Asheville City Board of Education Work Session 2/5/24

001seberg is um not well today so he's going to be joining us virtually um he's just sick as so many of us are at this time of year so we have a quorum and uh we first of all I'm going to ask Jesse Warren to read our Equity statement Equity statement in ATO City Schools we are committed to equity and anti-racist policies for all students and staff to learn and Thrive we recognize that our positions come with with power responsibility and public service for the entire ACS Community we will model our commitment to equity through our practice and decisions during this meeting we invite a pause if harm has taken place a moment to name that harm and space to practice repair thank you Jesse so um I'm going to ask for an approval of

002our agenda and we're going to need to do a Voice vote after we get a motion in a second please so move second all right Voice vote beginning with h Sarah I Rebecca I James I Liza I Jesse I Amy hi uh George okay all right um first item of business and this uh lengthy agenda for our work session I'm so excited about all the good work we're going to do tonight um is I think Maggie Dr Ferman you are going to talk to us about our local supplement uh yes and uh George I shared a couple documents with you via um Google link Google um I shared them on our Google Drive so if you can pull that up I wrote a memo um to kind of guide our conversation um and Avery is

003going to pull up a couple things on the computer for us um so we left the conversation at the budget work um session last week um trying to decide what how to adjust our local supplement for this year um what funds were available so just a review where we left off um we we reviewed um some budget information we looked at the cost of a 1% just to give the board an idea that um it cost about half a million dollar to increase our local supplement by 1% so if we increased it by 2% that would be a million dollar so just kind of having that idea of how much it costs us for each percent we increase um we also shared that our fund balance increased this year because of unspent funds from last

004year um and that also we did not have to do the mid-year adjustment for um loss and enrollment so that let us keep about 470 ,000 in our budget um and then that gives us about $2.1 million available if we want to pass on a local supplement without having to dip into our fund balance um talking about fund balance um the recommended um fund balance is typically about two months of operating costs which would be a fund balance of about $1.5 million um we anticipate our ending fund balance this year to be 12.2 million and then also a review of some of the anticipated strains that are coming up on the budget for next year um that we touched on so we talked about our decreasing enrollment um is going to drop our state funding

005approximately a million dollars um and then because of the raises the state is anticipating to give next year plus the increased cost for health care benefits um we are anticipating increased expenses of $2 million if we keep our current Staffing um also just projecting our U the amount of money we have been sending to charter schools has increased so we did go ahead and project an increase in payments to Charter Schools of about a half a million dollars um and we felt that was conservative so that um puts us next year when we write our two um fy2 budget is having to decrease expenditures some way by about $3.5 million to just keep things up on you know make sure we're not not dipping into fund balance for next year and then that reminder that

006any permanent increase that we put to um our local supplement this year would create an additional for every percent an additional half a million dollar cost so if we at 1% then we've got to make up $4 million if we do 2% we've got to make up um what is that $4.5 million um so just to keep that in your mind as we I talk about this I also gave you a snapshot of bunkham County's new supplement um so you can kind of see where we are within the um the county so our current supplement just so you're um if you're not aware is first through um first through foure teachers get 9% um I think it's fifth through 12 get uh 99.5% and then um 12 years through 15 uh they get 10% and

007then 15 and up get 16.5% so so that's our current um allotment our current supplemental funds then for the board I also shared a spreadsheet um kind of a list of anticipated uh local supplement increases for our teachers I just pulled teacher salaries for this one um and the one thing I did want to include on the top of this chart is I followed the supplement across on the top so let's look at that first line for a first year teacher with a supplement of 9% um last year's salary was $37,000 for a first year teacher if you add the 9% local supplement then that teacher salary would have been $40,000 3 $4,320 so their local supplement was $3,330 this year because the state adjusted the salary schedule and gave our teachers a much needed

008increase in salary the new salary for this year so a first year teacher started this year making $39,000 so that took their local and state supplement to um $42,000 $42,500 so even though we didn't adjust their local supplement here they still were getting an increase of $180 that's over the year not saying that that's a good amount but I'm just saying because we do a percent every raise the state gives we're automatically embedding a local increase here so then what I did um the next three sections are projecting for those same teachers a first year teacher a fifth year teacher 12th year and a teacher between 15 and 24 years because salary is the same for that bracket this is a teacher with just a bachelor's degree and not national board certification so then I

009projected a 2% increase um and you can see how it breaks down for their salary um for the salary plus local supplement how many dollars they're getting the number actual increase in dollars from the local supplement as well as what that monthly increase in their pay and also hourly increase so you can see that for 2% 3% and 3.5 any questions about this information just wanted to recap and I know um Miss Ry we also asked for you asked for how much money uh we asked for from the county we initially asked the county for $4.7 million and we got 2.7 in Appropriations from the county um I may have just missed this information but um what about classified staff I didn't put any I just looked at teacher salaries for this bit I didn't

010look at at um hourly pay the other reason I didn't pull hourly pay is it's going to change because we have to rewrite all of our hourly pay scales to align with new um requirements from the state so that's why I didn't pull those cuz they're kind of in flux right now when those are are able to be taken into consideration can we look at those in terms of a sliding scale increase um to prioritize getting everyone to a living wage so that yeah definitely and that's going to be that's what the discussion is tonight for the board to discuss what you you know how you if you want to go ahead and move the supplement change it adjust it if so for who and for how much and the and the you know the

011logistics for that so that's that's the discussion on the table for the board I have a question do I understand that the chart you gave us at the bottom that has the bunkham county this is their new what they've W this is their new thing going forward which close most closely looks like what you've listed here is a 2% thank you y um and they do not do the same for classified and certified so all they're classified stands at as 1077 can you just clarify in bunkham County classified flat supplement of 10.77% es and so just to be clear Liza you were suggesting we maybe revisit that yes that's correct I would be curious to see the numbers um reflect uh getting everyone across the district to a living wage so perhaps increasing our lower

012paid employees greater and then other employees less is what that would mean yeah I'm just curious to see how um sorry in the sheet that um we prepared for the budget work session um Heidi did pull out some hourly staff wages and compared it to first year teacher wages um so you can see that some of our like the average bus driver actually it's that one with the yellow blocks on it the other one it's the one you have Rebecca that one yep so our bus drivers um you know are making a pretty pretty decent hourly rate some of them at about $28 an hour and what's the current I I know it just went up through uh just economics just took it up it's 2210 now and it went last year what was it

013last year any board member I don't have that on the top of my head just economics adjusted up to 2210 and they created another level for organization ations that can't achieve that but are pushing towards it because it's such a big jump um I asked last week a little bit about the about what the county had appropriated that I wanted to make sure we were faithful to their directive to spend what they allocated on salaries and but I think we T do you know if we were able to I know it was 2.7% is what we were given but then I think they also increased the tax by a Cent and I'm I did did were we able to reach out to them to find out how much that might be or oh sorry no

014okay w we didn't get that information back from them okay because that's going to be like projecting increased digest for the upcoming year right since they're just now assessing that and looking at property tax values okay and I guess my other question Dr Ferman is when you you know your projections are essentially that we're going to be a few million dollars in the whole this year no matter what right for next year for next year um based on the funding Cliffs that we have um and other factors so do you have I know that we're talking about reconfiguration and right sizing and ALS so when we think about how many of our staff are paid out of our local funds we have uh I think it's fair to say too many um of our employees

015are paid out of our local funds so do you have though any sense of what is reasonable to expect and how much we might be able to save da that's a good question so I'm still working on flushing out all of those um Staffing plans once we can finalize the formulas we'll have a very clear understanding based on enrollment as we go forward on how many staff um we should be keeping on our books over the time going forward so the Staffing formula will allow us number one to really predict closely what our fin what our expenditures are going to be for salaries because we'll know exactly how many positions we need when we look at our enrollment projections so I put those tables together and um the I think the projection for saving at

016the high school if combined was 30,000 uh looking at Middle School um combining both into one just on salaries is a savings of about um $375,000 we're also anticipating as we look at some numbers about 800,000 in savings um for other costs related to um combining middle schools when it comes to Transportation School nutrition um so we're looking at those and then reduced cost in renting out other facilities that we've been paying for um have being able to end those costs and then we looked at elementary um and going down to four Elementary from five um anticipating saving us I think it was two M A little over $2 million I have a question go ahead that that though I and the saving for elementary is just based on Staffing if we completely close the

017building then we will recoup on lots of other costs as well we haven't started to look into trans pation uh cost on savings on utilities those kind of things okay thank you when it comes to thinking about compensation and the way forward for this year uh can we consider a local supplement increase in combination with the bonus yeah you could I'd like to explore that as an option for us because we could make permanent an increase that at least matches what bunkham county is doing and keeps us at that each percentage point is 500,000 so that we're not overextending ourselves I've been thinking a lot about Heidi's advice to us that when it comes to a local supplement if you move it up walking it back is very very challenging um but just because we

018don't make the local supplement as high as some of these lower charts doesn't mean we can't increase compensation this year through bonus and honor the amount that the county gave us but looking at your looking at the chart looking at what you gave us from aunan County so if we did the 2% local supplement increase that percentage is already higher than actually I mean we end up still being higher overall uh than buckon County has their set at currently so why not just look at more at the 2% local increase instead of a supplement and a bonus because you know it's great to do a bonus but um that's still a chunk of money that you're not going to have the next time around um I I I would like I would look more towards

019the the 2% increase but also what is the one and I'm horrible with math so I'm sorry um what I would love to know what the hourly what it what it comes to hourly I'm I was trying to figure up stuff uh each one of these because I don't think we ever get to the just economics number number one um and I don't think we this is my personal opinion I don't think we can get to the just economics without having to make substantial changes to our district and how we're using our staffing um yeah we could always dip into our local funds but you don't want to keep dipping into local and dip dipping and dipping until you run out I mean that's your savings you're supposed to save that so um but I

020know that we worked really hard last year to try to get close to what the number was last year um and we all know that that's going to just continue to go up that we're not getting any better with inflation stuff well we are sort of but um but my again my ask would be what is it you know what is a first year teacher making hourly in if I did the math right I think it's $281 but I could be wrong um based off of what you have there so a first year teacher at a 2% local increase supplement increase is making $27 an hour okay thank you follow question $27 an hour paid at 10 months a year paid at 10 months a year thanks and James I can appreciate that the difference

021between bonus and supplement increase supplement increase is permanent bonus is one time and I think that as we look at you know we have to move into a sustainability mode for sure like we and I think that's very important and I wouldn't want us to do anything that's threatening our sustainability um but I when I think about the work we did last year and what the county gave us and the directive they gave us about using the increase for compensation I think that it's important to look at all the ways to honor that and set ourselves up you know for a structure there's none of these are binaries there's no like if this then always this there's always these continuums of how it's going to go and to your point right if we if we

022just dive in headlong without being good stewards of the funds we could we could inadvertently create a real problem that's not what I'm suggesting we do but that we don't save or hold back so much at a time where I do think inflation's coming down I think relief is on the way but we're not there yet and this is a moment where it could be a big help um you see you know one of the challenges here is that we're looking at making significant structural changes potentially that will save money and we don't know what those are right now we genuine we we have just begun the conversations about a potential Middle School reconfiguration we're not yet to the high school we're not yet to elementary schools and so the argument in favor of to

023me of some of of a bonus slash supplement would be um or sort of thinking about a hybrid is that we will know much better in a year what our finances are looking like two years down the road three years down the road than we know right now and we'll know better in two years even more because I think this time next year we're going to be thinking about um if we if we don't get it to it this year we're going to be thinking about elementary schools next year and so um it's it's a you know it's just it's a challenge obviously so what is 2.7 you said the county gave us 2.7 we asked what what is that amount to of our puts 2.7 of our overall budget do we know the answer

024to that and I note that Heidi and her team are at a conference so Dr Ferman is um having to be our finance person and our superintendent tonight but then that really means you'd have to figure out more which is what we are already spending um but that that I guess was the increase so um the other thing I'll say is regardless of what happens with infl with inflation we know that Asheville is only becoming more expensive and and our teachers can't live in the city of Asheville on what we pay them period and that's not getting any better and we have a responsibility to do what we can to pay them a salary as much as possible to be able to enable them to live at least as close as possible to the city

025um I'm not the financial Guru that Heidi is I thought maybe I could figure it out but okay it's a little too a little too no that's fine sorry to put you on the spot fman good um I just I wanted to backtrack a little bit um back to the the consideration of reconfiguration and I I brought this up last week and I I know that it's a a nebulous purely imagin percentage but one thing that we do need to take into consideration when we are considering reconfiguring schools is the loss of students um who have deliberately whose families have deliberately chosen a smaller environment and who will not stay in the district and you know I think it it would behoove us to to consider perhaps like the loss of 50% of those students

026the loss of 25% and then you know worst case scenario the loss of 75% um and um also I wanted to to ask again about the outof district applications that we've received and the percentage of those that are enrolled um and continued enrollment uh yeah we pulled that data this week um I'm still analyzing it and putting it into some digestible data presentation and I'll present that next Monday thank you yeah Dr Ferman what percentage of our supplement well maybe you know this or maybe not uh what percentage of our local funds would we dip into to make the 2% happen if we did a 2% supplement increase that would be approximately a million dollars it's a million yeah clarify on that though James because I thought you were going to say something different the

027only thing we're talking about tonight is the increase to the supplement for the year we're in understanding that whatever we do tonight could impact the future budget but we're not necessarily seeing anything about the budget that's coming up I thought I understood and I thought this said that we have 2.1 available to us without using fund bals so what's been going through my head is that we could and this just what's in my head up for discussion is we could sustain a 3% increase and I've been thinking like 1% permanent and 2% temporary and that gives folks this current year money we have and I didn't think we tapped into the budget for that into excuse me to the local fund yeah we're everything we're talking about for supplement comes out of local fund so

028what does it mean that it says 2.1 million available without using fund back balance so fund balance is the savings account so because we had unspent funds from last year and we didn't have to send back for right us up that's up there yes and so we've been and we've been looking at this 1.69 Million number that even it so I don't mean that the dollars don't come from the local fund but we always thought they were coming from the local fund it's nothing new right okay that's probably what I should have said better um I I guess for me I think we owe an answer to the current year we have a budgeting process for the year to come we can't bind ourselves we don't know who's going to leave we don't know who's

029going to stay we don't know anything um so that's what's in my head that I share with you all and we have been advised about spiking I will note that for the record Anna Gillespie I will say that and I want to open up to George in just a second George we're coming to you um because I can't see you you might be waving frantically in that phono for there um I'm really would be troubled for us not to have a supplement that's at least better than bunkham counties I mean it costs more to live in the city of Asheville than it does in bunkham County so I want to at least look at what that and if we did a 2% increase we would exceed theirs if we did a 1% I'm not sure

030that we get there is that fair to say okay um all right George do you have any thoughts comments questions George do you have any questions input anybody anybody else yep we got you George um so I'm similar to what Amy has said I'm really thinking about that 2% to put us in line with bu County um we we do know that it's harder to live in Nashville we also know that plenty of our um plenty of our got two computers going so forgive the pauses we've got plenty of our teachers who who can't afford to live within the district um but they can live you know possibly can live within bu County I and I appreciate Sarah what you've said about kind of separating this conversation into what we do with the monies that

031we have right now out with the commitments that we had made and understanding that this is you know a decision we make right now depending on if we go with increasing the supplement or providing a a one-time bonus does affect what happens next year I am inclined to go with that 2% that would put us in alignment with bunkham County and would bring us closer to that commitment we made back in the spring when we were first discussing this budget I'll add I'm inclined to make a 2% supplement increase permanent and look for a responsible way of providing a bonus for this year and that for your team and to figure out you know I think we've made it clear that when we look at a dollar amount given to us by by like increase

032received by County Commission with a directive to make it compensation that we want to honor that and that the 2% doesn't get us to that number but from a sustainability standpoint 2% puts us with bunkham County and it makes a permanent supplement increase and then see what we can manage responsibly as a bonus for this year I I agree with that um and I've I've heard from a number of teachers in the District who many of whom work two jobs currently um and I think being able to count on the two% increase would would be wonderful um and well received and additional bonus would be um also very helpful no matter what that amount comes to if we let's just say hypothetically I'm putting aside the IDE bonus if we did a 2% supplemental increase

033that's for this school year correct so would would that 2% then be retroactive the beginning of the calendar year yes it would be so hypothetically the next once this if we were to pass it once it went through everyone in the district would get a significant bump in their next paycheck is that right or would it be spread out across the the subsequent paychecks um I have to check with Heidi on how that works we know some staff are still getting a one-time supplement instead of spread over the 10 months um so we have to kind of see who is getting the monthly supplement versus who would then get wait until I think it's June or or July to get their other their rest their big chunk thank you yeah I think um we we

034talked last week we were sort of looking at this $2.1 million pot right two two $2 million give or take a 2% increase is $1 million so it would seem to me that that might leave us a fair amount of cash for a bonus for good nice bonuses Am I Wrong uh yeah I mean it could potentially be that and we'll also have somewhat of a better idea once we get to later months and knowing how much you know is this 3.5 million or $4.5 million really what we need to be looking at shaving from the budget or is there a different number so we can kind of play that by ear later on is what I would recommend okay so your recommendation would be to do the 2% now if that was what we

035we were inclined to do but not an ounce a bonus until later in the year yes but with the intention or understanding that we hope to have we would plan to have a bonus that if that's what we decided to do later the only thing I don't like about that is you know we keep kind of kicking the can down the road and that feels uncomfortable to me but I understand the reasons for doing that and I guess we will vote on this next week yes so um we will hear public comment about this next week so those of you who want to comment on the budget come next week and we really welcome your comments and we look forward to hearing from you um yeah Jesse when you said the end of the year

036we talking about the school year or the end of 2024 the end of the school year may is when they get their when they get their M if they've elected for a one-time supplement okay okay does anybody have any other questions or concerns okay um next item of business is Dr Dickerson who's going to give us a state of the human resources department yay talking about teachers in our human capital we're going to hear a little bit more about them right now good evening I just take this off members of the board Dr Ferman colleagues Community um tonight I'm presenting the state of the resources department first I want to tell acknowledge um the amazing The Amazing HR team um that I have the pleasure to work with uh Dr Kim deant uh Lisa Bishop

037who's here they're both here Wendy Hensley Angela Franklin and Karina Haynes uh our goal is to support stakeholders by providing a thorough And Timely assistance while maintaining um professional demeanor that demonstrates patience compassion and concern uh our office has gone through a transition the last um few years um since I've been here since 2015 um we've transition um and changed a bit half of our staff at this point um has only been here about a year year and a half but uh they have added so much to the Department the work of Human Resources um our work covers everything from job descriptions and postings all the way to exit interviews um it is everything in between that makes our job exciting and never boring in terms of our budget um the allocations process for human

038resources in a school budget involves determining staff and HR needs uh this process also involves assessing the current workplace or Workforce I should say and identifying any areas where additional resources are needed it is important for us as a department to work closely with our school administrators and the finance department to Ure our resources are allocated effectively to support the overall success of the district as you can see we have it broken down to local and federal expenditures um you know some of the things as far as contracted Services you know we pay for um the uh Nan um Network for um our employees we also pay for the background check system the bib system and a number of other um items that you see there um are costly and we have to make sure

039that we are uh budgeted for those items um in 2024 which is this year um well it has increased our budget has increased since last year um but we have to make sure that um we stay on top of that um that has been um our goal each year we have our allocation sessions uh around this time of the year when we think about next year we have to think about those expenditures our staff and keep in mind there is there's a lot of information I tried my best to include everything that I think was is relevant to our conversations about Staffing next year um but in terms of General basis you know to see where we are as as a school district uh we have our total number and this fluctuates from from year

040to year um at this current um point we have 679 staff and this is this does not include temporary employees we have about 139 temporary employees uh in addition to the 679 I have a broken down by race um and I also have it broken down by certified and classified staff um the breakdown certified we have 441 and classified we have 238 um what I would say about this breakdown in terms of certified staff and classified staff our goal has always been to work towards having a proportionate ratio of black certified teachers for our black students um I will say that the percentage has uh increased slightly but it's always been between the five and 8% Mark when I talk talk when you're talking about certified uh black staff um the instructional assistance has always

041been um or the classified staff has always been a greater number of uh people of color or staff of color um here you see the 28% um we again this is this is something that we know that this is what we strive for um we're constantly trying to encourage um our current staff um if they are in classified staff to uh if they have the passion to become teachers um we try to provide resources and opportunities for them to pursue that and I'll talk that talk about that in just a little bit the retention data I wanted to share the following retention turnover data with you um and I I I do want to break this down in a simplistic Layman's way and sometimes this could be very complicated and for one reason DPI uh

042gathers information from March to March of the school year and I have calculated the rate from July to June and in past years and previous years I've always reported to the board from July 1 to about where we are right now I want you to see where we are in terms of um resignations and the numbers that you see there represent the actual number of folks that leave the schools without percentages but I did include the percentage overall so that you can see we're about for this year we're about 8% um that's about 54 staff who actually resigned and um and I I will like to say there are always stories and feelings and emotions Behind These numbers um from being homesick to going going want a better paying job um from not feeling supported

043not belonging feeling that that belong so that that range um because when I do exit interviews I hear these stories uh I am Gathering that information I am collecting that information um of course um not to throw put names in it but again there are stories and feelings and emotions behind each one of these and reasons so I have this year I have last year's numbers for retention and I have another year there as far as policies um I I mentioned transition um right now as it stands policies are in HR um and I want as we transition um this this part of it will be going to another department but I do want to go over this uh with you so that you are aware of the process uh thank you to Lisa Bishop

044who's our legal risk management person and she has worked tirely to um organize this uh communicate with our staff have um when the ntion when the um School Board Association updates policy twice a year that's spring and the fall that is that is given to us we review it HR reviews it and shares it with each department head department head reviews and approves and requests further Department review our attorneys uh review and provide feedback if necessary the policy is submitted to you guys for first read um the board approves or requests further review the policy is submitted for second read and approved by you and then the approved policy will be shared with principles and added online so that's that's pretty much the process in a nutshell and as we as we move forward next

045year um again we will well first of all I want to say thank you to miss uh Bishop because we are currently updated we are we we are in a place where we've never been in a very very long time so kudos to miss Bishop um and that's a year kudos to miss Bishop thank you so much um want to take this time to go over some notable accomplishments and and I know there's a lot of time I don't get this opportunity to talk before you so I'm going to take this time um we've streamlined the Frontline hiring process and and what do you what is Frontline Frontline is our basically our system that we use to hire our folks so when people want to apply and become um an employee of astr City Schools

046they have to go to Pro go to the pro the software and apply um and the Streamline [Music] um was something that I felt was necessary to do because was and I'm going in and now I'm sorry um it was more paperwork and I thought that it was it was good for us to try to streamline as much as we can now keep in mind I know there are some people wondering well if it's all electronic now what does it mean about the population of folks that may may not have technology um I have created a system where if they want to do a paper application they can do so as well um the number of staff that we've hired between um July and today is about 135 folks so that's 81 certified and 84

047classified staff that we have hired and processed and that process is them filling out the application uh um the principal's screening and interviewing uh making the recommendation uh me making offer to them that whole process takes a lot of time and um to to do all that for multiple well literally 135 staff members um that's incredible that's a um credible feat we have 100% license or renewals for 2223 school year um I stated ear Miss Bishop updating School board policies uh annual career fair we've had 100 plus attendees uh thank you to Dr deant for her um idea of having the job fair earlier than we we've U done in the past um before I think it was in April or May even and then couple of years ago during maybe a little bit before

048the pandemic Dr Dean had this brilliant idea of of pushing it back to March which was uh a great idea because we we hired about 20 21 staff members uh that year and it was a good thing that we did um the black educators of Excellence cohort of course um we believe that the cohort affinity group model is something that we should have and we have created opportunities for our black staff to fellowship and share uh their professional experiences and and and uh show them support make sure that they show show support for one another other we would like for more of our staff to participate in this program in the future lastly our growth areas of growth um and I know this is some of the questions that that you may have had I

049I have these very same questions each and every day um but I we recognize that the retention of our staff is important once we bring them here to astral City Schools what can we do to make sure that they stay here um recruiting a diverse staff is another area of concern and and I'm going link these two together because I do want to say that when I have these exit interviews I'm always asking myself you know I'm I'm sitting here with you and you're telling me these things I wish I had known that this was happening and their eyes light up and there are various reasons why I may or may not know um but it's important for us to look ask questions check on one another um because we don't know what's going on

050but until sometimes it's too late by the time they they they have made the decision say I got to go I have to leave um we lose folks um and I will say that um um also with the recruiting piece there are initiatives happening in the state um DPI has established a um instructional assistant tuition reimbursement grant program to provide tuition assistance to pursue college degrees in education that's one uh opportunity for our instructional assistance I sent that communication out a few weeks ago and also our Resa uh the regional support um they have received a grant from Dogwood health trust that will allow um Risa to award funds to student teachers and we have a lot of student teachers that come to us and they work with our with our teachers and it's a

051good way for us to capture them not capture it's a good opportunity for us to encourage them to work for the school system [Music] um and they that provides uh assistance with tuition fees and lure um testing and things of that nature so these are the areas of growth that we know that we need to um focus on timely uh new employee orientation sessions um you know one of the feedback uh sessions I received uh had a young gentleman said that you know he wished we had had a Neo a new employee orientation uh right when he was hired um and that's something that I am looking into why do that why does it not happen um because of the number of folks that come through um it just it takes it takes a lot

052of time and planning and we like to have a buildup of employees too we don't um that's something I definitely we need to look at cuz if it's just one or two people may we maybe we need to modify or look at it where we are uh meeting their needs but we do also expect there's to be some type of onboarding process or orientation at the school level as well um and part of that is just communication between us and the in the schools in the schools leadership development uh ad for administrators we want to have these sessions or we have established or scheduled PD series for our administrators um in terms of FMLA uh the evaluation system how to document uh the the hiring process in general uh the evaluation want to make sure

053that supervisor supervisors are trained on the evaluation tools and lastly I will say which leads back to the retention and and recruiting piece uh visiting our schools take a personal um interest in making sure that I am visiting schools and talking to staff and and and hearing their needs and seeking feedback from our stakeholders um in regards to the level of support that the HR department can provide that is my mission moving forward for the New Year and that's a lot thank you Dr Dickerson does anybody have any questions yes uh Dr dickon out of 135 that we hired this year do you have a number how many applicants that we had total how many applicants yes I don't but I can try to find that information for you and why you doing doing that

054could you out of that number how many was black certifi or classified staff that didn't make it good question yes I mean can we do that please I can do that I appreciate it thank you I can do that any other questions uh George Dr Dickerson I have a question Dr dickon can I just uh clarify question on the retention data those are all resignations correct that's the only data shown on those it's more than resignations it could be retirement it could be dismissal you said it's more than reservations it could be it can be other it could be resignations yes it can also be uh a employee deciding to retire or so is it basically any kind of separation is that what we're including data yes yes sir okay but I I do have

055that data that I'm collecting if you if you're specifically looking for those who resigned I can give you those reasons yes I'm collecting that data Dr Dickerson I have um a question what is the difference between black Educator's excellent cohort and the black Educators Alliance and I think I know what the cohort does in terms of supporting current black teachers and supporting their professional growth my real question is is does that lend any opportunity for um hiring which is one of your areas of growth so the cohort was established and I want to acknowledge Copeland Rudolph executive director of Ash City Schools foundations so the cohort if you remember um that was established a few years ago where the city provided the funds for us to initially it was for us to um have some

056of our folks become teachers um what we found out was that not everybody wanted to become teachers in fact we sent surveys out and the response was maybe three or four of the instructional assistant said they actually wanted to become teachers the rest wanted to become social workers counselors um some of them wanted to further their education and get their masters or become administrators so we were we were giving money a certain amount of money to try to find at least 10 and we couldn't find 10 so we started branching out and say okay let's use this money towards other ways to at least um you know grow our own and uh utilize those funds that way so that was the first cohort and the second cohort there's no more funds so we still wanted

057to create the affinity group model that's where we have the Educators Alliance the Educators Alliance is more of the fellowship steel it's also the the um the support and having those conversations um and we're still looking towards how we can find money to assist them but as far as the other funds um that's the difference between the two organizations Dr Dickerson is there a way that you could get us um I think it would be I think it would be good for the board to know what the breakdown is in terms of that's echoing classified staff like good God uh between the uh bus drivers custodians IAS uh Child Nutrition uh on our classified staff if you can get us those those the breakdown of those numbers we have that and we we can easily

058give that to you and I can send that to you thank you um thank you you're good I'm typing this in my phone I'm not not texting you're texting um one thing that I I heard came up twice in the areas of growth Dr Dickerson was um surrounding the exit interviews um where you you alluded to wishing You' known about issues before it became a a resignation situation um and about the timely new employee orientation about being about communication with the schools um and I was just curious if you could speak to the development and implementation to improve the chain of command and communication between employees and your department I want to make sure understand your question but one of the things I would like to do is continue to support principles um and having

059those conversations with their staff checking in with their staff um there is a [Music] lot I would I would say that what happens is you know sometimes employees do not feel comfortable sharing that they are either struggling or um they're having a difficult time um as a new te teacher I remember that um but then there are some who just you know they don't the the support looks differently and they may not know how to to share and principles may not know how to identify it but sometime something about checking in and just saying how are you doing and not just how you're doing but what can I do for you uh it goes a long way way and I'm not saying that doesn't happen but I would like start there thank you okay yeah

060I I just had a couple of things one in the certified staff um of black certified staff those are not all teachers am I right or are they all teachers they are teachers they are administrators they be central office staff and things like that I'm curious to know what percentage of our teachers are teachers of color um and then the second thing I'm curious if you know you know if you look back the last three years we've got between eight and % of folks leaving by mid year which is shocking to me and yet maybe I I'm curious to know if this is consistent with for example bunkham County's numbers and and what you see elsewhere do you know the answer to that I don't know the answer but I know it's consistent with us

061I mean well that's clear um thank you yes um all right and and I do I will just flag and sort of piggybacking on what Liza said you know when I speak with teachers What I Hear sometimes is fear uh about speaking up and saying what's what they what they are experiencing we are working really hard in this District to create a culture of trust um and I know that our principles are doing the same thing and I know that your office is somewhere along the way we're still having folks resign and your office just now finding out why one thing go ahead I have to forget I'm not I'm G forget this thought if I don't say it but I think one thing I left off was there is a such thing as a

062right fit meaning if there's a good fit I that and and sometimes that is not I the Right fit obviously yes sir I understand that 100% And we have teachers leave because they are do not feel supported and that has nothing to do with the right fit and then we have teachers who leave because it's not a right fit for them or for us and that's that's fair anyway that I just think that the retention of Staff obviously is just of critical importance and I know your team is working hard to do it I would love to find out I would love for you to have an a goal of next year having 5% instead of eight I'd like you to figure out and I maybe that's absolutely ridiculous and maybe that's not possible and

063I leave that to Dr Ferman to actually set that goal for you that's not my job but I really would love to see this number go down somehow and um and I know you all would too so everyone's trying hard but I I guess what what I'm curious about is what specifically you're doing to help change that to open the the communication um with staff who particularly our Educators instructional assistants and and teachers because when they leave our students in the middle of the year it has dramatic effects and I've experienced it in my family and probably all of us have so thank you very much though for the work that you and your team do I really appreciate it and I know the whole board does i' I'd like to kind of picky back

064on that a little bit but also I think what would help is looking at those retention numbers is what George kind of brought up you know deaths re early retirements moving because one spouse moves out of town and there you have to go that's because that number could be a lot smaller yes than 8% good God than 8% it could really be smaller so having that breakdown I think would be helpful when we look at that number cuz you know like I said you could be at five or 6% already but we just don't know and and you don't know what's going to happen throughout the year as well but I like the the challenge though of saying you know we should be at 5% and as I formulate that data I feel comfortable in

065having that information for you um because you're right it it may make it look a little differently after you kind of um separate that I guess the observation I would make is that when our schools come in front of us and they give us the state of Montford or the state of um Asheville middle or silsa they are giving us percentage goals of how they want to reduce the achievement Gap and how they want to uh improve proficiency and improve growth and if we're going to ask that of our Educators I think we should be asking that of our central office staff I'd like to see specific goals when possible to uh to address these kinds of issues and maybe that's not fair and again that's not really my job but it's just something I'm

066sort of sitting up here wrestling with like we got we these schools come to us with really bold and I think uh courageous assertions of what they are trying to achieve and I just I hope we can kind of get the same thing in terms of our absolutely diversity of our staff and retaining our staff thank you very much I really appreciate it just to speak on that for just a second um that's one of the things I've asked each department to do is set what I call kpis Key performance indicators so they've been working Gathering data kind of gathering their Baseline so that they can set those goals awesome thank you perfect one final observation as you think about putting all of this into further analysis I very much appreciate that we're looking at

067retention data at the midpoint I think that's telling and tells a a certain story um I would like to see full year retention data as well um when we look at hiring 135 people for this school year but at the midpoint last year we had 56 resignations there are many more separations that happen and I think some of that is naturally occurring because of sticking it through the school year like teachers leaving it's Educators leaving at the midpoint is a very important data point and I really appreciate it but I'd also like to see the total sum yeah I um I I also would like to see just more into the the data here um and also the excuse me it may become more clear when we have a a deeper dive into that data

068but just looking at the the trends of over the the three years that we look at that there are some some commonalities in the the highest losses between schools okay any other okay moving right along to miss pet uh I think we want to talk about student releases thank you own personal I was like no you can put it right here I don't want to touch it um good evening board um what you have before you is three releases this it is open enrollment time today was our first day and I will say we knocked it out the park just on the first day um and uh the two on there are new placements so we are talking to our parents a little more in depth as they come in and I'm signing the DS

069um so yeah okay thank you any questions just remember to go get us some kids say that tonight before you leave we need kids yeah well and and I'll say that there is absolutely no reason to send your child anywhere else thank you um all right um Amanda Miss Rick's be Transportation report oh sorry George has something sorry George Mr sh I don't mean to point this out but if you look at your student releases you've got race and gender switched thumbs up we gotta thank you George okay M thank you good afternoon good night whatever it's late today Miss Avery do oh there it is okay I want to first start off by thanking the board um for your support since this time last January we have uh we went from a fleet of

070I don't I think we we do our job so well it may not have been noticed but we went from a fleet of um 18 at this time last year which included four EC buses so we were down to 14 regular Ed buses and four EC buses we are now back up to 22 buses and I think when you see my numbers you're going to see how important transportation is to this district and to the students um that use it ashal SE School's transportation department was formly founded or formed in 1998 99 prior to that we used Asheville Transit and we had five buses on loan from bunam County Schools ashal se's transportation employees represent over 300 years of experience in our industry we operate 22 buses driving u 1,22 m a day for 197,198

071m per year in in our Asheville city um boundaries and transporting 1600 students each day our mission is to provide leadership technical assistance service and support to schools and families in all areas of Pupil Transportation our goal is to ensure that a durable safe well-maintained Fleet of school buses is available for the students of Asheville C schools to assure that we will promote safety quality reliability and extent of service as required by state law and state board policy to provide information and technical assistance to support our families and schools and to provide transportation services as efficiently as possible without compromising the quality and safety of our service that is important to our department we may be a little l late but our safety record is very very good we employe 12 full-time drivers um four

072tsas 14 part-time drivers or dual employee drivers one afternoon bus monitor one mechanic myself Transportation director an administrative assistant and dispatch he does stop arm violations our video pulls tracking um our tracking apps and parent support and Fleet support and that's Mr abbar we have a transportation specialist billing CDL compliance which is a Bayer payroll and HR which is Whitney Griffin and our lead bus driver Fleet support and a bus rouer Mr Rick Stevenson all Transportation staff are paid from State Transportation funds based on allotments and funding for each position this funding algorithm is comprised of deficiency loaded miles number of routes student count office staff do receive an addition to their local supplement about about 3 to 5% of our money from local as required in order to process local Vehicles let me explain

073that just a little bit um we have a fleet of 14 white local vehicles but the state money does not pay us to do that job so the 3 to 5% that we get of our local salaries helps us maintain legal compliance to be able to work on activity bus billing and mileage and all the things that are required to go with that our earliest morning pickup is around 610 and our latest afternoon drop is around 510 of course we have a 10-minute window on either side of that due to traffic and weather and we all Drive in Asheville traffic so any day that who knows we no longer practice and I do not like this term but this was the term that's been used dead zones but instead they are no Transportation zones and

074that is due to inability to AC access a road or certain areas because the size of the bus is too long and we can't get down streets um that is becoming more and more problematic for us as Asheville grows and more parking on the streets um we do have no travel streets again that is due to the size of the bus the size of the road and those those things these are all evaluated on a case-by casee basis and if we have situations where a parent is really concerned we do try to work with those families to establish service where possible such as a community stop or a stop closer to their home if we can't get to them uh it is the responsibility of the parent however by state law to get the student

075to the bus stop and I do need to note that and I just let you know that we do our very best to get as close as possible bus stops are home to school and school to home that is our primary goal but you're going to see that we are able to do more than that in the next Slide Asheville trans uh City Schools transportation provide service to some after school programs based on seed availability and generally there needs to be 10 or more students attending a daycare in order for us to do that and a student cannot that's going to an after school cannot displace a student on a bus that is domiciled in that area we do not transport to parents or students places of work that is a big question I get

076it a lot so I did add that in there just just for um educational purposes and we cannot I get this one a lot too we cannot transport out of District students EC or regular Ed we are not allowed to cross into other districts to pick up students um unless they have been identified as a mck vento there again that gets into a funding um efficiency and gets into another County demographics and we just no District does that in North Carolina Ashville City Schools transportation bus routes serve all five elementary schools Each of which draws students from the entire School District so we may be transporting kids from uh almost to Inca be Creek Road area all the way to Jones just as an example of of where what we do there the parental student

077Choice program is implemented to meet educational objectives rather than Transportation efficiency and I felt like that was important for the board to to know and instead of operating five individual sets of bus routes elementary schools are paired so that we um so that the five uh schools are served by three rout sets and I paired them for you l uh Lucy herring and Hall Fletcher are paired together uh with their stops Claxton and Jones and Isaac Dixon stands alone so similarly uh high school and middle school and Montford are relatively close geographically and each draws students again from the entire District so they are routed together for the most part there are some exceptions the secondary schools are served under two route sets um and a set for Montford and a PM route for the

078academy and let me explain that real briefly we bring the Academy kids in and we're already going to the high school so we can make a stop and then in the afternoons we take some to the high school to finish their day and then the some of the full-time drivers take those students that may be done at 1:45 home on their way to an elementary school to start their Elementary bus route so you probably see us out on the road all day these are the services supported by our little tiny Department um a neighboring County director said to me you guys do a lot of extra and I said yes we do so I think it's important that that everybody in our community understands how much we do compared to neighboring districts and that is

079uh we do our PK we transport our prek students of course EC mckin vento students uh Community High School we do have five six students that are transferred from our district out to bunkham County Community High School we do midday EC internships with Asheville High School um we support the Edington Academy we do Asheville SE schools-based special programs after school programming and such summer enrichment summer feeding we typically have three sites that we work during the summer two after school programs in the district that we are supporting right now uh Elementary wise which is the Herring hars and the claxon Busy Bees uh we support 10 Community after school programs that are connected to our district that's the Edington Center uh there the p uh PBA math club um there's there's a lot The JCC

080there's a lot I've got a whole list on my wall if you ever come to my office it's it's there we have GPS for our school buses and for students and we all know that has been a little hateful this year but we are working out the Kinks and realizing what what has caused some of those hiccups in our chipmunk app and a lot of it um we are just having to educate ourselves and parents as we learn it's a new program and there going to be things that happen that seems to be getting better and better as we move along uh we have safety vision camera system and uh we have eight point cameras on the inside and three on the outside the three on the outside are for stop arm violations eight View

081Camera views on the inside I did not put this on here but we also have front and rear-facing dash cam cameras that um we use for coaching for our drivers if necessary plus they're really good uh with students you know you can see a lot with the students and outside the bus we have our dispatch and then um we have Wi-Fi for Real Time inside views this has come on as of late um we can actually now as of the 1 of January if a driver dispatches in that there's something going on their bus we can actually look directly inside the bus in real time if necessary there is a link that I could immediately send to sheriff Miller's office and they could actually go to that uh with that link where my bus is

082based on that information I do um as I close out my presentation this next video is about love the bus month which is during the month of February there's no more recognizable symbol in the world of Education than a big yellow school bus come in down the road I love what I do every day supporting the districts the charter schools in their mission of safety of getting our kids to and from school every single day I think there's a saying in school transportation once your blood becomes yellow it never goes back to Red having the child ride on a school bus due to the training of the bus drivers also to the design and specifications of school buses child's trip is 30 times better than riding in the fam the car it's proven out year

083after year after year after year national highway traffic safety administration they keep those records I have so much passion for this industry building for future Generations is really important I'm a mother of three children and my kids all ride the school bus and therefore I have an emotional connection to this industry just to ensure that all students today are safely being transported in buses and give that confidence to parents that they're in good hands people don't think about the bus cuz the bus is so safe and without that bus most kids would not have access on a consistent reliable day to get to from school or they a school related act activities a lot of students while they're on that bus riding not only they building bonds and relationships with other students they're also doing

084the same thing with our bus drivers our professionals they're having conversations with them that sometimes they may not share with their parents they may not share with the school because they truly feel comfortable and protected by our bus dver we have hundreds of thousands of dedicated people that work in transportation every day make sure kids get to school safely the amount of training that we do with drivers the inspection process and maintenance of the vehicles it far exceed What's Done in probably any other industry I think it is an underserved campaign that deserves more credibility so many times the bus driver if they're running late or the route has to be canceled transportation is the first to be crucified and when we can honor those that get up selflessly and unapologetically serve the community so

085many times underpaid under under staff overworked gives them that sense of accomplishment that they need they [Music] deserve all right thank you Amanda is there any questions yes what as the community is watching this watching us right now can you explain the importance the behavior how important it is for the kids is to behave on bus and eating on bus and everything else could you give us just a small lecture on that please and what happens if a kid uh get it I mean get exp spelled from the bus who has to pick him up and take him so could you just let the parents and everybody else know how important it is that they allow their child to come on the bus and behave properly or there's circumstances can you give us a brief

086app we are working with the Student Success task force that um Dr f and uh Miss arre has uh developed and we we got kind of held up with weather in January but in that task force we are addressing some of these concerns and there's always concerns with student behavior um it should be a given when you get on the bus you sit down and you don't eat because you know you could choke and you know um the driver wouldn't see it we have one adult facing the front and kids behind them so you can imagine you know that it's a lot of responsibility but um we're working to try to develop some uh really good behavioral um implementation and to improve that and that improves the safety of every student that rides the bus

087every student that rides deserves to feel safe going home in the morning and coming to school in the morning going home in the afternoon I wanted to ask um the the reasoning behind the um policy of not transporting to parents or students places of work a lot of that is liability concerns um when you let a child out in a parking lot we have a lot of of human trafficking that goes on and we are um certified a a lot of my drivers including myself to to be aware of that and it goes on in Asheville and unfortunately if we let a student out in a parking lot there's the liability they could get r over Mama's working in an office and we wouldn't know it versus a home stop or a community stop where

088the parents supposed to be there to get them then could it not be required that the parent come out to meet the bus at their place of work it could but we get into some efficiency issues that we would have to look at um so it's a great question thank you I have a followup question to that is there ever any opportunity for outer District students to take advantage of community stops that's another one of those that we've never done before because of liability I it would not be it would be less concerning for an upper grade student versus a smaller an elementary student um I think those are things that we need to look at on a Case by casee basis um and our department with operations could look at that over the summer

089and see where we stand you know how that might look with moving forward it's just typically is not done in in districts you may see parents get away with it because a bus driver I read it on another group page another District a bus driver was doing it but the bus driver supposed to stop at only the stops that are on their route sheet by law just so that I'm sure I understand where there are kids whose home stops we can't get to because the roads don't allow a bus they use what you called Community stops let me Virginia Avenue we all know where Virginia is and it goes way down in there and then comes way back up and that is a very problematic road we have a lot of students down that road

090so the closest Stop is more of a community stop um we have two on either end of the road so that they could utilize one of the two thanks that would be a community stop or we Community stop could also be um uh let's see we we've not done a lot during the regular school year but a community stop could also be a um in hrist we would use the administration building as a community stop in Haywood Road we would use maybe um there's a one of the churches as a community stop because Virginia goes down I forgot the name of that church that sits there on the corner that those are just some small examples of a school can be a community stop we do we have used Herring as a community stop and

091Hall Fletcher those are two that we use and Claxton Dixon we've not used as Community stop and Jones We've not used those I just wanted to say thanks for all your staff that they do and um it was after my time but I hear the tracking app is really excellent you alluded to some glitches but most parents I talk to say it's amazing so thank you it has improved greatly so but we've improved with it so the more that we know the better the app's gotten for our parents and that's that's another layer of safety it is not a requirement for us to have that app and it takes manpower to do that but we felt when we got our smart school bus grant that the app would be another layer of safety for our

092students and our families so we want to try to keep that and I just wanted to say thank you as well well um excuse me my my mom was a bus driver for 27 years my brother was a bus driver as well for a good while and I know the hard work that y'all do Jesse and I have the pleasure of sitting on the transportation committee uh when last year we chose our different committees Jesse and I have are sitting on that committee and had the opportunity to go out uh with Dr Ferman and go to the transportation office and see her big map and all the numbers on her board I would encourage all the other board members to come out as well uh because there there's a lot um looks like a massive

093game of Tetris almost at times um of of making sure that our kids get to school um and as Amanda said it is unusual the way that we do our our our transportation and it's it's a miracle that that we get our kids to school in the timely fashion that we do having to go all over creation uh with it so thank you thank my drivers they those the drivers are the ones who are they're they're amazing and the drivers are fun and they and they also will let you know what they think so um George do you have any questions or comments uh no only to reiterate the gratitude for the transportation department thank you um I I want to ask this students a question but um my question is what would we have

094to do to change the 610 a.m. and the 510 p.m. do you need more buses do you need more people what because that is really early it is really early and I know you're doing heroic work so I don't want to suggest otherwise but what would it take um a lot of that is our EC students and our prek uh it would take there again we get into efficiency and then you cut into a driver's hour if you take and add another bus there are lots of lots of things to look at before we do that um 610 is early it's very early um and that's I mean that's almost two hours before the school day starts so prek though uh they can start at 700 and we drop by 7:15 okay and then then

095um of course Elementary School does not start until 8:00 but we do make drops between 7:15 and 7:30 and then we have to go back out and then start our secondary so what's the earliest that you're picking up an elementary school student if you know about 610 yeah okay so that's still we we make our first stop for prek um in Montford area and we pick up several students at the same time okay and this is no no sh St on the transportation department whatsoever I just I'm genuinely curious if there's a way for us to to change that because that is I can't imagine being a six-year-old kid on the bus at 610 and I'm not I'm supposed to start learning at 8 and then being able to learn at 8 and continue to

096learn until 2:30 and then maybe not getting home until 10: after 5: that is a really long day um observation not criticism so did you uh students want to offer something um I just wanted to ask you is it correct that the state covers or your department covers transportation to athletic events or like extracurricular events like speech debate or how is like how does that work that is local use the state does not fund that state funding is only from your home to school and from school to home and when you hear us talk about yellow extra yellow bus use that's for extra after school programming that involves student enrichment and learning um not Athletics or speech and debate or band or swim team those are funded through local transportation and that's the use of

097the activity bus does I'm sorry does the use of that or the compensation for those drivers fall under your department yes and no uh the school will we will build the school and it just depends on the again the funding where it where it comes from let's say um we had a swim meet this weekend um I'm a swim mom so I keep up with those even though mine are out of school so the driver uh that drove for that was funded by the athletic department so the athletic department funded their pay and the bus and and that that part okay because I recently heard that those drivers like to athletic or extracurricular events were no longer going to be paid for the time that they spent at the event and only driving so I

098was wondering if like you had anything to do with that or that's not your jurisdiction that is uh we pay our drivers to stay during the event now if they leave the event on their own and they go back to a hotel room or they go down the road to do something personal they should not be paid but if they're there to support the swim or the debate or the band and to help chaperon most definitely they are on the clock and paid uh that would fall back under whoever's supervising the driver of the event so the uh teacher or um whoever's there to supervise that so we do we do pay them for the duration of their time they're also they get paid they don't get paid to sleep but if you're going to

099go spend the night somewhere they get paid to pretty much be on call except they have to have time by um Federal Motor Coach standards off to rest so it's they have to log they log that they're they can't have more than a 14-hour work day or shouldn't have I should say so if you're going to an event where you spend the night that driver gets paid from the time they leave the school until the time they go to bed and then the next day when they start again and warm up the bus and do their pre-check they're back on the clock so they are compensated or should be compensated if not I I think you know we would help them figure out and help the program figure out there's are great questions thank you

100for that thank you all right thank you very much um so we're going to keep going with our consent agenda I do want to just take a second to recognize that those of you who are here for public comment we're going to be moving at a faster clip here so you know stay with us we appreciate your presence and um we're getting to you um all right so the next item is uh Dr Ferman with the budget amendment and expens report uh yeah and I'm going to go through the next three they're all for Heidi um and since she's at that conference I was going to cover these so the first one is a budget amendment um you know this money from the state kind of comes in and phases so this is an amendment

101to adjust for um funding that we received from the state um for our allocations um so we will need to put that on the consent agenda for next month to put that money into the budget and then um there is the expense report um so you can see on that expense report by budget item and we have at this point spent about 55.78 per of our allocated budget any questions on the budget amendment or the expense report okay um the next one is a contract for our um auditing firm there any questions on the proposed contract for the auditing firm and then the final is um what we talked about at the budget work session this is a option for purchase of group life insurance for our employees and this would be eligible for every

102single employee um so the the options we talked about were uh five 10,5 and2 um did the board have a a recommendation Heidi was recommending 10,000 but also heard the board talking about the 15 and $20,000 options um any questions or recommend recommendations on the various options I think my question was uh in regards to that I mean looking at looking at them uh the the different options it wasn't going to be that much more expensive to go 15 um and I think I did ask if we do have the funds to cover that since it would be something that we would be covering yep um so I I know my personal opinion was to go with a 15 it's not I mean 15 isn't a lot at the end of the day but it

103is something else yes agreed it is something else that that would help um and you know that is accidental death and dismemberment and life insurance so um in my previous role World um the rate looks great and and it's also a guaranteed issue so no one's having to go through and have physicals and all that other good stuff when they first sign up so this would be a great opportunity for our employees one more added benefit emplo yeah it's about $111,000 more to go up to 15 and that just seems reasonable to me if that's a motion I'll second it well no motion needed just um if I can get consent it'll be go it'll go on the consent if will it go on the consent as you 15 15 M okay that's if that's

104the consensus of the board then yes we'll put it on as 15 and go from there okay that concludes I would just I'll just say I would go with 20 but that that's probably because I I could I would have a hard time getting life insurance at this point uh because of my own medical history so I just you know I would go for more but um if if uh if everybody else if if we're at 15 I can live with that I would also like to consider 20 20 and we can go up later as well so if we start with 15 and we decide we want to increase all employees will still be eligible because we're doing a increase to our rate all existing employees would and new mhm okay if we went

105to 20 well if we start if we just went to 20 we do have the funds to cover that correct uh ye yes I mean it's $43,000 for almost $44,000 but we wouldn't we wouldn't have any problems down the road of oh we can't fund this now don't want to get in that spot I don't think so I mean that's such a a small part of what we pay I don't think that that would be there would be definitely other things we could cut before we were like o this is too much of a strength I mean I'd be fine with 20 as well I I was looking more on the conservative side but yeah I go for 20 I'm good with 20 I'm fine with 20 it's only a three they can raise the

106rates after three years so it's only guaranteed for three years and I'm just pointing out to everybody that the insurance companies are making most of this money we are doing it as a benefit for our staff and I fully support that but okay right and we I I assume we could change policies in three years if they sent us a notice of a rate increase that we didn't we weren't happy with we could always I'll have to check with Heidi change uh he's the detail person on that okay well let's um and I should go back to I think with the budget supplement I'm not sure if that should be on the consent agenda no that be an we'll discuss that'll be an action item yeah I'm going to I'm going to ask Heidi to

107pull some additional numbers and just verify some of the stuff that I put together just to make sure we're all set very good thank you uh George did you have any questions or thoughts here so I just will you clarify for me to be to settle the 15,000 or the 20,000 uh 20,000 okay uh thank you for that and then the other question is excuse me on the budget and expenditure report okay so is this what we're gonna see from Heidi like every other month corre yes thank you so much great easy okay awesome okay great um we are at 10 until 7 and we're getting ready to go into public comment on the parent Bill of Rights so it is called um does anyone need a break okay I know you guys don't want

108us to take a break and I'm sorry but we're going to take a f minute break unless I mean Liza says she needs a break anybody all right we're going to do it because one Board of member wants it and I'm not going to say no so we're going to break for five minutes and we'll come right back where's Avery Avery yeah I can't see Avery yeah do you are you gonna say a few things first too besid just go over some of the legal parts of it okay [Music] um all right welcome back every everybody now is the time that some of us have been waiting for I think tonight and we are certainly um eager to engage in this conversation we're going to begin this parent Bill of Rights conversation first of all

109with hearing from our attorney a little bit um of the summary of some of what we have done in this process of going through the proposed language that we received initially and then also I'm going to make just a couple of comments before we open the um floor to public comment so Anna yeah thanks Amy um so just as like an overview of all of the policy changes that are being looked at all of these changes well other than the ones that were made specific to the board um but all of the changes are coming from the requirements of Senate Bill 49 in particular the new law um 115c 7635 that's requires certain policies be implemented in each district um most of the changes that are in these policies are coming from ncsba um who

110provide draft policies to almost every District in the state um and those changes were made to reflect those changes in law that I just mentioned um however each district is able to alter the policies to better serve their community and the board is considering changes from the ncsba language to fit with implementation in ACS better here um so do would you want me to go through some of the legal changes with the modifications Amy or I feel like we those have been posted um and so I'm kind of feeling like I can give a really quick statement of the gist of what we did and then we can always um come back to you perhaps um okay so I will tell you all that what we did as a board was we went through the

111proposed changes by the North Carolina School Board Association and we went through it really carefully to try to find ways that we could change language or um alter or even in some cases remove portions of what were recommended to be in policy and instead make them procedures that would be more tailored to what we do in Asheville City Schools instead of a blanket policy um that was one of the things for example that we did with the not parent notification provision you will notice that we took that completely out of our policy changes and instead we're addressing that through I mean not a policy um we're yes and we're addressing that through procedures um at the end of the day I can say for myself I'm only one board member but I will say that

112this board has worked really hard to try to um do what we think we're required to do and there can be reasonable debate about that um but do it in a way that causes the least amount of harm while acknowledging that the purp in my opinion of this law is to create harm um and so and I'm going to say that that's myself I'm not speaking necessarily for the full board um I want to mention a couple of things that are important to my thinking about this the first of all we the way we interpret this requirement for example that you not instruct on sexuality or gender is that that means any sexuality or gender so if we were going to remove uh books that portrayed two moms which is happens to be my family

113composition then we would have to remove every book that had a pair of straight parents um that the interp that's a fair interpretation of what this means if you can't instruct on a queer um family then you can't instruct on a straight family and so then we think about when what does instruct mean and it doesn't mean the presence of books that depict certain families certain folks with gender identities different um identities so no one in Asheville City Schools as I understand it is pulling books out of any classroom you should not hear of that and I don't believe it's going on so I want to be really clear about that because we've had comments saying it is and if it is let us know uh specifically let Dr Ferman know because we don't believe

114that that is happening because we don't believe it should happen we don't think the law requires that um in terms of the notification procedures where we are required to notify parents if someone wants to announces that they want to use a different pronoun or a different nickname which is interesting um that process in Asheville City schools has always been that often it is actually initiated by the parents right we are very fortunate we live in a a a fairly Progressive community and so it's not often that that is something that would be done by the school first um at the end of the day what our procedure will be will be to Center the needs of the student and so there will be a um and and Dr firman correct me if I'm wrong when

115I say this the idea behind the procedure will be that the Educators in our district will know what the procedure is and it will ask them to let if if a child comes and says usually it's by the way it's the parents who tell us but if it's not and if it's a student then the teachers will know who in their school to take that information to it will not be the individual teacher who will be engaging with the parent or the student about that the student will then be asked and just sort of have a conversation to find out if there are potential risks of notification and at every turn the student safety and well-being is what will be held as the central need and um our objective will be to take care of

116that student's needs so that if there is any potential harm from telling the parents then that will be something we will work through and um if there's a risk to the student state law would require that we not put that student in Risk at a risk okay um so that with that preface I welcome we all welcome your comments and uh I have to read this script which is a little maddening to me only because of its length so I'm going to do my best to um be short with it the Board of Education appreciates your interest yes and we welcome your comments the total time well I'm not members of the public may speak for three minutes um is there an indicator light yes okay there's going to be an indicator light and it

117will um let you know when your time is up if you're representing a group you may elect one speaker from that group and they may address us for five minutes um substitute speakers will not be permitted did I do something wrong okay our prior board chair has to help me get this right um U obviously please be respectful I'm really confident we're not going to have any trouble with that tonight but um we want to all be respectful of each other incorrect or misleading information may be responded to at the direction of uh me tonight um public comment um allows you to share your thoughts it's not generally a time for for us to respond to those thoughts it's just a time for us to receive and and I want to make the the note

118that the reason we are receiving often we receive public comment on the same night we're going to make a decision we scheduled this week ahead so that we could actually absorb your public comments and take them into consideration before we have to make a vote on this um next week and um to make public comment individuals must be present or make their comments in person or virtually confidentials student Personnel matters may not be discussed during public comment um and we don't accept Personnel comment complaints during public comment and if you have a concern about that you can see the superintendent and with that um I would invite uh Mr Craig white to give public comment good evening board members and Dr Ferman I'm Craig white of the campaign for southern equality I use he and

119they pronouns and you know our position uh we have taken the position that there are several elements of sp49 that violate tanine by creating a hostile educational environment for lgbtq students staff and families you may also be aware that we have filed a federal civil rights complaint against the Department of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education to resolve this question and I appreciate so much the revisions and edits and multiple versions you have made to reduce the Harms in these policies the months and the meetings and the work sessions the multiple revisions and the ways that you have really listened to public comment thank you and I think you can do more in your work session in January you named two policies that most directly Target transgender students the same that you mentioned

120tonight Mr right the provision that requires the mandatory outing of a student who changes their name or pronouns and the provision that bans lgbtq content in the K through 4 curriculum I agree that that is not what the policy or the law says and that is the way that it has been implemented across the state these are also the provisions where the Chapel Hill carbro Board of Education drew the line they did not pass all of the policies recommended by sp49 they had the moral courage to say this provision is discriminatory it harms our students and it's wrong and they had the legal courage to insist that federal law takes precedence over state law DPI has responded by doing nothing yes there has been some ranting and blustering by the legislators who passed the law

121who are Furious that one district will not fall into line behind their extremist agenda but nothing from DPI because this is the process next September school districts will report their policies to Raleigh the Department of Public Public Instruction will review those policies and they will send letters of concern to districts that they feel are not in compliance and then there will be probably months of legal memos floating back and forth while our federal civil rights complaint proceeds in the background I'm asking you tonight to follow the lead of Chapel Hill carboro schools please refuse to pass those two Provisions next week whether it's a procedure or a policy even if there are workarounds in place those are discriminatory policies the downside is a bunch of extra paperwork next fall the upside is that you send

122a message of Hope to students and families and staff not only in this District but across the state as they see another Board of educ a do the right thing thank [Applause] you thank you Amber King hi my name is Amber King I'm a social worker and organizer with campaign for southern equality and I've worked with youth in a lot of different capacities so like the professionals at Asheville City Schools I've had lot of training and Youth Development and we talk a lot about risk and protective factors so we know that queer and trans youth face a lot of risk factors just for being who they are and those risk factors lead to Serious consequences including death by Suicide sometimes even death by murder and we know that that does not stop when they reach

123adulthood so we have an onslaught of legislation we have politicians on record saying there their strategy is to Chip Away lgbtq rights until there are none so it is very likely that the students who are in schools today will be facing attempts to dehumanize and erase them for the rest of their lives and we can't control that we cannot eliminate those risk factors but what we can do is provide protective factors and we know one of the biggest protective factors for youth is having supportive adults in their Liv so imagine how those students in Chapel Hill caror feel and what they will carry with them for the rest of their lives is that the adults in their home Community believed they were worth protecting and those adults who had Direct power over their lives stood

124up for them and took a risk so that has a ripple effect into the future that we can't even imagine and we have an opportunity if Asheville City Schools did the same thing to have a ripple effect also now across the state where students can see that people care about them so this is what we have control over this is what we can do this is what you have the power to do and in the for the rest of their lives students from Asheville will remember this and know that they are safe because the adults in their lives have their backs thank you thank you Alison Scott thank you all my name is Allison Scott I am a director of polic of impact Innovation at the campaign for southern equality but more importantly I'm a

125mom of an Asheville City middle schooler now if you remember last time I was up here I'm picking on y'all I'm challenging y'all to stand up and do the right thing I reminded you that when you swore in to your office that you were going to uphold federal law over state law well I think that's what you're hearing tonight already from two other people we've seen one school board do that the school board in caror the chairman of the car School Board in caror said that it was important that someone show kids that anyone will is willing to stand up and say this is not right and it's morally wrong that's from the chair of the school board in carboro one voice is descent two voices is the start of a movement trying to put

126in workarounds I appreciate it I I appreciate trying to mitigate harm but workarounds are not what we need we need opposition again I'm a big fan of the code of ethics that y'all signed in with and number 16 right here off the code of ethics for school board members is to remember always that a board Member's First and greatest concern must be the educational welfare of the students attending the public schools we're telling you what the concerns are you're hearing it every day be the voice of opposition start a movement don't let caror stand alone stand with them we will all stand with you none of us have to be alone unless we hide and try to create workarounds and mitigate harm from harmful people thank [Applause] you thank you uh Ramona Schwarz P flag

127I do not work for campaign of Southern equality and I will not speak as eloquently as they did my name is Ramona and I am a nurse I am on the board of P flag but more importantly I am a proud mother of two teenagers one identifies with the queer community and I have a 17-year-old transon and I wish we lived in a world where an every home a child felt unconditionally loved and supported for exactly who they were but that is not the world we live in sometimes it's the schools where they land and can take a deep breath and be their authentic selves where they're supported by peers and friendly staff like like she said they said what are your pronouns um Health Care Professionals will tell you that a child needs one

128stable strong adult in their life and it exponentially increases their ability to thrive and succeed I feel our teachers happily and willingly every single day step up to the plate to be that person to be a mentor to be an advocator to be a role model to take away a child's ability to choose an adult that they feel safe with is is heartbreaking when a child feels isolated and lonely it leads to hopelessness and like we have already heard it they can become a really terrible statistic so I think it is in the best interest of all of our teachers and our children that they can find each other and um make this place a safer world thank you Henry heon we should treat Que people how we want to be treated that is the

129Golden Rule take care of kids don't pass this UNF fell [Applause] rule thank you Christina Mason I'm Christina Mason um I'm Henry's mother I did not put him up to this but I did talk to him about um some of the policy IES that might be coming and he had some opinions so I'm glad that he was able to share them with you and I'm really proud of him it's hard to imagine any other scenario where our school board would be prepared to pass policies that single out a minority group because the law required it if the parents Bill of Rights targeted religious or racial minorities e students the differently abled or even brunette people who decided to go blonde you would refuse to implement it but lgbtq students our fair game in North Carolina

130for some reason I think this is because we live in a deeply heteronormative society that still tolerates discrimination against queer people we wouldn't even consider violating or debating anyone else's rights the board has spent a lot of time workshopping the policies trying to reduce harm and while we appreciate that you can't edit or fix policies or procedures that are based on law that is fundamentally broken and wrong I work worry that you've lost the force for the trees here I'm concerned that kids are going to be the collateral damage because less harm is not no harm if these policies go into effect and begin harming kids it will unfortunately be because the adults sworn to protect them lacked the courage of their convictions the school board in Chapel Hill as you've already heard said no

131to reporting pronouns and name changes and to restrictions on lgbtq content we should refuse in Nasheville too it's not true that only a tiny handful of people people trans people would be affected these policies would degrade the education of all students in prek through fourth grade they would restrict references to anything lgbtq before fifth grade and you know maybe you can debate that and try to work around with some procedures but I think that the net effect is pretty much the same so that means that a history lesson on the Stow Mall riots or even talking about what happened to certain groups during the Holocaust for example is off the table that's a violation my child Henry he has the right to a complete education not just a straight education we can do better we're

132also going to be making teachers put their lessons under a microscope and worry about losing their jobs there's that unspecified disciplinary action that's going to create a chilling effect staff are going to over comply at the cost of student rights we've already seen this elsewhere in the state don't even bring up subjects that might prompt scrutiny and students can't be themselves when they're worried that asking for counseling or trying on a different pronoun means that they're going to get reported your mission is to Ure that every child has an exemplary education yet you seem poised to pass bad policy and just hope that someone challenges it you would put the onus on a family with the time and the money and the energy to file a title 9 complaint don't put that on queer kids

133they have enough to deal with if parents feel that their rights are violated because you don't pass these policies let them bring a lawsuit we should not be setting up minors to have to defend themselves let's leave that to the seven adults in the room five of whom were elected your community has spoken don't do this thank you Colette Russ I press the button when I start I'm here to explain why it's important to talk to kids about gender and sexuality and obviously this doesn't mean explaining sex to them it means teaching them that different types of people exist so they can learn to accept others and themselves from a young age this bill claims to prohibit education on gender or sexuality from grades kindergarten through fourth that's not what's going to happen it will

134only limit which sexualities or gender identities are taught a big part of my Elementary School experience was being educated about gender and sexuality which like it or not are inexorably linked kids follow patterns they learn to act like a normal girl I copied things from books like this boy said he wanted to kiss me I could almost die and answered quiz quiz books with things like ask out your friend's crush and randomly chose crushes when people asked all this time I thought yes this is what I'm supposed to do I wore a dress and high heels to the school dance because I thought I had to and was shocked when my classmate told me we didn't have to and I then proceeded to never wear a dress again to this day so yes kids follow

135patterns and many will distort themselves to fit in the pattern even if it hurts they need to know that there are other ways to be than society's default and that it's okay to be like that let me tell you a story in elementary school I participated in a ballet performance of The Nutcracker every year I always played one of the Party Boys in the opening scene because they didn't have enough real boys to do it one year I was cast as a party girl and I like physically felt my heart drop I tear carefully convinced my parents to get the instructor to cast me as a boy instead which she well I think she was pretty upset about having to change the casting but she did uh I quit ballet the next year but for

136years after this I would look back on my actions and hate myself why wouldn't I suck it up I was being a little brat there was nothing wrong with being a girl and then last year I realized I'm non-binary and I finally understand my actions and forgive myself if I had been taught about gender then even just the idea that to be a girl and a boy means something different to everyone I would have been kinder to myself honestly I probably would have left ballet sooner if I had realized why it made me uncomfortable kids need a moment like when I found out I didn't have to wear a dress they need education that will help them discover who they are so they don't spend years feeling bad or confused about themselves it's not telling

137students they have to be queer it's letting queer students know that they exist and they aren't alone it's helping queer students find themselves with support that they might not get at home and uh one more thing about about the uh pronouns I really like how you're altering it so that like if they're at risk you won't share like schools won't share pronouns but that's still saying if they're not at risk they will be shared and it's still like it's my right to come out at my own time uh nobody should take that away from me nobody should be forced out of the closet and yeah that's all I have to say thank you Matthew leot I'm glad I a go when I do my name's uh Matthew Leed I teach at mord Northstar go navigate

138okay look um I am a uh I'm a teacher I'm also a parent um I have a a cisgender daughter I didn't even know what CIS meant that long ago but I I do and and she's doing great doing her thing and I do have a transon and it's been an incredible journey for my family it really has and I remember when my son was in sixth grade we were sitting in the parking lot at Paris Teeter in my truck which I don't have anymore I really like that truck but um he said Dad I want to tell you something I'm like okay what is that he said I'm pan and my immediate reaction was what's pan because I had no clue what any of this stuff was and he explained it to me and

139I looked him in the eye and I said do you know that I love you because that is the excuse me that's all that matters and I don't feel that this legislation lets people know that we love them and our job in this town in this room on this board is to make sure that every student in City Schools knows that they're loved and knows that they're cared for and I will tell you as a teacher this legislation is awful I have kids who want to be called by different pronouns and I am told that I can't that I have to go to other people that I have to maybe out them to their parents and the reality is I agree with what said is we need to take it back to Raleigh and we

140need to say no and what are you going to do to us and to all those people out there who are angry and ready to pick on kids I'll offer you a hug because I don't believe getting angry and fighting back is going to work but if you need a hug because I'm guessing anyone who really feels they need to pick on kids they need a hug really really badly and I'm a good hugger I'm a big guy man I can pull it in be hugs so I invite you if you need a hug come talk to me and I'm I'm G hook you up but we can do better than this and I really hope that we follow the example set by carboro and become the second School uh District to do that and

141do the right thing for our kids and our community and all I got to say thank you thank you I think we have one virtual comment nope okay we do not have any virtual comment so that concludes public comment um and thank you to everyone who came for that appreciate it all right so we're going to move on to information information items and the first thing we have is an update from Dr Ferman on the community input session on the potential Middle School reconfiguration um yes thank you so I've I've gone through and have read all the and transcribed every word of the input that was gathered at the input meeting um a few weeks ago and then we also had an online submission for those that um are way to respond online if you

142the parents could not attend the inperson meeting so we've collected all that um I think it comes to no surprise that as we analyze that data the overwhelming response from our parents in the community um is that they want to see mord norstar continue as is um so we are pulling together information and data to share at the ne at the meeting in a week to show some data for the board on on what that looks like and more details on that along with of District applications the students that have been um not accepted for various reasons um so we will be sharing all that data with the board and and what my curiosity was is is there any additional information that the board is requesting as we update um you on the next phases

143of where we are with looking at the middle potential Middle School reconfiguration um I would like to see some Fe ility um data on the possibility the additional possibility of um moving Montford Northstar into an existing elementary school as a possible alternative to the conf reconfiguration that's been proposed okay as well as the the consideration of madeup numbers about um potential loss of enrollment any other specific information I heard you mentioned that there was a real resounding voice from the parents of current Montford students um will you be a I wouldn't say C I wouldn't necessarily distinguish between current and up coming or previous it would be parent in general parent that's what I was curious about is being able to understand um you know based on for parents based on where their children are

144and what and we didn't gather that data as we were collecting it I don't know you know a good way to really go back and try to layer that piece on to the input that we have okay um one thing I would be like to request is that I think are we anticipate having and I'll just say this in case anybody hasn't doesn't know this yet two public comment sessions dedicated to this question and I would like for there to be um in that for for those who comment to tell us who what school they're affiliated with if any or have been in other words it would be help to know whether they're current some of most I assume will say but um maybe the signup sheet could help us gather the kind of information

145that Rebecca's asking for yes so there um are two public input sessions one February 19th when February 27th they're both scheduled to be in this location and start at 5:00 p.m. um I did not anticipate doing virtual um but if the board would like us to turn on Virtual comments we can do that as well I would like to open it to Virtual comments as well and I I don't know if there's a time limit on public comment for those meetings um as it's typically limited to 30 minutes during our meetings but I'd like to advocate for it to be unlimited time for a public comment in both of those sessions is a any other board members have a comment or a thought on that we can vote on it the day of or we

146can vote to expand it we don't have to we can do it now if you want but we can also wait and see what the turnout looks at vot for each one because it could be heavier on one side or on the other um but that can be done at the the time of the meeting that that amendable to the rest of the board is that we just kind of see where what what it looks like each day and make a decision then I'd like to ensure that the community knows that that is a consideration that we'll make the day of okay Rebecca what were you gonna I think what I'm mindful of is that in a on a topic like this it's pretty like different me different important stakeholders who will benefit or suffer

147based on what where we go with this have um different motivations around making public comment and I want to ensure that as we consider all options and all benefits and drawbacks that there's not an like a huge focus on one particular groups really I mean it's a for parents who are feeling really worried about losing something that's a really hard hard place to be the emotions of that are really really hard um and I want to make sure that like that we're getting feedback from as many people and that we're talking about considering what do we give up with any option and what do we gain with any option as we move forward I I was just going to ask is it possible for you to share the data that you have with the board

148so that we can I'd like to I don't know if there were any the comments that were done that we could actually read and see what yes I'll share that with the board um we're just kind of putting some putting organizing it in a little more cohesive way we just transcribed it so kind of organizing that so it's more digestible but it is just a transcribed from here's what they wrote on the paper here's what we put in total like word for word yep and we'll give it all to you to to process I just want us to be careful about and I know you didn't really mean this Rebecca but using words like who suffers um because I think this is a decision that we didn't seek out but we have declining enrollment and

149other issues and we cannot pay our teachers fairly and we cannot seem to educate some of our students um as much as we can others and so there's all of this on the table and I think people will suffer on all sides of this no matter what we do so I just want to be care ful that I don't think there's a a victim side and an opponent side I think that it's all terribly difficult um and I just want to keep that in mind um I'd like to also Advocate that we have um dedicated time for the pto's of the potentially impacted schools to speak can we can we do that aside from public comment just that they would also speak that group I mean I don't but aren't there lots of groups we

150would want to hear from I'm never I don't think that PTO is all that representative sometimes of a group but I mean I don't have any problem with it but I'd encourage there's lots of groups at the middle schools that would be good to hear from yeah I assume they could just do it as a group at the public comment I mean I don't know that I'm struggling to think about how to uh do that in a like are you thinking about a third meeting where we do that because that's a whole other meeting and I feel like if they come as groups if it's the pto's of we have uh all of nine schools 10 you know even if each one happened to have a comment I think we could we could do that

151there that's just my thought each each group would when it's in our in our policy our public policy or public comment policy uh each per each group would get five minutes but they would have one person to speak it wouldn't be you know 12 people from the PTO and all 12 getting five minutes it would be one person getting to speak for five minutes my thinking is just to to ensure that the the community as a whole has the opportunity to hear some of that Community input that you Dr Ferman received during that session um and as well is from the uh from the AMS Community as well uh George did you have anything you wanted to add to this conversation he was supposed to call me back and he didn't okay George is a

152wall for the moment um I will say that I what just want to say out loud that I am very interested to hear public comment from from all sides of this issue and I won't hold the gavel that night but I expect it and would request that it not become a cheerleading session on behalf of one school or another and I would really request that we not disparage other schools and teachers and students that go to those schools okay cuz I know that there's been some of that and I know that it's never intentional that is not the purpose of why people speak but it can be hurtful so let's just make sure that we are respectful and of of of and I say this going both ways AMS parents and and students need to

153be respectful of the Montford parents and students if this is how it breaks down and vice versa and I hope that it is I'm expect that folks will be passionate and they should be but if we can offer our comments in the most dispassionate way possible that will help the board actually make a decision that is dispassionate which is our job yes students have you guys found a way to get um Middle School like input from the middle schoolers cuz I feel like this decision will be heavily impacting them at both schools and so I feel like without asking them you were just dismissing their opinions um and like have you like asked teachers like I just want to know other input that you've gotten besides parents because of course parents play a good role

154in it but like overall this is affecting the students and the students voices I think should be number one actually when I was at both schools I did meet with a group of students um heard from the students we did also have a large showing of students students from monford come to the community input night um and I've the students that I've talked to at AMS are ready and willing to welcome new students they just want to be involved in deciding what if if it happens they want to be involved in what that process looks like so to the wonderful point that was made um is there any way that we and we have both principles here is there any way to do a a quick survey to the student I mean I I don't

155want to give y'all more work but is that I mean it wouldn't be on your anyway uh would it is that possible to do a quick survey to the students I mean it could be three questions it could be something quick that I mean because we've surveyed our students before on other things so why can't we do it do it this as well we have time before the next time we talk about this yeah I that's definitely something we can do um like I said I've talked to some groups of students that were representatives for the class for the for each school um and that's kind of the sentiment the monford students that I talk to want to be able to stay at mford 100% they are not interested in moving schools in any way

156shape or form oh sorry yeah well go ahead um just in response to that if you were looking for Serv of students you could also look at the high school and we have student governments both at silsa and Ashville high that would be very willing to conduct those surveys um many of us are here tonight and we conduct surveys all the time um if you want to offload that just let us know I just follow up on that because that what was going through my head was I don't know that you can have a survey that says are you in support of keeping one school open versus another I mean it makes it out to be a binary question that's not what we're wrestling with I mean we're wrestling with the budgetary needs and declining

157enrollment and are we going to pay teachers more are we going to be able to afford what programs that we have and so I think I mean I don't mind a survey but if the survey is should we keep mord Northstar open I I I feel like that's not I mean that's not a fair question because we'd like to offer many many programs but if we can't offer them I don't know that we can vote on which you know I think people would come at it different ly if if there's a way to have a survey that would give perspective to the issues we're wrestling with I'm all for it I just don't think it's helpful I mean I know there's people who want to keep M for norstar open so I just so when

158we I don't I don't want to cut you um when we're talking about programs and being able to afford to keep them open are we also talking about the academy so are we are we looking for a home for it and that's the ultimate solution that we're after and we have a building on Haywood Road that is available so I wouldn't say that the home for um ECA is the ultimate responsibility that is one of many solutions that we're trying to find a a a good plan for I think for me the the ultimate issue is are we being good stewards with the funds that we have and able to pay our teachers what we know they deserve and when we are spreading out our resources amongst multiple campuses we're we're seeing a loss you

159know it's just it's more expensive to do that so are we okay with that or and paying teachers what we can or do we want to you know invest finances in even better instructional programming at at uh fewer schools and higher paid teachers and attracting and retaining the best of the best um so that that I think is the grapple I find it really a difficult concept to wrap my head around where we get into using a scarcity mindset to talk about paying our teachers more versus keeping thriving programs open um I just wanted to go back to the survey issue for a minute um I know we've talked about you know the possibility of a survey so and we've talked about PBR so much tonight but um there are requirements when it comes to

160surveys in schools with PBR um regarding like they have to be provided to parents 10 days in advance and parents have to opt in for the participation in surveys so um and one of the categories of surveys that has all those requirements is political affiliations or beliefs so that's just something to keep in mind um if that's like a route that we would want to consider um for you know seeking sort of input on that issue can you tell me how asking about school configuration aligns with political surveying sure um I just mean because it is sort of an issue that is political and that it is you know a political body making that decision um and so since the statute isn't specific to it being you know like larger political issues it's just something

161that I think would need to be considered and however we're phrasing it and stuff um I'm sorry Pepe we're not taking public comment right now I'm I'm we're not taking public comment right now and I'm sorry you're a member of the community and and we're not let me know what you want to say later but I can't take that right now thank you can I ask that question real quick yeah hey uh April yes sir um I know it's going to be we don't want a lot of people talking over each other and everything everything else when this come most of the people have some type of communication laptop phones and everything else is it possible that we can they can just right day questions on that board like we used to you know you

162have done we've done once before and we can read it off instead of everybody trying to say something and saying it over where they can just write we can just read the questions off the um uh you know understand what you're saying I believe that was the intent of the reconfiguration meeting at Isaac Dixon was to capture those questions and um Dr Maggie has worked with my office to try to correlate those questions and make sure we have them but Anna forgive me if I misunderstood but the intent of the public hearing is to hear public comment on this matter and not ask any questions it's to State their opinion and what their desires are is that correct so there would not be it would be very structured and a Time manner where people speak

163one at a time and are invited by to the podium by the chair of the board and it would not be a speak over it would be very controlled in that sense it would be a be part of Public public speaking if someone that doesn't want to get up because of I'm I don't know that's question they can just put it up is that still part of it's not he can also offer written comment so that is an opportunity so we will have available written comment um it won't show up on there but we will include it when we publish the the study results along with the public input we have to put a summary of what was shared here at the meeting along with any written um input that was sent directly to the

164board I just want to okay thank you Dr Ferman were people who registered for the um the session The Forum um but didn't attend were they given away to provide yeah they all got a they got an email that had a link to the presentation and all the documentation that was provided and then they were given the same form that the groups at the um event had and several people that were even at the event went ahead and filled it out again so we've got we've got quite a lengthy amount of input sharing from the group that showed up um recognizing that this is not an opportunity for public comment but where we have invited questions and comments from people in the room can I request that any raised hand in the room is recognized

165I don't mean to I mean the reason so I'm not going to be mean about this but um the reason our student voices are here because at invitation of the board um and that's something that we did new for this year uh our staff and our our our student voices are the only people who speak outside of public comment um uh that's just the way that's the structure of the meeting that's that's and I'm not trying to be mean or anything but that's just the way our meetings are structured for that very reason um if we didn't structure it like that then we would we could have the free-for-alls almost that Jesse was alluding to a little bit but that's the way that our meetings are structured for that reason we have recognized people in

166the room at other times and I see that Pepe has his hand up and he's been a a longtime stakeholder in the district so I'd like to request to hear from him I am going to uh yeah I'm going to say no I don't think that that's consistent I think the only time we have recognized someone is somebody who is officially uh works with us in an official capacity for example I think we have maybe once asked um somebody from the Asheville City Schools Foundation to speak but I don't even know that that's happened in general they've been people what we've solicited comments from members of our direct Community here and otherwise these work sessions have included public comment when we've invited it Pepe is welcome Mr Sabo or anybody else can follow up and

167ask questions by email of any of us or all of us later and we're happy to respond but I I think that I'm sorry it's like the quintessential slippery slope in my opinion if we start allowing just community members to make comments or ask questions in these work sessions we could change that policy but I don't think we can change it ad hoc right now in the middle of a meeting if we want to have a conversation about that policy and whether we should change it for the future we can do that but that's been our policy and I believe we should hold for it as board I'm going to say that we should stick with that policy unless the board right now wants to reconsider the whole policy I don't think it's on our

168agenda actually so we can't so let me just put it that way um I um will say that as far as the um public Comon and student voice I really appreciate that suggestion I am also concerned that it would be very difficult to provide the appropriate context to students and or parents for that matter I mean I I think it's they students are welcome to comment during public comment and if you all want to come up with an a um some sort of survey that we can give but at least for my part that survey to be fair would have to name like lots of considerations if you had this X and you had Y and you have Z and these are all the different considerations you're thinking of and I will name that while

169Dr Ferman was talked about the academy as only one issue for me it is Paramount it is my number one reason for considering any change is going to be creating a home for what we did we have harm to repair from when we closed Randolph 10 years ago and that repairing that harm requires space intentionality and investment of resources and people we need a place for students from K through 12 who need addition support and through and and just want uh another way of engaging with education and so for me that's that's imperative but the other side of that for me is also that it has to save money we can't we also have to sort of rightsize and be good Financial stewards with the understanding for me that we will grow eventually I think

170we will grow and I think we will um move back into our footprint one day but right now our job is to pay teachers more and and and address the achievement Gap and part of addressing the achievement gap for me is creating a school that can help and serve those who are not currently being served by the by the schools that we have um and expanding the academy and giving it the resources it needs um anyway so so trying to put all that in a survey would be challenging but yeah go ahead what you think okay I just wanted to add one thing I think what we meant my phone by the survey is just more of student voices of their personal impact and seeing that what it'll feel like to be kind of uprooted

171from somewhere that they've been is going to be really important for their further learning if they feel uncomfortable in a place that they and I understand that there's so many other factors that go into it but we mean that as our survey instead of like picking between schools like kind of figuring out how much of an impact that will have on that student body so we can weigh our choices differently I think is what we were implying more okay all right any other um comments I I don't George okay all right um thanks for that input and we'll sort of think about whether not and how we can do that my my own assumption is that it would be difficult for any students to change schools I think it would affect the students that are

172at those schools right now and I think those who are in um fifth grade down to kindergarten would have a different set of choices and I do agree that we probably lose some enrollment and that's a concern um but I think it would affect a finite group of students and it would be painful for that those students um but it's also as Sarah pointed out I think it's very painful right now for students who don't have what they need in uh in what would be a program that could serve better serve their needs right now we have students who have no home and then let's just be really clear about that we have students who have homes in two middle schools we have students from k35 that do not have a school that serves them

173I have a building available that I'd like to see considered I will share the um primary school we did change its designation so it's it's under the fire code right now we cannot put students and it is still part of that feasibility study um to assess what it could be what we could add there um and I don't think it's possible to put students in that building at the moment um and that would be an investment that we'd have to make um going forward on how would we out at that building for um for whichever kind of students that we would want it to serve have we looked at the feasibility of other existing buildings in the district to house the academy that's what we're um we're meeting with um the group that's doing the

174study um on Thursday afternoon to review our enrollment projections as well as Capacity Analysis so that we can say where could there be space it seems to me that we're we're considering the reconfiguration of multiple things right now and mhm um I I think that that has the potential to become muddled [Music] um and you know I'd like to see many possibilities considered for housing the academy y i me I think all of this will let me just say this I think these conversations are going to be better had after we hear all our c public comment and we but I think the questions and I think what Dr Ferman has asked is what else do we want to know and I think we can if if any of us thinks of anything else we

175want to say we can ask her that we want to know we have uh ways to to ask that you know between now and the day we have to make a decision um but we will have the um I think we're going to have some some conversations as we move forward right so all right um can I just revisit just quickly you told us last time that you will be meeting with principles as a group to get their feedback partic in particular is that still about about the Staffing allotment process Okay so we've got just a first draft formula used it to generate some numbers now like I said I need to take that back meet with principles look at that um to help us kind of plan into the future that have a bearing

176in on the information we receive related to configurations it will yeah it'll have an impact on financial okay I do think that Rebecca's question brings up something I I've mentioned that I do want to do which is I do want to talk to the principles of Asheville middle and and mford NorthStar Academy so that I would like for us as a board to have an opportunity to hear from them uh directly if did my oh it's still on sorry if possible in some way um I don't know okay any other thoughts questions anything else okay i' also I'd like to hear from acae on it too sure I mean they're invited to come to the public comment I'd like to give them the opportunity to present to us when you ask for a presentation from

177ECA what kind of presentation just just the opportunity oh got it got it got it okay yeah can they come to public comment as a group yep just the the opportunity to provide a presentation to us um if they want to share you know specific feedback with us um aside from what they can provide at the podium during public comment like you know if they if they wanted to show slides reflecting you know a survey that they've conducted I'd like to give them the opportunity to present that to us K about just about the reconfiguration or about the budget about the reconfiguration I was just going to say I mean we that's something that actually if you just reach out to the chair and vice chair and the superintendent and that's something that can be

178put onto a work session agenda for a presentation um um so I mean we we have a our March work session coming up on the 4th that could be something um that that we hear from from them at that point I'm also aware that acae and bcae have worked very very hard to do a full survey on all their priority topics and I'm very hopeful we'll hear from them on the things they've chosen to prioritize and want to share and talk with us about so that they're choosing what are you know their a stakeholder group that I do want to invite in and for them to choose what they want to talk to us about feels important end this I can add my thoughts go ahead sorry I'm watching the Fe so it's a little

179bit of a delay but now I now I can speak okay go ahead okay um thanks everyone for for your patience with me trying to figure all this out um I first of all just want to acknowledge that like from from afar through a zoom screen or through a Google meet screen or YouTube screen I can I can feel the feels in the room so um just understand this these are as as Sarah said there's a lot of [Music] um I'll just repeated it there's a lot of feelings in the room but I appreciate Sarah you bringing up that as we discussed the the future of our district that these that the best we can to avoid kind of the binary propositions that are are bladed our feet a lot right in in either or

180proposition it's either this or that I um encourage us for those public comment sessions that we do provide virtual public comment not everyone will be able to get there um so I just Advocate that we do have virtual in addition of in person for both of those sessions and then what I would ask if we could I mean I know we have our our board meeting next week that precedes those other public comments so we'll be getting more information but whatever information we can then have at or up on the screen at those public comment sessions that show all the things that we're considering I think very often as I'm getting emails from um from people in our community very often it's about closing love for Northstar which is not obviously that's there's that's a

181possibility but that's not what every discussion is about and so just making sure that we have up on the screen or available to everybody all the things that we're considering I mean we've heard today you know Li has brought up good comments about other places where the academy could go recognizing that we need a space for the Academy recognizing that um Maggie as you've pointed out we um we have to look at how we can right siize our district based on enrollment based on the desires we as a board and this district has for how we pay our teachers and how much we can how much more we can pay our teachers possible so you know I know I'm asking a lot of you Maggie but but if there's a way for yall to put

182together kind of a a broad sheet so to speak so that when folks are coming into the room they see that this is a a long a big conversation about more than just a school it's about the district yep well that's what we are working on as we speak great um and I just want to again just say thank you to the board members who are bringing up really good comments um I'm sorry I cannot be there but I have been watching this whole thing and um I I know there's a lot a lot of feelings in the room so thanks for everything youall are doing tonight um I think your original question was what else would you like to what else do we want to know I would like to know and I I

183don't expect a terribly um specific answer but with a more financially stable school system with more resources at its disposal how could we address the disparities in our um opportunity gaps what what else could we do if we had a more stable financially secure system we might even consider beginning those public comment sessions like we did tonight where we have a just a brief presentation of the factors that are before us and thoughts and maybe by then if we have anything from the feasibility from the um facilities study we could share those too I don't know yeah that was my plan to start each one with a just a overview kind of a summary of what we've found presentation and then includes budget and you know whatever anyway you've got it thank you very much

184anybody else berer berer okay um sorry I couldn't resist um thank you so um on information items I think uh Dr de and oh sorry go ahead uh no it's okay I just wanted to distinguish that why we're here today is because we had an advocate a teacher at uh the students I mean um an advocate at Asheville High our adviser for Student Government Miss Williams who reached out to Mr seberg and got us an invited presentation at a public session so I think completely to your point Liza Kelly that there should be some student sanctioned Le presentation um similar to what we did probably which would probably be better than what we did um uh regarding the reconfiguration and situation of the alternative school like from those students I 100% agree and I encourage

185you to reach out to maybe some trustees you have at those schools all right thank you Dr D all right um Heidi is out of town as you know and so there are several um contracts on the uh link uh that are information only and then you'll also see there are a list ofus uh I want to let you know that the Asheville parks and wreck uhou has been removed from your packet uh it still needs further review and once that uh is completed We'll add it back to the agenda and uh possibly for next Monday do you have any questions about Theus that are listed on your uh link okay and then moving on to policies for first read uh policy 50 to10 uh you have that policy in its entirety uh with the

186uh red lines but please note the option number three is currently the option that the board has in your existing policy so that's not um there's no recommended changes there it's only the redline changes that you see in the policy do you have any questions about any of the policies for first grade are there any that um and I know we've done this in the past uh are there any that jump out at you that say board members you really I mean we should be reading all of them but you really need to give some serious thought into to this one this one this one this one this one um no none that stand out that are glaring um a lot of the health the safety school safety ones and the one that was related

187to immunization and health requirements those are primarily covid um striking out removing covid um from the policies um there is a new conflict of interests training that's required under General statute and you'll see that that's folded into two of the policies um and then everything else is a minor change there was a a a military families policy that had significant changes that is a minimal impact on us that's probably has a bigger impact on families who live in the Fort Bragg area and everything else is just minor changes and then um any other questions about policies first read and then you have U four policies that are information only and the one that would probably um the the concussion and head injury all we're I just want to assure you that we have spoken with

188uh Sita and Blair and we're in full compliance of that policy as far as training and Reporting and all the processes and procedures we have in place to be in compliance with that one and then second read do you have any questions about the policies you have for um second read that's all I have from from policies and M us thank you Dr de what stud oh go ahead um I just wanted to point out and I believe I said this last time um the policy 9125 participation by minority businesses seems like apparent deficit language to me that could be easily fixable I don't know um if you guys have like if there's objections to that or that you can't change it because I know the North Carolina like School Board Association like makes that

189Baseline policy but do you reserve the right to edit that out because I would like to see that changed as honoring diversity and equity in your Equity statement pton I'll just want to say thank you for mentioning that I think the problem is there's deficit language throughout all of our policies I mean it's certainly not the only one it it probably requires just a a looking at everything that a lot of which comes down from the state I you make a very valid point just and I to also go to that um I mean a lot of it is language that comes straight from statute um and so a lot of that deficit language is written into the law um and so then it gets put into policy from the legal requirements like that and

190we're not trying to justify why it's there I'm just acknowledging that we could change this one but then there's really literally lots of work that needs to be done to change all of them and I agree with you it should be done well I I think that and I I will say that I think one of the challenges is when the law when the law defines minority business as a certain way and that's the way it's defined in the law then if you have a policy and that's the way it's written in the statute it gives certain um either rights or deficits right that's what laws do and if it's defining it as minority business and we don't use that language then we it then your policy isn't precise and you have a conflict between

191the language of the statute and the language of the policy and that can cause legal issues so fair absolutely and um that in for this policy in particular this one does come straight from statute which does Define minority business um so it Falls right in that category to both your points would it be allowable Anna for us to do a audit of policies and create a statement that we add that acknowledges the presence of language that we find to be deficit based even though we like so that if someone reads it that we tell them why we use this term as opposed to it just standing as if it's what we like it wouldn't be changing it but it would be adding a disclaimer adding we could identify all the places where we feel this

192needs to be noted that we're stuck with this but this is how we so we're precise enough yeah um I mean there's definitely nothing saying you can't do that in the law um I mean that's certainly something you can do I think it would be more of a feasibility in the Manpower that it would take to go through the full manual because because like ncsba has an entire legal staff that looks at all of these policies and there's so many and they change multiple times a year um so you know I don't think there's any legal issue with doing that I just um implementation is where if say the student government wanted to review all the policies and highlight for us problematic language yeah maybe yeah free labor is great I would like to point

193out that I did and I James Carter attended the presentation where I did clearly make that distinction um I like the idea of a disclaimer I I shared it with you last presentation I can share it with you again to bump that to the top of your emails but yes it I would also to counter your point as someone who has searched through our policy manual for deficit language it's not that hard it's there's literally a search bar and there's ways to make sure that you have like for example for like the use of like English as a second language we like to dance around that sometimes times as I saw and our policy makers like to dance around that as I saw as I was reading it um using like not only like ESL

194but also English language Learners and you know other language or like I'm thinking I'm not remembering the other word that I had to search to make sure I found every point but like it's really not that hard and a disclaimer on I think you guys had about eight policies that identified with the four def deficit words that I tested which were at risk minority um ESL and I'm forgetting the last one um so eight policies I'm pretty sure is what I found and so it's disclaimer seems like a easy medium so I would really really really like to see that acted on thank you yeah George go ahead thank you Mak you were part of that hey we're having a really hard time hearing you yeah you're still breaking up pretty bad I'll okay okay

195thanks Payton George U Mr seberg is gonna reach out to you okay thank you um for that those comments and observations um okay I think that we are now going to go into Clos session unless somebody else has something else I need to tell me I need to do I think we go going to move into Clos session so I will entertain a motion from the board to enter into Clos session pursuant to General statute section 143 31811 for the following purposes to prevent the disclosure of privileged and confidential Personnel information and to discuss matters protected by the attorney client privilege so may I have a motion toour the meeting go to S right that one and Amy we don't expect to take action afterward so do you want to go ahead and read the

196dates and then we can close out absolutely so let me talk talk about the future meetings and announcements we will have our M regular board meeting excuse me on Monday February 12th I believe we're also inviting public comment during that meeting on um the supplement the potential supplemental pay that's I mean we're specifically inviting that because we're likely going to make uh take action on Monday on that question of the supplement for this year we also have will have a special open call special called open meeting which is a hearing on for public comment on the potential reconfiguration of the middle schools that'll be two dates February 19th and February 27th both at 5:00 p.m. in this room the Board Room we will then have a work session on Monday March 4th um and then

197we'll have a regular March meeting on March 11th um and I think that is all that I need I i' really love to just give you dates of exciting events instead of our board meetings but those that's what you need to know from here so let's go back to their move to adjourn and move into SL closed session so move second all right so we will do a um roll call vote Sarah I Rebecca I James I Amy I I I George he us