001good afternoon everyone welcome to the brunswick county board of education meeting for the month of october 2021. we'll begin with a moment of silence and then do the pledge of allegiance led by mr robinson please stand god will be done on earth thank you one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all ladies and gentlemen of the board you have the meeting agenda are there any corrections to the agenda mr chairman motion to approve the agenda is written second we have a motion by mr barber to approve the agenda seconded by mr robinson all in favor say hi yeah public address first mr green yes sir uh ladies and gentlemen i'm reading from public address to the board policy code 2310 and it says discussions regarding particular individuals employees litigation student records or
002other matters which may be required to be kept confidential may not be discussed in open 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 and it appears from the agenda that we have five speakers is louis armadi here all right you would be number speaker number one yeah mr armadi yes sir mr almighty am i pronouncing your name correctly armadi is correct so can i start yes yeah i'm with somebody uh some people know me as a constitutional man i thought i'd come over here tonight talk about classical education but i've changed it because there's not enough time so i'm going to talk about uh elected officials constitutional
003responsibility so i'll start off with article 6 section 2 which states that the constitution the supreme law of the land article 3 section 3 is the oath that everybody takes to defend support the constitution article 7 established federalism which which created the state and federal government also the federal government is responsible for foreign affairs state is responsible for personal affairs you know and foreign affairs are enumerated they're not that many i won't go all through all of them but basically it's immigration commerce treaties and defense coining money general welfare and make all laws necessary and and proper the next thing is the states state sovereignty states rights that comes in the ninth and tenth amendment state governs personal affairs that means my education marriage life welfare transportation and these are individual affairs also and basically
004the power is not delegated to the federal government or prohibit to the states under uh article 1 section 10 are reserved to the states and the people and education one of those things that we serve the states and reserve to the people that's why you know we can have individual choice uh school vouchers to uh school choice those kind of things now public officials governed by consent of the people and rather people is always they can always alter or abolish the government or or the type of government that they have if they don't if they uh somehow do something that would reduce the safety and happiness of the people that's what comes through safety and happiness some of the things that are happiness religious freedom prosperity free speech free press secreting the blessing liberty to
005us to our into our prosperity and so there's some more but that's basically it constitution is divided government separation powers limited government checks and balances and the state and federal government is one of those dividers which is divided same thing with the local government the brunswick county board of commissioners the town all those are separate government entities so each one of those entities is there to protect the citizens right under their authority so if the federal government or the states mandate things that's that are unconstitutional and they should step in and protect your rights and they have every authority to do so under the constitution and they can't go to jail or they can take in the courts all those places but you have a right to defend your citizens rights and liberties your job
006is to protect the souls of the students entrusted in your care you may and you must resist federal estate encroachment or personal freedom on educational integrity honesty and quality this is your charge from the voters and from the creator who gave us all life liberty and pursuit of happiness mr armadi i hate to tell you this i'm done sir well you're three months three minutes i'm done sir i'm finished you are today yes sir i'm finished all right yeah i just finished in time so any other thing i want to ask everybody before i get out of here is uh i have some hats back there i got to bring up it says usa on if you want to buy one let me know it's i'm lazy enough for hillsdale college where i learn all
007these good stuff about the constitution thank you very much thank you sir [Applause] our next speaker is thomas russell i applaud you and thank you for your reciting of the pledge of allegiance at the beginning of your monthly meetings but are you aware of the words that you pledge please your allegiance to the flag just merely speaking as a routine from a memorized from your from your childhood as i travel about the county of late i didn't visibly see any such allegiance or respect given to our national flag when it comes to displaying it in or at the 20 locations associated with our schools our school's display of our national symbol appears inconsistent disrespectful and quite frankly an afterthought flags were not raised at all or they were hoisted incorrectly in front of our schools
008in september several of us checked every school numerous times to see if it was in compliance with title 4 chapter 1 paragraph 6g of the u.s code which specifically calls for the flag of the national national flag to be flown during school hours in or near the entrance to school houses on september 17 which was constitution day we're seeing that our county schools will display our patriotism for america and proudly display old glory especially since brunswick county schools policy 3530 requires the teaching of the constitution um to be conducted that very day also mandated to be taught on constitution day is the historical origins of the north carolina and the united states flags the guidelines and use and display can you guess how many schools actually displayed the correct the flag correctly on that day
009percent 25 percent got it right 75 percent flew no flag or displayed it incorrectly the total disregard for flying of our national flag is appalling and shows no respect for our nation or the sacrifices that it took to obtain it what a mixed message to our students on that day i do want to give credit where credit is due of all the schools town creek elementary school was the only one who flew our national flag correctly every time we checked congratulations town creek elementary dr oates on april 16 2021 at the dedication ceremony of the charters of freedom you closed an eloquent speech by stating and i quote i will definitely make it my business to ensure that our students of brunswick county come to this place and to see the documents that guide their
010life what a missed opportunity to use the charters of freedom as an educational tool i was disappointed to see exactly zero students visiting there on constitution day and i will definitely make it my business i think not i cannot see or hear what's being taught inside your classrooms but i can clearly see what is displayed outside the buildings of those flagpoles and the message that it sends we are clearly in a war for the very ethos of this nation our youth have been placed in the front skirmish lines through no choice of their own critical race theory transgender athletics bathrooms of your desired desired identity mass mandates why and why in the world would anyone want to subject their child to such indoctrination mr russell i ask you one minute i ask you i've asked
011you not to make speeches write policies or balance budgets that's not enough to win this war we all must be vigilant watchful check for compliance and follow up to what is being taught and what messages are being delivered presently the message being broadcast by our lack of school etiquette and school flag etiquette is that american nationalism is not important being an american is not important globalism is the way of the future i would argue that the citizens of brunswick county which rep which you represent do not feel that way i ask that you pursue this issue and permeate and inspire the right message from our classrooms and from the entrance of our brunswick county schools thank you [Applause] my name is natalie gavitt and i'm a fifth year ec teacher at chilope middle school i
012was bcs rookie of the year for 2018 and 2019 school year and i'm currently expecting my third child however this will be my first child while working for brunswick county schools during march and april when we renew our benefits and talk about insurance i prepped and made sure that i had asked questions about my maternity leave and was told quote i would be fine i was told quote i would get eight to 12 weeks based on doctor recommendation since i'm a fairly new teacher and completely new to the policies for expecting mothers i very incorrectly assumed that i would have paid leave i was later told that i was mistaken and i would have to exhaust all of my leave as there isn't really a maternity leave policy in place when asking where i could
013see this in writing i was so i could plan accordingly i was told by miss dodson that the policy was quote vague and was given information about the two policies in place extended sick leave in fmla i was then weeks later contacted again stating quote also to clarify on this extended sick leave it comes with a 50 per day dock and must be applied after you exhaust your own leave it can only be applied during the first six weeks of regular birth or eight weeks for a cesarean it cannot be applied to schedule time off like christmas or easter break those days will have to be unpaid i would suggest applying for shared leap donations let me know if you would like that and i will include that in your packet of course i did
014so and several more questions were asked because what was said was not stated when we previously chatted via phone after a few weeks i was told that she needed all of my information quickly as she was leaving the county and she would not be able to further assist me i still however was left with questions so i turned my attention to mr stephen foster i asked very specific questions and some were answered vaguely but others very informatively for example i asked just to clarify is extended sick leave only to be used in the first six weeks for natural birth and eight weeks for cesarean example if i have three weeks of my own time saved and three weeks of shared leave but my doctor recommends that i'd be out for eight weeks will i not
015be able to then use extended sick leave to up to my doctor's recommendation his response was extended sick leave will be administered in accordance with the state policy that i shared previously which still was not clear now if i were to stand here and ask you to clarify tonight i'm sure most of you would refer me again to the employee handbook that's been given to us or the north carolina handbook but have you actually tried to search the word maternity i have and when doing so my search found zero out of zero results you know when i emailed about my maternity when i was emailed about my leave it was called maternity i've done much research called the governor's office dpi and other school systems to see what they are providing new hanover county starting
016in july of 2019 offers six weeks of paid parental leave mother or father that runs concurrently with their fmla so my questions to you tonight are why is brunswick county not being competitive with its neighbor are their employees and families more important than ours when asked about the policy and why they were implementing it new hanover county stated this is the right thing to do for our employees and their families and it is and it is an important and smart investment for our community the chairman said it will promote family bonding between a parent and child and help ease the financial burden many families face as they welcome their new child into the home this is just one more reason why new hanover county government is a great place to work and to be honest
017with you i agree if i knew that i was planning a pregnancy i would honestly work there rather than bcs and you would yet again lose another vital exceptional children's teacher and employee in conclusion i'm not asking for eight weeks of paid leave or even drastic changes at this point in time i'm simply asking that you think of your employees their worth to you and how you can better support them in a time where it is so desperately needed i'm aware i will not be affected by any changes you may choose to make but i hope that i can make the next family feel a bit more secure and have one less thing to worry about by bringing this to your attention tonight thank you [Applause] mccarthy good evening good evening covet has now become
018the de facto excuse to improve accountability and transparency among many politicians take important votes in secret check limit public access to meetings check intimidate citizens to keep them from voicing concerns and holding you accountable check your own policy says that you meet on the first tuesday of each month and all public notices are opposed to 48 hours in advance of the meeting except in the case of an emergency either we've had a lot of emergencies lately or something else is going on apparently you weren't following your own tool kit when it comes to quarantine so you voted to change it to seven days i saw the policy change on the district website which said it was done the same day as committee meetings the committees do not comprise the entire school board nor do they
019fit the requirement of a public school board meeting what are you afraid of transparency recently north carolina said it passed legislation that the school public school unit you shall vote at least once a month on whether the face covering policy should be modified the september vote was not taken at an actual school board meeting it was apparently taking not a curriculum meeting committee meeting where only two board members were present why would you take a mandated face covering vote in secret without the full board if you think masks for our children are so important why don't you have the courage of your convictions the public deserves to hear and see the full conversation what are you afraid of transparency while trying to figure out when these above votes actually took place i went back and
020watched video of the last three board of ed meetings each of them end the live feed before the end of the meeting why again what are you afraid of why are school administrators wasting their precious time and our money watching videos of students trying to catch them without masks where is the legal authority for individual schools to be making seemingly random quarantine determinations meanwhile brunswick county schools test scores from last year were reportedly down 19 percent overall yet with all the politicization and intimidation and finger-pointing i've not heard a single word on how anyone is working to fix that our children's future is at risk maybe it's time to stop pointing fingers at parents who are concerned about their children or taxpayers who are concerned about the waste of tax dollars when you tell parents
021to shut up and get out because they're upset at your disregard for their concerns for their children when you try to tear constituents down with personal attacks on social media when you try to cover your own failures regarding who's actually in charge out here you or the health department by leaking unsubstantiated hearsay to the media as cover for your own abdication of duty it's clear to everyone on the outside that we have a major transparency problem i'll leave this with a famous quote from lincoln he says a government afraid of the people is liberty and this follows up with the earlier comments a people afraid of the government is tyranny i ask you to please look into these issues and certainly let me know if i have any of the things that i found on
022your website wrong thank you [Applause] this hello members of the board hello i'm going to read from a report that was produced by some concerned brunswick county citizens on social emotional learning or sel social emotional learning is a part of the bcs school board school improvement plan for school mental health a staff member this summer advised our board members that sel offers teachers many mental health resources for students experiencing trauma around covet 19 and also shared that sel was not a part of crt at the time the board approved sel in july the members said they would remain open to receiving more information about it local residents were able to gather and share more information on scl this summer from local and state resources and the report follows they found that sel in its new
023form as of december 2020 is in conflict with the community values of our county and with our children's everyday social studies lessons this report finds that there are serious problems with sel's use of teachers in class counseling to reach its goal goals in emotional learning it also finds new information that sel is connected directly to crt both sel and crt are based in tactics of critical theory scl supporters are working to destroy core american principles of self-government and they reject and target our traditional local values sel lessons indoctrinate students with the following anti-values collective schooling rather than individual rights forced conformity rather than first amendment open debate and the group equity rather than equal opportunity and supporters say that seo will help make the systemic changes they need to produce an equitable socialist society people
024of brunswick county rightly view the new sel as intentionally working counter to their way of life they understand that scl's goals based in the history of communism is to destroy the allegiance that americans have for their family and faith-based traditions brunswick county parents are justified in requesting that the board reject social emotional learning and that it replace it with needed k-12 civics curriculum that is composed of and in complete support of their american constitutional heritage thank you [Applause] for salute mr siemens first board member superintendent cabinet community members welcome the very first board of education meeting inside the center of applied sciences and technology this is uh turned out to be a fantastic venue and i look forward to many many uh more meetings in here as well so we spent the past couple weeks
025uh surprising some of our district employees of the year and uh they've got some shiny new desk jewelry to go along with the honors uh but we also wanted to bring the ones that we have who we've we have surprised uh already uh before you just for a little more uh you know public bcs shout outs as as i like to call it so first up if we could if we could have denise marie copeland of right here at the coast join us up here miss copeland is the brunswick county schools rookie of the year also known as the beginning teacher of the year a little short story when we came down to walk the halls of the coast to surprise her we're walking down and she was happy at the same time to be
026scooped across the hall she sees all these district administrators uh coming down had uh if i didn't want you to be scared but uh because it was a good thing we're coming to surprise you one of your nominees one of your colleagues nominated you saying she is the epitome of a team player and is always looking for ways to contribute to her school her students are excited and motivated to work in her classroom and each and every student leaves her doors knowing they matter and they have a voice with the power to change the world ladies and gentlemen your brunswick county schools rookie of the year miss denise murray miss mosley is the brunswick county schools instructional assistant of the year based out of the home of the lincoln leopards it's mosley a certificate for
027you and i would like to read a little something your colleague said about you this was of course during referencing the 2020-21 school year quote she went from kindergarten to fifth grade to a special education classroom with a moment's notice we knew that we could count on miss mosley to jump in and take over any situation that arose during the day miss mosley never voiced a single complaint just jumped in and was ready and willing to help in any way possible thank you miss mosley for your dedication to our students [Applause] like meyer would you join us up here center stage miss meyer is the brunswick county schools support employee of the year behavior specialist at belleville and north so uh a little uh words from one of your colleagues i know it sounds cliche
028but it's the honest truth that angelique goes above and beyond for her job not only does she provide amazing support for staff students and parents at her schools but all through the county angelique is one of the best she is the first to jump in and help out and never says no she is continuing her education to provide more knowledge about behavior supports to the county and her schools there is no better person for this honor than she that from one of your colleagues ladies and gentlemen your brunswick county schools instructional support employee of the year and last but certainly not least miss danielle brown would you join us up here center stage chris brown is of the coast here as well and i have a wonderful little story for when we showed up to
029surprise miss brown who were a little incognito she was on the phone and let me tell you if you have spent any time on the phone in the past couple years it can be a wild ride y'all uh uh we'll just leave it at that we walked in she's on the phone with a parent and in the most professional way helping this parent who has a child who's out sick i believe and we're sitting there listening listening she's taking some information she had to call another school to get some more information she told the parent let me call this other school i'm gonna gather that info and i'm gonna call you right back and i just thought that's that's that's what it's all about that's customer service right there even though we don't think of
030it as a customer it can be tough on the phone sometimes and it can't be any more professional than what we witnessed out of you ladies and gentlemen your brunswick county schools admitted administrative support employee of the year ms danielle brown [Applause] everybody holding your um sign up they're all district employees [Applause] [Music] we have one more distinguished guest amongst us this evening before i wrap it up one of our athletic directors over at west brunswick high school uh coach fletcher want to throw us up here so uh coach jimmy flesher fletcher just uh received a state honor a little background on this honor it is called the charlie adams distinguished service award it's in honor of the longtime nchsaa executive director who retired from the post in january of 2010 it's presented each year
031to one individual in each region during the nch saa annual regional meetings one award is given per region it goes to the individual with at least 10 years of experience in education and athletics who is still active in the field and has regularly gone above and beyond the call of duty at both the local and state level and the quote uh principal paschal coach fletcher has definitely gone above and beyond the call of duty with our student athletes in supporting them coach how did you how did you find find out about the honors so i got an email from q tucker who q is the head person of our high school association and she just basically said hey i need your bio no clue what it was about so i sent her my bio and
032then i got another email from her and she's like make sure you're on the zoom meeting that we're having so uh that was basically how i got it or how i got the information so it was a great honor and very privileged to get it and it was a shock but uh very excited to get it thanks for that so much for the recognition so thank you ladies and gentlemen thank you sir that is a wrap thank you for sharing in our excitement thank you all for sharing in our businesses thank you now our she teaches voice with our teacher of the year is betsy o'hara hi how are you guys good morning good afternoon good afternoon did you say good morning sometimes i feel that way as well um so we had our first
033um council meeting so i just wanted to share some of the things that we discussed so that some of the things that we've already implemented and some of the things that we're going to continue to look at as a district [Applause] first of all i reached out to all of our teacher of the years and said share some of your glows with me as far as the beginning of the school year and i received pages and pages and pages of glows which is amazing um it was just wonderful to see so these are some of the ones that kept reoccurring so i just wanted to highlight a few of those and those were students and faculty were excited to be back in the school building also staff are supporting each other and helping out when
034needed also there was a great turnout for open house everyone's been enjoying the new staff in the building we've had quite a few in different buildings and it's been really nice getting to know them also the school buildings looked amazing i know a few of you have been in them and the custodial staff did an amazing job this summer we also had a few grows and these are some of the things that we're going to continue to focus on this school year obviously improving our math scores across the district i'm a math teacher so i understand that and i'm going to do everything i can to improve those obviously student absences is still something we want to look at not just covet related but obviously even before covet prior substitutes are greatly needed in our
035county which i am going to focus on that um here in a minute because we've actually already implemented some things for that which is awesome we also need to continue to remind our students about the importance of school and their expectations and then making sure that every school implements their pbis what we mainly discussed was excuse me substitutes obviously that's a concern amongst our district that was the thing that everyone kept discussing but we've already done some major things with that the first one was we i think daniel is creating a marketing video along with i think some of the tac members to try to highlight the importance of why subs are needed in our school so hopefully we'll get that out there also we've put an announcement on our webpage our district webpage highlighting
036substitutes are needed so if anyone visits our webpage it's right there also we've created flyers um for the community which i actually brought some with me so if anyone in the community wants to grab something they're right back there you can put them at the gym that you work out any establishment to help us get some substitutes and the biggest one is and i want to thank you guys for that is offering the 250 bonus to our substitutes if they work 10 or more days in a month so i appreciate you guys supporting that and then uh what we plan to focus on now that also keeps reoccurring is teacher stress level and how to improve it district wide and then concern over lack of teacher input with decision making and we're going to talk
037about that and then still the substitute shortage just how can we get substitutes into our building um and then lastly i just want to thank the board members that we have seen in the buildings mr lemon thank you for coming to cedar grove it was great to see you there and i saw that you were at west that was awesome so if you have not been able to get to a school we hope to see you guys there and we just we thank you for your continued support and i can't wait to work with you guys thank you miss o'hara yes mr benton and i used to participate in your tax meetings would you still be willing to let us do that oh yes please we would love to um i'm actually putting an agenda
038together um for our next tac meeting which is next week and so i'll send that out to you and then i'll also send you the zoom invite as well yeah you said that on the board um i believe it's october 14th at 4 00 pm all the board members yeah of course definitely we would love to have you guys there when i say guys i'm a northerner so it doesn't it's just habit any other questions thank you thank you so much ladies and gentlemen the board you have uh the minutes from uh september 17 and the 14th is there any corrections commission to approve them thank you we have a motion to approve on mr barger ii mr robinson all in favor say aye i can send items from the committee meetings mr lemon i
039have one question regarding a question we have from the audience from the committee meetings tori can you tell us what the vote was for the mask policy at the committee meeting i know it's in the minutes i don't think the public can see the minutes till they're approved [Music] i was going to ask the same questions if we could clarify that vote for the public five oh if i'm not mistaken is that mr benton what did he ask the same thing okay by robinson to maintain the current mass requirements for all students and staff motion carried unanimously so the 5-0 vote with all board members present thank you those are public heroes [Music] board members on it [Music] well the curriculum committee is mr benton is the chairperson and then i'm on the committee with
040him the curriculum committee is usually uh it's the chairperson is mr benton and then i'm on the committee with him so for example the chairperson for operations is mr barger and who's on that with you you or mr robinson we're all always there yeah ultimately all the board members are there consent items for approval uh we've discussed that at committee any questions about that listen to the proof mr barger make a motion approved miss moffett seconds all in favor say aye items number one is the brunswick county health services mou ms quinlan evening so as from our last board meeting you all had requested that there be some additional language added into the mou indicating that the health department would provide their recommendations in writing to dr oates and dr oats with oats would provide
041that information to you all and you will notice on the revised draft under the contagious disease section that that request from y'all has been added into the memorandum and so that was the change that was requested last time and those are the only changes that have been made since then listen to approve it you have a motion to approve the mou with the health department i'm mr barger do we have a second second off at seconds any other discussion i just want to thank miss quinlan dr oates and the staff that worked on that and also uh chairman thompson from the county commissioners for reaching out to us and supporting uh putting all that in writing thank you all in favor say hi hi all right to clarify the seven days the reason we pushed
042for the seven day is because that follows cdc guidelines and we wanted to make sure our kids could come back to class as quickly as possible so we asked dr oates to go to the health department to ask if they would consider following the seven day quarantine after a negative test as opposed to 10 which puts more work on our school nurses but they were in a grants that the kids need to be in class that is our goal to make sure our students are in class and we are utilizing that approach we worked collaboratively with the health department to address the different levels of quarantine based on those individual needs and we are able to utilize that with the fifth day um having that negative test and i think many are appreciating that that
043seemed to be working a little better i feel as if it is working we are making some good progress we have a really good collaboration with the health department nurses that work with our nursing team we have a joint communication system that all of us can access in real time all the time and so they work back and forth daily with our coca nurse and our school nurses and our nursing supervisor and they call me when they need to so we've got a good communication flow between the nurses at the health department and our nursing team so we're um we're working through it thank you mr quaker the second item on the action items are dr oates local parent advisory councils yes sir um board members every year we are required to bring before you
044the list of names for the parent advisory council for your approval these folks have been vetted to make sure that their attendance on the councils are aligned with policy making sure that they have not exceeded their time limit their term limits that they have children at the particular school in which they are serving so we have gone uh through these to make sure that everyone is where they need to be and i think you have all received these lists uh so i'm presenting them to you for your approval didn't hear him over there uh the next item is uh announcements by the superintendent just quickly just a few announcements uh first i just want to kind of echo what mr seaman said about this facility this is the first uh formal meeting that's been held
045here in this beautiful facility i'd like to take an opportunity to just thank ms rutledge and the operations team particularly mr craig eckert and those who worked tirelessly to to make this this vision that many of us had come to fruition we appreciate your hard work and dedication to doing that but not only just our operations staff our technology staff as well you guys have worked very hard to ensure that we are top notch with technology here with the screens and now the monitors and everything connected and working so i just wanted to publicly thank you for all that you've done to make this this facility what it is we're looking forward to having our students use the classrooms that are right behind you the culinary arts students will be using the state-of-the-art kitchen that
046is in next room over to come out and prepare meals for banquets that can be held from anyone by anyone in the community if they want to use this facility it gives our students first-hand opportunity to apply what they've learned in the classroom in a real life setting many of our students are looking to go into those fields of with culinary and this is definitely a place where they can hone those skills and go out and make a living doing that and knowing that they've got their start here with brunswick county schools um secondly i would i would ask that those that are listening those that are in attendance and are able it has been expressed through miss o'hara tonight and the members of the teacher advisory council that we are in desperate need of
047substitutes so if anyone is able if anyone knows folks who are able and eligible and willing to come in and sub for brunswick county we are asking you to do that be a part of the team um our teachers are doing all they can we have had uh principals i think mr paschall who's over in the corner mr pascal taught math class last week or week before last because we were unable to get subs in the building so if you or you know anyone who is willing has the time has the option to do that please let them know that we would be glad to have them just go to our website call the human resources office we will do all we can to get you into classrooms it's not nothing that you have to
048do every day it is nothing that you have to do every week that one day will work you can choose your school you i mean it's pretty much what you want to do we just need your assistance in getting these classrooms filled for these kids and lastly um he may not want me to do this but i just want to wish mr ed lemon our board chair a happy birthday thank you because his birthday is the day thank you i appreciate that but when you get my agent you know some of you guys are recognized we don't recognize that much anymore but i do appreciate it at this time i entertain a motion to go to close session emotion motion mr barter i'm sorry um yes we're going to go ahead and meet that day
049thank you i'm going to have a second second mr robinson seconds all in favor say aye aye thank you [Applause] uh [Applause] him [Applause] you