001let's clear the room clear the whole room foreign [Music] welcome to the March 13th the Burke County Board of Education meeting we're so glad to have you with us tonight at this time I would like to make a motion to approve the agenda do I have a second thank you is there any discussion all right are those in favor please raise your hand all right thank you the agendas passed prior to the moment of silence I would like to make a uh say a few words just to clarify um this the prayer that we do one of us does it every meeting and that was by our choice and the prayer is actually for us so the only thing that we require is if you do not want to participate in the prayer that's entirely
002up to you but we just request that you please remain silent and at this time I'm going to turn it over to Aaron Johnson our vice chair thank you madam chair dear Lord thank you for another day another board meeting please continue to watch over and protect us our children and our board continue with your wisdom to impart on us to make sound decisions and do the right thing Lord please continue to protect us in our daily lives and our students in your name amen amen at this time we'll stand for the Pledge of Allegiance thank you now we're going to do our student recognitions which we're always very excited about and I'm going to turn it over to Dr Brett Wilson is [Music] and we're going to start off with our elementary school science
003fair thank you good evening Madam chair and board members Burke County Public Schools recently held its annual Elementary School Affairs competition at the old rock school in Valdez there were a total of 57 projects at all at all 14 elementary schools participated and Virtual Academy the science project showcased unique experiences including Bridge strength phases of the moon burn time of candle and more after each School participants were recognize first second and third place winners were announced if Samuel Powell will make his way up to the podium Daniel Powell from George Hildebrand was awarded first place with the science fair project titled Drop Zone Daniel's project explored if air resistance would increase at a constant rate when the side lengths of a parachute increased by 10 centimeters from icard elementary now let's go to Valdez first
004sorry Liam binge from Valdese Elementary was ward in second place with the science fair title project growing crystals for this project Liam tested how many crystals grow in different water temperatures from icard elementary Addison laneman Addison Place third for the project called Rock Paper Scissors genius Edison's project used a scientific process to prove there is a higher chance of winning than losing in rock paper scissors and I think we've all played rock paper scissors so let's give these students another round of applause thank you Mr pal you're welcome to walk up I'm sorry congratulations [Applause] we have had quite a successful winter sports season in Burke County and that that warms my heart I also love we had a science fair winner with a softball Jersey on so we're serving multiple purposes here some athletic
005recognitions uh first we want to recognize Miss Julina King she was the 2023 100 pound state champion in most outstanding wrestler of the tournament she was also the 2023 Western Regional champion in most outstanding wrestler of the tournament congratulations and she represents freedom High School we also had another representative from Freedom High School to be successful during the winter sports you want to go ahead and get one with her and then we'll get okay thank you [Music] congratulations [Applause] and before I move further I I know I see coaches from both schools and sports uh here today and I think that's a testament to the success of these folks and we really appreciate all they do in them season's over but they're still here uh to be here with their student athletes also from Freedom
006Miss Katie Deacon Katie is only the second girl from freedom to ever win a state championship in track and field or cross country um Katie was the one thousand meter state champion and indoor track congratulations Katie [Applause] both those student athletes will be attending college to participate in their Sports Juliana will be wrestling at Mount Olive University and Katie will be running track and cross country at Davidson College continuing on with the track success the 182a boys indoor team state champions East Burke Cavaliers I would like to invite those guys up real quick they finished with 48 points becoming the first team in the history of East Burke to earn the overall team state championship great job we also had some great individual performances come on down guys I'll call you out in just a
007second but come on up and line up we're really proud of you guys um on a side note uh KJ bird I think got 28 of those points uh double gold performance in the 55 meter hurdles and high jump placed second in the pole vault and was also named most outstanding performer I think kg I don't want to speak for him would be the first to say that 28 points is an unbelievable individual award but it took 48 to win it as a team and I'm sure he's appreciative of those those guys uh not everybody's able to attend tonight but as I call you if you are here if you'll go through the line Brady Boston Kobe bird KJ bird Ian Cox Jacob Fair Avery Fraley Asher Gebhart Michael Hathcock Sheamus O'Toole and Nathan Reese
008congratulations guys yeah you might have to stay behind tomorrow yeah [Music] guys could you have more success next year and be smaller if you want um we've got we've got one final recognition we got one final recognition two ladies yeah Michelle we got one more East Park High School also competed in the North Carolina State archery competition this past winter for the first time overall the school received second place as a team with a score that qualified them to compete in the National Tournament this coming May and special recognition Natalie Bell received first place in high school girls with a score of 293 out of 300. that sounds pretty good to me I'm not very good at archery but that sounds pretty good to me as well as first place overall in girls out of
009448 in the state in addition Natalie also placed first in the second annual Eastern Burke County tournament as well as the third annual Caldwell County archery tournament for high school girls held this year congratulations Natalie thank you [Music] if we get everybody in now for the the big winter success photo all right [Music] disappeared [Music] congratulations again everybody all right good job [Applause] if Chad Higdon would join me at the podium please just standing right here thank you thank you Mr Higdon is the band director at Patton High School recently he was honored by receiving the Award of Excellence by the Northwest District of the North Carolina band Masters Association he is only one of four band directors in the Northwest District to receive this award in the past 43 years I'd like to share
010a quote with you from drum major Joseph Franklin Mr Higdon is most deserving of his prestigious award given to him as a student he constantly pushes us to be the best musicians we can be Mr Higdon had a massive impact on my life and the lives of many other students Mr Higdon students will strive for excellence in professionalism in all future endeavors due to the examples he has said Thank you Mr Higdon for your leadership and the impact you have on your students please join me in congratulating Mr Higdon [Applause] thank you foreign [Applause] wisdom all right okay this time we're going to do the ncba awarded oh I'm sorry we're doing the pr foreign yes thank you our public relations and Communications team of Cheryl shuffler and Bethany Collier as well as former marketing
011and communication specialist Janelle Sigmund received seven Blue Ribbon awards from the North Carolina school public relations Association the awards reflect excellence in communication and we're presented during an annual conference ceremony in High Point in February 38 public school districts from around the state were represented at the ceremony and a total of 365 entries in eight different Blue Ribbon categories Burke County Public School received two gold Awards One in photography for first week of school photos gold and marketing for the redesign and renaming of the mobile Mill food truck two silver Awards in Publications for the district's new strategic plan silver and excellence in writing for a story on a young bull rider from Hildebrand Elementary School three broads Awards Electronic media for a video to graduates Electronic media for one great School District in commercials
012bronze in special events and programs for disability awareness week these Awards highlight the superior work being accomplished in the area of school Communications the North Carolina school public relations Association is a Statewide Professional Organization that serves more than 175 members with a mission to build support for public education through well-planned and responsible public relations congratulations please come forward [Applause] congratulations thank you congratulations congratulations that's it we're good [Music] foreign [Music] it was all right now it is time for public comments I'm going to turn it over to our vice chair Mr Johnson all right thank you madam chair all right public comments section personally as we'll speak in the order in which they have signed up to speak each speaker during the public comments section of board meeting shall have a maximum of five minutes
013for 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 federal law and have established separate and distinct procedures and forms for the resolution of employee grievances employee complaints against individual employees pupil suspensions and appeals and political campaigns to avoid circumventions of those separate procedures and ensure fairness to all parties concerned no person shall speak regarding a filed grievance pending employee complaint filed with the school district or an outside agency complain against individual employees employee disciplinary action suspension or termination 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
014or her candidates the board chair or doesn't name May terminate any presentation that is not in accordance with any of these criteria except is limited by the previous Provisions public comments will be allowed during the public comment period on any subject that is within the jurisdiction of the board we have two speakers signed up tonight and our first one is Mr Jim Frady Eden Mr Freddie I went first I want to congratulate the board for bringing up a uh a very important topic uh that's plaguing our County Schools vaping um I came about this by complete accident I'll tell you and I'll start with an opinion and I'm sure it looks to be that the teams left so we're all adults my opinion is smoking vaping chewing and trust me I'm guilty of the chewing
015when I was a teenager is is a disgusting habit and we should do everything we can to prohibit or or curtail a teen's ability to to get a hold of this I will say that I came about it on accident heaven forbid cleaning my living room floor I picked up one of my daughter's jackets and found something heavy that fell out into the floor and it I didn't recognize it I picked it up it was a vape device come to find out um with uh my background anybody that knows me from the my previous years spent many years in law enforcement a lot of years in investigation and I don't like doing that with my daughters but I did that night I started asking certain questions on how they came about this because I I
016was under the impression they could not buy this on their own oh they can and they can very locally to most of these schools they can walk in they know the right things to say they can walk into these stores and they can purchase it it doesn't matter their age 16 17 18 it doesn't matter I can tell you that there's very little law that there's there's all in the books that uh prohibit this but I can promise you there's as many loopholes as or as there are laws come to find out I talked to my daughter about this which store she went to what did she say what was she told to say who did she speak with I got descriptions of people and being former law enforcement and fearing no man to ask
017questions I walked into certain places and asked the certain questions and these people told me as long as they look 18 I'll sell anything to them as long as they ask but I I kind of went with what my daughter said and I asked I said so what did you have to do to buy this did you go in and you asked specifically for this device did you go pick it up off the shelf did you do whatever she said as long as we go in and we buy candy a drink or chips and walk out with something in our hands as long as we put it in our pockets we're told they'll sell to us and this is shared common knowledge trust me I was a teen I know what happens at High School
018trust me back then it seemed to be worse but vaping to the point that children can access this kind of raise the red flag to me so again I went to these stores I asked these questions I reached out to AOE and I was told that there's no teeth behind this law there's an audit um portion to this they went to the state with and asked if they could go in and on it just like they do tobacco sales alcohol sales all that stuff they were told that yes they're working on it there's an end act that's on the books right now that kind of put some Levee to it but there's nothing we're a tobacco State it's not going to happen anytime soon but I can promise you this schools uh I applaud you
019for everything that you can do to get this out of our schools everybody's got I mean I've heard every other person at schools I'm sure that's far-fetched but for as much as it's a common thing at schools it's as much common knowledge as to how to hide it how to you know conceal it in their back packs or whatever I read the the article in the newspaper I wasn't aware that there was clothing that you can conceal it in but that makes total sense to me I can tell you that if anybody's ever curious look at 14-313 on the books there's a ton of penalty for this but until it's enforced by ale until it's enforced by parents because I promise you from a tobacco-free adamantly vehemently tobacco-free not on my property tobacco family my
020children I mean it didn't matter to them peer pressure one on this so if you think your children aren't doing it they are if you think your friend's children aren't doing it they are I promise you this but under this law these people can be penalized I made sure that when I went in there was no threat I see law enforcement back here and I appreciate you guys being here I went in to ask these questions of these people and was told and I know there's one owner of a couple here and that's one of the spec specifics that I went to why near schools Prime targets that's what I was told so until there's teeth behind the state legislation there won't be much change in the schools the best we can do on the
021schools is if those alarms work that's super um paying attention to what they look like that's great the ale officer that I spoke with I don't have his name private here with me but I have it back in my office he's willing to come to the schools to speak they have a great program that they give to tell these kids what's in this stuff they know but it's cool to have it just like cigarettes were back in the day alcohol anything um there there needs to be more done my daughters didn't know the danger of it they still don't know the danger of it they just got caught that's why they stopped but again um you I applaud you guys for for speaking out when I read it uh matted one of these meetings in
022a while but when I did read that I certainly wanted to come and say uh anything that I can do any of the names that I can give any of the teeth I reached out to Warren Daniel's office he is working on something for that he needs teeth too the school doing what they're doing all districts doing what they're doing that gives him teeth to go behind it but again we're at tobacco State and he's going to have a a heck of a uh time pushing this so I appreciate your time next we'll have Mr Jamie Rockoff [Applause] good evening again I come before you to tonight highlight some inappropriate media content as available and some of our Burke County public school media centers at this juncture you probably think that I'm a broken record
023and I tell truth I'm starting to believe that way too but however this issue isn't too important for me to sit silently parents across the state of North Carolina are bringing explicit material to their school board's attention quite frequently when I examine those cases they usually discover that we also have those same books as well however our number of explicit materials seem certainly higher than the average I am again providing the packet for your reference and review on the first page you'll see a rating scale much like the Motion Picture Association film rating system if we were to use this rating system right now we have 27 known books that would be rated NC-17 one high school has 18 of these titles the second page is just a small sample of our materials in our
024libraries that I have a hard time finding any words to truly describe there's also material titled boy toy which is about a sexual relationship between a teacher and a 12 year old student which absolutely meets the criteria for child pornography the cover reads quote she's more than just a teacher to him pornography affects brain and personality development current and future relationships and it destroys the child's innocence it affects people of all ages even young children are not immune U.S statistics show the average child's first exposure is before the age of 11. one for of people younger than 18 children under the age of 10 account for nearly one-fourth of those consuming porn 10 of children in the seventh grade are consuming enough porn to be concerned that they may have an addiction issue many experts
025believe this is due to a success ability we have a terrible epidemic in this country 16 states have passed resolution stating pornography is a mental health crisis but sadly some school systems are becoming enablers by providing this drug of choice born does nothing but harm men and women and children who consume it this is why we must be vigilant and set in a good example our duty is to protect our children from the dangers that they face today not to give them exposure to it it is our responsibility to protect our physical our children's physical mental and spiritual well-being for those of you who has been misinformed that removal of these books is censorship let me remind you of the U.S Supreme Court and Board of Education versus Pico 1982 which ruled That explicit material
026and materials not right for the curriculum may be removed Miller versus California confirms what is considered obscene obviously the material in your packets are explicit and if it is right for the curriculum then we need to find another curriculum for decades classical American literature has been removed from school districts across the country using the reasoning of not being right for the curriculum so in closing let me summarize by saying that it's time for the board to move from information to action and it's time for the media centers to move from access to accountability thank you Jimmy thank you Madam chair that concludes our public comments section for Sweden all right we're gonna move on thank you speakers both of you very much we're gonna move to our resolution designating March as music in our schools
027month I want to thank Miss beachler for bringing this to the board and I believe Mr Hunt I believe you helped her with it a little bit and I want to thank you too thank you um this is a great idea and we're going to do more of this resolution of the Burke County Board of Education designating the month of March as music in our schools month whereas for more than 30 years March has been officially designated by the National Association for music education as music in our schools month encouraging communities Across the Nation to focus on music education and whereas music education is part of a well-rounded education for every student as outlined in the every student succeeds act and whereas the purpose of this celebration is to raise awareness of the lasting positive
028impact of music education on the academic personal and professional growth of our students and whereas music education shapes the way our students understand themselves and the world around them allowing for a deep engagement with learning and whereas music in our schools month reminds us that school is where all children should have access to music and whereas music educators students and communities throughout North Carolina demonstrate the importance of quality music education programs to the lives of young people and whereas the Burke County North Carolina Public School District joins our students Educators and communities in celebrating the power of music education now therefore be it resolved we the Burke County North Carolina Board of Education do hereby recognize March 2023 as music in our schools month and encourage all citizens to celebrate and acknowledge every day but
029especially in March that music education is an essential part of every student's well-rounded education witness our hands and official seal from an official vote on the Burke County Board of Education this 13th day of March 2023. motion to approve the resolution designating March as music in our schools month do I have a second second all right all those in favor thank you foreign second reading of policies Dr Karen Alton uh we did make one change to policy 4160 on number seven we did change the threshold from 60 to a 70 to participate in our dual enrollment status with Burke County Schools that's the only change that's been made since last week are there any questions about 4160 any questions anyone okay um all right motion to approve policy 4160 and policy 5020 on the second
030reading second thank you all those in favor thank you thank you we'll move it um all right Personnel report does anyone have any questions all right motion to the approve the board action report for March 13 2023 do I have a second all right thank you all those in favor all right now let's move to our consent items I make a motion to approve the consent agenda items do I have a second second all right any discussion all right all those in favor Dr Swan do we have any need to go into closed session all right I'm gonna make a motion to adjourn do I have a second second all right she said that loud and clear all those in favor please raise your hand wow all right thank you all foreign