001Good evening and welcome to the Morsville Gated School District Board of Education meeting Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025. Uh before we uh start with a moment of silence, I would just like to congratulate um our our staff, our personnel, our educators, our students in a a successful year. What a wonderful experience it was uh to culminate in graduation. Uh it's just a true time of celebration and I'm so proud to be a small small part of this uh fabulous fabulous district. Uh, and now if we may have a moment of silence. Thank you. At this time, uh, we'll do the pledge of allegiance. We're going to do it. Uh, you have to as a team. There you go. Good call. I allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for
002which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. All right. Uh approval of the agenda. I move that we edit the agenda to remove um under section 11g as we don't need that any longer. I have a motion to amend the agenda by removing under Roman numeral 11 subpart G field trip. Do I have a second? Second. Have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I I. All those opposed? Motion carries. Removing G. Now, if we may, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda as amended. So moved. I'll entertain a second. Second. Uh any further discussion? If not, I'll entertain uh a vote. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? Motion carries. Approval of the minutes from the May 13, 2025 meeting. I'll entertain
003a motion. So move. A second. Second. Have a motion, a second to approve the minutes of May 13, 2025. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? Motion carries. ABCD award winner Dr. Gardner. Is that me too? Okay, here I go. Good evening. Each month we have the honor of recognizing a district employee who has gone above and beyond in demonstrating the core values of our district. This month we recognize Cindy Tyler, financial specialist at our central office. Like to ask her to come forward at this time. [Applause] Miss Tyler was nominated by Mr. Smith, our CFO, and Dr. Smith, our COO. And here's a little bit about what they had to share about her. Cindy embodies all of Morrisville Graded's core values every day. From the first day of her employment with the district,
004she started cultivating authentic relationships with everybody inside and outside of her department. She believes her primary reason for being here is to help others which is always evident in her actions. Her list of job responsibilities is large yet she always is looking to help out others and lend a helping hand. She has never once said that's not my job and always maintains a wonderful attitude. Her outlook and work ethic are infectious and they create a positive change in everyone around her. She loves being empowered with knowledge and requires little to no assistance in her tasks. She steps up as a leader when needed and plays a vital role in supporting the core functions of the finance department. She treats everybody kindly and equitably and she has created a culture of trust with all those that
005she works with. Cindy is a rockstar employee with Moresville graded and our entire organization is better because of her. Please join me in congratulating Miss Tyler, our June 2025 ABCD award winner. [Applause] Great school district. [Laughter] I do want to say I do want to say one thing. I accept this as a team because I can honestly say we have the best team and we work together and we would not do all of us. Thank [Applause] you. Congratulations. Wow. It is. I can amend it. Yep. That's good. All right. We just started this meeting and I'm telling you about the next one. June 26 is going to be the next meeting. Uh it will be uh our I guess that is going to be Do we get a location? Yeah, it'll be at Morsville High
006School. Okay, that's right. Room. That's right. So, we'll be meeting in the course room, Morrisville High School, uh bright and early 9:00. So, uh be duly informed. Staff reports. Dr. Gardner. All right. Um we will have Dr. Smith pitch hitting for MOA this month. Uh good evening Mr. Whitfield, Dr. Gardner, members of the board. Pinch hitting for Dr. Royal this evening with uh one athletic update. Um and that is that Eric Heels, senior at Morsville High School competed in the state championship track meet last month and finished fifth in the 110 meter hurdles and was the state runner up in the 300 meter hurdle. Wow. Mhm. So, congrats to him. From curriculum and instruction, summer programming has already started with NF Woods hosting students last week and for the summer. Why read Readers Camp, ML
007Newcomers Camp, and Read to Achieve Camp all started yesterday. Moresville High School summer school starts next week as well as our CTE camps. AIG trainings are going well with over 50 uh attending four days over the summer. Our K5 staff will be working on curriculum guides for science and social studies over the next two weeks. Schools have chosen either Tuesday, June 10th, or Tuesday, July 15th for school improvement plan support sessions this summer to prepare for the upcoming plans next school year. Excuse me. And our K12 end of the year data meeting is scheduled for June 11th where district and school level leadership will review and discuss data from the 2425 school year. And that concludes Dr. Royal's report. Want me to keep going? As long as you want. Well, all right. I believe it
008is Dr. Smith and Dr. Albert is going to come up to assist this time for safe, happy, and health. Sure. So, um, uh, as you said, Mr. Whitfield, um, you know, school's out, so that means a lot of things, uh, happen over the summer, uh, especially in operations. So, a lot of summer projects are going on right now. You'll see some paving and some roofing and some HVAC stuff. And a lot of that stuff is is going on to keep our kids uh safe and healthy this summer. Kudos to our maintenance team and all that they do over the summer. Um our um this evening you're going to hear report uh it is our annual random suspicionless drug testing report. Mr. Reic will be sharing that with you uh later this evening. And then my
009last thing before I turn it over to Dr. Albert is as you know Mr. Reic is is leaving and moving back to California. Um, and I do want to uh say that it has been a pleasure to have him um and for the last two years and we have deepest appreciation for his work um that he has done here in the district. Um and following that, our new safety director will be starting June 16th. So, we're going to have a little bit of overlap, which is good. Um and Mr. Reic will be able to show show him the ropes. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening, Dr. Gardner, Mr. Whifffield, members of the board. Um, I'm going to follow up with some updates on our EC department. Um, they are actively working this summer um to meet
010both federal and state timelines. We currently have two evaluation teams in place. One team is conducting play-based assessments so that we're able to place children um through early intervention before their third bay and the other team is involved in meeting 90-day timelines for students that have to be placed um prior to that. We also, as uh Dr. Smith mentioned, we also started extended school year services yesterday. Um, those services began for students that are eligible through their IEP for extended school year services as as as developed through their IEP. They are currently receiving services over at MIS for about two to four weeks depending I mean sorry two to four hours per week depending on their needs and based on their goals. As shared last month, we're also excited to launch our one-day EC boot
011camp next week. We currently have 36 staff members signed up and the feedback from that uh boot camp will help drive our professional development for the EC department for next school year. And that concludes my part of the report. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have recruit, grow, retain with Miss and Mr. Smith. Hi. Good evening. U Dr. Gardner, Mr. Chairman, members of our board of education. Um so first I just like to mention that hiring season is upon us and we are um in the midst of hiring teachers and operational staff to support our schools. I am happy to see our our numbers um in a much better place. I think that our department leads and our principles have done an excellent job of uh the work to retain quality staff
012and to um bring in some new staff. And so we are um 95% or more in in our licensed positions in our schools um really across the district um in our um key positions in our schools. So very excited about that right now. Um our HR staff are also planning uh our new teacher orientation and this year we are doing something a little different. We're planning to invite all of our new hires, not just the licensed hires, but all of our new hires to that first day for information about our district. And so we are um excited about that and um planning BT training and leadership training for the upcoming school year. Um and that is I mean that's that's our core work right now. So that's what um our team is working on. Any
013questions? When you say you're inviting all the new hires, does that kind of go a little bit retroactively mid year of this school year? We we have um I know that we have looked at um past post January. The thing is we didn't have an orientation for them last year. So we're trying to get people that are most recent, right? And um and making sure we have our our numbers are going to work. So, but we're getting as many in as possible. Thank you. Yes. Good evening, members of the board, uh, Chairman Whitfield, and Dr. Garner. Um, so for the finance, uh, area, uh, right now, of course, this is the month of June, and our primary focus is the, uh, month in close, fiscal year in close. And so our team is working hard
014to finalize invoices, perform the final payroll and uh fiscal year requirements and meet all local, state, federal closeout requirements. Um and so um we have a good team uh as evident as we've recognized uh our team tonight. Uh, and so I just want to make sure that they all also um recognize that yeah, there's going to be some hard nights and stuff that we we get through, but we will get through everything and and uh show show the show so so show what we made up. So, um, and then the next is our, um, and previously we had a just, it's just just a reminder, we had a memo that went out back in January 2025. And, uh, it's just a reminder at the beginning of the 2526 school year, uh, all pay dates will
015be set at the last business day of the month. And so, this is a change uh, for pay dates in November and December. and uh and it will take place the last day those will will take place the last business day of the month. And just to add a little bit to that, that's based on guidance that we received from the state um that based on state statute that that is considered advanced payment if you pay before the last day of the month. So they asked all eleas to get into compliance with that starting this academic year. So that isn't necessarily a local decision. That's guidance that we received from the state that we were expected to adhere to. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have Miss Mlan with Culture Relationships. Good
016evening, Dr. Gardner, Chairman Whitfield, members of the board. Each year, uh, school districts in North Carolina over the summer have to submit a report regarding the parents bills of rights, including board policy, any challenges we've received, and just overall adherence to the law. And I am pleased to report our submission is complete for the 24-25 school year, and we have zero findings. And my second thing is get ready to bash back to school. Believe it or not, um it's time to mark your calendars for the back to school bash 2025. Get ready for fun games resources and everything that a student may need to gear up for an awesome school year, including new school supplies, new shoes, new backpack, gently used books, gently used clothes, and lots of food and fun. And so that will
017be on Saturday, July 19th from 8:30 to noon. and it will take place again at Morrisville Middle School. And um you can register by going to www.b2sb.org. You can also sign up if you'd like to volunteer at that site. I have shared this to our MGSD social media. We would love to see it um shared from there to get as many families as possible and it will also go out in a newsletter um to our parents towards the end of the week. Any questions? When you say zero findings, does that mean we had zero challenges or We had zero challenges. Our policy is in line with everything it needs to be. We have everything posted to our website that has to be posted under the law now. So, yeah, like challenges to the policy, not
018like book challenges or anything. You're talking about like zero challenges to the that we have challenges. When I when I say challenges, I mean if somebody were to challenge us because maybe they think somebody spoke to their child wrong or you know like a counselor maybe talked to their child about something that and didn't report that or that kind of challenge or we didn't if somebody came to us about what type of name they wanted us to use and we didn't let the parent know that. Yeah. If groups or um individuals want to sign up to volunteer for the back to school, how do how do they do that? You can just go to b2sb.org. Okay. And there is sign up for attending like if you need the services and then there is also volunteer
019sign up and so you can sign up there. But if you have a large group um I'm sure that if you reach out to info okay b2sb.org um they can help you do that. Is there a way we can share that information if or will it be on the newsletter? Yeah, it'll be on the newsletter, but it's also on our MGSD Facebook. Okay, gotcha. Thank you. Uhuh. Thank you. All right. Um just a couple quick updates. On Thursday, May 22nd, we held our annual operations appreciation awards and lunchon and we were able to recognize um many hardworking individuals for the dedication um that they have presented to our school district. Uh Morris Graded has the best classified team in the state and they are truly the glue that holds our district together. Um we also
020held our graduation ceremony for class of 2025 on May 24th at Joe Pop Stadium where we had beautiful weather for that time of year um as we were able to celebrate 528 graduates from Morsville High School. So just a big thank you to our district maintenance staff, technology staff, district and school leadership team members, counselors at the high school. There's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to make that event a special one for our community. Um, so thank you to all of those that were involved. Um, and last, as Dr. Smith mentioned, school is out, traditional schools out, but we have lots of kids back in our buildings this summer from the NF Woods campus to our Y readers program, Reach to Achieve, and we have several of our staff members
021already engaged in professional development for the upcoming year. So, while it is believed sometimes that everything shuts down for the summer, sometimes we just shift gears and gear up in some of the some new work that needs to happen for our district. So, thank you. That concludes my comments for the night. Thank you. And again, um would remiss in not uh or be remiss in not recognizing uh one of our commissioners for the town of Morrisville, Eddie Carrick, who snuck in in there in the back. I never see him until I'm about threequarters of the way through the meeting, it seems like. So, thank you for for being here and supporting our school district. Uh, and just by way of announcements again, we got um even though this is um the quote unquote summertime, we
022have lots of activities for the board to uh participate in. The first is the NAACP Freedom Fund Awards banquet, which is at 4:30 on June 7th, which I believe is this Saturday. Um, and all the board members I believe are aware of the school boards association summer leadership conference uh coming up the uh week of June 16th. We have summer graduation coming up on the 26 for those folks uh finishing up their credentials and we also have our board work session uh later that morning all at the pack. And even though this is my birthday, I hate that it is the first required work day, but July 30th is uh fast approaching. Um and then of course convocation's the following day. And then we start school and then before you know it, we'll have another
023school board meeting. So it uh it's going to be an exciting time. Summer goes fast. It goes faster as you get older. I understand how that works. So everybody uh enjoy their summer and be safe and our board be uh aware of these particular activities and look forward to seeing you guys there. No public comment I understand uh per agenda item nine and so items for information. Dr. Gardner. Yes sir. We have Dr. Smith, Mr. Reic presenting our annual random suspicionless drug testing report. As I shared, this is our annual uh report that we give on uh students that we test for random suspicions drug testing. So, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Reic, and he's going to give you all the data and statistics. Uh good evening, Mr. Whitfield, Dr. Gardner, or
024members of the board. Uh this is our annual update uh on policy 4326. So, uh, student subject to random drug testing is all students, uh, grades 6 through 12 who participate in voluntary competitive school activities. Um, participating in the drug program is, uh, required to be able to do that. Um so that includes intercolastic uh athletics, competitive extracurricular activities, and those who wish to park on the high school campus. So anyone who has a camp uh park uh campus parking pass. Um we do this testing um basically due to the widespread uh substance abuse concerns that we have for our students. We want to make sure everybody's safe and that they represent uh Morsville in the finest finest manner. Um it is used uh as a education in the event that we do have uh
025students who do test positive for that. So the selection of students, this is the one where most of our questions come from the parents. Um, so I will go over this kind of maybe a little bit more in detail. Um, all of those students who are subject to the testing, those students are presented to a third party. That third party will randomize all of those students and then give me uh those numbers back. I will then take that, figure out who those students are, and then the day of is the first time that the principles and everybody knows who's actually being tested. This is all done by a third party. The only thing that I'm providing to them is the student numbers. Um once that test is completed, there's a third party who actually com
026uh gets the sample and then it's tested. Um and then it's reviewed by a medical officer. So at this point, at no point has MGSD had any hands into that uh collection or review of that material. that medical officer then will provide to us anyone who tests positive or if there's any concerns to the numbers. 315 students were tested uh this school year where it breaks out to be the high school at 65% at 205 Moresville Middle School at 19% at 59 and Selma Burke Middle School at 16% or 51. We had eight students test positive um for this school year. Uh last year we had seven. Um so we're kind of about average at this point. Now for the student who tests positive, um it is an immediate temporary loss of privilege. So, if
027they're in the athletics, they get suspended from this uh the sports team. Um and there's a parent student meeting with myself as well as the administrator and we will go over um community resources and their opportunity to regain those privileges which are to provide a negative drug test and to participate in some sort of cessation class or some sort of counseling. So here's the breakdown u by race. Um we have uh males at 166, females at 149. So we're almost 50 kind of 50/50 on the male and female. And then uh our whites uh white race is 67% of those. Black is 21% Hispanic five mixed race Asian and American Indian. Any questions on those numbers real quick before I carry on? All right. The slide before with regard to um reinstatement, do you know
028the numbers of reinstatement versus you had a positive? Were any of them able to complete reinstatement before the end of the year? Off the top of my head, I know of three that actually were reinstated and actually completed um that program. Okay. um of the other ones, sadly to say they were seniors and they chose not to. And then costwise um this year it does is up by about uh $2,000 um only because uh there was more students um and the extracurricular activities once we start started added really a significant amount. So it averages out to be $29 per student for each test. And that con concludes our report and information. Any questions? Can can you kind of go over I know you talked about it and I think it was slide two or three
029but just talk about um who all is eligible for these drugs. I know you hear a lot about athletes and um I know it's parking privileges and things of that nature. Can you kind of just talk about you know what who all is included in the uh the demographics of the the testing the demographics of those? Yeah. So when you talk about the categories of being the of the selection, who all is included? Because a lot of times people just think in the community that it's just athletes or just uh people with parking passes. Can you kind of just give a background of who all is included? So if you are in a competitive athletic sport, you are included in this group. If you are in a voluntary competitive extracurricular activity, for example, that would
030be band, that would be ROC if you are part of their competitive color guard. Uh cheerleading. I'm sorry. Cheerleading. Cheerleading is part of that. Dance team and all that. Dance team is part of all that. Um skills who compete at the state level. Okay. Um drama. Um they also compete in two competitions once in the fall and then once in the um in the spring, those are also included in that choir uh if they're if they compete. So any of those activities, not only at the it's more so at the high school level. Yeah. Um but there is a couple of extracurriculars that are starting to compete um at the middle school level as well and parents have the opportunity to voluntarily opt their child in if they do not meet any of this these
031qualities. That is correct. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you sir. items for approval. Dr. Garter. Yes, sir. Um for our items for approval, we'll start with our CTE local plan um which you heard last month from um Mr. Wilson. We have Dr. Wade representing CTE tonight. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, uh Dr. Gardner, members of the board. Last month, Mr. Wilson and I shared the mid-year update for our two-year CTE plan. This plan does require annual approval. I'd like to ask if there are any questions prior to making my request to approve the 2526 plan as presented last month. Anybody have any questions? Then I would like to request approval of our 2526 plan as presented. We u have a request to approve the CTE local plan for 24 through 26. I'll entertain a motion. So
032moved. Second. I have a motion and a second to approve the CTE local plan for 20 24 26. Um all those in favor? I I. All those opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much. And Dr. Gardner and uh Chairman Whitfield, there is a paper that you need to sign that we will need to turn in as well for the state. We've got it ready to go. All right. Good evening, Chairman Whitfield, members of the board. Um, we presented our AIG local plan at last month's meeting. We wanted to come back and see if um after you have reviewed if you've have any questions or suggestions, anybody? I didn't have any. Okay. All right. So there is a uh recommendation to approve the AIG local plan for 2025 2028. I'll entertain a motion. I move we
033accept the plan as presented. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I'd also like to say thank you to Miss Amy Smith over here who has put in countless hours and time on that plan. It was a great plan. And that's why we don't have any questions. Y'all gave such a thorough you gave such a thorough presentation last month, we didn't need to do anything. Thank you. All right. Next up, um Dr. Way and Miss Connley will stay at the microphone as we have a curriculum contract um that needs approval. Uh good evening again. We are seeking approval for a contract with I Ready, which is um produced by Curriculum Associates. This is a universal screener
034that we've already been using elementary level and we are now seeking to expand to the secondary level to replace our current academic screener which was exact path. Uh we are looking for a three-year contract which includes the screener as well as personalized instruction at the elementary level and teachers toolbox curriculum materials at the secondary level. This will allow us to have a much more comprehensive and streamlined focus academic wise from K all the way through 9th grade. Because this contract is over $90,000, it does require board approval. And so we would like to ask if there are any questions before requesting approval. Anybody have any questions? I think it's great that we will be using I Ready. Our elementary kids are already very familiar with it. that we'll get to continue on for a couple
035more years and and continue to be used to fidelity. It's great. Yes, that was a actually a huge piece of the puzzle. When our secondary teams did our curriculum review, we had an extensive panel and several meetings where we looked at a lot of different um options. But some of the reliability data that we have from our elementary schools was very important to our committee that it was if we're going to give a screener, we need to make sure that it's going to be reliable and accurate. And so we are grateful to elementary for charting that path for us. I have a recommendation to approve a contract with I Ready from Curriculum Associates, a three-year contract uh at the price or the the annual cost of $124,519.39 to run from July 2025 to June 2028.
036This is a universal screening process that will be utilized from K through 9. Currently, it's being utilized K5. And we are requesting a motion or I'll request a motion at this time. So move second. I have a motion and a second to approve said contract. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, ladies. Thank you so much. All right. Next up, we have our annual school nutrition bids. And I believe that Dr. Smith is going to kick off that um that item. Yes, sir. And Miss Birfield is here with me as well. So, we are asking approval tonight for school nutrition bids. Um these are all rollover bids and there's no new bids this year. But the first one is for produce to foster cabinets for approximately $78,000 a year. milk
037from Marva May dairy approximately $131,500 a year and food and supplies from US Foods in Fort Mill for $945,500. Um, and again, all these are rollover bids from last year and it's nothing new. It's just a continuation. So, we're seeking approval for all of those bids. If you have any questions, Birchfield's certainly here to answer them. We have a recommendation to approve uh rollover bids for school nutrition foster cabinets in the amount of $78,000 which is part of a four-year rollover pricing. Uh Marva um made dairy at $131,500 and US Foods Fort Mill $945,500. Um all have been approved previously. I will entertain a uh motion. So move. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I. Motion carries. Thank you. Right. I believe Dr. Smith's staying up at the microphone
038for our annual approval of our facility use fee schedule. Yes. Thank you. Um as we do every year, we need you all to approve our facility use fees. And this is for uh anybody in the community that wants to use our facilities, specifically the pack, Joe Pop Stadium, baseball fields, classrooms, anything that people want to rent. Um there are no changes uh to this fee schedule this year. So we are just asking you to approve it as uh it it will be this year just like last year. Okay. We have a recommendation to approve the facility use fees for 2025 2026. There'll be no increases on those. I will entertain a motion. So moved. I'll entertain a second. Second. I have a motion in a second. All those in favor? All those opposed? Motion carries.
039Thank you. Thank you. All right. And keeping with our um annual approval theme, we have our student fee schedule for 2526 with Mr. Smith. So the uh 2525 2526 um MGSD district uh school uh district leadership and school level leaders have reviewed our current fee schedules and have drafted a proposed fee structure for 2525 2526 school year. Uh please note the following changes are proposed. uh the out of district tuition uh based on the Ardale County provided funding uh ADM per ADM and the uh PE uniforms is the second one and then the march marching uh band uh student fee. So uh the fee is recommended for your approval uh for the 2526 school year. Okay. Okay. So, we have a recommendation for student fees for 2526 school year. Um that uh out of district
040tuition uh one of those is marching band fee uh which will increase from 200 to 250 annually. Uh laptop fee adjustment for grades 5 through 12. Uh and then EC prek classroom moving to full day. And uh the price will reduce from 375 a month to 180 a month. I'll entertain a motion. Greg, can you what? Give me the out of state and the out of district tuition. Uh do we have the actual number? 233306. Okay. What was the increase in that? Uh it was the increase is $826. Thank you. So 233306 which is a 8206 8206 increase from the uh previous previous year. I'll entertain a motion to approve. I move we accept the fee schedule as presented. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. A motion and a second. All
041those in favor? I. All those opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Well, it is now that time that pursuant [Music] to North Carolina General Statute 143- 318.11 subsection A1, A3, and A6 that the board will go into closed session to discuss personnel and consult with the board attorney. attorney. I'll entertain a motion uh to go into close session. So move. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor? I I thank you. entertain a motion to uh approve the personnel as recommended by the superintendent. So move second. Second. All right. No further business. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Some move. Second. All right, we are journed.