001like this board of education. Um, first order of business is I need a motion to adopt the move. Second, Miss Taylor. All in favor? For tonight's opening um devotion, I decided to focus on graduation season. And most of you have seen postings, pictures, videos of all the graduations across our county and other counties as well as McGomery itself. Trigger trigger warning. Um but we have already in our county um celebrated McGomery Community Colleg's um graduation and the early college graduation and this week we'll be celebrating the McGomery Learning Academy as well as McGomery Central High School graduation. So tonight's message is called um Run with Joy. And I'm sure some of y'all have seen this. At Clemson University's 2025 graduation, a single moment sold the spotlight and touched hearts around the world. Grace Clemens, a
002graduate of the Clemson Life program for students with intellectual disabilities, ran across the street with pure excitement and leapt into the arms of her father, Clemson University's Jim President Jim Clemens. The hug was so full of joy that it knocked him to the ground. But no one cared about the fall. All anyone could see was love, pride, and an unsto unstoppable spirit. This moment is more than just a viral video. It's a powerful reminder that joy should never be measured, filter filtered, or held back. Grace's leap wasn't just a hug. It was a declaration. I did it. It was a kind of raw, unfiltered emotion we often shy away from showing. In a world where we're told to act composed, reserved, and perfect, Grace taught us all something very deeply human and true. Celebrate yourself
003fully. Love out loud. Leap if you feel like leaping. Whether you're crossing a stage, finishing a goal, or simply surviving a hard day, you've earned the right to feel proud. You've earned this the hug, the joy, the moment. Don't be afraid to let it show. So, what are our takeaways? Celebrate without apology. Your milestones matter, big or small. Let love be loud. Life is short. Don't hold back your pride, your hugs, or your gratitude. Run your own race. Grace's story is proof that success looks different for everyone, and that's something worth celebrating. Celebrate someone else's milestones this week with the same kind of joy and unrestrained love that grace showed. Model the father's heart. Our final thoughts. Sometimes the most powerful thing that you can do is run toward what makes your heart full and
004throw yourself into it with everything you've got. He will take great delight in you. In his love, he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. Now we'll have our pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And tonight we have Bray How, Chandler How and Everly How. So come forward. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Good job. Good job. Next on our agenda is public comment with no one signing up on to recognitions. Tonight we have a resolution of esteem for Mr. Philip Bailey if any of his family or co-workers would like to come to order. Whereas our heavenly father in his
005infinite love and wisdom saw fit to call home Philip John Bailey Senior on February 23rd, 2025. And whereas his dedication to McGomery County schools for 20 years as a teacher were a living testament of his integrity and skill. And whereas his loss will be deeply felt by not only those with whom he served, but also throughout his entire community and county. Now therefore, let it be resolved that the McGomery County Board of Education goes on record in expressing a sense of real loss and regret in his passing, that a copy of this resolution be conveyed to his family as an indication of our deep sympathy, and that a copy of the same be filed as a part of the permanent minutes of the board of education. Thank you. Thank you. Next, I'll call on Mr.
006Alman for other recognition. Thank you, Chairman. Um, we're going to be publicly publicly recognizing our teachers of the year. We already had a ceremony u with our retirement banquet, teacher of the year banquet where we did this, but we want to always do it publicly. Um so can I get all of our teachers of the year to come in? Uh from Cander, Mr. Chris Blake from Green Ridge, Miss Susan Strong from Mount Gilead, Nicole Cheryl. Guess I'm talking loud enough or maybe they're not here. I don't know. Uh from Pay Street, Mrs. Melanie Taylor from Troy. Amy Ellington from Star. Miss Samantha Stewart from East Middle. Mr. Kyle Green from West Middle. Miss Norah Beasley from McGomery Central. Mrs. Sarah Talbert from McGomery County Early College. Mr. Caleb Rushing. And from McGomery Learning Academy, Mrs.
007Elizabeth Divine. So that's everybody. And then just wanted to kind of go over um the the actual selections. So um Mrs. Sarah Talbert's not here tonight, but she was selected as the runner up. And Mr. Kyle Green from East Middle was our McGomery County Schools teacher of the year. So congratulations to you all. Thank you for everything you do for our students. Thank you. And so what we're another thing that we do is we have uh we actually recognize our employees of the year. Can you scroll down a little bit, Miss Dr. Charl? Um so we've got a bunch of different categories of employees that we recognize. So the first one is our teacher assistant of the year, uh Mr. Jrian Tally. Is he here tonight? Oh, Miss I'm sorry. I'm thinking of East Middle.
008Mr. Tally, I apologize. Congratulations on being our teacher assistant of the year this year. Three, two, one. Good job. Thank you. So, our office support employee of the year is Mrs. Jennifer Loza. Just three, two, one. Good job. Our instructional support employee of the year, Miss Wanda Blue. Three, two, one. Good job. Our auxiliary services employee of the year, Miss Marshia Chambers. two one our bus driver of the year, Mrs. April Green. Three, two, one. Congratulations. Our custodian of the year, Mr. Jeffrey Douglas. Right. Three, two, one. Thank you. Take care. Our data manager of the year, Miss Courtney Wilson. Three, two, one. Thank you. And our child nutrition employee of the year is Cassandra Level. Congratulations. All right. Three, two, one. Good job. Congratulations. I'm call Dr. for um attendance year long. I do
009have to say that tonight is one of my favorite board meetings because I love being able to recognize our wonderful staff rather wonderful work that they do. Uh next we're going to celebrate perfect attendance. And this is a very hard um accomplishment to have because you know we harp all year long on the importance of children being in our classes. This is equally as important for our staff to be in our classes every day too because when you have a child that has uh you know poor attendance and you couple that with a teacher that's not there, you're doubling the amount of classroom time that that child misses. So, we try really hard to encourage our teachers, our principles, and all of our employees to be in class every day and to be at school
010every day because to be present is to to speak volumes. So, we want to um we have quite a few staff members that were at school every single day this year and we want to take just a few minutes to recognize them. So, if I when I call your name, if you'll come, you're going to get an apple for being here every day. Beverly Ler from Cander Congratulations. Thank you. You want to put them all together over here? Yeah. And then we'll get a bigger picture, too. So, if you want to stand over here, that'd be great. U John Leance from Page Street. Good job. Congratulations. Jennifer Nance from Page Street. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Megan Strong, Mount Gilead. Congratulations. And Megan, you got it last year, too, didn't you? Miss Ununice Green from
011Mount Gilead. Miss Green from Mount Gilead. Uh, Miss Campbell from Mount Gilead. Congratulations. Perfect. Thank you, Miss Hannah from Mount Gillad as well. Congratulations. Miss McCrae from Mount Gilead. Okay. Miss Parsons from MLA. And Miss Parson, this is two years in a row for you, too, right? Well, I'm sure it's more than two, but two just like forever years. It's like 11 years. 11 years, right? She has it every year. And then Mr. Sakotti from the early college. He's already on summer vacation. Oh, perfect. You want to take his apple? There's his. Mrs. Hy from Montgomery Central, Miss Maka from Green Ridge. Perfect. Thank you, Miss Taylor from STAR. Congratulations. And I think this is number two for you, right? More than that. Wait, we got a picture. Oh, sorry. You're good around. Be proud.
012That's good. Thank you. Um, Miss Russ from Troy. Okay. And Miss Steel from Troy. Yeah. I'll deliver them tomorrow. Mr. Baldwin from East Middle. Congratulations. This is several for you as well. I'm trying. All right. I messed it up. Came back in time. She makes this look. Three, two, one. Perfect. Thank you. Miss Kennedy from East Middle. Congratulations to Miss King from East Middle. Congratulations. Thank you. Reverse. Three, two, one. Perfect. And then if we can just get a big G picture. Scooch. All right. Three, two, three, two, one. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank y'all. Miss Collins Unice and Vanessa. Thank you, sir. Same with you. The bun. How can I be careful? ladies from um and I'm pleased to present um to you tonight. We'll do it in English rather than sorry. Um yeah, exactly.
013Um so but this is important to know that the information that um students receive about um butterfly house in the south program is always available um in English and Spanish or any language that's necessary. So, um, as I said before, I'm Joanna Brooks. I work in department and I'm here to present, um, Amy Yao and Jennifer Parsons from Butterfly House, which is a children's advocacy center that's part of Atrium Health. And they currently do work with first and fifth grade students, um, in surrounding counties. And we've gotten to the point where our staff is familiar enough with what they already do from Montgomery County um, that Mr. Almond asked us to come bring that to you tonight. So, the ladies have um folders for you and rather than do a um presentation that's um a
014PowerPoint. They're just going to talk about what's in their folders. So, and I want to add that I taught three of her five children. Oh, wow. She did. We did nine classes. Did you a lot of lots of good connections. We may be new to the meeting, but we're not new to the council. Well, as um Jennifer, I will call her JP because that's what we refer to her at the office, but she passes as a king. My name is Amy Yao and I am the director of the butterfly house children's advocacy center. God tasked me with this um blessing a little over 20 years ago. Actually, this is a very big week for us. This is our 20 year birthday Thursday. So, I started the program June 5th of 2005. So, we're excited to
015celebrate this week. You're all are welcome to come celebrate with us. Um I'll tell you some more about that before we leave. Um but I'll tell real quick about the butterfly house just in case you guys have not heard about heard about the butterfly house. But essentially what the butterfly house is is a children's advocacy center. We were the 15th accredited center in North Carolina. Um and what we do is we take referrals from law enforcement, the department of social services, medical and mental health um professionals on children with any type of um report of abuse. We see child sexual abuse is the number one that we see are the the high percentage of what we see. We see physical abuse, neglect, witness, violent crime and drug endangerment. And what we do is we have
016um started out by myself and then I was able to get a victim advocate. I did the forensic interview. But essentially what we do is we do forensic interviews with these children. Um which is just a structure way that's helping them to get them to tell us true facts of what has happened. Um it's a non-meaning non-suggestive way um to get them to give us accurate um accounts of things that have happened. So we're we work very closely with law enforcement department services here in McGomery County. We do have theouous with Montgomery County. Um all the law enforcement agencies, CSS, mental health agencies, um the school, um Dr. Kel sits on our team as well as um Miss Haywood from the she's the nurse practitioner. Um, so we do the forensic interviews while that's going.
017We do victim and family advocacy, which is essentially just being with a non-appending caregiver, getting accurate accounts of what they know about the family, the history, but most importantly putting all those pieces together to see how we can help them, to get them into some mental health counseling, um, to make sure that they have the resources that they need. And we do have a nurse practitioner on staff now. And so she does medical exams on all of our children, just a head-to-toe physical exam. We don't do anything to her. So most kids are at our office about three hours when they come. Um but it really has enhanced prosecution rates. Most importantly, kids are resilient. They're getting into treatment. Um I know you guys have all probably heard of and I could talk to tomorrow,
018but I'm not um about the the trauma that um especially child sex abuse has on children as well as the other forms as well. So that's essentially what we are. As I said, we were the 15th accredited in the state. Now there's 51 accredited centers in North Carolina. So, I'm a part of the state board. Um, truly love love what I do. Um, the grace of of God gives us the ability to serve these kids. And again, one of the things that I just want you to take home is is we do get help for these kids. They do um really we've we've seen a lot of great outcomes and the prosecution rates have been great. So in 2018, we were blessed with a little extra money for the governor's crown commission, which is kind
019of funny to this downward spiral bag, but we were able to get a community health educator on staff. Um, and when we did that, we were we look at a lot of different programs and we kind of moderate hours after a couple other places in the state called stopgo. So essentially what stopgo is is a program that we go into the schools to talk to the first and fifth graders um about body safety. So JP is going to talk a little bit more about that. But what what it is not so I want to start with that is it's not anything to to try to get children to decide what gender they are. We don't talk about that at all. Um it's not anything about sexual education. It's literally body safety from head to tail
020from you know what do you do um when you're crossing the road? hold your mom's hand. What type of safety things do you do? What how do you keep your body safety? Drinking water, eating fruits and vegetables, um wearing a bicycle helmet. You know, we talk about fire safety, all the things, but we do talk about body safety. And again, JP is going to talk a little bit more about that. Um I I just, you know, again, we started started developing the program in 2018. We um began implementing it in 19. And since 2019, we have um we have been in front of over 9,900 kids in Stanley County schools first and fifth graders. Um and we've had 38 non-disclosures. And of those 38 non-disclosures, there's been at least I'm pretty sure five that have
021gone. Yes. Of course, the prosecution, the perpetrators are incarcerated currently. really advocated for this and again that's 38 known disclosures. We do make sure that the guidance counselor's in there, but um there's been more that's came out after we just document it when we get a disclosure that day and of course we go through the proper mechanisms of reporting when they go along with the guidance counseling um in the school. But these are just the ones that we know immediately. So we know there's more of them because our numbers have gone up. Um so anyway, I'm going to quit talking. I'm going to let JP give you some information. She is awesome with the kids. We've had great feedback from all of our schools and we do hope to give the middle schools too a
022little bit because old said I'm gonna shut up and let J. So like Amy said, my name is Jennifer. I do go by JP because there's two jammers in my office and a kid called me JB and just stuck. Um, but I do go into all the first and fifth grade classes once we have received a sign permission slip back from the parents which I've attached along with the curriculum. Um, well, so what I gave you guys, I want you guys to see what we give the children once I'm in the classroom. So, I got in their packet. It's in their packet. So, what I um do with the first graders is I go in again, like Miss Amy said, I focus on a child's entire body. I do not focus on private parts. We
023don't go into a lot of details like that. I know there's a lot of hesitation with with people in the public, but I focus on a child's entire life. Head to toe body safety. We talk about bullying. um what to do if somebody doesn't see any part of their body that sh uh I talk about trusted adults. Uh that is something that I really focus on with the first grade class, helping them identify at least five trusted adults. Unfortunately, what we see more often than not is these kids are being perpetrated not by the strangers. I do talk about stranger danger, but I also let them know anybody can make a bad decision to hurt your body. So, um, I try to help them identify at least five adults that they can trust, that they
024can talk to, that they can go to if there's a problem. We talk about you need to have adults you live with, adults you don't live with, just help educating these children, um, because they're the ones that's having to go through this. Us, as parents, we've gone through so much, but kids are the ones that need to be staying, taking in this information. So, first grade, um, again, we talk about head to toe body safety, keeping your body healthy, what to do if something happens to any part that you're not okay with. Um, the trusted adults. I briefly talk about um like you are in charge of you, like you're a superhero. We have all the kids get kids and you can model all of the first graders, they get a superhero tape that says
025stop, go tell. Again, the whole point of us being there is to help give them the tools of what to do if something were to happen. So, if God forbid something were to happen to them, they know how to react. You can tell anybody to stop. You get away from them when it's safe and you tell one of your trusted adults. If your first trusted adult doesn't help you, you go tell another one. You tell as many people as you have to until somebody does something about the problem. So again, all the kids, they get a superhero cake, which they absolutely want. And we do that at the end because it's very distracting to my first gra a little superhero cake. But they all get a superhero cape. They all get a pencil. This is
026stop and tell. And when they get a worksheet that um well, we just at kind of wrapping up, we draw the faces. uh we help them like I walk around with them and um after I've had them the worksheet and then they're like trying to draw the faces of their coach or their parent or grandma whoever it might be that they identify as trusting adult because again the whole purpose of this is to educate to bring awareness so how they so they know how to be active god forbid something happens fifth graders they do not get a cake it's very cheesy corny for them they don't like um so when I go talk to them they get a bookmark which you guys have uh stock and tumbler board and they get one of the bracelets.
027Again, we do the same thing, the same kind of curriculum. However, with fifth graders, we focus more on online activities and like which apps are safe, why these apps are not safe, what to do if you're approached by somebody online, if you see something online you shouldn't. Again, it's just a very broad because I don't have a lot of time anyway. So, I just go one time in first and fifth grade after the permission set trying to Is there anything big that I have left out? One of the things that um really flabbergast me as a number of first not not just fifth graders but first graders that are already on like Tik Tok and all the social media. So, she really talks about your digital footprint and she really honed in on that in
028fifth grade, but she doesn't go over it some in first grade. And several years ago, um, every class that's in fifth grade that we did in Stanley County, every class, every single one, one kid, at least one kid come out and said that they had already been asked for an inappropriate picture or had someone had one. I had a first grade student tell me this school year when we were briefly going over this stuff about they were playing Roblox. Everybody has heard of Roblox. Um especially these children and that's one of the worst apps they can be on. But anyway, so the kid was telling me that he was on Roblox. And I said, "Well, you don't talk to these people, do you?" And he said, "Yes, I do." I said, "What do you mean
029you don't like how?" Because again, I'm thinking this is a little first grader. They're not going to be able to text stuff out. I don't know how well they can read. Like it really blew my mind when he said, "Yeah, I talk to him." What he was doing was he was taking his brother's headset, putting it on his head, and actually having conversations with strange adult people literally across the world. And this was a first grader, Stanley G, like I mean, he's on the edge, too, maybe 25 minutes from here. And they have they're innocent children. They have no idea. They let their guard down just as easy as they can. and they they don't realize it, they will slip up and like share too much about their location or their anything about themselves. So
030again, the whole purpose of our program is we don't focus on anything inappropriate, obviously head to toe body safety, how to be prepared, what to do, go for something when this does happen. So it's a very important program. We are very passionate about it. Yeah. Thank you guys for letting us come. If you have questions, we'll be happy to answer them. But just to bring it all home, we feel very um passionate with adults and kids that education is the key to prevention. We do have a a large case that we take in that the guidance counselor wants to kind of put it on because we also ask them tell us tell us some trusted adults that you know know of um and often they say teacher principal is guidance counselor mom dad whatever but
031sometimes we let the guidance counselors model her just kind of wear it and we also tell them you know here's your cape but you always have that invisible cape in your pocket that you can pull out any no matter where you're at you can always tell somebody to stop go and you tell somebody so we really hone in on boundaries. But you know, most importantly, education is key. You know, these first and fifth graders, their minds are vulnerable. You guys know that these teachers and educators know how, you know, how how have children's mind work. So, we just got to make sure that they have good information so we can have that out. Anybody have any questions about who who makes the decision on whether y'all meet with them or not? I'm not talking about
032the sign parent stuff. I'm talking about how the the children come to us at our center or how we get involved. So, we receive referrals from law enforcement, uh, mental health providers, pediatricians, doctor's offices, DSS. If there's a concern, suspicion of any type of abuse or severe neglect or witness to a violent act. Yeah. What's our policy? If a teacher suspects something, do they contact office and then we bring in social services? Yeah. All educators are mandated reporters. So they have to report immediately. Um yeah, not in an email. Has to be, you know, face to face with the school counselor administration. Then we go up the chain from there. That's part of our safety. So when I go in these classes, I I never go in by myself. I always take the guer counselor
033on some school you know, comes in as another set of eyes. Um, unfortunately, they like to like just spew out stuff at any point in time, even though they're trying to tell them, "Let's wait till the end, you know, talk privately." I mean, it's like some of these kids really, they're just waiting on somebody to tell them this is not right. And it's like because they don't know a lot of these kids, it goes on for such a long period of time and oftent times it's people that they know are the ones that are perpetrating acts on. So you and and what I tell the kids is abuse does not always hurt but you guys they have their gut feeling intuition but they get like an uh oh feeling so if something's not right they're
034feeling that way for a reason. Go find one of your trusted adults and if it's one of your trusted adults I reckon you feel that way there's another one like you're in charge of it's all about empowering and educating even. So was the butterfly house recently on Netflix? No, there must be another one that's very close to you because they were doing that documentary. Dragonfly. Dragonflies. They both same kind of Yes. Yes. Brandy Reagan is the director there. She's one of my friends. Yes. They they serve um David. Okay. So to give a little bit background context, the butterfly house reached out to us and came and did the presentation because again they were asking if they could come in um to our schools in the upcoming uh school year to implement the curriculum. Um
035we have seen and y'all can provide data but we have seen an uptick in referrals from McGomery County uh to the butterfly house. Um, so they reached out to us to again see if that was a possibility and that's why I asked them to come do a presentation so that you guys as a board can decide whether or not we want to implement this program in the fall. I was at an event in Troy not too long ago with the indictus project that is but I was there with the booth because you know we work with a lot of partners all with the same goal to keep these children safe and educating them. I did have several members asking, well, you know, is this something like I've never heard of this. Is this something you
036guys do on Montgomery County? They're like, well, not currently, but we're going to work towards that. That's our goal. We do still serve the children, and you guys can always call us if you have any questions. Um, so I know that the curriculum itself is, I think, something that's designed for a lot of families in Montgomery County. Obviously, she's a parent, too. I I do have two children and I think that they very much need well they did hear but I think their class their class is less lazy to do this. So I'm sure my daughter didn't give this entire presentation. Any other questions for us and seriously you um in the packet is pretty much what JP gives out minus the K. We didn't we didn't give the case. Um and you have a
037panel card with the information just kind of this is the nuts and bolts of what we do. The phone number is on here. I don't mind entertaining any questions anytime about what we do the referral process. And just to kind of piggyback on what Perkins said is yes teachers are mandated reporters and this is something that again I'm not giving a butterfly house speech tonight but something I will since I have a captivated audience all because we are North Carolina citizens of 1974 St. Lawson were all mandated reporters. So, um, of course teachers have to report. I know there's a process, but, um, this really empowers kids to speak up, to speak out, to tell somebody. Um, and you know, if it's a normal thing that's happened their whole life, they might not have known
038that it was wrong. So, we have really, um, we have really been floored with the response that we have gotten in Stanley County with with the children. Um, and again, she's been reached out to. Um, sadly high schools are already out, but she's already working on a program for the middle school coming up this coming year or so. How do y'all get funding the state donation? How long you got? So, we um we are we are a part of Atrium Health Stanley. I will tell you when I started the Butterfly House, it was Stanley Memorial Hospital ran by Billy Hson. if you guys know him or um were around then. Um we are the hospital does back us but I was told in through 2009 if you don't find your funding which shut you down.
039Um so essentially I work very hard. We um obtain Governor's Crown Commission funding which unfortunately over the past five years has gone down by about 80%. And we do receive um funds from the state through the department of health and human services block grant. um it is given to the North Carolina Children's Advocacy Centers which is we are also a member of that and then they funnel it down. We have a non-competitive pot and then a competitive pot. Um so that those are the two our two biggest funders are the um the state and the governor's crime commission although that's gone down. We do you probably some of you have heard of Stanley County Dancing with the Stars. Um and so in 2009 when we were told that at the end of the year um
040we started working with our advisory council friends group and we come up with Stanley County or it's not really Stanley County anymore. We move just changes to Dancing with the Stars because we have McGomery County folks dancing as well. I mean that usually brings in about $140,000 to kind of help with the short file with the grants and stuff. So we we do fund raise. We do community outreach, but um but we we do we do um we do feel very confident with our brand and that um Atrium does support us, but we still have to we still have to fund raise and make sure we have money because we want to make sure these kids get services. Thank you guys for having us. We can move on down to number five policies. Good evening
041again. Uh last month there were lots of policies up for review and tonight we just need to vote on all of these policies that were concerning all of the uh the major hall of policies from the uh policies that lead through the schoolboard association. If anyone has any questions um or concerns, I'll be glad to answer that as well. But if not, we just need to take action to approve those policies. Make a motion. I have a question. Dr. In the school safety policy section C says that the superintendent and each principal shall comply with all duties set out for their positions as required by law. The principal must inspect playgrounds and equipment. Should that include central office personnel? Can you give me that policy number? uh policy 152. And so you're just asking if
042we should put central office in there as well. Should someone from the maintenance department walk along that or principal then go back to their desks and submit work orders based on what they find? Would that be more efficient to have maintenance personnel do that as well? So the standard policy is is the uh principles do that walk through and then coordinate that with the maintenance. If that's something that you feel like we should look into and examine the efficiency of that, we can certainly do that. I was just asking if that would save time. I think that would actually prolong it because it would take long for maintenance to get out there and and do the walk through with the principal. Yeah. The principal can get it done and then submit that work ticket. And
043this policy is coming from the state school. This is not a policy. Right. The the actual policy is that we can make changes to it any way that we want to. Right. You might change it to something. So this is supposed to be done every day. You might change it to if you wanted the maintenance. I think the issue like we saw with East Middle 100% agree. Well, that's where the principal needs to reach out to the superintendent. Dr. Blow, will you please share with me where you're reading that from so I can follow along? I've got policy 1510 4272 section section. Okay. Second paragraph. Um yeah, I don't I don't see a problem if we want to insert u the principal and district office representatives or maintenance representatives must inspect him because it's just
044said on a regular basis. I mean it could be a scheduled thing like like what you said. It could be like on a monthly basis where they require the maintenance director or I don't I don't see any issue. Here here's my recommendation is to approve it like this and then we can get with Mr. Woodard and we can then insert our language to better fit our district. And can you check with principles as well to make sure that I'm not delaying the process is efficiency but again based on our school visits there were concerns that have not been addressed. So we can certainly do that. Thank you. Well, I should just say while we're on that topic, I would like to thank Mr. Blood is out there. Um I would like to thank um the
045action that took place at East Metal. Um I happened to see some pictures of the eighth grade dance and they had a big red carpet. Everybody had a picture there and it looked very nice. So we appreciate that. So thank you Any other questions? I make a motion that we accept amendments as motion second. So, thank you again. Um, so my from my remarks tonight, I just wanted to kind of talk briefly about what happened last week. So, I mean, as you guys know, we're we're involved in our end of year testing for the year. Uh we did begin administering our EOGs last week and we will continue this week with those EOG retest and we've started our uh EOCC administrations. Um but last week just wanted to make you aware that all of the
046North Carolina K12 schools faced an unexpected challenge uh during those administration of these state DOGs and some districts were already doing their EOCC's. Um but there was a statewide technical failure in the state's online testing program. Um it was a significant disruption that that occurred at all school districts. It left students, teachers, and administrators scrambling to adjust. Um despite the frustration and the confusion from that uh circumstance, our schools responded with resilience, patience, and professionalism. The issue stemmed from a statewide outage in the infrastructure that supports the test administration platform, which is NC test. Uh many students were unable to log in while others experienced crashes in the middle of the test, we were in the case that it crashed mid test. Um so while the technical team for the state worked swiftly to diagnose
047and resolve the issues, of course districts were forced to delay those assessments. So statewide we did receive an email from Michael Maher, Dr. Michael Maher. So statewide 29,675 students were impacted by the platform outage. Um some areas saw delays uh for 40 minutes and then others like us uh saw delays of up to 90 minutes because we did have one school that it went out at 9:45 and we got it back at 11:15. Um but we continue testing. Um so because of that I just want to extend my deep gratitude to the students who after months of preparation they showed remarkable composure in the face of that uncertain time. Uh sitting for high stakes exam is never easy very stressful. Um and having to do so amid technical failure is even more demanding upon them.
048So their focus, adaptability and willingness to changes did not go unnoticed. Um, and we do appreciate their hard work after we got everything back up and running and they were able to continue with that testing. Uh, and then I also want to wish the best of luck to the students who are still involved with testing this week. Wait, let me ask you a question. Do you have any, and I know they haven't given any hard data yet, do we have you have a feeling for how the test scores are going to be? Uh, that's hard to say at this point because we will not receive any of our science score data back until the fall because that was a we're in a a revision year with the standards and with the test and then they
049will be rearming the scores throughout the summer. Um, but I did um I have created a spreadsheet. I do a big tracking spreadsheet um and I've shared it with Dr. Rosebart and all the principles so we're all looking at the data as it comes in. Uh right now it's looking like if we remove the science scores from the pictures and we're only talking about math and reading we are up slightly. Um there's not yes compared to last year we are up slightly. Uh that is without all of the high school testing being completed. Um but again as we've been talking uh throughout the year we are implementing the new CKLA curriculum. So we have seen some slight gains because of that. Um but as we have been looking at that and talking with the reps
050from Amplify, you really see the biggest um gain in that third year of implementation. Um so we're hoping to see continued um you know improvement over the coming years in that. Um so right now yes we are seeing a slight improvement on test scores. Um, of course, like any other testing year, we see some bright spots and then we see some not so bright spots and you can usually attribute that to some staffing changes or some issues that are going on um, from that personnel standpoint. U, but we'll, you know, talk more about that whenever the state validates the data and verifies it so that we can actually present it publicly. I'd like to say that um I volunteered to proctor in two different schools and if you've never done that, you should consider it.
051Um I think I I think I told Mama that I might do it every five years. It is um very trying. It is. It's very trying. But but seriously watching the commitment of the staff at the schools I was at, the the teachers, the students, everybody took it seriously. Everybody was composed. I didn't even I was there when the outage happened and there were some wide eyes, but everybody was calm and um I I totally agree that everyone did a great job. It's it's difficult to keep third or fifth graders, even middle school kids, um in a testing session, not knowing how long the test will be out because they can't talk to each other because if they do, the state will say, "Oh, they're trying to share answers." So, they had to sit there
052in their room and they had to sit there quiet because they couldn't talk to their friends. And again, some of our schools experienced 90 minutes of that. And then we had to communicate with principles to facilitate lunches because we would have to pause the test. The kids had to go eat their lunch in silence and then come back to the testing session. It was a very trying effort and it's all online now. It's not paper pencil. So it's it is it's very trying. They like I said the schools that I I was in everybody handled it very well. So you could tell they knew what their procedures were. They had been they had been shown what to do. So very good. You have anything else before we go to motion second. I make a motion
053that we accept the consent agenda presented. I have I have a um motion and a second to have discussion. I must abstain from the voting to prevent the conflict of interest. All those in favor. And we want to make sure we report Dr. All.