001Tuesday, October 7th. Wow. 2025. Uh before we start, I would like to have a moment of silence. Thank you. Um, since it's autumn, um, it it kind of reminds us that, um, growth often comes with transition. And in our schools, that growth is nurtured every day by dedicated educators, engaged families, and community that believes in the power of learning. Let's continue to center our work around what's best for our students, and lead with a purpose, passion, and vision. And at this time, we'll have the pledge of allegiance. >> Yes, sir. I'd like to call up Julian Guju Hall from NF Woods to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. [Applause] Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty
002and justice for all. Thank you. Uh at this time, because I'm usually remiss, I believe and he just walked in. Have Commissioner Carricker. I'd like to recognize him in attendance today. Thank you for being here, sir. Approval of the agenda. >> Um Mr. chairperson, I would like to discuss um just knowing um that we have an extra few people talking tonight, I'd like to talk about um making a motion to amend the agenda um to allow some additional time for comment. Um >> how many do we have? >> 13. So, are you asking to extend nine more minutes? >> Yeah, nine more minutes. I'd like to allow all 13 the full three minutes. >> Okay. We have a >> motion to amend the agenda. >> I'll entertain. Second. >> Yeah, I'll second that. >> A
003motion and a second. All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed? Motion carries. So, uh, as the approval of the amended agenda, I'll entertain a motion to approve the amended agenda. >> I make a motion to approve the amended agenda. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I >> I >> thank you. Motion carries. Approval of the minutes from our September the 2nd uh board meeting. Did we have >> approval of the minutes of the September 2nd board meeting? >> I move we approve the minutes as published. >> I have an a motion. I'll entertain a second. >> Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the board meetings of the September 2nd meeting. All those in favor? I. >> All those opposed? Motion carries. Uh, as a part of the
004announcements, uh, I would like to advise everyone that our next board meeting will be November the 3 at the Morsville Performing Arts Center uh, for the 3 instead of here in town hall. Student of the month, Dr. Gardner. Yes, sir. Good evening. Tonight we have the honor of recognizing our student of the month and pledge leader, Guju Hall, student at NF Woods. Juju was selected by Miss Morris, counselor at NF Woods, and we're going to share a little bit about why she nominated him. But first, we'll ask him to come back up and let's give him a round of applause. Julian, who goes by Ju Guu, is a senior at NF Woods who has worked extremely hard in order to graduate early. He has demonstrated remarkable resilience and determination to overcome many obstacles while in
005high school. Through it all, Ju Guu has maintained excellent grades, perfect attendance, and positive relationships with teachers and peers. In addition to his academic success, Guju has successfully managed the demands of a job, showcasing his strong work ethic and time management skills. In times of hardship, Juju has persevered and will graduate with his high school diploma in December. Please join me in congratulating our student of the month, Juju Hall. >> Oh, wait. No, we're not done yet. [Applause] The Morsel Graded School District Board of Education recognizes Julian Hall as the student of the month for leading the pledge of allegiance at the board meet board of education meeting October 7th, 2025 along with all the other wonderful things just mentioned. So congratulations. >> Congratulations. All [Applause] right, next up we have our artist of the
006month. Tonight we have the honor of recognizing Taylor Roach, student at NF Woods as our artist of the month. Taylor was nominated by Miss Stone, teacher at NF Woods. And before I share a little bit about why she was nominated, we're going to ask her to come up front at this time. Let's give her a round of applause. >> Very good. >> Excellent work. >> Taylor was nominated as our artist of the month because of the positivity and excitement she brings to art appreciation classroom. In addition to being a creative and inspiring artist, as we can see with the artwork here, she is always willing to help and inspires other students in the class. Taylor is a senior and is planning to attend college next fall. In addition to visiting colleges, she is also working
007part-time while maintaining an Average in all of her classes. Taylor also serves as the student representative on the NF Wood School improvement team. Please join me in congratulating Taylor as our October 25 artist of the month. The Morsel graded school district board of education recogniz recognizes Taylor Roach as the artist of the month board of education meeting October 7th, 2025. Congratulations. >> Congrats. All right. Next up, we have our ABCD award. Each month, we have the honor of recognizing a district employee who goes above and beyond in demonstrating a core value of our district. This month, we'll be recognizing Miss Shirley Black, administrative assistant at NF Woods. Miss Black was nominated by Mr. Enelmo, assistant principal at NF Woods. And before we share a little bit about why she was nominated, we're going to ask
008her to come up front this time. Let's give her a round of applause. >> Miss Shirley Black has transformed the office at NF Woods to an extremely professional environment, all the while displaying a nurturing presence to students and families. Her commitment to building authentic relationships with the students has enabled her to manage the flow of the office by meeting students needs and aiding the admin staff. Miss Black's ability to establish trust with staff while also being that smiling frontline face of our Woods office makes that day makes all days run a little smoother. Miss Black also has extreme work ethic that leads to her jumping in and helping out with anything that needs to be done. Her attention to detail with all of the needs at Woods helps the campus as a whole. Please join
009me in congratulating Miss Black, our October ABCD award winner. The Morsel Graded School District recognizes Shirley Black for going above and beyond the call of duty October 2025. And you get this great plaque to display to remind everybody just how fantastic you are. So, Congratulations. [Music] [Applause] All right, next up we have our spotlight on people. And this month we will be spotlighting our school board who received the gold bell award. The Morrisville graded board of education was recently awarded the gold bell award by the North Carolina School Board Association. This award is for training excellence and commitment during the academic year. The Gold Bell Award is the highest professional development honor available to boards of education and recognizes that all five board members have met or exceeded the association's highest standard for completion of
010training. This achievement reflects our school board's dedication to excellence, continuous learning, and effective governance. Their commitment to professional growth ensures strong leadership for our district and better outcomes for students, staff, and the families we serve. We congratulate the morsel greater board of education for this outstanding accomplishment and thank them for their continued service and support of education. Please join me in congratulating our spotlight on people that for October 2025 the moral greater board of education come up take a picture. [Applause] All right, as they're heading back to their seat, I will call up the NF Wood staff as they are going to prepare for our school highlight of the month. So before we get started, I'd like to highlight our fan club in the first two rows here, our NF Woods family. Um, good evening,
011uh, Dr. Gardner and Chairman Whitfield and members of the board. I'm Melanie Allen. I am the, uh, proud principal of NF Woods, which is the alternative school in our district. This evening, we will highlight our newly implemented middle school alternative program. As part of the strategic plan a couple years ago, the development of an alternative program for Selma Burke Middle School and Morrisville Middle School became a priority. We spent almost a year researching and planning to open the middle school program in August of 2024. I also want to publicly acknowledge I want to publicly acknowledge um Miss Elizabeth Aston. She's not here. She's one of our school behavior specialists that was instrumental in that planning year. And so I want to make sure we give a shout out to Miss Aston. Um and um since
012we're highlighting the middle school, I do want to because they're such a small staff and I know we're always short on time at board meetings, but I do want to make sure that everyone puts a name to a face of our middle school staff. Um so Dr. Wilson is behind me and Miss Barage. Those are our core teachers, but I also want to recognize Terry Tidwell who is our TA. the little little wave. Mickey Mansfield. Um Anya Jones, who's now joined us, we're so glad as our um EC case manager. And I also want to acknowledge uh Kelly Pullman, where are you with the because we started that program last year without being fully staffed. We only had one teacher and two TAs. And Kelly stepped up for a whole semester. And I know she
013was really waiting for Dr. Wilson to come on board in January, but I wanted to publicly acknowledge that. Um, so I'm going to turn over the presentation to begin with to Mr. Ensmo. First year of Woods having an AP, so it's a kind of a monumental couple of years for us. Yes, we're all happy. We're all happy for that. But we want to give you a glimpse into what our middle school alternative journey has been like. >> What's up, everybody? My name is Tim Mansel, the assistant principal at Woods. I'd like to start by introducing a eighth grade student, Jules Dentry, who's going to talk about Woods in his own way. What's good y'all? My name is Jules and today I'm going to be showing y'all, well, not showing, introducing y'all of a day in
014the life of being a middle schooler in NF Woods. So I was one of the first ones in to step with NF. I guess you can say I started NF. I used to say I started in until there was 19 other students that came along with me. >> You know at NF Woods, you know, we really do work hard. We have a small staff. Uh they make sure they work with those kids and really push them. And so we kind of wanted to highlight the hard work they do academically. Um, on the right side you see some pictures of the kids working hard. And we have another video of one of our students, Josh Lewis, a current seventh grader who did a kind of a tour of Woods. >> My name is Joshua Lewis and
015here at Woods, we work hard. This is our hallway after we enter the double doors. This is our ELA and social studies classroom with Miss Barriage. Down here at the end of our hallway, we have Dr. math and science. And this is our CTE room with Mr. Robinson. >> Miss Allen is going to talk a little more of the specifics about academics and behavior. >> All right. To kind of stay with working hard at NF Woods, we wanted to highlight the seven things that we believe that we modify for excess and academics in that program. And I'm just going to hit on just maybe one in each thing. Um, so behavior is part of instruction. We are always focused on behavior no matter what what we're doing in the classroom. And one of the ways
016that we do that and and social emotional. So I'm actually going to talk about the social emotional a little bit before I talk about the behavior down on on point four. But um, basically we have a uh a social and emotional program that we like called base and we tie that into participation grades for our students. So, Miss Morris, our counselor, she does an awesome job of setting that up for our students individually based and as a group for the modules for them to to work through. So, we feel like we try to tie that into to academics as much as we can. Um, number two, highly scaffolded academic tasks. Um, the big thing I feel like that we do for our students in that middle school program is we're constantly reteing fundamentals. every lesson
017plan is going back and retaching and scaffolding our lesson plans so that we're hitting on the basics of grammar that was from years ago as we're so we are always wanting to go back and revisit um because some of our students are behind grade level but we're always wanting to go back and revisit as we're moving forward. So I feel like these two ladies behind me do a great job do a great job of that. Um hands-on active learning I am so happy to say that we were able to get a CTE teacher on NF Woods campus. um he started uh second half of last year, so this is the first full-time year. And he teaches in the high school two blocks, but he also teaches the middle school students at the end of the
018day. So, there's a lot of hands-on career exploration um for them. And we were worried when we started the middle school program about some of the electives the kids would lose coming from Selma Brook um and Mors Middle that we just couldn't provide. So, to be able to add that on our second year has just been phenomenal. A lot of our kids are not kids just to sit in a desk. Um, we got lots of movement at Woods. Um, frequent feedback and reinforcement. I'm not good at this. >> We have to do these point cards uh once a week here at Woods. You know, every day um we have to set ourselves some goals. You know, uh whenever we get the twos, that means we're good. There's ones means that you had to get reminded
019more than once. And then the zeros for when you did bad. But uh I've gotten two so far as you see. And at the end of the week, they uh uh tally all of them up to see if we can go to fun Friday or not. So, yeah, that's how the point card works. >> Ethan explained that much better than I could. Um I will say, um yeah, last year was a trial and error year. Um I feel like all these people behind me and around me were so flexible. We were changing we're still changing things, but we were changing things on a weekly basis. and we didn't start with that with a point card, but by the end of first quarter, it was very clear that we needed that we definitely needed one. So,
020I think the kids are bought into those. Um, they get to earn a lot of things from them and that sometimes they get not only daily reinforcement, but they're getting blockby-block reinforcement from those and they're cute colors. Um, number five and six, intentional relationship building and individualized support. One of the things that the point cards has is it has what the the group is working on the goals that the group but then it also has time for the students to meet with a lot of times it's with our TAs to work on those individual goals that they have so they are constantly focused on what are we trying to achieve as a group but not only that what am I working on so that point card kind of has a lot of information on it
021um individualized support you know we're outside the box thinkers at Woods I don't I could give you countless, you know, ways that that we do different things. I will say like even this year, two of our students, including the one that's on the slide right there, is actually in the middle school but taking a class at the high school level. And then we have another student who's getting ready to do that too for a block. So when I say that we really look at every kid individual individually and decide what's best for them, um trust that that we do do that. Um I think data driven but realistic goals is something really important for us so that my teachers aren't crying when um test scores come out sometimes. So you know one of the things
022that that we do is we try to look back at data from our kids from whence they come and it's very hard to put a lot of pressure um on teachers when when kids have had trouble with standardized testing from third grade. So we we feel like we are definitely focused on proficiency, but we are 100% focused on growth because that's the most important and most important things for our students. So I'm going to turn it back over then to the crew behind me. >> Did you touch my note cards, Miss Allen? >> Okay. So we really work on our emotions like Miss Allen said with the point cards and wanted to highlight a few things on this slide. Miss Allen talked about base. That's the left side here. That is our SAL curriculum and
023we found that has been very helpful. Uh you got the point guard in the middle that Miss Allen mentioned. Also wanted to talk about how we expanded our um school-based mental health. This year we met with Children's Hope Alliance this summer. We had one uh therapist. Last year we now have three therapists including male and female. That has been very helpful. Uh, I have a video here of a student, uh, seventh grader Jada Mlullen, talking about, uh, Miss Morris, the school counselor at Woods in her room, and they are in there a lot, and she's very, um, good and helping them. Oh, maybe that video didn't happen, but you take my word for it. Miss Morris is awesome and her room is great. So, can you try it again? >> I can try it again.
024>> Yep. I'm sure I messed that up somehow. Okay. We also like to say we work hard and we play hard. Um we do want school to be fun. We want it to be something where they want to go in the morning, not something that is a punishment. Uh we try to go all out on campus activities. Um we do uh festivals, cookouts, a bunch of different things. Um kids earn some of them. Some of them are just to celebrate when they're there. uh the students really are appreciative of it. Um we've noticed that many have not had experiences like the cookouts or the festivals. So it has been really impactful and it's also a critical part of our PBIS and you know the kids do want to earn uh the fun stuff that we
025do. Uh reading success I know Miss Allen talked about some of the data. We were very successful with Edenum last year. Um we have now tied a school improvement goal to reading. Uh we worked with Dr. Wade and decided to keep with Edenum this year with our students due to our past success. Um I know Miss Bears were very proud last year with the kids growth and definitely think it's going to keep going this year preparing for high school transition. Um you know since last year was our first uh inaugural year uh you know we had some eighth graders get promoted to nth grade. We are tracking the nth grade group. you know, we stay on top of it because we're very close with them and their families. Every student that stayed enrolled in Moro
026Graded School District is part of the high school program. And I'm happy to report that many of those students actually take classes at main campus and are doing really well. Now, I'd like to introduce Dr. Wilson and Miss Barage, and they're going to introduce a few freshmen who came through the middle school program last year. Thank you. Um, I would be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to first thank the board for allowing us to serve at NF Woods, which we know is your vote of confidence, allows us to serve where we are, and to acknowledge our administrative team, Miss Allen and Mr. Anelmo, um, which we like to call the dynamic duo. Um they uh challenge us every day to be the best versions of ourselves, to show up for our kids, to
027think critically and creatively about how we can best serve the needs of our kids. And we are exceptionally glad and proud um that they are our instructional leaders that they lead us by example and even though they make 531,600 decisions a day each one is intentional about what is best for the interest of that kid and we um celebrate them today as well. I will also um like to introduce Kayn Hartley. Kayn has worked hard since coming to the middle school portion to embrace what NF Woods has and um has overcome distractions and obstacles in the class room to be successful. And as Kayn has moved on to the high school portion, we still consider her one of ours. And so we would like um to hear from Kayn as to her experience in the
028middle school program. Hi everyone, my name is Kayn. I'm a freshman this year, which basically means I've spent the the past few weeks learning how to find my classes without getting lost and trying not to embarrass myself too much. But honestly, I felt ready for high school thanks to the middle school program at NF Woods. At Woods, we learn way more than just math and reading. We learn how to stay organized, which comes in handy when you have four different teachers all giving assignments at different times. We also learned how to speak up and share ideas, which which makes class discussions in high school a lot easier. The teachers at Woods pushed us to think, try harder, work together, and try new things, which meant sometimes that meant group projects, which let's be honest, that
029means pra practicing your patience when your partner forgot to do their part. But hey, that's teamwork, right? What really made a difference at Woods was the staff. They didn't just teach lessons, they taught us how to believe in ourselves. They saw potential in us when we didn't see it in ourselves. They were the ones who noticed when we were struggling, encouraged us when we were nervous, and celebrated every step forward, even the small ones. They made us feel like we mattered, not just as students, but as people. And the kind of support doesn't go away. It stays with you. I know. I know. I carry it with me every single day in high school. And I want to give a special shout out to my dearest teacher and almost my second mom, Dr. Wilson. We
030also got to explore different subjects. So, by the time I got to high school, I already knew what I liked and maybe things I never wanted to do again, like the rock cycle. But it did teach me that rocks transform under pressure, which is kind of comforting because now I know if I survive middle school, I can survive anything. So, yeah, high school is a big step, but thanks to NF Woods, it didn't feel like a leap. It felt like the next chapter. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening. I'm excited to introduce Milanale. Milan joined us the second quarter of last year. Milan knew why the referral was made from Morsville Middle, but was still not happy about coming to Nupwoods. By the end of the quarter, Milan had started to trust and believe that we
031had all the students best interest at heart and now is and is now being celebrated as a success. [Applause] When I entered the eighth grade at Morrisville Middle School, I went into it thinking I'd fail. I tried first quarter and I ended up doing exactly what I thought thought. Failing multiple classes in the first quarter and I somehow got a 50 in band. At first I was very skeptical about going to Woods since all my friends went to Morsville and I was so used to this people I've seen there my whole life. You know, I continued to be skeptical and even against going to NF Woods until I was sent there. At first, I missed my friends and the schedule I got so used to over the years. But once I was there for around
032a week, I started to feel like I actually belonged in a school for the first time in years. My grades went up. I felt less stressed. And I actually enjoyed going to school for once. My biggest change was definitely my grades. I went from failing or almost failing classes to all A's. The environment also made a massive difference for me. When there's less students, you can have more of a connection with everyone, including the teachers. Feeling like you know everyone better and they know you better can make school feel a lot more enjoyable. Personally for me, I do a lot better with my work when I actually enjoy the place I'm doing it at. So, it's helped me a lot since MMS. I kind of dreaded going to school every day. At Woods, it felt
033I don't want to say that. >> Thank you. >> It's normal. It's just corny. Okay, another thing another thing that really helped is how classes were a little shorter. Personally, I can't focus for longer periods of time. So, having breaks in between classes and shorter classes, uh, I cannot read helped tremendously for me. I was also able to focus for all the class instead of getting an hour in and zoning out for the rest of it. My mental health also improved a lot during the time at Woods. When I was at MMS, I experienced a lot of problems with bullying and people around me. When I transferred to When I When I transferred, I was actually in a place that made me feel like I was welcome there. Before at MMS, I constantly felt out
034of place. I was always the odd one out in a room. My classmates made sure that I knew that. Woods, on the other hand, made me feel like I was one of them. The teachers have been a huge part of why it helped me so much. Like Miss Barage has been someone that I can talk to and trust throughout my time here along with Dr. Wilson. I'm so grateful that I got moved to Woods and met both of them. Out of all the teachers I've had, don't touch me, please. Sorry. The ones it was always the best. At a normal school, you wouldn't get the chance for to get to know your teachers and for them to know you since you're just one student out of the many students they already have. Yet, since there's
035a lot less lot less people in your classes, it's easier for them to get to know you as a person better. The people there is what made Woods what it was. They made the work less stressful and the school itself more fun. Another thing about the less students, it's a lot less stressful for like anyone who doesn't like crowded rooms. Understandable. Overall, NF Woods has helped me a lot academically, emotionally, and socially. If it wasn't for the school, I wouldn't have gotten many of the friends I have today. And who knows if I ever would have got my grades up. I genuinely don't think I would have made it to high school if it wasn't for Woods. I will always be grateful for this school and the people that work here for getting me to
036where I am now. >> Everybody's crying. We are who we are. >> Do you guys have any questions? >> I just want to say it. It's amazing what y'all are doing there. This community, the Morsel community doesn't truly understand what goes on inside that building and I spread the word every time I have an opportunity to do so. The work you're doing is amazing. Um you you said the data from where they've come. Growth within an individual's gap is always the most important. That that score is not the most important thing. and and every single child we have deserves a chance. And you guys work very hard every day to give them that. And thank you is simply not enough for all you do there. So, thank you. It's an amazing job. >> Thank you.
037>> Mrs. Bender and I had the opportunity to tour today and it's always inspirational and it kind of strikes me that while we call it an alternative school, I wish that all of our schools could be alternative if this is the result. Um it it's and I want to assure people the rigor is there. >> Yeah. >> In two different classrooms, I was just looking at the vocabulary list thinking, hm, these are SAT words. >> It it was it it was very much um a a a challenging academic environment, but the amount of care and um and the buyin that the students had was so evident. and we thank you for the work that you do. It's important. >> Thank you students for bringing your testimony today. >> I do want to add that Milan
038Milan is taking two honors classes on the main campus >> and doing very well. I think that needs to be pointed out from where when you heard her testimony from where she came. So that's very important. >> No, I would just like to add thank you to staff, parents, everybody just playing a a role in what you're doing. Um, I want everybody to understand that you're always more than enough. >> Um, and when I say that, it takes someone being in your corner and having a champion for you to be the best that you can be. Don't let your starting point be your finish. >> Understand that you're more than enough. So, thank you all. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> What you do is just so important and we see it and
039we love it. And thank you so much for the individualized attention you give each and every student and staff in that building. Thank you. >> your testim the testimonials of the of the two students says it every bit of what's going on there and the special relationships that are taking place there and the changes that are being made on a daily basis for the students. And that's what it's all about. That's what it's all about. So, thank you and thank you for you guys saying what you said because it was beautifully said and perfect. >> Perfect in every word, even the giggles. >> Thank you. >> Give yourselves a round of applause. >> Dr. Gardner, uh, staff reports. All right, members of the board. Um, the state of North Carolina last month released accountability data
040from our state assessments. So, for my report, I will give an overview of some of the highlights of of those assessment results. All right, we'll start with um in North Carolina, each school receives a school performance grade. Um, so what we've done here on this first slide is to just share the past two years as a comparison. Um, just for context, um, a low performing school is a D or an F school. We are one of 18 school systems in North Carolina with no low performing schools. And as you notice for 2025, the vast majority of our schools are in the B range. Uh, a couple things that I've got noted on the side as well. Our K2 schools don't participate in the state assessment, but they do a lot of work to prepare our
041students for the state assessments. So they receive the school performance grade of their feeder school wherever the majority of the students go. So Morsville Intermediate um South and Rocky River are tied to them and Park View is tied to East. So you can see a lot of celebrations there on that first slide for school performance grades. Next, as Miss Allen talked about, we really focus mainly on growth. Um we believe proficiency comes when students make academic growth. Um, so we have the two-year comparison for um, schoolwide growth across the district. Um, and then on the side I've I've got a little chart there as an explanation. So about 20 to 25% of the schools in North Carolina will not meet growth, which is an index score of negative 2.0 or less. Around 50% of the
042schools um, will meet growth and that's that negative 1.99 to positive 1.99. Then you've got around 20 25% they're going to be exceeding growth which is plus two or more. Um you can see we had a really strong year with academic growth across our schools with three of the schools exceeding growth. Those three schools were actually the top three schools in academic growth in Ardell County when you're looking at all public and charter school options. So a lot of celebration there. Um, we did have one school not meet growth, but as you noticed, they made a drastic jump in in improving that and and we knew that that would be a multi-year process. So, next year they are at least meeting growth or exceeding growth and they are >> I knew he was going to
043say something there. So, he doesn't want the target to be meet. They they plan to exceed. So, um, lots to celebrate there as well. Um, when we look at growth, we don't just look at the school data. We want to break it down a few different ways so that we can make sure that we're capturing, you know, any of the needs that we have and celebrating um some of the great accomplishments. So, you can see um we have for each grade level for reading and math whether that um grade level didn't meet meet or exceeded growth. You can see there's a lot of celebration there. Um just for context, math does not receive a data point because it does not have a baseline score. Students when they enter third grade within the first few weeks
044take um what's called the bog beginning of grade assessment. So the reading growth is comparing that beginning of year to end of year score. So lots to celebrate there. No red and predominantly exceeding growth. And then last um we also we don't just look at it by grade level. We look at it by our student groups. Um so these are the 10 student groups that are reported out by the state of North Carolina for Morsville graded. Um I believe you have to have 30 or more students to get a report. um in any particular category. So you can see tons to celebrate there as well. Um no um no area that was not met and the vast majority exceeding as well. So um this happens as we were talking about before. The community here in
045Morsville is special. Um we are aligned around providing for the needs of all of our students. We have the best staff in North Carolina. We have folks that are just dedicated to doing whatever it takes for students. Um, and I think it shows in this data. This says that the vast majority of our students are exceeding their growth expectation on state assessments. That happens with a high quality um, teaching staff, high quality support staff, and the leaders that are in this room today. Um, they're always up for a challenge. You know, they celebrated for like two minutes and then they started looking at this year as you guys saw from the school improvement plan. So, we've got bigger goals than this. We're really excited about um, where we are, but we plan to keep moving
046forward. That concludes my comments. Oh, no, it does include my comments. I got a couple more. Couple other highlights that I Hey, can't celebrate enough, right? Um, we did have the top graduation rate in North Carolina. Um, we are tied with two other school districts, but they do not report out um once you're above 95%. So, we are above 95% with two other school districts. Again, I mentioned we're one of 18 school districts with zero low performing schools. Um, when you break down that data even further, most of them are majority have a majority C schools. You saw that's not the case for us. I believe there were only two districts that had majority A or B, US and Chapel Hill. Um, overall academic ranking in North Carolina moved from 20th to 13th. Eighth grade
047math has been a particular focus area for us. So, we were very proud of them being ranked third in the state of North Carolina for performance. Again, I mentioned that we had three schools with really exceptional growth. All three of those schools rank in the top 3% of North Carolina schools for academic growth. So that means, rest assured, that those students are growing at rates higher than the vast majority of students in North Carolina. And then um we are still working on getting those prepandemic levels. We're there for the most part in math um with the exception of third grade. And our intermediate students in grades four and five were at that pre- pandemic level. And again, I I would attribute that to our K2 staff did a lot of work on foundational reading um
048and modifying our instruction to align to the science of reading. And I think that's really paying off in fourth and fifth grade. We're going to see that continue as we go up. And that does conclude my comments. >> I think so. >> All right. as um we have some of the folks leaving uh today. Uh just uh by way of an update and um to make sure that our folks are aware, we have a fall law conference that uh starts tomorrow uh that I believe the majority of the uh folks here uh for the school board will be attending in Asheville. Um please be advised that October 9th there is a Hispanic Heritage Community event at Moresville Intermediate School. We have homecoming of course uh Friday evening at Moresville High School against North Irele. And
049of course students are excited about fall break which is the 13th through the 17th. And we must not forget that uh the 44th annual Blue Devil Classic will be October the 18th from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. And of course then we are back for our regular school board meeting on November 3rd. Uh there are obviously a number of sporting events to attend in the next um 25 or so days. Please be mindful of those and uh support when you're able to. And um that concludes my um board events. Uh I think uh just by way of Well, I'll I'll strike that public comment. Uh Mr. Childers. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh we've reached a point in our agenda where we welcome public comments from anyone wishing to address the school board who signed
050up to speak. Your comments are important to the board and we thank you in advance. Before we get started, I want to review a few guidelines. Uh we have a number of speakers tonight. Um each person who signed up to speak will be allowed three minutes to make comments. Our board clerk will start the timer and it will change to yellow uh when you have one minute remaining. and then we'll beep when your time is up. I'll appreciate it if you guys will stick tightly to that deadline so we can give everyone a fair opportunity to speak. Uh your time may not be given to another speaker. We ask that only one spokesperson from a group speak when applicable. Uh comments should be directed to the school board as a whole, not to individual members,
051employees or students. All speakers are expected to be courteous in their language and in their presentation. Thank you again for supporting our students and our schools. And uh we're just going to take folks in the order they signed up. Uh the first speaker will be Jenna Taylor. Good evening, Chairman Whitfield, Superintendent Gardner, members of the board. Um, my name is Jenna Tater, and I am the creator of the petition calling for the resignation of Mrs. Marsh and Mrs. Bender. As of just a few moments ago, the petition has 546 signatures. I'm not going to read that petition aloud tonight, as I trust you've all had the opportunity to review it yourselves. What I do want to do is re reiterate why we are here. First and foremost, it is unacceptable that the teachers you oversee
052are held to a higher standard than the board members who lead them. I've had multiple employees of the school system and frankly even employees of the town reach out to me privately saying that they support this petition but feel that they cannot speak out publicly because they've been told in doing so, especially if it involves politics or criticism of schoolboard members, it could cost them their jobs. How is that right? How can their voices be silenced while Mrs. Marsham as his vendor feel empowered to freely and publicly use our platforms to share political and often divisive rhetoric. Unfortunately, when you're in an elected position, you don't get to take off your public hat. While it may be your personal Facebook page, your followers, and the public don't see a difference. Your words, your tone, and
053your values are still associated with the position that you hold. That's exactly why there's a social media policy in place for the educators that you lead. because what they say online reflects their role as a public servant. So why is the same standard not being applied to you? Just because you can say something doesn't mean that you should. When you hold a public position, especially one that affects children, families, and educators, your words carry weight. They shape the tone of the community, whether you intend them to or not, and they either build trust or they erode it. How can members of the public, especially those that do not share the same beliefs, says Mrs. Marsh and Mrs. or have confidence in your ability to advocate for all students, teachers, and families when it has been
054made so clear where you stand. And if this is what's being said and how you behave publicly, what should we assume happens behind closed doors? Mrs. Marsh, in particular, has a history of using her social media to divide, antagonize, and to sometimes make others feel less than? That's not leadership. The comments made by both of these board members reflect a concerning lack of impulse control, sound judgment, empathy, and emotional intelligence. all qualities that are not optional in leadership. At a time when our world desperately needs unity, compassion, and responsible leadership, our children, our community, and our educators deserve better. True leadership comes from leading with compassion, kindness, and integrity. It means knowing that the examples you set matters. That is a standard we should demand from anyone in a position of influence. We deserve board
055members who lead with that integrity, with a moral compass that puts people before politics and community before personal agendas. Even if nothing formal comes from this petition, I truly hope this experience has given both of you reason to pause and reflect. Because again, just because you can speak or act a certain way doesn't mean that you should. Moving forward, I urge you to be more mindful of how you represent not just yourselves, but the children, educators, and community you were elected to serve. >> Thank you, ma'am. [Applause] And I may have neglected in my opening comments to give you a little warning, but on the podium there, there's a light. Um, and when it turns yellow, that means you have one minute left, and then it'll flash red and you'll hear the sound that you
056just heard when your time is up. Uh, the next speaker is Lynn Martin. Good evening, Dr. gardener, members of the board, staff and uh teachers, and my fellow community members. My name is Lynn Martin. I'm a parent of two sons who are proud graduates of Morrisville Graded School District, and I'm here tonight to speak out loudly and clearly in support of Dr. Debbie Marsh and Monica Bender. I have known Dr. Marsh for more than 25 years. She was my children's assistant principal and later their principal and I saw firsthand the kind of leader she is. Dr. Marsh has given her entire career, her heart and soul to the community to children of this community. She has fought to make education acceptable, accessible, equitable, and meaningful for every single student, including my youngest son with multiple
057disabilities who she wrapped her arms around and brought him through uh elementary school. She is professional of the highest integrity and she deserves nothing less than our full respect and gratitude. I have also known Monica Bender for about five years and she brings the same fierce commitment to this district. Monica is tireless. She gives her time, her energy, and her voice to fight for public education and for our kids. She stands up when it's hard. She speaks the truth when it's uncomfortable. And she never loses sight of why she's here for the children. The public attack on these two women, they're they're not being is wrong. They're not being criticized for failing to serve this community or Morsville greatest school district. They're being targeted for using their first amendment rights. We don't give up. You
058don't give up your freedom of speech because you care enough to serve. We can disagree on policy. We can disagree on perspective. That's democracy. But going after people personally, trying to silence them or punish them for speaking their minds in is intimidation and is his attempt to silence women. Dr. Marsh and Monica Bender have given this district years of service, integrity, and heart. Remember when these remember who these women are and what they've given our children in our schools. They deserve our thanks, not our attacks. So tonight, I'm standing with them and I hope others will, too. Because if we stay silent while good people are targeted for speaking the truth, we all lose. Thank you. [Applause] Next will be Terresa Knight. Good evening, Chairman Whitfield, Superintendent Gardner, and members of the board. This month
059is recognized as Hispanic Heritage Month. As a Hispanic woman, I have firsthand knowledge and experience of the richness of Hispanic culture in America. Some of the most positive aspects of Hispanic culture include the centrality of family, bonds within the nuclear family and across generations, deep Christian faith, resilience and optimism, strong work, work ethic, hospitality, and rich cultural expressions. At a time when we should be celebrating and highlighting these positive aspects of Hispanic culture, our public schools have instead chosen to push its leftist liberal ideologies on our students under the guise of Hispanic heritage. In the last two MHS community newsletters, this was a picture promoting 18 books for Hispanic heritage. Upon looking through the list of books included, it became clear that these books are not a mode for students to learn about and appreciate
060the richness of Hispanic culture. Instead, these books are a way to promote the leftist agenda. I gave the list of books to Google Gemini and asked, "Are there any political ideologies tied to any of the books on this list?" AI's response, "14 of the books have clear and central ties to political ideologies." However, a broader interpretation could argue that all 18 books on the list are connected to political or social critiques. I then asked Gemini, "Based on this book list, are there any conservative political ideologies tied to them?" AI's response in bold. No, none of the books are tied to conservative political ideologies. In fact, the collection as a whole is strongly aligned with progressive and social justice perspectives. The central themes and narratives in these books stand in direct contrast to most modern conservative
061platforms. Four books contain critiques of US immigration policy and pro- illegal immigration rights. Four books promote feminism and include a critique of patriarchy. Four books include critiques of systematic inequality. Five books contain significant affirmation of the LGBTQ plus community. Where are the books that show Hispanics using vibrant colors, lively music, and delicious foods to celebrate freedom and tradition? Where are the books that highlight the huge family gatherings of multiple generations coming together during holidays for feasts and fellowship? Where are the books where three to four generations of women come together to pass down the tradition of making tamalias or tortillas from scratch? Where are the books that show the strong work eth work work ethic by dads and moms doing all that they can to provide for their family and serving as role models to
062their children in grit and optimism for the future. I was told that this list intentionally includes a variety of reading options to meet the diverse interests and needs of all our students. But that is false as it clearly does not represent diverse expect perspectives. Your book list is nothing more than an attempt to brainwash our children to the leftist liberal ideologies. And the deceitful promotion of this under the guise of Hispanic heritage undermines the district's core values of authentic relationships and integrity. [Applause] Next is Kelly Harris. Good evening. Charlie Kirk's assassination was the shot witnessed around the world. Our children watched it, some repeatedly and in slow motion. Those who looked up to him were challenged by his words, were devastated, while others cheered. People took to social media with hatred, cherrypicked quotes and threats
063to others like him. His fans and followers grieved, held vigils, and vowed to continue his legacy, courage for his faith, and boldness to engage in conversations with those who disagreed with him. In our community, two elected officials took to the internet to minimize his impact and the tragedy. Monica Binder behosted, "How are we to be surprised that a person who regularly speaks heinous words dies in a heinous way, yet beautifully innocent children are regularly shot at school in an equally heinous way? Neither of these is okay, but only one of them deserves outrage. I brought with me a blog titled Dismantling the Misquot: What Charlie Kirk Actually Said and Meant. It addresses six of the many misqued to slander him. It provides further context and clarity to the viral snippets. Miss Bender, which heinous words
064did Charlie use that would reduce this amazing man to someone who deserves no outrage over his life being stolen from him and his family? Maybe you need to look into his words a little further. Even if they are words you do not like or agree with, you will never convince me his death did not deserve outrage. Debbie Marsh is not only a school board member for Morsville Graded, she will soon be the president of the North Carolina Schoolboard Association. Policy 7335 employee use of social media. We spoke about it earlier. An employee who wants to utilize social media site should use it as a role model. And is that as an elected board member as well? Do these rules apply to you? Two goals in your strategic plan are providing for a positive and supportive
065climate for all students and staff and developing positive and supportive relationships between staff, students, and families districtwide. Do you think you owe an apology to the families, students, and staff who are mourning the loss of Charlie and hold similar beliefs and values? How do you feel about those of us here who believe in our Second Amendment right to bear arms and also realize good men, men and women will die? Are we collateral damage if we should die by a bullet too? Please do better for our children and community. What type of nation will we have, schools, citizens, if we vilify talking and challenging each other to do better and be better all while pointing to God? Because that is what Charlie did. He loved the truth. He loved the nation and he loved young people.
066He made an eternal impact that only heaven knows. I agree with Charlie. Let's make heaven crowded. Jesus Christ is the way, truth, and a life. and no man comes to the father except through him. I do want to leave these. Please read the dismantling and let's talk about it. I'd be happy to have a conversation in a public setting and really talk about his words. [Applause] Let me remind the speakers that comments should be directed to the school board as a whole, not to individual board members, employees, or students. Uh, if that occurs again, I'll have to interrupt you. Next speaker is Roger Ward. Good evening. I just want to come in here on the behalf of all students and teachers and that we have to know what we put out online and there's a
067guideline for the teachers and as a former student I graduated in 2023. you'd have teachers that if you dis disagreed with them, they wouldn't come back at you. And um but that we have a policy in state that states what the teachers are accountable to. And so it just it really makes us wonder why aren't the board members accountable to because we're all accountable to God. But if you're serving the public, if you're an elected official in the district, you should be supportive of the others and not blasting anybody. I was I live in Wilmington now. I moved down there. I work in Southport and um just a couple days ago there's a shooting in Southport, but nobody was talking about all those people. I'm sure there was people that were speaking out, but that
068doesn't mean them that they're any different than Charlie Kirk. And so I'm not saying anybody's a terrible person. I'm not saying that what that your freedom of speech should be taken away because that's what we're here. That's what we're here in America for. That's what we do. But as teachers, they let us speak. They wouldn't speak. And if they did, it would be to both sides. So if we're going to say that we need to protect children, we need to put resource officers in every school. We need to make sure that everybody is protected because bad's going to happen no matter what. But if you're supporting one side but not the other, then it shows that that we're still human, but that there's a level of disrespect to another side of the political spectrum. And
069that's not what this school needs. The district of Morsel, we became very woke whenever I was in school. You couldn't go through science class without hearing the word evolution five times, but you never heard the mention of creation. Our great creator created all of us and he we are perfect in his image. But yet y'all don't want to post about that. Y'all just want to post about Charlie Kirk being a heinous act that it wasn't surprising that he died. And yes, you have the First Amendment, right? And that's wonderful that we all can speak our way. Our opinions matter, but so do a policy that y'all lay out for teachers and students, but y'all should stick to it yourselves because it would really show the adulthood that you have that you can respect somebody else's
070life even if you disagree with them. I disagree with a lot of people, but I still respect them and I know that Jesus has love for everybody. We just don't know who. And if we tell Jesus that people that Jesus loves them, then we need to act like we love Jesus ourselves. So just remember that there's a policy for teachers and students and that we have to hold ourselves accountable. So please hold each other accountable. Thank you. [Applause] >> Next speaker is Kim Lucas. I wore my high shoes tonight. Um, good evening, Dr. Gardner and Chairman Whitfield and the board. I feel it's important to recognize how lucky we are that our school board is non-partisan. I say this because as a retired teacher from Morrisville Graded School District, I firmly believe that public education
071should not be a political issue. From everything I've seen on this board of this board, personal opinions do not get in the way of them working towards the united goal of making our district a safe, happy, and healthy place for our students and staff to learn, grow, and thrive. The fact that personal social media posts have caused such an uproar just proves that certain groups are always looking for any reason to distract from the good things happening in our district that serve agilation such as NF Woods. Tonight was just beautiful. I urge the board to ignore the negativity and to continue on with your work. Please know that there are so many of us that see all that you do for our district and support you. Thank you very much. Next is Mandy Brown. Um,
072I did not come here intending to speak tonight. I just came to be supportive. But, um, well, if there were more people that know me, they could tell you that I'm not known for keeping my mouth shut. So, here I am. And I don't have some formal thing written out saying hi. But, hi all of you guys. I've had a kid in Moresville Graded School District. Well, for a long time. I don't really want to count the years, but I'm here today as an actual parent of children that have been an RN MGSD. I've got a graduate of mine that lives next door to me. I have a kid that's a sophomore. I have a kid that is an eighth grader right now. I remember after the two youngest came to live with us. They're
073our nephews. How excited I was to know we had allies on the board. It's important. It's important that our kids know that there's allies on the board. It's important that there's allies on the board making sure what's happening in our school district is caring about all of the kids is not just about education. There's a lot more to it than school. Case in point, everything we just heard about NF Woods, I have a kid that would probably have easily qualified to be there. He was taken from a home where he was severely neglected that he still struggles with PTSD. came to Morrisville graded school district coming in as a fourth grader was testing at a second grade level because he slept during school. He wasn't sla safe to sleep at his home. So when he
074went to school at his previous life they let him sleep while he was there. It was the only place he could do it safely. He's I think I said eighth. He's seventh now moving into eighth. And at the end of last year he passed all of his IEP goals. The kid has no extra support. He's testing at grade level. Everything he's doing is above average. That is nothing but our school board, our teachers, our administrative people within MGSD. Nothing. He had not like there wasn't anything extra special. He had some extra one-on-one time. That was it. He's come that far because of what the school district is. And what this school district is starts with people that care about him as a person, whether or not he happens to be a white male. Um, so
075I just want to make it clear that what you see at NF Woods is not only happening at NF Woods. It's our entire school district where that happens. Um, I'm also I always say a mom, a bonus mom, and an aunt to dozens of kids all over what I've termed the queer sphere. And I'm allowed to do that because I'm a family member of queer people. It's easier to say that than to list all the letters that they would fall under. Um, knowing that there's people who care for all of my kids the same, no matter who they are, what they are, how they identify is deeply important to me. I have seen many of these schoolboard members at lots of school events or performances that we go to. Mind you, my graduate finished in
0762019, so it's been a long time I've been in this school district. I probably could have known Debbie Marsh on the street before I ever knew who she was because she's at every school event that we go to. A lot of you guys are at a lot of them. There's almost always at least one which says a lot about our board in general. Um I think that's important too. >> Thank you. >> I thank you ma'am. >> One minute right time. >> Oh, there was no yellow. >> You get my point and I managed to do it without violating policies. [Applause] Next speaker is Julie Hornsby. And again, please a reminder, address your comments to the board, not to individuals. Good evening everyone. Um, I've been a teacher, I was a teacher 39 years in
077two different states and my time working under Debbie Marsh was some of my best years. I've known her 17 years and she was my principal at South um, until she retired and is now serving children further as a member of this board. In the years that she was my boss, I had the opportunity and the privilege to observe and work under her exemplary leadership every single day. She's fair, wise, supportive, strong, and fearless. She's passionate about the safety of children and is committed to implementing policies that will accomplish the very best for every student in MGSD. She's devoted to the district and strives to promote both sound learning and effective teaching practices. I read her social media posts. I also read every single one of the subsequent comments. At no time did I interpret anything
078as inappropriate. I did note that some commenters put words in her mouth claiming she said this, she said that. Um, she didn't. I kind of think maybe some strong emotions may have been in the way of reason and prevented some people from really understanding what she was trying to say. She didn't celebrate anyone's death and she didn't blame anyone for her granddaughter's death. She merely quoted some of Mr. Kirk's own words. You know, freedom of speech really matters. And today in this country that's still a thing. Um I know some people have said well you need to be held to a higher standard. I don't think these people saying this have any idea the level of excellence that Dr. Marsh pursues in her personal and professional life every day. And you could not find a
079fiercer, more devoted ally for every child than Debbie Marsh. Thank you. [Applause] >> Thank you, Miss Orange. The the next speaker will be Kate Shirley. Good evening, Dr. Gardner, Chairman Whitfield, members of the board. Um, as you know, I'm Kate Shirley. I have two students in this district. They both started kindergarten here, and now, surprisingly, I have a high schooler and a kid at Selma Burke. Um over the years I've served on many PTO boards, on school committees, um district committees, oftentimes serving along you and you all. So you all know that this is the absolute last place that I want to be standing. Um and lucky me, there's lots of extra people tonight. But something um I wanted to share with you happened recently. Last week, my high school was quoted in the Iredell
080Free Press or Free News. Um you may have already seen it, but I think it's worth repeating. Um, she was asked what she likes most about our district and this is what she said. One of my favorite things about MGSD is that there's a place for everyone. No matter who you are or what you like to do, you will find your people and a place to belong. Now, if a student starting high school and going through one of the biggest transitions in her life thus far has something positive to say about school where she feels included and is experiencing kindness, I think it's safe to say our district is doing something right. So, I wanted to publicly thank you all for your leadership and your commitment to put kindness and inclusion at the forefront of
081what you're doing for our schools on a daily basis. Um, you set an example for our district and our community. You set the tone and make sure that Moresville graded is every child every day. And I know and we heard from some students today that my child is not the only one thriving in the environment that you all have helped create. So, as a parent, I say thank you. And as a community member, uh, I say well done and please keep up the good work. [Applause] Next will be West Codle. Apologies. I'm going to break policy just for a second. I want to thank you for all the hard work you do. That was one of the most moving things I've ever witnessed earlier. Thank you for all that you do for the district and
082thank you all for believing in th those staff members and the ones that have already left. That's uh yeah, that was uh that was very moving. Um with that, I never thought that I would find it necessary to quote the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Gobles um in a public forum, but it seems like this time is necessary and proper. He said that the biggest joke of democracy is that it gives its mortal enemies the keys to its own destruction. One thing that most do not realize is that countless authoritarians have used democracy to destroy democracy. Italy's Bonito Mussolini, Germany's Adolf Hitler, Argentina's Juan Peron, Brazil's Gatulio Vargas, the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos, South Korea's Park Chunghi, Ghana'sqaame Karuma, Kenya's Joo Kinyatta, Serbia's Sloban Mallovich, Bellarus's Alexander Lucenko, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugab, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, Turkeykey's Reep Ergodon,
083Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Nicholas Maduro, Hungary's Victor Orban, El Salvador's Naab Bukle, India's Narende Modi, for the second time, the Philippines Rodrigo Duerte, and Russia's Vladimir Putin. All of these were elected to office. All of them utilized voter frustration, economic inequality, andor nationalism to win legitimately. All eroded checks and balances by capturing the courts, attacking journalists, weakening legislative bodies, and pitting civilized society against one another. They rebranded institutions while claiming a popular mandate, weaponizing nationalism and fear. They aimed for rule indefinitely through personality based dominance and the manipulation of future elections through disinformation, gerrymandering, or outright fraud. All at a time or another in their rise were asked if they intended to live up to the damning rumors that swirled around them to which they denied were given a pass. And history tells the tale.
084So what is the warning? By making compromise seem noble, making injustice seem temporary, and making patience seem virtuous, violence became necessary when democracy failed to write the ship. Today, our problem is that we all too often have seen brutalizers and racist as visionaries, sometimes inadvertently, whose real message speaks somehow heroically to the moment and allows us to relate. We take the message of individuals and place them above their station. We set aside the reality of their words and actions, often from a revisionist point of view. This is how the same mental process turns enslavers into champions of freedom and transforms Indian killers into builders of democracy. It is required that we question the fundamental goodness of the idea of the current American project that is not unamerican. That in of itself is how we protect
085what we hold most dear. The freedoms that we have in times of independence, civil war, and civil rights required far more violence than should ever be required. The way one dies does not absolve them of how they live. Thank you for your time. Next is um and I forgive me if I mispronounce your name. It's uh Ian Moya. That was that correct? Thank you. I'll be brief and stay on time. Dr. Gardner, members of the board, in light of of inflammatory comments made by two board members, I have four teachable moments um uh that we can all walk away from and I had two children in MGSD up till last year. Number one, a teachable moment for the town of Moresville. When you don't vote in in municipal elections, you end up with representatives who
086don't hold the overwhelming majority of the values of the town and the county. Number two, if we have members of the board who are responsible for the safety and well-being of children who don't who don't believe ultimately in basic fundamental liberties given by God, they have no business holding elected office. Number three, there's an old southern term, got too big for your britches. Nobody in this world is above scrutiny. Being elected to a position isn't a isn't a right. It's a privilege and that should be respected. It is clear that several members of the sport have gotten sloppy with their words, not only online but in person. Let this be a valuable lesson. Sometimes the best thing to do is to keep things to yourself. Number four, power corrupts. The idea of representative government is
087that a person uh serves for a short amount of time and then removes themselves from that position. George Washington would have been a king, but he did the admiral admirable thing and stepped down. Let this be a time of reflection. If you can't handle your own personal grievances, there's plenty of folks who would be happy to sit in those very seats right there. While I know my words will more than likely go in one ear and out the other, let's let's take this moment um to realize no one is free from criticism. Thank you. [Applause] Next speaker will be Ron Hickden. My name is Ron Hickden and I come to this meeting recently retired with 34 years of teaching experience in public and private schools. I taught at both Morsville High School and Statesville High
088School with many years at each. I'm addressing the short speech to those who attack without merit this school board and in specific the recent post by fireell firewire regarding two of our school board members. From my personal experience in this district, these are two excellent school board members. They care deeply about the welfare of our children. This school board should not be subject to a bully full of dystopian rhetoric meant to divide us and stir up a pot of folks who have little clue about public education other than they want to see it eliminated. Firewire writes in their post, quote, "While we respect everyone's first amendment right to express their views, those rights do not come without consequences. Having elected officials with these kinds of views overseeing our schools is cause for concern. End quote.
089Firewall has this right also with consequences. Don't scream fire in a crowded movie theater. This is not news. Oppressive, slanted rhetoric that serves no purpose other than to further divide our community. This is not news. Why should this board grant a response to a bully who gave you the right to judge? Zero of their social media posts praised the death of Charlie Clerk as intimated by Irale FireWire. And both school members tried to put a spotlight on a much bigger and far more pressing issue, school gun control, school gun violence. Having elected officials hide behind the second amendment when it comes to guns in the n in the number one cause of teen deaths is cause for concern. Firewire states in their post, quote, "FireWire is not here to publicly shame these individuals. Our goal
090is to show citizens how recent events have led some elected officials to cross the line with their public statements." End quote. BS. Of course, it's meant to publicly shame. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in one's eyes and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? Take a look at other elected officials who quote cross the line with their public statements end quote. Our junior senator has made far more inflammatory remarks regarding the murder of Charlie Kirk. Senator Bud publicly stated, quote, "This is the ugly face of the left's moral collapse. normalizing hate, applauding chaos, and fueled by a media that profits off despair." End quote. Well, thank you, Ted, for uniting and healing the country. >> So, when did they get caught out by Firewire? >> Thank you, sir.
091That's your That's your aotted time. [Applause] Next is Tom Berkkey. >> Well, my name is Tom Berkkey. I'm a local resident and business owner. Um, this is in regards to a proposed policy change that I'm aware of here. Uh, there's a proposed policy change for the parental involvement policy number 1310/42 that's been put it forward for consideration. I passed. I've got a handout here that has the full text. Section C4D part B that I have below has both the existing policy and the proposed policy contain elements that violate the spirit and letter of North Carolina law as laid out in SB49 also known as the parents bill of rights. The statement B uh states that student initiated individual or group counseling targeted at a student's specific concerns or needs. Now this regards parents opting out
092whether their right is to opt out of such things or not. Uh this is contained in the existing policy which by the way also does not meet SB49. Uh and the current revision that's proposed does not remove this statement. This creates a direct conflict with SP 49 in two primary ways. First, it violates the right to be notified of health services. SB49 section 115C 7645A4 requires schools to notify parents of changes in services or monitoring related to their children's mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being. Providing counseling is undeniably a mental and emotional health service. This policy carves out an exception that allows the school to provide these services if initiated by the student without parental notification that's mandated by law. The second way that it creates a conflict is it encourages the withholding of
093information from parents. SP 49 section 115C 7645D2 uh explicitly prohibits schools from adopting policies that encourage or have the effect of encouraging a child to withhold from that child's parent information about their mental or emotional well-being by creating a confidential counseling space for students without their parents' knowledge. The policy establishes a system that can be seen as encouraging exactly what the law forbids. This exception for a student initiated counseling appears to be precisely the kind of school practice parents Bill of Rice was designed to eliminate. Therefore, please remove section B from the proposed policy or from the existing policy if the currently proposed changes are rejected. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. Mr. Chairman, that concludes uh the uh public comment portion of the meeting. >> Thank you. items uh for information. Dr. Gardner. >>
094Yes, sir. We have Miss Mlan up first with our policy updates. >> Good evening, Dr. Gardner, Chairman Whitfield, members of the board. Um, tonight I bring you for first read a group of policies um that we were receive from the NCSBA to ensure we comp um complete timely revisions that are in line with um general statute. All of the policies listed below have been recommended by the NCSBA with revisions made specific to our school um policies and procedures. Uh we will bring these back next month. However, there is one that I do want to specifically point out. Um, policy 4318, use of wireless communication devices. This policy deals with the new NC legislation around wireless communication devices. It's also known as the cell phone bill. Um, however, it does extend to all wearable communications such
095as smartwatches and glasses um, etc. There are two options, kind of three, but um, two options to consider adopting with this policy. Option A, students are permitted to possess wireless communication devices on school property so long as the devices are not turned on, used, or displayed during instructional time, or as otherwise directed by school rules or school personnel. Option B, students are prohibited from having wireless communication devices turned on or possessing such devices during the school day unless otherwise permitted under this policy. And that would be if it's maybe written into their IEP or maybe they have a health plan. They might be diabetic and use their phone for um their insulin. Um so those those are some examples of otherwise permitting. The other option that you could do is do a hybrid of both
096options and um you could adopt one depending on maybe grade level if you so choose. Um one might be you know better for younger grades, the other might be more um in line with upper grades. So those are the three things and you have the whole policy of course with those but that um I would ask that you consider um you know MGSD already has a policy around the use of cell phones specifically and we also have rules in our student code of conduct and discipline matrix regarding the use of cell phones. Um with the revised policy of course we'll revisit our discipline matrix around the use of communication devices depending on the final approval and um policy option that you that you choose. Uh so we ask that the board consider all of these
097options and and you can of course contact me if you have any questions or clarifications and then maybe next or not maybe but next board meeting in November um come prepared if you need to discuss at that time. We could always bring it back for a vote in December if you need that time. >> Yeah. >> Go back about the watch piece again. The watches are in it or not in it? >> Yeah, they are any wearable. For example, smartwatch would be considered a communication device. Now they have the glasses that people use. I I've >> So our discipline matrix could address specific instructions around watches. It's for wearable communication devices, but we could be specific once once we decide on when I talk about our matrix, I'm thinking more along the lines of if
098the high school is opt one option, we may um you know go back and tweak our matrix to fall in line with whatever the policy as updated is. I'm still confused, but I'll read it and figure it out. Well, as as as usual, we'll have time to Yeah. We have any questions to follow up the next month with >> M. McClan. So, >> are there any other questions? >> Anybody else? >> Thank you. >> All right. Next, we have Dr. Albert and some of her team members that will be sharing our district mental health plan. >> Good evening, Dr. Gardner, Mr. Whitfield. Members of the board, this evening we are pleased to present our school mental health plan for your review. Developed in alignment with the North Carolina State Board of Education policy, this plan
099is designed to promote the well-being of both students and staff through evidence-based social emotional learning, comprehensive mental health services, and strong community partnerships. As required by the state since 2021, all public school units must adopt and review these plans every five years. At this time, I'm going to turn the podium over to Miss Lindseay Pharaoh, our mental health coordinator, and Miss Jennifer Forte, one of our high school counselors, as they will share our district's roadmap. >> Good evening. As Dr. Dr. Albert was saying, our new five-year mental health plan is in alignment with the North Carolina State Board of Education policy. This plan was created with um the district's strategic plans commitment to having a safe, happy, healthy environment for all. um at the forefront of its creation. We used panorama survey data, our school
100health assessment as and performance evaluation, our shape um as in as data to help build the plan to address mental health and seal needs of our students. Some of the strengths and current initiatives outlined in the plan were that we have really strong district and school-based teaming structures to support student attendance, SEAL and mental health. We have a comprehensive K12 SEAL curriculum in all of our schools. Our school teams and district staff, we have school teams and district staff trained in trauma-informed practices as well as restorative track practices. And we have robust community partnerships and resources avail resource maps available to all um to those in need. We have a very strong partnership and collaboration with our school-based mental health provider. And some areas that our shape help us identify that we need to grow
101in are data sharing between schools. All those teams do a lot of great work, but we're not doing it. We're not doing as well as sharing. So, that's an area we identified that we need to do is share what we're doing in all those different teams between schools, district, and throughout the community. And then we also need to continue our work in addressing barriers to students access to school-based mental health such as those gaps in insurance, co-pays, and um lack of insurance for our students. We also need to continue improving on our CISP ratios for our counselors, social workers, psychologists and then continue enhancing our SEO and academic alignment. Before we look towards our areas of need, uh we first want to look at what we are already doing well. Um right now our programs
102at the kindergarten through fifth grade level utilize quaveral and character education lessons. Our middle schools embrace the capturing kids hearts philosophies and lessons with their students. At our high school, our teachers work through character strong advisory lessons and we utilize peer mediation sessions with our students. And as mentioned earlier, our NF Woods um utilizes the base seven mindsets curriculum with their students that they are able to individualize. Teams are in place at each of our schools who are able to utilize the trauma-informed practices that they have learned through different trainings as well as restorative practices to bring our students back together in ways that they're able to move forward and work together. Yearly, all staff um complete their required mental health trainings through our vector program and we use various sources of data um as
103early warning signs that allow us to intervene and provide the needed resources to our students and families as they move through their journey. We are so excited that we are able to look that we are able to work with Children's Hope Alliance to offer our students um school-based mental health services during the school day. Um we continuously evaluate our student crisis response and threat assessment protocols um to ensure that we are using up-to-date methods um and assessments to ensure that we are supporting student and school safety at all times. Our community resource map is also updated annually so we can provide students and their families different resources in the community both from clothing to food to housing necessities. We have also been able to create a re-entry plan that our schools are able to utilize
104when students are returning from long-term homebound hospitalizations um or even long-term suspensions to allow those students to integrate seamlessly back into the school to have a plan moving forward to help them be successful. So looking ahead, we hope to expand staff training in the realm of mental health awareness and resources that we have available. We hope to increase our staffing ratios for our nurses, our social workers, our school counselors, and our psychologists working through uh with grants, community partnerships, and Medicaid funding. We also hope to enhance our um academic alignment. So bringing these closer together so that students understand and families understand how these overlap together. Um, and this is by working with the neighboring develop or neighboring district, excuse me, and also creating our own handbook. Um, and finally, we hope to expand innovative
105partnerships uh with local organizations um including our whoops our opioid grant that we have written um to hopefully encourage um more programs available in our district. We appreciate your time this evening. Do you have any questions? >> What exactly What exactly would um the neighboring district and develop our own handbook? Would that replace the current curriculum we're using? What does what does that mean? >> No, we recently uh visited with a neighboring district and they provided us with some really great resources that just has an SEAL playbook that we thought was really great. to add resources where we could provide kind of provide SEAL almost like lessons that could be incorporated in all different kinds of classes in whatever classes students in whether it be a history class or all teachers could use no matter
106what lesson if they're having an issue with any kind of topic that may come up. >> So does our curriculum address those or >> those are more just your basic core lessons. So this would be something more that they could expand upon. >> I reviewed most of the plan um yesterday and I just wanted to say when I was looking at the PowerPoint from the Bwell >> that is a fantastic program and I'm very excited that we're going to be partnering with them. >> Right. Right. They have a lot of great trainings that they can offer and we're really excited to hopefully get into some more to start offering our staff some more youth mental health first aid and um possibly even we're requesting some grant funding to have um possibly our own trainer on
107staff as well so that we can start training our staff more in that um and start expanding that and offering some followup in restorative practices. uh our trainer who has offered our not restorative practices, I'm sorry, our trauma-informed practices, um Cheryl Fuller, she has done a has done an amazing job with training and our staff has really been soaking it up and she's um offered some followup that has more additional um strategies that she's offering for us. So, we're also looking at maybe ask requesting some more funds so that we can offer some additional follow-up trainings with that as well. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Albert. >> Items for approval. Dr. Gardner. >> Yes, sir. Um, first up, we'll have Mr. Riick um with our school improvement plans. >> Good
108evening, Chairman Whitfield, board members, Dr. Gardner. Last week at the board of education work session, each of you had the opportunity to hear a presentation from each of our principles sharing about their school improvement plans for the current academic year. These documents are created each year by school improvement teams which are composed of teachers and parents and other staff members and these are required by North Carolina legislation. You were able to hear that each plan is aligned to the four goals of the district's identity priority areas and each school will now return to present a midear update at the board work session mid year. And being new to the district, I also want to share how impressed I was reviewing these school improvement plans and also how impressed I was hearing each of our principles.
109how well they know their plans is very impressive and I I can say that I can see why the district's data is what it is. It's because of these plans and the work that these leaders have in their buildings. So, I just wanted to share that. That's they're very impressive work. But the recommendation is to have the board approve the plans as they were provided and outlined at the session last week. So, I'll ask for a approval of these plans. >> Thank you. have a recommendation to approve the school improvement plans for 2026 uh academic school year. I'll entertain a motion. >> Some moved. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second to approve morsel grade school district school improvement plans as presented. All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed?
110Motion carries. I would like to say for those that don't know we spent and piece of that plan. So >> my microphone's not we spent um from 9:00 am till 2:30 going over every little bit every little piece of that plan. So um that's a whole day. It's a long day. I'm thankful for that day and the presentations were amazing. You saw the data. We're doing great things. Um, but we're not won't rest till we're the best. >> Right. >> Very good. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next up, we have the North Carolina School Board Association voting delegates. I believe that goes to you, Mr. Whitfield, as the board needs to decide um who will serve as voting delegates for the conference this year. >> That's correct. We need to um decide of who
111is going to uh be present and um vote at the annual conference. >> Mr. Whitfield, I will not be in attendance this year. So, >> okay, that makes uh it a little bit uh easier. So, um I'll entertain a a motion to approve Rake. >> Yeah. >> Dr. Marsh and Miss Bender. >> So, the board gets board gets four voting delegates. So, >> you can't vote. >> Yeah. >> You're welcome. >> I'll entertain a motion to approve the four delegates. >> So, move. >> Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the four delegates that will be in attendance to vote in the North Carolina School Boards Association annual conference November 12th, 2025. All those in favor? >> All those opposed? >> Motion carries. Thank you. All righty. All right. Well, it's that
112time when uh the board must meet in close session pursuant to North Carolina General Statute 143-318.11 subp part A1 A3 and A6 to discuss personnel and consult with the board attorney. I will entertain a motion to go into close session. >> So moved. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I I >> All those opposed. Motion carries. I will um entertain a motion to approve the personnel list as recommended by the superintendent. >> Second. >> Uh wait a minute. Who was first? >> Carry. >> Okay. KP. All those in favor? >> I. >> Motion carries. No further business. I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So move. >> Okay. DM I need a second. >> Second. >> MB. >> All those in favor? >> I >> nine. with
113eight.