001Mic check. One, two. Welcome everybody to the Brunswick County Board of Education meeting April 1st, 2025. And this is not a joke. This is a real meeting. >> All right. And uh we'll start with a moment of silence. And next up, we'll have the presentation of the colors and the pledge of allegiance. from the North Brunswick High School JOTC. >> [clears throat] >> I to the flag of the United States of America and to theublic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. four. >> [clears throat] >> and board members in front of you. You have the regular meeting agenda tonight. If I can have a motion to approve. >> Uh Mr. Chairman wanted to uh make a motion to remove the one action item. We have the budget
002amendment. Miss Whiskey is bring that back at another time. >> Mr. Gayy asked to modify the action agenda to remove the budget amendments by recommendation of staff. I have a motion to approve the agenda as modified. >> Motion by Miss Cook. >> Second by Miss Moffet. All in favor say I. >> I. >> And next up we will have public address. And Mr. If you could call the first speaker and read the rules, please. >> Um, discussions regarding particular individual employees, litigation, student records, or other matters which may be required to be kept confidential may not be discussed in the open forum setting. The chairman will have the responsibility to determine matters of discussion that may be inappropriate and rule the speaker out of order if necessary. Presentations will be limited to three minutes per
003person or three minutes organization. An organization or delegation representing the same concern shall select one individual to make a presentation on its behalf. And we ask that the public address be limited to the named individuals listed on the agenda. And the first individual is Angie Ladrasa. >> Good evening members of the board of education. Mr. Superintendent and fellow community members, my name is Angie Wedrasa and I am a Leland resident and the parent of a kindergartener at Belleville Elementary School. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm here to share a concern about the use of physical activity as disciplinary measure in our schools, specifically practices like requiring students to run or walk laps during recess as a consequence for misbehavior. I first learned of this issue from my daughter who was 5 years
004old and then from other parents at Belleville Elementary. I reached out to Principal Dixon who responded promptly and thoroughly investigating the concern and reminding her staff about best practices and discipline. I truly appreciate her swift and thoughtful action. Her efforts to maintain a positive and supportive environment for students is commendable and I'm grateful for her leadership. I have also learned that these practices are occurring at other elementary schools in our district. I have already reached out to Mr. Roush at Lincoln Elementary to share my concerns. While I recognize the challenges of maintaining classroom discipline, using physical activity as punishment is inconsistent with the guidance set forth by BCS's policy code 6140, which explicitly states to ensure that students have ongoing opportunities for physical activity and maintain a positive attitude towards physical activity. Structured and unstructured
005recess and other physical activity may not be taken away from students as a form of punishment. In addition, exercise cannot be used as a form of punishment for students. Despite this clear language, it appears that the use of physical activity as punishment persists, possibly due to a lack of alignment between the 6140 policy and the 4300 code series, which covers student behavior policies. To ensure consistent understanding and enforcement, I urge the board to consider amending the 4300 policy code series to either reference or directly include the language of policy code 6140. Doing so would strengthen the commitment to protecting students well-being and provide clear guidance to all school staff. I am here not only as a concerned parent, but as a community member who believes in fostering a positive, healthy environment for all students. Thank
006you for your time, consideration, and dedication to our schools. >> Thank you. >> And next up, we'll have Danielle Poppy. >> Good evening, board members and all others attending here tonight. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Danielle Poppy and I have a daughter in kindergarten at Lincoln Elementary. I'm speaking today in support and solidarity of Teresa and Jillian who spoke last month. I don't know them um but the issue that they spoke about doesn't impact myself or my daughter, but I think it's important to support inclusion and for me to speak up. Forget for a second that research shows that students with disabilities in inclusive classroom show economic gains in a number of areas, including improved performance on standardized test, mastery of IEP goals, grades, on task behavior, and motivation to
007learn. Because that wasn't even what Teresa and Jillian were asking for last month. They were simply asking for their children to be able to play on a playground with their peers. Allowing for inclusive play in on playgrounds promotes empathy and understanding. When children of all abilities interact, they're more likely to develop empathy and understanding for their peers with disabilities, breaking down stereotypes and misconceptions. It also fosters accept acceptance that allows children with disabilities to be seen as individuals with unique strengths and interest. And your child is learning to embrace that. It allows for children to naturally ask questions when exposed to differences. And these interactions provide opportunities to learn about various disabilities and how to best support others. It expands perspectives, broadening children's horizons, making them more well-rounded individuals. And it helps the students with
008disabilities feel included, supported, and valued, which can boost their self-esteem and confidence. Again, this is not something that directly impacts me, but I don't want people in Brunswick County to feel like they're not being heard and that they're that everyone can't benefit from what they're saying. So, I thought it would be important for me to speak in support of what they spoke about last month. So, thank you for the time. >> Thank you. >> And next up, we'll have board salutes, Mr. Cole. Members of the board, we had to due to uh a conflicting event, our first two were unable to attend tonight. So, we're only uh going to be saluting Miss Barbara Williams and um Lloyd is gonna lead that for Okay. She has it will be just shy of 36 years. Um the
009whole time she has been at Lincoln Elementary as a teacher assistant and a bus driver. She drives Lincoln Middle. She is absolutely the biggest role model for all of our students and staff members that there can be we won't be able to replace her at all. I wish we had 150 more not that are retiring but are just starting [laughter] but we just you know this is a fantastic moment. We truly hate that she's leaving. She truly deserves have a fantastic happy app. I know Jonathan coordinator can you know can join with what I'm saying that she's just the role model we want to work every day positive attitude cares about we just appreciate Miss Williams, you can give an acceptance speech if you'd like to. >> Absolutely. Do it in your bus driver voice.
010[laughter] >> Now, I just thank everybody for honoring me tonight. Um, it's a task. It's really a task, but you have to go in with a positive attitude. You have to love the children and love people. Most definitely. Thank you. >> Miss Williams, you want to come to take a picture with the board? >> Yeah. >> I would also point out that you only have to be retired six months and you can come back. [laughter] >> [sighs] >> What? I just think I always talk to people. Sorry, >> Chairman Barger. [snorts] Chairman Barger has come. I understand also a little side note, Miss Williams, that when um the awards were given out for state service awards for the whole department, she would not come because she had to drive the bus. >> So, she would
011have gotten her 35 years service award. >> But she was determined to take care of those kids. >> That was the fanciest court. >> Yeah. >> Did we still make sure she got it? >> Yes. Okay. [laughter] >> Thank you for all your years of service to the students of Brunswick County. All right, board members. Next up, we'll have the approval of the minutes from the March 4th regular meeting and the March 18th committee meetings. Uh, curriculum and policy, operations, finance, and HR. And then we also had a budget work session. If I got a motion to approve the minutes. >> Motion by Miss Moffet. >> Second by Mr. Gayy. All in favor say I. >> All right. Next up, we'll have board committee reports starting with curriculum and policy and Miss Smith. >> Okay.
012So, we had a lot going on in our curriculum and policy um committee meeting. We always do. It's the biggest one. It's a whole lot. Um, but we had a prek spring update uh where we received an update on the status of the goal to introduce general ed prek in and Brunswick County elementary schools um including data on the current state of prek in Brunswick County as well as how it's expected to change as the county continues to grow and we're seeing a lot of growth. So, we're really excited about that. Um, we also had a presentation from the American Heart Association um and received a donation of school training kits to Brunswick County Schools middle schools for handsonly CPR and that was donated by Kathy Kathy Luckadoo Ross of Palm Realy. She's from my
013hometown by the way. Um, the middle school ELA curriculum adoption was presented by Miss White. Um, and that's arts and letters. She addressed the board regarding the recommended adoption of arts and letters as a middle school English language arts curriculum. The high school math curriculum adoption was presented um by Mr. Pascal. He presented recommending um NC coherent math to be adopted for high school mathematics. We also addressed the big one, the big elephant in the room, which was policy 7340, [clears throat] employee dress and appearance. and changes to this policy have been under consideration since they were presented in November um of 2024. So, the board's had a lot of discussion on professionalism as it relates to employee dress. Um, presented at this meeting was the board's recommended policy revision that designates Fridays and teacher
014work days as school spirit days, permitting staff to wear jeans with school or district spirit wear on those days, but Monday through Thursday, dressing professional. Um, we also talked about policy 2123, um, which is the board member opportunities for development policy, um, and talked about that, um, policy 2123 identifies entities through which the training can be um attained because we have to meet certain training requirements and that's all we have. >> Thank you. And operations committee Miss Cook. >> All right. We had um a presentation by Snder Electric which I remember in 2017 when they originally came to give us the prospect of how much money we could save changing all the lighting and everything. And at that time the expected amount of savings was $6,594.988 but we exceeded that to savings of over 10,540,000.
015So we were given a >> from 2017. Um, so then we um had some information from Miss Mayor about technology equipment replacements in the amount of a,261,000. And there is a fiveyear replacement plan that's in place and this would cover everything from computers, scanners, switches, iPads, printers, and monitors. And the bid was given to Tyber Creek Consulting. Uh then we also had a presentation about design build method for HVAC improvements. Some of them had been handled by the co and bond funds but there was still three and a half million dollars to complete. So this process of the design bill will give the schools more control over the system design and the product selection. And then after a demography report we were um we're in the need of new modular at Leland Middle. So we're
016going to put out um we need to get some information from the of Leland as far as egress and site issues and traffic impact studies to and then get a quote for that building. So hopefully we'll have a modular at Leela Middle School for the 2026 27 school year and beyond to help with overflow coming in from those elementary schools in the north end. >> Thank you finance and HR. >> Okay, we had a a couple of things that we discussed. First was our capital improvement plan and Miss shared the district's 5-year funding agreement that we have county. It's in progress but not complete. And the funding agreement follows the same capital improvement plan from previous years with minor changes and plans will be finalized in April. It covers things such as building and site
017improvements, furniture, equipment, transportation, and technology. And Mr. um Smith outlined that to be about 9.8 million that we're looking at. Um, also something else very exciting, um, we are able to offer some teach teacher assistant scholarships. So, UNCCW approached Brunswick County Schools and Miss Broie shared with us that um, through the Keenan Trust. We definitely want to give um, kudos to them. They are doing a partnership opportunity with um, us and we're really excited about it. The goal is to create a teacher assistant to teacher pipeline that will provide full scholarships for 15 to 17 teacher assistants in our county to become fully licensed teachers and there is no financial commitment for Brunswick County Schools and we are really excited about this program and we thank the Keenan Trust and UNCCW for reaching out to
018us. >> All right, thank you. And next up, the consent agenda. If I have a motion to approve, >> make a motion we approve. >> Motion by Miss Smith. >> Second by Miss Moffet. All in favor say I. >> I. >> All right. And there's no action items for tonight as the budget amendments were removed by recommendation of staff and discussions and announcements from the superintendent. >> Uh yes, members of the board. Um just some things to announce that were uh I think pretty exciting. Uh this is the month that we have our annual Battle of the Books competition. And uh the middle school winner this year was Cedar Grove Middle School. I think lately they've been dominating the middle school competition. So I say that to motivate our other middle schools to give them
019some some better competition next year. Um, and at the elementary school level, our winner this year was Town Creek Elementary School and uh, Union Elementary School came in second. So, we want to congratulate all of those students. They put a lot of work into that. They read a lot of books and uh, answer a lot of questions correctly to win that competition. Um, our high school robotics teams from West Brunswick and South Brunswick uh, competed regionally and um, South Brunswick, their team placed in the top 40 in the state, which means that they qualify to compete at the state level for their version of the state championship in robotics. So, uh, we're very proud of the work of that team as well. Um, on April 10th, I wanted to announce that at 6:30 PM at
020Odell Auditorium on the community college campus, we have the all county uh band concert. Um, so we invite everyone in the community to come out and support our band students. They put in a lot of work and they deserve our support. Uh, on April 12th, um, the elementary school science olympied competition will take place at Shalope Middle School. It'll pretty much happen all day. So, if you love science and you want to see some some cool stuff and some excited elementary school students, go to Shalot Middle School on that Saturday and and you will see it. It's always a lot of fun. Um during this month, this past month, we completed the design input process uh for our future new elementary school at the north end of the county. Uh and that's just the process
021by which our architect gathers input from different stakeholder groups uh to help in making decisions. design decisions for that elementary school. Uh on March 14th, uh Brunswick County Community Convening uh happened at the Leland campus of Brunswick Community College. Uh I was there uh along with Miss Hollis, our CTE director. Um and uh we and Daniel Richardson uh who presented uh the purpose of that convening is to discuss how all of the different entities uh what we're doing to try to have a positive impact on the local economy and the local job pipeline. So obviously uh K12 is a big part of that. So is the community college. My future NC was sharing some data from the state level and specifically from Brunswick County. Um, so it's really good work that's going on to try
022to align us with what we can do to improve the local job pipeline. Uh, on March 20th, I attended the education committee meeting of the Southport Oak Island Chamber of Commerce to discuss partnership opportunities. Obviously, we want to partner with our local businesses as much as we can to provide internship opportunities for our high school students, um, job shadowing opportunities for middle school students and to get business owners to visit our elementary school classrooms. um to get our kids thinking about careers. Uh and then last, I wanted to to share that um uh most of the board members and I were uh present at some point during the day on March 25th for Special Olympics, which is always a special event in Brunswick County. Huge event. We take over the Town Creek Park uh for
023that day. And uh I don't know, it's a great way to usher in spring uh to participate in in Special Olympics and watch how excited our kids get. So, I I was happy to be able to do that with the board. And that's my report for this month. >> Yeah. And just to add to the Special Olympics from last week, Mr. Gayy and I were together. Uh, and it's always great to see the smiles on the kids' faces and watching them all compete. And also, just thank you to all the volunteers that make that happen. >> Yeah. >> Um, our sheriff's office puts a lot of work into that. And there's, >> uh, countless numbers of volunteers that make that happen. >> I think that's the one jog per year that the sheriff does. He
024told me that he told >> and I always wonder if he's going to make it. >> Um he he made it again this year. I was proud of him. >> And M >> and I just like to share I was able to go to the um early college. It was their first career day that they had with their alumni and it was phenomenal. Um Miss Abshire was so excited about it. One of the teachers had contacted a lot of the alumni and had them come back. And so the alumni were actually the ones telling about their careers since they've left early college high school and they had a panel and the kids were able to ask questions about what your experiences were and then they broke off and each person had their own room where
025they could share what their profession was, you know, how they got there, what they did. But some of the things that they took that they shared were just the best life lessons. Now these kids have only been out of school maybe 10 to five to 10 years. So, some of the things they said was, "Keep acting out of kindness. Don't allow work and education to be all of your life. Get ahead of the imposttor syndrome. Confidence comes from action. It's hard to fail, but you learn who you are when you get back at it. And if you have to pivot, just make the best of it." Several of them said they had gone all the way through college and got out and said, "Oh, this is not what I want to do." And turned around
026and went to community college and got a degree and love it. Some of them are local business owners. Some of them are, you know, are in the Navy. There's everything from, you know, business owners, Navy teachers. Um, but the nicest thing that I enjoy because they did, two of my daughters are graduates, is that it was dress for success day and it was Friday and every single one of those kids looked top-notch and they felt good about themselves and um so anyway, it was just a great day to see that the school is reaching out to the school alumni to show them, you know, what's ahead of them. And if I have a motion to go to closed >> motion m by miss cook all say I All right. I will call the meeting back
027to order. I got a motion to approve the personnel list. >> Make a motion to approve. >> Motion by Miss Smith. >> Second by Mr. Gany. All in favor say I. >> I. And if I got a motion to approve the closed session minutes from March 4th and the regular >> sorry back >> uh approval of the closed session minutes from the March 4th regular meeting close session in the March 18th um budget work session >> motion by Miss Muffet >> second by Mr. G. All in favor say I. >> I motion to adjurnn. >> So move >> motion by Miss Cook. Second. >> Second by Miss Smith. All say >> I. I.