001Howdy. >> Howdy. >> Oh, we can do better than that. >> Howdy. >> Welcome to the Monday, October 27th, 2025 board of education work session. We're going to go ahead and call this meeting to order. Being that all members are seated, we have determined that there is a quorum. Board members, if we can take a look at the agenda and determine if we would like to move forward with approval or if there's any adjustments or additions. Motion to approve by Mr. Beck. We have a second by Mr. Johnson. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Those opposed, nay. Eyes have it. The agenda is approved. We have superintendent updates with Dr. Thank you, Sheriff and Deputy Woff. Thank you guys. Uh uh thank you guys for uh giving
002us the opportunity to step outside of our normal dress for tonight. Uh and we will be visiting some schools this week. Um some elevator schools and and passing out some candy. So I sent the schedule to you guys today. If you have the opportunity, please join us. We'd love to see you guys there. Uh that goes for our leadership folks as well. We'd love for you guys to continue to address if time permits to join us on those visits as well. U [clears throat] want to update you on the central office as you will see later on on the agenda. Uh there will be an intent to award for our new central office the contractor. Um we had several bids. We had 11 folks that with the intent to bid we had four bids um
003come in. [clears throat] So we opened those last week went through the the discussion. So I'll we'll go over that later on in the process. We're really excited with the central office moving forward. Hopefully by this time next year we'll be in October one is our our goal. [clears throat] Also want to highlight we have a new exceptional children's parent advisory council that Miss Prell just started this year. Uh and we've got several uh interested participants that uh don't even have students within Burke County Public Schools wanting to join that group. So, we're very happy and pleased to get a voice for our exceptional children's um parents as well in that group. Um, North Liberty hosted a family connect night for a century friendly trick-or-treating event last week. Uh, they'll be doing an event this
004week as well. I believe it's Friday. We're trying to get um a time nailed down on Friday for that event. Mel, do you know that time on Friday? >> 2:15. Okay. So, 2:15. Mark your calendars. if you can meet us at North Liberty for another great event with North Liberty. Also, we had Superintendent Mo Green visit um Mountain View Elementary last week and then we did the uh Mo wants to know um one of his last stops. I will say um he was very impressed with Park County, what we had to offer. Also was very pleased with our turnout that we had almost doubling the numbers that he's had across the state. So we heard very good feedback from what we have going on B County public schools. So and just it's always a highlight
005to show outside folks on what great things that we're doing in B County schools. Also right here Western Pont Community College. Um Miss Acres here. Um this this picture was actually supposed to go out last Thursday when uh during the event and of course it wouldn't go through at Pat High School. So it I think Miss Acre when did it finally hit? >> Yesterday. today. It finally finally made it to her. So, um I'm gonna have Miss Akard kind of tell us who our special guests are right now. Thank you for having us. You'll see um a group of Western Pedmont students here. These are students in our teacher prep program. Some of them want to be uh elementary, some want to be middle school, high school students. And um they're in a course that
006um is entitled teaching and learning for all. Some of them are on in the program the associate of arts for teacher prep. Some of them are in the associate of science for teacher prep. Um we have traditional Western Pedmont students. We have Burke Middle students. We have CCP students. We're really proud of the work that they've done and we appreciate the partnership with Burke County Schools. Each of these students have been placed in a classroom in Burke County for um observation hours and we we really try to place them with master teasers and um by the end of the semester they'll have 48 observation hours within Burke County Schools. So we appreciate the partnership and Susan Smith teaches one of the sections um at one an earlier sess session and then I teach an evening
007section. Thank you schools last year two years ago right two years ago. Uh we keep trying to get her to come back part-time but she's got her hands tied up with other things. So thank you guys for being here uh with us. Uh and one of the things on I believe it was pillar number two on the the county or the state strategic plan was rever public educators uh and grow your own. So I think we're doing a great job of doing that our partnership with Western Pemont Community College. So thank you all for being here. [applause] Also once again our new elementary school design committee. Uh so once again we we approved the edifice contract. We had our first preconstruction meeting last week with Mr. Wyoff and several other members of our leadership team,
008myself, Dr. Dr. Wilson, Miss Shuffler, Dr. Akard, and a few of his maintenance folks. So, we'll be meeting every two weeks um to discuss the progress of the new elementary school. Once again, we'll continue to update the board with um important items as we go forward with that as well. you'll hear later. Um, we Burke County Public School received a $468,000 cops safety grant. Um, and that that came at a perfect time as you saw what we rolled out last Friday. Um, [clears throat] our high schools and our middle schools, we're we're doing the clear bag policy or I'm sorry, procedure right now going into the ball games. Dr. Sain, Mr. Johnson and a couple other members of the system will be going down to Hickory High School to review some software that they have
009some body scanners that you don't necessarily have to wand anymore. You can just walk right through them and it'll pick up similar to what they have at the TSA sites in the airport. So, that grant helped us get wand detectors and clear the clear bags that we have right now were donated from UNC Blue Ridge. So, once again, that strong partnership that we have with UNC Blue Ridge um and families were very receptive to those bags. Last Friday night we had 300 Friday night football games. So, uh, a lot of people were there. They were grabbing grabbing them up quickly. How many bags did we get? >> Um, 500, I believe. Yeah. Several. So, so what they, um, Coach Rogers and Dr. Sain went around to the high schools and middle schools and passed out
010bags for the um, we also had reality of money last Friday hosted at East High School. Um it was a great opportunity for our students to basically they walk through and they get uh a sheet and it tells them what their monthly salary is. Um and then they have to walk around talk to community members and those community members will say, "Okay, you have a dental bill every month of $60 or $100 or you hit a credit card bill. Uh you've borrowed $4,000 and you have to pay it back within a certain amount of years." So that reality of money teaches our students on what exactly we're facing as adults. Um and we it it's it affects everyone right now. So there were several students that I engaged with um some of them didn't even
011know what it meant to borrow money. What does it mean to own a credit card? So it's a great opportunity. We do it two times a year. We'll do it again at Drone High School in the spring. Um doc Mr. Rogers will send that that date out. Miss Pam will send that as well. Um, so once again, it's an all day event. So if you can come for 30 minutes or an hour and walk around, it's a great opportunity to showcase what our students are doing. [clears throat] Also, um, in conjunction with the city of Morington, we had a our maid competition. Um, our high school and our middle schools participated along with school of science and math. Um, we had several top winners. Uh, and it was hosted at um, the Morgon Rec Center.
012It was a a dayong event where those students get that they have to build a robot on site. They get a a plan. They have to basically show up, create a plan, make that robot work, uh and then they have a certain amount of time to complete a task. So, it's a great opportunity once again for the STEM, science, technology, engineering, and math. Uh all that combination and uh this just dropped today actually. I listened to podcast that we did uh with um out of um scrolling to death. We Miss Tiana was reached out um about a month ago. Um we've gotten a lot of good traction on our balance instruction. So we did a it was about a 30 minute podcast um and just about how we can maintain that balance of instruction within
013a setting. So I will send have Miss Shuffler send that out to you guys. We'll post it. So, it's it's a great listen. Um, turned out very well. Couldn't be prouder of it. We're getting a lot of positive traction across the country with this as well. So, um, and and we're not doing it for that, as you know. We're doing it for our students here in B County. And I think that's that's the special piece. Also, meal um the the meal mobile serving breakfast. Um, this picture was taken at Mountain View Elementary School this morning. Um, our our food truck is going out into the schools giving out breakfast. Uh, and I dare say there's three young ladies right there that typically probably don't eat breakfast. Um, one of them is my own in the
014middle. Um, so she eats breakfast. Um, if it's something new and different. So, um, I've got to see her when I go home tonight to to ask her how the breakfast was. So, she has a direct line to Mr. Wall, so she'll tell him absolutely whether it was good or bad. So, looking forward to hearing that. Um, also want to congratulate our drawn high school volleyball team. Uh they are made it to the final four. So they're in the fourth round of the state playoffs and that will be t when fifth round fifth round Tuesday. Um Dr. where are they playing? Pine Lake Prep in it's in the Morville area I believe. So uh we want to wish our girls the best of luck on uh Tuesday. So and those are my highlights. >> Awesome.
015Thank you. Does anyone have any questions for Dr. Swan? All right, hearing none. Thank you, Dr. Swan. Moving on, we have the school improvement plan with Dr. Wilson. Okay, I want to go over a little bit with you just what the school improvement planning process looks like. Um, as we go through these next few slides, what you're going to see is this is what we call a continuous cycle of improvement where we start with each school. Every school has their own school improvement team. That team is elected members of the staff. Uh there are certified members of the staff, teachers, there are classified members of the staff, TAs, office staff, support staff, administration as well as parental representation. So all of those are members of the school improvement. They meet once a month and their
016job is to analy what that process looks like. a little bit in July or early opportunity for them to meet whenever they will look at performance data data data then in August and September when we receive additional data we complete the needs assessment and that's whenever goals or action steps may be decided upon and then in October November they submit the plan to directors for feedback and just to clarify feedback does not mean this looks right or this doesn't look right it's more about have you thought about check out this date or more of that feedback the true work is actually happening during their leadership team we're just the paper, not necessarily the process of what they're doing. And then in January and February, any of our low performing schools will receive direct feedback from
017NCDPI. And then January throughout the rest of the school year, the goals are monitored again on a monthly basis and then adjustments are made as needed with those action steps. >> So, as Miss Kpatrick shared with you, that needs assessment is completed by the school staff. So, they do an assessment about where are we strong, where are we weak. And one of the things that you'll see uh is that as they look at each of the the goals, they're going to list that goal as um limited development, partially developed, and then fully developed. And if it's fully developed, then that goal is retired or archived, and then they put a new goal on. Uh the goal is to have uh somewhere three to five goals. We don't want there to be so many that they
018can't really pay attention to them. Uh but we also want enough goals that it can actually move the needle in terms of student progress. So, what you're looking at on this slide here is going to be what the that improvement process looks like. Um, just going throughout the year, the first one, two, and three steps right there show analyzing the data. Uh, Mr. Kpatrick shared with you, we look at attendance data. We look at uh student subgroups. Are we missing it with a certain group of kids? We look at uh how are our EC students performing? How are our EEL students performing? um which teachers are really making good gains. Uh then we prioritize those needs. Our second step is setting the goals and determining how uh what it's going to look like when it's
019fully met. So they actually have to write that down. If our goal is to improve this particular subgroup when this goal is fully met, what should it look like? Uh and so we want we tell them to write smart goals. They have to be measurable, attainable, and they have to be within a certain time frame. for four through seven. That's the the monitoring process. They're going to assess where they're at right now. They're going to determine, do they need additional professional development? Do their teachers need support and instruction? Um, every schools may look a little different. We've got a different number of BTS uh at school A than we may from school B. We may have a lot of veteran staff at one particular school and they may not need that same uh professional development.
020So, that school actually makes that determination and they set their goals for the year. Um, five is that action plan. That's going to be what are they actually doing each month? So, what steps are they taking? Is it PD? Is it adjusting the small groups of students that are being worked with? Uh, is it changing the way they use the curriculum? Step six is going to be implementing that action plan. So, that's rolling it out. And probably the most important one, which is what makes it a continuous process, is monitoring it. So, every month, as Mr. Patrick said that school improvement team should be talking about how are we doing with this? Are we making gains and it's completely acceptable for a school uh staff or that improvement team to say hey we have mastered
021that we we've fully met that objective let's incorporate a new one and so they can actually make that change during the school year. >> Can I ask a question what it looked like? >> I'm sorry. I was just going to ask when you get into that seventh step where you're monitoring outcomes and making adjustments um do do you at that point go back and say okay we didn't quite we didn't quite meet this or we didn't what we decided is not really what we want what it's not giving us the outcome we want% >> and you just kind of go back to the drawing board with that >> so we ask them to this this plan should be fluid you know they should adapt it throughout the year so if if they rolled out a
022PD in October that's supposed to help close the gap with our English learners. Um, and then we take our our second check-in, which is typically December to January, and they sit down and look at the data and say, "Did we close the gap? Did that PD that we rolled out in October make a difference?" And if they say, "Our kids are performing the same as they did before, then do we need to do more PD, different PD? Maybe we need to have a different approach to it." Um, and sometimes they'll call us, uh, if it's one of the focus schools. Last meeting we had uh somebody asked how exactly do you support them? Those quarterly meetings we that we have with them, we look over the data with them. The school improvement plan uh does
023not have a step built into it for them to sit down with the director on a quarterly basis, but that's an extra step we put in place so we can say, "Hey, where does your leadership team feel like you're falling?" And so we're kind of guiding that reflection and and making sure that it happens from a state level. The plan is submitted once in November. Um, and then the school is trusted to do what they're supposed to do moving forward. At the local level, especially for our focus schools, we keep saying every few months, where are you at? Where are your students performing? So, we'll look at their assessment data. We'll look at their check-in data. Um, and it helps us because they have determined what these goals are. We didn't set the goals. Their
024leadership team set the goals. Um, and so we can say, are you making gains towards those goals? >> Thank you. Sorry. Again, just to sort of recap what a monthly team monitoring look like and again they meet every month. They usually have a very standing date they decide on. They look at indicators. So there are over 100 indicators in the end program. There are also 12 key indicators. However, we do not um encourage our teams to have too many indicators because if we have so many, how can we narrow down and really focus? So, whenever you look at our school plans, you'll notice that there there's not like a ton. There's some very select few focus that our school leadership teams have identified that they want to focus on. And then again, looking at the
025action steps, are we completing our action steps? You'll see some dates over on the side. we want to have this action step completed by this date. So at the next meeting they want to make they'll come back around and say did we complete that action step as we decided we were going to. And then again it's also about showing what we're doing. So their documentation that goes into the star which is a platform that is utilized and we're also um continuing to monitor what are our goals and our performance meas measures. What does that look like on a monthly basis? Additional tasks also include we look at when an indicator is in full implementation. That means that all of the action steps have been met to fulfill the goal. We usually try to keep even
026whenever it's at full implementation, we keep that on our plan for the next full year. It's a reminder to our teams, to our schools about what that looks like and how we were able to fulfill that goal. And then of course maintaining artifact and then updating our data point on a regular basis. Okay. So, the [clears throat] school improvement plans for each of our schools has been placed in your board packet. Um, there's a whole lot there with 25 schools and all their plans. Uh, but we're happy to entertain questions about those. Um, if you don't have questions, then our request is that you would put that on the consent agenda for next week's meeting. Um, if you all approve those, then we can go back to the schools and they can submit their plan
027to the state. Does anybody have any questions or comments? Are we good to move that to the November 3rd meeting? Yep. All right. Thank you. All right. Now, we have federal title grant funding plans, title one with Dr. Brett Wilson. >> Got me again. >> Okay. [clears throat] Title one. Um, this will be titles one through four. We submit one single application uh to the state. Um but we've got different people who are responsible for the different titles. So title one, the purpose of this is to provide financial assistance to eleas and schools uh with high numbers and percentages of lowincome uh students to help ensure that all students are able to meet the challenging state academic standards. Every one of our elementary schools qualifies for title one and does participate. the focus uh of
028title one our we have set aides that we have to put um aside for funding out of those I'll list each of those there for you uh administration cost is 12% parental involvement is 1% uh children that meet the federal definition of homelessness we have an amount that's set aside for them children in foster care we also have money that goes directly to South Mountain children and family services uh private schools that have students that live within our district who uh qualify for for introduced lunch. We share money with them. They have to use that for tutoring services. Um and then district initiatives, things like um our dual language program um and our GF program are supported through title one. Okay, small writing here. Uh but the rest of the budget is divided between all
029the eligible schools. So the remaining funds are divided between the 14 schools. That money is divided based on the number of students that qualify. And so each school has a per pupil a allotment. So the larger the school with qualifying numbers, the more money that is given to that school. Uh each principal uh meets several times throughout the school year with district staff to discuss the needs of the school. Uh and these are some of the things that the schools use their funding for. Uh every elementary school uses funds for a reading specialist. Uh so when you hear a title one teacher or reading specialist, that position is fully funded through title one. Some elementary schools use the funds uh for a math interventionist. Um again, that gets back to when that leadership team and
030improvement team meet and say, "Where are we weak?" That can be something they choose to use funds for. Some elementary schools use the funds for additional K5 teachers to help prevent excessive numbers of fourth and fifth grade students. Uh the state does not have a cap uh in fourth and fifth grade, although we realize that you can get unreasonable with numbers. So, some schools will actually use funds to reduce those class sizes. Some elementary schools will use the funds for additional K3 teachers in order to avoid combination classes. All elementary schools are onetoone with devices and so funds from title one go to help cover Chromebooks. Some title one funding is also used for curriculum support materials and professional development. [clears throat] Those are considered allowable expenses. Federal handbook tells us what money can be
031spent for. Um, title one dollars cover instructional coaches. So, when you see questions about how instructional coaches are funded, uh, in elementary, uh, this year, every elementary, uh, instructional coach is serving multiple schools. And so, if I've got somebody split between two schools, those two schools will cover 50% of that coach's salary. Um, and then parent and family educators. We've got some schools with high e needs, uh, and a lot of, uh, support that's needed there. So they may choose to fund parent educators. It's really small there, but that gives you a picture of actually what our exact aotment looks like this year. You can see what the total aotment from um Title One is. It's $4.6 million. You can see that we we start off setting aside $8,200, which is for the six students
032that qualify from our private schools, which leaves us a $4.61 61 million uh aotment for LEA usage. So you can see the set aides. I mentioned those a little bit earlier. There's a total set aside of $883,000 and then we've got the remainder of $3.7 million and that's what's divided among the elementary schools. Okay, this next slide here, it's it's too small for you to see there. Hopefully it's a little easier to see on your screen. This is the amount of money. It's 1% of our total funding that is used for parental involvement funds. And so schools use this uh to fund things like their curriculum nights when they do their read across America nights. Uh sometimes they'll provide a snack for uh parents that come in. Sometimes they'll hand a book to every kid
033that comes and attends. Uh but that's the amount that's given to them just for family engagement funds. Um that amount is used every year. They can even use it to buy planners. Uh some of our schools still use uh physical planners to home with homework assignments and communications. They can use that for those funds. Any questions about Title One? It's our largest federal funding program that's not through EC. Um, our schools are grateful for it. Um, but you can see it's used in a lot of different ways. >> Any questions about title one? >> Thank you, Dr. Wilson. >> All right, we have title two with Mrs. Kpatrick. >> Good evening again. Thank you for letting me have the opportunity to share about title two. So the title two application looks a little different than
034title one. Um first of all our funding is definitely a lot less than title one. But title two, the focus of title two is to increase student achievement and student growth by providing support for beginning teachers and providing professional development to teachers, principles, and other school leaders. And this is um certainly important for for all of our students for that direct impact. We utilize these funds to pay for our secondary instructional coaches who provide direct professional development or coaching on a daily basis. They are also supporting beginning teachers on a daily, sometimes weekly basis depending on what year the beginning teacher may be in. We also utilize this funding for the Northwest Resa professional development opportunities and that is for all of our staff. It may be teachers, it may be principal, it can also
035be for other district leaders. We also actually provide a proportionate share for our private schools. And then also the COGIA accreditation for our high schools, which is a required process every five years. Just to give you a little bit of a glimpse of what accredit accreditation looks like. By the end, you will have about a three ring binder full of documents of reflection, data, and artifacts that our high school um each one of our high schools will be collecting and they'll be sharing that digitally. So, that is also something that we pay for. >> Miss Kurpatre, is that a a state requirement or a federal requirement? >> Neither. Uh it's it just it allows opportunities for colleges uh to see our kids easier. Um, I don't believe we're required to do the accreditation. I would
036say 115 eleas are accredited through Cogna. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> And for our grant this year, we have 525,000 and some change and again 88% of that will go directly towards salaries and benefits. We have, of course, the proportionate share and from travel. and then the accreditation and the northwest professional development. Are there any questions about title two? >> They said the biggest part of the budget is for salaries and benefits. Is that for instructional coaches? >> Any other questions? >> Thank you, Mrs. Kurpatre. And I think we have Dr. Wilson for title three. Okay, for title three, the purpose of title three is to support language acquisition um and largely goes to support our e students and their families. So twofold twofold purpose is to develop English learners English language
037proficiency and to help English learners meet challenging state academic standards. So that's our purpose of title three. In this next slide, you'll see that title three, how does it fit into the all the funding for our English learners. The very basic of services is what in this slide you're going to see is the cake. The cake is going to be uh what we provide for every student and um every student that enrolls with us is provided by state funding. Next, we have our icing. The icing is going to be the supplemental services that are provided by title three. supplemental services may be where those students that uh are learning English as a second language are pulled from class uh and they get extra help working with uh the basics of vocabulary. Then our sprinkles in
038this analogy is going to be supplemental services provided by title 3 uh if BCPS has a significant increase in immigrant students. Uh you all know that every student that enrolls with us we we take them in, we find a place for them. um students have different needs when they come to our door. So, we've have to figure out ways to meet those needs. And so, this is where Title 3 comes in to help a little bit uh for our students that um are English learners. Next slide is going to show us the total funds and you can see a pretty big difference in terms of how much funding comes in for Title 3. Um this past year for 2425, we received $156,000 uh for title three services. You see the breakdown of where those funds
039are going. Again, vast majority is going to to salaries and benefits. 69% of that goes to salaries. Uh you see that 16% goes to instructional supplies. A small portion, 5% goes to professional development. 4% goes to technology, which can be hardware or software. 4% goes to field trips and snack for extended days. And then 2% for indirect cost. A few of the salaries that you see there is there's a lead teacher for title three. Um there is a bilingual newcomer teacher and then we have extended day teachers. That extended day teacher just to give you a picture uh during summer school this past year when we had uh kind of summer reading camp. We also did a program that lasted three weeks for newcomers uh just to have a little extra time acquiring English language.
040Any questions about title three that I might be able to answer? >> I do. Um, what total population do we have that is e in the school district? >> K12, I'd say 17%. >> That sound about right? >> 17 to 20. >> Yeah, 17 to 20% or total populations. >> And the title three funds are applicable to both elementary and secondary ed. >> Correct. And then when we run out of title three funding, is that coming out of local funds? >> That is correct. So title three is one of the funding that is on possibly we're Keith on the spot that we discussed at our budget meetings. How much was that out of our total budget? So this that would potentially have to come out of local to cover. >> I am going and I'm
041trying to rectify this in my mind. So we received for 156,000 in federal title three dollars. Now, I know 156,000 isn't going to cover all of what we need across the district. So, would I be able to get with Mr. Lawson to find out how much of local is we're using to supplement what's not covered by this? >> Yeah. State and local supports. >> State and local. Do we know how much state provides? >> I'm sorry. I know this is probably a good topic. >> So that's what Miss Simpson will be doing. She'll be manipulating some of her salaries into state. Okay. >> Out of local or if we lose some of the federal then >> how much? >> 4.3 million. A 1.3 million. >> 1.3. Okay. Got it. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
042>> Quick question. The EL students that we that come here in the summer school that you're talking about, [snorts] what is the percentage of those kids that participate? Um, we really >> I I'll give you a rough rough estimate. >> We aimed at K2 students and we picked out I believe it was about 35 to 40 kids that we just did at Mountain View. We only had one teacher that was working with this group of students. Um, and we provided transportation for those. We aimed at a location that could get a few kids from Hillrest, a few kids from Forest Hill, kids from Mountain. Those kids often times our eels have summer slide. In other words, when they leave us in end of May, uh they don't hear a lot of English language come back
043to us in August. And so we can we can make some great gains during the school year when there's regression that happens during the summer. And so by having those few more weeks, they were exposed a little bit more uh and they got a little more attention. And so that was the purpose for offering And the earlier we can get our newcomers, as Dr. Wilson said, we get them in first, second grade, and continue them throughout. They can be designated no longer LEA um limit or ELLL, I'm sorry. Uh and and >> they're assessed every year. Um and they can place out of EL services. Of course, that's our goal. Our goal is to get them to a place where they don't need the additional support where they can they can read English proficiency. So,
044so you said it was around 45 students this past and what percentage of the 45 that you offered it to um attended? Did they all attend? >> I I believe Dr. Simpson and her team were the ones that that secured these students, but I believe they had conversations specifically with those families and invited people that they knew were going to attend. So, I believe out of the ones they targeted, you know, they I think they had almost 100% participation for the families that they reached out to. And often times I met with a high school teacher today. We do get students and juniors and seniors that are newcomers. Um and so the chance of them learning and acquiring the language in that short time is not going to happen. So they continue the services there
045but it's difficult for the language to articulate. So I say that we also have I'm sorry we have parent and family educators is part of that position slashprogram working with families who are primarily Spanish speaking or a different language speaking and helping them to help the student get per or maintain that learning. >> It it is um the parent educators that position goes further than just the educational piece. They also help navigate life sometimes. Uh making sure they're connected with >> other community support, medical support, >> things like that. Um elementary, we've got three, sorry, we got two full-time parent educators. Um and we've got >> one one at Freedom and one at >> Mountain View. >> Yeah. >> Um and so they're kind of on four total and they're kind of on call for
046the other schools. Yeah. Okay. So, we got one full time Mountain View, one full time at Hillrest, but when other schools need that support, they'll make a phone call. >> Any other questions? Thank you. All right. Next, we have title four with Dr. Sain. >> All righty. Title four is basically supporting students uh well education and um there's certain criteria we must meet. Of course 20% has to go to student support and academic enrichment um for well-round education and then for other 20% is about healthy students um and also supporting technology as well. And so everything we do with title four is all about students and their support and education and the total school picture not just academics or athletics or mental health it's the whole system here. So the focus of the title four
047funds uh help cover gaggle and go guardian. Those are our web monitoring systems. And so we kind of think of that as mental health support and also school safety because when those reports do come through um our school counselor, social workers, administrators pick up on those able to find out what's going on, offer support. Again, those monitor Google suite and also web monitoring with the gaggle and also with Google and uh so title four helps purchase those license. Uh next uh little change up this year we're able to to cover one school social worker position that is new this year to title four. Also um the salary of a school resource officer and also at pays for six and a half unarmed Delta security guards. Those are at the four traditional high schools. Also the
048salary of the director of nursing is covered as well. That's justified by support of safe and healthy in school environment. Then also title four helps support Chromebooks um hotspots to keep us up to date and replace um as needed to help with the burden of those costs. Here you see our total title four aotment of course divy and safe students also indirect costs again we must offer those to the private schools in the area. Then we had pre three private schools that claimed funds um from title four. The next page is a funding breakdown showing you um the monies for each separate location there safety health and then world around education. This was less money than last year from uh the state. This is based on um a total enrollment of 11,773. The private school
049numbers were 153 students and um that's where title four is being spent this year. Any questions? >> Dr. Sang, when we say the like well-rounded, are we talking about programs in our schools like our arts and our um I guess our bands and things like that? >> So, this is more about um like character development. Uh so title four in the past did cover the license for character strong and second step but thankfully those are carried over from last year. We didn't have to pay for them again this year and so um that would typically cover more of character ed. >> Okay >> Miss Taylor that that can be used different districts don't have a a road map on they don't tell you how you have to spend the funds. Uh some districts do use
050it for um arts, fine arts, music, band, um chorus, art, things like that. It all depends on >> foreign language too. >> Um >> Possibly. Um I've had conversation when I was in that role with other directors and how they were spending their money. >> We could always make changes for next year and look at adding in a few pieces for different areas like that. >> Dr. saying you and your team held a I believe it was a digital literacy um >> presentation >> cyber security. >> Yes. So would that fit in this title 4 funding as what they're talking about as far as um digital literacy and safety? >> Yeah. Everything we discussed at those meetings is basically we covered everything we do as a school system. Um talk about see something say something.
051We talked about these go guardian and gaggles and everything we do technology-wise to protect students. We also invited SRO's talk about how to keep their kids safe at home on the internet >> and um so overall it could help support that as well. >> I really enjoyed that. I learned a lot. >> We can do it again. >> Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. All right. Next on the agenda, we have the retesting plan with Dr. Abernathy. Oh, question. As Dr. Abernathy is coming up, are we good with adding this to our November 3rd agenda? >> All right. Very well. Thank you. Hi, Dr. Abernathy. >> Good evening, Madame Chair and board. Thank you so much for this opportunity um to talk just a little bit about our retest plan for 2526.
052So several weeks ago, um we received information from the state that um they had approved for us to be able to give retest this year during our test session window or we could offer a summer program. The difference is um if we give it within our testing window which is the last five days for the high school courses and the last 10 days for our EOGS middle school and elementary then we are able to count the retest proficiency and growth into our [clears throat] data for this school year. If we decided to give a summer give it in a summer program we could retest students but we would only be able to count proficiency. So we are proposing um we've come up with a schedule um to give the retest some remediation after we give
053the regular EOGS and EOCC's for fall and spring for the high school. Uh we are proposing that we remediate and retest within that window so that both can be counted in our accountability for 2526. Um so this just gives you a little information about that. Um that we will uh be giving remediation in all grades third through 8th grade in math and reading. Um remediation will also take place for fifth and eighth grade science and English 2, math 1, math 3, and biology for our high schools. Um students eligible have to have um a non non-proficient on their EOC or EOG in order to participate. Of course, it is optional um for students. It is not required. Um the times will be the last five days of fall semester um which will be December 17th
054through the 19th for the remediation and retest plan for our fall semester. And then um they did give us a window for English 2. So that's why that is listed as January 13th and 14th. Um, usually English two scores take anywhere from five to seven days to receive the results. And so they've told us that we have to have the retest completed four days of having the results returned to us. So that's why that um is a January date there after we've started second semester. for spring um for EOG's and EOCC's we will use that last week in May um to remediate retest and then again um we will do what the English two uh retest over work days. So any questions that I can entertain? >> So how do we encourage um I'm assuming
055this is the assessments are strongly encouraged although they're not required. So I'm assuming that we ask parents um if they would like their child to retest and how do we encourage what what are some of the things that we do to encourage our parents to to take that route. Yeah. So for high school, I'll start there. Um the student can actually count the highest grade into that final 20% of their final average which is in it's in it all in itself um so that they can have a higher grade. Um it's also though I think you know for a um test score of course you want the highest to show up on high school transcript. Um you know for whatever they're they choose to do postsecary. Um I think it's really important. Um as far
056as elementary and middle I know as a former principal I've had the conversation about um you know if you don't really feel like this is a true picture of what your child can do on the test. This is a great opportunity for us to bring them in, do a little remediation, and have a second opportunity to take this test. Um, because we do use some of the scores sometimes for placement for the next school year. And they want to make sure that, you know, whether with the right as far as ability level and let's making sure that we're growing all of our kids. Um, so we want to make sure the placement is appropriate. >> Thank you. Absolutely. >> Dr. You're saying this retesting is is a new thing for us. Um, give me a
057wild guess. How many students you think that might be able to involve that? >> So, yes and no. So, we have been able to retest before. We have not retested in years um during the testing window. >> All right. >> And this is the first year they're allowing us and telling us ahead of time. Um, at the end of last year, we called it at the very last week of school that we could count retest for both growth and proficiency last year, but it was a little bit late on that word. Um, we got as many kids in as we could, but I felt like if we had known well in advance that that was going to happen, we could have had a much better plan to get those in. For the high school though,
058we've never been able since like 15 probably 20 years ago. Um we had the option to bring high schoolers in in the fall and give them a retest. Um but in the past it's just been the spring semester students only um because we did not have a retest session in the fall because it did not happen during the school year. So yes and no. We've had retest opportunities but not like this. This is a magnificent opportunity for any district to take advantage of um because we do have students that have an off day. Um and if they're not proficient and we have to take that score versus the score they really should have made um it benefits both the student um the teacher and the district. >> So how many students you do you hope
059that might involve? roughly that that's hard to guesstimate because I would have to know what the students score and how well we do for proficiency because it's just your students that are not proficient. Um in the past I can tell you um roughly we had several hundred last year that took advantage at the end of the school year for retest and it changed some schools from anywhere to five 10% proficiency in points. >> So we'll continue to encourage our students having more time to get to our families to let them know. I think we found out a week before testing last year >> that we could do it. Um so we were on on the just very limited on what we could do. >> It was a good number last year. We hopefully we can
060involve much more than that this year. >> Yeah. And I'm excited that we get to do fall classes. We've never It's like I said, it's been years um since we were allowed that opportunity to really make an impact for our high schools. Ideally, you know, if we want our school grades to to come up, we've got to we've got to encourage this. >> Um although it's not mandated. Let me ask this question. Um is there some instances where I guess let me give the example this. If we had student athletes >> who had good grades but they failed that test, you know, they made two or below, would there be a situation where we could say, you know, there's a penalization for not coming back in and attempting the retest? >> So, we can't hold
061them like we can't hold them accountable for not coming back in. But where it may hurt them is they may not be eligible to play athletics if their grade is so low. um because it does count 20% of their final grade, >> right? >> So, >> and I think the coach could definitely encourage them >> to come back and do it, but we couldn't say you can't participate because of that. >> Okay. >> And so with this, to Leslie's point, how important this is for the student, the individual schools, and the districts. Um could we potentially look at media blasts? I'm I'm talking like almost OD media blast at the individual school level through like class dojo um also through our social media and then maybe something sent out to our coaches to talk to
062the parents um for students who may be impacted to say hey this is highly recommended strongly recommended um because I'm I'm daring to say because don't we do have a summer remediation that we normally do for kids in the summer. I'm wondering if parents don't understand >> um or really comprehend the impact that this could have on their individual student like where it's oh this is just an optional summer school kind of thing whereas this can actually significantly impact their students um grades especially for those in high school. We're also hoping that since it is within the school year testing window that bus transportation will not be an issue for some of our kids. [snorts] >> I guess on the flip side, would there be a way I guess if if you couldn't be penalized
063for not coming in? Is there a way to incentivize for what you know say you you went through the you know the remediation we have a pizza party at the end or something? I I don't We can definitely look into that. Yes, >> it's a great idea. >> I mean, in a theme, in the spirit of tonight, maybe a hoown. >> There you go. [laughter] >> Any other questions? No. Thank you, Dr. Abernathy. Are we good with adding this to our November 3rd agenda? >> Awesome sauce. Thank you. >> All right. Next, we have the new central office construction intent to award. Dr. Um we had a total of 11 contractors request bidding documents for the central office. Uh we had four that actually submitted bids um Tuesday, October 21st. We opened bids last week,
064came up with the conclusion. Um and we would like to propose an intent to award um to Neil Construction um out of Hickory. Um so we went went ahead and did some um prep work on references. Uh great experience with Neil Construction, similar to what we did with Edifice. We called um a lot of folks that they've done work for. Uh very positive teamwork. Um project manager was high energy, proactive, and responsive. Excellent group to work with um on any project. I use Neil Construction for all my projects. Our group currently has several projects in design with architects. Uh Neil Construction is our preferred builder and excellent, no issues or concerns at all. Very professional. Um, so I would propose that we offer the intent to award Neil Construction for the um construction job of
065this new central office. >> All right. Thank you. Any questions, concerns? Are we good to add it to the next agenda? >> All right. Sweet. Thank you, Dr. Swan. >> Thank you. Next, we have the personnel board action report with Mr. Recker. >> WPCC. Y'all hanging in there with us? >> All right. >> We don't teachers don't come to these. So, just by the way, if when you become teachers, you don't always have to come to the board meetings. We encourage you to. [clears throat] >> Madam Chair, good evening. >> Good evening. Any questions in regards to the action? >> No questions, ask that it be placed as an action item for next week. >> Awesome. Good. >> Sounds good. Thank you. All right. And we have the board amendment budget revision with Mr. Lawson.
066>> As was Mr. Recorder, I'll be brief. Uh I hope you've had an opportunity to uh peruse the uh budget request for capital funds. U it's a relatively small ask of what is typical uh capital funding. Ask that that be uh placed on your agenda for action. at our November 3rd meeting. >> I have a question. >> Yes. >> Just out of curiosity. Um, revisions four and seven for Freedom High School and revision six for Walter Johnson Middle School. Um, those are to fix the scoreboards and something else. I don't have it right in front of me. Are those Helen related? Is that something that's going to be recouped through um our FEMA our FEMA funds that we're working through? >> Number four are partitions for >> Oh, yeah. Partitions for the fieldhouse. Yeah. >>
067Uh at Freedom High School. >> Uh that is not a FEMA related u Okay. >> event. Uh number did you say five and six? >> Uh four, seven, and six. >> Four. Yes. Okay. Four, seven, and six. Uh seven. Let's see. concrete for sidewalks at Freedom High School. Again, unrelated to uh Helen. Uh and number six, as is also number five, is for fascia board on Walter Johnson. Uh as well as Robert El Patton High School, again, unrelated to uh the hurricane. >> Okay. I have another question that's a little bit unrelated, but that made me think about it and I'm probably asking it at completely the wrong time, but I don't think the drone high school scoreboard's working either. >> They're fixing They're having a new one. [snorts] >> November 20th. >> Yes. >>
068Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah, they tried to repair. >> Yeah. No, understand. [clears throat] I wouldn't even have thought about it until I read this and I was like, I think we have another one that's not working. So, >> yes. >> Thank you, Keith. >> Yes, ma'am. >> You guys good with that? Next week. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Lawson. >> Thank you. >> All right. Then we have board policy first reading 4160 dual enrollment. And if Dr. Dr. Utton, can you please refresh my memory as to why we're having this as a first reading? >> Yes. So, um, Dr. Abernathy, [clears throat] um, did some research around our graduation rates and we recognized that some of our dual enrolled students were dinging us negatively with our graduation rate. And so in order to
069alleviate some of that and for us to impact it more positively, we want to add some language around specifically for seniors who are duly enrolled because what's happening is if they are enrolled with us their spring, the spring semester of their senior year, then they are considered one of our students and if they don't graduate with Burke County Public Schools, then we take that hit. And so we'd like for them to go back to the parochial school, home school, private school prior to the spring semester so that we don't um incur that hit on our graduation rate. What's happening? Um we're getting students maybe coming in as a junior. Uh they're not going to be able to get enough high school credits, the 22 minimum that the state recognizes to graduate as a high school
070graduate. So by the time they graduate, if if they're with us in the spring semester, they will show up as a dropout. It it could be a an A student that's in AP courses, Western Peont Community College courses, but still that student is going to show up on Burke County Public Schools as a dropout. So that by allowing that to them to go back. So there are going to be some uh potholes along the way as as far as athletics that they're they're participating. So, we've got to um but we've got to weigh out some things with the county. Um and and that's what we want to do >> to communicate with them as early as possible for spring semester. >> So, at the absolute latest, if they choose not to enroll with us full-time,
071they would need to transfer back full-time before the end of their first semester of 12th grade. >> Correct. By by December of their senior first semester. Yes. finish out semester one with us and then transfer back. Otherwise, we would take we'd incur a dropout. >> And Dr. Abernathy, do you know how many off the top of your head we had last year? >> We've identified two. Um, and the reason being is because they were still enrolled at a private school, but enrolled with us for at least half of the day, which is what the policy says. Um, but they look like a full-time student with us. And so, um, they of course won't take a diploma from a private school if they look like they're enrolled at Drone or Freedom or East. They look like
072they should be a graduate with us. And so, that's part of the issue. Is it possible and this may be super well we're just having a first reading right now in the event that this passes um the board passes it. Is there a way maybe it's already in talks that we have an acknowledgement signed by that family when they attempt to dual enroll saying that they fully understand so that this isn't something that can come back. >> So we already have a um a form that they complete. We'll just need to add that to that form. But we were thinking along the same lines you were to acknowledge that early on >> early in early identification early information to the families that are coming to us >> and sign that they understand and agree >>
073before accepting. Okay. >> Yeah. >> But the ones who are currently with us of course that was on >> there when they signed. So we'll need to communicate with them. >> We would do a grandfather possibly for this semester maybe. I don't know. Yeah. We'll have to see how many. discussing amongst yourselves and this is first reading. >> Well, okay. Well, if we're we're discussing amongst ourselves, [laughter] >> I don't think we can take that. >> No, 100%. But >> I'm struggling with the potential of the grandfather in because that's kind of accepting potential hits down the road to grad rate when we're already fully aware. >> You know how many We have five this year. This year >> Christie Dr. Abernathy >> sorry asked why you were up there for this year as well
074as last year >> three. So, we have identified for sure three >> this year, >> but it may be up to we we're still going through a couple of the kids like to make sure um that that's the kid like that they've not enrolled with us um prior to that to graduate from one of our schools because we do have often we often have students that end up becoming a full-time Burke County student which we won't. >> Uh we want to encourage that. Um, so it could be up to six, but we have identified three for sure right now >> within their senior year. >> Yes. >> Up to six. >> What >> I know you said you looking at grandfather options >> or for the pleasure of the board. >> Well, and see in
075>> six is a big percent. Sorry. >> No, >> that is a big percent >> especially when we're looking to up our graduation rates. That's our goal. That's our district goal. >> Correct. >> We would have been over 90. >> And we made and the comment was made the other day just in a general conversation about this was we could have made 90%. >> Yes. >> Correct. >> On our I know that's what you're getting ready to say. I'm sorry. >> And this is all because of state mandates why that happens. So there's no way around >> no any of that. >> There's the minimum Burke County Public Schools requires 28 credits graduate with some local electives that we require our students. The state is 22. Um, so we we could potentially graduate students with
07622 at our traditional high schools, but it would take a lot of how quickly they came to us, whether it was a ninth grade. If they come in as a ninth grader and they continue taking multiple courses with us, there's a potential that they could get 22 credits, but as Dr. Abernathy said, taking half classes with us and then half classes at home, you're not going to get there. So we again if the board approves [snorts] this first reading and we have this passed we need at the latest for them to have a decision by the end of December. That's around I mean a little less than 60 days for families who are impacted. Yeah. Right. To mle it over >> um so that they can go ahead and make a decision for what's best
077for their student and their family. But I I don't know if I want to grandfather anyone in with us still having that amount of time left for people to decide. >> I agree. Um somewhere in this policy and and I can scan it and find it, but somewhere in this policy we say that um it's it's not your it's not a right to to participate with the public to to have this dual enrollment. It's a privilege that we that we allow um our homeschooled or or private schooled students that don't maybe have the same opportunity for sports and extra extracurricular activities. And I think I think with keeping that in mind, I don't think we're asking too much of of students that really want to take advantage of that um opportunity to, for lack of
078a better way to say it, conform to the rules because we as as the public At the public school, we have different um milestones and and marks that we have to hit that a private or a home school may not have to hit. Um and they I think those they need to be those families need to be sensitive to that. >> I mean personally I just know to the grandfather I mean put that in policy how you want to say it. the policy would say itself >> as stands and then we we would notify if it if it passes on Monday um a week from today then we begin calling families immediately Miss Kurpatre uh and the high school principles will be reaching out to the families and saying hey here's where we are >>
079can we make sure it reach I mean not just our senior status >> anybody that's coming >> that's as from nth grade on okay good >> and so with that being said tonight is a first reading. >> How would you guys feel about doing a final reading up for approval >> next meeting? >> That's typically what second reading can be the final reading. >> Final reading. Yeah. Okay. >> And it'll go into effect immediately. >> Correct. >> So we approve it the third. It'll go into effect the third. Okay. >> Are you guys good with that? >> I am. >> All right. >> Okay. that has been added to the agenda for November 3rd. Thank you, >> Madam Chair, if I may. Um, close session minutes on CA, we need to bump that to the
080third. >> Okay. >> Um, we don't have the minutes for the close session. So, I'd like to request that we strike the close session minutes on the third and have that move to the [snorts] I'm sorry, from tonight, move it to the third. >> All right. I'll go ahead and make that motion to strike 5CA from the agenda. Do I have a second? >> Second by Mr. Beck. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Those opposed, nay. Eyes have it. 5CA has been stricken. Stricken. Stricken. Strucken. No. Stricken. >> Struck from the agenda. There we go. We got it done. We got it done. We We did. >> We're We're in the Wild West. Things happen. All right. >> All right. Moving on to 5A, we have the third reading for 1725 uh
0814035 7236R. I believe Mr. Kemp, that was one that you were discussing. >> So, we did add um some clarifying language. Um so, Mr. Make sure that captured what you were thinking. Sure. >> Yeah. Yeah. All right. Are we good to move that to the November 3rd agenda? Very well. Next we have B open session minutes uh for September 29th, September 30th, October 2nd, and October 13th. Any questions, concerns, or are we good to move that to the November 3rd agenda as well? Um the October 13th minutes, I can't remember where it's at, but it um mentions four delegates appointed as voting delegates for the NS NCSBA 2025 assembly are Reed Beck, Mr. Johnson, and Leslie. And I seem to be missing. >> Yeah, you were. I thought I saw your name. >> Am I
082Am I on there? I didn't see it when I was reading it the other day. Miss Pam, did we add I remember seeing it somewhere. >> My feelings were that we submitted. You're right. If it's not on the minutes, it was on the form. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Oh, it is. >> Okay. We can add that. >> Okay. I'm sorry. >> No, it it is not on the minutes. Is that what you said? Oh yeah. >> All right. So, for the October 13th regular board meeting minutes, we will we're good with moving it forward with the addition of Mrs. Rocket's name to the voting delegates. >> Yes. >> All right. Sweet, sweet, sweet. I got hung up there for a second. Um, and then do we have a need for close session? >> We do.
083>> All right. I'll go ahead and make a motion to enter into close session pursuant to the North Carolina General Statute subsection 143-318.11 subsection A1 and six for the purpose of considering confidential personnel matters as further defined by the North Carolina General Statute section 115C-319-321 and pursuant to the subsection 83 to receive information protected by the attorney client privilege. Do I have a second? >> Second by Mr. Johnson. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Those opposed, nay. Eyes have it. We are now entering into close session.