, we do have a quorum for tonight's meeting. So at this point, I'd ask you all to rise as we say the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, with liberty and justice. Thank you. So now on our agenda, we will
004turn to the information section, and I believe we start with our superintendent's comments. Superintendent Moore. Good evening, board members. For the 16th consecutive year, our district has the highest number of National Board Certified Teachers in the nation. More than 3,000 teachers have attained this high distinction, considered the gold standard for teaching excellence, while working for WCPSS. This year, 84 teachers earned national board certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. In addition, 148 of our board-certified teachers earned renewal of their certifications. Certified educators navigate a rigorous process that requires deep reflection on their personal teaching practices and their impact on student learning. The process also requires a significant commitment of time outside of regular classroom responsibilities. As a district, we have taken steps to ensure that teachers who want to pursue board certification have
005the time and support they need. For example, in 2015, our district became the first in the nation to create a beginner to board certified program. The program provides third-year teachers, professional development, and a cohort of colleagues to collaborate with as they pursue board certification starting in the fourth year of their career. Since the program's inception, seven cohorts of teachers have moved successfully through the certification process. We have prioritized supporting the certification process because it benefits both teachers and students. Teachers who obtain board certification are eligible for a 12% pay increase. Even more importantly, the skills and insights teachers gain through the certification process make them more effective in the classroom. Congratulations to teachers who have put in the work to earn or maintain this standard of excellence. The 9th annual Wake Up and Read book
006drive is underway and ends February 28th. Over the years, Wake Up and Read has collected and distributed hundreds of thousands of books to students who need them the most. Books are distributed to students at 15 partner schools and 17 child care centers. Children select books through free book fairs to take home and read over the summer. We know that students with extensive home libraries are more likely to develop positive reading habits. and students who are reading on grade level by the end of third grade are much more likely to go on to future academic success. I urge you to join this year's effort by making a financial contribution or a donation of new or gently used children's books. You can also help organize a wake-up-and-read book drive at your school or business. We're going to
007need strong support to meet this year's goal of collecting 200,000 books. Learn more about how you can be a literacy champion at wakeupandread.org. Thank you, Superintendent Moore. That wasn't done. Sorry. It was a dramatic pause. Sorry. I was trying to figure out what was going on. So lastly, the students and staff at Leesville Road Middle School got a blast from the past on Friday when they opened the time capsule packed away by the school's first ever class back in 1992. The capsule contains such items as a copy of the yearbook, student predictions for the future, and even a hat, t-shirt, and a pair of duck head shorts donated by former student Clay Aiken. You can take a closer look at these and other items at wcpss.net slash lrmstimecapsule. Friday's event drew many alumni and former
008teachers back to Leesville Middle, including former science teacher David Rutten, who helped do the honors of opening the capsule along with librarian Lisa Nelson. If you'll turn to the monitors, we have a video tonight that offers a closer look. It was the 30th anniversary of the burying of the Pine Capsule. And it was entrusted to me for a number of years to make sure it was going to be safely passed on. But I was kind of not getting called back to help out with that. Go back and look at it. There's always some emotion involved in it because times when you were young, other people were young, people that played a special part in your life. And when you're looking through that, you start seeing pictures of... the people of Eastville and that's the most
009important thing. A building is a building and there's some special memories in buildings but people are the most important thing. Somebody's choice. You're going to notice things like hairstyles and clothing. The thing that was interesting for me is with all the technology is you have to be on the top of your game as a teacher because kids are getting smart, they're getting exposed to stuff, you've got the internet. It's going to make the kids' job easier so you focus on what's going on in their mind and expand their knowledge that way. So to me, it's always been positive. I haven't really looked at it as a negative. Okay, 1991-92, good vibration, chill choir. It's pretty touching, moving, and it does affect you. It's not just paper. It's not just a box holding stuff. It's the
010memories that come with those. And yes, that was a VHS tape for any young'uns watching. And that concludes my comments. Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent Moore. For our board chair's comments, we'll go to Board Chair Mahaffey, who is joining us online. Chair Mahaffey. Thank you, Vice Chair Hagerty. I just want to thank you for taking over and chairing this meeting while I am at home and recovering. I do want to highlight. In an email that went out today, some information about the future teachers program. So if you or someone, you know, has a high school senior that's interested in being a teacher, that application window is open from February 1st to April 15th. And we certainly would love to have some Wake County graduates come back and teach in our schools. So that can be
011found also on the careers tab at our website. Thank you. Thank you, Chair Mahaffey. And so for board member comment today, we'll start with Ms. Carter. Thank you. I want to start out first by just congratulating several schools. The first one is. Kingswood Elementary School for being recognized as a Merit School of Excellence by the Magnet Schools of America. And also congratulate Reedy Creek Middle and Farmington Woods Elementary for being recognized as a Merit School of Distinction by the Magnet Schools of America. So shout out to all those families, students, and staff at those three schools. And switching gears, last week I had the honor of attending Cary High School's mid-year graduation. It was great. They had individual ceremonies, 32 to be exact. And it was a very nice evening where we got to celebrate
012the students, part of their journeys, but also hearing a little about their next steps. Several going to the Marine Corps, some going to state, weight tech, some focusing on music, and just all different paths. pathways after their high school but I want to congratulate those students, their families and thank you to all of those who supported the students along their journey. The next topic I want to discuss, I wanted to just take a moment to thank Mr. Coe in the athletic department with Wake County and also our community partners at TAC and Smithfield Rec and Aquatic Center. Had multiple constituents reach out with concerns about... two weekends of extracurriculars being canceled due to weather or possible weather. And Mr. Coe and the team and community partners work quickly to get a swimming conference meet rescheduled.
013It's a long story, but basically swimmers are trying to get cutoffs for regionals, which are this weekend. And I appreciate our staff at Wake County working hard to try to give those chance to those students. And I will just say I was a little disappointed that the North Carolina High School Athletic Association didn't extend a cutoff for those kids. They extended it to cover Monday night's meet, but not all the meets. There were several conference meets that occurred today. uh... so little disappointing but i do appreciate uh... what county's part and trying to give these swimmers that opportunity and i and i think it speaks volumes again to and i'll speak later on in the meeting about it too not only athletics but extracurricular activities for our kids whether it's fine arts, whatever it may
014be, and doing what we can to ensure that students have as many opportunities as possible. And when weather does impact, trying to look to see what we can do to give them that chance that they missed out on, because it does mean a lot to them, and it does impact their academics, or can impact their academics, and it also, for many of them, is... kind of maybe part of their journey after they leave us in high school. So thank you to all those who support our athletes. Congratulations to those who competed today and yesterday in the conference meets. And next week on February 9th, I will be hosting the District 9 back meeting at 6 p.m. And it will be virtual and there is a sign up available online or you can email me to
015ask for the registration link as well. And that's it for tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Carter. Before we go to Ms. Johnson-Hossler, is Ms. Cash online? Is she available for comment? All right. Yeah, actually, I am. Can you hear me okay? Hear you great. Please go ahead, Ms. Cash. Hey, thank you so much for letting me be virtual tonight. I did get a positive COVID test yesterday, so I am home today but feeling fine. I want to congratulate our mid-year high school graduates. I think that's amazing that they have made this great strive in their next year, and I wish them all the luck as they go out into their next fields of opportunity. Leesville, oh my gosh, I was there. I was on the board when they put that capsule together,
016sad to say, but... I recognize all the things that they were talking about, so I think that's great. So I just want to appreciate the fact that Leesville has opened that capsule and they are doing great things. That's all I have for tonight. Great. Thank you, Ms. Cash. Ms. Johnson-Hossler. Thank you. I will start where Chair Mahaffey left off. I had a great opportunity to serve on multiple panels. We all get offered one, but I would have forgot to mention this, except for Ms. Mahaffey mentioned it. Two of the students, college students who were on there were actually Wake County public school graduates, and both of them were products of our future teachers, and one was graduating and already has a job offer. So for anyone who is considering being an educator currently in 11th
017and 12th grade, this is a great program because he was the only student out of 30 who already had a job offer in Wake County Public School. So that was certainly exciting to hear. And then we, of course, did a lot of side chatting once he found out I was on the Wake County School Board. So again, it's a great program, and it's even more exciting. to see it when it's coming to fruition with our young people and he still looked like a baby so lucky him the other thing i think superintendent moore mentioned is our magnet schools I don't have as many magnet schools as some of us. Again, we talked about earlier the way schools land in our district, but I'm extremely excited for both Lincoln Heights and Garner High Magnet School, who
018are both National Magnet Schools of Distinction, and East Garner Middle School, who is also a Magnet School of Excellence. So hats off to the entire school community for all that they do to ensure that our school meets not just the outline successes of the magnet program, but the needs of our families and our school community. So thanks to everyone who contributed. to the success of that, as well as our central services staff, who I know puts a significant amount of time and energy to ensuring our magnet schools are successful. So thanks to everyone who contributed to that. You stole my wake up and read. The only thing I will add is if you want to be a volunteer to sort, you can also find that on the wakeupandread.org website. We're hoping to get those 200,000
019books, and so they're going to need a lot of volunteers for sorting and putting those together. So please. both host a book drive and give books, but also sign up to volunteer and support. The last thing that I will talk about is, again, I'm sure Dr. Pettiford knows I am overwhelmed and excited that we're finally going to move to our co-located school-based mental health. In my day job, I was on opposing sides of the school board's association to get this passed in state legislation. And as a school board member, I certainly understand why it was some issues of supporting this because there weren't funding to ensure that these were going to happen across schools across the district. But certainly as a parent and as a Wake County board member, I'm extremely glad that we're kicking
020off our co-located school. services in Wake County. One of our many folks know Freddie Lee, who works for Wake County, does a significant amount with the Miss North Carolina pageant. And so it's just a reminder to me that Miss North Carolina and Miss Universe of 2019 died of suicide. And that's something that, again, she was a correspondent on E!, had a high profile on Instagram, a licensed attorney, not practicing because she was in the entertainment world. But all the things that people look at certain people and assume that they're strong, which I think a lot of people probably assume that of elected officials. Similarly, people in high profile places are often seen as people who are strong, have no issues. And so I think it's important that we note that all of us have what
021we call our outer layer. We show up as strong. We do what we're supposed to do. But that's not an indication of who people are and how they're processing things. So, again, I think that this is a great reminder as we build these services out in our schools that it's not just our students. but it's our entire school families who need the support because you never know what people are going through and how they're processing. So I hope we see this as beginning processes for our school communities, but more importantly. And Wake County has done a great job as a county to address this. But truly, this is just one more example of the supportive services that we all need, and especially now more than ever. So as the social media hashtags say, hashtag check
022on your strong friends. And I strongly encourage that we do that, that we don't forget just because people show up with strength that they are fine, because that's not always the case. So please check on your strong friends. And on that note. District 2 BAC, you can also sign up online. We're actually talking about, guess what, mental health services. So please join us on Thursday at 6. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Kushner. Thank you, Mr. Haggerty, and thank you for that reminder. It's Johnson-Hossler. congratulate Brooks Elementary and Underwood Elementary for being magnet schools of distinction and brought in high school and Martin Middle School for being magnet schools of excellence. We've already heard that highlighted. We have wonderful schools of choice here in Wake County Schools and also just want to add again my sincere
023thanks to every staff member, every student and every teacher in our educator in Wake County Public Schools for working so hard to keep our schools open in person and continuing this very difficult school year. we see you we appreciate everything that you are doing to support students and our community thank you dr martin thank you i'd like to begin by also congratulating all the board certified teachers having worked with several teachers through professional development programs i know the value of that program you know becoming a more reflective teacher makes you a much more effective teacher with your students so congratulations it really does pay off your students and the board i really appreciate it Also, congratulations to all the mid-year graduates. Good luck as you pursue whatever you choose to go on to pursue, because
024we do believe that what starts here can change everything. So congratulations and all the best. We're all tired of the pandemic, but it's not tired of us yet. Fortunately, last week, we're down from the peak of three weeks ago. Last week, there were 1,099 students tested positive, 188 staff tested positive. It's down about a third from the peak, but it's still 2.3 times higher than the September peak. So if you look at the Wake County Public Health Department's report, we're at 1,322 cases per 100,000 population. So that means over the last seven days, 1.3% of all Wake County residents tested positive for COVID. If you look at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services data, which disaggregates the age listing for us, for the week of 123, which is the last week reported,
025Among the 5- to 9-year-olds, there was 1,897 cases per 100,000 population. The 10- to 14-year-olds, 1,491 cases per 100,000 population. And the 15- to 17-year-olds, 1,143 cases per 100,000 population. That compares to all of Wake County. based on that reporting of data of 1,270. The young children still remain the highest infection rate of all age cohorts. It is somewhat sobering to note that when we peaked three weeks ago, 4.1% of all 5- to 17-year-olds in Wake County tested positive for COVID in one week. That compares with only 3% of the general population. So the student age population was 1%, one full percent higher than all the rest of the county's population combined. So there's work we need to do in our schools to keep them to be effective centers of learning, but also safe spaces
026for all of our children and all of our staff. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Scott, bring us home. Thank you and good evening. I wanted to Also extend my congratulations to our mid-year graduates. East Wake High School had a program where they also have their streamed on their YouTube, put everyone together. They had each individual graduate walk across their stage. And Heritage High School held their traditional in the gym mid-year graduation. And I was fortunate and lucky to attend that. And one of the things that I love about... graduations, especially the more intimate settings that we have had throughout COVID and mid-year, reminds me quite a bit of our spotlight on students, where yes, you look at the students and you are excited to see what they've accomplished and you're proud for them, but when
027you look past that and you see the emotion on the parents' face, as the names were called, you could see dads, you know, at their eyes, sort of wiping at their eyes, and moms. just you know hugging and just so proud of their kids but not only that the teachers Heritage High School their teachers sit with the students and you can just see the the pride they have for their for their students and it's really touching to be able to witness those moments of celebration but to know just how much effort and love and support brought those students to that moment. And their teacher of the year had some really inspiring words about that you talk about school, this is where you plant the seeds, and that plants really thrive better in certain environments. And
028so she challenged the students to think it's now your task to go out and find the environment where you can personally thrive the most. I thought that was really nice. And last night we had our District 1 BAC meeting. Chris Nordstrom from the North Carolina Justice Department talked about Leandro, which I believe he also presented at Dr. Martin's BAC a few months ago. It's a very informative report, I think timely as we get ready to enter budget discussions for our own district for folks to know where. where some weaknesses are with our state budget, things that we can improve on. But I really liked that the presentation was this is what we can do. These are steps that we can take to move forward. So it was a great presentation overall, and that concludes my
029comments. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Scott. So now we're at the point on our agenda where we need to approve the meeting agenda. Is there a motion from anyone on the board? So moved. Motion by Ms. Johnson-Hossler and a second by Ms. Kushner. All in favor of the motion to approve the meeting agenda? Oh, that's right. Because we're operating under the remote meeting rules, we do need to go through a roll call motion before Mr. Blumberg reminds us. So I'll start at this side of the table and move around for the vote on the approval of the meeting agenda. Heather Scott, aye. Jim Martin, aye. Christine Kushner, aye. Chris Haggerty, aye. Monika Johnson-Hossler, aye. Karen Carter, aye. Oh, sorry. No, Roxy Cash. I recorded a Roxy cashes. I, and then Ms. Carter, Karen Carter. I,
030and then I was going to go to our online members. Uh, we've heard from this cash, uh, chair Mahaffey, Lindsay Mahaffey. I. All right. All members having voted and voted. I, the motion is, is adopted. Thank you all. Looking ahead on our approved agenda. The next item is our information item and we have our superintendent updates. Superintendent Moore. Good evening again. A recap of the items that were covered in the work session. The first item in the work session this evening was a presentation and board discussion of the required redistricting of board election districts. The board reviewed three draft plans and talked about an interactive website that is now available for review for the public to see. We also talked about next steps in terms of including opportunities that would serve as a public hearing
031that would happen regionally, in person, and virtually, with including online options for feedback and other things that may become available as well. And that would be first set, and then it will come back to the board for a decision, a vote, and then likely additional public comment after that. The second item on the work session today was an update from staff on the work associated with supporting the behavioral health of our students. And this work is required by legislation for all North Carolina school districts to have a district school mental health improvement plan. As our legislators recognize that this work supports students accessing, learning, and reaching their academic goals. And the board received that update. That was the work session. Thank you, Superintendent Moore. The next information item we have is from our Chief of
032Staff. Mr. Gardner? Good evening, Vice Chair Haragde, members of the board, and Superintendent Moore. Thank you for providing us this opportunity tonight to highlight significant work accomplished by two of our schools in partnership with their respective community, the Friendship Community. Prior to our experience with COVID and its impact on our schools and community, we launched our initiative respecting our history, building our future. This initiative is grounded in our belief that the legacy of our school district is built upon a strong foundation of schools, both former and current, and that the history of our schools is one that we need to make sure we capture and do not lose to the passing of time. Recognizing the need and value for archiving this history, Dr. Martin, in his tenure as board chair, introduced this idea to our
033district and community. And with full support of the board, the project started and it began to evolve from concept to reality. In its design and purpose, the project brings schools and the community together. working in partnership to research the history of identified segregated black schools that once existed in our district. A history that was not archived in the way that it could potentially be. The vision set for the project is one of which existing schools, with the support of community members, engage in research activities, collect artifacts, interview community members, create virtual documentaries, among many other tasks, all tailored to capture and archive the history of a specific school assigned to them. Pre-COVID, much work occurred. A community planning committee was created, and the members of that committee were instrumental in identifying previously existing segregated black
034schools to research their locations, identify where they were and how many years they were in operation, make connections with our existing schools and the surrounding communities to participate in the research, and identify community members who would help assist and support. Existing schools that we have in place now were paired with names of former schools to research and they began to develop partnerships with community members. The research and supporting activities were well underway. However, we encountered COVID and much of the work had to pause. But while much of the work was paused at schools and in the community during COVID, a few of our schools that were in position to continue the research did so. We're also now beginning to seek ways to re-engage our schools in the project to build upon what they had already
035started. As part of our recognition of Black History Month, we're honored to have with us tonight representatives from Apex Friendship High School, Apex Friendship Middle School, and the Friendship community, who were able to continue some of the great work started when their project was first initiated. Tonight, you will hear their story and share in their accomplishment. It is a wonderful story and experience to celebrate. I'd like to recognize our special guests in attendance, and if they would just step forward and kind of raise a hand to you, the board, so that you will know who they are as I call their name, I would be grateful. Tonight we have Matt White, principal of Apex Friendship High School. We have Shawana Jacobs, principal of Apex Friendship Middle School. Rebecca Ashley, library media coordinator at Green Level
036High School. Dennis Perks, teacher at Apex Friendship High School, and Larry Harris, Friendship Community Member. And I also want to thank John Enns, Area Superintendent, who has provided tremendous support to their school as they have continued to work through this project. To all of you, thank you for you and your team's participation in this project and for the work you've led. At this time, I invite you to come forward to share your team's exciting accomplishments. Board members, thank you. Thank you for your continued support of this project. Thank you for seeing the value in this project and archiving our history. And we look forward to tonight's celebration as well as providing you additional opportunities in the future to celebrate other schools' work in this area. Matt? Good evening. It's an honor to be here to
037present our Friendship School Initiative to you guys. I originally heard about friendship when I was appointed principal at Apex Friendship High School. The West Apex Friendship controversy was the first I learned about it. But to be honest, I didn't find out the true legacy until our first home football game. At that first home football game, I was approached by a gentleman who introduced himself and started to tell me about the story of Friendship Community and Friendship School. From that conversation, it's grown into this initiative, which has been incredible, and it's a pleasure to be here to share that with you. The gentleman that came up to me was Mr. Larry Harris, and he's going to start the story tonight. Good evening. Thank you, Mr. White. I'm Larry Harris. I'm a lifelong member of the Friendship
038Community. My family legacy goes back into the 1800s. So thank you for having us to come and share with you as you launch your celebration of National Black History Month. And I certainly am appreciative of that. A few words about the Friendship Community, which I want to share with you, is that The Friendship Community, when you first mention it, you wonder, well, how did it get its name? And I'll tell you just a little bit. I could give you a tease, but I will just tell you that the Friendship Community was started way back in the 1840s, mid-1840s, when the remnant of some of the Tuscarora tribe down on the Neuse River was scattered to the four winds, east, west, north, south. And they settled here in Western Wake County. and part of Eastern Chatham
039County because it was rich farmland and they were farmers and millers and they made a community there where they all felt to be equals because they owned their own land. What they did was they did discover by virtue of the times that co-mingling together created some problems potentially. What they decided to do in old Native American fashion was have an old-fashioned powwow, get together and make some decisions about living together in peace rather than chaos, which they did. And in honor of their agreement, they decided to name the place they were standing on Friendship. And they smoked the peace pipe and went on with their lives. And they were a community. We have a... motto ahead of our times. They were ahead of their times then because they were an integrated community. And it was
040only years and years and years later that integration came to the rest of the world, so to speak. And we're still ahead of our time because we have such a great diverse community with the great schools and great churches and great people move again. And I tell them all the time the history because I want them to know the history and to embrace the history. And I was so fortunate to meet Mr. Matt White, who immediately latched on to it and understood it. The other thing that we started to do after we came fast forward to a time when we came before you to get you to help us to keep our name of friendship when we were trying to name the school. Some of you, I see your faces here. You were here then.
041and you were gracious enough to honor us and left the name Friendship in the school since it's in a historic location. And we named Apex Friendship High School, Apex Friendship Middle School, and soon to be Apex Friendship Elementary. So thank you so much for the great schools we have there and the great faculty, teachers, and students. Also, we recently decided, that we needed to honor our little Rosenwald School. It's still standing. Sadly, sitting there waiting for the bulldozers to arrive, but it's still there. And of the 27 schools that Wake County had, which was the most Rosenwald schools built by Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald, I myself have played baseball, sandlocked baseball, on some of those diamonds at those schools. It's a rich history. It's deserving. of being recognized and appreciated. So I'm glad
042to see you launched this history. I hope you will go even further in helping to preserve something in history that will be remembered. This little school just basically, literally lifted generations of young black kids out of poverty. If I had the time, I could tell you about things that have been accomplished and bringing... the people up to go out into the world and do great things. So take a look at that, and thank you for having us. We appreciate the opportunity to serve with you as we reach higher toward educational excellence. Thank you for doing a good job. I've known Mr. Harris for a little bit, and he's always a tough act to follow. So we are very excited that we were able to partner with Mr. Harris and the local school community. My name
043is Becky Ashley and I serve as a school library media coordinator here in Wake County Public Schools. So we were excited in the fall of 2019 when we learned about the Respecting Our History, Building Our Future project. And we quickly started to build relationships with community members by attending church, inviting them into our schools and visiting with them in the community. fortunate that we were able to join in work that they already had going on. The pandemic did not deter us. We're fortunate to say we then started having Google Meets. They were used for students to interview alumni who attended our Rosenwald School and also to interview other community members. Emails were sent and calls were made to keep our momentum going and a website was developed to house our research and to share it.
044The partnership established between the new schools and the original friendship community truly demonstrates the spirit of friendship that was established in the 1840s. The original Friendship School was built in 1923 and it educated black students until 1954, and a historical marker was erected on August 22, 2021, to honor the original Friendship School. This was a tremendous collaboration between the Wake County Public School System and the Town of Apex, and we are very proud to let you know that this is the first historical marker in the Town of Apex. Evening. My name is Dennis Perks, and I am a career and technical education teacher at Apex Friendship High School. I teach Adobe Visual Design and Adobe Video Design, and stumbling into the Friends of Friendship Committee has given me really one of the best opportunities to
045connect the real world for the students to the classroom. I'm going to highlight a few of the ways we're trying to integrate the friendship story into our schools. One was at the beginning of the year, Angel, Becky, and I came up with the idea of doing an original friendship T-shirt. And although a t-shirt doesn't seem like much, it turned out to be an excellent way to not only celebrate the uniqueness of the community, but to help connect the school community to the community members. And I know it's served as a great jumping off point for me with the students to say, hey, have you heard about the friendship story? In the end, we sold over 350 t-shirts to community members and staff members at cost. And if you would have attended the historical marker ceremony,
046it was really great to see everybody dressed in this shared connection. Also in discussions with Dr. Toby Holloman and Dr. Warren Holloman, who are the local historians, we've really come to understand the importance of context in understanding local history. My current students right now, in little more than a week into the new semester, have finished writing, designing, and creating original magazine articles on topics that help us to understand this context. Topics include what is friendship, root causes of the Civil War, the Underground Railroad, the Rosenwald Schools, Brown versus the Board of Education, the Greensboro Woolworths Sit-In, the Civil Rights Movement, and numerous others. And so in pairing our efforts of the class with my club, Friendship Studios, these articles will serve as a foundation for Friendship the Magazine. We plan on creating a cover-to-cover magazine
047that will have articles, community spotlights, school spotlights, historical spotlights, timelines, etc. And so that will all be student-created. Another initiative is the historical marker benches, which are being built by one of our students for their Eagle Scout project. He's building three benches that will contribute to our plan to have a reflection garden near the historical marker. And we also have some landscaping and an engraved brick patio in the plans as well to help connect the middle school, the high school, and eventually the elementary school. Really quickly, future projects include working on a planning. We're planning a community forum composed of original community members, local historians, and other local members. As we continue to gain knowledge and gather artifacts, hopefully as the pandemic slows, we'd love to do Friendship the documentary, and we have a pretty
048good start on that as well. And we've also discussed the possibility of developing a local course option. that would be taught by our social studies department that focuses on the local friendship history, understanding the North Carolina history and the history of the South in the context of our community. So thank you very much for giving me your time. I'm back again. Another initiative that we have is a display case to showcase the varied history of the Friendship School. It was installed as an educational tool for students, staff, and visitors on the high school campus, and it provides an opportunity for our school building and anyone who comes on campus to learn about the Friendship School project. The display case houses artifacts such as diplomas, photograph certificates, student work, and among other materials that are related
049to this project. As our collection grows, we will continue to curate it in a way that reflects not only the Friendship School, but also puts it in the broader context of our nation and the South. Good evening. At the middle school, we are here to work in conjunction with the high school. And so we had the pleasure of hosting the inside ceremony when we had the unveiling of the marker. That was just an amazing moment for both schools to come together because the actual students who attended the Rosenwald School, uh... attended that ceremony suggested get a chance to ask them questions and to really engage with them they all remember their teacher and they had great stories to share about their teachers that was amazing uh... if you look on the slide there you will
050see a portion of a mural so we had a mural commissioned at the middle school and obviously we wanted to notice uh... uh... to showcase our students and to connect with our students but I absolutely understood the importance of incorporating elements of the friendship community and so you will see the actual picture of the Rosenwald School in the background there and then we also had a 3D model of the maker of the historical marker made and placed on the wall and that is going to serve as an educational piece for us to help spread the word and make sure our kids know the importance and the impact of the rich history that surrounds the friendship community. Lastly, we do have our own social studies teachers starting to engage in conversations with students just to make
051sure they know just, again, just how fortunate we are to have that history to be a part of our school. And again, I also, as the principal, am so excited to be able to blend the decision that was made from this community. which basically said we're all here together, and so we all should get along, and we need to all live in harmony. And that message is something that I certainly want my kids to believe in in terms of being inside of the school. So we are excited about future projects. You heard all the great things that are coming up. We're going to continue to do that great work at the middle school, and we want to thank each and every one of you for your time and attention. Thank you so much. Thank you,
052Board. Appreciate it. Thank you, Dr. Gardner. Thank you, Mr. Harrison. Thank you, staff. All right. We now move on to public comment. Public comment is accepted in video and written formats as well as in person. Members of the public are welcome to offer comments or criticism directed at substantive ideas, actions, or procedures of the board and individual board members. I do want to thank everyone, though, for helping us maintain civility and decorum. Speakers are encouraged to refrain from personal attacks and insults directed at the board, individual board members, staff, or members of the general public and other speakers. So thank you for helping us maintain that decorum and respect for each other. The laws and policies of North Carolina provide that issues or concerns involving individual personnel matters are confidential and therefore not appropriate for
053public comment settings. Concerns related to personnel issues may be addressed through applicable WCPSS personnel, through the grievance policy, or other applicable policies at other levels. Speakers, including students, may discuss issues and matters of general concern, but should refrain from discussing confidential student information. Concerns related to confidential student matters may be addressed again through the applicable WCPSS personnel, through the grievance policy, and other similar channels. So at this point, we have accepted written public comments. Tonight, we have 25 comments, both supporting and opposing preventative measures of COVID, including the mask mandate. We have 14 other comments. We have one video comment also on COVID-19 preventative measures. We have 14 other comments of a number of topics, including the Westlake Schools calendar, including sustainability in the next strategic plan, freedom to teach divisive topics, employment diversity, LGBTQ
054rights, thank you, board meetings, BAC meetings, and the bus driver shortage. Additional comments on Board Advisory Council public meetings and materials, comments on censorship, criminal background checks, inappropriate books in public libraries, bigoted public speakers, informed consent for emergency youth authorization devices and interventions. That also includes health care choices for parents and children. And finally, Black Lives Matter at School Week. Those are that is a summary of our written public comments and all of those are available to the public as well on our WCPSS website in the board meeting materials. At this point we will move to our in-person public comment speaker list and our first speaker tonight is Becky Lou Hobbs. Good evening Ms. Hobbs. Hello. It's been a long long couple of years. March 14th 2020. Do you remember? It's the day Wake County
055Announced all schools closed to March 16th through at least March 27th. So much for two weeks to flatten the curve. There's only six months of school that year. The schools told us though that we'll help the kids catch up next year. Then the 2021 school year. Sort of started virtual. And then as far as catching the kids up, that did not happen. Between trying to figure out how to access classes and then the strange rotation in and out. It was really an incomplete school year, but that was good for the parents. That's when we really got to see behind the curtain. Now we're in the third school year affected by COVID. Students are back in school, but it's far from normal. Kids have to wear these things. So imagine getting on the school bus at
0568 a.m. in a mask, ride to school. School starts at 9.15, still in a mask. Go through the school day, get about a 30 to 45 minute lunch and recess break. They can take their mask off then. Then get back into class, once again, back in a mask. School lets out at 3.45, then the bus ride home in a mask, arriving at 4.45. That's about nine hours the kids are in a mask with very little break. That is a lot to ask of our young ones. So I ask you, do you, the school board, wear a mask for nine hours a day with only a half an hour break with much better developed systems than our children do? Just look around. People shop mask-free, go to sporting events mask-free, go to church mask-free. Go on.
057Our children are learning, and wearing masks inhibits good communication. You can't see my facial expressions right now. You can only see my eyes. That's probably enough. And this is part of communication that kids need to learn, but they can't because their teachers' faces are hiding behind a mask. And then the younger kids have a hard time because they can't learn to sound out words and are having other problems because they can't see their teacher's face. And then wearing a mask muffles sound. I speak really loud, but there are sometimes people get up here and I can't hear them. But how can kids be expected to learn if they can't hear their teacher? And then there are kids that have the signed medical exemption from their doctor. So why, oh why, does the school board allow
058principals to deny it? It's angry. We, the parents, will be involved in our children's education, whether you like it or not. Get back to the basics of reading, history, math, and science. Turn your focus back to education and not health care. Kids are behind in their education because you, the school board, have continued to endorse these policies that harm them and impede their education. Stop smothering them. Remove the masks. Let them breathe. Thank you, Ms. Hobbs. Our next speaker is Dr. Tracy Taylor. Dr. Tracy Taylor. Good evening, Dr. Taylor. Good evening, Vice Chair Hagerty, Superintendent Moore, and board members. I understand that two board members are not here because they have COVID. I wish them a speedy recovery. I'm sure they will be just fine. It is a message of hope that I want to
059bring to you tonight. But first, I would like to ask you to please stop calling parents anti-maskers or anti-vaxxers. We're not anti-mask or anti-vax. We are pro-choice. I know my child. better than, Ms. Kushner, you know your children. Or Ms. Carter, better than you know, you see what I'm saying? You know your children, I know my children, and I don't speak for your children, okay? Sorry about that. I'm here to also bring you some data because every time it is asked of the NCDHHS or Danny Benjamin with the ABC Science Collaborative, they never seem to give you the answers. So per the ANC-DHHS website, when you do a little bit of digging, you can see that there are 271 cases of MIS-C. That is the multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. In North Carolina, since the
060pandemic, 271 cases out of 446,060 cases in 0 to 17. That means that 0.061%. of kids have been affected adversely. Long COVID affects only less than 1% of the entire population. Of all of the cohorts that have been hospitalized in North Carolina, 1% have been in the 0 to 17 population. But when you break that down further, of all of the kids who have had COVID and been hospitalized, we're looking at 0.183%. That is a very small number. The hope side of that is that 99.817% are not hospitalized. Omicron has 50 mutations from the original strain, 32 of which are on the spike protein. That is why we are seeing so many people who are vaccinating. I'm assuming the two board members who were vaccinated are getting COVID. We cannot outrun. This strain, 98% of
061people in America are getting the Omicron strain, okay? We can't outrun this. The time is now to remove the masks, stop pushing the vaccine because we are chasing our tails. The Omicron train has left. We're already talking about a new variant. And guess what? It's an awful lot like a cold right now, okay? It's endemic. It's time to move on. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Taylor. And again, just a reminder to people, just please don't speak over other speakers if you can, just because sometimes, as we've noticed, we may have difficulty hearing them, and we do want everyone's comments to be heard. Our next speaker is Ms. Susan Book. Thank you. Greetings, Board, Board Chairs. My name is Susan Book. I'm a Wake County resident and a public school advocate, as well as a mom.
062I want to come here first and thank all of you for the mask mandate. I implore you all to keep masking until our metrics are down. Keep thinking of imaginative ways to provide ventilation. We have lots of evidence that masking and ventilation are keys to keeping the virus at bay. It doesn't have to be expensive. Just keep thinking of ways we can circulate our air. I'm reminded recently, thanks to a panel that you all ran, how amazing our educators are who teach students with disabilities. How our own family was able to benefit from a staff member who was able to move mountains to get our kid an education. I'm also reminded how far we have to go. We need to normalize letting a meltdown just be a meltdown. We need to normalize not touching the
063child during a meltdown. acknowledging their pain instead of punishing them for what they may not even remember. Restraint and seclusion aren't tools in our toolbox. They are the absolute last resort. Meltdowns happen for a reason, and I challenge you all to be detectives and find out why. Our educators face funding that has never been enough to support those students in poverty and those with disabilities. They've been doing it for... almost generations when we look at the Leandra ruling. But beyond funding, we can't deny that racism that our black and brown students are still facing, that ableism that our disability students face, and the intersection of race and disability. You all have the data. I don't have to explain. So right now I'm challenging you with this choice, a choice to use suspensions, restraints, and seclusions
064as a last resort. or a choice to work with those students facing hurdles they never asked for. It actually doesn't cost money to choose not to suspend a child. It doesn't cost money to have a healing conversation. Because of ableist and racist ideas, we are still using punishments that we know won't change behavior. Funding is fundamental to all of this. But in the meantime, we do have some choices out there. And I challenge you to make a choice for children. Thank you all. Thank you, Ms. Book. Our next speaker is Amanda Horlebain. Ms. Horlebain. One more call for Ms. Horlebain. Okay, we'll move on to our next speaker. Ms. Horlebain is out there. She can speak after Ms. Tobin. Lindsay Tobin. Good evening. Good evening. As we approach the two-year anniversary of 15 Days to
065Slow the Spread, I once again ask you to finally accept the inevitable that we are not going to eradicate COVID-19. There is no amount of child masking, double masking, quarantining healthy children and adults, testing asymptomatic children and adults, no amount of vaccinating with a vaccine that does not stop you from contracting or transmitting the virus that will eradicate COVID-19. As the leaders of our school system, I ask you to be brave and to be bold and accept that you can't make this go away. It has been a valiant effort. And in 2020, I'm sorry, in 2020 and 2021, we could say that perhaps this was the right thing to do. But part of leadership is being honest, even when we fail, even when we are wrong, and even when our followers do not want to
066hear what we have to say. I do not mean to pick on you, Dr. Martin, but how many times have we heard you say in your COVID update that it's not time to ease up yet, that we've got to go a little bit longer, and you are not the only leader to say this. But now we can say that a little longer is not going to eradicate COVID-19. We can say now that cloth masks do not stop the spread of an airborne virus. You are lying to yourself and to your constituents if you continue to say that. Viruses have spikes and valleys, and this will continue with COVID. And as much as you want, you cannot stop children from catching colds and viruses. Masks should be optional for children and adults in our school system.
067Vaccines are available for all children and adults in our school system. If parents or teachers want the extra protection that two masks give, they can themselves or have their child wear two masks. And if that does not seem fair, I know what you may feel because I don't think that this has been fair to my child all year long. There is a lot of learning loss, a lot of social and emotional development loss, a lot of anxiety and depression that has come with these COVID protocols. Again, in 2020 and 2021, you could get away with saying that these benefits outweigh the risk, but not anymore. We have seen some of the negative consequences of these measures. already, but I do not believe that we will see the real world impacts for five to 10 years.
068And when that happens, will you be able to look yourself in the mirror and say that you did the right thing a little bit longer? Many states, the UK, Denmark and Finland and Ireland have suspended all restrictions as of today because they know it's time to move on and live with the virus. These are protocols. They are protocols. They are not laws. They are in the toolkit to provide recommendations. Many countries around the state and other states have gone mask optional and are faring just as well or overall better. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Tobin. Our next speaker is Mr. Daniel Grant King. Mr. Grant King, good evening. Good evening, Vice Chair Haggerty, Superintendent Moore, and board members. I am Mr. Grant King and currently I serve as the proud chair with the State Board
069of Education and with our subcommittee regarding our educators and our instructional assistants. And currently I also am a Wake County employee as co-teaching at South Garner High School in special education. On this evening, there's a lot of my mind, so bear with me. But on this evening, I would like to first of all say thank you for keeping the mask mandate in place. We have seen time and again from CDC, from Dr. Tilson at the state level, and many others that masking and ventilations work. Definitely we as educators, and for those of you that are educators, I would like for you to please stand. Because it is very important, it is very important that safety is a top priority when it comes to our students. I know that there have been many complaints opposing and
070for, but at the same time, we have to consider the anniversary. I know there's a lot of things going on with this pandemic, but at the same time, we are the ones on the front lines each and every day. teaching our students. And it's not fair to us and to those who we come in contact with that certain measures are not in place. So of course I would like to thank you for that. An additional thing that I would like to say from the state level, of course budget season is coming and so my committee is of course working with the state right now. to advocate with the legislatures to pass Leandro. It is long overdue. I read a lot of history on it. And of course, from that history, I do believe that every,
071every part of that funding needs to go towards education, definitely special education, because I believe that with this Leandro legislation, it will help. to provide supplies, resources, excuse me, that does benefit our students, and especially when they leave the system, because it is very important that with... And even without the funding, I don't even see certain things possible. I don't, as an educator. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't. Because if you think about the work that all of us do for our community, many other aspects are part of that funding. A lot of it is required by law. A lot of it is. And so it is very important that you as a school board will continue the advocacy work far as that as well. Thank you so much. Thank
072you, Mr. Grant King. Our next speaker is Mr. Brendan Herring. Mr. Herring, we'll give Mr. Herring another moment. I appreciate that. We'll move on to Ms. Julie Page, and if Mr. Herring comes in, we'll give him an opportunity. Ms. Julie Page. All right. Thank you. Good evening, Ms. Page. Good evening. First, I want to give a huge shout out to all my homies across the street right now at the panel of parents launch meeting. Hey, everybody. I'll be back over there soon. In case you all weren't aware, we, the parents, are holding our own meeting of the minds right now. right here in your neck of the woods, one that is completely open to the public and welcome for all to attend. We are streaming live, we're taking in-person and phone comments, and we're discussing
073topics that are important to parents. Perhaps you should watch it later for clarity of our expectations. But I digress. Let's talk about how the current school board feels they have been bullied and treated unfairly for the last two years. Let's talk about how the current school board has caused significant learning loss for the children in this district. Let's talk about how the current school board has implemented abusive policies and procedures against the children in this district. We'll call this an airing of grievances, and I'll list some for you. Remote learning, mandatory masking, quarantining of healthy children, parents locked out of schools, grade level failures, implementation and inconsistency of the toolkit, damaging mental health policies, board incompetence, lack of board transparency, mysterious backroom conversations, lack of superintendent oversight. Secret agreements with the NCAE. Acceptance of federal
074funds to the detriment of our children. Allowing sexually explicit literature in schools. The list goes on and on. When we have spoken to you with facts, articles, and science, you stare. When we beg and plead for normalcy, you smirk. When we read obscenity, you look away. When we finally get feisty and call you out on your own misconduct, you chuckle. But yet we are the bullies. What hypocrisy. And you are shocked by parents coming to these meetings to voice our concerns. What did you expect to happen when you shut the schools down and forced parents to become teachers? Did you think that we would just sit back and accept your draconian and oppressive policies? Do we suddenly live in China now? I choose to live my life with freedom and liberty in the United States
075of America. If you aren't on board, then get out of our way because we will save this sinking ship. The lack of parent engagement incites us. The damage to our children enrages us. The learning loss fuels us. These are the keys to making things right with we, the parents. There is one thing that you can do to help us end some of the suffering. Kill the unrequired and illegal toolkit right now. Unmask our kids tonight. Thank you, Ms. Page. Our next speaker is Miss Jessica Armstrong. Jessica Armstrong. Louis? It's Miss Jessica Armstrong first, then Jessica Louis. Sorry about any confusion. Sorry about that. Good evening. My name is Jessica Armstrong. I'm an elementary school teacher who has worked in public schools for 17 years and 10 of those with Wake County Public Schools. I'm a
076parent of a first grader in the Wake County public school system and a proud NCAE member. We are all probably familiar with the saying, it takes a village to raise a child. And each of us has a part in raising our children to ensure their and our best possible future. My principal frequently starts our staff meetings with, tell me something good. So tonight, while we still have many improvements to make, I want to share some of the good that is happening across our large Wake County Public School Village. Our school's PTA provided dinosaur eggs for students so they could have hands-on experiences that connected to their EL unit centered on paleontology. Students were thrilled. Shouts of, I see a leg! Wow! This is so cool! could be heard around the building. The phenomenal IAs in
077our school work daily to rearrange lunch coverage due to IAs having to sub in order to avoid the least disruption in student learning. At another school, our reading intervention teacher greets each student by name as they enter the building via carpool. And yet another school, my teammate, almost single-handedly works to create a science day every year for our students. Field experts, professors, and scientists join our students. We've even had a helicopter fly in. The math teacher across the hall from me gave up his planning period to teach an additional virtual section of math, even a separate grade. He did so so that these students had a consistent math teacher and not a sub. Miss Stephanie, our bus driver, loves my son. She kept his Christmas card. She's kind and caring and makes him feel loved.
078I can always see her smiling under her mask. Our custodian, while always going a mile a minute, always has the time to stop and joke with students and debate whether UNC, Duke, or NC State is the best. The Board of Ed has done its part by voting to raise employee pay. Thank you. Our staff continues to do theirs. Our students, parents, and community members do their part as well. While we are moving in the right direction, unfortunately, it is not enough. We need all members of this village to support us. Imagine how our students could thrive if their learning conditions were improved. Imagine how our county and country could thrive if public education was fully funded. Imagine what our teachers could do if they were fully supported, not only financially, but also professionally. Imagine all
079of the good that could happen if we continue to work together to support our students and support our future. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Armstrong. Now it's Mrs. Jessica Lewis. Sorry about any confusion there, Ms. Lewis. Good evening. Good evening. I am here advocating for my son once again. And quite frankly, it pisses me off that I am having to advocate for something that should not be happening. I will read a statue on child maltreatment. The purpose is to assign the authority to investigate instances of child maltreatment in child care facilities. Child maltreatment is any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm or threat of harm to a child. Acts of commission include, but are not limited to, fiscal, sexual, psychological abuse. Acts
080of omission include failure to provide for the physical, emotional, and medical well-being of a child. My son has a medical mask exemption signed by his pediatrician. He, and you guys are denying it, he has a medical condition, cyclic vomiting syndrome. He has thrown up in his mask at school. He got put in the COVID room and told he had to keep his mask on. I am pissed. And I did the grievance process. Someone asked, why isn't Jim Martin, your representative, backing you up? He doesn't even answer my emails. He didn't even answer the grievance filing. I have no representation on this board. I'm hot. Raise your hand if you have a medical license. None of you have medical license. The principal, Ms. Sexton at A.B. Combs, my kid's school, does not have a medical license.
081None of you should be able to deny his doctor's orders. I'm done. I'm not waiting for your appeal process. I'm going legally with this because what you are doing is child abuse. And my son, Noah, will win. Thank you, Ms. Lewis. Our next speaker is Chris Tuttle. Hello, Ms. Tuttle. Good evening. My name is Chris Tuttle, and I'm a librarian at South Garner High School. I'm here tonight to talk about books and libraries. As a cisgender, heterosexual white woman, it is not difficult to find stories that I can see myself and my experiences in. That cannot be said for our LGBTQ plus and our BIPOC students. As a librarian, it is my responsibility to build a collection that is representative of all my students, including books that affirm the identities, experiences, and cultural backgrounds of
082our most vulnerable students. Because as author Donalyn Miller states, the absence of a voice is a judgment against it. Core belief number five states, the Board of Education, superintendent, and all staff value a diverse school community that is inviting, respectful, inclusive, flexible, and supportive. At South Garner, we use this belief as a foundation for our library mission. The mission of the Titan Learning Commons is to support students in their pursuit of academic excellence, engage their curiosity, foster a love of reading, and seek opportunities for their voices to be acknowledged and amplified. We will do this by providing access to books, resources, and information that represent, honor, and affirm their identities and diverse cultural background. According to a recent CDC report, more than half of LGBTQ youth, 54%, 61% of transgender youth, and 61% of questioning
083youth are battling symptoms of depression compared to 29% of non-LGBTQ youth. How do you combat this? by providing access to books that affirm their identities and experiences, and by making those books available to all students so that they can build empathy and compassion for the humans and experiences that are different from their own. As poet Audre Lorde said, it is not our differences that divide us, it is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences. The WCPSS profile of a graduate states in part, all graduates should have the ability to relate to others and be tolerant of diverse populations, show empathy, show compassion. Tolerance, compassion, and empathy are built through stories. We are stories. This board needs to decide what story will be told about WCPSS. When our students' identities were challenged and access
084to books in our libraries were jeopardized, did we speak up in favor of tolerance, empathy, and compassion, or did we remain silent? Our students are watching and listening, and they deserve a board that shows them our beliefs aren't just words but actions. Thank you, Ms. Tull. Thank you. Our next speaker is Colleen Fleming. Colleen Fleming. Good evening, Ms. Fleming. Good evening. I've got a couple things I need to hang up first. Sorry. Oh, hang up. Thank you, Ms. Fleming. We appreciate that. Oh, and as just a reminder, please do take them with you when you leave. Or you can leave them with Mr. Blumberg, too, either way. Whatever. Okay, thanks. How long has this absurdity been going on? 689 days. 689 days. We are in the third quarter of the third school year of this
085nonsense. Just take a look at this graph right here that shows that last school year our children had that was normal. For example, if your child is in eighth grade about to graduate from middle school, they have never had a full normal year of middle school. My oldest daughter, who's in fifth grade and transferred to a new school in the midst of all of this, told me she wished she was back at Lead Mine so school could be more fun and so she wouldn't have to wear a mask. I'd appreciate it if you would all look at me. I had to explain to her that all the schools, including Lead Mine, are making kids wear masks and have stopped many of the fun activities and opportunities that existed prior to 2020. You are robbing all
086of our children of the fond memories, school memories, and they'll never get this time back. Kaitlyn Lewis, whose mom just spoke a couple times ago, the brave and bright young fourth grader that spoke to you a few weeks ago, said she missed when her mom would meet her for lunch at school and volunteer in the classroom. My two girls miss that too. Kindergarteners, first and second graders don't even know what they're missing because they haven't seen a normal school year yet. It's all being stolen from them. I'm not going to run through current COVID numbers or anything like that. You've got Jim Martin to do that for you. But none of the data adds up to what is being taken away from our children. And I shared last time the devastating effects that masks and
087mandates are having on our children's mental and physical health and education. Instead, I'm going to share a brief history lesson. And the interesting thing about history is that it tends to repeat itself. Listen carefully to these words. The best way to take control over people and control them utterly is to take a little bit of their freedom at a time to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way, the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed. Can anyone take a stab at who said that? Anyone? Adolf Hitler. You would be correct. If you chose it. His words were evil back then, and they are still evil and unfortunately relevant right now. Our rights and freedoms are
088being stripped away one by one. The heroes from the 1930s and the 40s, Germany and other countries affected by his actions were not Hitler, his followers, or even the fearful, innocent, and complacent people of that generation. The heroes were the freedom fighters, people who stood against the evil and helped the Jewish people at any cost. They knew what was happening was wrong, even though Hitler claimed his tyrannical orders were for the health and safety of the people. his citizens. It wasn't about health and safety back then, and it's not about health and safety now. When we learn from history, we can learn not to repeat the mistakes from the past, choosing instead to be the heroes and stand up for what is right. Our children need heroes, not Nazis. Stop the mandates and stop them
089tonight. Thank you, Ms. Fleming. Our next speaker, oh, sorry. Sorry, one second. All right. If you want to leave those, Mr. Blumberg. Thank you. All right. Our next speaker is Sherry Porto. Sherry Porto. Good evening, Ms. Porto. Good evening. I'd like to discuss two topics with you tonight. First, I would like to urge you all to continue to put safety over politics and science over rhetoric by maintaining the mask mandate in our schools. Thank you for doing what was needed in the past to keep our schools open safely. After all, that is the ultimate goal. Masking remains an effective tool at mitigating the spread of COVID, and it's part of a layered approach which is recommended by the CDC. I know we're all tired of these precautions and quarantines, but unfortunately we are not at
090a point where we can drop the mask mandate. We are still dealing with the surge from a more contagious variant, and community transmission rates remain high. We need to stay the course. On September 24th of 2021, the CDC released three studies in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that highlighted the importance of universal masking to stop the spread of COVID and minimize disruptions for safe in-person learning. These studies found that school districts with a universal masking policy were more likely to have, were less likely. School districts without a universal masking policy were more likely to have COVID outbreaks. I'm asking you to please continue to follow the science and the data and keep the mask mandate in place. The second topic I'd like to discuss are the continued calls to ban books. There are consequences
091to banning books. All of the books in question contain LGBTQIA content. Let's talk about the students represented in these books. The Trevor Project's 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health found that 42% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and non-binary youth. Only 26% of those surveyed said they always feel safe in their school classrooms. A recent survey by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network found that 59.1% of LGBTQ students felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation, 42.5% because of their gender expression, and 37.4% because of their gender. The survey also noted that LGBTQIA students who feel supported report better mental health, better school experiences, and higher academic achievement. Are we surprised that LGBTQIA youth are suffering disproportionately in this way
092when they hear adults calling to ban books because of the characters through which they may see parts of their own story reflected? It's not too late to change this alarming trend. The solution was right there at the end of the survey results. We need to be concentrating on providing messages and policies demonstrating support and acceptance of LGBTQIA students, not banning books in which they are represented. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Porter. Our next speaker is Julie, and I apologize, Ms. Prence, is it Stivers? Stivers. Stivers, thank you. Good evening. Good evening. Hi, I'm Julie Stivers. I'm going to be talking about literacy in libraries, so I'm going to give you a quick bio. I'm the current W. Wake County School Librarian of the Year. I'm the author and editor of a book entitled Include, and
093I've also helped develop the American Association of School Libraries Guide on Defending Intellectual Freedom, LGBTQ Plus Materials in School Libraries. As a librarian, I nurture my students' literacy, their interests, and their full selves. All of my students. If a parent comes to me with a question about a book, the first thing I say is thank you. Thank you for being interested in the literacy and the reading life of your student. So that's how I'll start for anyone listening. Thank you. Because books matter. And they matter when they are accessible to those that need them. Literacy is nurtured through choice, through availability, and through inclusion. All students that walk through the doors of a school library deserve to see themselves on the shelves, their lived experiences. Recent book challenges are not about content. They are about
094identity. They are about denying all of our beautiful students the ability to see themselves reflected in the books in their libraries and classrooms. These challenges target black, Latinx, and queer stories. Not only does this harm the students whose identities are authentically and thoughtfully portrayed in this literature, it harms all students who do not get to learn and build empathy. I'm here to share the most important voices that can't be left out of this conversation, and that's students. The voices of our students. I'm reading nine student comments tonight, not to supplant their amazing voices, but to amplify them. Listen to our students' brilliance, empathy, and expertise. These are thoughts from students from across our district in regards to books that affirm our students' lived experiences, that affirm real history, and that affirm who they are. That
095book you gave me, I think it literally saved my life. That author gets me. The books in this space have made me love reading again. It's magical when a book tells you that you are no longer alone. Why does anyone want to take that experience from someone? It feels safe for me to see things like this in a book for the first time instead of real life. Whispering, is it normal to cry from happiness while reading? I mean, people know that reading about something in a book doesn't mean we'll go and do it, right? Do they realize I read about dragons and I don't start breathing fire? I feel seen. Here's what I don't understand. When has banning books ever been a good idea? When have we ever looked back and said, yeah, that was
096a smart move? Never. I'm here because you helped me find this book. I'm still here and I'm breathing. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Stavis. Our next speaker tonight is Ms. Letha Muhammad. Ms. Muhammad, good evening. Good evening. So today, as you know, is the first day of Black History Month. And what better way to kick off Black History Month but to be here before this board to remind you of the importance of culturally responsive and affirming curriculum for our students in Wake County Public Schools. As a mother of a current 10th grader and of two graduates of Wake County Public Schools, and as the Executive Director of Education Justice Alliance that works with parents and students, black and brown working class parents and students in our community around issues of inequity in school, I thought
097it was important for me to show up here tonight and just remind you all that what's at stake when we don't prioritize everybody in our curriculum. There's been recent attacks all across the country around, you know, CRT. Truth in teaching is what I call it. I think the presentation tonight from Mr. Harris and the staff at Apex Friends School really drove home the point that it is important for us to prioritize teaching the truth for our students. That all students win when we prioritize showing the lived experiences of black and brown and indigenous communities. communities of LGBTQ plus students in the curriculum that we're teaching. So I'm just here tonight to remind you all, to encourage you all to prioritize, to continue to prioritize that. And then also to remind you that equity has to
098be at the core of everything that this school district does. And that for you all as a board, to remind you, we don't have an equity policy in place as of yet. We've been working on an equity policy for a long time, and we've said equity is important. So I'm here tonight to remind you that you all have a responsibility to pass an equity policy for Wake County Public Schools, to hire a leader for the equity department in Wake County Public Schools. You all have done phenomenal through this pandemic. for me and my community to ensure that people are protected, that students are able to go back to school and be safe. And I commend you for that. But I wouldn't be Letha Muhammad if I didn't come here and tell you, though, there's still
099work to be done and not to forget that work. And not to forget that there are students who go to school and school is the only place sometimes that they feel safe. I was encouraged tonight to hear Dr. Cole and his team talk about the school-based mental health supports, which is something something that me and my colleagues and parents have been pushing for a long time. So we're on the right track, but we can't give up. We can't let the voice of dissension take us off track and let us forget the least of us. So I'm just here again to remind you all, like I always do, I've talked to many of you all through the years, that... We have to prioritize students who are most directly impacted by inequities in our schools. And I
100stand before you to say it's black and brown and working class parents or students with disabilities. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Muhammad. Our next speaker, our next speaker tonight is Ms. Cecilia Joyce. Ms. Joyce, good evening, Ms. Joyce. Hi. Good evening, Board and Superintendent Moore. I would like to quickly share an anecdote that speaks to teaching truthful history. As an intervention co-teacher in a 7th grade ELA classroom a few weeks ago, we began a lesson about the life and work of Cesar Chavez, the famous labor organizer and civil rights leader. As we examined the fiery and inspirational Commonwealth Club address that Chavez gave in 1984, I found myself becoming emotional because it speaks to us in so many ways. Really, if you haven't read it, you should. It's amazing. At the beginning of the speech,
101Chavez describes the discrimination, humiliation, abuses, exploitation, violence, and voter suppression experienced by Latinos in urban and rural environments during the early and mid-20th century. Chavez proceeds to discuss his motivation and dream to improve life for Latinos. Chavez speaks of hope and encouragement in the face of cynicism and pessimism. He asserts that those feelings are inevitable, but that once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. Chavez says you cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. He ends by saying that the day will come when our nation shall fulfill its creed and that fulfillment shall enrich us all. As I reflected on this impactful speech and the lesson, I thought about how it affects the students. They
102become really passionate while analyzing and discussing this speech and the social justice issues surrounding it. I reflected and wondered if educators would be able to continue teaching about the systematic racism and oppression encountered by Chavez and others, people of color, and I wonder if we will continue to have books with LGBTQIA themes in our library. Many people have stood here to decry outrage in the name of CRT or other buzzwords chosen to scare folks because they say we are promoting racism and division. when we are actually teaching historical truth and an optimistic view of our nation's future in our schools. We have positive relationships with our students, and it's our job to support each and every one of them, and part of that is the responsibility to speak their truths. I will end by sharing
103student comments about intellectual freedom and specifically the topics of books with LGBTQIA themes and themes of racism. Kids tell me that they think it's good to read diverse books because they can be more empathetic, a book can help put us in someone else's shoes for a while, and then we can understand others. That's what reading and learning is all about, they say. And as an educator and a Wake County Public School parent, I would like to thank you, board and Wake County Public Schools, for continuing to support and encourage our students to become critical thinkers and just and fair humans through the lenses of equity, anti-racism, truth, and intellectual freedom. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Joyce. And our final speaker tonight is Ms. Carrie Bly. Ms. Bly? Good evening, Ms. Bly. Hi. I had a
104different speech tonight, but after I had a lot of meetings with math in the last two weeks, I thought I'd stop and be very clear. I don't want Pete and I's intentions in this room to be lost on you. We've come here in hopes of achieving two things. We want math text for middle school and high school math courses. The resources, workbooks that you offer them do not teach math. And number two... We want you to thoroughly evaluate your math curriculums to make data-informed decisions. I want you to go get the data. So this is my funny example I use with people. If you and I tried to build an IKEA display cabinet and someone took our instruction manual away, yes, you and I would struggle through that build, and we would learn deeply. But
105we all know that even with the instruction manual, you and I were going to struggle through that build anyways. So was that productive struggle, or did we just make things so much harder by not having the tools that we need? Well, Pete and I will do anything for our teachers and our schools and our school system, but the one thing that I will not do is I will not lie for you. I will not tell my children that the math resources you're providing them are enough when we all know that they are not. Our kids have not been using the district-provided high school math curriculum of Mathematics Vision Project since COVID hit, and that's two years. Just that one fact alone should be such a giant red flag. You bought these kids a car and
106these high school kids to get them where they needed to go, and it hasn't run for two years. They can't use it. At the bare minimum, It should show you that these are not standing alone curriculums in this current environment. And like it or not, this current environment is not going away anytime soon. You have some policies in place, like Policy 3100 for Curriculum Development, that states you should establish a curriculum committee. The superintendent can ensure that the methods for meeting curriculum objectives are evaluated for their effectiveness and that they'll report back to the board. We have never seen such a committee. We've never seen any reports. These new curriculums have not been regularly evaluated or reported to you on as a board. And if a student does poorly in all four math courses in
107high school, that's equivalent to failing one entire semester. And it's an indicator that they will probably do poorly on the SAT and the ACT. Now you're affecting their choices as an adult. They will not be accepted into a four-year university. They don't even have the chance to save themselves or teach themselves. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Platt. And that concludes our public comment section of the agenda for tonight. I thank everyone for their comments and for their participation. Next on our agenda, we have action items. Our first action item. is from our chief of schools. Mr. Hagerty, I move approval. Christine Kushner, I move approval of the consent items. I apologize, Ms. Kushner. You have corrected me on the agenda. We did have the consent agenda next. I was looking ahead. I heard a motion
108from Ms. Kushner to approve the items on the consent agenda, and I believe I heard a second from Ms. Johnson-Hossler. So we have a motion on the table for approval of the consent agenda. Again, because we are in our remote rules, we'll need to go around the table and vote by roll call. So I'm going to reverse the order this time, and I'll start with Ms. Carter. We'll move around, and then I'll ask our online members. Karen Carter, yay. Monika Johnson-Hosler, yay. Chris Haggerty, aye. Christine Kushner, aye. Jim Martin, aye. Heather Scott, aye. And for our members online? Roxy Cash, aye. Lindsay Mahaffey, aye. All right. By my count, that was eight votes of aye, no votes in opposition, and the items on the consent agenda are all adopted. Thank you all, and thank you,
109Ms. Kushner, for the reminder. Now we move on to our action items, and we have some items from our chief of schools. The first item on the agenda under Chief of Schools appears to be capping recommendations, and so we'll welcome our Assistant Superintendent, Mr. Glenn Carrozza. Members of the Board, Superintendent Moore, good evening. We have capping recommendations for this evening. I'm joined tonight online by Marcella Rory, the Senior Director for Long-Range Planning. On January 19th, staff presented our recommendations for schools to have an enrollment cap during the Facilities Committee. meeting. These recommendations are proposed to be implemented immediately and continue through the 22-23 school year. To recap that presentation, staff is recommending an enrollment cap for the following schools. Apex Elementary, Holly Ridge Elementary, Parkside Elementary, and Riverbend Elementary. Apex Friendship High School, which already
110has an enrollment cap, is proposed to have a feeder pattern cap implemented, just like what is being currently used at Mills Park Middle School. This is anticipated to help with the rapid growth in the area. Staff has also proposed to remove the enrollment cap at the following schools, Combs Elementary and Lead Mine Elementary. These recommendations are based on several factors that include principal feedback, a review of base student percentages, projected growth, and school capacities. Tonight, we are seeking your approval to support these recommendations. Staff is available for any questions you may have at this time. Thank you, Mr. Kroza. And I noted there was a presentation that was uploaded. Was there anything in the presentation that we need to go through? It was just supportive material that we had presented during the Facilities Committee. Okay,
111great. Thank you so much. At this point, you've heard the recommendations from staff about the capping recommendations. Is there a motion at this time? And then pending a motion, we can have discussion. Based on the materials presented at the facilities committee meeting, I'll make a motion to approve the staff's recommendation for capping. Dr. Martin has put a motion to adopt the staff recommendation on the capping recommendations. Is there a second? Heather Scott, second. Thank you, Miss Scott. All right, we have a motion on the floor to accept the capping recommendations in a second. Is there any discussion or are there questions for Mr. Carrozza? Dr. Martin. Thank you. I'd like to just briefly recognize that I think one of the big themes in the facilities committee meeting is nobody likes capping. Staff doesn't like capping.
112The board doesn't like capping. The community doesn't like capping. But what capping does is it minimizes the need for reassignment. uh... it's a short-term uh... uh... solution it's not a long-term solution and and so i don't think anybody at this table who votes in favor of this is saying yes we really like capping but it is a necessary thing to do uh... the second thing i want to note is that uh... Particularly at Combs, which is in District 5, I'll just note. Correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Croza, but I think it's important for the public to remember that that cap is being lifted because of the cost that it would be to remove trailers. Combs has a large abundance of trailers. They have just been... re-added into the capacity numbers and there's no sense
113having empty trailers since there just is not a budget to remove that. I think the same kind of thing will happen in other schools. So we're using the capacity that we have at this time, but this really highlighted the challenge we have that we have some schools that just have an inordinate number of mobile classrooms that were allegedly temporary, but temporary has lasted decades. So that's... Removing the cap, but the problem is still there. That's correct. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Martin. And we're going to continue to talk about these issues in Facilities Committee. Is that correct? We absolutely will. Thank you. I mean, it's got to be capping. It's got to be assignment-related issues, calendar issues. It's a comprehensive issue because we need to have seats where the children are. That's right. We have
114some remote members who have comments. I'll turn to Ms. Cash. I just want to again say that capping is expensive for the school system. So I don't support that in any way as if at all possible, but capping is expensive. Thank you, Ms. Cash. Chair Mahaffey? Thank you very much. And certainly echo Ms. Cash's. sentiments that capping is difficult. Capping is taking the burden of overcrowded schools and putting them on families that are new to the district. As Dr. Martin noted, we have many schools that have been capped for a long time. I appreciate the work that our student assignment and long-range planning teams and our facilities committee have done and a commitment to looking at different ways that we can tackle this. Mr. Carrozza, I do have some questions that I've been hearing from
115families that are impacted by this cap. Any person currently living in any of the base assignment areas will not be impacted by the cap. Is that correct? For the four new schools and for Apex Friendship High School, the feeder pattern cap will not start until you approve it this evening, assuming you do so. Same for the four new schools. Anyone who lives in those base attendance areas today, that means they're occupying their home right now. It's their permanent domicile. They would not be affected. Thank you. And just because a school is capped does not mean that... capping out as we call our students going to an overflow school gets put in place tomorrow correct say that one more time i'm sorry uh because a cap is in place that does not mean that a student
116who enrolls tomorrow or moves into the district tomorrow does not automatically go to an overflow school correct they would not automatically go but they would be eligible if there are no available seats at the school at that particular grade level Great. Thank you so much for clarifying that. And I know your team will continue to work with the feeding schools to Apex Friendship as this goes forward because a feeder pattern cap is something, although some of our schools are familiar with it, that is new to this area. Thank you. And we already have some planned outreach for those schools as well. Thank you. Ms. Kushner? Thank you, Mr. Hagerty. And I agree, the capping is expensive and it is straining our busing capacity. And we also heard in facilities that a lot of the capping
117would be unnecessary if we didn't have the K-3 class size limits imposed on us. And we talked about looking into a waiver. Mr. Proza, is there any possibility that we could Submit a waiver to dpi so that we don't have to cap some of these schools. We're still looking into it from what I can read It's only a one-year waiver and you're not allowed to ask for it again superintendent work and chime in more the The waivers happen during the course of the school year. There is not a process that contemplates requesting a waiver prior to the opening of a school year. And the waivers have to do with a 2% growth unanticipated during the course of a school year. Or I think, and obviously some of our schools that are restart or others have
118options that are not required to follow the K-3 class size. But whatever waiver options are available right now, and that's the question that I've asked, are there options that allow us to be more proactive? And right now there are not. So we cannot be proactive in addressing. There's not a path for that right now. Yeah, well, and I remember. decades ago, many of our year-round schools had to ask for waivers for the previous version of class size limits, and those were given and then suddenly were cut off. So I know it seems to be a reactive waiver is what I'm hearing. Well, thank you for looking into it, and I think we should still continue to have that conversation because I think for... everything's a trade-off. And I think for parts of this county, parents
119and families would rather have bigger class sizes and not be capped out and not be reassigned and not convert schools to year-round calendars. That would be their choice, and we're not able to give them that choice for these schools. And that's frustrating. Thank you for bringing both Superintendent Moore and Mr. Carrozza. Thank you for that. Just to share a little bit more, you had asked about the impact of K-3. I think back in 2018 when we made a presentation to the board, we had projected about over 9,000 seats lost due to the K-3 class size legislation. And I think it was more closer to like 9,500. So it has been severely impactful on Wake County schools. Thank you. Any other board comments or questions? Ms. Cash, do you have a follow-up question? No, I'm sorry.
120I meant to take that down. No problem. That's quite all right. Thank you. So, Mr. Kroeser, we did have a good discussion about this issue in the Facilities Committee. I was pleased to see the cap come off of Lead Mine Road Elementary, and I know that's probably impacted by opening up the new elementary school, Barton Pond, in that area. Another school that was affected by the opening where we've reassigned students was Sycamore Creek. And as you know, Sycamore Creek was crowded. It still has the cap. What are you forecasting in terms of cap relief there or taking the cap off Sycamore Creek? Is that something we could look at next year, two years? What's your prediction? So as with any school impacted by the opening of a new school, we will monitor those schools for
121the next year or two. What we can't predict is parent choices. And so we'll continue to monitor those choices that parents are making, specifically the families that chose to stay under the stability rules. And so we'll continue to monitor that as the forecast for that particular area, that base area, continues to not continue to overcrowd the school. We will certainly look to remove the cap because, I mean, we can all agree we don't want to have enrollment caps. They're just a necessary component of our day-to-day work. Thank you. And then, you know, as we talk about capping and what our options are, I have to bring up the example of Parkside Elementary because this is a brand new elementary school that's open since I've been on the board where there was skepticism about whether or
122not we could even fill this as a year-round school. And now, three years later, you know, our enrollment numbers in the year-round school are so high. that we have a capping recommendation. And in terms of what our other solutions are, we talk about, well, potentially there's reassignment. What else could we do here? To look at the overflow school for Parkside, you have to drive past so many other schools, not just even traditional calendar schools, but other year-round schools. that are over capacity and may have an enrollment cap on them as well. And so the fact that you have to go from Parkside all the way to Adams to get to another multi-track year-round school that has capacity. I mean, I think it's incredible. And I don't, I mean, short of school construction or massive reassignment,
123I don't know what options we have there. You know, we talk about year-round schools as a way to address crowding, but here we have schools out there that are already multi-track schools that are not only taking these students but are also over capacity and then pushing their students out. I know there's going to be families that are going to be adversely affected by this capping, but the nearest year-round schools closest to them so they can keep their kids on the same calendar, or if they have siblings that are on a multi-track middle school calendar, is miles and miles away, passing over four or five other schools to get there. I think it just goes to show this perpetual chase that we have, chasing dollars for school construction for capacity in some of the fastest growing
124areas of our county. And I wish I had a better solution. And I know we're talking about some innovative ideas, but in this situation, I don't know, I don't have a better solution to propose. It's just the reality that we're in. If you have innovative solutions, please bring them to the table because I don't know how we address a situation like this where the brand-new schools are filling up above and beyond capacity and there's no proximate schools near them where we can send the children. Thank you. And if there's no other discussion, we have, I believe it was Dr. Martin's motion on the table to accept the capping recommendations from staff. Are we ready for a vote? All right. Again, it will be a roll call vote, and we'll start with Ms. Scott. Heather Scott,
125aye. Jim Martin, aye. Christine Kushner, reluctant, aye. Chris Agarty, another reluctant, aye. Monika Johnson-Hossler, aye. Karen Carter, aye. And for our members who are participating remotely. Roxy Cash, aye. Lindsay Mahaffey, aye. Thank you. And by my count, that was an 8-0 affirmative vote in favor of the staff recommendation. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Carrozza. All right. Next on the agenda, we have the recommendation to convert three multi-track year-round schools to single-track four. And Mr. Carrozza will also be presenting that recommendation. Thank you. As you'll remember, during the January 18th board work session, staff presented a recommendation to the board to convert three schools from the multi-track year-round calendar to the track four only calendar. The schools recommended by staff are Westlake Elementary, Middle Creek Elementary, and Westlake Middle. These recommendations to change to the track
126four calendar are proposed to take effect for the 22-23 school year. Staff plans to bring these schools back for review in three years. to determine if any other changes are necessary based on the data at that time. Staff conducted several public meetings and collected survey data which was shared during the previous presentation. Tonight we're seeking your approval to support these recommendations. Staff is available for any questions that you may have. And what we've uploaded is a condensed version from the presentation we had at the last work session. Thank you. And so all board members can find those materials online in assembly. Dr. Martin? Thank you. I'd like to make a motion to approve shifting these three schools to be single track, track four calendar schools. All right. There is a motion on the floor to
127begin discussion. Are there any seconds? Ms. Carter, seconds. All right. Further discussion on the motion. I'd just like to thank staff for their hard work on this, for holding the listening forums. I'd like to thank the staff of the school for also working at getting communication out. The PTA also did amazing jobs trying to make sure communication took place. Decisions like this are not made by a popular vote, but at the same time, they need to be informed by the constituency, and I think this process worked quite well. where it really was a balance of the staff evaluation, clear guidelines, running at the level that these schools have been. It has not been efficient. It has not been in the best education for the students. This will increase stability. This will improve the educational system.
128And so I really think it is a strong recommendation to move in this direction. And I will look forward to further... work on our calendar discussions. This is dealing with the under enrolled side of things. We need to make sure we look at the over enrolled side of things in the future, but this is a good first step. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Martin. Further comments, further questions? Ms. Johnson-Hossler. Thank you. And again, you ask and you shall receive. Last week I asked Mr. Corza to send me the actual disaggregated feedback from Banks Road because, of course, I started to receive emails and comments from families and educators in the school community at Banks Road. Thank you, Mr. Frosentine, and to Dr. Martin's part, the process was well received. The data wasn't that significantly different
129for Banks Road than it was for the Westlake and Mill Creek community. And overwhelmingly, the feedback, of course, over the last week has been that they strongly, as a community, want to see them put in this pack. And while I said last week, I still certainly appreciate the work that staff did to ensure that there were actual metrics we were using. And I appreciate that, and so I don't disregard that, but I would be remiss representing District 2 and the parents and educators of Banks Road if I didn't share some of their solid reasoning for wanting to be included in single track, which we remember this from last year when Dr. Martin and I brought it. And I actually had another school on the list who actually did not ask to be put in this
130list. So, again, it speaks to, while it's not popular vote, it certainly is. important for us to hear from our school communities. And a couple of the things, particularly from this school that's had several principals in the last few years, this is particularly from educators. And outside of... them stressing their sincere disappointment that i did not include banks road last week in the discussion but they thought they would send feedback that i could share with the full board and one of the largest reasons for them and i'll just read a snippet of it the significantly increased level of stress we've endured during covet makes it difficult a difficult job as is but in a multi-track under enroll year-round school we're faced with not just the decrease in students but the decrease in the sense of
131unity and cohesiveness that is an inherent part of team members being on different calendars, specifically when there's been leadership change and significant low morale in the school district. And I think it's important. The data that you sent the whole board can see, and it's, again, roughly 62% from families who wanted to move to single track. But I also thought that the teacher voice should be uplifted here. Again, I ask that I receive and Dr. Martin, I would like to propose amending your motion to include Banks Road. Yes, we do. All right, so we do have a motion to amend Dr. Martin's motion, and Dr. Martin has seconded the amendment motion. That's a real friendly amendment. That's a very friendly amendment. I know we have some other speakers. I don't know if they wanted to speak
132on the amendment yet. Ms. Cash, did you want to speak to Ms. Johnson-Hossler's amendment or on the whole motion? So the amendment is to add one more school. Is that correct? I believe that's correct. Banks Elementary? Banks Road Elementary. Okay. Well, I'll just say that, you know, none of these are my schools, but the fact that I've received some correspondence about it being this year, like a short turnaround time. And when I've asked to move some of my schools to multi-track, I was told I couldn't do it in less than two years. I was concerned about, has the board, is this what we normally do, is move our schools on tracks? I think some of these schools have moved twice on these tracks. I just want to hear from the board members that represent the
133schools. Okay, you all have heard Ms. Cash's request. I'll start with Dr. Martin and then go to Ms. Johnson-Hossler. Yeah, so Ms. Cash, you know, because I always advocated every year in assignment discussions, we need to be making these decisions ahead of time so that there is an appropriate runway. And so, no, this should not be the norm to be this late. That said, I have been working with the Westlake and Middle Creek schools. for a very long time on this issue and it kept getting pushed back and pushed back and pushed back. There was a lot of work really was hoped to have been done at the time of our school assignment vote. There was a lot of hope to get this decision incorporated into that decision. It was not done. So you're absolutely
134right, this is later than is ideal. There has been a challenge, I believe, in getting the sort of the guiding principles in place to how we do the metrics of evaluation. That has slowed things down. So I can speak for the District 5 schools. There really has been a lot of legwork done to try to make this decision. The last thing I'll note is I do believe there is a difference going from an under-enrolled multitrack, because that's a situation where... You already have under-enrolled classes. You've got an inefficient use of staff. You've got the loss of community, as Ms. Johnston-Hosler noted. So what you're doing is you're going from a more disconnected and disjointed community into a more connected learning community. that is moving in a very positive direction, is less disruptive to a community.
135If you go the other direction, so you had a single community and you now have to divide it into multiple parts to go from single track or traditional to multi-track, that's a much more difficult operation. There's a lot more legwork that needs to happen. So I think while all of these decisions should have a long runway of time, The runway must be much longer going from single track or traditional to multi-track than the other way around. I would echo, I mean, actually, I don't have much to add other than I think all of us have been on this board a long time, always advocate that we give families a much longer runway. Actually, when Dr. Martin and I brought this up in the midst of COVID, there were two schools on my list who were
136absolutely asking to be moved to track four. And for all the reasons Dr. Martin mentioned, that was delayed. And so I would agree. I would generally never put us in this place. But I do think the difference for me is hearing from the school community. So I don't feel like as a board member I'm making a decision that I would generally be advocating against, which is literally changing the school calendar in the same calendar year, January to August. And so that is generally not the way that I do business, but I do think that. given all the things that we hear and aren't able to do for families and the school community when they're on the same page, it's hard not to bring this to the table. And so I do apologize to my board
137members because I tend to try not to surprise anything, but it does impact us when we hear from the full community. We are getting memos or emails saying the opposite, that they don't want to go, they feel like it's too late. Thank you, Ms. Cash. Any other comments from anyone else online? If not, Mr. Monegracy, you want to raise a point. I have a question on debate as well, but is it germane to the amendment? I just wanted to just reiterate where we are procedurally, that there's a motion and a second to amend the motion, and so that would be the next order of business. If that passes, that doesn't mean the underlying motion hasn't been approved. There would still need to be a vote on that. Thank you for that clarification. Thank you. So
138I have a question for Ms. Johnson-Hassler on the amendment. So I heard you talk about getting the feedback and the comments from the school and from parents, and I just want to make sure you saw the criteria that... I led with that in my motion. I'm sorry. The matrix, yes. I did see it, and I spoke to it in the beginning. I heard you speak to it, but I just didn't hear what exactly the utilization numbers were. Glenn gave it to us last week. That's why I didn't speak to him. It's 79. 79%, so it clearly is over that. Sorry, I did not go back and repeat what Glenn said last week. Thank you. I just needed a refresher. It's been a long week. And just to clarify, Glenn, the matrix that you used used
13975% utilization, and Banks Road was at 79%. Yeah, actually, at the time we had run, it was 80%, but yeah, 79, 80. Okay, thank you. So we do have a motion on the table to amend Dr. Martin's motion to include Banks Road Elementary in the list of recommendations. Is there any further discussion? If not, we'll take a roll call vote. We'll start with Ms. Carter. Karen Carter, aye. Monika Jelson-Hosworth, aye. Chris Haggerty, aye. Christine Kushner, aye. Jim Martin, aye. Heather Scott, aye. And for our remote members? Roxy Cash, no. Lindsay Mahaffey, aye. Okay, by my count, that was a 7-1 vote, seven members voting in the affirmative, one member, Ms. Cash, voting no. So the motion has been amended, and now we have before us the list of staff recommendations that has been amended to
140include Banks Road Elementary. That motion is on the table. Is there any further discussion, further debate? I just wanted to add that this would be effective at the start of the upcoming 22-23 school year, correct? That is correct. Thank you. All right. Ms. Mahaffey. Thank you, Vice Chair Haggerty. Mr. Croza, a couple of the emails that we have received have said we prefer year-round, we prefer being not track four. What is an option for families that want to stay on a preferred track or if they wish to transfer because they do not want to be on a single track? So we will have the request for transfer period, which opens February 25th through March 11th. Families can submit a transfer request for any school in the district during that time. Thank you. Thank you. And
141Ms. Cash, I see your hand is still up. Do you have any further comment on the overall motion? Sorry. No, I'll take it down. All right. Thank you. Ms. Scott. I just want to say on the record, I understand the frustration of the Roseville Middle School community, as I know Mr. Croza and his team understand as well, that it's a frustrating situation with fully enrolled, multi-track year-round schools that feed into Roseville Middle School. So as much as they do meet those other criteria for being a single-track school and all the benefits that would improve, unfortunately, the feeder patterns. with the elementary schools just don't align and I know that we'll keep working to support them as best as we can in the meantime. Thank you, Ms. Scott. Dr. Martin? If I may make one more
142comment, I think whenever we deal with this kind of situation, it behooves us to remind the community that we are really hamstrung by the state's calendar law. you know, we've got these capacity issues. The multi-track calendar is an option for being able to increase use when we need that capacity, but it becomes actually detrimental to education when we don't need that capacity. And if we had the authority, we do have the authority to dial back and forth single track to multi-track. that if we actually had the calendar authority to go to the modified year-round calendar that would be educationally uh... more beneficial across many grade spans including a better alignment at at say high schools to community colleges if the school system instead of the general assembly had control over calendars we would actually be
143able to improve the education for our students and stability for our families thank you any other further comments for the debate If not, then I'd like to take a vote on the motion on the floor as amended. We'll start with Ms. Scott. Heather Scott, aye. Jim Martin, aye. Christine Kushner, aye. Chris Haggerty, aye. Monika Johnson-Hassler, aye. Karen Carter, aye. And our members remotely. Roxy Cash, no. Lindsay Mahaffey, aye. And by my count, that is a 7-1 vote, seven members voting in the affirmative, one member, Ms. Cash, voting in the negative. The motion passes. Thank you, Mr. Carrozza. All right. The next item, also handled by Mr. Carrozza, the Magnet Schools Assistance Program Grant, Candidate Schools and Themes Presentation. I'm not going to take full credit for this one. I brought Dr. Kimberly Lane with me.
144She's the Senior Director for Magnet and Curriculum Enhancement Programs. I ask you to remember back to November 16th when we brought to the board work session, staff presented the board with information on the initial planning for the next five-year cycle of the Magnet Schools Assistance Program, the MSAP grant. At that time, the board reviewed data and provided feedback on the proposed schools that are candidates for the upcoming 2022 through 2027 grant. With that, I'll turn it over to Dr. Lane to share more and answer any questions you may have. Good evening, and thank you for honoring our Magnet Schools of America Merit Award winners of excellence and distinction. Out of our 50 schools that applied, 45 received recognition. So we are celebrating that, and we'll continue to celebrate that. We would ask you to remember
145in November we did bring to you the data analysis that was done through multiple outreach opportunities. We had business panels, focus groups. We did contract with a company to come in and help us. Met us and associates out of New York. who work with us on our grant evaluations. They're actually in town this week evaluating some of our grant schools and are sharing information with our district leadership on Thursday afternoon. helped us with some of the surveys and the focus groups. We reached out to families, both current Wake County families, but also those who have left the district. And that narrowed down with the Magnet Schools Assistance Grant criteria for schools, which is the only desegregation grant still in existence for the federal government. It is their five-year grant cycle. We are asking the board
146to consider revisioning to... of our current magnet school Centennial Magnet Middle School and East Millbrook Magnet Middle School and then we are asking to add Wake Forest Elementary School and Wildwood Forest Elementary School as additional magnet schools. The schools must be in alignment with these MSAT purposes and considerations and that's part of the data that was shared. The current presentation that you have has the exact same information we shared earlier, but in addition to that it works through our process within the Magnet Office of Working with Schools. At this point we have met with all four of the schools, surveyed their parents, their students and staff to get a better sense of what types of themes the community is looking for. and how we go about developing that and continuing our K-12 pathways for our
147magnet programs. We are anticipating that the grant will be released at any time. The last information we have is the RFP should be released no later than the end of February, early March. We understand that there's about a 60-day turnaround, which means that we are working, have been working behind the scenes quite a bit to prepare for the grant application. So we would ask we bring this to you tonight to seek your approval for the candidate schools so that we will move forward with the next MSAP grant cycle application that is likely to be due no later than May 1st. Thank you, Doctor. So staff is recommending the following current or candidate schools for the MSAP 2002-2007 grant. Centennial Magnet Middle School, East Millbrook Magnet Middle School, Wake Forest Elementary School, Wildwood Forest Elementary School.
148Is there a motion by the board? Ms. Scott. Vice Chair Haggerty, I move to approve staff's recommendations for the schools you just listed for the MSAP 2022-2027 grant. Thank you. Jim Martin, second. And we have a second from Dr. Martin. So there's a motion on the table to recommend the list of schools recommended by staff for the MSAP 2002-2007 grant. Is there any discussion or any questions for staff? Ms. Scott. Thank you. I want to thank you so much for the work that you put into this and gathering all the data and the information from the community members, from the people who are at, have been at the school, at all of these schools. Speaking only for Wake Forest, of course, since that is in my neck of the woods, I know that the community
149is incredibly excited. The school community is excited. I know the town itself would love to support. uh... having a magnet school again at wake forest elementary school sign a lot of people have worked very hard for quite some time and that's what i would like to express my gratitude thank you miss scott miss kushner thank you uh... and i just want to uh... voice support for for the plan and i you know school choice is uh... definitely a politically popular word and i'm proud that in wake county public schools are school choice programs have choice with purpose, that we are reducing high concentrations of poverty, we are promoting diversity through school integration. We know integrated schools for decades and decades of research. Integrated schools are what are best for all children. And right now in
150North Carolina, the policies of school choice are leading to resegregation through charter schools and private schools. It's leading to... profiteering and privatization through the charter school and movement and i um leading to discrimination through the opportunity so-called opportunity scholarships we have to be at cognizant of what's going on and we have to i hope that folks who support school choice will also speak out against resegregation against privatization so that these scarce public school dollars can be used for the public education of our children whether through it's it's a integrated public school system or an integrated other school. But truly, I appreciate the magnet system in Wake County for promoting choice with purpose. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Kushner. Dr. Martin, you had a further comment? Yeah, I want to absolutely reinforce everything Ms. Kushner just
151said. Choice with purpose is what we need to be about. I also want to commend your work so far, including students, in helping the visioning theme, and I want to reinforce that. I'm reminded of an advising discussion I had just yesterday with a student. And that sort of, you know, when I looked at particularly the table on slide 24, it's striking that the student distribution of ideas does not match the parental distribution of ideas. And this is a very relevant topic when we talk about student choice and parent choice, right? I mean, absolutely parents need to be involved in education. I will strongly advocate for that, and I was strongly involved in my children's education. But both of my children are artists, and I'm a scientist. Did I know best? I did the best I
152could, but I worked with the school to gain resources to help my children find their passion and excel in their passion. And we need to remember that. We need to listen to kids, because I don't want to get more kids than I, I mean, I fairly regularly see kids. in STEM fields at NC State. I was smart and my parents thought I should go into STEM. Don't get me wrong, STEM is important. I'm kind of passionate about science. I come to my class and you'll see that I am. But I don't want kids in my class pursuing a STEM major if their passion is somewhere else. And so I just really, as we develop these themes, I think it's really important to sort of, like I say, thank you for getting some of that feedback,
153but I think it's really important to look at this balance because we adults sometimes will map out one set of things and kids say, wait a minute, these are where my passions lie. And I will tell you that I will take a scientist who had a passion for the arts in high school because they'll be a better scientist when they get to graduate school. So I don't care. Really, pretty much what? Art, sciences, math, language, history. What we need to be doing is we need to be inspiring our kids to want to learn. And if we do that, we're going to create scientists, social scientists, engineers, whatever. So let's listen to the kids. Thank you. Thank you for saying that. And I will say we were visiting with one of the schools today, and we
154have students on the design team at every school. Thank you. That is so important. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Lane. We have Ms. Cash, and then we'll go to Ms. Johnson-Hossler. Yeah, thank you. One of these schools in my area, it's in my area, and I want to work. Excuse me, Ms. Cash, you're breaking up. Okay, sorry, let me take off the video. Okay. Is that better? Yeah, I can hear you better now. Thank you. Okay. Some of these schools actually need outside help with other partnerships, and one of those schools in my area actually does want outside help. So I think these schools need to be open to having volunteer help from outside facilities. Would that be helpful? Dr. Lane, I don't know if she can see you nodding. Is that a yes? Yes.
155We are engaging. And if you mean, I'm just going to ask for clarity because we certainly are engaging with community partners. Okay. But also outside experts in some of these fields to help us vision the work. Does that answer your question? Yeah, kind of. I mean, the schools that we're working with need PTA development. They need community support. A lot of them don't have any involvement with their PTAs in communities. So I'm just looking to be sure that we open them up for that as well while we open them up for their applications. Absolutely, and that is one of our focuses, the community outreach. Certainly that not only supports recruitment, but it supports that community feeling for family, the culture. That's a big part of our work. So, yes, we will pay attention to that.
156Thank you for the question. No, thank you. All right. Ms. Johnson-Hossler. Thank you. I certainly echo Ms. Cash's point. I went to one of the magnet schools in her district and had to start a PTA, so I know exactly what she's talking about. And I'm glad to hear you say that. And of course, I think I recommended this while I was attending and my daughter went to East Millbrook Middle School and who's a dancer. And I still strongly recommend that we bring a lot of outside influence to our schools who need the support. One, because the school might be the only exposure that some of our gifted students who are in the arts or for that matter, actually looking at their. the things that they're interested in like parents like bilingual i think there are
157ways to engage our community partners um you all have heard me talk about it our dance studio started a partnership with wake county public schools because we were able to figure out only one high school had access to outside dancers who come into wake county daily but they were only had access at one high school so there are a lot of opportunities that exist that i think builds not just the partnership for our schools and our community, but it also exposes our kids in different ways into career paths. which is what our magnets are for, that they would never know that they have. Now, mind you, my daughter wants to be a dancer, and I kind of wish I'd have sent her to a science school gym now that we're getting close to the end
158of this high school thing. But I do think it's important that they have that exposure early because, you know, most of them wouldn't have if they weren't at our schools. And so while our schools are doing an amazing job, I also think that those partnerships changes the dynamics of school partnership. We were able to get some of those people to contribute not just their time but their money and effort. to the programs because we needed to resource other things at the school. Again, when we look particularly at the needs that they have met, we had a lot of social and emotional issues that also had to be addressed at the school in addition to ensuring that we were meeting the magnet theme. So I just want to, one. echo the importance and thank you for
159the work that you've done. I love that there's a student on every design team. I think they will be much smarter, brighter, and sharper on ideas than I ever could be. So thank you for including them. And I also think that for those of us who are parents who have something in mind, like I wanted my daughter to be in arts because I'm not a scientist. However, she would have... several steps further and I think that it's important for parents to see these level of outcomes and then the last thing I'll draw us to is when we look at what teachers say these are things that are necessary regardless of what they do and so I just want to remind parents that while what they are interested in is different from their students I think
160what our teachers are saying their desired outcomes won't matter the theme but really prepare our students for life after our schools so thank you to the team and again hopefully parents will take a look at sometimes we do have to take a step back and listen to our young people Thank you. I'm smiling under the mask because at our meeting today, again, we kind of were brainstorming what things we could do for after-school connections or summer connections or Saturday opportunities for students to come in and study. So I think it's going to be exciting as we plan forward. I'm excited hearing you say that. Thank you for sharing that. All right, are there any other questions for Dr. Lane? Any other board comments? All right, if not, Dr. Lane, thank you so much. I know
161that you put a lot of effort into explaining this grant application, answering board questions, and I think you've heard you have a lot of support on the board for this motion going forward. At this time, I'll call a question on the motion on the floor, and I'll start with our remote members this time, since they haven't gotten a chance to lead off. Voting the motion that was made was in support of the district's recommendations for the MSAP candidate schools and themes for 2022 to 2027. We'll start with our online members. Roxy Cash, yes. Lindsay Mahaffey, aye. Then we'll go to Ms. Carter. Karen Carter, aye. Monika Johnson-Hossler, aye. Chris Haggerty aye Christine Kushner aye Jim Martin aye Heather Scott aye and by my count that's a unanimous vote eight to zero in support of staff
162recommendation thank you Dr. Lane thank you Mr. Perroza All right, moving down the list, we have another action item. This is an academic achievement, Senate Bill 654, local face covering policy. Presenting the, making the presentation tonight is Paul Coe, Assistant Superintendent of Student Support Services. Welcome, Mr. Coe. Thank you, Vice Chair Haggerty, and good evening, Chair Mahaffey, Superintendent Moore, and board members. Board action is requested to approve and continue Wake County Public School System's face covering guidance. with the understanding that staff is given operational authority to implement this requirement. We're recommending approval of our current guidance with the addition of updates recommended by the Division of Child Development and Early Education, DCDEEs. A recommendation that masks be required for children two years or older indoors and on WCPSS transportation and WCPSS vendor transportation with the
163note that masks may be removed while eating and drinking and masks should not be worn when sleeping and nap time areas should be spaced out as much as possible. Before you proceed with tonight's vote, we also wanted to provide additional context related to our health consideration. The slide assembly shows data from the morning of January 24th, 2022. However, as of January 31st, 2022, the data noted 69% of students ages 12 to 17 have at least one dose of vaccination, while 66% have two doses or one dose of Johnson & Johnson. 45% of students age 5 to 11 have at least one dose, while 38% have two doses or one dose of Johnson & Johnson. And for our staff, between 80% to 90% indicate they have at least one dose of vaccination per our staff survey.
164We've seen significant increases in cases as of December 27th, though recently we've seen decreases in our cases. And to that point, for our seven-day average, the number as of January 31st was updated to 1,347 cases per 100,000. And this is a decrease from the 2,595 cases from our January 11th report. And for our percent positivity, we are at 25.71%, which is a decrease from the 27.08% from January 11th. And as a reminder, in the FAQs for the Strong Schools North Carolina Public Health Toolkit, NCDHHS notes that schools should base their face covering requirements on levels of community transmission as defined by the CDC. And per the CDC and NCDHHS, community transmission levels are determined by two indicators, case rates and test percent positivity. If the two indicators suggest different levels of transmission, the higher level
165should be selected. And NCDHHS recommends that schools continue to implement a universal face covering requirement if they are located in a county with high or substantial levels as defined by the CDC. When community transmission levels decline to moderate or low levels for at least seven consecutive days, schools can consider making face coverings optional for vaccinated individuals. And per NCDHHS, face coverings in school should be required for all unvaccinated individuals until community transmission is at low levels when face coverings can be optional for everyone. And NCDHHS notes that they will continue to reevaluate this guidance as all school-age children become eligible for and get vaccinated. And just to remind again, the CDC defines high, substantial, moderate, and low transmissions as at the high level is 100 or more cases per 100,000 and 10% or greater positivity
166rate. At the substantial level is 50 to 99 cases per 100,000 and 8 to 9.99% positivity rate. Moderate is 10 to 49 cases per 100,000 with a 5.799. percent positivity rate and the low is less than 10 cases per 100,000 less than five percent positivity rate. And so our current WCPSS face covering guidance approved by the board on January 4th notes that face coverings for students at school at the pre-K level that ages three to four is strongly recommended and required for age five, even in pre-K while indoors and on transportation, and is required for indoor recess and PE, while face coverings are optional for outdoor recess and PE. And for grades K through 12, face coverings are required indoors. Face coverings are required on transportation, for indoor recess and PE, and optional for outdoor
167recess and PE. And for our athletics, band, and co-curricular activities, we note that face coverings are required during indoor activity, practices, and events. Face coverings are required at indoor competitions, both home and away. And for outdoors, face coverings are optional, including bell covers for instruments. And face coverings are required on our WCPSS and WCPSS vendor transportation. And again, just to go back to my initial point, we did want to provide the update to guidance from the Child Care Strong NC Public Health Toolkit, which comes from the Division of Child Development and Early Education, which recommends, again, that masks should be required for children two years and older indoors and on transportation, while masks may be removed while eating and drinking. while not being warned when sleeping and nap time areas should be spaced out as
168much as possible. And while we do not have two-year-olds in our pre-K classrooms, we do have ready to learn centers at some of our elementary schools serving about 24 two-year-olds currently from our county through Project Enlightenment. And while the language in the DCDEE guidance notes that we should require, we want to note that this guidance has exceptions for persons with disabilities who cannot wear a mask or cannot safely wear a mask for reasons related to the disability, and that child care programs should assess each child's ability to wear a mask correctly, avoid frequent touching of the mask and their face, limit sucking, drooling, or having excess saliva on the mask, and remove the mask without assistance. So with this change from the DCDEE guidance, we wanted to note that we are implementing this guidance per
169the best practice suggestion. And our recommendation this evening is to approve our current face covering guidance with the addition of the updates suggested by the Division of Child Development and Early Education for students ages two years and older to be required to wear masks indoors and on transportation, noting that masks may be removed while eating and drinking and masks should not be worn while sleeping or nap time. I'll now pause here for any questions and discussion. All right. Thank you, Mr. Koh. I do see Ms. Cash's hand is up. Ms. Cash, did you have a comment or question for Mr. Koh? I guess Ms. Cash is not available. No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I thought I was muted. I thought I was unmuted. Sorry. Go ahead. I'm sorry. That's all right. So I think the
170two-year-old is a new requirement, right? Mr. Koh, I think that... We've had some emails asking about why two-year-olds are required now. Can you talk to that? So, yes, thank you for that question, Ms. Cash. So this comes from the Division of Child Development Early Education Toolkit that works in part. It is similar to the Strong Schools Toolkit for all K-12 schools. This is for child care programs and centers. And so they have recommended that all programs should require that. masks are worn for children two years and older indoors and on transportation, noting that it can be removed while eating and drinking and not worn during nap time or while they're sleeping. So that's where it comes from. And it was recommended that we make sure we add this guidance to ensure that we have guidance
171that is specific to also, it's a small population that we serve, but it's nonetheless a population that we are serving regularly through our OEL programming. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Cash. Dr. Martin? For discussion, I believe we need a motion, so I will make a motion to approve the staff's recommendations. There's a motion on the floor to approve the staff recommendations from Dr. Martin. Is there a second? Second. Second by Ms. Johnson-Hossler. All right, the motion is on the floor, and it is open for discussion. Did you have a particular discussion or otherwise we'll go back to some of the folks on remote? Yeah, so just one point for discussion, and I think it's very appropriate to be following the health professionals' guidance. Sometimes people say, are we health professionals? The answer is no,
172but we are following the public health professionals' guidance. I think that is our responsibility as elected officials is to listen to the public health professionals. To that point, I think it is important to note because of some things that have come out in public comment, that the board is not recommending, quote, cloth masks. We've heard quite a lot of comment that cloth masks are inefficient, they don't work, and therefore get rid of all masks. That is not the recommendation of the board. In fact, the board has nothing to do with cloth or what type of mask. As I read the public health literature from CDC and other sources, that the recommendation is to wear the highest quality mask. that you can work with. You know, I think the, you know, all somebody needs to do
173is, you know, why do you sneeze into your arm? Why do you sneeze into a tissue? Because it reduces the spread. Does that prevent viral spread? No. What do we mean by work? None of our masks are 100% effective at keeping a virus from going through. This is a critical case of the difference between individual health and public health. Something like a mask doesn't necessarily do, I mean, I think the N95s, the KN95s, I think do help the individual. But even the cloth masks help the community. And I think it's just really important that we differentiate the individual versus community effect. So if you don't care for yourself, we can't do anything about that. But we do have a collective responsibility of a community. And so I think we really need to be clear that
174the recommendation is to wear the highest quality mask that you can work with. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Martin. Chair Mahaffey. Thank you, Vice Chair Haggerty. Mr. Coe, with this piece for our small, certainly valued two and up population, with the masking, does that reduce any quarantine times? It can, based on the exceptions that are noted in our guidance from NCDHHS. You know, for example, one example I can share is that for household exposures, if there are no symptoms and someone is vaccinated, quarantines will not be required. So that's one example of how vaccinated individuals are impacted. No, I mean masking for our students that we're putting on for the two-year-olds that is being recommended. So could you restate your question again, Ms. Mahaffey? I'm sorry. Does this masking requirement reduce quarantines if
175there's an exposure in one of these classrooms? I'm trying to think. I mean, it depends on the situation because we are currently a district that requires masking. And so thus, if there is a non-household exposure, masked or unmasked, as long as the individual is not symptomatic, they would be able to return to an environment that also is masked. Okay. And I appreciate you talking about the exceptions and how our young ones can... Work individually with their teachers for this. I, we've gotten a lot of questions about an exit strategy. A few board meetings ago, you talked about peeling back those layers and I was wondering if you could just reiterate. Some of what that is for folks. Yes, I can. So, and this is directly from NCDHHS's guidance about peeling, of when we should think
176about removing the mask requirement. And I think I just want to note that we should be looking at case rates and test percent positivity, which is in alignment with what the CDC notes about the transmission rates that is both in the cases per 100,000 and the percent positivity rate. if there's a difference between one or the other, the CDC recommends that you take the higher number as the guidepost of where you might be. So that's one piece. And it does note that when community transmission levels decline to moderate or low levels for at least seven consecutive days, schools can consider making face coverings optional for vaccinated individuals. And then... It says that face coverings in schools should be required for all unvaccinated individuals until community transmission is at low levels when face coverings can be
177optional for everyone. And can you remind us where Wake County is exactly on those? We are currently at a. We are at 1,347 cases per 100,000, and our positivity rate is at 25.71%. And where does that put us on that scale? That would put us on the high scale per CDC. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Ms. Mahaffey, does that conclude your questions? Yes, thank you. Thank you. Ms. Carter. Thank you. And I just have a couple of things. The first thing I noticed was what's in assembly doesn't match up. Does it have all the information in it? So I think it would be very helpful because, you know, I was reading it and I was like, well, wait a minute. It says what's listed in the athletic co-curriculars down below and there is no down
178below that has that section that lists what you specified. So if there's any way to get that information. submitted and uploaded correctly to reflect what you're recommending, that would be helpful. And then I wanted to go to the two years, because I know you mentioned that adding two-year-olds could impact some, but if you're going to two and up, it would impact quite a number of our students, especially pre-K students. And so I'm trying to understand, because I'm looking at the childcare, you know, the wording assembly is that it's required, it's should require the same language that's used in the other toolkit that we use that says should require the mask, should be required in schools, kindergarten through 12 across their state. But a should require does not mean a require to require. And yes, that's
179what we are at in this situation. So it's not a requirement. I'm trying to understand why we're adding it at this point, particularly two years and up, because that is a substantial addition. And as a preschool teacher, I have a lot of concerns about adding that on. Not for Wake County, obviously, but as a preschool teacher outside of the Wake County public school system. And I'm trying, I'm looking at the child care toolkit, and the last update was on January 13th, and according to the blue box on page two, that was not. added at that time. So at what date was that added to the toolkit and I'm trying to understand the timeframe here for why all of a sudden we're adding additional. requirements to our youngest population. Yeah, so the exact date I don't
180have in front of me, Ms. Carr, so I can get back to you about the date, but it's usually noted on the toolkit, so the dates that you note probably are accurate. And it was sometime this, it was earlier this month that we were notified that there are some updates to this Child Care Strong NC Public Health Toolkit that we should consider updates to make sure that we're in alignment with public health guidance. Okay, so. Okay, I'm just trying to understand because I'm not seeing that in the last update on January 13th that it was added, at least based upon the documentation in the toolkit itself because I have it pulled up right now. So I just have a lot of concerns about adding our two-year-olds and up at this point. So I would not
181be able to support that. Thank you, Ms. Carter. Ms. Kushner? And I do agree to some extent with Ms. Carter's concern about our young students, but it gets back to, I think, Ms. Mahaffey's point. There was a story in the paper where, and I know it's just one story in one paper, that a daycare student had to be quarantined for several weeks, like for 24 days. and it was continuing a quarantine. So I think it's Ms. Mahaffey's question, will we be able to reduce quarantines by having masks in our pre-K? And will those students be able to mask? with fidelity to actually reduce quarantines? I think I'll start with that second part of your question, Ms. Kushner. First, just to note that as the DCDE guidance has always been, it has those words of should
182require, meaning it's not you must or have to. Correct. It's not in that language. And for me as a board member, the reduction of quarantines has driven. A large part of my decision, because I think the masking supports shorter quarantines, the masking supports kids being in person in school. So that's, you know, we're all tired of masking, but if it keeps students in school. That has to be our driver, in my opinion, in-person instruction that's safe for students. Right. Yes, ma'am. I think that we're aligned in that piece. But the thing that I wanted to note that is in the DCDE toolkit, it does say that every program should assess a child's ability to wear a mask properly, make sure to assess whether or not they're frequently touching the mask or their face. to limit
183the sucking, drooling, or having excess saliva on the mask, and remove the mask without assistance. So in our, for example, our pre-K programs, if a student is unable to do those things consistently, we are not sitting there requiring you must wear a mask or else. It's more like... developmentally it's appropriate to continue working with the students as they're trying to keep it on for say a fixed amount of time maybe start with 10 minutes 20 minutes 30 minutes and trying to just reiterate those best practices over their development in our kind of birth to age five range, you know, that leads into our pre-K programs. So that's the approach that we have taken as an Office of Early Learning program and in our pre-K classroom. So it is not the same. It wouldn't be developmentally
184appropriate for us to say you have to wear a mask now or else because that's our students are still learning at that age. Well, thank you. And I think I would hope that we have the same spirit with our special education students who also have, you know, have trouble with masking. Yes, ma'am. In our ECS programs, I think it's a similar approach that we work with the students to make sure it is developmentally appropriate. That's helpful, Mr. Coe. Thank you. Mr. Blumberg, I see you. Thanks. Just I think that it's been fairly clear, but just so that kind of bring it home. that the masking recommendations in the child care setting are recommendations. They're not legal requirements other than transportation, and we've gone through that a number of times where that's a separate federal requirement
185around transportation. So it is required in that setting. And so that was point one. Point two, in this toolkit, I did want to note the exemption regarding mask-on-mask exposure. So what it says is... mask on mask exposure again this is an exemption from the exclusion of the quarantine requirement it says persons person has been in close contact with a person with covet 19 in a child care setting but well-fitted masks were being worn appropriately covering nose and mouth and at all times by both persons with the covet 19 and the potentially exposed person and it goes on from there so that is an exemption from the exclusion or quarantine requirements under this separate toolkit as well thank you Dr. Martin. If I might, to that very point, I think looking at data is useful. So
186the week of 1-9, at Project Enlightenment, which is, you know, we can't disaggregate out at all the other schools. Project Enlightenment is only these young children. There was one positive case, but 20 in quarantine. And in the week of 1-16, at Project Enlightenment, there was... One positive student case. There were nine students and four staff quarantined. So the point is there's not as high a number of positive cases, but there's a substantial amount of quarantine happening right now, and that will be reduced potentially with this option. Okay. So, Dr. Martin, if I could, I know you've... been diligently tracking infection rates by cohort, but I know that the cases you've been reporting have typically started at the cohort age of kids in our public schools. Is that right? Do you, have you tracked or do
187you have data for these younger ages? So currently, this is the latest data from DHHS. Currently, the zero to two-year-olds are at 1,546. The two to four-year-olds, are at 1,875, and that is just under the five to nine-year-olds, which are 1,897. So the five to nine and the two to four currently have the highest infection rate of all cohorts in Wake County. Okay, thank you. Before I go to you, Ms. Carter, I do have to... Ask you about this, Mr. Coe, because, you know, we are, as has been reminded, years into this process of getting guidance. And the fact that we just adopted guidance January 4th with new and updated recommendations, I'm just curious sort of like what. where did this new recommendation this far into the pandemic with a brand new toolkit we haven't
188seen before really come from? I mean, do you know the history? Do you know where the, it just. So this is guidance that our pre-K programs have been following since the beginning of the pandemic. Okay. Our pre-K programs have been following what's called the childcare strong toolkit. And so it is not a new document, but the update. recommending that two-year-olds, the recommendation that child care programs should require, that came after our vote on the 4th. And so from there is why we're bringing it to you this next month, because we felt it was important to inform you all about this update and our recommendation that we think we should follow this guidance because it's coming from the public health officials from the state. Okay, but they had... through this whole process they hadn't included it
189so this is a new addition that they've just recommended yeah before is what we had in our current guidance that said that you know ages three to four strongly recommended in age five required even in pre-k settings so originally it was that but that guidance was updated to age two years or older recently okay and again mr hagerty just to that point because i think it might be helpful to you if you the graphs i provide you uh every couple weeks The younger children, the 2 to 4 and the 0 to 2, really started to track with the elementary school age kids, the 5 to 9s, with the Omicron spike. Prior to that, they were significantly lower. So I can't speak for the public health officials, but I look at data, I follow data, and
190I would suspect that that change may very well have led to the change of recommendations. Based on that new variant. Yeah. Okay. So it's, I can't say how they made the decision, but it is consistent with what the data is showing. Okay. I appreciate that. And Mr. Coe, I really appreciate your clarification too, because in terms of what the policy is, because when I, like Ms. Carter, when I think of two-year-olds, I can see a lot of difficulty having any of these kids wear the masks with any sort of fidelity or irregularity. And so. You're explaining to me that it's sort of like a best effort. It's not, you know, they're not going to be penalized or punished or anything if they just don't have the developmental ability to do this. No, sir. Is that
191right? So I would say that in our programs, they work to make sure they're meeting the students where they're at and work with them and the families to make sure that. You know, between like two to five-year-olds, it's very different from, say, a 16-year-old on whether masks can be kept on or not. And our instructors and teachers and program folks are working with the families to make sure that learning can occur towards. full mask compliance later down their growth as students, right? So when they're at, it's like if you're a two-year-old, you're trying to help them practice for age three and then four when they're going into pre-K classrooms. And then from there, you're trying to help them get into normalized situation, wearing masks potentially in a kindergarten classroom and so forth, right? So that's
192what we're trying to do. And it is with a developmental lens and not a you must do this or else lens. Okay. Thank you. I may have some more questions. Mr. Blumberg, unless it's pressing, I was going to recognize Ms. Carter. Please. So then how you're explaining it, could you, I guess, for me then, that sounds like a strongly recommended. So is there a reason why you're not going with strongly recommended versus required? Because those are two different. Because what I'm hearing is if it's truly not a requirement, then why are you making that requirement? We're just trying to note that, yeah, thank you, Ms. Carter, for the question. We're trying to just make sure we follow the language that's in this toolkit that says should require. And I know it's maybe semantics, but I
193think that is seen in talking with Mr. Blumberg, that is seen as a recommendation. But you're making it a requirement in the policy. That's what I'm... That there's a difference between and I know we keep going back at this but this is the problem I think a requirement versus a recommendation. There's a big difference So the way that I'm reading it in assembly is you're not making this a recommendation You're making this a requirement for any student to and up in our schools To make it very simple. If I could speak to that. The recommendation is to align with what the public health officials are recommending and for the district to make that a requirement, but then there's all of the exceptions. So it would be a required unless. if it's a as a part
194of an accommodation this you know process if the student ends up not having to wear the mask and all of the other exceptions that are listed and um in there but yes i mean it there is a difference between saying uh we recommend it but it's completely optional that's not what this recommendation is before the board it's not it's not completely optional it's its staff is asking that the board follow public health guidance and make it a requirement with the understanding that there are multiple exceptions discuss the possibility of reasonable accommodations with staff in the case there are students unable to wear or have difficulty wearing certain types of masks so there's a number of of limitations placed on the requirement that are right in the toolkit and so i think basically Staff is recommending
195that the board adopt the toolkit as it comes to childcare settings. There is one other comment that I did want to add in there. There's a specific statement in there that says no disciplinary action should be taken against a child who does not have a mask. So there is language to suggest that there shouldn't be any disciplinary actions associated with it. There's more language in there about to facilitate learning and social-emotional development, consider having staff wear a clear mask or a mask with a clear panel when interacting with young children, children learning to read, or when interacting with people who rely on reading lips. So it's a very sort of elaborate guidance. So that's where it is. But I do think, Ms. Carter, to your point, there is a difference between the board making it
196optional with a recommendation that students do it and the board saying it's required unless one of these exceptions apply. And it's my understanding staff is following the toolkit's recommendation to make it a requirement unless there is one of these exceptions. Thank you, Mr. Blumberg. I know we have some more comments from our remote members. Chair Mahaffey? Thank you. You know, to reiterate the reduction of quarantine, I know many folks whose young children have been in a daycare setting, childcare setting during this variant where some of them have only had. You know, 4 days of childcare because of excessive exposures and needs for extended quarantine within the setting. Mr. Co, I'm curious what. Guidance your staff and the. Superintendent more perhaps you can answer this as well that the. The preschool based staff, or the folks
197overseeing our early child care have to assist this in order to to help kind of make this requirement be more of the work with the child requirement that we're hearing from Mr. Coe and not a you must wear this or else requirement. I'll say that my understanding would be that our staff in pre-K settings appreciate that the guidance is coming from NCDCEE, and they appreciate the flexibilities that are provided in working with the students to implement the guidance, the math requirement. Thank you. Ms. Cash. Thank you, Mr. Peggy. First of all, I go back to what Ms. Carter said. Recommendation to require. And I know the toolkit outlines it as a recommendation to require. And we, as Wake County Public Schools, tend to go into the requirement part and immediately jump into we require this.
198And I don't believe that... we need to necessarily do that. So I do not support a requirement for two and up. Back to also the NC, I really am trying to understand how the Department of Health, the State Department of Health and even the county. still continues to base our quarantines on vaccinated and unvaccinated since we know that the vaccinated students and adults continue to acquire the Omicron variant as we all know and I especially know but The fact that we continually follow that that are vaccinated students have different requirements and are unvaccinated students. I would really like to know what Mr co feels about that since we know that I do believe that vaccinations. tend to curtail hospitalizations, but they certainly don't make a difference on the spread of the virus. Help me, Mr.
199Coe, in what you feel on that. Ms. Cash, I'm going to paraphrase here or try to make it in the simplest terms and see if Mr. Coe agrees. The revised toolkit guidance for K-12 and now for this recommendation that includes two years old and up, does not distinguish between vaccinated or unvaccinated, but does distinguish between a mask required setting or not. So that whether you are vaccinated or not, you follow the same quarantine guidelines regardless. The only difference is, are you in a mask required setting? And in a mask required setting, the quarantine is shorter than in a mask not required setting. Is that correct? Yes, that's one of the layers. And Superintendent Moore, the other thing I would add is that where vaccinations do come in in the K-12 Strong Schools Toolkit guidance is
200that with household exposures, when there is someone who is up to date on their recommended vaccinations and they have no symptoms, they would not be required to quarantine within a household exposure. Now, why would that be the case? This is a NCDHHS decision, Ms. Cash. Okay. So, Superintendent Moore, is there only, for the county, is there only one way to go? Is it mask mandate versus optional mask? Or is there something in between? I mean, can we face something differently in our district such as... mandating a mask at between classes but not necessarily at the desk I think the board has authority to slice and dice this in whatever ways they want to discuss and take a look at. I am aware of other districts in North Carolina that institute a mask mandate upon reaching
201certain metrics. There are other districts that are slicing and dicing it by schools based on metrics. So I think there are options. And because you could also vote and choose as a board to make masks optional, then anything between optional and required is open. Okay. Thank you very much. Ms. Cass, any additional questions? No, not at all. I was just trying to understand that plus the two and over. So thank you very much. Absolutely. Ms. Kushner. Well, according to the North Carolina School Board Association site, and they've been doing a good job keeping up with LEAs across the state, as of January 28th, 89 school districts have mask mandates in North Carolina out of 115 school districts. only 26 are mask optional. So we've heard a lot of public comment about folks across the state
202are going mask optional, but still the majority of school districts in North Carolina, 89, have mask mandates. I do think I would welcome the board thinking through. with staff analyzing it where we can go and giving for in the next few months. At one point we thought February was going to be the month and perhaps at the next meeting we can see where. data goes at the in march i don't know but i think we need to recognize that right now the majority of school districts do have mask mandates our metrics are in the red are in the high level i don't think this is the time to let up but i think we need to continue to revisit these data and make sure that we're doing the right thing and right now i can't
203in good conscience increase our quarantines and with such high levels in the community, we're not meeting our metrics. And Ms. Kushner, to your point, I'm just wondering for the two-year-olds and up, is there any language recommendations as that, you know, given what Mr. Blumberg said that the board may have on that you would approve, right? Because our previous face covering requirements for pre-K, it says ages three to four strongly recommended, or we can think about language as you know, something like the toolkit, the child care toolkit says, you know, should require, and then we can add, like, to the extent possible. I'm just wondering if language like that would help the board understand that we are trying to implement it with developmental grace and lens for our children. Yes. I'm going to say yes. And
204I wanted to chime in on that, too, because that gets to concerns that I have. Because if, you know, from what you're describing to us, Sounds very different than how this reads. And I just, I mean, I can't see holding children of that age to the same standards, the same standards we're holding high school students to. And, again, you're telling me that there is flexibility, that we would look at this differently, that maybe there's developmental exceptions, just like there could be medical exceptions. And so, you know, I... If it's Ms. Kushner's suggestion that there's a better way to reward it or if you have an idea of a way that we can make that more clear, I think we have to be clear that there's what you're talking about. Because to say that you're mandating
205mandatory mask use again for whatever it would be, the nine and a half hours of school for the children this age. I think that sounds very different than what, with more context, you're actually talking about. I know it should reflect what's going on in our schools and what you developmentally know is best for young children. So to Mr. Haggerty's point, and it should reflect what's the reality, and I want that input from staff because you all are in the schools and seeing how our students are. are doing and how our teachers are empathetically working with students and yes i just said and as a friendly reminder this is talking about our specific it's specific to our ready to learn centers that are currently serving about 24 students at five of our sites and i think
206we're just trying to make sure that our guidance does not leave them out in terms of our responsibility to make sure we're ensuring safe environments thank you miss johnson hustler haven't heard from you I actually was going to try to move this conversation along. I mean, I just pulled up the toolkit when Ms. Carter first brought this up, which it still does say child care programs should. So I guess, I mean, I'll let everybody else continue talking, but I guess I'm at the point where I would move that we actually change. And, of course, I completely understand staff's recommendations. And, again, this is twice in one night that I'm going to get staff recommendations. It's usually not my style. I'm not sure what's happening. But I do think I would just follow the guidance in
207the child care toolkit, which says child care programs should require two-year-olds and older, regardless of vaccination status, to wear a mask at all times. I mean, that's specifically lifted, and that is the updated version for January 12th. So it is exactly what's in the toolkit. Ms. Johnson-Husler, just to be clear, is that a motion? We have a motion and a second already that's been approved. So if we're looking at an amendment. I will not return this way the rest of February. I'll stand down. I know others have comments, but I do want to clean this up procedurally when we can. Okay. I appreciate that, Mr. Millenberg. So we do have an amendment to Dr. Martin's motion. Is there a second to the amendment? So I just want to make it clear, if I can, because
208it says it's saying to child care providers. that we are recommending that you require it. And what I'm hearing your motion to be is that you're saying that the school system... Well, it doesn't say they require it. It says should require it. And so I just want to make sure that the motion to amend is to, instead of making it required, to make it... recommended. Yes. That you're basically saying that the school board should approve making that recommended, which is essentially what it's been already. Right. And it's essentially what we heard described again. Right. And I second Christine Kushner. Okay. So that's been a motion and a second for in this child care setting for the two and up, two to five. the two to four, that range now, it would be recommended and not
209required. Okay, thank you. Just to clarify, board members, so in our previous language for ages three to four, we say ages three to four are strongly recommended, age five required. Do we want to do it in that format where age two to four are strongly recommended and age five required? I can totally accept that. And that's what I hear the motion being. The two to four is now strongly recommended is what the motion, amended motion is. And Ms. Kushner, you seconded it, and I apologize. Thank you, Ms. Kushner. I would like to know what we originally did. I don't still understand that. What was the original? What were two-year-olds required to do previously? Ms. Cash, there was no requirement previous to this latest update in the DCDE toolkit. Was there any language for below five-year-olds
210in the previous NCDCE? In the DCDE, they went down to ages three to four before. And so now we're doing two to four? Yes, ma'am. Two to four recommended. Recommended, and before were five-year-olds required? Yes. They have been, yes. Okay. Thank you. All right. Ms. Scott and then Dr. Martin. Thank you. But not that anyone wants to require masks on two-year-olds, I mean, to be clear, but changing that language, would that then change the setting from a... a masked setting. Forgive me for not recalling the language used, but if we're using the language recommended as opposed to required, and then the possibility, could say required with the exception of those who can't wear a mask correctly, et cetera, et cetera. But does that sort of change this now in terms of what quarantine's being impacted?
211I can speak to that. The separate toolkit applies to this. So this would be your sort of daycare toolkit. And so in that setting, the exemption that you have is that if both individuals in an exposure situation are wearing a face covering. So if you make it recommended and both aren't wearing a face covering, then you could increase situations where there would be exclusion, yes. But I thought it was explained. Okay. The Superintendent Moore was speaking to the K through 12 setting, we are a mask mandate district and you get the extra exceptions that apply to exclusion because you're a mask mandate district. This wouldn't wipe out Wake County Schools mask mandate for K-12 and the exception that you get for that. This would be for your preschool. daycare settings there that that you you
212may not be able to take advantage of a more narrow exception that says if both people are wearing a mask okay i appreciate that i just it's a good question thank you i want to support um ms johnson hostler's amendment um but i just wanted to clarify that thank you dr martin So I'm a little concerned that we're playing semantics over words because people have been batting between the should and require. The recommendation is not that they should be masked. It's that they should require to be masked. And so we actually, by this motion, would be recommending going against the recommendation of the public health officials. So I will be voting against that because whether I agree with it or not, I'm not a public health official. I believe it is our duty to follow
213the recommendations of the public health officials who said this should be required. I want to be clear that I, too, want to be able to lift criteria when appropriate. But that means we also have to apply criteria when appropriate. Right now, we've got a situation where the 2- to 4-year-olds and the 5- to 9-year-olds have the highest infectivity rate of any cohort in Wake County. So that makes sense to me why the public health officials would say this is what we need to do. We need to make sure that once we get the data going the other direction, then we also follow the recommendations when it occurs that we shouldn't. So, you know, when we get down to below high, by the way, we're more than 10 times higher than high. So once we get
214down to the substantial instead of the high, then I think it would be absolutely appropriate for us to look school by school and say, look, if the schools are only getting the one to zero cases, we have a different requirement than schools that are getting more cases. But we should not be doing that when we're 10 times above high. So what we're doing by this vote, which is why I will strongly vote no, is we are taking authority. We are not following the authority of our public health officials, which I don't think is wise for any elected board. And we are basically saying that, you know, we're only going to allow you to take things off. We're not going to listen when you say some other criteria are required. So I think it is important
215for this board, like any elected board, to follow the recommendations of our public health officials. That's why they're public health officials. All right. Are there any other comments, any other debate on Ms. Johnson-Husler's amendment? Yes. Sorry, Ms. Cash. I was about to recognize Ms. Carter, but if you'd like to, is it okay if Ms. Cash goes? All right. Go right ahead, Ms. Cash. Well, I just want to say that if the public health department would literally enforce their rules in the community as they are in the public schools, I would be more apt. to want to follow their rules. But the public health department is not enforcing their rules anywhere in the community other than the public schools. So I would like to say we are all about stopping the spread of the virus, but
216it's only on the backs of public schools. So that's why I do not necessarily support us to be more stringent. That's just my one point. Thank you, Ms. Cash. Ms. Carter? Yes, and so I do support not making it a requirement for two to four-year-olds. I'm just going to say that. I have mentioned before, and I'll mention again, I think we need to also start looking at the severity of the disease and the impact. And I know we rely on the CDC now with the high, but I also, and dare I go this route, but I am, I'm just going to open it up because, you know, last year if we would have went by the CDC and their high ratings, we would have been prevented. from reopening our middle schools and high schools for
217daily in-person instruction. And that is relevant because that was last school year. And we didn't go with that because the state did something different. We did something different. So I just bring that in because sometimes we need to look at other factors. And sometimes we need to take into consideration the direct impact. And, like, I've tried to get information when they were here at our board meeting or work session about quarantines and where we're heading with that because we're getting lesser and we're rolling that back. or that's being rolled back from the CDC, which contradicts other things that are happening. And so trying to get things in alignment and what is really helpful and what is needed, I think, just requires looking at more than just... A few areas, and broadening the horizon. If we're
218going to go by the CDC and we have to be lower than a high to ever roll anything back, you know, when will we look at the severity? Like I've mentioned, and Dr. Meshonga actually did a great job, I thought, sharing some data to speak to that and how this is changing and going in the different direction. While cases might be going up, That might be true, but she shared data that reflected the medical impact compared to other variants a year ago or what have you. It's going in the opposite direction at the time. For me, I support not making this a requirement because I do not support making it a requirement for pre-K students because it would impact pre-K students as well. And, you know, if families choose to do that for them, that's
219a recommendation. They can do it, but I do not support making it a requirement. And I also ask we have to look at... These metrics, I mean, it was January when we were going to lift things, and here we are trying to add more. And so I get that things keep going up and down. But, again, we have to look, to me, start looking at more information than what's on that sheet because the vaccination rate, we haven't gone back to staff about the booster stuff, so a lot of that information's... So I just feel like we're back here again saying, what are we going to use? What are we going to do? And we have no answer. Okay. Thank you, Ms. Carr. So before we, and that was, you tied it back to the amendment,
220so that was all perfectly relevant. But before we get into debate on the broader bill, we do have the broader bill. Before we get back to the debate on the broader issue of this whole staff recommendation, I think it's appropriate this time I'd like to call a vote on Ms. Johnson-Hossler's amendment, unless there's any last pressing question limited just to the amendment. Because I have more comments I could make, but I think we all sort of know where we are on it. Can you rephrase that amendment, please? Mr. Blumberg, I thought you had captured it pretty well. Could you restate it for Ms. Cash? students that are ages two to four that the face covering face coverings would be recommended not required thank you mr boomer all right then then i'd like to i'd like
221to call a vote on ms johnson hustler's amendment again these are all by roll call we'll start with um we'll start with miss carter karen carter no And again, this is just on the amendment. On the amendment. So do you, I just, we just want to make sure there's clarity. To make it recommended as opposed to required. Staff initially recommended. Yes, yes. Okay, so just to make sure we're properly recording your vote as a yes to amend. That's correct. Okay. Ms. Johnson-Hossler. Monika Johnson-Hossler, aye. Chris Haggerty, aye. Christine Kushner, aye. Jim Martin, nay. Carter Scott, aye. And for our remote members. Roxy Cash, aye. Lindsay Mahaffey, no. All right. So I have that as a vote of six to two, six members voting the affirmative, and Dr. Martin and Ms. Mahaffey voting in the negative.
222Is that correct? Did I get anybody's vote wrong? All right, so Ms. Johnson-Hossler's motion to amend Dr. Martin's motion has passed, and so now we have the amended staff recommendation before us. The staff recommendation is to maintain the local face covering policy as amended. Is there any further debate? Ms. Scott. Thank you. Mr. Koh, someone raised the question earlier that What is our exit strategy? And you mentioned the different things, but what I had been under the impression was that we have been looking at those three considerations that are on the attachment to this assembly presentation, that it's a combination of factors of looking at vaccination rates, positive cases, a significant declining rate covering 28 days. And then cases per 100,000. But you said something different when someone asked for clarification on that. Thank you
223for that question, Ms. Scott. So I think as a district, we decided a while ago that those metrics that you just mentioned are the ones that we will pay attention to monthly. And then I think that is a yes. And where we're at, I think in terms of... I feel like with vaccinations, if you look at the five to 17 year olds, I mean, specifically 12 to 17 year olds, it is moving towards what some of our public health officials said. When you get to that 70% threshold, you can think about considering it, but not in isolation of the other metrics that we're looking at, right? So I think that monitoring is coupled with what the NCDHHS recommends that's in alignment with CDC that's saying. specific to face covering requirements that for school districts that
224we should implement a universal face covering requirement if we're located in a county with higher substantial levels as defined by cdc and so currently we are in that higher substantial level as a district and we have been for the last few months so i think our monitoring of the metrics that you mentioned are coupled with what dhhs recommends Okay. I think that I would like that to be clarified. I'd like to suggest that that be clarified in the presentation because I don't think it's clear. We talked about the three areas, and you mentioned that, and I'm not disagreeing with any of it because, as Dr. Martin said, I may be Dr. Mom, but I certainly have no experience other than putting Band-Aids on my children with medical anything. But I think it's... Hearing that, it's
225hard for me. I feel much more comfortable making these decisions when I can refer people who are asking questions about the guidepost and the exit strategy and so forth when I have something that's in clear writing that they can refer to and that I don't see that in clear writing. So that's just what I'm... And Mr. Cove, I could just clarify. In the attachment to this agenda item, Items two and three are what NCDHHS and the CDC recommend that we track. And item one is an additional item that we are keeping track of as a district. Okay. And I think if we could just somehow clarify the attachment, the PDF attachment, so that it's easier for someone to understand when they're looking, what is the exit strategy, what are the goalposts. And I did want
226to say, I heard Ms. Cash say, She feels like we're putting this burden on the backs of our students to disrupt the spread. And I don't, I have never looked at it from this standpoint. I recognize that people certainly have the right to go wherever they would like, that masks are not required and not wear them. If someone wants to go to a church that doesn't require them. I'm not going to argue somebody's personal rights. School is required for students, and we are looking to disrupt the spread of COVID inside of the school building, a place that is required. That's been my personal take on this. I don't think that we're trying to necessarily, yes, we'd like to do a favor to the community and to the healthcare. workforce, but it's really about disrupting the
227spread in school so that if a child goes to school, their chances of becoming infected and potentially spreading it to their families, immunocompromised family members, that that chance is reduced. That is what I thought from the very beginning, all the studies that have been referred to us were talking about. It was not necessarily... you know, stop ending the curve or whatever. It was about disrupting the spread of COVID inside of our school buildings, which are places that are required. Our students are required to be in those. Every child must be enrolled in a school in the state of North Carolina. Thank you, Ms. Scott. Ms. Kushner? Thank you. And to reinforce Ms. Scott's point, Mr. Cove, whenever you can give us more updated numbers for those metrics that's in that handout, that would be useful
228for us because some of those, having the information you presented to us today verbally would be very helpful. If you could send that to us in an email, I would, or an updated attachment, I'd appreciate it. Because of just the assembly public material submission deadlines, but maybe we can send an updated one after. after each i would greatly appreciate because it's important for us to convey that to the community so that they know what the more up-to-date numbers are thank you that was very helpful and i understand assembly is not as nimbly as we would like sometimes yes and and so just just on top of that you know i think as we go forward and we've been going through this for a long time i think we all have to recognize that this situation
229just like the virus evolves and mutates, right? And it might be that in the future we have less virulent strains where we consider changing those metrics or as like Dr. Martin noted, you have a strain now that affects younger students. And so if it becomes more virulent, you might... have stronger metrics. We just have to constantly evaluate, track the changes, and then make decisions based on what the current situation is. And so we're going to rely on you to stay updated and, you know, look at these and make sure that these metrics are fresh and are the appropriate ones that we need to look at. And if they need to be moved one way or the other, we're going to trust you to bring us those recommendations. Thank you, sir. All right. Is there any
230other discussion, Ms. Carter? Yes, because one of the metrics, and I've said it before probably a couple times now, is 10 cases per 100,000. And as we've noted before and been confirmed, that's not been reached since the beginning of COVID. Coming on is my understanding, if that's still correct. And so, again, I'm asking for realistic goals and expectations because if we're taking into the context, The impact of the current, like I asked and they didn't have here, they're saying hospitalization numbers, but they don't break it down by those who are needing treatment for COVID in the hospital versus those who are getting treated for something completely different and are diagnosed. once they're there or what have you with COVID. And that does matter. That's relevant. That's context. That's facts. And I think, you know, the
231impact like Dr. Meshonga shared and the data she shared, the total different impact that COVID is having now on the other side. It's not... Again, I'm just trying that we go back and look at more information that can be considered because if we are going to have something that has not been met in almost two years, to me, are we saying that then we are good with doing this for another two years if we never get there, but yet... the severity of the cases continued to lessen as was shared with us by Dr. Mashanga. That is what I'm trying, I don't know if that's coming out correctly or not, but these metrics don't allow for that. These metrics only look at numbers of cases, not the severity of the cases, not the impact on people.
232Like, I don't know how else to say it, but none of that is taken into consideration. And I think that does matter because if you have people that are getting sick, I don't want anyone sick. I'm not saying that at all. But we are just, I don't know. I mean, like I said, I'm not a health expert, but I've been put in this position to vote on this by our state legislators. So I'm trying to ask that we have total different additions, something, considerations to look at so that we are getting the full picture of how this is impacting and that our families and our students feel like there's... truly a way because I mean I'm ready to say you know allow indoor athletes and fine arts remove that requirement I'm there I mean I
233mean that's a reality I mean I go to the events see what's happening and I know I'm getting looks but okay that's fine but I'm just saying I just feel like you know instead of that we're going the opposite direction and I'm just trying to understand what it will take to go in a different direction. Is this it? I mean, are we saying if we don't get to 10 per 100,000, there will never be a change here? That's what I'm just saying, yes or no, because if that's true, like we've stated, it's been over two years, or almost two years now, and that's not happened. I think that's worthy of a board discussion moving forward because it is an option now to be mask optional. So certainly prior to Omicron, we were thinking that we
234were headed in that direction. And when we came out of red, we were very hopeful to just go ahead and start moving forward. I think the numbers are just very different now, but I think it's board discretion. So if you'd like to have that conversation and see what other folks are doing, we can bring something. And just, Ms. Carter, I apologize. My question to Mr. Coe wasn't clear, but what I was asking him is, you know, could we look and see as conditions change if those metrics need to change so we're not locked into those metrics? And I believe he had assured us that you would, right, that we would have that ability to look at that and we wouldn't be locked in because I understand what you're saying. Yes, and I think just making
235sure that we're also checking in with our public health officials and getting their consult as well about what they're seeing and what their suggestions and recommendations to us are and then bringing those to the board discussion. That's right. For example, like we look at immunity now from previous infections for quarantines, which was something we didn't do. Just as we learn more about the different strains and the different viruses, we do more. So really quickly, it's... Just like Omicron, we're getting another wave. We have two more remote comments. Dr. Martin would like to comment. So the debate is surging, and Mr. Blumberg is cresting out. So with a new Greek letter, Mr. Blumberg, what comments do we have? The only thing I want to just note quickly is the current motion that's on the table that's
236been amended, I just want to make it clear that that none of that affects the federal requirements around face coverings and transportation the board's not suggesting that that that where it's federally required that the board is suggesting that that be optional i just want to make it clear that's my understanding of where the board's been throughout on this but just for clarity purposes thank you all right dr martin I think it's important to acknowledge, I mean, we all want to be done with this. We all want the virus to go away. People have seen on Facebook, right, people in war zones want wars to go away. Wars kind of disrupt children's education, too. It's not by their choice, right? So there's a lot of things we'd like to go away and we don't have control
237over. We can't just wish it away as a board of education. We can't vote it away. If we could vote the virus away, we would. I think the reality is people talk about what's the off-ramp, what's the off-ramp. We know what an off-ramp is. The problem is people don't like the answers to that, right? It's like we often get said, you're not listening to us. Just because the decision made isn't what you wanted doesn't mean that it hasn't been listened to. There is an off-ramp. Ms. Scott noted what that off-ramp is. Right now, the five- to nine-year-olds, are 18 times higher than high. The 10 to 14-year-olds are 15 times higher than high. The 15 to 17-year-olds are 11 times higher than high. So we're having an off-ramp conversation to get off on the Pacific
238Highway in California, and we're still in North Carolina. When we get to California or come the other way, if they're coming from California here, you know, going to the Outer Banks, right, when we get closer to the exit, then let's talk about these kind of details. I think it's also disingenuous to say we're never going to get there. When we got down to the low limits where we were. I recommend it, and I will again recommend that once we get down into the moderate level, let's start looking at that conversation and say, right, maybe we don't have to do the whole county, right? Nobody said what region you needed to pay attention to, but let's look at schools. If schools have a track record, we get down to moderate, and schools have a track record
239of two, three, four weeks of zero to one cases. That's a great opportunity to say yeah because that is lower than the ten cases but if Right if we this is the same with education right we can't look at one student And make a decision for a whole school based on that student We can't look at one school and make a decision for a whole system So once we get down to the moderate level which is when the options say make some evaluation We can make some school-by-school decisions. That would be wise. The other thing that's important to note is, as you noted, Ms. Carter, the public health people are saying right now Omicron seems to be less. It's more infectious, but the symptoms and the medical issues are less. It still hasn't reduced our
240total number of hospitalizations. Our hospitals are overwhelmed. But the other thing to recognize is even though the medical community recognizes this, they have not yet made a recommendation to change the scale. You'll recall that our last board meeting, I asked several questions. Is this scale, you know, the 10, 50, 100, is that a global scale or is that a disease-specific scale? I've consulted some public health personnel, and what I have learned is that that is a COVID scale. Other diseases have different scales. It could very well be that there will be a... we'll get to a stage where we have a variant where that scale needs to change. I don't get to make that decision. You don't get to make that decision. But I do believe that the CDC will make that recommendation once the
241information is known, because this is a current COVID-specific scale. So I think to say that it's never going to change is a little bit ridiculous. I think we need to trust the public health professionals who are going to look at the disease. They created this scale in the first place. They'll modify the scale when there is reason to modify the scale. But right now, we are so far beyond the off-ramp that it's a little bit crazy to be nitpicking details of the exit. The exit strategy, based on what we know, is clear. People don't necessarily like that off-ramp, but the off-ramp is clear. To say there's not an off-ramp, I think, is disingenuous, and it's just saying, I didn't get my way, therefore you didn't listen to me. Thank you. All right, Ms. Cash, you've
242got the final word. Well, actually, I took my hand down because I don't know how to argue about this, but I'm just going to say that the hospitalizations. I just know that the Omicron is not causing an impact on the hospitalization. So I'm going to go with Ms. Carter on the fact that the severity of the disease is not going to be as severe with Omicron. So I don't know if the public health is going to keep up with that or not, but I think we need to be aware of that. And so I just, I think Ms. Carter has some good facts. That's all I'm going to say. All right. Thank you, Ms. Cash. I think we've all realized this is a complex issue and we're in different places, but then hopefully we can
243come together now, regardless of what we feel and how we're going to vote and agree that it is time to vote. So with that, I'd like to call the vote, the roll call vote on the staff recommendation as amended. This is continuing our... Current with the amendment. It's continuing last month's on the same Level except we're we're face coverings are recommended three to four. It's now recommended to you before everything else is the same, right? Mr. Mr. Coe. Yeah, so it would read the only change to our guidance that we have written It would be ages two to four strongly recommended age five required even in pre-k And that would be the only change the guidance compared to what we voted on last last month Great. Thank you for that clarification, and thank you for
244requesting the clarification, Ms. Kushner. All right. Roll call vote. District 1, Ms. Scott. Heather Scott, aye. Jim Martin, aye. Christine Kushner, aye. Chris Haggerty, aye. Monika Jolson-Hassler, aye. Karen Carter, aye. And for our remote members? Roxy Kapp, aye. Lindsay Mahaffey, aye. Okay. By my count, that is an 8-0 vote to continue our previous recommendation with the only change being that we changed the recommendation, the strongly recommended requirements from 3-4 to ages 2-4, that being the only change in the previous guidance. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you, Mr. Cole. Thank you. All right. At this point. We still have one more action item. And Mr. Hegarty, I will quickly move that we waive Section 4F of Board Policy 6860, co-curricular activities and athletics. And maybe Mr. Cook wants to tell us what it is. But we
245are supporting our students through quarantine. Go ahead, Mr. Cook. Mr. Cook, you good with that? So I'm going to have you second. All right, two thumbs up for Mr. Cook. We're happy for more explanation, but this is something that we did debate in policy. We have a motion. We do have a second from Ms. Mahaffey. And we did this previously for this semester. This will be for this semester going into next year's participation for the fall. So that's why we're doing it again so that our students who are affected by... quarantines in the spring semester can still participate in athletics and extracurricular in the fall. And just to clarify, it's the reverse of that, Ms. Kushner. Okay, thank you. Their attendance for the fall semester of this year so that they can continue participation in
246the spring semester of 2022. Yes, ma'am. All right. Is there any further clarification or anything else, Mr. Cook, that you think should be added? No, sir. All right. Thank you. I think this is pretty clear. We have talked about it. Ms. Carter, did you have? I want to say thank you for doing this again. And Mr. Coey's not here, but thank you for doing this and supporting our students. Absolutely. And I will point out, and just to reemphasize. Every other aspect of 6860 is in place, importantly, including academic performance, which essentially means, in simple terms, kids that even though they missed more than the number of days that were allowed, somehow found a way to still make the grade to be eligible. Great, and that's an important distinction. We appreciate that. All right. Is there
247any further questions, any further discussion? If not, we have a motion, I believe, from Ms. Kushner with a second from Ms. Mahaffey and a magical chime to waive Section F and only Section F of Board Policy 6860, the Co-Curricular Activities and Athletics Policy. We'll start the roll call vote with Ms. Carter. Karen Carter, aye. Monika Johnson-Hossler, aye. Chris Haggerty, aye. Christine Kushner, aye. Jim Martin, aye. Heather Scott, aye. And for our remote members. Lindsay Mahaffey, aye. Roxy Cash, aye. All right. By my count, that's an 8-0 vote in favor of waiver of Section F of Board Policy 6860, Co-Curricular Activities and Athletics. Thank you, Mr. Cook. Thank you all. And Mr. Haggerty, I make the motion we go into closed session to consider confidential personnel information protected under GS 143318.11A1A3 and A6 to consult with
248the Board of Education Attorney and Preserve Attorney Client Privilege. provided in gs143-318.11a3 due to current litigation a b by and through her parents TB and CB versus Wake County Board of Education 21EDC03926 to consult with the Board of Education attorney and preserve the attorney-client privilege as provided in GS143-31811A3 and to consider confidential student information protected under GS115C-402 and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act 20 USC1232G. God bless you, Ms. Kushner. Is there a second? Second. Father Scott. Lots of seconds. I heard Ms. Scott first. Motion by Ms. Kushner. Second by Ms. Scott that we now move into closed session for the items so mentioned. All in favor? Oh, gosh, we've got to do a roll call. Thank you. Remote members, Ms. Mahaffey and Ms. Cash. Roxy Cash, aye. Lindsay Mahaffey, aye. Thank you, Ms.
249Cash. Thank you, Ms. Mahaffey. Ms. Carter. Karen Carter, aye. Monica Johnson-Hossler, aye. Chris Haggerty, aye. Dean Kushner, aye. Jim Martin, aye. Heather Scott, aye. All right. By another 8-0 unanimous vote, we will move into closed session for the reasons so stated. All right. Thank you very much. We'll return after closed session with any announcements that need to be made. We're now in closed session.