001I will call this meeting of the Morsville Graded School District Board of Education to order. And you may have noticed that I am not Greg Whitfield. He is not with us this evening. So I am pitch hitting for him. Um, I would like to start by honoring, I guess, the tradition that was established several um boards ago of sharing some little inspiration or tidbit and being a former social studies teacher. I'll give you a little history. Our founding fathers, John Adams, the second president of the United States, and Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, were political enemies. So much so that some people have characterized them as being on the exact polar opposites of the political spect spectrum. But there was one thing that they agreed on and that was that public
002education for all was the cornerstone of the new democracy and its future. So let's keep that in mind and um always support our public schools. And now if we could have a moment of silence. Thank you. And Dr. Garner, we are ready for the pledge of allegiance. All right, we have several students that are going to lead our pledge of allegiance today. So, I'd like to call the following students up. Jacobe Alexander, Griffin Clark, Cameron Hayes, Abigail Stall, and Ryan Wiggner. Everyone, please stand. Okay. Yep. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Applause] [Laughter] Yes. Take your bow. Absolutely. Okay. Members of the board, you've had an opportunity to review the agenda. I will
003entertain a motion to approve the agenda as published. So move. I have a second. Second. There's a motion and a second. All those in favor of approving the agenda as published say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. You've also had an opportunity to approve the minutes for the March 18th meeting. Are there any additions, corrections to the minutes? Then I will entertain a motion to approve the minutes as published. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Motion has been made and seconded. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes. And now our students of the month. All right. Good evening. Um, our students of the month and pledge leaders tonight, which you just saw them, are first grade students from Park View Elementary. So, I'd like to call them back up to
004the stage at this time. Jacobe Alexander, Griffin Clark, Cameron Hayes, Abigail Stall, and Ryan Wiggner. Let's give them a round of applause. All right, so you guys hang tight there. I'm going to read a little bit about why you were nominated to be student of the month. Okay, so you guys can just stand there and smile. All right, these students were selected by Miss D. Francisco, first grade teacher at Parkview Elementary, as well as the administrative team at Parkview Elementary. And here's a little bit about what they shared about this group of students. These first grade students have consistently demonstrated what it means to be safe, respectful, responsible, and kind. Their enthusiasm for learning American Sign Language has created a more inclusive and welcoming classroom where every student feels valued and supported. You can see
005their kindness in the way they help their classmates. They treat each other with respect and they do their part to keep our classroom as a make our classroom a great place to learn. Their dedication to inclusion and love for learning inspires those around them and shows just how powerful kindness and teamwork can be. Their efforts are truly appreciated and show that even small actions have big impact. It's inspiring to see their dedication to making our classroom and our school a welcoming and supportive place for everyone. Please join me in giving a round of applause to our students of the month for April 2025. I was told to use the mic. Everyone can hear me. Good evening everyone. Um, tonight the Moses Graded School District Board of Educations recognize Jacobe Alexander Park View Elementary School as
006the student of the month for leading the pledge of allegiance. I do have one for everybody. So Kobe, here you go. The Mo's the greatest. Everybody wants to hear the name called, so I'll read everybody's. The Moal Grad School District Board of Education recognizes Griffin Clark View Elementary School as the student of the month and leading the pledge of allegiance. [Applause] The Moros Graded School District Board of Education recognizes Cameron Hayes Parkview Elementary School as the student of the month. Leading the pledge of allegiance, the Moral Graded School District Board of Education recognizes Abigail Stallview Elementary School as the student of the month and leading the pledge of allegiance. [Applause] I don't think he was able to be here, but we we would have Thank you. Thank you. So, as we heard, Ryan has a
007fever, but we do have one. You guys [Applause] Here you go. All right. Tonight we also have the honor of recognizing an artist of the month, Princeton Ketmbala, student at Park View Elementary. At this time, I'd like to ask Princeton to come up to the [Applause] front. Princeton was nominated by Miss Jones, his art teacher at Parkview Elementary. And here's a little bit about what she shared about Princeton. Princeton is a joy to have in art class. Besides being artistically talented, he is a great example of a Parkview patriot by being very kind, respectful, and responsible. Princeton's artworks being showcased this month is a still life collage of apples. By creating this artwork, Princeton along with his fellow kindergarten students learned the definition of a still life collage. They also learned what primary colors are
008and how to mix their paints to create secondary colors. Additionally, by learning how to use oil pastels, what highlights are, and how to create the visual shiny effect on the apples. Ultimately, students learn the elements of art, as well as how to use the principles of art, such as balance, unity, and variety. As Princeton's art teacher, I am very proud of his artistic abilities and his accomplishments in earning this title of MGSD artist of the month. I hope that he continues to use his artistic talent to create art throughout his life. Please join me in congratulating Princeton as our artist of the month for April 2025. [Music] So we have an award for Princeton as well. Um, the Morville Greater School District Board of Education recognizes Princeton Kentabala Park View Elementary School as the artist
009of the month. Board of Education meeting April 8th, 2025. Congratulations. [Applause] All [Laughter] [Applause] right. Each month we also have the honor of recognizing a district employee who goes above and beyond in demonstrating a core value of our district. This month we recognize Missy Foley, data manager at Park View Elementary. So at this time I'd like to ask Miss Foley to come up to the front. Miss Foley was nominated by the Parkview administrative team and here's a little bit about what they shared about her. Miss Foley is the data manager at Parkview Elementary School. She's been a part of the Moresville graded school district for over 20 years and in that time she's made a lasting impact on countless families in the Park View community. She welcomes new families with warmth and kindness, making sure
010they feel right at home from day one. Miss Foley is also a person you want in your corner when challenges arise. She's quick to gather the right people, offer reassurance, and always puts families first. Miss Foley is dedicated to to doing her best work. She keeps everything organized, accurate, and running smoothly. But what really sets her apart is her willingness to step in wherever she's needed. Whether it's helping with bus duty, jumping into the daily chaos of a busy school, or just simply anticipating what her teammates need before they even ask, she's always willing to lend a helping hand. Her support, kindness, and commitment make a difference every single day. We are so grateful for everything she does. Please join me in congratulating Missy Foley, our ABCD award winner for April 2025. Got to jump
011to my microphone. Thank you for what you do. First of all, um you know, the MOSA greatest school district recognizes Missy Foley for going above and beyond the call of duty April 2025. and we we recognize you today and then we thank you for all you do throughout the Harvey Elementary School. Thank [Applause] you. All [Applause] right, next we have our school highlights. So we will have Dr. Rogers, principal of Parkview Elementary, coming up front and we will be talking about excited about Ready Math. [Applause] Okay. Good evening, Dr. Marsh, Dr. Gardner, and members of the board. Oh, goodness. Now, there's a lot of things to keep up with here. Okay. So, normally we would kind of connect everything to our school improvement plan and so we are kind of veering slightly from that this
012evening with um the permission of Dr. Royal and Dr. Gardner. So, we absolutely appreciate them allowing us to kind of shift that focus a little bit. So, just like we do our review our school improvement plans and update our scoreboards, our PLC's actually have um core data reviews at our beginning of year and middle of year um reviews and we discuss our literacy and our math data and our teams set goals and they select a strategy that they will commit to in order to reach those goals that they've set. So, what we're going to look at this evening is I ready? Are you ready? Um, we're getting our students and staff excited about using I Ready Math, which is a program that we've implemented this year at the K2 level. So, I've got my fabulous
013instructional coach here, um, Allison Granger. And so, we can't do a lot of the things that we do, but we're very appreciative to have this support in our schools every day. Um, this is something I didn't have in other districts. So, knowing that we have an instructional coach who's able to get in our classrooms and support our teachers, able to go into our PLC meetings, and also support the administrative staff, we're very grateful for this. um opportunity to have our instructional coach. So without further ado, I will I'll hit the button for you. Good evening everyone. So as Dr. Rogers was saying, we implemented I Ready this year and um K2 schools, our three five schools were using it, so it was new to us for K2. And at the beginning of the year, we
014just started off at our opening staff meeting. Our main goal was for our staff to know what the program was, how to log the kids in, and get through the BOI diagnostic. Those were like three main steps that we started out with as a district or and then after that, we had a district-wide PD in September and um Miss Connley had an IRA rep there that teachers met with to help interpret that beginning of the year data. So we did that on the 3 and then back and then in excuse me October 8th we had our first review with Miss Connley and our core PLC's. Um at that point we had successfully knew how to get our kids logged in, how to get them through a diagnostic. So we decided we need to set a
015strategy to get these kids. So, I Ready says if you use the program to fidelity, which their fidelity is a minimum of 30 minutes a week, the kids with 70% of their lessons passed, we would see results within our math along with our core curriculum. So, at our BOI, we just chose to get our kids used to 30 minutes a week. If we can get them on 30 minutes a week, that's a step that we're starting with. And um we each team did that weekly. We pulled the usage reports. We talked about we did many PDs throughout like what a rush flag means. How do you go about helping a kid when there's a rush flag? How do you reassign them if you see that they're not passing their lessons? And each week the classroom
016with the highest percentage of usage were announced on our morning patriot news and thing. and they um got a little stuffed uply to keep in their classroom for the week. So, it was a little friendly competition on getting started out like just two or three and then I actually had to reach out to the I Ready rep and said, "It's getting really um competitive in here. I need some more for the kids to um keep in their class for the week." So, that's how we started it out. And then we got our MOI diagnostic. Um, yep, we got our MOI diagnostic. Um, as we were looking through it, um, you can see we had increased from an overall, um, kids on grade level from 50 to 62. And we were also recognized Park View and
017the in Charlotte the um North Carolina I Ready Symposium recognized the school in each district that had the highest median growth and we had it for our K5 schools. So um once we started digging into the data we saw that we were really growing our kids that were one to two grade levels behind which is a big celebration. Um so we wanted to continue that but we were like we have got to grow our own grade level kids and our above grade level kids. So what do we need to do? We are seeing growth from BOI to MOI but we want to see more growth. So after that point we um met with the PLC's. Um, we met with the PLC's and that's where that's just the slide showing where we pulled the report saying
018across the grade levels K1 and two for us. You can see how we're growing our students that were one to two, but our mid to medium were just kind of plateaued. So, we're like, we've mastered the usage. We had another um data meeting with Miss Connley and the teams realized that we need to have the students have a little bit more accountability. So now our we're going to keep the usage, but we also want to make sure that they are passing a minimum of two lessons a week. Um so we put that in and um that was in the middle of January. Um kids were really getting excited, but we still had some that the teachers we just didn't have their buy in. we didn't have the whole school's buy in and we're like if
019if we're if this is going to succeed we need to have the buyin of everybody. So from that point in January by Dr. Rogers and I were just kind of thought talking of like how can we get this up a notch. Well that's when we decided to do the um an I Ready Math Madness challenge schoolwide K2. So, um, what we did with that is we sat with the PLC's and just said, "Okay, we're seeing the growth. Everybody's getting their kids to pass two lessons a week. You're individually tracking that in the classroom. We are seeing the growth, but we still need more growth and we don't feel in PLC's, we were having discussions, especially with some of our kids that may have um been struggling that they were just not interested in it. It
020was just they would get on it. they're not passing lessons. So, Dr. Rogers and I talked and we said, "Let let's try to implement something schoolwide to build a competition to get the buy in from all teachers and all kids at that point because they were using 10 frames in the classrooms. They have punch cards. They have sticker charts. They have graphs." So, the kids were individually kind of keeping up with their lessons. But some kids that works that was motivating some of them, but not all of them. And so we were trying to figure out what else what's the next step. How do we push it just a little bit further to motivate him? So delay falls from [Music] [Applause] [Music] This is Snard. He's one of the other I Ready characters. Snard has
021a basket of goodies. [Music] [Applause] His handler's not helping. You got it. [Music] Give them stuff out the basket. Please have a um I Ready token out of the basket there. Board members, you may select a little fun there. Sorry, Snard. So, Snard would show up. Sorry, sir. Snard. Yes, Snard is okay. But Snard actually showed up in our building and hung out for a little while, showed up in some classrooms, and that was very exciting as some of our friends over there remember seeing Snard. And that was quite the surprise because Snard came out of the iPad just like you Bupley over here. Um, and so we were very excited to be able to have him come around and introduce the fun. So, thank you so much, Nard. [Applause] Y down in there. So,
022Miss Granger along with our PLC activators worked together and came up with some different rules and prizes and shared that out to all of our grade levels. I'm sorry. Snard was a little concerned about coming out here, which is why we hired a handler. Oh gosh. So, the teachers had to come up with their with their students come up and they had to create names for their teams. There's jerseys. We have a whole bulletin board outside of our PLC room and they actually had to go through and the students had to learn what the rules of the game were um for this competition and we actually kicked off our math madness just like March Madness. Um and so they actually went through we have we had Monday announcements where we went through the competition and
023each team the teams were eliminated down to we are now down to our final two. So, even though the championship games were this weekend for the men's and ladies uh basketball championship teams, we are down to our last week this week and the winners will be announced next week. Um, but that wasn't all. We also wanted to keep even though the teams could be eliminated, we still wanted to have individual winners. So, each grade level, the students could still compete and so we had top winners in each grade level. And we weren't ready for the fact that there could be ties. We we actually students tying and so we have we have lots of prizes. We have capes that the students win. They get their um personalized certificates and we actually thank goodness we have
024backup capes because they actually rotate because we have capes with their you know winners on the back for each grade level. But when we have a tie we also had to have the rotating cape so that they could wear them because they actually had ties in each grade level. So even though you may not win as a team you could still win the individual and carry it for you represent your grade level. So, that was very exciting and has been exciting for our kiddos. And did you have a pool? Didn't think to do that, but that may not uh be a a good thing. But right here, you can see just some of the excitement that's been going on at Park View um as we've been going through our Math Madness. So, as you can
025see, Snar coming through the building. Um these are the examples of the capes that the students have um when they're representing their grade level as individual team winners. Um and they also get to pick a prize. Um, Miss Marshall and I have lost our chair um several times because who would have thought winning the principal chair would be a thing, but they we literally um we they come and they pick up our chair and they keep it for the entire day. Um, Miss Marshall and I actually roll them out of the office and we roll them through the hallways and that is the only time you get to run through the hallway in the principal chair. Um, and it is so exciting and they keep it in their classroom and they stay in that chair
026all day. They sit at their desk in our chair. They sit at the carpet. They said, "We can sit at the carpet in your chair." We were like, "Yes, you get to sit at the carpet in the principal's chair." And then they returned it, of course, at the end of the day. They were really concerned about what we were going to sit in. And I said, "Buddy, don't, you know, don't even worry about that. We'll figure it out." Um, so we've lost our chair. Sometimes both of us have lost our chair. Um, we did this week. Um, two second graders won in Miss Long's class and both of them chose our chair. Um, so that was extremely exciting. Um, they also can win the I Ready prizes if they choose that and they also can
027choose to go on the Patriot news. So, it's been really neat to see what different kids choose as their individual prizes. Um, so that's been exciting. We also have a Padlet that Miss um, Granger has put together as well where the teachers can share ideas, things that they're what's motivating their classrooms, what's motivating their kids. Our teachers now want us to have something every single month starting at the beginning of the year. um just because our kids are so excited about wanting to pass their lessons and kids that maybe were not doing as well, they're boosting each other up. They're encouraging each other. They have felt like I'm a part of this team and I want you to do well, too. And so that's been really neat to see because they're believing in themselves and
028they believe in in each other. And so just seeing that camaraderie building that way has been really neat to see. Um, so that's been really fun as we've been watching our kids go through. Is this me too? Yep. Okay. So, what once we finish, we of course do our announcements and our final winners next week will the champions will have um pie in the sky is actually going to come. They've donated a class pizza party and they're also going to bring dough and teach the kids how to toss the dough. Um, there'll be a class trophy, a trophy, and they'll all get their individual medals as well. And of course they've been collecting their classroom certificates. So all that will continue as well. And then we're going to continue because our growth moni um window
029diagnostic window will be opening. So we'll continue with the individual prizes as well just to kind of keep that momentum going and because we don't want them to lose that um because it is an individual thing and we want them to continue to keep working and striving for those efforts. And believe it or not, I think we've been at the lowest is at 81% and I Ready says we need to have a minimum of 70% um lessons passed. So our kids want to do well and they're doing very well right now. Um so we're very excited for for them and just it's just been overall very inspiring to see how much they're they're growing and wanting to grow individually. So here's a couple of quotes from some of the students. Um, we may have been
030very excited when we put our presentation together and we had a really long video and um, you couldn't hear it because it was so much. Um, so here are just a few quotes. Um, I like I Ready because I get coins and I get prizes when I pass the lessons. Also, I like I Ready because I understand because it's in Spanish. Um, I like the characters. I like math. I like passing my times and I like doing my lessons. I like the challenges, the games and everything, especially when I learn new things in math that I hadn't learned before. And every class gets to pick their own team name and get prizes. So, do you have any questions for us? [Music] It sounds like it was a lot of fun. Yeah. No, I don't I
031don't have a question. October, if you could do the World Series and you know, no, that's what I was going to say. I don't have a question, but I just love how the relatability of, you know, sports in general bring people together and regardless of what background you come from, I think, you know, this is a concept that kind of seeing, you know, everybody having fun and and playing fair and being, you know, of the same dynamic. And so that was huge. I think, you know, you've started something that you're going to have to continue to carry on now. And so, not only will the students be looking forward to it, I'm a big basketball guy, so I know I'll be looking forward to this as well. So, I love the way you put it
032together with the whole march band concept and job well done. Thank you. And you could do a poll as a fundraiser. I'm all about it. All about it. I don't know. We probably can't, but I'm not going to tell anybody. Don't tell anybody. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, Dr. Gardner, we're ready for staff reports. Oh. Oh, that's right. Our next meeting is on May 13th right here, six o'clock. See you there. Right. Um, for our staff reports, we will start with the maximize opportunity and achievement report from Dr. Royal. Good evening, Dr. Marsh, Dr. Gardner, members of the board. Um, I do want to apologize in advance. Uh, the other members of the exec team were giving me a hard time for the length of my board report this evening. Um, but it does
033fit the title. We're maximizing our opportunity and achievement within the district. Go ahead and start the clock. No, I'm just playing. Uh, first I bring to you some athletic updates from the district. Our spring sports seasons are starting to wrap up at our middle schools this month. Um, at our high school, we have our athletic teams that are uh competing well into May, hopefully the end of May. Just some highlights. Our Morsel Middle School varsity volleyball team is currently undefeated. Our Morsel Middle School boys and girls soccer teams only have one loss each this season. Some of Burke Middle School's JV volleyball team is undefeated. Some of Burk's baseball and their boys and girls soccer teams only have one loss each this season as well. At the high school, our varsity baseball team is currently
034tied for first place in the conference with a 5-1 conference record. Our high school girls soccer team is tied for second in the conference right now with a big game coming up against Lake Norman this Friday. And both our boys and girls track teams at the high school are competing well. They just both recently won the Timberwolf Invitational as well. Uh, one more highlight for athletics. The North Carolina High School Athletic Association recently adopted the new athletic conferences with the realignment in the state and the transition to eight classifications instead of the traditional four classifications. Moresville High School will be competing in the North Pedmont Conference from 2025 to 2029. The conference will consist of Morsville High School, Lake Norman, Davy County, South Ayardell, North Ayardell, and Statesville. Uh, Mr. Busel, the athletic director at
035the high school, is currently working on finalizing the fall athletic schedules for all of our teams, and then he'll shift his work to our winter athletic schedules. Some school updates. The Southwest Education Alliance Board meeting was held at UNC Charlotte on March 21st. Dr. Mr. Wade, our director of secondary instruction, Miss Connley, our d our director of elementary instruction, as well as Misha Laskkey, our EMIS school librarian media coordinator, and Erica Aman, MHS instructional coach, presented on our district's gateway projects for grades 2, 5, 8, and 11. Attending that meeting were local superintendents in our region, as well as the newly elected state superintendent of public instruction, Mr. Mo Green. Mos Middle School assistant principal, Dr. Manelyn Browning. She recently presented at the MTSS cross regional secondary networking day in Wils County. Her session entitled
036A Middle School's journey through MTSS provided experiences and highlights from Mosul Middle School's MTSS implementation journey. Our AIG Advisory Committee held its last meeting of the year at an in-person meeting on March 27th. Miss Connley, Dr. Wade, Miss Amy Smith, and Miss Marine Fitz Simmons did an outstanding job leading this committee this year as we've made revisions and updated our district's AIG plan for 2025 to 2028. We will be presenting this plan to you all for first read at next month's board meeting. Congratulations to the Morville Concert Band, Morsville High School's Concert Band on receiving the following ratings at the South Central District District Music Performance Adjudication two weeks ago. That event was held at Morville High School. Morville's concert band, Superior, Symphonic Band, Superior, and the wind ensemble, Superior. And just a reminder to
037our folks, the rating of Superior is the highest possible score. As of last week, our kindergarten registration count is up to 257 students registered for the 2526 school year. Last year, we did not hit 257 students registered until the end of April, so we're a bit ahead of schedule this year. Just a reminder to our families, they can find all the information needed to enroll their kindergartenner for next year on the MGSD website. This week is assistant principal appreciation week. We truly appreciate all the hard work, energy, and dedication that all of our assistant principles put in each and every day for our students, staff, and community. Speaking of our APS, we held our fourth session of our assistant principal leadership academy yesterday. Trainings were led by Miss Mr. Oil, Dr. Albert, Miss Watts, and
038Dr. Boston. A few of the topics covered were the role of the LEA in IEP meetings, an infinite campus preview, and leadership development. The ACT was given to our MOSA High School juniors back on March 25th, and the high school administered makeup testing today for the ACT. With the retesting that took place today, our participation at the high school is 98.6%. So, great job by Miss Graham and Miss Allen and the high school staff to ensure that all of our juniors are participating in the ACT. Also like to recognize uh Mr. Oral uh as well as Ora High School teacher, Miss Treyan, helped lead the ACT as well as our technology department. Um, as you may have heard, there's been some glitches with the ACT uh being administered and our technology department was hand all
039hands on deck uh to assist with that process. Our second annual multilingual K12 family celebration will take place on the fields between Mosul Intermediate School and Rocky River Elementary on Friday, April 25th from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Our annual career fair is happening the morning of April 29th at Moresville High School. We're excited to be able to provide the option for our students at Moresville High School to meet with local businesses and to answer your question, Miss Panel, earlier as well as some institutions will be there as well. Uh so that our students can learn more about career and post-secary opportunities. Uh lastly, we begin our EOGS, EOCC's, CTE state assessments, and the end ofear exams on Thursday, May 8th, which leaves us just 20 instructional days left in the academic year. as a
040former colleague used used to say, we don't want to count the number of days left. We want to make the number of days left count. And again, that's for all of our students in all of our classrooms. So again, our stu our schools are focused on finishing the year strong and plans are in place to be sure that our students and teachers are ready for closing out the day the last days of the school year. And that does finally conclude my report for maximizing opportunity and achievement. Are there any questions? Yeah. If there's a family that wants to register their child for kindergarten, where should they physically go? To the school that they're zoned for or to the central office? They go to the school that they're zoned for and they can find all that
041information on the MGSD website. Okay. Yep. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you. All right. Next up, we have our safe, happy, and healthy with Dr. Albert and Dr. Smith. Good evening, Dr. Gardner, Dr. Marsh, members of the board. Last week, we hosted our annual resource and transition fair at Moresville Middle School, welcoming welcoming approximately 30 families and 25 vendors. Representatives from across our EC programs were also on hand to connect with families and students. A special shout out to Tracy Spears who once again organized this outstanding event. And thank you to all of our EC staff who attended throughout the throughout the afternoon. In other exciting news, our STARS preschool program expanded this past school year with the addition of a fifth classroom for students with disabilities. With this growth and the evolving needs
042of our preschoolers, we are preparing our classrooms so that all of our students in the STARS program have full access to full day services. While some of our students previously left around lunchtime, we want to encourage them to extend their school day to better prepare them for kindergarten. And finally, I want to remind everybody that this Thursday over at Selma Burke Middle School at 5:30 p.m., Southern Family Medicine will host an informative and engaging session and discussion discussing the dangers of vaping and its impact on teen health, academics, and the future. And sorry, Dr. Marsh, Dr. Garner, members of the board. A couple of more uh comments from safe, happy, and healthy. As part of our annual review process, we're currently evaluing uh our student code of conduct as we do every year. Um and
043working with our all our school administrators on uh ways that we can improve and any necessary updates uh for the upcoming school year. So, that's an ongoing pro process to get ready for the new student code of conduct uh for next school year. And also, as I mentioned at uh at last month, we have received the funding for uh the safe schools grant uh from the state. So, uh, Mr. Reic and I are currently in the process of obtaining quotes for our new radio system. We're going to put new walkie-talkies and repeaters in in all of our schools. Um, and we anticipate bringing uh something to the board next month for your formal approval process. So, that's all that we have unless there are any questions. Any questions? No. Good to go. Thank you. Thank
044you. All right. Next up, we will have Miss representing Recruit, Grow, Entertain. Good evening, Dr. Marsh, Dr. Gardner, members of the board of education. This uh spring for human resources has been very busy as we were uh wasn't with you last month as we were recruiting. Um and we worked to bring some of the top recruits to our first Morrisville hiring event that we held uh late last week. Um, we invited 14 teacher candidates to visit our school system. They toured our schools and had an opportunity to interview with our principles on Friday, this past Friday morning. And through that, we were able to uh confirm six conditional offer agreements. Um, and I would like to thank our school principles, our Morrisville graded uh, school district uh, foundation for public education and all those who
045helped put the the event together. And a special thanks to um, my team um, is and in particular Miss Rachel Busel who helped lead and and get everything together for this great event um, as we endeavor to continue to recruit great talent to our school district. Um, also in the next uh few weeks, HR will begin the process of the teacher of the year for Morrisville Graded School District selection process. So, we um will have our first meeting, our committee meeting this Friday and we will begin our observations and prepare to select the teacher of the year for Morrisville graded school district. All of our schools have um will be complete with selecting their school teacher of the year and beginning teacher of the year as well. Um of course we will announce the finalists
046for our school district's teacher of the year in um the beginning of the 2005 2026 school year at convocation. Um we are also looking forward to um in in the spring we do a lot of celebrations. Um, so we have our beginning of the uh beginning teacher celebration this uh Thursday and then uh looking forward we will have a um retiree celebration on May 8th. Um and so we are continuing to to celebrate and and lift up our um great staff and uh now I'll pause for any questions you may have for me. Do we have a date for convocation? I think it's August 1, but I'll Excuse me. July 31st. Okay. I was wrong. I think inviting those candidates in in what you did is a perfect um recruitment tool. Are you planning to
047or have you already sought some feedback from them whether they were offered a a contract or not? Just the process. Certainly. Um we do have a a survey that if it hasn't gone out, one has been developed. I know we wanted and we you know in while they were here certainly asked them some of their thoughts but um and we also need thought uh input from our uh school leaders as well on those who participated. But we had a lot of positive uh comments, but always looking to improve and um make that something that we can continue to do uh for um to support uh our recruitment efforts. No, I think it's a great idea um just because of the fact that you know a lot of surrounding uh districts around us not you know
048sometimes they competitive in the pay but uh it's always good to show the perks that we you know have here with Moses graded school district. One thing that I would say also is uh you know I've been hearing good talks about the MHS um pet rallies. So maybe we should do one and have them come to a pet rally based on that and then you know make that happen. I think I think Miss Graham and her team can kind of sell some you know people coming to Moresville as well. So hearing good things about the pep rally. So yeah. All right. Okay. Keep that in mind. Any other questions, comments? Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. Next up is Miss Mlan with Culture Relationships. Good evening, Dr. Marsh, members of the board, and
049Dr. Gardner. We will be holding our last SHA committee meeting tomorrow afternoon for this year. Um we've had a really productive year and I appreciate everybody that's taken the time to come to our meetings. Um Shaq along with our CNI department and several community partners will be holding a saf safe, healthy, happy, and history in Liberty Park on May 1st, 2025. Um this will take place from 4:30 to 6:30. We know it's a busy evening with events in our district. It's that time of year. This is a free event. There will be games, activities, and resources with food and um a history walk around downtown Morrisville where um Miss Smith with our um curriculum instruction, Amy Smith, has planned some different areas where where people will go with a smartphone. She'll have QR codes, so
050bring your smartphone for the group um and they'll learn history in Morrisville. Um, last Friday I had the honor of attending Belmont Abbey Colleg's dance showcase where our own Miss Carly Thompson was awarded the teacher of the year and dance education award. Um, this award includes $1,000 for Miss Thompson to use toward our dance program at the two middle schools. Um, and we appreciate her work. um we were able to see some of the comments that through the nomination process students and parents sent in and it was just um it spoke volumes to the authentic culture relationship she's building in that program. So it was fun to watch and that is all I have. Are there any questions? What was the date again on the um the downtown history tour again? May May 1st. Okay.
051What what were the times? I'm sorry. the times 4:30 to 6:30. Thank you. And that was a great event last year and they really had some good vendors, some great ideas, lots of good gifts. I came home with a free locked drug box. Yeah, we do. Yeah. For all my drugs. And all of those partners will be here again. We have little ones in the house. You know, that was And we have some new ones. Um so we're excited about we're excited about that. Ayardell County Health will be there and they'll have the goggles so people can see what it's like to drive under the influence and Yeah. So, yeah. Good. It's good. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Good evening, board members. Uh over the past several months, we've had the opportunity to collaborate
052with House Representative Carver and Senator Sawyer to discuss the priorities of public education and morsel graded. Um, this includes a visit by Representative Carver just yesterday to see the great things happening in career technical education at Moresville High School. We appreciate that ongoing collaboration with both of our state representatives in support of our school district. We anticipate the North Carolina Senate will release their initial budget sometime in the next two weeks. We hope that this initial budget prioritizes public education and in particular teacher compensation. Two weeks ago in an event hosted by the EDC at Mitchell Community College, it was shared that a livable wage for a single adult with no children in Ardell County is $48,939. It presently takes 10 years for a teacher to reach this reach this salary on our schedule in
053North Carolina. We have to do better for our teachers and I encourage all supporters of public education to demand the same in the coming months. Thank you. This concludes my comments. And just to piggyback on that, if you're talking to our legislators, it's not just salary where they need to step their game up. You have to make sure that they're not robbing Peter to pay Paul by um charging more for insurance um or u taking away um retirement benefits. So, you know, in North Carolina, that's a part of the um benefit package and um you know, even if they raise salaries some, if they're taking it from other benefits, teachers are still losing. And what Dr. Gardner just quoted, that's just a livable wage. You know, you're not going out to eat very often on
054on that kind of a salary. So, okay, I'll get off my bandwagon where that's concerned. some upcoming events for the board and others. Um some were mentioned um this evening. The board will continue with some school visits. We're scheduled to see Park View and um I think it's just Park View this month. Um we our intermediate schools will be doing their gateways and that will be another wonderful thing to um visit. In addition, um something that is not on the list that you received, the Morrisville High School PTSO is having a car wash this Saturday from 11 to 1 at Finnish car wash, which is on Broad Street as you're headed toward Buckos. Right before you turn to Buckos, not the brand new one. This is the the other one. And you they will get
055a percentage of um the sales. you still go through as you normally would, but that's helping to fund the senior celebration that they do at the end of the year, which is a really good event, too. So, thank you. And it looks like we don't have any correct ones for public comment. No public comment. So, items for approval. All right. Our first item for approval is supplemental funds for teacher compensation with Mr. Smith. Good evening. Um Dr. Garner, Dr. Marsh, members of the board. Uh I bring before you uh a supplemental approval plan for um instructional teachers. It's a supplement uh provided by the appropriations act of 2021. Uh it is for a supplement for teachers and instructional support personnel for more for Morsville graded school district. Uh the a lotment is 533,442. The maximum
056per teacher is allowed by the by the uh the plan is $977. We propose to provide that uh maximum amount of $977. And we've traditionally paid the maximum amount u each year and so that's something too that we would want to continue. Um the payment will be done or be processed if approved uh in the June paycheck uh based on the number of active eligible employees. I recommend for your approval. Okay. Members of the board, you heard the recommendation that we compensate our um teachers and or qualifying staff members with the supplemental funds for teacher compensation. Are there any questions or comments? Then I'll entertain a motion to approve. So move I approve that we um approve the supplemental teacher compensation as read by Dr. Smith. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor?
057I I opposed. Okay, the motion uh carries. Thank you. Thanks, sir. All right. Next up, we have Dr. Smith and Miss Birfield with a school nutrition purchase. Dr. Gardner, Dr. Marsh. Members of the board, Miss Bertzfield and I bring to you tonight a um a request from the school nutrition department in collaboration with Moresville High School. Miss Bertfield and Miss Graham and I have been working on on this project, but we're uh requesting approval to purchase new cafeteria furniture for Morsville High. Um the purchase will include updated tables, booths, and and uh other uh things in the cafeteria to specifically accommodate high school students. um the furniture that's there is quite old and broken in a lot of places. So um we did solicit uh formal requests for proposals. We did receive four competitive submissions
058and through a compre comprehensive evaluation and scoring rubric we have chosen new idea uh as the respon most responsive and responsible bidder. This is also the same uh company that put in the new furniture at Selma Burke. Um the total pro cost cost of the project including shipping installation and applicable applicable taxes u will not exceed $293,5965 uh2 and this expenditure will be funded through school nutrition funds in according with their state mandated spendown plan. You have any questions miss and I can address those otherwise we are seeking approval for this purchase. Lot of history lot of history there. Yeah I think history there. Now, I think these the ones they have now were in um when they were I think Jordan was in school when they Yeah, I know. I was there. It's been
059a while. I was there, too, I think. Well, and Miss Miss Graham Miss Graham will tell you they don't accommodate they don't accommodate se high school students very and I'm assuming from the pictures that there will be there's a variety of different seating arrangements here, which I like as well. Yeah. A lot of welcoming opportunities. Yeah. Every everything is on wheels. Um and moves. You can fold it up and move. Even the booths. Even the booths. No, that's good. That's good. If you've been in Selma Burk's uh cafeteria, it's very similar type of furniture. Just the seats are a little bigger. Okay. I said there has been a recommendation that we approve the expenditure um to purchase school nutrition um from the school nutrition funds for the purchase of new cafeteria furniture. Um is there
060are there any other questions, comments? Okay, I'll entertain a motion to approve. So moved. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Okay, the motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Go forth and purchase. Let the big kids sit. All right. Next up, we have a field trip um that will be presented by Dr. Royal. Good evening again, Dr. Marsh, Dr. Gardner, members of the board. Uh tonight, I have a field trip uh that we're bringing to you for your approval. Um, as you know, the field trips that come to the board are trips that are overnight as well as out of state. And this meets both those requirements. As this is a trip for spring break of 2027, I did say that correctly, 2027. Uh, it is an international trip and like
061we've done in the past, uh, we want to bring these trips to you early enough to allow time for our families to do some fundraising uh, with the school as well as within their family. So, I'll give you a description. Uh we also have Miss Agar here from the high school who is coordinating this trip um as she's done numerous trips. I was just on one with her this past spring break as we went to Italy and Switzerland. Okay. So for the spring break of 2027, Moresville High School is requesting permission to travel to Austria, Germany, and Switzerland during the 2027 spring break. This trip will involve an estimated maximum of 80 students with an estimated cost of $4,189 per student. Miss Aar Morville High School English teacher is organizing this opportunity and will attend
062as a chaperon. EF Educational Tours uh will facilitate this opportunity. We've worked with that organization multiple times uh with a proposed 10-day trip itinerary that includes stops in Vienna, Salsburg, Munich, the Tyrell region, Likenstein, the Lucern region, and H Highleberg. These locations offer direct connections to various academic standards and align with our commitment to developing academic and durable skills. Additional chaperones will be utilized to maintain our 1:7 teacher-to- student ratio. There will be several fundraising opportunities available for students. Included for your review are the following documents in your packet. A letter from Miss Agar, MGSD field trip request form, educational merit and standards align document. Morsel High School travel club traveler eligibility conduct and safety agreement. Morel High School international travel permission and release form. And finally, the educational tour EF global travel program proposal
063documents. We'll entertain any questions. Again, Miss Agar is in the audience as well, and we would um bring this to you to approve the field trip as outlined and presented. Any questions or comments? I've traveled with Miss Aar and with EF on three different um tours and both do a great job. So, I have every confidence in in that. And I love that we provide these opportunities, you know, that not everyone can take part in that. But when we're planning in advance, hopefully um for people that might need a little a little help, they can, you know, be be planning and budgeting and and fundraising to make that happen because those are great trips. Absolutely. Since you guys created all the stir with your recent social media documentation of the fantastic trip, when will you
064be advising parents and students of the opportunity? Miss, you want to answer that? Okay. Any other questions? All right. Then I will entertain a motion to approve the trip for 20 spring break of um to Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. um 80 students will be able to go at a cost of $4,189. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Second. All those in favor? I. All those opposed. Okay. Motion carries. Start planning. Get it ready to send out. Get your passport. And I love that y'all post pictures and people can follow the trip. So, if any other parents out there are interested, you just go check out the pictures from this last last trip. All right. Um, our next item is the 2025 readministration plan revision. Um, so I'm going to start this off
065and then I'm going to pass it off to Mr. Oral. Um, so this might look familiar to you because we brought a plan to you in February and and then you approved it in March for readministration of the end of grade end of course exams. Directly after your approval, we were notified by NCDPI that there were some additional opportunities um that would be granted. This is something that used to be done pre- pandemic um but was not recently available and that is the opportunity to do retesting before the last academic um school day of the year. So prior to this revision, we had to wait until outside of our calendar, conduct a summer school, um provide remediation, and then offer it. Then um we believe that this opportunity while it was granted to us late
066in the year and has caused us to pivot and plan, that's what we do in public education. Um it provides um greater ease for our families. The students are at school so they don't have to worry about changing summer schedules um trying to make sure that they can get them to and from school. Those logistics, it will certainly increase the number of our students that can participate. Um last summer we averaged anywhere from nine to um upper 20s percentage of students eligible taking the retest. Obviously um we feel like those numbers will go up dramatically um because we have the students in school with us. Um it does help us with not having an instructional gap. We noticed uh the further our summer program went, the less successful our students were in retesting because they
067had a a solid gap in there between initial um learning. Um this will be conducted at the home schools obviously. Um so there is some lack of familiarity that had been expressed to us from parents and students when they had to go to a summer school opportunity that was not their child's home school. Um they also have the familiar teachers as well. Um and and we look at this as a positive uh and we're really going to continue to reinforce that. Um, testing is a one day at a time event and we believe that everybody can have a bad day and this just gives our students another opportunity to show what they know. Um, as a reminder, the state um, grading system is 80% proficiency, 20% growth. The first score, the initial test score is
068the only thing that counts for growth. So even if the student does better, that does not count for that 20% growth. Um, I cannot answer why. That's that's a decision at the state level, but the the the higher of the two scores counts for proficiency. So, it certainly will help in that majority of the school report card grade. And with that, I will um have Mr. Oral share us some logistics. All right. Good evening, Dr. Marsh, Dr. Garner, members of the board. This decision was not made lightly to change our schedule so late in the year. Um but there are a few things that I want you to know that we did consider when we tried to revise our schedule. First of all, they did not change the window of testing. All state assessments for
069grades three through eight through three through eight need to be done in the last 10 days of of the calendar year. So what a few things that we considered when we when we revised this was we wanted to administer the initial assessments as early in the window as possible in an effort to maximize the amount of time that we had for for remediation between the initial assessments and the readministrations. Finally, we wanted to avoid testing in the last three days of the year where events such as field day and awards programs and combined with the fact that our last day is a half day, we wanted to stay away from that as much as possible. Having said that, there may be a situation or two where testing does need to happen there, especially if a
070student has missed the initial assessments. So if we look at the 3rd through fifth grade, our initial assessments now our proposed schedule is they would be done on the 8th, 9th and 12th of May, leaving Monday the the 12th, 13th and 14th for remediation. Our readministration for the reading test grades three uh four and five would be that Thursday, May 15th. We will also be doing our third grade read to achieve test that day as well. And also our um readministration for the math test would be on that following Friday the 15th. The six to eight uh schedule is a little more compact due to due to some field trips that have already been scheduled but like third grade through fifth grade. We will be doing our initial testing on that Thursday the 8th, Friday
071the 9th, Monday the 12th, leaving Monday and Tuesday for remediation opportunities. The math readministration would be on Thursday, May 14th with reading on or sorry, math Wednesday the 14th, reading Thursday the 15th due again due to the field trips. It's also important to note that science will not have the opportunity for readministration due to the uh the new the new test and the new standards and the reorming. So during the remediation time, we want you uh to fully understand that this is not punitive for our students who did not demonstrate proficiency. They will not be missing any of the fun activities. All students will be engaged in learning during those times, whether it's preparing for next year or remediation of current standards for the for the readministration. And finally, it's important to note that the
072memo that was sent on April 2nd made it very clear that participation is voluntary and the parents or the families or the adults at home will have the final say on whether their students participate in the readministration. Right now, uh when that notification goes home, it is encouraged that the parent or the adult at home will just send a message to the child's teacher through parent square simply stating, "I do not want my child to participate in the readministration." and that will be honored as well as any other form of communication. Do you have any questions about our readministration plan? Yeah, I do. So, that communication and parent square, our teachers do a great job, but it is the end of the school year. There are a lot of messages flying in about field trips
073and parties and whatnot and soever. Is there a more formal way that we can have No, I'm worried about it slipping through the cracks. Our teachers are busy. Really, really busy. Yes, we are too. Uh so that's a conversation that Dr. Royal and I had u so they can contact the principal via phone there. Whatever method they choose to make sure that someone in the adult knows that they do not want their child to take part in the readministration is something that we will honor. Are you asking I'm just saying that a a third grade child's like you said some things there might be an opportunity where there might be an activity going on um and that kid is going to be subject to retesting and there may be water day for example and their
074parent might have tried to give a message to the teacher that they didn't want to have them retested their students going to miss the opportunity to go to water day the parent's going to be upset I just want to make sure there's a clear way for a parent to communicate with the school, the staff, the teacher that they do not want to participate in retesting if they if they want to opt out. I just don't want it overlooked and missed. Understood. Right. And that's the last thing we want to do as well. But we're also trying to avoid those those events to make sure I mean I know but younger kids can't advocate for themselves that well. And so if the parent had meant for their child not to be subjected to the retesting, well,
075one of the things that we'll have our schools do is all communication is going to go out Monday. So, we will be blasting that. Expect notification whether your child passed or didn't pass that Monday. No matter what, you're going to get communication. We're trying to overcommunicate that. We're actually going to send a letter out probably the end of this week saying we're going tohead and tee that up and say, "Here's the dates. Here's the way the communication's going to work." Um, and we'll continue to reinforce that. But, everyone will get notification that Monday. I believe we're going to use a mail merge system similar to what we do for like our NC check-in results to make sure everybody gets that. And then we do, that was one of the reasons why we wanted to have
076a little bit of time there in between as well. That way we've got time for parents to think through that and and make a decision on what they want to do. Is that Monday the 12th you're talking? Yeah. I'm just glad to see that it doesn't is it's not impacting the fun activities. You know, that's that's that's the the biggest thing that I can look at. you know, we we still have to look at I get it that, you know, testing is important, the achievement is important, but we still got to understand so is that fun activity that they worked hard for all year. So, I'm just glad to see that the actual plan is not, you know, harming them from getting those fun activities. And we've been guaranteed that, right? We did try to
077avoid those last three days of of the school year. Probably the only exception to that would be like if somebody's out with the flu for six or seven days, we have an obligation to test every kid the last 10 days. That would be the only exception. That's that's understandable. I just, you know, that's with with the way we are with P with recreation and just having fun and things of that nature. Please don't take their fun activities away from them. Well, no one loves fun more than me. Not going to do that. So, okay. If there are no further questions, I would request approval of our revis. Okay. We have a request to approve the 2025 grades 3 through 8 EOG readministration plan um as revised. Um I will entertain a motion. So moved. Second.
078Second. All those in favor? I. All those opposed motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um, before I do this next part, I want to thank Commissioner Carricker for coming to our meeting this evening. So, under general statute 143-318.11 sections A1, A3, and A6, the board will now go into close session um to consider um personnel and consult with the board attorney. I will entertain a motion to go into close session. So, move and a second. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Okay. Thank you for coming folks. We'll entertain a motion to um approve the personnel list as presented. So move. Second. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Okay, the motion passes. I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. All in favor? I I opposed.