001all right welcome everybody to the Brunswick County Board of Education meeting January 4th 2022 and we're going to begin with a moment of silence please foreign at this time I'd like to recognize the South Brunswick High School JROTC under the leadership of Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Emma Snapp ER mark foreign I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all order one more time forward foreign ERS you've had a chance to review the agenda as printed for tonight do you have a motion to approve the agenda motion by Mr Robinson second by Miss Moffitt all in favor say aye aye all right now we're at the public address section of the meeting and first up
002is Lou hamadi Mr Green could you please go over the rules defies you and any other speakers that um he's just going to read you the rules okay and we'll check it we'll have it turned on in a second oh okay so under policy 2310 uh as the public speakers discussions regarding particular individual employees litigation Student Records or other matters which may be required to be kept confidential may not be discussed in 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 person all right Mr Green could you say that again and pull the microphone closer to him sure so again reading from policy 2310 discussions regarding can you hear
003that it's all it's on and the green lights on the limit the the you're limited to three minutes to speak and you cannot speak on Personnel issues or anything that the chairman rules as being out of order as per policy Mr hum out of Europe I know people is it working which one's working this one testing testing I don't hear anything yes it's all check one two check check check okay well I don't know I'll probably have to yell loud all right so today I'm talking about the soap Jesus said do not fear Those Who Kill the body fear God look at this Shore both soul and Body in hell Jesus a call of Satan a murderer and a liar he divided people into two groups goats and the sheeps he put the ghosts on
004his left side the sheeps on his right side his sheep will inherit eternal life and and Kingdom of God their souls will live forever and ever Educators killed by brother so and his soul is on in left field dead and with the goats my brother was a straight A student on the spelling Beatty spoke four languages he was a varsity player in three Sports when there's a murder we always ask who did it in this case we know the murderer all right the question is who are or who are his accomplices is Satan's team and he's goats on the left uh his team consists of the Enlightenment thinkers like Rousseau Voltaire Hume Freud fraud Freud Darwin John Dewey Marx Hagel and many others what is the left ideology no God no more absolutes change the
005family the marriage child weary sexual identity created sexual and environmental Revolution like climate change tolerance pluralism political social Rebellion religion reign of terror like antifa and uh and and then also in the 759 in in France defund the police Sanctuary cities open borders defy all truth laws Customs morals diversity more multiculturalism racism critical race Theory mandates Gay West Women rights uh voter fraud one world government and the state is the highest Authority above even God the God's team consists of God the Old Testament prophets disciples the church real science like Einstein and Newton did I mentioned before and moral and classical education that's the real science and I I spent I'm glad I got done early so I want to spend a couple minutes with my brother I bought pictures of my grants that are
006showing some to my brother here and my brother as you know died of you know of here of what the left taught him in college but he also about a ball he was also a very good ball player when he hit the ball he'd go over the fence within seconds you could throw this ball doing 50 feet from my field one hop to third base and in one game he pitched uh well he pitched seven Innings and got every player out struck struck at every player as 27 strikeouts I said thank you all right thank you thank you next up we have Kelsey Leeper good evening I hope you all had a well and deserved holiday break I'm here to talk again about why early college is allowed to play sports Kelsey could you talk
007into the microphone lord I can't hear you this last time I was here I created a petition and received 200 and plus signatures these signatures consist of mainly students but also parents who are concerned and students from around the county and even the state that play sports after I sent this out many of my classmates at Early College came up to me and said they would love to see this change and they would want to be able to be a part of it and have this opportunity if you're not that different from other schools New Hanover County early colleges are allowed are funded by The Bill Gates and Melinda foundation and so are other schools in the state just like Brunswick County early colleges the difference is that new Hanover early college is allowed to
008play sports and we are not we are not that different from New Hanover County and this rule is something that should be definitely the same in the neighboring counties Brunswick Early College High School is different from other schools because of the teacher student relationship if I were a normal public high school I do early call then Early College there I wouldn't feel like I'm learning to my full potential early college is one of few schools that acknowledges the Child's full educational potential and does not hold them back we are much different than other schools and by adding Sports you are not changing us and we are still going to be as great at what we do and we are still going to be Firebirds the school we play for does not define if we are
009cougar Trojan or scorpion the learning environment defines who we are this is an opportunity for kids to play sports this is not a guarantee for all kids to play them we have a hard curriculum not all kids will have the chance to make time to play sports for my first year early college I had to skip a lot of practices for swim season because I had to do homework or I had hard classes and you have to make sure that you have the time to play the sport and are able to get to those places so this is not going to be a guarantee for every child to play the sport this is an opportunity for the for the change and to kids to have the chance to at least try out for teams just
010like public high schools you have to try out for a team and be accepted on that team I'm here to be an advocate for the present and future kids at my school and to let everyone know how important it is to be early college and we want to recognize that we are not just for our academics but for our leadership athleticism responsibility and dedication let us show you how great we truly can be thank you for your time thank you [Applause] next up we have Gary osprey is this does this work okay can you hear that turn it up if I get this close does it work yes there you go okay we'll try this is that okay can you hear that okay all right you've got a copy of an article each uh that
011you got a copy of and that was first published by the global research on October on December the 10th 2021 and it can be read in 51 different languages on their website this article is on odms which is oxygen deprivation mask syndrome which is now sweeping across the globe excerpts from the article that you have a copy of include research reveals that prolonged use of coveted masks homemade or 95 either one can cause anywhere from five percent to 20 percent loss of oxygen leading to hypocapnia excessive carbon dioxide in the bloodstream wearing a mask day in and day out can lead to alterations in blood chemistry oxygen deprivation from prolonged covered mask wearing can cause permanent neurological damage we know that the human brain is very sensitive to oxygen deprivation there are nerve cells for
012example in the hippocampus that can't be longer than three minutes without oxygen or they will not survive odms is like carbon dioxide induced anesthesia the more metabolically active the brain is the more oxygen it needs and that's why it's absolutely ridiculous for children to be wearing masks all day the constant deprivation of oxygen is not only dangerous to Child and Adolescent Health it inhibits the development of the brain creating irreversible damage including permanent neurological damage let that settle in for a minute it's mask induced anesthesia this is the polar opposite of the value of going to school and learning so is this information just opinion or is it documented facts you can run your own simple test and you can see for yourself OSHA requires the use of a personal air quality monitor for anyone
013working in a confined space these are readily available devices and you can see videos on YouTube or many other sites with people using them to test air quality when using a coveted mask in a matter of seconds the alarm will go off in summary there's lots of data saying that our students should not be wearing masks I like to make decisions based upon facts rather than opinions I trust you do too thank you next up we have a presentation Miss O'Hara good evening can everybody hear me okay excellent I'm excited to start the new year and want to be present in our work for the remainder of the year so that's my first goal for us as a team this year is to be present be present in this moment in this year the here
014and the now we will need to focus on what we need to do now in this year we now pre-covet and what we were doing previously cannot compare to these past two school years this year especially is like no other we need to be present in guiding our students and teachers in what they need now in this very moment in this very school year 2022 focus on what is happening now and what we can do to improve student achievement and teacher retention the poet Amanda Gorman stated this in her most recent poem this hope is our door our portal even if we never get back to normal someday we can Venture Beyond it to lead the known and take the first steps so let us not return to what was normal but reach towards what
015is next as Educators and as Leaders it is up to us as partners to focus on the the what is next to create the normal and to take the first step so this leads me to my second goal as a team let's take the initiative we are very appreciative of the monetary incentives that have occurred over the past two years that included permanent supplement increases and bonus payments our next step as a pack and hopefully with a partnership of the board is to advocate for continued increases on the state salary schedule for all teachers but most importantly our veteran teachers they receive very few increases we want our state to invest in their veteran teachers the ones with the most experience the ones who share their knowledge and experience with their new teaching new to
016teaching colleagues is this how we should treat our most experienced teachers Tech and the board United can Advocate together excuse me can Advocate together and be NC trendsetters let Brunswick County Schools Take the Lead together we need to continue to explore incentives to our teachers that dedicate their years and their experience to our students and to our County we have seen from the past month monetary incentives impact our our employees greatly the recognition for the dedication the time and the expertise that they offer each additional year they invest in our students in our community as needed so I ask you to continue your efforts advocating for our teachers as we are making progress but know the teacher shortage is impacting our schools every day and permanent State salary increases could impact that shortage together Brunswick
017County Schools can advocate for the opportunity to recruit and retain the best for our most important asset our students we have a strong leadership leaders that want change that want the best for our students our teachers and our County I look forward to being present with you in this moment and for the remainder of this school year thank you thank you thank you Mr Parker after the meeting we can discuss that so we have a policy in which you sign up by noon the day of the meeting foreign things I wanted to discuss but the way that it's handling here I'm not I'm not understanding how it's going I do understand how it's going there I'm not going to be able to say anything about what I wanted to discuss I'll be glad to discuss
018with you after the meeting sir all right thank you all right next up we have the approval the Amendments first minutes is going to be the December 7th 2021 regular meeting and also the December 13th 2021 special called meeting do I have a motion to approve the minutes motion to approve motion by Miss Muffet second by Mr Robinson all in favor say aye all right next up is the action agenda and the first thing a Senate bill is 654. Dr Woods do you have anything you need to add not at this time sir all right course to vote for um either continuing or altering the mass mandate what's the positivity rate doctor owe to the county according to David Stanley in information I received today uh 18 how many kids are we do we have
019out currently today as of today uh Daniel that might be Daniel as far as just out or just for out on quarantine or the total number of students that were out today for all purposes was 819 which is not atypical it's not that is not MediCal that is all absences combined uh if I'm not mistaken when I had that information ran today for just medical you're looking at 35 I think it was 35 in quarantine that's it just 35 hours we update this uh this morning there were 35 total active uh cases this afternoon this afternoon update where where as of right now 55 Active cases and I believe it was 96 quarantined for close contact okay so 55 positive active positives and then about a hundred um same numbers as normal as a normal
020right thank you I moved to maintain the existing policy immersion Minister Robinson to maintain their policy as written up a second second by Miss Market all in favor say aye all right motion passes next up we have the 2021-2022 calendar revisions Miss White good evening board members thank you I've got two items that I'll be bringing you today the first one in regard is regards to the calendar revision and a calendar revision is um at the recommendation of a previous conversation we have with our teacher of the year Miss O'Hara in regards to more opportunities for our teachers to have time to work in the classroom so we worked with tech and developed the survey and went out to all of our teachers and we came back with the recommendation to include two additional early
021releases so they would be half days for students we still have all of our banked weather days fortunately we have been you know fortunate to not have at this point obviously hurricanes and now to come into January without any weather events so we feel pretty confident about the time we have left the dates for those two early releases are February 16th and March 23rd they would be half days for students and then work days for teachers in their schools so we do ask for this to be approved this evening because if we make that change February 16th that would give basically six weeks of notice to our families and our teachers and our staffs solution to any questions from the board motion to approve Mr Burton makes a mission to approve the calendar with the
022changes second second to Mr Robinson all in favor say aye aye all right excellent so it is posted here and we'll make sure that it gets posted on the website and Mr Siemens will also get the information out publicly so we can do that thank you very much all right next up is the PRC 203 approval awesome as white yeah you have an edition of paper Edition due to an update we received from DPI today um so miss Cahill and I have been working on this particular new Esser funding and essentially there is there are additions to what I gave you there's no deletions or changes we've actually added two more items just to be sure that all of our employees qualify so PRC 203 is basically recognizing and honoring the work the additional work
023that teachers had to do across the state to do extensive professional development when it came to remote learning learning loss all the impacts of covid so the state has budgeted a certain amount for each district through PRC 203 to for our teachers to receive those bonuses what you can see and the what I've shared with you is our work actually began and required professional development in March of 2020 when we did system-wide PD I'm sorry in September of August of 2020 before we started in a fully remote environment then you can see the next component was we worked on our social emotional needs for our students it had required trainings at the start of this school year and then we continued through the school year with an initiative that we have started that we now
024know is really important in that standards-based grading that will uh the idea of student mastery could not be more important in this moment of learning recovery um so all staff participated in a book study uh through that ended the Friday before break so um under this particular bonus opportunity each certified staff an instructional support person will receive one thousand dollars and it will go through their January payroll as long as we approve here tonight so I apologize this is also for approval and we've just received this information between when we had a last meeting motion to approve a motion to approve of Mr Benton Bob second I'll second with Mr lemonade discussion Mr s just for additional Triton that occurred for our staff did you talk about that again sure um it was basically looking
025at any time from when we started with covet so we have looked back at uh from March of 2020 until December 17th our last day of school so uh the first training that we did is in the second paragraph on the sheet in front of you we actually set up a Google Classroom modules that each of our teachers worked through before we started school because uh as you may or may not remember we started school last year remote all students were remote and so we wanted to make sure that our staff was prepared for that environment we know that when we left in March of 2020 everybody did their best they could but we're not you know used to instructing in that environment and then um as you all made the decision to come back
026this year full time and we were going to be in school five days a week we knew that we would have to really dig into the social emotional needs of our students we have many students that were not um in in social situations for the past year and a half and so we made sure that we had kind of emphasized our our assessment process that's we've talked about that with you many times that's procedures we go through with students when they are posing a possible harm to themselves or harm to others so all staff has been trained on that and then we also shared with you through the um legislation that all of our staff took the six hours of training so you're talking about the suicide prevention training that this legislature mandated for us
027part of that when you say social emotional training for this is your yes uh that was part of it and so was the um the sexual predators and there's many components that we as Educators need to be watching for with our students that are it was the part of the social studies real well yes no This was um yeah these were specific to the modules that were uh submitted to you all that we proceeded we felt the emotional needs of our kids coming back in an environment um was was a priority for us this year and then the third thing that was a requirement was our standard space grading and this was done in particular with a book study and modules thank you board members we have a motion in the second is there any
028other discussion okay all in favor say aye aye you know Miss White those were a lot of Staff Development requirements and I think it put right much hardship on our teachers overall um in developing a new calendar for next year I would like for you all to take a look at some of these times that they can do some of this during the school day versus taking their planning periods and after school and Saturdays and stuff like that that the calendar looks similar to what you just presented versus the way it's been because I don't think we're providing teachers enough time to do those kinds of things and I think there's some things coming down the pike from the legislature that's going to take time absolutely we are we have started that process with attack
029pack School administrators and I will actually be bringing to you I think the 18th is our next meeting I'll be bringing a recommendation to that meeting so that we can prepare for what's coming up legislatively and things like that and we are looking at about a work day a month we'll be required for that particular training so that'll eat in a little bit to some of our emergency time for weather but I think if things kind of stay as they are we should be we should still that should still give us enough thank you I'll be bringing that to you in two weeks thank you thank you thank you thank you next up Ms Rutledge with the Town Creek Elementary roof replacement contract uh board members this is uh a contract for replacement of your
030metal roof on Town Creek Elementary School this was a straight bid there's uh and this this contract's going to the low bidder um so staff recommends that board the board approved the contract with a low bidder Highland Roofing who has done work for the district before has done good work for 1 million 870 568 dollars uh and the contract um period will be as soon as school's out uh the work will begin Mr REI is going to oversee correct yes motion to approve National Mr Burton second second of Mr Lemon any discussion uh Miss Rutledge on that just for so for our information in the public as well this was existing funding from female it's uh yeah it's it's uh from Hurricane Florence so money from insurance and there was enough awarded to cover the
031total cost of this project as well as Cedar Grove which that project's now finished pictures to clarify that thank you thank you any other discussion we have emotional in seconds all in favor say aye aye all right and now we have announcements from the superintendent Dr Oates first announcement we want to make is um regarding the spring 2022 graduation dates so we can get those dates posted on our calendar and out to the public and for your knowledge as well of course uh the Early College will be kicking off our graduation season on May 20th and the first of our Traditional High Schools will be on June 1st and that will be West Brunswick High School June 2nd will be South High I'm sorry June 2nd will be North again June 2nd will be North
032Brunswick High School and then on June 3rd South Brunswick High School all of these graduation ceremonies will be taking place on our football stadiums as schools and the public did voice and that was their preference and I will agree it was a wonderful event to see each of the schools on the football stadiums so again to just recap those May 20th Early College and last year they used West Brunswick High School June 1st West Brunswick June 2nd North Brunswick and June 3rd South Brunswick High School all of the on the football stadiums and more information will be given out to the public from the respective schools um and in addition to graduations this Friday we will have our mid-year graduation it will be held at 6 pm at Odell Williamson Auditorium it is uh we're
033looking to have almost 60 mid-year graduates that we are sending on sending on their way getting them started in there various Avenues of the next step in their lives so again um for those of you that can make it we would definitely love to have all of you there but again it's Friday 6 p.m at Odell Williamson Auditorium full academic regalia that the the kids are wearing it's just that they have finished early and we want to not hold them back from the next step in their lives so that's the um update on the graduations and the conclusion of any announcements that I would all right thank you Dr Oates and down a motion they're going to close session so moved much by Mr Burton second second amendments moth at all paper say aye aye
034foreign hmm thank you um I don't know for the kids right now fast yes right now I mean that was um foreign thank you how are you doing today and um are you sure