001Yeah, I know. Yeah, so To me, I thought I was as well. I think they have one extra. Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. I said, yeah, I thought so too. But I think it's supposed to have Thanks. I appreciate that. It's cuz I'm not as cute as you. I'm sorry. It's okay. So, in the So, then the twin sisters like a travel pod. No, not on display. They do got a Name is James. Yes. It happens to me and So, what's the other one? So, we can find out Find out I think they have one extra. They should >> April 28th work session. Um I just want to do a little bit of housekeeping for board members speakers coming up. If we can speak directly into the mic so that the audio can pick
002it up clearly, that'd be appreciated. Um being that all members are seated, a quorum has been determined. Uh moving on in the agenda, we next have the agenda review and approval. You guys take Um I have I have a question first about the agenda. We don't have anything on here that covers Halliburton. Now, um so that will be on the agenda for the regular session next week for question and answer and anything else that should be appropriate and can somebody tell me what that'll be? Well, I believe Dr. Swan has some information about Halliburton. >> on one of my slides my superintendent snapshot over some questions that were brought up on Tuesday that I wanted to clarify with the board. So that's open season. Yeah. Can we can ask questions during that time? >> Yeah.
003Mhm. Okay, and maybe make a motion if we needed to for the next week. Absolutely. Yes. Okay, cool. We have a motion to approve by Mr. Camp. [clears throat] Do we have a second? I'll second. Second. >> [clears throat] >> Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Those opposed, nay. Eyes have it. The agenda is approved. Now we have superintendent updates with Dr. Swan. Madam Chair, members of the board, good to see everyone this evening. >> [clears throat and cough] >> I do want to I've got some a lot of updates and highlights to present to you. We'll be having a lot of recognitions next Monday as well. So a lot a lot of great things have been happening in the school system. First you'll see Mr. Jonathan
004Morgan, eighth grade teacher at Table Rock Middle School. We had the opportunity to surprise Mr. Morgan last Thursday, last Thursday morning at Table Rock right after they were done doing eighth grade check-ins. Um so we were able to walk into his classroom and Mr. Morgan is the 2025-2026 Burke County Public School Teacher of the Year. And just to see the surprise on his face, yeah. Very good. Very proud of Mr. Morgan. And when we walk in, you'll see the video. His students, there's no audio I don't believe, but the students were just completely thrilled to to see what Mr. Morgan had achieved. And also Mr. Morgan gets to drive of course the vehicle around for the entire school year. So that will be Oh, wrong video. I got to inform of this says that team
005that eighth grade team is really good team. They are phenomenal. Please pardon our interruption. We want to congratulate Mr. Jonathan Morgan for being our district teacher of the year. >> [applause] >> Congratulations. Yes, sir. >> [music] [music] >> So, congratulations Mr. Morgan again. Very well deserving. Mr. Morgan will go on to represent Burke County in the state. So, we're hopeful. There again, I always it's always bittersweet if we have a teacher of the year, they they do spend a year outside of the sabbatical away from the classroom to do tours and traveling engagements. So, it's always I'd love to have that opportunity to have one of our teachers recognize do that for us. Also, the next video I won't play the whole thing in its entirety. It's quite long. But, in conjunction with the city
006of Valdese, highway patrol, other agencies, we [clears throat] did a video, a bike safety video. I'll play just a couple little excerpts, but myself Hello everyone. I'm Sabrina the injury prevention specialist with trauma services at UNC Health Blue [music] Ridge. Today, we're going to talk about bike safety, why it matters, how injuries happen, how to stay [music] safe, and your legal responsibilities while riding a bike. So, it's a it's a great about a 20-minute video and basically it has different individuals speaking on the importance of bike safety. As you recall, several months ago we had two of our students involved in an e-bicycle crash down in Valdese, pretty serious. In those things, the speed that they go is is quite fast, 20 miles an hour in excess of that. So, >> [clears throat] >> like
007I said, Mr. Sain secured some funding for this. So, here again we work through the city of Morganton, UNC Blue Ridge trauma services, public safety, Burke County Sheriff's Department, Glen Alpine Police Department, Drexel Police Department for this. So, this will be attached to the links. I hope you guys take an opportunity. All of our students will be watching this as well in their homerooms. Also, had the opportunity >> [clears throat] >> this past week to go to elementary Battle of the Books, which was hosted at we did the awards at Levatton Auditorium over at Western Piedmont Community College. Icard Elementary took the trophy home, the traveling trophy. In Battle of the Books, it is in our elementary age and basically they >> [clears throat] >> they begin working over the summer on a whole list
008of books where they have to memorize certain aspects of those books. In in last year, Mr. Beck attended the awards and it's quite challenging to see some of the recall questions that the students have to pull up. So, it's this team from Icard did a phenomenal job. Also, our high school robotics competition was today. We had two Draughn High School teams, team three and team four came in first place in competition. And tomorrow we have our middle school robotics at Draughn High School and then on Wednesday we have our elementary robotics. So, we'll have all of our recognition recipients come on Monday as well for those awards. So, just what a great opportunity for them to get down there. And you see the trophies that they received were handmade trophies by our Mr. Rogers, correct
009me if I'm wrong, but our Project Lead the Way classes made the trophies. Yeah. So, our own students made the awards. Also, our STEAM biomimicry kicked off. We still offer our STEAM opportunities for all of our students that qualify over at Western Piedmont Community College. Get them out of their classroom. They do they work in small groups. So, this was an awesome experience for them. >> [clears throat and cough] >> Also, want to highlight our Opt-In. I believe this is our third year, fourth year working with Opt-In in Burke County. So, basically in a nutshell, over 65 students participated this year. This is the highest number that we've had. In conjunction with Burke Development Western Piedmont Community College, graduating seniors can work with companies throughout Burke County over the summer. Those those internships could lead
010to full-time employment, could lead to opportunities for furthering their education for free through those companies. So, we had a really great showing at Patton High School that evening. So, [clears throat] I want to thank our CTE and and definitely highlight our our Burke Work in Burke Burke Development Incorporated on Western Piedmont Community College partners. >> [snorts] >> Also, we had the North Carolina Symphony Symphony Symphony for our third graders at the COMMA this past week as well. And as you see the picture on the far right, there's a young man. Um, so third it was third graders attended listening to a cellist, Dr. Mark Moskowitz, invited by Drexel Elementary. So, Landon is a blind student as you'll see here. So, he was able to he really wanted to go and hear the sounds, the vibrations.
011So, it was such a touching sight to see him go over to that musical instrument and be able to play it and hear it and feel it, but not see it. So, Mr. Landon did a phenomenal job. The symphony did great. So, we we thank our partners with the COMMA as well. Also, want to highlight two of our students, Aubrey Abigail Gonzalez from Draughn High School will represent Burke County Public Schools in the North Carolina Governor's School for Mathematics and Carey Taylor from Patton High School will represent Burke County in social science. So, there again, these students will spend pretty much the the majority of their summer down in Raleigh at the Governor's School. So, it's a it's a great opportunity for them to develop leadership skills. So, congratulations to those students. Also, like to
012recognize Miss Coach Amber Reddick who she is the recipient of the 2026 Wooden Legacy Award. So, the Wooden Legacy Award is given to the given to a male and a female high school basketball coach. Just one male, one female across the entire state. So, Miss Reddick from Freedom High School received that award this past March. So, we will be it's presented annually by the National High School Basketball Coaches Association. So, we'll recognize Miss Amber. As you know, she's a long-time coach at Freedom High School as well, very successful. >> [snorts] >> Also, a lot of upcoming dates and I'll have Miss Pam send these to you. We have April 21st middle school robotics, which is tomorrow. Student art show at the COMMA tomorrow evening from 4:00 to 6:00. If you've not had an opportunity, try
013to make it over there. Some great artwork from our students. High school job fair, middle school quiz bowl, elementary speech, Special Olympics, secondary Special Olympics, chop competition. I believe we have one of our board members is a special judge on that panel. Senior walks coming up. Burke Middle College graduation, North Liberty, Hibriten, and East Burke High graduations. On the 29th we have Draughn and the 30th we have Freedom and Patton. So, over the next few weeks we have a lot of stuff going on. So, mark your calendars. Once again, Miss Pam will send that information out to you. Also, May 4th through May 8th, Teacher Appreciation Week. So, throughout campus there'll be a a baked potato bar that's sponsored by Burke County Public Schools. So, thanks to Miss Shuffler and her team, they were able
014to secure some funding through outside resources to provide that in each school. So, we just want to say thanks to our teachers for what they do. It's it's oftentimes a thankless job that they do. So, we definitely want to recognize them on the week of the 4th. Also, so here's what I was mentioning earlier. As you recall at our our last Tuesday's question and answer, so there were over 200 police calls brought up over a two-year span. So, we had our team break those incidents down. So, as you see the school related incidents of of the we we focused on a year from this time last year to now. So, we had 18 responses, school related incidents. And there you can see the breakdowns of what exactly those are. And I'll be happy to share
015this slide presentation with you so you can have these numbers as well. Day treatment interventions, three. Disorderly conduct, two, which zero reports filed. Student altercations, two. Medical incidents, threat assessments, substance related marijuana vape in one report filed on that. Weapons related incidents, two. Two reports issued. Missing student report, student elopement, which no one left to get married, they just left the building. Um, so, non-school emergency responses were four and non-school law enforcement activity were there were seven, 70, I'm sorry, with a total law enforcement communication activity log of 92. There again, that was from April 20 or April to April 26th is the way we broke that data down. Um >> [clears throat] >> So, that's my Yes, ma'am. So, explain just for everybody's benefit, explain the difference in um incidents and reports filed. Uh
016so, an incident a report filed would be if we called police assistance and they just showed up to support. Um the report filed would be they took somebody into custody, charges were filed, that's where the the difference would be with a report filed. >> [snorts] >> Um any of the students would would have possibly have taken up been taken away in handcuffs on those situations. More more of a system of support would be the unreported And then the other the seven the non-school law enforcement activity, the 70 down there, those were the incidents that we were talking about last week that were like traffic stops or or a um security check, um trespassing fire alarms Fire alarms, yeah. Mhm. suspicious suspicious person, fire alarms, things like that would be the non-school law enforcement activity. Yes,
017ma'am. If we have Halliburton questions, do you want us to do now or after >> Sure. No, I'd be happy to do them talk to them now. Yeah. Um just to give you so, I know that we said that um the Halliburton building itself, if we were to move the students to the drone wing the plan was that, you know, day treatment would stay there for a time period. Nobody knows exactly what that time period is until I guess the contract runs out. What is the plan for that building once they're gone? So, I've already been in con- contact with some community partners. Um nothing nothing in stone. Course, any any community would come through the board. So, we put some feelers out to our county commissioners to see if they are have some interest
018in that building uh in the future. Of course, we heard Mayor Anthony they're not interested in the building. Um so, there there's a hub. Um I believe it's called the hub in Granite Falls. I believe it's an old school building that they've converted into kind of like an It's called the hub. The hub, okay. the hub Hudson, okay. The okay. So, kind of making it a community a community available space. So, we have folks that may want to do a a painting. We have artists around here that may want to lease some space. Um so, something like like that. But there again, that's that's I I've YMCA. I've had conversations with YMCA. They've talked about opening up. And here again, this is all just a a quick passing conversation. Uh teen center, zero through three
019birthing or um daycare center. Um I guess, you know, with Chesterfield sitting vacant, we've really not done anything with that building either. Has there been any plans or any expenses on demolishing the building or So, anything for Chesterfield Yes, as you recall about 3 months ago, I presented um so, that's going to be on the May presentation as well um to move forward with that demolition of Chesterfield. And it's a newer building than the Drexel the Drexel building. It it Compared to Yeah, I'd say parts of it. But there's one wing that was built in '90 it it was the summer I moved here in '98 that just completed one wing of Chesterfield. So, the other part of it is old. I guess the reservation I have, what is is sitting with two buildings that
020that we've not finished the project for, you know. And then we're looking at also having the Aker building sitting there as well it vacant once that that transaction takes place in what two two years possible? >> Aker? Yeah. Well, there again, that's that's going to be factored into the demolition of Hildebrand and Aker is is kind of our thought process. Right. That's part of going to be part of the contract when both of those campuses consolidate, then both of those buildings will be torn down. Okay. Yeah. I guess what kind of expense if they if we were looking or what kind of time frame. I guess time frame should probably come first. You know, you sit with it up for sale and then you entertain offers and then it's just still sitting there. >> Mhm.
021How long as a board do we give a building like that before we look at expenses of Sure. Good question. I personally I feel that our Chesterfield property has sat vacant way too long. It I mean, we we we were hopeful that we were going to be able to do something with the Dogwood Trust grant. Uh that didn't come to fruition. So, that's what prompted me to reach out to Dr. Aker to get the process going for the demolition aspect of it. Um course, the property even after talking to some realtors, even without the building on that property, the property's not we're not going to get the $2 million tax value is what the property is ever um in in today's market. So, you know, just a a rough estimate, you're looking at $350 to
022$400,000 for that acreage out there without a building on it. So, what is the cost? I know we know this, but this [clears throat] we forgot that. Um what was the cost? Do you recall of that demo? Roughly 350, Bob. Dr. Aker? How much? 245 and that was with and and even after we answered some of your questions about, you know, going in and taking out things, they factor all that part in. I said so, we're going to pay 250 245,000 dollars to tear it down and we're going to sell the land for 350? Essentially. So, we're going to make $100,000? Essentially, but >> So, can we not just sell the land for $100,000 and let somebody else tear the building down? >> You could. I mean, what's what's the difference and it saves us
023a lot of hassle. Sure. There there's there's a lot of different ways to look at that. Um one one avenue as a public school entity, we've got to be cautious of what we do with our vacant buildings. Uh sometimes we don't want to leave a vacant building um open too long. Mr. Law, oh, I thought he was talking to me. Um so, if you leave a vacant building open too long, it it could become the attract of nuisance. So, we want to get rid of that. But also, somebody else could get that building um what I would consider a competitor could potentially take that building from us, which would pull students from Burke County public schools. Like a private school? Like we sold Rutherford College >> Yes. intentionally to a private school? Yes. For >>
024[clears throat] >> before your time >> Before my time. >> [laughter] >> Yes. Yes. Dr. Swan, all those actions you're speaking of with Chesterfield, all would require board approval, board action Yes. Mhm. With that being said, I feel like a board's role in the decision-making process for uh what happens with uh the Halliburton building, any of that going forward should be a board decision um when it impacts buildings, infrastructure, facilities, different things like that. When when your community asks for a voice in the decision-making process, that should always uh be where we stand up and say that's our role, we're the voice. Um so, I'd like to move to uh make sure that come next meeting that we have um a final decision on whether to relocate Halliburton Academy to the drone high school building
025and campus or whether to reject that proposal. I would like to see that as well. But I would like >> [clears throat] >> if at all possible that this be the last time that we talk about this cuz I feel like we have beat this dead horse over and over and over. I think that we just need to make the decision if we're going to do it or not and majority rules. We we've got to get this over with. We got too many people fighting in the community. Um people upset. I feel like people instigating and just trying to keep it stirred up. We got to I think we just need to vote next at the next meeting and get it over with. Well, that is an agenda item. Thank you. You going to do
026a I'm good with as long as everybody's got their questions answered and everybody feels good that they've got the information that they need to, you know, make a smart decision. What's our second? I'll second it. Okay. Is there any objection to it? No, I have no objection. All right, we'll have that. Sorry, [clears throat] I wasn't following my own housekeeping rules. Um so, we're going to go ahead and rewind and play that back. Uh is there any objection to uh having a vote next week to determine the future of future vocation of Halliburton Academy? No. All right. So, hearing no objections, we have a unanimous decision to add that to the agenda for next week. I am sorry, Dr. Edwards, I will speak into the microphone. All right, Madam Chair, those are my updates. Um
027do we have anything further? Uh I did have one question. >> Yes. Mr. Morgan Mhm. is he he graduated as a Patton Panther, correct? He did. Mr. Morgan was a Patton student. Um Yes, he is he is in it for the long haul. He And this is the great thing about being in leadership, you sometimes can look at potential leaders along the way and so, we're we want to continue those conversations with him. It's sometimes hard to take him out of a classroom, but when they're able to impact more than the lives of just 30 or 60 kids a year, when they can impact 500 when they're building principal. So, things like that we we always want to try to recognize with our homegrown individuals. So, very proud of Mr. Morgan. All right, next we
028have uh advanced learning opportunities with Dr. Abernathy and Mrs. Kirkpatrick Good evening, Madam Chair and Board. Thank you for the opportunity tonight to share some of our advanced learning opportunities with you and a little bit of data. You know I can't come to present anything without giving you a little piece of data. So, we're going to start by talking a little bit about our AP program. AP stands for advanced placement. We offer a lot of those courses in our high schools and we kind of just wanted to give you a little update tonight. So, an AP course and learning can be measured through nationally accepted AP scores and those can translate to general education credit in North Carolina and outside North Carolina a lot of times for university. Just a little bit more information on
029that. So, as we look a little bit more tonight at the actual data, you'll see that there is a policy through UNC. Most of the state universities have a special designated policy that allows AP college credit that if a student has a score of three or higher on their AP test that they could actually get some college credit. And several of those could be done through either replacement for pre-courses that they in programs that they have signed up to take through introductory courses to avoid them having to retake some of those core courses at the beginning of their university journey. It also can transfer in as elective credit and then it also of course can prevent students from having to go in and take placement test as well. So, there are several opportunities and again,
030I always tell parents and students anytime I talk to them it really depends on the university and always talk to the university about how they transfer AP credit in as to how that will help students. So, just a little bit of data. As you can see I put both North Carolina's data in here for 2021 to 2025. The dark blue is actually the increase in the number of courses that students have taken in North Carolina since 2021 and as you can see that has ticked up every single year all the way to last year's data 2025 from 125,818 to 171,162. What is even more exciting is if you see the lighter color blue that is the number of AP scores that have increased over time of threes, fours and fives. Remember three gets that college
031credit in most state universities in North Carolina which is very exciting. So, as you can see that's about a 72% pass rate from that last year in 2025 which was a 7% increase from 2024 and that's for North Carolina. So, let's look at Burke County now. So, Burke County follows along some of those same trend lines. As you can see the dark blue again is the number of AP exams that have increased. So, our AP program has grown since 2021 which is super exciting. But also our scores have really increased over the past two years. I don't know if you guys remember last year we presented a short presentation about we've really tried to focus in on some of the work in providing professional development to teachers that teach AP courses in making sure that
032students are better prepared for the AP exam which boost scores. I mean the teachers have done a great job. We've actually seen an increase in both years. From in 2024 to 2025 I think 23 to 24 we had about a 12% increase and then 24 to 25 we actually saw a 7% increase in the number of threes, fours and fives. You'll also notice though that we also went up quite a bit in the number of exams that we gave from 24 to 25. Is there a reason that so many more students chose to take those exams? So, in North Carolina if you take the course our North Carolina provides funding for students to test so it's expected that they take the AP test. I think more students are signing up to take AP courses at
033our high schools which is what where that increase came from. No, but we don't really know why they're signing up like did we do any kind of incentive? Did we Have we educated them more on what it means and and how it can be beneficial to them? That sort of thing. We have worked with both the principals, counselors, teachers on kind of what why should you take AP? How will it benefit you in your post-secondary plans and your pathway? So, yes we have done some of that. As far as incentive, no we've not really offered any special incentives for students taking AP credit. >> I mean I think it's great that they they're taking that knowledge and choosing to step out on a limb and try it. Yeah. I hate to call it like a
034recruitment but I feel like you know coming from a parent who as a parent who has a student who takes AP classes or has taken AP classes, I felt like they've done a so much I guess a better job these last years in communicating what the benefits are, you know, how that can benefit him in for college, what they're going to do to work with him through the course you know, kind of step by step and so I just think going into it they've been more more educated, more prepared and I guess recruited but yet still selective on which students should be recruited for those classes. Absolutely. And that makes me very happy cuz we've worked with College Board the past couple years trying to really make sure that that's what happens with students that
035they are I think more educated and our faculty on exactly what is best for students when you're looking at post-secondary plans and looking at their futures. So, But well done. And in the staff they receive I don't know if you you were going to mention this but if a student earns a three, four or five the staff you're getting there. Sorry, I won't say anything. >> [laughter] >> No worries. They were So, just a couple other things. We'll go to the next slide. This is another slide for North Carolina that just shows you the difference in AP exam performance. This one though is a I like the slide because it shows you that we're moving some of those threes to fours and fives which is even more exciting cuz of course some of the universities
036the higher the exam the more credits they get. So, it's not just like a three credit hour course it may be up to five or six credit hours that they get for that AP exam depending on the exam grade in some of our state universities. The next one is just another slide showing how it's just a visual about how more Burke students are taking AP exams since 2021. You can see that that has really ticked up. You know, 2022 is down to 371 and we're all the way at 657 now which is exciting. The next slide shows the number of exams taken in Burke County. So, that last slide was students. So, of course we have students that take more than one AP course and so this actually shows a representation of the number of
037courses that were taken by that group of students. So, again very exciting from 2022 we were down to 608 to 1015 exams last year. And of course more students are earning that three or higher and this is a great visual. We went from 270 we actually 266 in 2022 to 275 to 358 and 585 in this past 2025 year when we took our AP exams. And then again another visual just shows numbers in that number line. And then also this is just kind of a synopsis. So, last year if you look at it we had students that earned 585 qualifying AP scores which is a three, four or five. Out of that 1755 potential college credits and that's just kind of making an average there at a cost of about $1092.46 per college credit that
038gave our families approximately a cost savings with college credit of $513,267 which is great. So, Ms. Kirkpatrick is going to talk just a little bit about how we register and how we sign up for AP courses in Burke County. All right, good evening and thank you again for this opportunity to share with you just to give you an overview of what the high school registration process looks like for Burke County. Obviously our standards or our course requirements are established by the State Board of Education and that is shared with us each year. For example, we have our English language arts courses which will be renewed starting not this coming year but the next year and then the following year we'll have math. So, every so often the State Board will actually renew what our courses
039or standard course of study looks like for certain subjects and that is of course shared across the state. Beginning even as early as in October we begin the planning process for high school registration for the following year. So, in October we're already planning for what August of the next year will look like and during those meetings we have our principals, our curriculum APs, counselors, directors at the leadership level, data managers, our instructional coaches and then also our community partners with Western Piedmont. We have all of those folks that come to the table and we look at where we are and what we need for our students moving forward. We also have rising ninth grade stakeholder meetings with students and with parents. And this year we actually added an additional night which we kind of called
040or termed the academic night where we really just focused on for our rising ninth grade students, we focused on what does it look like in high school for registration? And we we looked at the academic pieces and specifically what are the advanced opportunities for our students beginning as early as the ninth grade but then what could it look like as you continue to progress as a high school student. Then of course throughout um each year in high school [clears throat] we have individual student meetings to review their transcript and their student goals post secondary um just to have those individual conversations with students. This is Kirkpatrick. What is the attendance like for those rising ninth graders coming to academic nights across the county? I don't actually have any numbers on that but I'll be happy
041to get that for you. >> Oh I don't I don't I don't need direct numbers. Just wondering if there's any room for I know when I did the rising what was it sixth graders? It was kind of scarce. Right. And so I'm wondering if there's any opportunity for us to help um increase participation at those. Whether it be for ninth I know we're talking about high school right now but middle and high. Well and I also think it's it's great for us to have multiple opportunities not just one which is why we do host additional sessions so even though we may have a a rising parent night then we'll also have students that come um that come to um schools for their event but then we also have jump start in the fall so we
042do have some other opportunities but I think it would be great for our leadership to continue to brainstorm on what that could look like to increase that participation. Thank you. Yes ma'am. We just wanted to share with you an example of what it looks like in our course registration book. And if you notice that Dr. Abernathy shared some of the AP courses can actually take the um place of a required credit such as um English three so I gave that example of um AP English language and composition can actually take the place of English three but some of our AP courses are just as an elective. And then here are the AP courses that are listed on our registration cards for our students in high school. So for high school registration and we have actually
043sort of come to the point where all of the registration requests have been made so principals and curriculum APs work with counselors and they input all of that information and then that's where they look at what do those offerings need to look at? What what do they need to look like for our students? So if we have students who only have uh we we have 20 students that are signed up for AP art just throwing that out there then we would look at whether or not that class is going to officially make. If we have 10 students from one one high school that would like to take that class and we have another school that has um another 10 students and we would like to make sure they have that opportunity. We want to look
044at how can we do cross enrollment just as we do for some of our CT or CT courses? How can we have that cross enrollment so that students can still benefit even if there's not 25 students at that one school that want to take that AP course. So we are in the process of what that looks like now and we'll be holding our um allotment meeting that first week in May. Also just some more information about how our teachers must be certified to teach the AP course. We do have the AP Summer Institute which is offered by College Board and we also have additional AP training and then of course we also have our trainings with Burke County which is specific to our teachers at our high school. Are teachers identified by BCPS or are
045they volunteering themselves? I think it's probably a mixture. Um a lot of time teachers will they will express an interest and then at that point that's whenever they talk to their principal and they look at what that's going to be for the coming year. Sometimes it's it's classes done off if you're teaching AP English you're that AP English teacher and you stay with it typically until retirement um and then somebody else that's been in the wings has some interest in that and then they reach out and kind of go through that pathway as well. But we are always looking ahead for any potential retirements and then seeing if we can't help um introduce someone else new so that we we don't have any um wave room for not being able to host that course. And
046and I will add that the AP courses are similar to your CTE career technical education courses if the interest level's not there they're difficult to make the courses so you have to have that energetic enthusiastic teacher to recruit the students and make it interesting and fun plus and have the results which you what you're seeing right now is we're getting both so we've got a great great group of teachers and uh that are doing these programs. And Are AP teachers when they so we have a AP English teacher. Does that teacher only teach AP English or could they teach other subjects? They teach others they teach AP. >> okay. Usually one section will be their AP section and they teach three courses. One of them would be an AP course. Okay. I'm sorry. That's okay.
047Great questions. Also we wanted to share with you um as a result of AP scores if you have a three, four or five for any student that scores for that AP teacher a three, four or five they receive a $50 stipend. That is not through Burke County Public Schools but um we have lots of teachers who receive those stipends in January when all of that data is finally released so we're we're we're very grateful to our teachers for for what they do for our students and then of course they're also they also receive the stipend. Sweet. That's great. So that's one of the opportunities. Another opportunity we just wanted to um just give a quick overview um that we have a lot of students participating in that also offers some AP opportunities is our North
048Carolina School of Science and Math Connect program. So this is just some quick facts. Um this is actually a tuition free program through NCSSM. Um all the classes are online. Um they are about 70 minutes each um over the course since it started in 2015 um they've served 3,048 students over North Carolina. Um 100% of the courses do count towards graduation and um usually it's around 25 for the cap in those classes. Um it is for ninth through 12th graders um and it can accommodate multiple calendars. Um so they will actually um send out a calendar or schedule that looks like this to us and we publish this to our parents and our families um during registration cuz it is first come first serve across North Carolina. Um so the quicker students can sign up
049for courses they usually get in. Some of the courses are very popular courses cuz you'll notice a lot of them aren't courses that are just typically taught um in the high school setting. There's a lot of advanced level courses, honors and there are some AP courses in there as well. Um a lot of STEM um opportunities, engineering opportunities, um heavy math and science of course um in those and then students actually we have a local application then they complete online through a Google form saying they want to take this course or that course for fall and spring and then we work with the school to make sure that they're get they get scheduled that course. Um I will tell you uh I don't about a year a two years ago um we actually kind of
050looked at numbers and we really weren't serving a number the number of kids that I would like to see served through this program because it is a very flexible program and it does offer some course opportunities that we don't provide in our typical seated schools um that I think is super important for kids to explore um and I just got to I have a few numbers here just to do a quick comparison. So in 2024 um we have the fall we had 13 kids that were taking courses across our whole district. In the spring of 2025 we had 14. And um so that was 27 for the whole year. So we decided um I don't know if you remember but a couple years ago um that Western Piedmont students actually had to report to STEAM
051Academy to take those courses at on Western Piedmont's campus um and we met they met in rooms. We had two virtual labs where they sat and met with the NCSSM instructors um and so we made a decision as a district just so that more kids had more opportunity and that transportation wasn't an issue and our Eastern students at both of our Eastern schools were weren't getting to take um credit and opportunity to get those um courses because of time limitations and trying to get from the Eastern end to the Western end and back to the Eastern end. So we decided to move all the courses and allow students to take um those courses at the school. Um and so that has been a great um thing for students because look at how numbers have really
052increased. In 2025 fall was the first time that we allowed that. We went to 19 students in 2026 it went to 35 so that was a total there of about 54 students um which doubled just in one year. And then this next year um 2026 we already have 29 enrolled for the fall and then in the 2027 spring, we've already got 28 enrolled from Burke County. So, I think it was a great decision that allowed more opportunity for more kids, which is exciting. That's it. We would like to entertain any questions that you have. Can I ask you about this uh this semester, fall semester synchronous courses? Just take one for example. This is block one, honors aerospace engineering. 8:00 to 10:00 8:10 to 9:20. Is that the Monday through Friday? Is that Monday through
053Friday for a full semester? Monday through Friday for how long? That is a full semester. Um, and um, the way that those courses work is they're synchronous, which means that they meet online with an NCSSM instructor that they provide. Um, and uh but students remain at their school. So, they can just log on somewhere quiet, library, uh learning lab, and they can log on to their class, do that class, and then report to second period. Okay. And when it's Monday through Thursday, what do they do Friday? Well, they can go back to that same spot and work on more work because just because they're meeting doesn't necessarily mean they don't have work to be done. Especially for some of these courses. Um, and so, um, usually I know my son took one in the fall
054and there was a day that he didn't have class. So, he just worked on things that were coming due or things that they had worked on that week, um, and tried to make sure that he was caught up in all the coursework that was due by that weekend. Thank you. Absolutely. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. You too. Before we conclude, I just want to give a shout out to all of our high school teams. Um, this is not just a process that, you know, we work out from the district level. I mean, there's again, we shared so many meetings, but our high school teams do a great job of working together for the benefit of all of our students. So, I just want to give a shout out to all of them. Awesome.
055Thank you. Next, we have dual language updates with Dr. Simpson. Good evening, board madam chair. Um, I am so pleased to be able to share with you updates with regard to our dual language programming. I want to set that in context in uh context of North Carolina. So, if you'll notice on the slide, North Carolina has over 300 dual language programs across the state. North Carolina ranks fifth in the number of dual language programs in the nation. So, as a part of that, we now have three different dual language programs in Burke County. And so, I want to share with you uh some of the updates regarding those three programs. So, if you look at the timeline with me and you'll see on the left-hand side, we have a photograph of Mountain View Elementary. If
056you'll recall in 2018-19, we began the Global Immersion Academy uh with its very first kindergarten class. At Mountain View, we have two dual language classes per grade level and students switch halfway through the day to go to either their Spanish lessons or their English lessons. And so, now Mountain View is fully articulated K through 5 and we actually have our inaugural cohort who is now in seventh grade at Walter Johnson Middle. And that is known as a middle school continuation program. And so, we started that in 2024-25 with the inaugural cohort. And then finally, last year we began another elementary dual language program at Forest Hill Elementary. It's known as a self-contained program. We have one classroom per grade level because Forest Hill is such a small school. So, the dual language teacher teaches half
057of the day in English and the other half of the day in Spanish. So, um, we have recruited a very talented teacher who is experienced in foundational reading teaching in both English and Spanish. And she's done stints before in the US. So, we're very fortunate to have her. students are involved in dual language programming at Mountain View Elementary K through 5, two classrooms per grade level. At Walter Johnson in our continuation program, we have 62 students enrolled. That's in sixth grade and seventh grade currently. And we also have added some heritage speakers to our program. Uh those students who did not have the opportunity for dual language programming, but are um heritage speakers and we screen them with literacy assessments to determine whether or not they could be successful along with their dual language peers.
058So, um we're very proud of that. And then finally, at Forest Hill, we have 18 uh kindergarteners right now in Mrs. Alfaro's class. May May I ask I think the obvious question. The 238 to 62, was that just a choice by those students to no longer continue in the middle school? >> Well, the 238 is kindergarten through fifth grade. >> the grades. Okay. >> It's all the grades. Right. Okay. Any other questions? >> I would imagine there's that pretty much I My experience is a very successful program. So, I imagine there's not a lot of coming and going that when they're in there, they're in there. And I I suppose there might be a few that maybe drop out between the say fifth grade and the middle school, but I doubt if there's many, huh?
059Not many. About five. We lost about five kids. So, yes, it it does tend to hold kids, um, especially after you've invested so many years. Yeah. So, let's take a look at what instruction looks like at Mountain View Elementary in the Global Immersion program. So, you've got a good view of what dual language instruction looks like through the grade levels at Mountain View Elementary. Our teachers hail from many different countries, Colombia, Belize, uh Peru, Ecuador, and Honduras. Uh so, they bring in also their cultures as well. Okay. So, how are we doing in dual language? Well, let's take a look at what the intergrade scores look like uh from Mountain View Elementary. And so, if you'll notice with me, I have a table here and the white rows are all students in a specific grade
060level. We start with third grade and go through fifth. And then, the middle column are EOG reading scores. And the final column on the right are math EOG scores. And if you'll notice, the proficiency percent proficient um students, so for example, in grade three in reading, we had 24.8 percent of students proficient in reading at Mountain View. And in our dual language classroom, you'll see in the um blue row below, we had 42.5% students proficient. So, you'll notice the curved arrows with the pluses show the increased proficiencies that we're achieving with our dual language students. So, you can see in reading, we range from 17.7% um points uh greater than all students in the grade level all the way up to 24.5, 0.9 in fifth and fourth grade. So, our kids are doing a really
061great job of applying the second tier the second um pillar of dual language education, which is academic achievement. So, we're very proud of our kiddos at Mountain View and the work that they've done. Let's talk a little bit about how our kids at View are doing in Spanish language development. And so, in second grade we begin standardized testing of our students' oral skills in Spanish. So, if you look at the ring on the left-hand side, this is Mountain View's and you'll notice that the green and the blue are either at level or above level. And on level as um set by DPI for second graders oral skills is novice high. So, we have 50% of our second graders who were proficient at in their listening and speaking skills. If you look on the right-hand side
062of the slide, these are all students in the Participate Learning Network. We recruit our teachers from Participate Learning. We partner with them. They're a global recruiting firm for international teachers. And so, there are well over 100 elementary schools that are in the Participate Learning Network. You will notice that 66% of those students are either at or above level in their Spanish oral language development. I'd like to point out that this particular metric includes not only 50/50 programs, which is what we do, spending half of our day in English and half in Spanish, but this also includes programs that start kindergarten with 90/10. So, they spend 90% of their day in Spanish and 10% of their day in English. And then they eventually get to 50/50 percent by third grade. So, those kiddos are outperforming our
063kiddos simply by virtue of the fact that they have more time in Spanish. But our next grade level for measuring students' Spanish abilities is fifth grade. And so, you're going to see that our kids caught up and exceeded all students in the Participate Learning Network. So, if you look at these particular ring graphs, this measures listening and speaking for fifth graders. And if you'll notice on the left-hand side, Mountain View has 77% of our students who are proficient or on level, which is intermediate low, in listening and speaking. So, oral skills. And if you look to the right, the Participate Learning Network has 62% of students that are either on level or above level. And so, our students have exceeded the Participate Learning Network. Let's take a look at writing skills. Writing is typically the
064last skill to develop in language acquisition in first language or second language. It's just plain hard. And you'll see that 50% of our students at Mountain View in fifth grade last year were considered on level or proficient in Spanish writing. And if you look at to the right, the only 39% of students in the whole Participate Learning Network were either on grade level or above grade level. Let's take a look now at interpretive listening. Interpretive listening is a little bit different than the listening and speaking skills you saw earlier. This has to do with academic listening. So, think you about what teachers are teaching and students' ability to listen and comprehend with what they're saying. If you'll notice Mountain View, we have almost 89% of our students who are on level in interpretive listening in
065the fifth grade. So, we're very proud of that. And in the entire Participate Network, 80% of students are either on or above level in interpreting listening. Listening is the first skill to develop in language acquisition, both first and second language. And these results do show that. Finally, reading scores. So, we're getting on to how are we doing in Spanish literacy? And you'll notice that 82% of our students at Mountain View are on level. Again, that is intermediate low. And then if you look at the Participate Learning Network, 69% of students are either at or above level. Okay. So, those are our stats for our Spanish language development. And let's talk a little bit now about something that Mr. Camp alluded to, and that is students moving from the Global Immersion Academy at Mountain View on
066to the middle school continuation. Our first year was 24-25. We had 30 students in to enroll in the dual language program. This past year we had 25 students. If you'll notice below the photograph of Walter Johnson, the table describes what classes our students take. So, our sixth grade dual language students at Walter Johnson take both science and social studies in Spanish. And that's required. And then they also have the opportunity to do a world language elective. And we made that an elective so that students could also do band or chorus if they wanted to. Some families told us that would be a deal-breaker for them. So, we tried to work our schedule so that would be flexible for everyone. And then in seventh grade, we taught heritage Spanish one. We recruited for 14 native speakers
067who were not part of the dual language program. And then in eighth grade, we taught heritage Spanish as well. And we had 15 students that were native speakers that we screened and brought into the program. Okay. So, we're going to take a peek inside Mr. Flores' room at Walter Johnson Middle School. And this is in science class. So, you see a switch there in instruction, and the student has become the facilitator. And you'll notice that um Hayden is quite fluent at this point. So, we're very proud of him and of course all our dual language students. Okay. There we go. So, let's take a look at how our students are performing on EOGs in last year's sixth grade group, the 2025 EOG results. You will see that dual language students outperformed all students in sixth
068grade by 15 percentage points in reading. And you'll notice that they outperformed all students in sixth grade for math by 27.9 percentage points. They really blew the math out of the water. So, we were very pleased and proud of those disaggregated results here with regard to our dual language kiddos in sixth grade. And then at the end of eighth grade, students are expected to take a standardized Spanish language development test much like what the GIA students take in fifth grade, but on a course on a higher level. And so these eighth-grade students last year were all native speakers who had not gone through the dual language program and we are proud to report that 73% of those students scored intermediate mid or higher in their Spanish language assessment and 27% did not quite meet intermediate
069mid. But what that means is 73% of those eighth-graders have already achieved their world language component of the seal of biliteracy. So we were very excited about those good results and the 27% that did not will have opportunities to retake and take classes in Spanish in high school as well. Okay. So new in 25-26, we opened our Forest Hill self-contained dual language program. We're just going to see a brief snippet of Mrs. Alfaro teaching small guided reading groups. Agua. So just a little peek into the kindergarten class and you notice how she is using facial expressions to convey meaning as well and the kindergarteners are getting it. There we go. So planning ahead for high school. Our inaugural cohort for the GIA program will be going to high school in 2027-28. So in preparation for
070that, we've been planning. Students, depending on how they perform on their Spanish language standardized assessment, will either enroll in Spanish three or Spanish four. After students finish Spanish four, they will then be eligible for AP Spanish, AP Spanish language and then also AP Spanish literature. And then of course, they'll also be eligible for the seal of biliteracy as well. So this is what we're working on. This is how our kids have done. What questions could I answer? I have two. Okay. Why the difference in EOG scores? I know we talk about this every single presentation, but why the difference in EOG scores? Right. It dual language has impacts on the brain that are really quite amazing and Thomas and Collier are researchers who've worked in North Carolina for decades and um it's born out time
071and year in year out that dual language students outperform their grade level peers. Thank you. That was the first one. And the second one, are the GIA students EOG scores factored into the school's total? Yes. >> Or are they stand alone? No. Okay. >> Yes, they are factored in. >> Okay. Mhm. >> [clears throat] >> Yes. Yeah. And so there is a potential to see a bump in Forest Hill's numbers as we progress over the years. Test third, fourth and fifth grade. So yes, that that that's the hope. That that is our design and Was that targeted? Pardon me? Was that targeted? Potentially. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Simpson. >> [laughter] >> I appreciate it. Any other questions? All right. Thank you, Lenny. >> [snorts] >> All right. Next we have potential consent agenda items for
072the April 27th meeting which contain the open session minutes from March 23rd, March 30th as well as closed session minutes from March 30th. Are we clear to move this as a consent item for next week? Yes. Sweet. All right. Next we have board amendment budget revision with Mr. Lawson. Hello, Mr. Lawson. Good evening. I appreciate your time. I have three items for your consideration this evening. First being a budget request / revision 10-04-27-26. I hope you've had an opportunity to review the request before beforehand and I'm certainly happy to answer any questions you may have. Hearing none, do we want to add it to the agenda for next week? All right. Thank you. So that will be added. >> Okay. Next item for your consideration, unfortunately, we [clears throat] have lost our long-term partners of
073Lautermilch and Chartiers to conducted our annual external audit. By no fault of theirs, they're they're just short-staffed and unable to continue to do school system audits moving forward. As a result, we put the request for proposal out to bid on March the 3rd. Gave 1 month for responses to be received. They were due on by 3:00 p.m. on April the 3rd. We received two proposals. Our audit committee reviewed those proposals. That committee consisted of myself, Ms. Michelle Myers, our assistant finance officer, Ms. Kim Stewart, our internal auditor and Ms. Ashley Snipes, our purchasing manager. We also checked references and we recommend to you all Anderson, Smith and Wike based on price, experience conducting school system audits and also references checked. How do their bids compare with what we paid this last year? This This was
074$1,050 more than what we [clears throat] were paying currently. So right in line with, you know, inflation factored in over what we had been paying historically. Do you know Do you remember their experience level and how many years they've been doing school systems? >> They they I don't know the number of years, but I can tell you out of 115 school systems in the state, they conduct 93. So they're very experienced at conducting public school audits. They have offices in uh Elon, Huntersville, Rockingham, Gastonia and West End. The Huntersville office will be in charge of our audit. We're asking for this to be put on the agenda for next week. >> Please. I have a couple questions for you, Keith, but I'm sure you don't have that information with you right now, so I will
075probably call you later this week to discuss. But is there any objection to adding this to next week's agenda? All right. It's been added. Thank you. And the last item I have for you tonight is resolution to close the fiscal year. And what this does is this just allows the accounting department, finance department to make necessary adjustments during the months of May and June in order to close out the year to report the year-end results to you, the board. Any questions concerns about adding it for next week? No. Sweet. It's been added. Thank you, Mr. Lawson. Next [clears throat] we have personnel board action report with Mr. Recker. Good evening. Clarification You have none Clarification using number only. We will be discussing 20 further. Question mark. Okay. All right. Are we good to add that
076to next week? All right. It has been added. Thank you, Mr. Recker. All right. We have first readings for 4160 and 6322. So this evening we have the first policy we have is 4160 which the board took a look at not too long ago, but then there were some more revisions. Like Mr. Camp shared some proposals with us. So in your packet you have the the version and you also have some proposed language. Uh we did review this at our leadership meeting this morning. Um I think Dr. Abernathy, Ms. Kirkpatrick, um there's still a little bit of anxiousness uh with the with the revisions um just because there's still potential for some um negative impacts for us as a district. So, Christie, if you want to come forward and answer any questions they might have
077about that. Good evening. Um yeah, I'm here pretty much to answer any questions or entertain any questions that you have about uh the testing and accountability part of that pertains to policy 4160. Do you have concerns about it? So, um it's tricky um because anytime a student enrolls with Burke County Public Schools, um if we do not pull them in um with all of their credits for high school as a full-time Burke County student um because the state recognizes that they're one of our students. The problem is if we don't transfer the credit in they're bringing with them from private, home school, wherever they're coming from, um then it doesn't meet the requirements for that um English one, math one, math three, biology. All of those are part of our accountability um policy for North
078Carolina in meeting those at certain grade levels. You know, we've talked about that in previous meetings where we talked about accountability. Um and then there's cohort graduation rate as well. Um so, cohort graduation starts with the ninth grade entry. So, whatever grade they have the school that they're coming from, that is the year that their ninth grade entry goes in as for accountability. And so, they have 4 years to graduate. The problem is if we don't pull everything into Infinite Campus, like for example, let's say a student has already got their English one, their math one, their biology from a previous year school, if we don't transfer that credit in and mark it as transfer credit in Infinite Campus, it does not show the state that they have met those requirements. And we wouldn't make
079them retake it with our school system. So, unless they come in as a full-time student and we can transfer the credit in, it looks like they have not they have not met the requirements to graduate with all that North Carolina is requiring. Um and that's we went into that we've run into the situation a couple times. We've talked about that um where we have a student comes um is still at private school or still at home school full-time. They will just want to come to us for a couple periods. They don't really want to become a full-time student. Um so, we don't transfer their credits in because they still want to stay full-time at where they are. And so, when we do that, it looks like it's one of our students on paper um but
080we don't have the credits to show that they've met all the requirements. It's kind of where it lies. At what point between their ninth and 12th grade years do we need to have their credits transferred in? So, it's that's what's a little tricky because with each year um definitely by before the senior year. Um you know, there's certain grade levels or certain like ninth grade um there's not too much to report as far as accountability. Not much is pulled. 10th grade year, they pull English two and they pull math one, okay? 11th grade, they pull biology. Senior year, they pull math three from the math rigor part of it. Um look at ACT that was taken as a junior. So, that's another thing if they have that missing, um then that would go against the
081percent tested for that year, that 95% tested um threshold. And then also cohort graduation rate, which means that they are on time to graduate the year that they should. So, things are pulled a little bit differently. Depends on the year. Um you know, we also do WorkKeys is another assessment we do the senior year. Um so, it's really hard for them the later they come, the harder it is. Um that we need more documentation to make sure we have entered in Infinite Campus in order for it not to uh count against one of our schools, one of our high schools. So, the um uh the the the the current policy is they need to be all in by 10th grade. What are the consequences of of of a few students waiting to be all in
082till 11th grade? So, that might affect if they come as a a junior, if we don't have that math and English two to transfer in saying they've had that credit. And there is a code we can put in from a private school or out-of-state school. It's a T code saying that they were not here when they took the credit to take the state assessment. If we can Like I said, if we can transfer the classes in as a full-time student, we're okay cuz we can code it. Um and it won't affect the school. >> You can transfer classes in by their transcript? Yes. But if they're not willing to be a full-time student, that's where it's hard cuz we're not going to pull in credit if they're not going to become one of our full-time
083students. Does that make sense? Sure. Mhm. in that short amount of time. But if they if they transfer in full-time by the beginning or before the beginning of their junior year, we get all their transcripts and get that in there, then it sounds like that should be okay. Then we can code it appropriately to make sure that everything yes, is transferred in. If we can transfer them in as a full-time student and they still have time to take biology. Biology is pulled the junior year, so that one's tricky as well. So, we've got to be sure that they can still get biology in in order to meet the requirements and ACT. ACT is the junior year. Even though it counts the senior year, they take it the junior year. And they have to be identified
084as a junior for North Carolina to be able to for us to test them in ACT. So, November 3rd, 25, we all agreed unanimously for this policy that we currently have. Have we talked about changing the policy again until tonight to this? >> Mr. Camp had brought some recommendations 2 months ago, I believe, 3 months ago, Mr. Camp. >> months ago. I guess part of the >> some teachers contact us. Huh? So, we've had some parents contact us. >> Yes. Of uh Well, and >> students. you sit down with parents over this and we only had one We had one appeal. one family that appealed that said, "No, I don't like it." Um That's why we brought it for discussion tonight. >> guys. Th- This is this Well, this is just my opinion. If we
085only have one family out of everybody that we have, there's no reason to change policy for one family. And this family has made their decision what they're going to do. We had we did have people that were upset about it. They're not upset about it anymore. I just don't want to kick the hornet's nest and get them stirred up again when I've had another family contact me. Huh? I've had another family contact me. It wasn't just the one. about about the possibility of coming in as a as a junior. And and unfortunately right now, it's high-stakes testing and when high schools are graded on certain things, graduation rates, ACT proficiency, EOC test scores, all of that is factored in. And the two things of your high schools and your schools are athletics and testing. And
086that's what the principals we judge our principals, the state judges the principals on that as well. So, that's kind of why we developed that policy in 25. >> Right. And we changed it because it was affecting our Correct. Correct. Correct. I just think that if we have two families in the entire county that can't accept the policy, we don't change the policy just to Um Dr. Abernathy, were you Was the policy prior to this suggested change um satisfactory? The one that we passed >> in November? Yes, that one kind of falls within all the guidance we need as far as when we need them to come in, when we can take the transfer credit and to make sure that everything's worked out um so that it does any there's not a school that takes a
087hit. So, just just to say it out loud, I think um I think that that our parents, our stakeholders or potential stakeholders for these um potential students who have a desire to transfer into the public school system part-time or otherwise to take advantage of not take advantage of, but to participate in extracurricular activities, um I think that it's not asking too much for us to require them to understand how how this works and it's not just a I can, I can't. There are there are I don't really know what I'm trying to say, but there are consequences for the school system if we aren't very very careful with these types of of things. We we suffer the consequences of not being able to not reflecting the job that we are actually doing as a school
088system because we have these phantom students if you will. Is Am I explaining that right? Am I saying that correctly? And I feel like um I feel like those those families, those I don't what is our Give me a number. Is it 10 to 20 a year? Is it two to seven? Is it less than Yeah. It's under 10. Okay. So so I feel like I I'd agree with Mr. Beck a little bit on saying I mean, we're trying to reinvent the wheel here. And and I don't I don't think that that's necessary. Um unfortunately we all make choices and we have to make the choices that are our best for what we need, what our lifestyles are, what we want our children to have, or whatever. And so this is just another of those
089choices that in my opinion needs to be made. And I tend to agree with Mr. Beck that we don't necessarily need to change a policy to something that we are unsure about. Um unless it's it's really really necessary. And this doesn't this doesn't personally doesn't feel necessary to me. Did the second family Mr. Kemp's talking about contact y'all? I know Miss Utley has principal freedom has worked with other families that have contacted her that were duly enrolled and they've been able to accommodate their schedules. Yeah. Well, and that's what I was going to say is I've seen Dr. [clears throat] Auten with the families that come to her that had a problem. She done everything that she could do within our policy to accommodate them. They all they all reached an agreement or whatever. Um
090so I would suggest this family contact Dr. Auten and have her work within the policy that we have. She done a pretty good job with the rest of them. I understand that if there is an actual consequence to enrolling um in August of their junior year, but if a family chooses to to instead of rolling their 10th grade August of 10th grade year, if they choose to enroll after August of their enroll in August of their 11th grade year with a transcript evaluation that ensures that they successfully completed math one, biology, and English two by August of their junior year, is there a real consequence? The other thing we've got to keep in mind um and you know, and I feel like when we thought through this initially is we have certain data collections with
091the state of North Carolina. So there's a big data collection that happens in the first 10 days of school of every year that pulls data in. It's so the way that North Carolina works for accountability is they're not pulling data every single day. They have these data collection dates where they're set and they pull data to be able to utilize for some of the accountability measures. Um so I feel like I get a little nervous like in saying no, there would not be any consequences because everything would have to be transferred and perfect on the transcript. I feel like bad day 10 of fall semester. And I know that's really hard. I've been in a high school before um and I know how busy it is and getting them in and getting all the credits
092put in by hand because it's not like um it's really always easy cuz their classes don't line up to our classes a lot of times. I just know from personal experience. I mean, some transcripts I have spent hours on trying to reach out to the parent to say, "Okay, can you tell me what was covered in this course? Can you provide um what so that we can make sure that we give the right credit too cuz we never want to hurt a child when they're transferring to us from a even a private or out-of-state school. Um I've worked with out-of-the-country schools before in trying to make sure we're lining up our courses to meet the graduation requirements while also helping the child get what they need cuz we don't want to not give them the
093credit they deserve. And there's a lot of work that goes into it um on that side. It's not just as simple as saying, "Okay, um this here's English one, math one, math two." It would be fabulous if every single course lined up perfectly from private to home school to out-of-state um but because there's not a set curriculum we a lot of time spend a lot of time trying to evaluate that. But it's a real legitimate concern that handful of students is they may not be able to get that done in time. Yes, sir. But with the old policy that alleviates all that with the old policy, correct? Yes, because it does give us some leeway in time in being able to make sure those credits that are needed like the math math one cuz usually
094that's taken the ninth grade year and then English two usually is the 10th grade year. So English two and then they have time to get biology in by the end of the 11th grade year at the high school if they're already there. And I can get that. I mean working in higher ed, I've I've seen a lot of home school transcripts and they can be sketchy. I mean, you could have 11 years of Bible study and that's it. You just have Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and it's just that's it. That's all you're getting and you don't know what that is as far as English one, math one if it was covered. >> [clears throat] >> And hearing from those parents, I mean, they are valid. You know, they are constituents, they're taxpayers, they elected us, all
095of that. That's that's valid. I hear their concerns, but at the end of the day our interest is in what's best for the district. Um and sometimes that's just going to be unpopular. You know, it hurts, but we have to protect our graduation rates, our individual schools, and ensure that there's longevity long after we're gone. So I liked our old policy personally. Um I think it was pretty clean, pretty to the point. It was easy to understand. Now there's a difference between not understanding and just disagreeing. And based on what I've heard, it's just you disagree. It's not that you don't understand. Um so I I am personally for leaving it the same way. I agree. Thank you. I like your attitude, Brett. Thank you. He said I will survive. >> [laughter] >> So I
096will not bring this for a second reading. All right. Um the final policy you have is 6322. This kind of came up with our um uh in discussion with our policy revision committee and also um Mr. Wall and his team had some concerns about this policy. So we wanted to address some of the issues um in the policy and make it a little more clear. I'll be happy to answering questions you have. I kind of got one for some clarification. So students on transfer are not eligible for transportation. When we say that, that means like transferred from outside the district or what how what do we mean? That could be student that resides in East Burke High School district going to Draughn High School. We're not going to provide transportation to for them. That's what
097that means. >> Okay. Um let me ask this scenario cuz we had one of those instances I think at the first year where I think it was elementary and um the student transferred to Drexel. And uh that student the family, there's cousins that that are at Drexel as well. And then they all were, you know, riding the bus in the afternoon to the grandmother's house. Now for the one student that transferred to Drexel, that wasn't necessarily their direct guardian, but it was the grandparents' house that he was getting off with with the cousins. Is that something that still would be permissible under this policy? >> Historically, if we're already making a stop, correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Wall, but if we're already going down that road and making a stop there and and we
098have them on the bus, we we allow that. But there have been situations where we're we're not going down that road and we have had to deny some transportation. >> Yeah, for example, we had one beginning of the year that um out-of-district transfer wanted us to pick up at a workplace that we had no other stops on that road. Had we had multiple stops on that road, no issue, but for us to run a a bus X amount of miles and pay X amount of dollars to pick up an out-of-district student, that's where we've got to be um fiscally responsible. Yeah, and I appreciate all the detail looking into certain cases. I know we you know, we've sent parent calls that way for you and you're like, "Wait a minute. Now what can we do
099to help them make it work?" But yet, you know, stay within policy and make sure we you know, do what we can for them. One thing that was struck that I don't see where anywhere else it was mentioned was when number two, when students are medically certified as temporarily incapacitated. So if you look at the first paragraph um in discussion with Mr. Wall, we felt like there were so many different situations. We included any student may be deemed eligible for transportation by the superintendent instead of listing the criteria as to why. We just kind of left it a little more open-ended because there are certain situations like Miss Taylor brought up. Um so we didn't feel like we needed to delineate that since we kind of opened it up to all. Did we want to
100move this to a second reading? I'm good with that. All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you. And if I heard you correctly, we do have a need for closed session. That is correct. All right. So I make a motion pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes subsection I did not say pursuant 143-318.11A1 and 6 for the purpose of considering confidential personnel matters in accordance with North Carolina General Statute subsection 115C-319-321 and A3 to discuss matters covered by the attorney-client privilege. Second. Seconded by Mr. Johnson. Yes, that should be amended to give the name of the parties of the lawsuit that's going to be discussed. Uh Dovid versus Burke As amended, do I have a second? Second. >> Seconded by Mr. Johnson. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I, those opposed nay. Eyes have
101it, we are now in closed session. Thank you everyone.