001everyone and welcome to the April 17th regular board meeting for Burke County Schools at this time I would like to make a motion to approve the agenda do I have a second second thank you all those in favor please raise your hands okay that's unanimous we will proceed before we do our moment of silence and our board invocation I just want to remind everyone that this prayer is for the board members and that's why we do that only thing that we ask you do not have to participate in our prayer all that we ask is that you please remain silent and be respectful of this time for us and at this time I'm going to turn it over to miss miss Leslie if you'll join me for a moment of silence and in our prayer
002dear Lord we come before you today in humility and faith as this Academic Year draws to an end we thank you for giving us a small part in the lives of these children today we want to pray for our seniors and the Transitions and Life Choices they're facing help our schools our teachers and administrators have eyes to see the best ways we can help them in their New Paths here with our boarding out Lord in the decisions to be made may they always be made for the betterment of this District in service and in love in your name we pray amen amen please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance attention salute pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic
003for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you all at this time I'm going to turn it over to Dr Brett Wilson who is going to do our student recognitions for the elementary school math counts thank you madam chair members of the board if you all be willing I'd love to invite you down front to recognize our math counts Award winners thank you on Wednesday March 22nd at old rock school we held our elementary math counts competition we had teams from each of our 14 elementary schools and they participated well and they did some amazing math problems our first place team was Ray Childers Elementary congratulations Ray Childers thank you at this point I'm going to call those students forward to be recognized and to receive a
004certificate and to be greeted by the board read borders Serena Dellinger Leo Esquivel Romero Dalton Eisenhower Ryan yang Henry Edwards yeah and deep tea cut well I'd also like to recognize our first place and second place runners-up overall our runner-up into individual competition Altair Ramirez and our first place overall Dalton Eisenhower congratulations to these students [Applause] thank you [Applause] board I have you guys continue to stand here it's not a recognition so you can get comfortable right the Bros welcome fund recently named Miss Andrea Gladden as the recipient of the 2023 career award for stem teachers also known as cast recognizes outstanding steam teachers who have demonstrated exceptional leadership in their classrooms school and communities Miss Gladden teaches Project Lead the Way at East Burke Middle School as part of the CTE program Dr Swann
005Mr Carswell principal at East Middle School Miss Gladden participated in a rigorous interview process in Durham in February with other selected finals across the state prior to us receiving the great news in March Miss Gladden and her programmer receive 175 thousand dollars over the next five years for stem education in addition to a stint at the Space Academy for educators Miss Gladden plans to use the funding to immerse ebms in stem experiences to help grow the program and provide opportunities for her students Miss Gladden was also the receipt recent nominee from Burke County for the nccat Career and Technical education teacher of the year please join me in congratulating Miss Andrea Gladden [Applause] Ed got one more questions [Applause] Madam chair members of the board all of our visitors and family members tonight we have
006the privilege of recognizing our teacher of the year for each school and then also our Burke County Public Schools teacher of the year for the 2220 for the excuse me 2022 2023 school year our Burke County Public Schools teacher of the year will go on to the next level at the regional level to compete to represent Burke County at that stage so with no further Ado as I call names if you would please come forward we do have a number of teachers that are with schools on trips right now so if principles you would come forward and grab his Awards please Michael Steele Drexel Elementary [Applause] Hannah Johnson Forest Hill Elementary thank you spring all George Hildebrand Elementary [Applause] Anna Kuhn Glenn Alpine Elementary [Applause] the Davis Hildebrand Elementary [Applause] Wiseman Hillcrest Elementary [Applause] Nikki
007Stamey eichert Elementary [Applause] Margaret Marriott Mountain View Elementary [Applause] Angela Anders mole Elementary [Applause] Mandy Palmer Oak Hill Elementary [Applause] Lori festel Ray Childers Elementary [Applause] Casey Miller Salem Elementary [Applause] Lisa Blaylock Valdez Elementary [Applause] schools with middle schools Matthew Childers East Burke metal [Applause] Tim Gallagher Heritage medal [Applause] Megan Lloyd Liberty Middle [Applause] Lindsey Chapman table rock metal [Applause] Kim Cotter Walter Johnson Middle [Applause] now for our high schools Sabrina Baker East Burke High School [Applause] Trina Hines Freedom High School [Applause] Emily Probst John High School [Applause] Don Baker Patton High School [Applause] Ashley St Louis Albert Academy [Applause] Larry wheeler North Liberty [Applause] and Brittany Buchanan Burke Virtual Academy [Applause] and your 2022-2023 Burke County Public Schools teacher of the year goes to Miss Amber Peterson from W.A Young Elementary [Applause] so as
008Ms Peterson makes her lay down our line again she will go on at the original level to compete and represent Burke County Public Schools also she's going to be the recipient of a brand new Hyundai SUV Bear County public schools has a partnership with Paramount Automotive and she will receive that vehicle tonight I believe her mother is with her to help get kids and the other vehicle home so again that is free of charge maintenance everything is taken care for one year so again Ms Peterson congratulations [Applause] [Music] foreign [Applause] yeah that's what it's about that was a lot of people I want to stand up in like yeah [Music] oh my God [Music] um yeah I saw in Murder when I first came in yeah [Music] all right I believe most everyone's cleared out
009that was going to at this time I'm going to turn it over to Mr Ian Johnson for public comments thank you madam chair before we start a public comments section and we'll read a statement here persons will speak in order in which they have signed up to speak each speaker during the public comments section of board meetings will have a maximum of five minutes for his or her comments at which point the speaker will be politely asked to bring comments to a close followed by a thank you School Board policy state law and federal law have established separate and distinct procedures and forums for the resolutions of employee grievances employee complaints against individual employees pupil suspension and appeals and political campaigns to avoid circumvision of those separate proceedings and ensure fairness to all parties concerned
010no person shall speak regarding a filed grievance pending employee complaint filed against the school district or an outside agency complained against individual employee employees employee disciplinary action suspension or termination or pupil suspension or appeal which may ultimately reach the Board of Education additionally prior to elections no person who has publicly announced or filed as a candidate for public office may speak during public comments concerning his or her candidacy the board chair or designee may terminate any presentation that is not in accordance with any of these criteria except as limited by the previous Provisions public comments will be allowed during the public comments period on any subject that is within the jurisdiction of the board our first Speaker tonight is Miss Diane register you can adjust it however you like thank you hello I appreciate the
011opportunity to talk to you my name is Diana register I've been in Morganton more than half my life now I'm a Texan came here under protest and was here about maybe six weeks before I realized that this is where I wanted to raise my children it looked like Norman Rockwell to me and I continued with that idea for quite some time my daughter went to Forest Hill Elementary and in five years I enrolled my second child there in kindergarten and we were coming home one day and life was going along nicely and as we passed down Patton Street I saw a group of young boys who were obviously walking home from Forest Hill and they were in the yard of an elderly neighbor and they had a stick and they were running it along her
012siding and I knew that she was very elderly and not well and thought that might be very disturbing to her and I stopped the car and I got out and I asked the boys to please get back to the sidewalk and leave the lady's yard and her house alone and when I got back in my car my daughter was crying and she said mom mama those are mean boys those are really mean boys and I can't be with Caleb all the time at school and they're probably gonna beat him up now because they saw us in the car and you told them to get away from the house and that's when I realized for the first time my daughter had been there for quite some time that's when I realized that in spite of being
013what I thought was a very careful and aware parent that there were things that my children would experience in school the awarenesses that they would come to that I wouldn't even think to bring up to discuss with them and that's why I'm here tonight uh you're talking now about considering removing some books from our school system and that concerns me greatly because books are not only for information as we know books Inspire thought and they Inspire emotional intelligence as well and we're a very diverse Community becoming more so all the time and I think it's important that we allow the opportunity for exposure not to all children regardless of age or maturity but I think that we also need to make room for the parent to do their job and that is to decide whether
014or not their children are ready for particular reading material and if they the child comes home with a book that they want to read and the parent thinks it's not appropriate maybe it's a good time for the parent and child to read it together and have that discussion it's important for Humanity that we all recognize differences and treat them with respect and Humanity and I thank you thank you ma'am thank you our next speaker is Miss Laura Wyckoff [Music] there's some content on here that's not appropriate for all ages so I'm going to ask parents and Guardians to please moderate what I might be visible into your minor and officially so good evening my name is Laura Wyckoff for over two years my husband Jamie has presented issues to this board about books in our
015schools and as you can tell tonight's topic is is a Hot Topic during this time I've been content to sit on the sidelines and support him I like many others thought you know kids hear worse in the hallways at school than probably what they're going to see in these books and I'm here to tell you I was wrong this material is beyond my imagination in its obscenity and it's in pornographic nature and I'm shaking as I speak because I'm so passionate about this issue it is ridiculous to me that this information has been presented to our school board with no action and I'm looking at each one of you guys this board has been content to revise the media policy and place the burden on parents to challenge book when parents don't even know the
016books are available to begin with also under the new policy that was recently revised only a parent of a child attending that school can challenge a book that means that in order for a book to even possibly be removed throughout the whole County it would have to be challenged as many as 10 times by 10 different parents at 10 separate schools what's more the term professional educator which is being tossed around quite a bit sounds as though we have people who think they know better than parents well that just makes the mama bear in me come out please do not insult me by saying that a professional educator knows better for my child than me that's like saying that you don't have any authority over your child's medical care when you go to the doctor
017because they're the professional do not insult my intelligence by saying that I don't have the intellect or the right or the capacity to look at this material and call it explicit call it obscene and call it vulgar if you want to base more weight on a professional educator than parental involvement then you have broken the bridge of trust that parents have in our public school system let me be clear you do not have the right to expose my child to pornography you do not have the right as a parent as a teacher or as a professional educator to expose my child to pornography in preparing for this evening I found myself asking why should I care why should I care what's in the middle school what's her why should I care what's in the high
018school my daughter's just in kindergarten well my answer is simple accountability I believe that the reason why I'm standing here before you this evening is because I'm accountable to that six-year-old little girl I also know that if I do nothing the filth and obscenity that has been infiltrating our schools will only get worse and I can only imagine what will be the case whenever my daughter is 16 instead of six if I don't take a stand today the corrective action is simple this board could adopt a content-based rating system for all materials including materials that are brought in by teachers that would be consistent throughout the entire County this would allow for a clear review and writing process on books currently in our media centers and our classrooms as well as a rating process where
019books are being reviewed in the future that are coming into our schools for those who cry censorship or lawsuit I remind you that we already regulate what materials are available for access in our schools for example Hustler magazine is not on our County subscription list though I would contend that the material that's in this these books is not just based on diversity it's based on vulgarity and some would say pornography as I've been speaking you can see these excerpts from our media center books they're available to minors on display if you find these excerpts inappropriate then I'm going to provide accountability to you and I'm going to ask why are you doing nothing about it thank you [Applause] thank you miss my conflicts we'll have Miss Gina Walker Bailey but um anyway do you want
020to congratulate you first off for the effort that you have started making with this new media policy media policy has nothing to do with the teachers so while I was injured last year um I've substituted in the classrooms at some of the schools around this County and I'll just tell you now one of my children have been pulled the books that are banned or not banned I'm sorry but the books that have been challenged these teachers are putting them on their own classroom shelves for the kids to grab if I was to bring any one of y'all's child or your children and give them a Playboy magazine there would be obscenity laws charged on me I go into classrooms at the high schools and I see lgbtq plus IA flags and rainbows everywhere and I
021see political divisiveness in the classroom I see Trump bent over with the foot up his butt in a science classroom why I didn't know nothing about politics of my teachers I didn't know what food they like to eat I went to school to learn math and science not what you like in the flipping bedroom now all that does is put a a visual in our children's Minds all of this is and I'm going to say the word sickness I am so sorry but if you look at suicide rates and you see what is going on with the transgender ideology and what is being put onto our kids is because the teachers and classrooms because of Filth like this in our books and you want to make it accessible to them if I put a guy
022what the words just said on their poster board and I stand him on a park bench saying that stuff out loud next to you how would you feel when George Michael got arrested on the park bench for jacking off but you can put scenes of it in front of our children that are young and impressionable and we want to call it diversity and we're taking it away you're saving a generation they are being sexualized and they are being perverted I sit there and I pulled a fifth grader out because I hear him talk in fifth grade about being transgender and bisexual so tell me that those books are teaching them something well they don't even know what sex is but they know that they're bisexual and transgender are you kidding me girls are up against
023lockers being groped and it's a whole culture in these schools I have one left in high school and I let him stay for the next two years sixth graders up against the lockers groping each other girls with their butts hanging out and that is the administration's role to put the policies in place we had school policies our pants our shorts are supposed to be at our fingertips and if not we were sent home how many people have got a phone call that their kids shorts are too short has that happened at all at any of the schools has anybody sent home a student their boobs are hanging out they've got on mid-drift shirts is anybody doing anything about it and that goes on to all the administration and the teachers nothing happens that is why
024I've pulled my fifth grader because I have taught her to honor her body to keep herself clothed as rape numbers go up and everything else and we've got transgender boys saying they're women and raping girls in Loudoun County Virginia in the bathrooms and you can shake your head but they transferred him to get rid of the story and he went and raped another girl and you know what happened the mayor came in and he said to their board I will get all of you arrested and we will figure it out and we will bring obscenity charges on your media coordinators that have put their signature on these books that is just like bringing the Playboy or a hustler providing pornography you wouldn't let your five-year-old would you or your fifth grader would you let him
025into a strip club in the name of diversity would you let him hang out on the lap of crazy perverted Uncle John in the name of diversity you want to call out diversity do it in something that makes sense and builds everybody up kids are here for school that is math science arithmetic they're not here to be sexually perverted to learn an ideology of the left because if I had in any of those classrooms brought in something criticizing Joe Biden or the liberal left I would have been in trouble in a flipping heartbeat and you got teacher activists that get nothing but a slap on the hand because you better believe I checked out every teacher before my son had him and what did he end up having and I pulled him from his from
026her class A BLM activist a transgender LGBT iqa Plus in every other flipping Alphabet letter you want to add on that's who is teaching our kids and she's the same teacher after reprimanded for all of her social media posts six months later seven months later whatever it was she was just putting the books that were being banned onto her personal shelf so her kids could just go grab them so until you take the stuff out Walker that's your time thank you thank you have a blessed night thank you [Applause] place to have Mr Jamie walk off uh thank you board thank you Dr Swann for letting me come and speak again tonight uh let me Begin by saying that I'm appreciative that the media centers are using the filters to block out inappropriate websites and
027encouraging parents to do so at home but why is this effort to restrict just inappropriate websites and not inappropriate pornographic books to minors there's this falsehood being used by some of our media centers that removing this material is a violation of the students First Amendment rights which that's not factual obscenities are not protected under the Supreme Court federal or state law in the department of justice has confirmed all this parents are being told that if you don't want your child to read an explicit adult content well then you can just put them on some sort of list the fact that this measures even in place proves that individuals knew beforehand yeah but they put this on the Shelf anyway material should be purchased with taxpayers funds that should represent every kid and should be appropriate
028for all students so now we have regrettably become a school system where if you don't want your minor child exposed to material containing instructions for performing anal and oral sex incest between the father and daughter or even a pedophile moist in a 12 year old child which is a book about a teacher less than a 12 year old child then you're directed to be put on a special list as of today there are 30 known pornographic titles these books aren't just pornographic in my opinion only they've been flagged and raided by several organizations and restricted in public schools all across the nation some of us have made national news and I've been a lifelong resident of Burke County and these ain't the libraries that I remember and these ain't even libraries when my oldest son
029was in school I never would imagine that one day that I'd be addressing our school board because of School Personnel knowingly putting hardcore pornography in our libraries defending is as Choice and then telling the parents well we're just better qualified to tell you what to do to be able to fully and publicly combat this matter I've resigned my position as a police officer that I loved for 23 years because my children come first and I promise I'm going to keep working as hard as I can until this was resolved for the parents and not for the professional Educators who have shown a clear bias and made an obvious effort to put pornography in the hands of our kids thank you [Applause] thank you sir mix we'll have Mr Jim gouge let me just say thank
030you for the opportunity to be able to just speak to the school board meeting here and my name is Gene gouge and I've been living in Burke County now for about 40 41 years and I Pastor a church I've been pastoring my first church my problem my last church and after 42 years here in Burke County and I admit I sort of admit that it's kind of saddened to be able to have to come here tonight because of the news that I've heard I've not been to school board meeting now probably about five or six months since the new members were voted in and we had great hope that things were going to change and from what I understand they've changed to the worst and not to the better and that leadership always falls upon
031those that's in leadership so um the policy the policy was being Rewritten they said and I heard it was good and uh but it still got no better I've got uh I've got about 30 books here on a list that was provided and just just the titles just the titles exit here life is funny and they lived boy toy Red Hood Looking for Alaska not 10 minutes Empire storms nowhere girls me Earl and the dying girl breathless tricks push identical The Girl Who Fell from the sky Water for Elephants class crank Living Dead Girl Felix Ever After The Bluest Eye impulse a court of mist and fury a court of frost and stray and they live tilt Fallout sold the perks of being a wife a Wallflower and I'm not your perfect Mexican daughter and
032I got some of the excerpts here out of some of these books and I you know I don't know you scuba members you know and I I just get upset when all the parents get up at 12 Awards and walk out because the parents don't even know what's going on and uh I got some excerpts that uh I'm going to read y'all won't cut me off with you I won't get arrested will I it's all right if I read this in the mixed congregation here I can't read this filthy it's evil how in the world can anybody with an intelligent mind think that serpent so evil should be allowed to be on the shelves of our schools and our libraries for our children and our young people to read pure evil pure evil Psalms 97
03310 the Bible said you that love the Lord hate evil if I was to ask all the school board members all the teachers around here how many of you love the Lord probably 90 of you'd probably raise your hand that you love the Lord well how can we love the Lord and not hate evil you want to read you want to read this you want to read what this says read what some of your children you said preacher you say my little my little daughter would tell me or my son would tell me you know if they were reading something what planet did you come from we're gonna come home and tell you that human nature never changes them children are going to read this filth and they're going to they're going to put it
034on to other children they're not going to tell the parents it's insane some of the stuff's recommended reading as you've already heard recommended reading it's insane this is not protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States you will never convince me that our founding fathers when they wrote the first amendment that they were writing to get permission for Filth like this to be put on the shelves of the public schools and the public school libraries it's impossible it's impossible we have kids we have kids right now graduating Burke County and this is not just a Burke County problem this is a North Carolina problem we are kids graduating right now I mean can't even fill out a job application but they know all about condoms you know all about abortion they
035know all about uh so sex that are all about uh boys with boys and men with men women with immense I'm a good girl right on down the line even to bestiality but it can't even fill out a a job application something is not right this is sad and this is sick it's unacceptable we don't we are not we are not I am not asking these books to be put upon a shelf Out Of Reach I'm not asking these books to be put outside out of mind I'm asking I want these books gone out of every Public School in North Carolina out of a class at the library I want them gone that's your Thomas forever thank you [Applause] next Dr Ron Beatty thank you for allowing me the privilege of speaking to you this
036evening in the year 1600 and 47. our forefathers decided that if we raised a nation that could change the world that it would have to be a nation of purity so in 1647 one of the first legal actions this nation took was to pass a law entitled the old deluder Satan Act and here's what our forefathers said they said somebody or something or someone will ultimately feel the minds and the hearts of the young people and that which fills the minds and the hearts of the young people to a great extent will determine the quality of the Next Generation so they said in order to feel the minds of our young people with the right material to assure the greatness of America we're going to teach them their alphabets so they taught them how to
037read and then after they taught them the alphabet the first book they put in their hand was the Bible and they read the Bible they learned to read out of the scriptures and they produced a generation that produced a generation that produced a generation that produced Generations that raised up the greatest nation in this world not because it was raised on mines filled with garbage and filth and pornography but because their minds was filled with the pillar undefiled Eternal inerrant preserved word of the Living God and we raise the great nation and then all of a sudden in 1962 and 63 we decided we don't need that any longer so naturally the United States Supreme Court removed Prayer in the Bible out of the public school and we've been going downhill ever since that's not
038open for debate that's a fact righteousness exalted the nation the Bible says but sin is a reproach to any people and now we are feeling that vacancy with pornography a few minutes ago we all stood and we we saluted and gave our pledge to the greatest flag in the world bar none I'm proud to be an American I salute the stars and the stripes and in that pledge we all stood in unison while ago a while ago one nation under God I want to ask us a question tonight do you think do you actually think that God would be pleased with porn pornography filth and garbage in the public school do you really have you convinced yourself that you are pleasing the god you stood up and mentioned a few moments ago by allowing this
039filth and garbage in the public school system we took the Bible out we put pornography back we took the Bible out we put in metal detectors we took the Bible out and ever since then we've had killings and we've had shootings and we've been going downhill SCT tests are going through the basement sins going through the roof and we think we're really prospering as a nation we are reveling out as a nation because we have forgotten the most important entity and that is our faith in a long impotent God who has the power to change us and make us New Creations in Christ Jesus America America survival through who said this many years ago Martin Luther said I'm much afraid that the schools will prove to be the great Gates of Hell unless they diligent
040labor in explaining the holy scriptures and Engraving them in the hearts of Youth I wonder if he was here this evening what he would say we're in trouble folks you can't expect to have another generation that's going to make America great by filling their minds with filth and pornography teaching kids how I read just an excerpt from some of the books here in your school I'm ashamed I I couldn't go far a boy having sex with a girl and talking about how he was jamming her body on the floor and how he was pushing her forward as he was having sex with her on the floor that's what your kids are reading in this public school not only here but all across the state sad to say America can't survive on this people America is
041going down the just today the United Nations says it is now legal for adults to have sex with young people pedophilia how does it get to that state it starts right here on the local level when we start letting the doors open and the gates down and we'll allow filth and pornography to set the stage now here's what I want to say to you tonight there's a simple solution I think you're a great group of people I think the possibility is that you've probably been influenced not to do anything because of legalities I think most of you want to do what's right I really do I've been impressed with you I I praise the Lord for you however the simple solution to the problem is to get rid of the porn and let me tell
042you this that's the cheapest solution to the problem because I'm asking you tonight to take it out and we're going to give you 30 days to take it out I represent an organization called return America here in North Carolina if you think I'm bluffing we sued the governor of this state two years ago when he closed the churches in this state down and we won now we're going to give you 30 days to do something about it and we want to know in 30 days what your decision is because after 30 days if the pornography in the Burke County school system is not not removed we will begin proceedings to make Burke County a test case for the state of North Carolina [Applause] thank you Mr Baden Madam chair that concludes our public comment section
043okay thank you all for speaking I greatly appreciate it right at this time um I am going to read a resolution if I get it to come up crap okay thank you you got it you're going yeah I got it all right if you would please um be patient with me as I read this this is a resolution by the Burke County Board of Education opposing House Bill 219 the charter school omnibus whereas North Carolina operates two primary systems of public education charter schools and public schools operated by local school boards whereas charter schools are not legally required to pay any funds to local school districts regardless of the source of Revenue including federal funds grants and gifts whereas over the past 20 years the courts of North Carolina and the general assembly have confronted
044the issue of fair funding for students attending charter schools and local school districts in a manner that has created equal K-12 funding and put an end to contentious litigation caused by the original charter school funding model whereas local funding given to local school districts and placed in the district's local current expense fund designated by the state as firm 2 is shared with Charter Schools on an equal per pupil basis including County Appropriations fines and fortresses and special school tax dollars flowing to a charter school located in the taxing district whereas the current law recognizes that local school districts receive certain funds that should not be apportioned or shared with Charter Schools because number one the charter school does not provide the program or service for which the funds are received number two the funds are
045simply a reimbursement to the local school district for unrestricted monies already spent including revenues previously shared with Charter Schools and or three the monies are legally restricted and cannot be shared whereas North Carolina General statute 115c-426 C contains the list of funds not shared with Charter Schools as follows reimbursements indirect cost tuition fees for actual cost sales tax revenues distributed using the ad Valore method persuade it to General statute [Music] 105-472 B2 sales tax refunds gifts and grants restricted as to used trust funds Federal Appropriations made directly to local school administrative units under General statute 168-700 and funds received for pre-kindergarten programs in addition to approach creation or use of fund balance or interest income by local school administrative unit shall not be construed as a local current expense approach appropriation whereas House Bill 219
046part 7 deletes the list of protected funds with the exception of trust funds federal grants restricted as to use in special programs by deleting the list of protect 219 creates unequal rather than equal local funding for K-12 education including but not limited to the following revenues Number One Fund balance Charter Schools do not have to share their savings accounts which is their fund balance with local school districts this is money saved by local school districts from prior years during which eligible revenues were already shared with Charter Schools sharing such funds a second time would be double dipping and a windfall to Charter Schools at the expense of local school district students number two Federal reimbursements Charter Schools do not have to share any federal reimbursements with local school districts by law many federal programs require
047schools to spend unrestricted revenues on specific purposes before getting reimbursed that amount by the federal government thus no new learning is received and any unrestricted revenues used for the federal program derived from funds that have already been shared with Charter Schools sharing such funds a second time will be double dipping and a windfall to Charter Schools at the expense of local school district students number three Pre-K classroom funds Charter Schools can apply for these funds directly and they do not have to share them with a local school district by law North Carolina Pre-K dollars and Smart Start dollars cannot be given to Charter Schools directly by local school district thus if House Bill 219 passes school districts would be forced to use even more unrestrictive local dollars to pay Charter Schools a proportionate share of
048these fundings resulting in charter school students getting a higher amount of K-12 dollars simply because the local school district chose to assist the community by operating one or more Pre-K classrooms sharing such funds a second time will be double dipping and a win filed to Charter Schools at the expense of local school district students number four tuition and fees for actual cost if a charter school chooses to allow public use of its facilities operate a summer program before school program or after school program it can be charge fees that are not shared with a local school district local school districts charge such fees to cover the additional cost of facility use and or extra programming because these activities are beyond the normal operating cost for K-12 education sharing such funds would be a windfall to
049Charter Schools at the expense of local school district students and five sales tax refunds charter schools are reimbursed 100 percent of state and local sales tax amounts they pay and do not have to share these funds with local school districts local school districts only receive a reimbursement of local sales tax amounts paid by the school district this is another reimbursement sharing such funds a second time will be double dipping and a windfall to Charter Schools at the expense of local school district students whereas if House Bill 219 passes the total Financial impact to the Burke County Schools in-laws K-12 operating funds based on the year 20 22-23 will be substantial whereas how if House Bill 219 passes the total Financial impact to all local school districts could expand significantly over time and lead to egregious
050results based on future increases in Charter School enrollments of both in person and virtual school students and whereas House Bill 219 contains other Provisions that will cause uncertainty and encourage future litigation in a currently well-settled area of the law such as the current law prohibiting supplemental School tax dollars from leaving the tax District approved by voters now therefore be it resolved that the Burke County Board of Education opposes House Bill 219 and favors the current law that fairly and equally apportions local funding be it further resolved that the chair and superintendent are authorized to disseminate this resolution to the members of the North Carolina general assembly and the governor and two the board encourages parents students and other community members to contact their North Carolina legislatures to oppose house bill 219. Madam chair move approval
051of the resolution and dissemination is indicated okay do I have a second second all right all those in favor please raise your hand tune in Miss thank you Madam chairman is there any discussion on this at all yes if you'd like to Dr hem Street what Dr Swan about how much money are we talking about would be just a ballpark figure uh at our work session a couple weeks ago Mr Lawson presented roughly three hundred thousand dollars of a shortfall from Burke County Public Schools if this bill pays annually yes if this bill passes and that of course is our Revenue increases that dollar amount could go up as well and you have contact with other systems what's their general feeling on that the general feeling in the West Northwest Visa they're all supporting this
052uh multiple districts down east have already signed it into action um Statesville idle Statesville did about a month ago so I'd say out of 115 school districts if I had to guess the majority of them are going to support this resolution it's devastating to this local school systems it really is devastating to the systems okay it bothers me as I see and we talk about control and things we've seen what has happened from a legislative standpoint with our calendar and now we see an issue like this where we see you know further attack on public education I mean I I can't speak for this board but I know I represent public education in this system who's to sponsor this of this bill uh Mr Hugh Blackwell from Burke County did he present that yes we've
053been in contact with him at all reached out to his representative and asked for a meeting I hadn't heard back from him yet I think people need to get in contact with our representatives and let them know what what's going on with this yes that's all I have to say okay thank you anyone else we'll move forward um to our local budget request to the county for 2023 2024 Mr Keith Lawson if you'll remember we removed this from our um working meeting because Mr Lawson was um ill so now he's going to bring it to us tonight good evening and thank you for indulging me uh this evening sorry for my absence at the work session let me let me if I may just point out a few uh glaring areas uh that are affected
054by House Bill 219 just just so people are very clear on what kind of impact that has for instance we had Pre-K classrooms where parents pay for their children to attend those classrooms a portion of what those parents pay would go to Charter Schools we have a device fee an annual device fee so every child in Burke County public schools has provided a tablet or a laptop parents and Guardians pay those device fees a part of that would be shared with Charter Schools now I don't know about you but that seems completely unfair if you're paying for a service or a or a product for your child at their school for a part of that to go to another school uh another example the Enola Wetlands project over between mall and patton high school we
055received a grant to preserve those wetlands a part of that would go to Charter Schools that's all I'll say about that I just wanted to throw a few things in there uh we appreciate that thank you as far as the local current expense budget I have it on the screen uh for perspective I have the 2021-22 23 years 2023-24 proposed budget our first line item is the 5000. account structures which is regular instructional Services consisting primarily of four teaching positions that's our match to the JROTC to receive federal funding for our programs a teacher supplements our extracurricular supplements for coaches and what have you some SRO funding and 13.43 nursing positions as you can see in 2021 it did dip to about 4.8 million during the height of covid due to schools being shuttered uh
056returned pretty much to normal in 2122 and slight increases up through the 23-24 proposed budget which is 5.9 million next are support and development services that consist of the operations of all the schools the maintenance the upkeep of all the schools custodial Services uh legal fees Insurance Etc our next category the 8000 category consists of charter schools our Avery County tuition our Jones rich kids to attend Avery County Schools due to uh safety uh particularly in the winter and our vocational rehab support program the bottom section consists of the revenues again we're referring or I'm presenting the local current expense budget the funds that are provided by the County Commissioners for three consecutive years we held our request to funds to the county static we've offset the pressures of inflation wage increases employee benefits cost
057increases by the use of Esther funds we're allowable for instance instead of purchasing custodial supplies from our local funds we purchase those using Esser funds those were specialized supplies and being good partners with the county we said we're going to hold the line for as long as we can that we've done Esser is uh is just about behind us we received over the course of the last several years about 45.4 million dollars in answer funds we have about 7 million remaining uh uh that's due to expire in September of 2024 the primary uses of those funds have been learning loss remediation tutoring and air quality improvement projects in our schools so our requested increase to the County Commissioners for next year's budget is nine hundred and seventy thousand dollars which is six percent that consists
058of 155 000 and increases for social security retirement and health insurance wage increases instructional supplies and materials utility increases Insurance increases that aside the net of all other increases and decreases is uh 499 dollars the assumptions are that wage increases will be two and a half percent uh minimum wage which is no assumption as we know now is fifteen dollars minimum for state employees uh employer social security contribution will remain static retirement and health insurance increases of eight percent and in inflation rate and we all know we're still not there of 3.2 percent is what is built into this budget and it's a part of our request to the county uh we did see some relief finally in annualized inflation last month it did decrease to five percent which was better than even expected so
059there are some good signs on the horizon uh I know a six percent increase or nine hundred and seventy thousand dollars may seem a bit excessive for Burke County Public Schools request to the county it's a modest request but I have it every opportunity in every meeting over the last few years uh stress to the county while we have held our request to them for an increased static our needs when we do get to that point which we're there have compounded you know instead of getting two percent three years ago and two percent and two percent now we're at the point that we're at a six percent for this year that's a very brief overview of the local current expense budget uh I'll certainly be happy to entertain any questions you may have about specifics
060uh at this time okay and we'll open up the four board members Mr Lawson questions um a red with interest in here the request for sros and 12.35 I guess that's 12.35 FTE nurses uh what specifically did we ask for in terms of numbers of school resource officers or did we uh the the sros that's minimum minimal we have been receiving the the state resources for sros over these last couple of years the nurse funding is the more substantial line item we're asking for funding of 13.43 ftes for School nurses we have relied since the Inception of covet on Esser funds to fund those additional nurses now that those funds are set to expire we are slowly increasing our request to the county to help support some additional nurse positions okay have we had any
061discussion um with Ernie County Manager and or Commissioners regarding additional school resource officers actually have we've had a couple meetings set up just kind of meet face-to-face meetings uh Mr Lawson and I have a meeting set up with County manager tomorrow we have a quarterly meeting on Thursday as well to go over some more Logistics with that okay um thank you for at least not visibly getting tired of me asking that I I too I'm a former law enforcement officer sheriff's deputy of in a previous life and um a whole lot of concerning things going on in our world right now and that's certainly one of them so I'll be interested do whatever I can and let's see where those talks go thank you okay all right I'm gonna let Dr hamsters okay I'd like
062to make to make motion to approve the local budget request to the county for 2023 2024 do I have a second second all right thank you all those in favor thank you thank you Mr thank you very much glad you're feeling better all right Dr Alton the second reading of the policies thank you in your packet you have the three policies that was brought that were brought to you at the work session um there is one amendment to policy 7305 as requested by the board we did item number 13 to reference policy 7720 concerning the um personal political views of teachers in the classroom thank you thank you are there any other discussion or questions about the policies okay would that start over or will we will continue that for the third reading um typically
063we have been putting these into motion after the second reading but we can do a third reading if you'd prefer I'm fine with it I just didn't know if we reset the clock by adding no but we did okay all right I'll make a motion to approve um the policies on the second reading do I have a second second thank you are those in favor all right great thank you Dr Alton right now we're going to look at the Personnel report um remember if you have any questions please um say the number okay I'll make a motion to approve the Personnel Board action report for April 17 2023 do I have a second thank you all those in favor all right consent um and they're the consent items Open Session minutes for March 6th and
064March 13th closed session minutes for March the 6th work session and budget revision and Personnel report for April 17th I make a motion to approve the consent agenda items do I have a second second thank you all those in favor great thank you Dr Swan do we have any need to go into closed session this evening all right thank you I'm going to make a motion to adjourn do I have a second second all right are those in favor all right thank you our meeting is adjourned thank you all