001e for e e e good evening everyone we're going to go ahead and call this meeting to order um looking around the room we do have a quorum with all members seated if we can go ahead and move on to agenda review and approval are there any changes or additions to the agenda if not do we hear a motion to approve the agenda all right Mr Johnson made the motion to approve Miss Taylor seconded all those in favor those oppose eyes have it the agenda is approved all right Dr Swan superintendent updates right thank you madam chair members of the board good to see everyone seems like here again it's been a little while but good talking with with everyone over the last several weeks I want to give you guys some updates uh as
002you look up on the screen you'll see kind of a I want to what I want to try to do is give you guys an update uh monthly of our central office progress um we have been meeting with our architector architect firm um every couple weeks every two weeks to go over um office design U property development um things like that so we do have a hard start date or I guess soft start date of uh June it's when construction we're hopeful is going to start May they'll be doing prep site prep work on the central office putting fencing up uh moving dumpsters into the area and and begin some demolition on the inside so once again we're happy to see that moving forward also want to highlight as you'll see up here love the
003bus month um so if you've never driven a school bus I encourage you to get your bus bus driver license not only members of the board but our our community at large uh we are doing we are in a really good spot with our bus drivers and we we want to appreciate them on a regular basis this is not something that happens just once a month um I used to drive a bus a long long time ago and it's one of those thankless jobs that we do and we we appreciate when people thank us for doing those so our bus drivers do a phenomenal job as we've said for years our bus drivers are the folks that see the student before anyone else they know what type of day that student has had or is
004having uh what kind of night they had prior to getting on the bus and then actually getting off the bus they had a bad school day so a lot of times we get reports from those drivers of a a student that's upset uh the first part of the day that allows our counselors and our principles to do that so Kudos are bus drivers for stepping up and doing that so thank you also CTE month as you'll see in the pictures the CH chocolate covered strawberries we should have had some of those tonight um in the middle picture we have our Middle School CTE career fair uh some folks stopped by last year or last week to to see that we had every seventh grader across Burke County um come to our CTE career fair it
005was held at the higher ed Center great day uh and then in the far right picture that is Freedom High School uh it's drive your tractor to school day which is put on by our freedom FFA uh in conjunction with Tractor Supply which is right down the street so they they line up at Tractor Supply they get a police escort uh and they're allowed to drive onto the campus Freedom High School so it it was a pretty neat site to see that all right want to do a shout out for our March celebrations March is youth art month music in our schools read Across America see Miss shuffler did I have a picture in there or no oh yes all right so if you'll look up there this was from last Friday um we had
006a couple uh we had obiwan Kenobi and I believe Princess Tiana um they were able to read because they can't I believe they are having some conflicts on the actual read Across America day so they were able to go and read to a whole entire auditorium at Glen aine Elementary School uh and I'm sure the kids were delighted to have those special guests there as well so board members I encourage you miss shuffler sent that sheet out if you haven't done so uh please find some time in your schedule the school loves seeing you guys they coming reading to the kids so and I know Miss rocket we were on some school visits last week and she picked a book out of Hillcrest book machine uh to read the classroom so um so hopefully you
007guys will get out there and read to our students National School social worker week March 2nd through the 8th March 3rd through the 7th is National School breakfast week and March 7 is M maintenance worker appreciation day uh here again I can't say enough about our cafeteria our social workers and our our maintenance folks um what they do on a regular basis also our superintendent Super Bowl can drive we were able to raise close to 30,000 pounds uh and those that food uh it's it's held as a competition between all of our schools uh they collect uh food and donate it to different soup kitchens uh throughout the county East Burke Pantry Burkin Christian Ministries this is where this picture was taken get a lot of donations through them as well also another initiative that
008was started this year um we did Valentine cards in the picture to the left you'll see we sent nearly how much was it 2,000 cards roughly Dr Wilson you counted them 1100 cards to um Jay Aon riddles Development Center um and then on your right that's Jim's daughter they were able to send some cards down east to some nursing homes uh so their their goal at Jay Iverson was to achieve I believe 11,000 cards and they were well over 11,000 cards by Community po citizens by donating cards so that was a great initiative to do uh and just and I heard from the director last week she didn't send pictures yet but she said just the the smiles on the um residents faces on opening cards when often times you think somebody's forgotten about them
009so we're happy to do that in collaboration also our inclusive talent show that you'll hear a little bit more about from Miss Radford in an update um will begin April 11th at 6 pm at the comma for in recognition of disability awareness week and that is for anyone that wants to perform a talent um and Miss Mitchell will send you guys these dates and times if you guys would like to add them to your calendar as well so we've already got several students signed up um to do different singing uh guitar playing uh acts dancing acts and different things like that where students can come out and and a as we've seen our students do the speech contest it takes takes a lot for a student to get up in front of people and do
010something so we applaud them for that also we had our superintendent Safety Council scheduled for last week but with all the snow that we received um you can laugh on that one Mr Johnson we had to postpone that uh Safety Council so this month Safety Council we're going to invite once again our Sheriff um other agencies from Berke County to hear um and later on the slide we did a safety audit um within Berke County Public Schools we began at the beginning of the year so our our administrator our central office staff heard the the report so now we're going to hear it through the superintendent Safety Council and then we're going to bring it to the board during Clos session as you know everything regard ing school safety for the most part needs to
011be discussed in Clos session um so once again we're we're happy there um safety audit once again we we contracted with a firm out of Hickory North Carolina they started pretty much the first day first week of school um and they were postponed several weeks because of the hurricane um their job was to go around and check doors windows interview folks uh we gave them full access um and I I encountered a couple of them and I had people say well I saw somebody and I walked up to them and they reported that to us so that's what was supposed to happen um you don't just say well there's somebody that we don't recognize let's just let them in the building um so there are a lot of good things that we got out of
012there some a lot of Osha um things that we we we don't pay attention to on a regular basis um as we like to say you walk into your house every day you don't realize how dust it is sometimes but somebody else walks in and looks around and they see how dusty it is so this was that group coming around looking at our facilities uh we went into contract with them last Springtime uh Mr Johnson hooked us up with that group out of um Hickory so very happy to share the results with you guys on that um also Community information session in conjunction with the Burke County Sheriff's Department Berke County Public Schools technology department we will be putting on cyber security for parents uh April 1st and 3rd are the potential dates and that
013will be at 6 pm and Dr S Patton and patent in Heritage and we'll get you guys some information out on that as well um so that's something that the sheriff's department will do and then our technology department will piggyback on kind of the dangers of cyber security across for parents also um United Way best practices award our workplace campaign so couldn't do it with Miss shuffler where are you Miss shuffler always does a great job with our United Way uh campaign uh we we try to get 100% staff participation as you'll see the we do liver mush sandwiches on we did it on Friday October 13th um if you like liver mush so and that that is those are made out of our food truck as well um we we pull the food truck
014up and make great liverm sandwiches so a lot lot of fun activities revolved around that also this is something brand new for the uh central office this year back several years ago we used to do um Halloween at central office for our some of our exceptional children's classrooms where everybody would dress up they would kind of do some tours of the the building and get candy so this year we were approached by Miss Jackie Grady we're going to be doing letter land for our students so um we possibly have some openings um for any board members that would like to dress up and come to central office on that day we'll get you some information so the context of letter land you dress up as a a letter and it how a sound the our
015students have been working on for several years so they'll be able to articulate that sound back to us so we're excited to have them visit us at central office so March 18th is fifth grade agriculture day uh this gives us all of our fifth graders an opportunity to go to eastberg high school or Freedom High School uh and and look at the a program once again this is we're super excited that agriculture got up and running back in Burke County Public Schools probably 12 years ago um after a little lull so we've got two very strong programs um within the county that a lot of students we have actually have students that go from the other schools that don't offer agriculture as well that that go to those classes on campus May 2nd is North
016Liberty prom uh that there again and then shortly after that will be North Liberty's graduation um great activities for our students to participate in also May 9th is our Special Olympics we H held it at Patton High School for the first time last year uh it was very much more accessible for our community uh to get to patent high school as opposed to Liberty uh the bleachers and the steps were not an issue um at pattent so that's always a great day as well also board approved um new V's playground equipment equipment they will begin installation of that equipment after the school year um as you know have have seen VES that playground has probably has about 12 inches of mulch and as it gets warm it seeps and runs out in the parking lot
017they're going to do away with that and make it an actual good playground for our students that they they have so sorely deserved all right a lot of things happening we have freshman transition night coming up at uh February 25th from 6:00 to 7:30 we have our uh kindergarten registration coming up so that's been going on at all of our schools so if you're out and visiting you'll see some students getting tested uh in different settings so a lot of exciting things happening Middle School will transition um and here again these are open to you guys to attend as well a lot of the high schools will have their bands perform uh at these assemblies just to get the kids energized they'll have sports teams there uh because that is a big TR transition going
018from middle to High School uh they call it the middle years Middle grades for a reason and then when they transition into that High School setting we've got to get them hooked into something uh I always told the kids you've got to find something smaller than this school and get yourself involved with um to to survive in high school also very excited to highlight our 100% cafeteria rating um so this is something that our Child Nutrition department strives for and if you follow our Facebook page uh every week Mr wall posts um and you cannot tell me that those ladies and men are not excited to re receive a 100% rating um I think a lot of us there's several restaurants that we've probably walked out of that we see less than ratings uh or
019we see them on in the newspaper that we won't eat at so we're very thrilled drawn High School drexo Elementary East Berke High East Berke Middle School Forest Hill Elementary George hilderbrand halberton hilderbrand Elementary ier elementary mul Elementary Oak Hill Elementary Ray Cher's Elementary Salem Elementary and V's Elementary as we get more we'll continue to update the board as well so of course our goal is 100% of our schools to get 100% um so we'll continue to strive for that also um want to talk to the board about our band boot booster trailers um as we were doing some kind of high level digging uh we did find some discrepancies within our band booster programs uh all four of these trailers are owned by our band boosters currently uh so that that kind of limits
020us what jurisdiction we have over those trailers but we are working with Mr Garder and Miss Kirk Patrick to kind of dig down and drill down exactly what we're going to be doing with these these basically the trailers are covered with liability insurance so whoever's Towing the vehicle or whoever's Towing that trailer but for my understanding Mr Gardner and you correct me if I'm wrong but the contents are not covered within so the contents belong to Burke County Public Schools so that's where we've got a little gray area um there's one trailer right now and it's the Cavalier marching band trailer that does have insurance of the contents within so something I'll be working with Council um and coming up with some plans to move forward with that Dr Swan yes ma'am sorry to stop
021you but I just wanted to ask to if there was a way to kind of ensure that those those schools those programs have a policy about who is able to pull those trailers what kind of truck you know that they're that they're equipped whenever they start to do that so if we can make sure um those areas have a plan yes we can look I believe probably a procedure we can definitely look at the procedure and come up with a tighter plan on it has to be a an F250 or 2500 half ton pickup truck to pull it the insurance has to be in place a lot of things like that a lot of safeguards a as you know we spent a lot of money on our equipment um and and it does take you
022can't just throw things into the front of a trailer uh and get all that tongue weight on the trailer because that's going to interfere with braking as well so a lot of moving Parts there that thank you for bringing that to the attention of folks and um the two newest trailers were the Wildcat trailer and the patent trailer of course since the newest schools were there um and all the schools once again were purchased through the band boosters so I'll update you guys at a later date on that thank you all right Madam chair those are my highlights all right thank you Dr Swan any questions from the board here none all right we're going to move into staff reports with an exceptional children's Department overview and Miss um gral is sick so sorry we
023apologize good evening Bo of Education my name is Vivian Radford I'm the exceptional children's coordinator and Behavior Services lead for the county and um so you're gonna have to put up with me tonight I'm sorry um m graell is not able to be with us um just an overview um our exceptional children's department is Guided by um both the individuals with disabilities Education Act as well as the North Carolina State Board of Education policies governing students with governing the services for students with disabilities um so the individuals with Education Act ensures that um children ages 13 through 22 that have disabilities receive a free and appropriate public education um it requires Public Schools um to um provide an unbiased free evaluation for any student suspected of having a disability it also emphasizes um students receive
024um Education Services in settings known as the least restrictive environment so um a setting that um affords them the most amount of opportunity to be with their non-disabled peers and it also requires that at least annually an individualized education plan be developed for each student um which we'll uh talk about a little bit further So currently B County public Public School serves 1,927 students with disabilities um and that comprises about 16% of our total School population um there are 14 areas of service or categories of service um the top ones in Burke County in terms of um our numbers of students are specific learning disability and so that could be in the areas of reading math or both um speech or language impairment other health impairment autism and devel developmental delay um as mentioned before
025the um individuals with um disabilities Education Act requires us to um serve our students in the least restrictive environment and so um on the screen is sort of a graphic that represent how that Continuum Works um when um as much as possible our services um and supports are provided in the General Ed setting um but at times our students intensive needs might require some portion of the day um could be a small as 15 to 30 minutes or it may be a larger portion of the day um requires those services to be provided in say a resource classroom or a smaller group setting the number of students in that setting is um again determined and dictated by policy um occasionally some students um spend the majority of their day um maybe in our um typical
026or Traditional School placements but with um their um other students with disabilities so those would be um what it's commonly referred to as our self-contained classrooms that you may have um visited um Burke County is um also fortunate to have a public separate school which is our North Liberty school um that school a public separate School means that um only students that have intense um disabilities are served at that school so um North Liberty though is um we do get to sometimes uh have um volunteers come over from our traditional middle school that's connected Liberty Middle to um read with students um sometimes our students go over there for a partial PE class so they do um have some opportunities in our public separate setting um in sometimes students may be able to un um
027attend to school either um on a temporary basis b or a long-term um basis based on medical or mental health needs or because the student has displayed behaviors that compromise their safety or the safety of others um in those cases um under idea IEP teams are still required to provide services to continue to allow them to access the general education setting and to provide their special education and related Services as um were uh deemed necessary on their current IEP um and then the final um or the most restrictive setting that you see is the hospital or residential facility um currently we do not have any students that have been educationally recommended for those placements um for our students who um have those placements based on Physicians recommendation um depending on there sometimes we coordinate say
028if we have a student that's at Lain for an extended period of time we will um send um some schoolwork or Educational Services or try to do a virtual session if the students um medically able to handle that um but most often time those services are provided by the county in which that um entity exists so the individual education program is created upon eligibility and it's reviewed at least annually um that plan um talks about the present level of services for those students so um how they're doing um in the areas where those um the goals are developed for the student um it also looks at um how the progress that they've made over the year um develops new goals for the coming year um based on those goals and needs um service time is
029developed or created um and then also service location if the student is going to be removed at for any portion of the day from their non-disabled peers say for for a period of time in a smaller group setting um that is also discussed at that time um and then any accommodations that those students need in order to access um the Gen total School environment or their special education services um are also um noted on the IEP um meetings don't have to just Cur annually um any member of the IEP team can call a a meeting at any time um IP members the required members are of course the parent um the um Lea representative that's the local education um Authority representative it tends to be the administrator assistant administrator School a general education teacher and
030a special education teacher um there are often other members that are invited based on the needs of the student um if they're getting any type of related service so um from um occupational therapy or speech therapy they're also invited um Behavior Services is sometimes invited but additional members any member invited to the IEP team is disclosed to the parent ahead of time on the invitation the parent that can bring anybody that they would like to to the meeting um to provide support or advocacy with them so this is an overview of our current EC um departmental staff um the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction through written guidance um and policy um 1500 um determine the staff to student ratios um for our classrooms the more intensive needs of the students of course the higher
031um staff to student ratio the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction also places caps on the number of students that can be served by our related service providers and provides guidance on the number of students um that can be served in particular settings for example current state guidance um mandates that that um on any class inclusion roster so a general um education classroom um that no more than 50% of the class roster be students with IEPs so related Services is um their support services that allow a student to access their total School environment and or special education programming um in the school setting the needs for these services are most often determined through um the evaluation process and student performance um the most common related services that our students in Burke County receive are occupational
032therapy speech language Services um or physical therapy services so um just like our students who are school age um idea begin um begins uh talking about um the school's responsibility to serve students at age three um and referral for those preschool Services come um through maybe a parent referral or Community referral like a physician's office the family infant preschool program the Department of Social Services um there's some children in our County that are already getting Services through the Department of Health and Human Services through the um children's developmental Services Agency and if they're already receiving those Services there's legislation um that mandates that the school assumes or the school deter if they're eligible for idea Services by their third birthday in those cases um our our preschool staff actually start um making contact and working
033with those families at the um twoyear six month Mark of that child's um age and um to um complete any further assessments to determine eligibility and if eligible to have an IEP ready to implement on that child's third birthday um just like with our school students the I looks at um the present levels um of um strengths and needs of that student and determines the um IEP goals um services and Service locations for those students um and as with all of our school age students any of those evaluations and services of course are provided um free of charge Behavior Services um we are fortunate to have um a Services team in Burke County Public Schools and this team functions both under the exceptional children's department and our student services department um they serve um schools
034in growing um skills within classroom management and Crisis Intervention um and they also directly serve students regardless of eligibility for any special program and they also support staff when the students behavior is really negatively impacting their ability to access the uh the school classroom or the total school class or total School setting um these um staff often um collaborate with um Community agencies to access school-based mental health and community community based Mental Health Services um and they also work to align school-based behavior intervention and support plans with method and interventions that the students may be receiving outside of the school just as Ida has guidelines and services for transitioning those youngest students into school Services um there're also requirements I AP teams must meet when um our students um reach the age of 14 um
035and these goals and additional activities are specifically directed to the students post postsecondary plans um Burke County Public Schools um Implement those preemployment transition Services um and all four of our high schools have a work based inter prices to assist um many of our students with obtaining work based functional skills the um North Carolina also requires the public school system to evaluate students in private school settings upon request at no cost to the family um private schools include locations like Morgan day Christ classical Silver Creek um The Learning Center but they also um our home schools are considered private schools um so the um just like um a parent could make a referral for for a preschool student parents can make referral for their students in a private school location um IP teams then um
036not only comprise members from the public school but often comprise members if they're in a um private school setting um might include a teacher or um a Headmaster from that school as well um again evaluations are done and if the student is found eligible IEP an IEP is developed um to um demonstrate to the parent what services um goals and services would be provided if the student would enroll in a public school setting um if the parent chooses to continue with the private school or home school placement the student um might be offered a private school service plan again those Services would be provided at no cost to the parent and would be provided either at their private school location or some of our homeschool students come actually to the school for their services currently
037we have 37 students in Burke County that are receiving Services through the private school service plan but we have an additional or we have 120 total students who are um currently deemed eligible um for special education services should they request a private school service plan or request um service or request to unroll in public school um they would be uh provided those special education services um this year in January the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction expanded their parent survey beyond the biggest the big five so the biggest five leas for several years have been doing a parent satisfaction survey um that really Senter around um parents feeling involved and invited to be a part of their students um special education teams and program um so in January this um survey open to um all
038districts across the state of North Carolina the current survey um closes June 30th 2025 um next year that survey will open the first day of school and stay open through um the end of June um currently um we're proud to say that Burke County ranks um number nine in all of the districts across the state and the number of parents that have already um responded to the survey so we've um pushed out QR codes and flyers um we're also reminding parents that um our students aor reviews um about the survey and um that survey data again will be collected um at the end of June and will'll be shared with you all and finally just to put in another plug um for um our inclusive talent show it was the final celebration for our disabilities
039awareness Awareness Week um the event really shaping up to be a great night showcasing um at least 25 acts that will include both our students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers um in addition each school right now is um participating in in completing a piece of an art project that will be um assimilated the night of the um talent show performance and then presented to um to Dr Swan and to the board of education to be um showcased eventually in the um Art Gallery at our new central office so we hope you all can be there for that as well um and then Burke County public school once again is hosting the spring games for the North Carolina Special Olympics um our students with disabilities ages 8 through 22 along with adults with disabilities are
040will compete in multiple multiple events that day um uh I think special The Opening Ceremonies usually start around 8:30 and um the event usually ends about 1 30 or two at the latest um so we hope again that you all will be able to come out and see our students um showcase their athletic abilities um and um if you're able to volunteer um we like for every athlete to have um a partner that day and so we work really hard to get um volunteers from inside the school system um multiple high schools um have their interact clubs or um other National Honor Society partner with our students so it's an exciting day thank you welcome um I do have one question regarding the prets with our relationship with VR do we ever get data back
041about how many students that we had go through prets that ended up obtaining gainful employment um so we do have employment surveys postsecondary employment surveys that um we that we we have to participate in some of that is um on us we actually have to call and follow up with the families after um VR does provide us information when they successfully Place one of our students um even before graduation we have some students that um actually get some job coaching opportunities even before graduation oh awesome that's PRI is such an amazing program especially when it's done inside the high schools so kudos to you guys thank you thank you I have a question to you sure back to the private School responsibilities yes how do parents of children who or parents who have opted to
042put their children in private schools how do they learn about this service that we can provide to them that's a great question so um annually we actually um publish notice in across social media across our web page in the newspapers inviting parents and um and private schools to the central office for a meeting um to learn about uh the services that we provided and how to access those services so that's done at least annually we have um most of our private school locations and private co-ops have Flyers with from us that have um contact information for our exceptional children's Department do we do any I don't know I don't want to say education but do we do any um just interaction with the private schools just to kind of make that a little more open
043to them for them to understand that that service is there um sometimes I feel like there's a there's a gap with EC students in a private school setting because sometimes they don't have the ability or the or the means to to deal with that I feel like we have a really good relationship with our current like Headmasters at all of our schools um we're on a first name basis they call pretty frequently with either questions um we are reaching out to them just to check on their happiness with Service delivery just making sure it works within the schedules um so I feel right now I feel pretty solid about all of um all of our our our relationships with our private schools that's great thank you and every year they they'll do a title one
044two three and four survey coming out um where needs that we can provide to the home schools and and one of those they'll come face to face and meet with us at central office and meet with Dylan Lanny Brett and Desiree about the services that we have to offer Fant yes sir so eligibility um period um once deemed eligible students eligible for three years and then the team reconvenes for a re-evaluation um and so information's pushed out at that threeyear Mark to the family to if even if they haven't received um services to invite them back in um so we can collect additional information to either determine if they are continued to be interested in special education services um to again review what services their student could be eligible for so um even if they
045don't take us up on the first opportunity they're contacted again at least um every three years uh I just want to say as a parent of an AC student I appreciate everything you guys do and U do a tremendous job he was involved two years I think before he even started kindergarten and um you guys do a tremendous job and I'm thankful for all y'all well gilders appreciate your parent support thank you all right any other questions for Mrs rodford yeah thank all right Dr s student services even board thank you for having me and student services is just that we serve we serve students and families the goal of student services to serve um all students that they all be successful is our number one goal uh our department is rather is is wide
046ranging uh school counselors social workers uh School nurses school resource officers they all have their certain ways of providing support to our students and uh it's designed to nurture the well-being for all students again uh K through 12 the team is responsive to academic social emotional as well as mental health needs of our students we also build strong Community ties throughout Burke County with Partnerships SEC resources I look for grant funding and um like I said again continue to serve students and families in our community so some the duties that's an old picture by the way there's no gray in that beard but u a little more hair too so thank you Miss shuffler for adding that photo um anyway so I'm the title N9 coordinator I do work close with Campbell Shatley in times
047um that we do have title n come up appreciate their guidance um but lead investigations offer guidance to our principls and I'm with them every step of the way and I even step in and interview when when needed um over title four equal opportunity equal opportunity opportunities for all uh 504 coordinator to help ensure compliance uh M Radford Miss day helped me out with that did audit just last week and um I'm disciplinary hearing officer so when a kid gets suspended uh 10 days also if theyve been charged um if the school is considering Alternative Learning placement such as halberton or long-term suspension that's when I step in into a hearing with the principal and I determine if that kid have a a change of placement um this school year so far we've had over
04820 so far and um it's necessary to do that at times also the homebound services coordinator for um gen ed students this is one students going to be out for more than four weeks they've got a medical medical situation they've had a surgery they're going be confined to their home for four weeks or more or a hospital stay and uh we line up those Services make sure they have access to education we assign them a teacher who can either go to their home or to the hospital or they can do a Google meet meet with them online or a zoom uh as long as we're providing some form of Education to keep that student on Pace don't fall so far behind if they have to be out overseas school counselors and social workers we have
04941 total uh nine of those are social workers the rest of those are school counselors uh school resource officers we have 10 all middle schools and high schools are covered with full-time officers we have one Lieutenant the middle schools also take care of the feeder pattern elementaries um they do walkthroughs um they drive drive through make sure they show face and um they're available and make sure the students families know that law enforcement is readily available if needed um foster care point of contact for Brook County B's called a bid meeting for a kid that's coming to Brook County for example um if a kid's coming from let's say Cleveland County Schools um they would call us and line have a meeting with the school system and myself we' figure out where's the best place
050for the student to attend school based on where they're going to live in Bur County schools and set them up for Success um Community agency liaison with our agencies in Burke County there's a very there's a lot I didn't know of Dr Swan want do this job there's a lot of agencies willing to help us out which is a good thing I'm mcken vento liaison so I handle the homeless population we have over 100 students identified this school year so when you think homeless you think living in a tent or living in a car U thankfully it's not the case with any of those 100 kids we have so far most of these folks are doubled up with family members family friends um they could be in a hotel motel in a camper but um
051all the students are in close contact with their school counselors for Support also offer transportation to school of origin uh for example if um a student lived in Salem they became homeless they had to move to iard would make sure they still go Salem the rest of the school year to keep that consistency and relationships with Salem if they wish school safety is a big part of student services so the district safety planning takes place each year uh we meet multiple times with Sheriff's Department morgon vald Drexel police agencies making sure we're on the same page we take site visits um I'm pleased to announce we do have active shooter drill plan for this summer I think it's going to be June 9th 10th or 11th for all our staff to attend if they wish
052that'll be good train hopefully you guys can attend and um see how that goes um we do um safety planning for schools individually they have each SCH a black box with safety plans that are updated continuously throughout the school year um we also have safety drills we practice with our principles we do scenarios often each month with principles prepare for the unthinkable that way they're somewhat ready in case something was to happen speaking from experience as a principal in the past those those things came in handy stuff comes up you don't you don't panic because you practiced before and you have have a game plan of what to do the good thing about Burke County is we have these crisis safety plans so nine times out of 10 there is no question of what to
053do you go to your policy your procedure and it's written out for you and also Big Time support from our directors and um law enforcement law enforcement Partnerships a member of the homeland security meetings uh each I think it's each quarter all agencies in Burke County from Broughton police um all the way to State Patrol morgon B Drexel I spent a lot of time with Miss Richie's brother here and there so so um we're all connected with law enforcement good relationship with them in our schools so I do oversee the see something say something app this available to all students in Burke County um especially it's tied directly to Middle School second middle school high school kids and so how that works is for example if I being bullied um if my friends being bullied
054if I know that um one of my friends is being abused at home by a parent by a sibling anyone at all um can do anonymous tip it comes to me it comes to the principal and it gives them an idea of what's Happening they can stay Anonymous which is a big thing because you guys know if you've talked to any kids in school they don't want to be a snitch right and so this takes that away from them where they can communicate with us and remain anonymous and we can help them out the best we can we have the Rave app I'll show you that um all schools have those it's tied direct to law enforcement so it's basically it's a button you can press so it does have um active as salent fire
055medical police or other this takes out the thinking process for example if there was active situation at a school maybe someone maybe a shooter um somebody with a weapon all I have to do is press I'm not going to do it now it's going to call the police but I would hold this button down and it would immediately tell law enforcement that there's an active situation and it's geom mapping it would know where I'm at and um it would take away me having to call and say whatever I need to say just they they know the calvary is on the way and um out of experience I've seen law enforcement shows up within five minutes to our campuses which is a great thing so um in partnership with tech department we do have the Gaggle
056app this Google platform activity for example if a student's on a Google platform which is our platform ber County schools and they say some buzzwords for example in an email um or to each other Google documents such as I want to H myself um use the words kill stab shoot depression it Flags it and so it sends to our principles and they can check in counselors can check in it's a good way of keeping tabs on Student Activity go Guardian is specific to web browsing activity and um same type deal the buzzwords the websites visited um looking up certain things on Google certain things on YouTube it sends us an alert and we can take quick action to mitigate anything that could possibly arri R from that uh mental health so maintain M us with
057local school-based Mental Health Providers we did just lose CTS Health we are picking up focus at this time provide school basemental health for our schools as well as we also have awood counseling we have spark as well we partner with mobile crisis for high-risk students suicide risk assessments by our counsellors we have the kind clubs no child eat Salone initiative and our schools our save club students can silence everywhere and social emotional learning with partn with mtss to provide character development education Elementary uses um Second Step and secondary uses character strong so student wellness I serve on the student health advisory Council um we do the signs of suicide program through wentc Health Care in the spring broke recovery is in our Secondary Schools they're um tobacco Vape alcohol subst abuse sensation programs so for
058example if uh if Dr Ron here got caught vaping ad on high school she would have to go through um bir recovery class with one of their counselors who come to the school and talk about the dangers of vaping um long-term health issues and to have to complete that before they're out of their punishment basically it's been very successful we have some grant money that pays for several counselors for recovery and they cover one as well and it's been a good partnership with Drew Amber student support I'm point of contact for DJJ also with DSS and juvenile crime prevention Council we do the assist team uh for example there's a situation at a school maybe there's a loss of a student a loss of a teacher um School employee the assist team would go to
059the school comprised of counselors members of Miss Bradford's team we offer support uh to those students in need also will drop out prevention uh foreign exchange students the Futures grant program through Lisa shell who helps pay um for families in hardships and also deal with attendance and treny that is all I have for you yes sir yes sir just students okay so our social workers are basically doing the same comprehensive job as our school counselors um just like um of teachers in the past so there has been a short shortage of school counselors and so we have hired social workers to help fill the Gap and they're doing an amazing job and they're almost just like a school counselor would do um the downfall is most times they aren't trained the same way school counselors
060are in college they're more of Hands-On fix it type people but they're um done a good job filling the Gap as a technically a school counselor have we seen vaping incidents go down in the schools this far into the school year Mr staford I'll have I'll leave it to you if you want to answer that later on but um we'd have to pull the pull that data to look in our handbook to double check for sure and for the see something say something app are we seeing usage among the kids or do we need to do another media push on that we're doing a great usage I can remember usage report for you and send out to Dr Swan for you guys but um it's it's used quite often I get alerts three and four
061times a day from very minimal complaints um situations to stuff that needs a need needs immediate attention thank you do you see any abuse of that we do you always have your kids who may do it for attention or or misuse it but nine times out of 10 it's for a good reason I fail demension as well for example let's say it's 11:30 at night and uh say something K tip comes in the students In Harm's Way law enforcement actually go to the house and that's a good thing that's excellent yeah thank you Dr s all right Dr sh I'm sorry I don't have a question but I just gonna make a comment uh thank you for your role um it's a very broad role and it takes a lot of attention to detail and
062building communication and relationships in our community in our schools uh with our directors and um it's a lot to juggle but I just want to say thank you and thank you for being here tonight you've been in our thoughts and our prayers and thank you very much much like your grandfather um very good at building relationships and we appreciate what his role was in our community and we appreciate you thank you appreciate that words o bur was a good one Happy Birthday all right Mr Rogers how are you good how are you guys Bo thanks for the opportunity today to be able to talk to you a little about some athletic updates in the county and across the state so the the realignment process for 2529 is almost finished and then the next six seven
063slides are going to provide you guys with some information about that process and the previous process so going back to 2021 to 25 and historically the High School athletic Athletic Association has realigned every four years and the realignment process puts them in classifications and then there's a realignment committee that places those schools once they're in a classification in certain conferences so going back to 2125 there were four classifications at the time and those classifications were broken down basically with simple math 25% is 1A the next 25% 2A and so forth uh that process was a little more convoluted last time they created an East West divide so they went to the state they created the Eastern end of the state and the Western end of the state and they had factors such as ADM which
064is average da me daily membership they had conference cut points then they had a formula that factored in and free and reduced lunch so all three of those criteria started a formula that placed you in a classification and then the realignment committee placed those folks in conferences during that last realignment for the first time in the history of Burke County Schools having four high schools we had freedom eastberg drone and patent in four different conferences and they were separated by as you guys well know about a 16 minute drive at the most maybe 20 on which way you go so it put a pretty good burden on us the last four years whether it was loss of instructional time whether it's drone driving to Rosman Mitchell Madison Mountain Heritage whether it was Patton going to
065Hendersonville and Bard whether it was Freedom going to Ash County uh East Berke did have a good league in terms of travel but the loss instructional time the financial burdens it placed on us and the travel time were all barriers and obstacles that we faced from 21 to 25 so fast forward to now uh this realignment process we were dealing with 444 membership schools over 100 counties so that basically means there's 440 SK 444 schools in the High School Athletic Association this realignment was historic in that for the first time ever they moved from four classifications to eight classifications so it's kind of one of those that this this was the first time realignment had ever dealt with that kind of change in the number of classifications they did go back and this year classifications
066were determined solely on ADM and it was the first month of the 25 26 I mean 24 25 school year and it was submitted to the State Department of Education so it was strictly on ADM is how they broke down those eight classifications how it impacted us so drawn during that first release uh had 686 students because of the increase from 4A to eight classifications drone went from a 1A school to a 3A School East Burke at 893 was previously a 2A school and now they are a 4A School Freedom at 1337 was previously 38 moved to 6A and patent at 776 was previously 2A and is now 38 so that's where we were at once those numbers were released this is just a brief map to show you guys that there are eight rep
067eight regions that represent the state of North Carolina um we are in region seven there's 12 counties in that region uh those regions are basically divided one through four kind of for the most part represent the East 5 through eight represent the west but that gives you an idea of Which counties are in each region and obviously you guys know we have four high schools in Burt County Kataba Kaba County ell County a lot of those counties are also multiple High School uh counties so how did that breakdown come down this year again I mentioned and just showed you the map for the eight regions across North Carolina again we are in region s with other with 12 other uh counties so there was a nomination and selection progress uh process back in September and
068myself and a represent from Yadkin County Schools were represented elected to represent region seven on the High School Athletic Association so we had a seat at the table so to speak and we were tasked with the job of getting feedback and information from our region other regions and kind of figuring out how that fits into what's best for all 444 schools in 100 counties there were also two chairs there was a chair in the East and the West one at large member that was from Charlotte Meck ber County and then two affiliate members from the athletic director's Association and the coaches association so in total there were 21 people on the committee for realignment to make those decisions once the classifications were broken down here's just a little bit of the timeline of how this
069played out uh those adms and classifications were released on November 18th and again that was just saying here's what classification you're in that's all we're doing at this point then draft one was released relased uh mid to late December and it took three virtual meetings to create draft one so all 21 of those folks were uh in three different virtual meetings where we spent probably six hours per meeting determining what 21 different people thought were best for the state of North Carolina uh and then that draft was released so then draft two was released uh in mid January and that was after two in-person days in Chapel Hill where all 21 folks set and there we reviewed draft one we took feedback that was perceived good perceived bad from draft one to create what was
070then draft two after draft two was released there was then another meeting where we spent three days in Chapel Hill uh for draft three and we listened to in-person reconsideration reviews from 67 schools so basically 67 schools out of the 444 came in and presented to us their case as to why they felt like they should be moved to another conference based off of the criteria that we had deemed appropriate and those meetings lasted anywhere from about 10 to 20 minutes so you can imagine 67 times 20 it was three pretty long days and and and folks were presenting legitimate arguments but at the end of the day you have to do what you thought was best for 444 schools across the 100 counties and so now that's where we're at the final draft will
071come out in mid-march the last round of appeals will go to the board of directors so the realignment committee is done I've enjoyed that time I've enjoyed that process I've enjoyed the fact that it is now done in terms of my meetings in Chaple Hill and and and dealing with conversations at 10 o'clock from somebody in kurap County which I'm not real familiar with u how does that affect us and where we're at now so we went from four schools and four conferen es currently the realignment has two conferences for our four County schools which should reduce the instructional time the travel burdens geography burdens uh the current conferences this will be a 3A 4A conference eastberg drawn and patton all in the same league which is great and makes a lot of sense they're
072also in there with West cwell and high Brighton RS Central Chase and East Rutherford so they went from a conference that where eastberg and Dron covered about nine different counties they are in one League together where they're representing uh three different Counties have representation Freedom will be in a 6A 7A league with McDow waga South cwell St Stevens and Alexander Central and that again that's a 6A 7A league and those conferences once approved in mid-march will take place beginning in August of 2025 uh any questions on realignment before I move on to the next part I know that's a lot of information in a short amount of time but any questions on that process or how that played out that that occurs every five years every four years it occurs every four and I I
073talked to Dr swano today it's my understanding that there will be a vote sometime in the spring maybe after and it may have to occur after the board meet the High School Athletic Association board meets that they're going to explore the opportunity to realign every two years or four and so for that that to happen those 444 schools will have one vote where they vote keep it at four keep it at two and then that'll determine that I think it'll probably stay at four but I can see the advantages to two and four you know depending upon where you're at so but that that's a great question thank you yes so we can expect the final alignment presentation when I think in mid- March once they because they're getting ready to heal they will hear
074the appeals uh next Monday I'd imagine there's two or three days for deliberation and then we'll get that but I know that in those two conferences there's zero schools appealing that everybody's pleased with it so I I firmly believe this will be as it affects Burke County our new realign okay that's yep I think we're pretty pretty solid with that that's eight schools in one six that's 14 Schools uh I think eight different counties that are firmly entrenched in supporting those two conferences and it feels really old school I back to it's back to what will get more involvement I think financially it'll be good for everybody competition wise it'll be good for everybody natural rivales will be good for everyone a lot of excited athletes yeah and and a lot of those schools are
075like obviously they're they're close in ADM or they wouldn't be there but they offer a lot of the same Sports you're not looking at well this school doesn't offer this this school doesn't offer that I think you'll be able to field and compete in the conference across the board all right thank you I'm gonna move on and just give you guys a few updates uh from freedom and Walter Johnson post uh hurricane Helen especially as we end the spring because of the way the hurricane we obviously know the impact it had on the fall winter sports are all indoors so we kind of as we go spring one to give you guys some updates there this picture right here obviously was from when the flood happened the next picture shows you what it looked like
076after that water received and it looks really green now because that was back in late September in October but you can also see the wash out in a lot of areas we wanted to give you this aerial view so you kind of just get an opportunity of what it look like once that water received there's another one you can see the track you can see the different uh you can actually see on the concession stand and that top right where the where the water was at where the where the the silk and dirt got to those pictures don't show the inside of those buildings they do not and this one I think is really telling so the picture on the left uh is the silt that was broomed off the football field and that's just
077the first round the second one is the sil removed from the Outfield in the baseball field Steve peer which I'll get into that here who's somebody we had to perform quote unquote the process estimated we're we were at about 300 tons of Sil removed from those fields so like you said cam I mean the damage up aerial the 30,000 fo views doesn't IND indicate what really is going on there um these are a couple of current pictures of places in the Outfield uh the baseball field it actually took the worst beating of any of our facilities it's hard to think about because anybody's familiar with freedoms layout you can be in left field at the baseball field and that's about a two and a half to three foot drop from the 50 yard line at
078the football field which is 12 so yards away it's just as the land goes and so what happened was in left field the the fence and the the wind scream when that water receded the windscreen wouldn't allow it to move so the left center field and left foul pole area of baseball field took absolutely the worst beating of any of the areas that we've got uh so here's kind of what we did uh Berke County Schools applied Dr acard the the grant Guru and myself uh applied for a grant from the Carolina Panthers and we received the full amount of $220,000 that's what they allotted for if we got that Grant and so that went towards the baseball field in particular I wish drer 20,000 but we wish the total cost would have been right
079but it was nowhere near I mean it's just scratching the surface but that's what that's what they allotted for us as the full amount when we were able to get that uh we're currently at a five-month process uh to date Steve peer has performed those services for us uh he's turf management certified designer field restoration consultant he actually was with seven different Major League Baseball franchises uh as it relates to groundskeeping and field director exper so we were very fortunate to have somebody in the area with that kind of expertise uh to guide us through the process and be able to execute some of the things we did uh Statesville brick donated brick dust for the warning track $122,000 worth of a donation uh so we've got people wanting to help us get things back
080the way they were and restore things uh the field work to date me again I mentioned the silt removal from both Fields about 300 tons is what he estimated he had to remove about a half an inch of infield skin on the baseball field so the infield the dirt he had to remove about a half an inch there uh then laser grade that uh with ariation and top dressing of both Fields needs to still occur uh and then we've almost finished or he's almost finished the warning track installation and Outfield grading at some point uh probably after after uh spring season gets through on the football because the football field is a much better shaped than the baseball field there's going to have to be some exterior layers on the sidelines and he calls them
081the D areas which is the turn of the track right there there not on the plane field probably have to replace some with some s because there's there's the the growth has been stunted and it's just not going to repair and then on the baseball field there's going to have to be some areas that are going to have to be dug up and repaired with some s uh and again there'll be some additional reeding so I've got this one point in bold because to me Dr Aker and I have been out there with freedoms Administration several times I felt like he and I were out there about every 3 days over the last five months to kind of evaluate and meet with folks but we're to the point now where player safety is the number
082one priority baseball field currently is not playable and that's based off of the experts you know kind of conversations with us site visits we've had with other folks and again we're not just talking about our kids we're talking about every visiting team that comes we just don't want some getting hurt in that left center field area cuz it's it's it's rough uh it's it's not in good shape but we're getting it there it's taking time thing people have to realize is we haven't had a growing season since it happened so everything that was there all that silt removal there's no growth that's been able to allow we haven't had a chance to Reed to get some of those things going uh so Freedom High Schools baseball and women's soccer teams for the plan fortunately women's
083soccer is going to be able to play on the football field they'll practice in the park like they always have but the field the footb ball field is playable and in pretty good condition and I think over the next couple weeks those temperatures get warmer that Bermuda is going to start just didn't have the amount of silt at the baseball fi baseball's currently kind of in a for a better choice of words week by week uh schedule shy field we hoped to be there shy got hurt so we're talking to shuy field about being able to play some home games there Patton is an option the only problem with Patton is we'd have to Freedom would have to play patents away because they still have to practice so if some of those corresponding dates work
084out there's also a turf field in Maran uh that they're able to get so they're we're going to make it work it's just going to have to be flexible week to week because as soon as shouey field uh gets better those folks have been great at willing to work with us to get some games there and all of a sudden from freedom to shy Fields you know two and a half miles at the most so there's some options there for them to play and as the year goes on if that field gets better and heals maybe we can but right now now we just don't feel good going back to to that bolt statement right there about player safety uh Walter Johnson you can see the picture there on the left is from the hill
085looking up and the picture on the right is the football field as of today so it did not take near the beating that freedom did and we the best we can figure is that the river and the silt right there at the Kaba River had a lot of other stuff in it that impacted those two Fields versus the the the water that got on wter Johnson's field uh fortunately Walter Johnson the same uh process is going to be done Steve peer is going to do that again damage was not near as severe at those fields uh he will still do some and has done some silt removal and infield grading will be minimal uh fortunately girls soccer for middle school is in the fall so the football field other than two track meets where they're
086throwing a shot put it's in good shape so they'll be able to use it and then the baseball and softball field will be available here in the next two or three weeks when they start Play so we got fortunate at that site and that and that's it for some athletic updates any questions on those two areas than you thank you thank you thank you guys you all right now we have the 2024 external audit presentation by Jim Loudermilk and Rick hammer well good evening we're happy to be here to present your audit report this year we have a good report we're going to go over it we're going to do the highlights we're not going to go over it in great detail my name is Jim louder mil this is Rick hammer and uh in
087your uh report you had two letters I'm just going to mention these one of the letters talked about the individual school we we audit each and every school and they handle thousands of transactions schools handle thousands of transactions a year and we do sampling on those and we you'll notice when you look at this there were not many problems at all very few problems so your your school secretary did a great job we looked at hundreds of these invoices and found very few problems so the other letter is a u just a communication letter basically if we ran into any big problems we'd put those in here but we don't have anything in here but standard wording and the the bottom of this page says difficulties in encountered and Performing the audit and we certainly
088had no difficulties we had good cooperation from the staff it takes a lot of work on everybody's part to get this audit done and what we're going to do now Rick's going to go over the highlights with you in the report um before I go over the highlights mentioned that the report has been submitted to the local government commission and was reviewed by them and approved uh we also gave you unmodified opinion on the financial statements which is what you want to have it says everything was fairly stated as far as what We examined and we also do a a single audit based on your funding from the state and federal government and we had no findings for State uh Public School funds that we tested we had no findings for our uh the governmental
089uh compliance that we looked at also so that's you know you want to have that's a good thing to have um and we have a highlight sheet that I'll go over are you gonna they have it or okay so I'm GNA go over this highlight sheet something we've gone we go over every year um the top portion is the general fund which is the money you get from the county um and I have a comparative you can see there's a 2024 and a 2023 column and then a change column just to give you an idea of of the change from one year to the next so as far as cash and investments in the general fund at at June 30th you had just over $4 million in cash Investments and you had total assets of
090$ 4,465 39 and your liabilities which is mainly some ACR expenses and accounts payable that was $53,500 June 30th in the general fund it was 3,543 534 as far as revenues you had $2,279 th000 in revenues and $2,103 th000 in expenditures in the general fund so you had your revenues um were exceeded your expenditures by 176,50 in the general fund uh the next section is the fund a or the other special revenues these are some Grant monies that you get that are are separate from federal state Grant monies or special grants um you had U cash Investments at June 30th in that fund of about $5.9 million and total assets of 5,961 190 and then you had some liabilities there with just about $162,000 again that was accounts payable and ACR expenses so the fund
091balance and the fund eight at June 30 was 5,753 763 uh total revenues last year was $ 5,486 th000 and total expenditures was 7,422 482 so your expenditures exceeded revenues in that fund about 1,936 th000 last year uh the next section is Your Child Nutrition fund this is the school cafeteria program um it's operated like a business as far as accounting goes so you have your pension and OPB liabilities and your fixed assets are included in in these numbers uh total cash Investments at June 30th was about 2.8 million and total assets which included all the fixed Assets in the cafeteria um the equipment and such was 4,589 $174 and then the liabilities number uh this includes the OPB and the pension liability that's required to be reported by the state so all the liabilities
092in this particular fund was just under $5.2 million so uh again uh your net position or your equity in this particular fund was $273,200 ,000 and I believe this was because the everyone was on free and reduced lunch money this particular year the year before they weren't that's why there's a big decrease in the number there and then your operating expense uh was just under 9 million so you have an operating loss which is not unusual for this particular fund for schools it was 8.9 million and then the next line is your non-operating revenues this is the state of the school lunch program and the school breakfast program and you can see that was a big increase in the prior year because everyone again was on that particular program in this year so that total
093was 9,174 188 so for the year you ended up increase or had a net income of $173,200 and then the last few numbers um on a fullu basis there's a couple statements in the in the actual audit that that are require ir ired and this these numbers are for all funds of the school so you had cash in investment 17,6 198 and then total assets and this particular number includes all the buildings equipment uh computers everything that the school has so that was uh 126 m63 and20 and then the net position was about n about a $19 million deficit but again This Is Not Unusual because you have the liability the OPB and your pension liability that's required in this particular statement set so again that's why you have a big deficit there but again
094you can see it actually decre the deficit decreased by about $659,000 from the prior year so um all in all it was a good year and like Jim said everything went well with doing the audit and with and like I say we had no issues no findings everything was good Mr Lawson do you have anything you wanted to add how was that for exciting no it's always a pleasure to work with these gentlemen uh they they do a great job a very thorough job and uh uh again just to reiterate what they said it's a good report some of the things some of our language and lingo may be a bit misleading when we talk about opab and and and net positions being deficits and you know School nutrition uh operating loss of 8.9 million
095those things are misleading that's more of General accounting uh practices and and things again uh to go back to the Child Nutrition statement of $8.9 million loss but that's before the USDA programs kick in actually the program itself profited 170 3,000 so we're certainly happy to entertain any questions you may have bottom next bottom line and 23 assets was um total assets 13, 980,000 and 24 is 126 so $4 million less of assets anything particular account for that it's basically depreciation on the assets so U the accumulated depreciation is included in that total net asset so that reduces them so you had about four or5 million in depreciation but then you had fixed asset additions netted against that I mean that's basically what that was thank you also if I may add when you hear
096opab and these liabilities uh they're booked on on in our uh uh on our books or reflected on our books but actually in reality uh they're only shown here but the the obligation is at the state level with the retirement system everybody had to do that yes and Mr Lawson's going to be working with the board in the next upcoming weeks to set up some times to meet with board members and groups of three uh one two and three so he's going to get those dates out to you as well to go over some more details really all right any other questions thank thank you Mr lill thank you Mr Hammer thank you Mr Lawson all right moving on to the potential consent agenda items for next week uh does everyone agree to add the
097minutes as consent items to the next week's agenda then Personnel Board information report Mr record good evening Madam chair board welcome any questions in regards to the information on Personnel hearing none want to add that to the consent item can ask one question really quickly um and it's just a general question retirements and resignations and whatnot how are we as far as um openings we're wonderful good that's not sarcastic no that's I I compare ourselves often to folks that are similar Siz to us especially folks directly to our East North and then a few counties Southeast um right now we have Brit the teens we have currently five teaching positions that are available four of those are EC so that's something that we've talked about not only locally but at the state level as well
098Appalachia state they're working on grants to focus on a lot of supports that we can provide so not only solicit EC teachers but also support them once they get in the field so that that's need across the board throughout the state of North Carolina right now and probably more so outside of North Carolina but in a nutshell things are very good for us right now we're on the teens five of those positions are certified teachers and we're actively seeking all those positions right now has nine um applicants that's at Table Rock in that science position and I just looked at resumes I thought we just had someone apply last night and they look very good so someone's going to be lowy here from from hopefully Florida we're in good shape great even in even in
099um classified positions called yes no you're you're good you're good um yes we are in we're in great shape we've got a couple positions posted right now hypothetically for maintenance um we've got good numbers for that so it's always good to havec options when we come to interview folks thank and then the action report the Personnel Board Action Report are we good to add that to the action items for next week's agenda very good right thank you ma'am thank you uh the 2025 summer remediation plan Dr A good evening Madam chair and board um I am bringing our proposal for um the remediation and retest plan um DPI allows us to be able to retest any student who doesn't score a three four or five on their EOG or EOC test at the end of
100the school year um so we are proposing that um we um offer um math in grades three through eight reading grades four through eight remember we don't offer third grade reading because it's not the same thing is our summer reading program that we will have um in the summer probably as well um so that's why we exclude third grade reading for retest and then also high school English 2 and math one in the high schools you will notice that science is not on there for fifth grade 8th grad or biology um because we have a brand new science test this year and we will not have scores back in time to be able to offer that as a retest option for this year we are proposing that um we do this on June 2nd um
101Monday through Thursday June 5th from 8:30 to 11:30 at each of our middle um elementary middle and high schools um just a reminder that um part of the policy and procedures that DPI lays out for us is that we cannot start it until we have officially ended the school year and we can start on the first work day so that's why you will see that those proposed dates there um Staffing we will um be able to offer a $75 a day stien um for those four instructional days and then of course we will test on that last day and um we will offer a $75 per day for two days for testing um if we need to U bring in a counselor or someone for a testing coordinator like a title one teacher or uh
102someone in the lead in the building to be able in that role um except for principal assistant principal who would already be working over the summer do you have any questions for me that $75 how long um so 8:30 to 1130 is when we they would be remediating students and then we'll test on Thursday which will also be at 8:30 to 11:30 window to ask it this what's the carrot to get students parents to involve in that so that's a great question um you will notice that we cannot mandate it we can't make students come back um but we do talk to parents about you know how close we have some students that are super close um to passing and then what that would mean for them um as far as placement into classes the
103next year or um you know I think it's great for high school transcript to show a level three or higher um for postsecondary plans so um there's a lot of think discussion that can go on especially our students that are so close which we really try to Target hard um and identify that group of students to make sure that we are calling all of those students to give this opportunity any other questions those scores do count though for us um for accountability purposes and school performance so that's another reason that we really try hard to get them back in are we good to add this to the action item agenda very good thank you very joh thank you all right first reading of policies Dr auton good evening tonight you have five policies in your
104packet that have been requested by the board for a first reading and four of them have the strikeouts uh that are suggestions from board members and so like to open it up for discussion um and then there's one policy with uh no strikeouts currently but um maybe some discussion from Miss Taylor regarding that policy all right well I guess we can go policy by policy to see if anyone has any questions uh for the first one 17 20 40 30 and 7235 Title 9 non-discrimination on the basis of sex does anybody have any questions regarding the proposed edits all right very good moving on a b 3210 parental inspection of and objection to educational materials any questions on the proposed changes good all right C 32 25 43 12 73 20 technology resp responsible use
105good all right 3401 grading questions for which one 3401 yes I'm sorry did I go ahead no please go ahead you may answer my question you're you're on to 3401 the grading policy okay so I'd ask um our chair and and superintendent to kind of get this one out on the table so that we can kind of discuss it um you know coming from a parent perspective I've I've learned over the last couple years that um there's one other thing besides a Formula One race car that can go from zero to 50 real quick and that's the end the end of H grade um for a student So currently our practices which is not policy but our practice is that if you've got a student um maybe they have Miss an assignments um maybe they've
106scored 30 or 40 on the assignment uh at the end of the nine weeks those uh grades are taken from a zero to a 50 so um I have a little bit of a concern with that one of those concerns is basically you know um which mainly concerns are high school students if you have a a a student who is in a college honors or AP class and we're we're changing out a zero from them not turning in their work to a 50 what is it exactly are we teaching our kids you know um I don't feel like that adequately prepares those students for what they're they're looking and taking class level work for either post uh for career or for college it's not teaching them to be timely with their work um currently you
107know our policy is is not real detailed it's it's pretty pretty open pretty vague and leaves a lot of room uh for wiggle um I've got a couple policies that um that are more detailed it doesn't exactly address the zero I I understand that that is that's probably a good thing for some students who are trying Who U maybe are having challenges that that needs to be uh considered for but I think the majority have figured out how to work the system on that I know my student did so U with that being said I'd like for us as a board to consider what we could do to help better better equip this policy and in turn equipping our students better who are in those levels um also one thing to think about I hear
108a lot about our from teachers that that um there's a lack of accountability there's a lack of accountability the kids are not turning in their work what can we do you know they don't care the parents don't care that sort of thing um you start handing out those zeros and and people are fearful of failing I think we may get somewhere so just something to think about on that um I've got cwell and then I've got some from Gaston that um are just a little more little more detailed um one thing I would like to suggest if we're not going to completely do away with that practice of implementing a 50 for a zero that we have some kind of understanding between the student the teacher and the parent and maybe that comes back to
109like our bullying policy having a contract with that that if you as a student I see that you know teacher sees that they've got four to five missing assignments no zeros we've talked to the student we've asked for them to turn in their work we've even allowed them to turn it in late still haven't gotten anywhere we've got to be communicating with our parents for one and uh and making a documentation of it I guess you know really to to cover cover our teachers really so I would like to look at maybe implementing at a certain point maybe there's three to four missing assignments yes it's a little bit probably extra that sort of thing that there's a a contract set set forth between the student between the teacher and between the parent with signatures
110on there that says I will change your grade if you will give me your best you know work on it turn it in and give me your work then we'll go back and um we'll adjust that grade from a zero to what it needs to be um just that's one that's in any thoughts or concerns did you have question oh no girl I'm right right there with when I read this the whole last paragraph I was like what okay so yeah that was I was really concerned I understand that there are there are cases where there's kids that need that extra level up to help with their grade but I really do think that we've come to a place and I I I think Co really really kicked it into gear whenever we we determined
111that um you know they didn't have to turn in anything at the end of that March April May time period And when we said there was no you know you don't have to turn anything in you don't they got into that practice and then they figured out this I guess the the system to be able to you know still pass past the class it's not turning into work I just have a higher level of expectation for your honor your college prep and your AP students well we're not teaching in my opinion we're not teaching responsibility if we're not being we're not holding our students accountable um for what they're taxed with for what they're they're asked for that's I feel like a contract with with the student and the teacher that teaches your student also
112to advocate for themselves to go to the you know and work it out to see how we can sit down and talk about it what we can do because I feel like our teachers are are more than willing to work with the students um I hear a lot from the Middle School area that that's I guess you know not turning in their work and then they're having to change them again in the 50s that so it's like we're rewarding you liness that's so difficult overall and and really it's because of of just work that is not done and uh like you get a 100 on an assignment and then you get nothing and you average the two together you still got a 50 and a half you put in another 100% you still got a
113D but but they've got to do their assignments and there are some teachers who are doggedly determined to get them to do it my my daughter Miss Lim kill she pesters those kids like nobody's business to get them to get their assignments in but there are those teachers who don't necessarily and then you watch student just fail but but I think the idea of having greater interventions as you see a student not turning assignments is is a is a great idea I mean I I feel like correct me if I'm wrong but when a teacher assigns you know classwork homework applications those are things that prepares them for end of grade and of course testing that sort of thing and then here we are sitting and wondering why are we not where we want to
114be and meeting our goals as as schools but yet we're not we're not holding it the the Small Things accountable to so you know I I also feel like if you've got a student that is trying and they're making 30s and 40s and stuff like that and the teacher says you know okay we'll bump it up to a 50 that's one thing but when you've got a student that is just unwilling to do his work um yes I believe our teachers you know are going to go after them to say Hey you know let's get this work done but but at what point does we tell the teacher you know you exhausted everything just give them 50 that just doesn't make sense to me all so this TR this transitioned back I'd say 2012 if
115I had to guess we were I was a high school principal when this transitioned and I could argue both ways about the zeros um as Brad said Mr Camp said about you get a zero and it takes a 100 another 100 just gets it to a 50 so but back to Mr Beck's point we have teachers if you got a 35 or a 40 on an exam it's re ret it retest the highest you can get is a 60 at that point so that practice is happening uh in most of our schools but as far as the zero and I do see it I'm like Mr Johnson if I only work part-time you're only going to give me part- time of my pay um so I I see that side of it too pulling the
116staff I I think it's Mr Johnson I think it'd be across the board on on that philosophy we've got folks that don't know we've got brand new teachers that have never experienced that um so we could definitely put our heads together I was going to recommend to the board uh if I could get I've heard two Miss rocket and Miss Taylor to meet with myself and Miss auton over the next couple weeks and start preparing some language to bring back to the full board uh if you guys would be okay meet us we can set some dates up later that that'll work in y'all's calendar and then we bring some ideas back to the full board um if you guys are o open to that idea well question that I have is this 0o to
11750 across the board or do we have schools doing 0 to 25 so right now it's um just a suggestion the policy it's not really explicit so it still leaves it to teacher discretion it's been kind of a practice to use the 50 historic it's not a you have to okay so it can vary from school to school correct so just to clarify what you just said so if we have a student that scores at 35 the teachers the general practice is to retach retest correct and the best they can get out of that is a 60 point yes or I can just turn in a zero and get a 50 yes but you're it it's all about academic attainment we're we're trying to be taught something learn it and take a test and and
118show our success on it so if they're really engaged enough to care about learning that topic then they're going to work to get that 60 and we really want grades to reflect Mastery of content not necessarily behavior um so again trying to help teachers understand that 100% yeah well I mean to put myself on Front Street there's been a couple times I went to my kids parent teacher conferences and they're like you great kid missing three assignments and I'm like what you know so we need that communication because if I know guess who's not playing video games at night you know what I'm saying but then also we just got that presentation from Dr sa I'm a little leer about an across theboard move because we do have students that are facing challenges I mean
119whether it be foster care homelessness where language barriers where their best may need a little help you know being honest this is vastly different than a teenager at home just not wanting to turn in anything you know so just accounting for those I I I I totally agree with if they're just not doing it then that's where we step in and say okay Mom and Dad this is what here's what can happen here's the potential may not graduate may end up at halberton uh to to gain credits back in Credit Recovery across the board uh there's all kinds of different Avenues and I think our schools are using those um when it gets to that point but we don't want to wait till it's too late we want to be proactive rather than reactive when
120it comes to those grades so the key is not changing zeros to 50 a key is an intervening quicker maybe you know like you're saying that contract that's that's communication and it's documented communication that this teacher has reached out you know sit down with the student and parents got a sign it let's us two sit down and we can come up with look at different contracts review these policies uh and then talk to some Administration as well okay we thank you we'll report back to the board thank you thank you you so did we want to move that one off and yeah be ready for next weeking okay that all right so then moving to 4333 weapons bomb threats terrorist threats and clear threats to safety any questions on the proposed changes all right so
121we are fine with adding a b c and e to the action item for final reading at the next meeting yes very good all right moving on to D which is the 2024 amended audit contract Mr Lawson yes ma'am uh key word in that is amendment to contract uh you'll notice the documents titled LGC 205 Amendment uh that is a bowler plate uh contract or document from the local government commission which is our advisory and oversight board uh which is a a department within the North Carolina State Treasury Office uh the reason for this uh amended contract for the 2024 audit that you just heard earlier uh is that our deadline to submit that to the LGC was not met this this year this past year and the reason for that which is also contained
122in your packet uh is a letter from lder milk Church uh that performs our audit that they had suffered a ransomware attack this past year uh and all of their data was encrypted and it was a lengthy and very expensive effort for them to recover that data and when they did of course they they uh uh completed our audit and did get it submitted and approved by the LGC so you're approv proving this document would one uh uh valid make valid the the 24 audit but also allow full and final payment to L Mill church for performing the audit any questions are we good to add that to the uh action item next me very good all right now we have the 2025 external audit contract thank you for that uh this again LG c-205
123it's the same document that every single school system in the state of North Carolina executes with the uh just inserting their own names and dates uh to have the external audit performed uh again we're requesting the approval of ler milil Church to to provide this uh service to Burke County Public Schools uh the the cost would be $38,900 which has been held constant now for three consecutive years uh also contained in your packet uh is some information that I pulled down from the LGC of what surrounding our neighbors and surrounding districts pay for their external audits unfortunately the LGC hasn't updated uh their their numbers or their documents since 2019 but if you will uh look at those total cost or invoices paid by County you'll see that even at 2025 we're very competitive and
124in some cases even lower than our neighboring districts were in 2019 so again I ask for your consideration and hopeful uh hopefully your approval of the 2025 audit contract any questions or oppositions to add this as a action item all right now we have the Hill Crest Surplus property yes okay uh this this is a process that takes some time to play out and that's exposition of real property by a public school unit uh started mid last year I had a gentleman contact me uh about a piece of property uh that we own .11 Acres so just over one/ tenth of an acre odd little triangular shaped piece of property located next to Hill Crest Elementary School uh he owns the adjoining parcels and was interested in acquiring this parcel to square up his property
125for the potential build of a single family home uh so at that point brought it to the board uh and on August 5th of uh 2024 the board did deem the property of no use or benefit to Burke County Public Schools so that's uh our first step in the in the legal process of disposing of the property next on November the 19th it was presented uh to the County Commission uh and and was were asked if they had any use for the property uh they declined U and and um said uh they did not wish to acquire the property so upon that approval I contacted the gentleman who is interested in the property we require or need an initial initial bid on the property in order to start the next step in the process which
126is to advertise in the local newspaper and make public the fact that we've had a bid on a piece of property and make that property available for upset bid process which is 10 days to anyone who wish to maybe upset that initial bid that process was completed uh January 9th it was advertised in the news Aral the 10 days uh ran the clock expired we had no upset bids uh so our highest and best bid at this point and for your consideration uh of whether whether or not to accept that high bid of $1,500 uh on the parcel at Hill Hillcrest Elementary School questions like to add it to the action item thank you and then we have the last one for the budget revision yes ma'am budget revision number nine only one item for
127your consideration tonight and that is a request of $6,100 in capital funds for the purchase to of a tire changer to replace an old Antiquated tire changer in the transportation department questions good all right uh we're going to add add that to action item next week yes yes very good all right thank you thank you all right four ceu credits for ncsba yes ma'am as you recall back on December 19th Mr Campbell came in did two hours of Ethics training for the board uh on Vision accountability policy Community leadership board superintendent relations um so I'd like your permission to give me permission to send this to the state for your cus for your credits and we still owe Mr Campbell I believe an hour or two hours of training so we'll be able to submit
128that as well questions or opposition to adant to the action item agenda next week hearing none thank you all right I believe we do have a need for close session we do all right so uh oh take a five minute break yeah that's that's fine we're going to go ahead and recess for five minutes and then come back and do the motion tenter to close H okay so we're going to go ahead and take a 5 minute break and then we'll come back e e for