NHCS Board of Ed. Regular Meeting | June 2, 2026 - Reuploaded

001That's on so you can hear me. Welcome to the June 2nd, 2026 board of education meeting. Before we begin, I would like to remind you of a few things. Please keep the aisles clear during our meeting to allow members of the school system and the sheriff's department to be able to move around. Also, except for when honoring the flag and our opening prayer, our opening prayer and when participating and call the audience, please remain seated during our meeting. We hope to have a productive and efficient meeting and your help is greatly appreciated. Do have a couple remotes uh a couple things to uh remind you of before we call the roll. Today's national anthem will be done by the Murray Middle School Chorus uh under the direction of Jennifer Hec chorus teacher and Deanna Leak

002principal Terry Henry will be doing our um invocation remotely. Um Terry Henry will be doing that. The Ashley High School NJOTC will provide the presentation of colors under the direction of Lieutenant Robert uh Lieutenant Colonel, excuse me, Robert Rare and Master Chief David Jamps, Principal Michael Perez and Mr. Perry will be doing our pledge today. Miss Buoie, >> point of inquiry. >> Go ahead. We haven't called RO yet. Let me call roll and then we'll get to you. If you'd call the role, please. Miss Buoie. >> Good afternoon. Pete Wlebore. >> I'm present. >> Melissa Mason >> here. >> Josie Barnhard >> here. Pat Bradford. >> I am here. >> Judy Justice >> here. >> Dr. Tim Merrick >> here. >> And David Perry >> here. >> All right. Can I make a point? >>

003Yes, sir. >> Uh sounds like we may still have some people filtering in. Would you like to give them a couple more minutes to kind of filter in before we get started? We're we're pretty much packed in here and so we're going to actually have a little bit of a delay for those some of those people. So I think we're just about ready to go. But let's go ahead and start with our Mr. Chair. I did not receive an agenda and I don't want to share because I make notes and I keep them. >> It's right there. >> Somebody got it. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. All right, we'll start with our invocation. >> Sovereign God, you are our Lord and the keeper of our universe. Your word reminds us we are your people

004and the sheep of your pastor. today as the board begins their meeting for the betterment of our schools. We thank you for the leadership for every teacher, every faculty and staff member and particularly for our students. We pray for your continued protection over every campus and all of our students. We pray specifically that you will grant this board direction, wisdom, and clarity in their decision-m so that whatever decisions they make will be for the improvement and betterment of our schools. We thank you for your guidance and your loving kindness. May we forever give your name praise. Amen. Amen. and color. Early proud At the twilight ble. through the night still there are the I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation

005under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, this is one of my favorite parts of the whole night as we get to introduce these young folks. So, if you would tell us a little bit about yourself, your name would be >> Hello and thank you for letting us perform for you all today. We are at the Murray Magicals. I'm My name is Kira Hayworth and I am in seventh grade. My name is Katie Conway and I'm in seventh grade. My name is Katie Sutton and I'm in seventh grade. >> My name is Mora Fenley and I'm in eighth grade. My name is Reagan Black and I'm in seventh grade. And my name is Jenny Hec and I'm the chorus director at Murray Middle School. >> And next are Ashley Group. Hi, I'm

006Leah Tescan. I'm a sophomore. >> I'm Anna Rivero and I'm a junior. >> Hi, I'm Sophia Kumardi and I'm a freshman. >> I'm Kennedy Love and I'm a junior. I'm Jamie Maldonado and I'm a junior. >> Thank you ladies. Thank you very much. All right, it's on. Yes. Next, I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the agenda. >> So move. >> Second. >> First and a second. Any discussion? >> Hearing none. All in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. All oppose like sign that passes 70. Next we have the approval of the minutes. All uh I need and no try again. I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes. We have first and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor please signify by saying I. I. >> I. All

007oppose like sign. Again passes 70. We will take a moment here to allow everybody to find a seat. Thank you very much. >> Alrighty. >> We have a couple seats up front right there. Right. Next, we have our committee reports. Miss Bradford, why don't you start for us, please? >> I have the June finance, capital, and bond committee report. And you'll hear a little bit more about this later, but on May 20, we drove to Raleigh in three vehicles, a delegation of 17 that included six students, a social studies teacher, a band director, a curriculum specialist, assistant principal, committee members Dr. Barnes, Dr. Rob Morgan, John Hennitt, Jesse Barnhart, Pete Wde, and myself, and our own Anita Baggie. From the North Carolina House of Representatives, the gallery up above the floor, we watched a legislative

008debate after being introduced and received receiving a standing ovation from the representatives down on the floor. Later in the day, we were invited down onto the House floor by Representative Ted Davis and Representative Charlie Miller. That was a high honor. We similarly observed Senate debate from the Senate gallery after being introduced and receiving a standing ovation from the senators on the floor. Very late in the day, we were invited to the Senate floor with Senator Bill Raven. Another highlight, we met for back and back back and forth discussion in Senator Mike Lee's conference room with Senator Sherry Jones, Senator Kevin Corbin, and Senator Lee. Also present were his policy writer, his legislative aid, and the policy writer for the Senate Prom. We had meetings with representatives, polymakers, legislative aids. In total, we presented students student

009made gifts to 15 state representatives and five state senators, all who were either our local representatives or K12 education committee chairs in the House or the Senate, as well as education appropriate chairs in the House and the Senate. We enjoyed lunch in the legislative cafeteria. I believe it's widely known of last week's announcement of $116 million grant towards the debt service on our bond that our committee developed and our board approved and the county commissioners have approved. And finally, yesterday the county commission required the public hearing on our bond to be postponed two weeks until June 15th at 9:00 a.m. That concludes my report. >> Thank you, M. Bradford. Any questions? >> Our committee reports >> legislation. >> Dr. Mayor, do you have a committee report? No. Okay. All right. We will carry on then.

010Recognitions. I would uh have to ask just remind everybody to please have a seat. If you are not uh just please remain in your seats. Some seats up front here. >> Seats up front. >> Yes. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Well, all right. >> There's a couple back, too. >> Good evening. As always, it is my pleasure to be here this afternoon to celebrate our staff and students. >> Can I stop for one second? Uh, we need everyone to have a seat, please. >> Sir, sorry. >> I think we got two two seats up front here. Got some seats. Sorry. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. First and foremost, we have a teacher that we would like to recognize as the career and technical education teacher at New Hver High School for being selected as

011the 2026 2027 He-Man fellow. Fatima Sale, please come on down. Thank you. So this fellowship is supported by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the Keenan Fellows program for teacher leadership and will focus on incorporating computer science and computational thinking pathways into K12 education. Keenan Fellows are active K- through2 public and charter school teachers who complete a year-long fellowship including a summer immersion of at least three weeks with a host organization to gain firshand workforce experience all while continuing to teach. Miss Sail will be immersed in mentors from UNCCW during her fellowship. Congratulations. >> Next, we're going to be recognizing our national >> for my students. We um we did a little thing different this month. Um, our students are in the conference room. So, we're going to be recognizing our National History

012Day students next. All right. Let's see. Hey, Caleb, will you go ask the History Day students to come forward? Thank you. All right. So, while we're bringing them out, we're going to talk about them a little bit. Students from several schools across our district took home top honors in this year's National History Day State competition with a wide variety of projects from websites to research papers, exhibits, and performances. Students who took home first or second place will advance to the national competition later this month. First, we're going to start with Holly Shelter Middle School, advised by Shaun Stannick. Olivia Vernon, come on down. will advance to national competition. First place junior individual exhibit condemned by the crowd. How Leo Frank's conviction led to revolution against the justice system. >> Yep. Go right ahead. >> Hold

013on, Mr. >> Oh snap. Where? Oh, there you are. All right, Emma Hobbs, come on down. She's going to advance to the national competition. First place, junior individual website, a crime of fashion. How vanity led to the extinction of the Carolina parakeet. Nicely done. Maline Manchester will advance to the national competition. Second place, Junior Research Paper: Knowledge as Resistance: John Chavis' battle against racial stratification in the premature republic. Stella Allen and McKenzie Kennedy. Third place junior group performance. Still the Martyr sings. How LMA Wiggins voice impacted labor reform across the nation. >> There we go. >> Congratulations. All right. Next, we're going to move on to International School at Gregory, advised by Sarah Spansky. So Harriet Kennedy and Sarah Naggi will advance to national competition second place junior group exhibit Yabasta the Zapatista's fight for

014indigenous rights. >> Nicely done. Next, Coloulton Hutchkins and Luke Lanier. Third place junior group website. First in the South, how North Carolina 1908 prohibition affected the nation. >> All right. And we're going to bring Mr. stand it right back up here because we're going to now recognize Laney High School. So, come on back down. Price is right. All right. Scarlett Round and Joselyn Hudson will advance to national competition first place senior group exhibit past, present, and future. The birth of the PA program, past, present, and future. I like that. >> I'm saying All right. Next, Isaac Bear Early College, advised by Kit Stars and Morgan Manion. Satie Ortega. Did she make it? Okay. All right. Well, I'm just going to let you know. She's a great third place senior individual documentary. Okay. Now from Wilmington

015Early College High School, advised by Sean Stannic. Come on down. You know, we're just gonna leave you up there. Olivia Stetler will advance to national competition. First place senior individual exhibit, Lips Locked, Culture Shocked, the trek to inclusivity. Okay, so this one was lips locked culture shocked. And I'd also like to mention that Miss Olivia Albert H. Small in since January, Olivia has been working hard as a participant in the Albert H. Small Normandy Institute through the George Washington University as one of only 15 student teacher research teams. Participants are enrolled as non-deree students at the George Washington University. and she's met bi-weekly on Zoom to discuss materials using questions developed by student teacher teams. And each team completes two major projects, a briefing paper on a Normandy campaign and a soldier biography based on

016archival research about a hometown soldier buried at the Normandy American Cemetery. So, let's give her amazing round of applause for that. Okay, now we are going to recognize the superintendent and board of education art choice awards. Students from across the district recently submitted their artwork for a chance to be selected for the 2026 Superintendent and Board of Education Art Choice Awards. This is a prestigious honor that is only given to 11 students. The recipients will have their artwork hung in the board of education center and the superintendent's office. So, let's get started. First, Bianca Barcenis Vidal, who was unfortunately not able to be here, but are her parents here. Okay, looks like they weren't able to make it either. All right. Yes. And next we have Rosemary Franklin from Roland Grace Middle School. Come on

017down. And you can see their artwork displayed on the screens. They are also um getting their originals back along with a smaller canvas style. Nice. Yep. Next, George, I'm sorry, Quinn Delaney from Pine Valley Elementary School. Come on down. Okay, I'm impressed. Like I am seriously impressed with this artwork. I can't wait to see it hung on the walls. It's fantastic. >> All right. Next, we'll welcome Georgia Stallings from Eaton Elementary School. Come on down. Oh, he Yeah, he he want he >> he wants the big one. >> Okay, now we're ready. Awesome. >> All right. >> And I think Okay, we're gonna do another one real quick. Awesome. Next, darling Ruiz Garcia from Hogard High School. Come on down. 11th grader and amazing work. Wow. >> Next, we'd like to recognize Dylan Graph. Dylan

018Graph from Ashley High School. Dylan, come on down. Dylan. Congratulations. Next, we'd like to recognize Lillian May Blair from Murray Middle School. Next, Maggie Collins from Ogden Elementary School. Good job. Oh, hold on. No, she's next. Chase Kelly from Porter's Neck Elementary School. >> Good. Next, Bailey Sanders from Winter Park Elementary. >> Oh, oh, oh. She look, she's just smiling. >> Look at that face. >> All right. And next we would like to bring down Anna Aila Lopez from Writesboro Elementary School. >> Calling an audible on this one, y'all. >> Yep. Hold on one second. Dr. Barnes went to go get the big one. It's as big as she is. >> All right. Next we had we recently had several students place among the top athletes in this year's NCHSAA track and field state championships.

019Their hard work, discipline, and commitment throughout the season were on full display as they competed against some of the best student athletes in North Carolina. Join me in congratulating these outstanding student athletes for representing our school with excellence and sportsmanship. We are incredibly proud of their achievements and look forward to seeing all they continue to accomplish both on and off the track. First from Hogard, Abella Exantis, third place in the 8A long jump. Come on down. Uh >> oh. Technical difficulties. >> Mia Medlin, come on down. Mia won second place in the eight. Oh. Oh. Oh, sorry. Come on. All right. Is Mia here? Mia Medlin didn't see. Okay. All right. Riley Kaziah. Hope I said that right. Riley, come on down. Okay, Riley is state champion in the 8A600 meters. >> All right, from

020New Hover and I'm not sure if they were able to make it, but Michael Enriquez Ramirez Okay. All right. So, now we are going to highlight our educator of the year winners. >> Oh, are you Michael? Come on down. Michael, come on down. We're so glad you could make it. Michael took third place in the 7A 3200 meters. Congratulations. Woo. That's awesome. Wow, that's amazing. Good job. I heard that. Okay, now we're going to highlight our education of the year educator of the year educator of the year winners. All right. So, as many of you know, every year we get to do this and we love to promote and highlight our educators. So, I would like to bring up Robin Avery from Mason Bro Elementary School as our elementary educator of the year. Okay. And

021and I would like to bring next Miss Katie Yudi from middle school and overall educator of the year from Noble Middle School. You'll be seeing a lot more of these faces over the next year as we follow them along and see all the great things that they're going to be doing. >> All right, Shannon Mott from Ashley High School is our high school educator of the year. Come on down, Shannon M. Sam Smithson from Myrtle Grove Middle School is our assistant principal of the year. Sam Smithson, come on down. Thank you. Bert Kilpatrick from Masonboro Elementary School is our principal of the year. Come on down, Mr. Bert Kilpatrick. One last one. So, we recently had some students and staff members join us on a trip to Raleigh, and I invited a couple of those

022students to join us so that they could give you a little bit more information. However, if you would like to have a seat, we're going to highlight them during our recognitions portion of this event. Astro, come on down. And oh, there we go. Come on. Yes. Thank you. >> My name is Astro Sorenson. I was one of the students lucky enough to be taken up to Raleigh. Uh we went to the uh legislative building up in Raleigh and >> she's talking >> and we got to speak to Sen uh multiple senators and representatives. Uh we got to see a lot of the uh behind the-scenes processes from in inside the building. We were uh recognized as part of the gallery in the House of Representatives side. Uh and we got to uh watch both the

023Senate side and House of Representatives as they uh met. We got to talk to Senator Lee uh in a small conference and tell him about some of the things we needed for um our county uh education system specifically. and it was incredibly important for me to get to see behind the scenes and I learned quite a bit just from watching and being there. Uh it was an incredibly insightful experience for me. Thank you. >> So this was Astro's um first event to Raleigh and I'm thinking we may have to bring you back because the students that went with us were absolutely amazing. They were articulate. They were charismatic and they were thoughtful in everything that they said to every adult that they approached. It was such a meaningful and impactful day that I cannot appreciate

024their participation and their parents participation in allowing them to to join us. So I would just like to give a huge round of applause for all of our students that came with us. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. This concludes recognitions. >> Well, thank you very much. I appreciate it. And again, congratulations to everyone who was recognized today. Um, and uh, wow, what a great great way to start a meeting. That's for sure. Uh, we're going to continue on now with our student voice. >> I'm excited to bring Adela Graham to you this evening from Wilmington Early College High School. Okay. Good evening, chair, board members, superintendent, and guests. My name is Adela Graham, and I am a rising junior at Wilmington Early College High School. I am also a student athlete

025at New Handover High School and I had the honor this year of traveling to North Carolina ENT University to compete in a state track and field competition. Outside of athletics, I pl I plan to pursue a career in veterary medicine. When I was invited to speak tonight, I wanted to make sure I represented not only my own perspective, but also the perspective of other students. So I created a survey to gather student feedback about their school experiences and a few consistent themes stood out. Tonight I will share those themes along with solutions I thought of based on what I have heard. The first theme is student connection and access to opportunities including athletics. Many students feel there are limited opportunities to connect with students from other schools outside of sports. I think this is an

026area where the district could strengthen student engagement. Stronger student engagement can be achieved by creating a more district-wide student opportunities. This includes academic showcases, leadership events, career exploration days, or interestbased workshops where students from different schools can come together. As it relates to strengthening student engagement for student athletes, an issue we run into is that early colleges have to choose between academics and athletics. The early colleges have a later dismissal time than traditional schools. I have personally had to drop my last class each semester to play to participate in sports. It is worth exploring ways to support early college student athletes so that they do not have to choose between athletics or academics whether through scheduling flexibility or coordinated athletic time structures. The second theme is the cell phone policy and how it is applied.

027Students generally understand that phones should not be used during instructional time and support classroom focused. However, many students feel that these expectations can be more clear and more consistent. One solution is keeping the focus of the policy strictly on instructional time while also allowing students to have access to their phones during non-instructional periods such as lunch or free periods. I believe this would keep the learning environments protected while also fostering student responsibility outside of the classrooms. Based on what the students shared, this solution should help us reach the goal of consistency and fairness while still maintaining a strong learning environment. The third theme is student support, including lunch services and mental health resources. At Wilmington Early College, one concern students share is that our school often receives the the remaining portions of lunches from Laney.

028Because of this, some students sometimes students in experience limited options such as missing items, um missing missing condiments or full selections. I think this is something worth reviewing to ensure the consistency and equity in meals across all schools. Lastly, students indicated that mental health support is an area of great importance. Students across all districts are balancing academics, sports, jobs, families responsibilities, and planning for their futures. While these resources do exist, many students are not fully aware of what is available or how to access them. One solution is improving the visibility of mental health resources through a more direct communication. This would look like weekly consistent reminders, schoolwide announcements, or clearly posted guides that make it easier for students to understand where and how to get the support that they need. Overall, what I heard from

029students reflects a shared desire to be heard, supported, and included in decisions that affect their daily lives. These perspectives come from both my own experiences and the students that took their time to share their thoughts with me. I appreciate the opportunity tonight to share both my voice and and the voices of my peers. Thank you for your time and your continued commitment to students across New Hover County Schools. God bless you and good night. >> Do you do you have any questions? >> Yeah. Well, I was just gonna ask I'm gonna start out for a change if I can. I'll let you go next. Thank you. I just want to tell you, you you did a great job. Uh smiling, you know, it just, you know, you you you said what you needed to say

030and you said it well and I'm just so proud of you. I mean, I just I'm so impressed by you. So, just great job. Great job, Miss Justice. >> Well, I it was great. And that's what I wanted to ask you. Can we get copies of this? Is there >> I have I have an extra copy if you do need >> Okay. Thank you. >> Just so happen to have one. Great. Thank you. >> If you'll give it to Julie Julie. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other brag on you? >> I just wanted to thank you for your presentation. Very well done. You're you're just amazing. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. Thank you. And our June June uh teacher voice is Mr. Stanic. So he's coming back

031on up. So >> popular gentleman today. >> Thank you for being here. >> Partying is good, isn't it? >> You know how it goes. >> Yeah, I know. >> Good evening. I would first like to express my sincere gratitude for the opportunity to travel to the North Carolina State Legislature alongside our superintendent, members of this board, and several outstanding new Hanover County High School seniors. It was truly an honor to be included, especially as the only teacher in attendance, and an experience I'll carry with me throughout my career. During our visit, we had the privilege of meeting with several of our state representatives. We are able to speak directly with legislatores legislators about the power and importance of public education, the incredible work happening in new Hanover County schools, and the areas where continued support

032is needed in order for our students and educators to thrive. One of our most meaningful parts of the experience was witnessing the legislative process firsthand. Sitting in the Senate chamber and listening to the to debate over proposed legislation was eye opening and powerful. It reminded me that the decisions made in those rooms directly impact our classrooms, our teachers, and most importantly, our students. I was also incredibly impressed by the willingness of our representatives to welcome us into their offices and truly listen not only to our successes, but also to our needs. Those conversations reinforce the importance of advocacy and collaboration between educators, school leaders, and lawmakers. Throughout the day, I was especially proud to see how deeply connected and committed our superintendent, our schoolboard members, and our school board members are when it comes to

033advocating for students and educators in New Hver County. Their passion, professionalism, and dedication were evident in every conversation we had. It reminded me how fortunate I am to teach in a district where leadership works tireless tirelessly on behalf of both students and staff. I'm honored to be part of this team. The students that were in attendance exemplified the very best of New Hover County Schools. It was very evident that they are highly intelligent, thoughtful, driven, and passionate about learning. Watching them speak with legislators, legislators, and present themselves with such professionalism and confidence gave me tremendous hope for the future. But beyond all that, I would like to take a moment to celebrate the students who are here with me today. Out of only 36 students statewide who advanced to the national contest for the National

034History Day program at the University of Maryland, our group earned five of those spots. An extraordinary accomplishment that speaks volumes about their talent, work ethic, and commitment to excellence. PBS North Carolina was also present documenting the competition and was incredibly impressed by our students performance. They will be traveling to the national competition to continue following our students journey alongside other qualifiers across from north across from across North Carolina. What makes this achievement even more meaningful is that their success did not begin on competition day long before the judging rooms, presentations, and recognition. These students made the choice to commit themselves fully. They chose to dig deeper, think harder, ask questions, revise their work, and push themselves beyond expectations. They dedicated countless hours to researching, preparing, and refining their ideas. Not because they had to, but

035because they cared deeply about doing meaningful work and representing their schools well. And represent us well they did. I could not be more proud of them. And I'm grateful to have the opportunity to witness not only their accomplishments, but also their growth and leadership throughout this experience. Thank you again for allowing me to be part of such a meaningful trip. and thank you for your continued support of the students and educators of New Hover County Schools. >> Any questions or comments from Mr. Tanic? Miss Barnhart, >> just a comment. Um, I appreciate the willingness to come up and uh caravan and just showcase some of the talent that we have here. Um, one of the highlights for me was being able to put you as on the spot alongside our district history rep to talk

036about the changes that have been made and how we're adjusting to those with the standards. And so hearing your insight was really great. Um, and with it being America 250 and being able to highlight our incredibly talented students is a testament to your dedication and just thank you for that. >> Thank you. We will carry on at this point with our superintendence report. Barnes, >> sorry. >> Wait a minute. Everybody's leaving. >> Well, it Yeah, I have that effect on people. >> Run, save yourselves. All right. Um, we're closing another successful school year. I want to take a moment to celebrate some of the accomplishments of our students and staff, highlight some updates, and recognize the partnerships that move New Her County Schools forward. First off, good job to our school nutrition team for once

037again ensuring that students have access to healthy meals throughout the summer months. We have our summer meals to go program. Nearly 2,000 students have registered for free meals. And the best part about this is they will come once a week and get a whole week of meals for their family and for themselves. So helps ensure our continues our students continue to have support that they need when even when school's not around. We want to congratulate our outstanding student athletes from Hogard High School. The Hogard men's lacrosse team and the women's soccer team both advanced the state championship match. These accomplishments reflect countless hours of hard work, dedication, and teamwork. And if you didn't see the men's lacrosse team match, oh boy, you missed it. Uh but we're incredibly proud of how the students represent our

038schools both in the classroom and on the field. I want to thank the student, staff, parents, and community members who recently traveled to Raleigh. So, you've heard um to support our legislative priorities. Their voices helped ensure the voices of New Hart County Schools were heard by state leaders as we continue working to secure resources and opportunities for our students. I'm also pleased to report the continued stability within our workforce. For the second consecutive year in a row, the only principal transitions we've experienced are the result of either retirements or promotions. This speaks to the culture we're continuing to build and the ability to retain talented leaders who are committing to serving our schools. One story perfectly captures the excellence of our students comes from Isaac Early Bear Isaac Bear Early College High School. On graduation

039day, while their classmates were going through graduation and celebrating commencement, their validictorian Isabelle G was in Phoenix, Arizona, representing her school, community, and state at the prestigious Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair. I'm proud to share that Isabelle earned a grand award and placed second in the world in her microbiology category. I'm not going to tell you what it is because I can't understand it. She also is the only North Carolina Science and Engineering Fair finalist ever selected to compete at the ISF during all four years of her high school. Her achievements placed fourth place in microbiology in 2024, third place in 2025, second place in 2026, and a special scholarship award from Westlake University in China in 2023. Her accomplishments demonstrate the extraordinary opportunities available to our students and the educators who support them.

040And I'll tell you afterwards what the name of her pro project was, but it takes a thesaurus and an dictionary to get it. Um, want to also appreciate and and express my sincere appreciation to the New Hover County Endowment and the New H County Board of Commissioners for their partnership and commitment through the recently announced memorandum of understanding supporting our proposed landmark 10-year investment in public education. Over the past two years, we have conducted community town halls, school-based listening tours, staff engagement sessions, and multiple visits to every school in our district. Throughout these conversations, we've heard a consistent message from our community that we need to focus on culture, trust, engagement, and creating safe, supportive learning environments for students. This cooperative agreement is an investment in every student, every staff member, and every community that

041we serve. And last, but not least, I do want to say that as we close in on the second school year, parents, tag, you're it. That concludes my comments. >> Thank you, Dr. Barnes. And uh it's it's always tough to go after all that wonderful positive things, but I do have just a few brief announcements. This is an awesome awesome and exciting time of the year. Graduations. We are in the midst of our graduations. Congratulations to our students who have worked extremely hard to move to the next step in their lives. And to our teachers and staff who enabled them to be successful in their education. Way to go. Very proud of you all. On another note, congratulations to our retirees. Job well done and thank you sincerely for your service and all you have

042done for our students for many, many, many years. We were able to take part in our most recent teacher of the year, assistant principal of the year, and principal of the year program. We are truly blessed to have such an outstanding group of educators and to be quite transparent, many, many of the participants could have won the individual honors. Congratulations to all who participated and of course the superstars that won. We seen them all tonight. Robin Avery, Shannon Mott, Katie Udy, Sam Smithson, and Bert Kilpatrick. So, congratulations to all of them. What a wonderful day we had as our partners and county commissioners and the new Handover County endowment shared a plan recently to to take 116 million of the tax burden off our county taxpayers of the proposed bond. This is an outstanding example

043of our county commissioners, the endowment and school system and board of education understanding the need and coming together to support our students and staff in a very positive way. Thank you again. And finally, right around the corner, our students will have their last day of school for the 25 202526 school year. And here comes summer. My hope is that our teachers, staff, and students will have a safe, productive, enjoyable summer and return for the beginning of the 2627 school year, ready to go and reaching for the stars. That ends my report for today. At this point, we will carry on with the North Carolina teaching working condition survey. Dr. Barnes. All right, >> we can pull up the slide deck, please. All right, for a little bit of context for everyone, the North Carolina teacher

044working condition survey is issued every two years to all certified educators and the questions tend to stay the same from one survey to the next. So you can look at longitudinal data as well. So next slide, please. Yep. So overall there are several trends that starting that we're seeing emerge consistently over the last four years. One 95.7% our strongest theme that emerged district-wise with a community support and involvement received successful uh positive results on 95.7% of the survey. That means relationships to strengthen relationship with families, increase engagement opportunities and build trust through transparency, accountability and accessibility. Teacher leadership 90.6 a commitment to culture where teachers have a voice in decision-making are empowered as leaders and are recognized as key partners in driving student success. Our retention 90.5 staff largely view New H schools as a

045district where educators want to continue their careers. Safety and well-being was 89.1. Instructional practices were 87.6 and 87.6 and six were school leadership, strong competence in teaching and learning systems and school level leadership. So let's look at a couple of more of areas more closely. I think this first one is No, go back. No, no, the other way. Stop. There you go. The orange that you see was 2022. The blue was 2024. And this is 2026. This is people scoring agree or strongly agree that my school is a good place to work and learn. The next one you can see it atmosphere of trust and mutual respect in the district has gone up from 69.4% in 2022 to 78.6% now. And I'm proud to move the slide one more. There you go. uh I'm proud

046to work at this school is just over 90%. Which we think are strongest results. Now the next slide I'm going to share with you some of the greatest improvements from 2024 to 2026. So the the largest one by far out of the gate was recruiting and retaining staff fairly and without discrimination. In 2024 that score was 63.4. In 2026 83.8, a gain of 20.4 points. You see that students following rules for conduct in 2024 was 57.3 teachers agreed with that statement this year 68.8 and you can see the transition all the way down. Teacher select instructional materials has gone up to 73. Teachers assist in determining professional development has gone up to 75. So those were increases of almost 10 points or more from 2024 to 2026. And then this next slide, you have to

047look at this one in reverse. Okay, this slide actually asks or these questions actually ask teachers how often they're seeing these behavior incidents happen in school. So a lower number in this part of the survey is a better result. And so you can see physical conflicts among students was down 13%. Disorder in classrooms is down 10 points. Disorder in instructional areas is down nine points. Student district gifted teachers is down 10 points. And you can see the rest of those as well. So again, a lowering in scores in this section is positive. Now areas that we want to focus on for improvement. First, enhancing teacher time. Now this means a couple of different things. It means planning, but it also means the amount of duties and responsibilities we're putting on teachers either during their planning

048time or during their instructional time. I've told you guys before that we have made up for a lack of staff with an overabundance of effort and I think that's where you're seeing this survey reflect that that we're asking our teachers to do a lot during the day. uh along with streamlining administrative processes. Unfortunately, with a district this size, you have to have some protocols that are just to keep the ball moving down the field. But how can we make sure that we're minimizing those things that teachers have to do themselves? And then personalizing professional learning is always a challenge in a district this large, but it is important for us to try to make sure that we're not just doing oneizefits-all for everyone. The second area is supporting students basic needs. I will tell you

049that this right here, the survey is a reflection of our need for counselors, social workers, mental health therapists, and supports in schools. There is no way that this district could have eliminated 300 positions in the last two years and not seen this be a reflection on the survey. And then number three, facility improvements, which obviously uh we are working diligently on to fix because that's what the bond will help us to do. I will tell you that um again, and I I've said this before, but there are numerous districts across the state that are finding themselves unable to balance their budgets. Wake County is $200 million behind in HVAC maintenance. These are things that the bond will help us fix. These are things that our advocacy in Raleigh will help us fix. So next steps,

050what we have done is look at schools where I'm concerned that the level of the teacher working survey is not where I want them to be. And there are some schools that HR and instruction are working together do a pulse check protocol which is a deeper dive with individual teachers uh at those schools to see what can be improved and what choices we need to to shift and make. And then obviously making sure we're looking at aligning our culture and data insights so we can continue to get better. So that's just I know you guys have already seen the survey. I'll send you this this breakdown as well. Um any other questions you guys have or I'm ready to answer Mr. Perry. >> Um it all sounds like great news and I'm very happy to

051see it. Are there any negative trends that we that that the public should be aware of? >> Sure. If you go back a slide, those things, >> okay, >> those are the areas >> decline in those according to this. >> Yeah, those are going to be the areas for focus. Um, managing student conduct always needs to get better. Facilities and resources, time for teachers. >> Yeah. Well, we always want to improve these things anyway, but >> Right. >> Other board members, anybody? Miss Justice, I saw that hand starting up. >> This is great. um having been involved in for decades in in public schools and been through many of these surveys, this is such a good thing to see this trend go in the right direction and so many of our staff participating. I think

052this is very valid and it should make our whole community feel so good after what we've been through the last I would say 10 years. It's been a rough 10 years and it's good to see us coming out on the other end in my opinion professionally. Well, and I didn't I didn't say this, but now I want to. Um, the survey is broken down into 11 categories, and there are 97 questions. From 2024 to 2026, the school system improved on 91 of the 97. >> And I would echo what my colleagues over there have said. I think, you know, have having gone through either being part of a teacher working condition survey as a teacher or as a principal, you know, getting into the deeper dives and stuff, I think that it's a a a

053great thing to see us moving in the right direction. But I do appreciate the fact that you're going to go into the areas that may need some more and really go into them. So, thank you for doing that. Thank you to your staff for doing that. So, thank you very much, Dr. Merrick. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, you know, I think a lot of folks have looked at the effect uh that COVID had on on teaching, on student uh ability to learn, etc. And I think some of these things we could say from say from 22 to 24 getting better may just well be because of COVID. But let's the difference between 24 and 26. That has nothing to do with COVID. I think it has everything to do with the outstanding performance of

054our superintendent. Thank you. Do you do you know how much work they have to do to make me look this smart? Come on now. >> But it it really this relies on teachers and staff and principles in schools. But thank you. >> Well, thank you very much, >> Mr. Barnhart. >> Thank you. I like that you said that the comparison is the same questions consistently. I also know and I I don't think this get information is get shared publicly. So I just want to share this part. We have schools that are doing surveys for pulse checks and we've seen also huge trends in those areas that we've already have those identified schools that have been doing better and seeing that. So I love seeing that continued support and intentionality being able to sit down with

055teachers in those schools which were very few um that did not score you know that made up that 9% of not being a good place to work in. So to be to have a few number of those and also to have protocols in place um to continue to make it better because we know no place is perfect and being part of the solution is awesome to see. So thank you for that sir. >> Okay Miss Bradford >> and I just want to say thank congratulations and thank you to the staff because the difference between where we were in 2023 and today is vast and it is it feels really good. So, thank you to everyone that has made this happen. >> Thank you. Thank you. All right, we will carry on uh with Lifewise. Just

056a reminder to everyone, this is information only. Uh and um we will have we we will have a uh gathering later on, a hearing u public hearing where we can hear more about Lifewise from everyone who would like to share. We'll get those dates out sometime in July. We'll get those dates out as soon as we have set them. and um you know we'll give an opportunity uh at a nighttime uh you know uh situation uh public hearing so we can hear from folks uh so this is not a decision today this is just going to be uh some information and Dr. Dr. Barnes, you're going to share that with us. So, thank you, sir. >> Yep. And most of what I'm going to share with you, >> we have point of inquiry. Yes, sir.

057>> Yeah. I heard you say that we're going to have a public hearing to hear from lifewise. >> No, no. From everyone. >> From every Okay. From different groups that are >> Yes. Yes. Yes. No. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate that. >> From and public, you know, public can give input and everything. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone. Everyone. >> Okay. Dr. Barnes, we'll try again. So what you have in front of you folks is a package just of information that I collected in it is including the memo that I sent out that um seems to have gone far and wide but most of my information will be contained sort of from that me look there it is uh there it is. Um so basically a few months ago you asked me to provide you with an

058overview of information about the lifewise program before voting on the consideration of anou. So this is what I did to sort of go through that process. First, I reviewed information and research that was provided by the LifeWise program and that included two separate meetings with representatives from Lifewise Discuss questions and have me get a better understanding of the program itself. I spoke with five, four or five superintendents from around this state who have either chosen not to implement lifewise are implementing it or in the process of implementing it. I did my own research regarding the program looking at other organizations feedback about it. I did sit down with both the principles and the assistant principles to discuss the logistics of the program and to understand potential concerns from their perspective. And then of course I

059re reviewed all the emails and survey results from the community regarding people's opinions and concerns endorsement or concerns about the program. So lifewise the program is provides what's called RTRI religious time religious instruction for students. So it's primarily been launched in elementary and middle schools and based on the legal interpretation. Now again my I went into this with a legal and u my lenses were both legal and liability. Those were the lenses I was looking at. So legally it is permissible to so long as three tenants are followed. one, it cannot pl take place during core instruction. It cannot take place on school grounds and it cannot utilize school finances or tangible resources. >> So, I know that there's been some question about who's going to drive the buses and all these things. We cannot

060use school money for it. We cannot have it in school premises and we cannot have it during core instructional time. So, those are the legality things. So, I listed for you guys both some positive and negative factors to consider uh the advantages and disadvantages both uh and you can read those on your own and everyone can read those as they as they choose. I did speak with the principles regarding the program. I made it clear to our principles however that any concerns that they bring forward have to be focused on logistics or academics. Uh their concerns mainly circle around the potential for lost instructional time and the requirement to complete all facets of their other required state curriculum. We're also required to teach art, music, and and counseling. We also have a required amount of

061movement every week for our PE uh requirement. And then of course there are other concerns regarding the amount of work that staff would have to put in to the release and return of students. >> While this isn't a monetary expense, it does translate into time taken away from other duties. Now speaking to other superintendents in the state um that have done it, there are schools that do it. There are schools that are in the process of building it. Um, speaking as a superintendent, my concern would circle mostly around theou that it would need to meet all the requirements for our level two volunteers and would also need to identify the school system of anything that happened when the students weren't with us. >> Um, and then of course reminding the board that legally this door

062is either open or it's closed. So that sort of is a rundown of the memo. There are some potential benefits. there are some potential drawbacks but as we said this was anformational time for me to get information to the board and so I did >> and again board members I would say at this point we a lot of five minutes for this so we will leave don't have time to discuss and and and go through it right now we will have that opportunity uh in office to actually uh do that of course have that public hearing for everyone between now and then and again I'll be getting with all the board members to get that date out so And in sorry, in planning for that, you would like that to be more of an opportunity

063for the public to speak to the board, >> right? >> Not the round table, but sort of a >> an expanded call to audience sort of vibe. >> Okay. >> Public hearing versus >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Mr. Chair, after having observed the county just the other day in a public hearing, the same same formats the county follows for public hearing. I will prepare >> what we going to part of this just information uh the public hearing did we I'm not exactly sure how we decided to vote for we want to hear from everybody obviously are we allowing lifewise or any other organizations that want to do this to present >> absolutely >> okay um we're going to carry we are at five minutes on that one um so we will carry on

064to our uh called audience speeches is uh just a reminder uh I do this every once in a while just a reminder uh as we move forward please uh remember just couple quick reminders that uh speakers must keep their remarks uh within the time frame um you cannot yield your time uh if the name called by Miss Mason and is not the person is not present then that name will be put on the bottom called again at the end uh you can offer speakers may offer comments or criticism directed to substantive Ideas, actions or procedures of board and individual board members but in the interest of making civil and uh speakers are to refrain from personal attacks and insults directed at the board, individual board members, staff or members of the general public. >> Mason,

065you're up. >> All right. Uh Daniel Webb >> much to Dr. Barn, superintendent, members of the board. On a Tuesday upstairs in room 205, there was a chair that was set pushed against the door, holding the door from being open from the inside. In the chair set, a young man was no longer a student. His head was his hands were on his knees. He was non-verbal. So therefore, all he could do was shake his head and said, "M, why was he doing this?" Because he was blocking a man from getting out of the room. A man who was a teacher in that EC class. He had left. He came back to visit the class. And this student did not understand why he left or why he had to go. He couldn't understand that North Carolina

066ranks 50th out of 50 states in public fund funding public schools. He didn't understand that over the last 10 years, $180 billion dollars that should have gone to helping schools like my school in room 205 was lost due to tax cuts because of corporations. He didn't understand none of this. All he knew was that this teacher he had bonded with was no longer going to be with him. All he could say was, "Don't go. Don't go." That student has siblings in every school in this district who does not they do not understand why we are losing good people out of the teaching profession. If he were here today, he would urge you to do what you can to increase the funding for our educators so our teachers don't have to decide. >> Thank you. Your

067time is up. >> Thank you very much, >> Clancy Gray. Clancy Gray. Uh, good evening. My name is Clancy Gray and I am an eighth grade English teacher at Williston Middle School. I've been teaching at Williston for four years and I've had many amazing experiences there. However, during my time at Williston, I've been deeply concerned by the crumbling infrastructure at our school. To be frank, our school and its history is crumbling underneath our feet every single day and above our heads every single day. Throughout my time at Williston, I've I've noticed numerous facility issues that directly impact learning. The poster that I've brought today has examples of the facility issues that Willist faces on a daily basis. All of these pictures were taken on June 1st, 2026 inside of a building that when I arrived

068to teach there and administer end of grade standardized tests, the air conditioning was broken and the internet was out. If you get to take a closer look at the pictures that are being held up, you'll see examples of water damage, peeling paint, broken blinds, mold and algae buildup, and rodent feces. All these issues not only interrupt learning, but could also have potentially detrimental effects on the health of students and staff. I've in my short time at Wilson, I've had the air conditioning and the power go out many times. I've seen a counselor have to move offices because of a mold infestation. I've had my ceiling tiles leak and fall through because of heavy rain and leaks. I have seen a river of water flowing through the school from toilets because of a plumbing issue. I

069have seen a rat run across one of my students feet in the middle of a lesson. Um, and I have seen maintenance teams walking out of the building with Home Depot buckets filled with deceased rodents. Wilson is one of the oldest, if not the oldest school in Wilmington that is still in operation. Your students and your staff deserve a functional environment to spend every day in. Its legacy and historical importance demands that this building gets restored to preserve the greatest school unders of the sun for many more to come. >> Thank you Amanda. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Amanda Rissmeer and I'm here tonight both as a clinician and an advocate for children and families in our community. Research consistently shows that out of school suspension is associated with significant negative

070outcomes for our students. Suspensions reduce instructional time. They disrupt relationships. They increase school avoidance. And they contribute to long-term disengagement from education. For our youngest learners and students with disabilities, these consequences can be especially profound. Recently, I had the privilege of supporting a young child with autism who at just 5 years old was suspended from school nearly 10 times through a combination of partial and full day removals. This was a child who wanted to learn, wanted to make friends, was excited about his first year in school. When we repeatedly remove children from the classroom, we often remove them from the very supports that they need to be successful. Tonight, I respectfully ask the board to consider extending the current limitations on out of school suspension to include children up to eight years of age and

071to continue investing in alternatives that prioritize support, skill building, and problem solving over exclusion. I also want to emphasize something important. This story ultimately has the chance for a positive outcome through collaboration. additional training and support from professionals with expertise in psychology, behavior analysis, and special education, this team can identify effective solutions. The results thus far have been significantly more successful and joyful for the end of the school year for this learner. The love, dedication, and commitment of the school team were never in question. In fact, I'd like to express my sincere gratitude for his teachers, pair professionals, counselors, and principal. They cared deeply about this child and worked tirelessly with the tools they had to meet his needs to the best of their abilities. The question before us is not whether we can afford

072to provide support instead of suspension. It's whether we can afford not to. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Lisa Aspie. Lisa Aspie. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Lisa Espie and I'm a part of the North Carolina Association of Educators here in New Hver County. And I want to say we want to figure out a way where our association can work with the school board. We're all in New Hver County. We all want to do what's best for students in the area. So, we want to figure out how we can collaborate. Tonight is the anniversary of my father's death. I should be with my family comforting them, but I'm in this room. Tonight, my students are holding a concert. They're doing a great display of their abilities for their community and their families.

073I should be there cheering them on. I'm not. I am in this room because of how important I believe it is for us to make positive change. We know there's a nationwide crisis and its funding in public schools and its resources. And I saw absolute excellence in this room tonight. And it is amazing that those students were able to accomplish what they were accomplished with what they have. But the issue is when I look at my 5-year-olds and my prek students, is it sustainable to be able to offer them what these students were able to receive today? My thought is my association chose to walk off the job and go and be loud because we believe in how important it is to fight for funding. You guys are sending teams out there to fight for

074funding. We've got to come together and figure out what we can do to fight for funding because I don't feel like I'm doing my best by my families that I serve and my students that I serve when I see what could be accomplished in other areas and I hear the conditions at Williston and that's what we have to offer our upcoming third three year olds and 5-year-olds. So my thought process is we would love to do what we have to do to make sure that we can come together to fight for positive change. I've emailed everybody. you have our contact information. We want to see what we can do in the 2627 school year to make improvements because our students deserve it. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Margie Gman. Good evening. Hello,

075I'm Margie Gowartsman. I'm a mother of three students here in New Hver County Board of um New Hver County Schools. Um I know the research shows the negative impact chronic absenteeism has on students long-term academics. We also know from our previous speaker how not being in the school for any reason affects academic engagement and success. I know New Hver County believes this board of education because my phone tells me so. I get alerts multiple times a week about the location of my children, whether or not they're in school. I am quite concerned though because it is frequently wrong on the whereabouts of my oldest child. He is frequently in class in his high school and yet I'm being alerted that he's not there. Um he is at school functions, he is at the board of

076the band concert. He is at the National Honor Society's awards ceremony and I'm getting alerted that he is not in school. So my big concern here is one, we know how important it is to have kids in school. Any reason taking them out is detrimental to their education. And we have a system of tracking kids that is right now fallible. So how on earth are we going to provide accurate location of students being taken out for anou? Thank you, >> Loretta Sthouse. Loretta Stack House. >> Good evening. Concern was raised at last Tuesday's policy committee meeting about changing short-term suspension policy 4351. And it was this quote, I don't want us to create a solution looking for a problem. End quote. Last year there was 2,428 K to K K to2 out of school suspensions

077in the new Hover County schools. That is a higher number of K to2 suspensions than the 2019 2020 school year and there were about 1,200 more kids in our school back then. That's a problem. Last year, more than 50% of the K to2 suspensions were for black students, even though they're only representing 17% of the student population. That's a problem. And except for last year and the co year, the total number of K to2 suspensions was steadily increased, disproving the notion that there is a trend that the total number of suspensions is dropping. Three months ago, Love Our Children celebrated the success of Dr. Barnes in his first year as superintendent, lowering the number of K to2 suspensions from the previous year by 23%. That's only two data points. It's not a trend. Someday, Dr.

078Barnes will retire. So now's the time to rewrite the policy and update the code of conduct to reflect his oversight, the research of brain development and the reframing behavior training that the teachers are using. Get these things in place for our children and the super the future superintendent. Thank you for Sunny. Hello, my name is Chris Sutton if you don't know and you're never going to agree with any politician 100% of the time on their votes. Um, including uh the way that we just handled our meeting minutes even uh I don't know if y'all have a different copy than the public, but if the public looks up the meeting minutes, there's zero things for us to see what were voted on. You only see the pledge of allegiance and vocation and stuff like that. So

079either y'all have a different copy than us, you know. Anyways, um for years now I've been a vocal defender of our rights to be heard at call to audience. Um call the audience is mandated by state. So it is a constitutionally protected activity. Um anytime that we've taken steps to inhibit inhibit the ability of the public to speak freely, I've had concerns. While this board has the ability to create rules outlining basics of decorum, I believe the recent changes to the public participation at board meeting policy effectively is creating rules for problems we do not have. The new policy states no commercial advertisements or solicitations. I've listened to every call to audience for seven and a half years and this isn't a problem we've been facing. We are now told that our comments must be

080gerine to board business. How can you tell if the subject I'm speaking about is Germaine without allowing me to complete my speech? For instance, if I get up here and speak about some new roofing technology at the last sentence of it, I might state that we can save $7 million over the life of that roof. It could be Germaine, but if you cut me off, you'll never know. Same thing with LifeFack. I spent a year and a half lobbying to put airway or airway clearance devices in our school system. That's a commercial product. Was I soliciting? Again, anything could be gerine to it. I believe that we're over we're we're overlegislating at this point and I hope that y'all consider revisiting that because we should be as open as feasibly possible. I will always fight

081for someone's right to be heard even if I disagree with it. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Jerry wins it. Jerry wins it. There were many interesting comments made during the May 26 policy committee meeting. One was about providing data to support a statement. Imagine if relevant data was used in every policy decision. Imagine if it were a dis a discussion about policy 4351 could look at suspension data from today and the past few years to help answer a question like how often do children who are suspended in elementary school get suspended in middle school? How often do children who are suspended in middle school get suspended in high school? Why are black students suspended at a disproportionate rate compared to white students? How often do students who have been suspended drop out

082of high school or end up in juvenile justice system? And if out of school suspensions are only being used as a last resort, where's the data on the first resort and the second resort? And how long were those strategies tried before the last resort? If that sounds like work, it's because, well, it is. But our students deserve policies that will keep them in school with the support and services that they need so they can learn and thrive. Code of ethics policy 2120 states in part that the board members, that's y'all, will render all decisions based on the available facts and if they aren't available, make them available. We will be watching tonight to see which discussions are based on facts. And I want to thank you for letting me speak. I'm Reverend Jericho Winset. Thank

083you, Jacqueline Dasio. Sorry, I'm short. Um, good evening. My name is Jackie Delesio. I am the outgoing president of the New Hver County Association of Educators. Tonight, I simply wanted to share my vision for the union and the schoolboard in the next school year. Our goal is ultimately the same. Safe and resourced learning environments for all kids and respectful and equitable working conditions for staff. My ultimate hope is that the union and the board works in tandem to co-govern. This means collaboration instead of criticism, trust instead of fear, compromise instead of divisiveness, respect instead of retaliation. Our students need us all to fight corporate greed. They need us all to fight for more spending per pupil. I encourage both sides to work with open-mindedness and walk into spaces without predetermined decisions. This is how new

084Hannver County schools will truly thrive. Now, I'm going off script for a second. Um I was very encouraged by the teacher working conditions survey uh data that was presented. However, I did want to point out that um that is only the voice of certified staff. It does not include classified workers etc. I believe that this is really important. In particular, at my school, DC Virgo, uh we chose to create our own survey in which IAS, cafeteria workers, custodians, subs, office staff, and others were also able to answer the same questions because they make up our school community. I also realize that we are an LEA of one and you are much larger than that. But I would encourage something along the same lines in order to give the voice uh and the input of all

085of the school community because every child who touches these kids is an educator. Thank you. >> Thank you Diane Emerson. Good evening. Thank you for the privilege to share my concerns with you. I'm grateful. As a child, Gregory Elementary School was a magical place for me. I could hardly wait to get there each morning. I lived on the front row of Jer Housing Projects on Dawson Street. Once inside my classroom, I felt so loved, so accepted. My teachers nurtured, motivated, and pushed me to do my very best. And my best is what I always gave. It is because of them that I became a teacher. I wanted to inspire my students to achieve their highest potential just as my former teachers had nurtured and inspired me. much of what I've gleaned from my 30 plus

086years as an educator serving in various ro roles beginning as a teacher's assistant moving on to a high school teacher and administrator a consultant in the division of school improvement in the department of public instruction. education researcher in the office of the speaker of the House of Representatives in the North Carolina General Assembly and preK director for New Hover County Schools is that most students, no matter where they lay their heads at night, have the capacity of high achievement and a desire to achieve their dreams. It is our responsibility as educators to find every way to ensure that they succeed. Each student deserves that right. Where there's a will, there's a way. Please find the will. Please make the way to fully fund education for our students and teachers. >> The very dignity of our

087profession demands that we do so. >> Thank you, >> Katie Gates. Good evening. Students cannot fully understand much of Western civilization, law, political structure, or even art without a basic understanding of the Bible and its influence. This is not a religious claim. It is an educational reality. Even Princeton professor Greg Kiy, a self-described non-believer, has warned that ignorance of Christianity and its history leaves students less able to understand Western literature, philosophy, art, and political theory. For more than two centuries, biblical literacy was standard in American education. Students learned directly from the Bible, the New England Primmer, and other texts that contained biblical references. Biblical principles profoundly influenced American culture, civic life, and the development of our laws and institutions. Whether one agrees with those beliefs or not, the influence on our nation's history is undeniable.

088Unfortunately, many Americans now assume that teaching about the Bible in public schools violates the separation of church and state. Historically, that is not the his the prevailing understanding. For generations, students studied the Bible and its influence without being viewed as unconstitutional. In fact, the Supreme Court has recently reaffirmed that church and state questions should be evaluated through the lens of America's history and traditions. This is not a push for religious indoctrination. It is a call for historical and cultural literacy. Students encounter biblical ideas and references throughout the literature, art, history, philosophy, and founding documents they study. Without that context, their education is incomplete. If it is our goal to provide students with a complete education in New Horror County schools, biblical literacy should be recognized as a very important factor. Thank you. >> Thank you,

089Veronica McLuren Brown. I would remind the audience that uh snide remarks will not be tolerated. Um that that's your fair warning. Please uh stop right now. >> We all want the same thing. Safe, supportive schools where children learn and grow. That's why love our children NC's asking you to revise policy 4351 so that the protections we currently give K2 students also apply to third graders. At the May policy meeting, we heard our integrity and mor morals say suspensions are a last resort. But in New Hava County, relying on integrity and morals alone has failed children. For decades, students were sexually abused in our schools because adults depended on integrity and immorals instead of strong enforced policy. When policy is weak, children suffer. And we still see how pressure can override fairness. A principal admitted, quote,

090I suspended a third grader because my PTA president was very angry and he was rude to her. He didn't deserve it, but it was easier to deal with his mother than my PTA president. That is why policy must set the standard, not politics or pressure. Your own data show suspensions dropping each year. Teachers report fewer conflicts, less disorder. The supports you buil built for K2 are working. They're working. Third graders are just eight years old. Still developing, still learning to regulate emotions. Out of school suspensions for minor misbehavior will harm them. support services will help them. Extending policy 4351 to third graders preserves every SA safety related authority principles already have. What it prevents is harming eight-year-olds with unnecessary suspension from minor misbehavior that should be addressed through evidence-based intervention. >> Ebony Savage My name

091is Ebony Savage and I am an ECTA at Forest Hills Elementary. I support behavior for our most impacted students. I have 18 years of experience with children in educational setting. In New Hunter schools, I earn $2,500 a month before taxes for 10 months. That's $25,000 a year. The cost of living for a single adult with no ch child to live comfortably in North Carolina is $67,000. That means for a profession that requires an associates degree to have, the average teachers assistant that works at least 25 years will still make $45,000 less than the living wage. To qualify for HUD housing, which is the cheapest housing in North Carolina, you need to make at least $30,000. which means TAs who spend their entire life working for North Carolina um schools still can't afford HUD housing. Classified

092workers are essential to the school community. They touch every child. They are the bus drivers, the crosswalk workers, the custodians, the cafeteria workers, the front desk workers, the tutors, and the TAs. Going to school is hard for a child. They are asked to learn new tasks that are challenging while develop navigating friendships and hard times. But if you ask any child, there's a classified staff member that's made their life better just by being there. It's not um reasonable to expect the salary to jump from 25,000 to 67,000 overnight, but it is reasonable to expect that the board will advocate for a stipend of at least $8,000 to bring an experienced classified staff worker to at least $30,000 a year so they could at least qualify for HUD housing, which is the cheapest housing offered in

093North Carolina. >> Thank you, William Hawkson. William Oxen. It's Oaken, but you were close. Um, my name is William Oaken. I'm a seventh grade science teacher at Williston Middle School. I've been there for four years, and I have had eight different administrators in Willist since I've been there. I'm a science teacher and with coming with science, especially in middle school, everybody gets taught science and I believe that's fair and that's what should be. But the problem with that is that we only have enough funding for one TA. I have a class of 29 students. 19 of those 29 students either don't speak English or have IEPs. I am supposed to teach almost 30 kids who are reading at levels at first grade or lower with the help of one person. One year I had somebody

094who didn't even have an educational background as my co-teer in that class. Our teachers at Williston and I think across the county are feeling like they don't have enough resources for our EC students and I truly believe that we need more. I think funding for our schools should be equitable and not equal because I work at a school where 98% of my students are below the poverty line. The majority of my students need more, but I have seen our 10 teacher hallways go down to eight teacher hallways. On the 11th day of school this year, I saw a teacher have to leave the sixth grade hallway because there wasn't enough funding to keep her in the sixth grade. You expect us to provide a quality rigorous education to these students, but we have class sizes

095where there not enough chairs for our students. I chose this profession because I want to help people. And I find myself struggling with that when I'm struggling to manage a class where I don't have the resources or the support that I need. Our English language learners need it, too. Thank you. before you start. >> Uh, I understand our live stream may be down. Can you check in on that, please? >> Are we >> They're working on it. >> Are we recording regardless? That's typically what? >> Hold on one second. >> Hi. that one. >> Uh live stream is down and we will upload the full videos to YouTube once the event is over. Once the live stream is over. >> Okay. I just want to make sure that you are heard. Thank you. >> Thank

096you. I'm Lindsay Noble. I teach economics and personal finance at Hogard High School. For one adult and one child to live in New Hver County, according to MIT Living Wage Calculator, it's approximately $77,800 a year. As a 24-year veteran teacher with a master's degree, my current salary is 68,70070. And it's been nine years since I've seen a step increase. The reality is that an experienced teacher in this district earns less than what is necessary to meet basic living expenses in our own community. I'm fortunate compared to new to the newer teachers, I still receive M's pay and I'm grandfathered into health insurance. But that's not the case for our our younger teachers. This is not simply about teacher pay. It's about teacher retention. When experienced educators leave the profession, retire early, or seek employment elsewhere,

097schools lose institutional knowledge, mentoring capacity, and instructional expertise. Replacing those educators is difficult and expensive, and students ultimately bear the consequences of constant turnover. Like many teachers, I work beyond my contracted hours every week. I teach three classes that average between 35 and 38 students each. Provide feedback on hundreds of assignments, communicate with parents, complete required training, learn new instructional programs, add perform the countless responsibilities that come with serving my students appropriately. The question before this board is not whether teachers are willing to work hard. We definitely do. Many teachers work second jobs, including myself. The question is whether New Hanover County can remain competitive in retaining and attracting quality educators. As board members, you don't control the state salaries. However, you do have a voice. You can advocate for meaningful salary improvements and increase

098local supplements. You can emphasize retaining experienced teachers is essential to maintaining strong schools. What message is up when a veteran teacher century of experience earns? >> Ma'am, your time is up. >> Esther Murphy, >> we want to hear from everybody. So, we can clap all we want to, but make it short so somebody else can be here for us. >> Hi, my name is Esther Murphy. I am a baptized, confirmed, and practicing Christian. I stand for the First Amendment, keeping the separation of church and state. The idea that this board would consider truency from public education is the most confounding thing I've ever heard. What part of school enrollment isn't essentially core instruction? What part of valuable compulsory class time do the proponents of lifewise want to usurp? reading, writing, arithmetic, science, arts, health, problem

099solving, critical thinking skills, inclusive socialization. Religious acculturation is the business of the family and the church, not the government. The idea of likewise removing students from the classroom goes against the separation of church and state. Thank you, Karen Clark. In6007, Robert Hunt declared over Cape Henry, "We dedicate this land and ourselves to reach the people within these shores with the gospel of Jesus Christ and to raise up godly generations after us. and with these generations take the kingdom of God to all the earth. May this covenant remain to all generations as long as the earth remains. May all remember what we have done here. Our schools plant seeds which grow and produce results. Whatever we sow, we will reap. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he

100will not depart from it. I pray in Jesus' name no one intimidates you in their attempt to lead you away from the word of God with empty philosophies that come from human thinking and the spiritual powers of this world. that you don't just listen to truth and not respond for that is selfdeception. I pray that each of you do what is pleasing in the Lord's sight. That you act in accordance with godly principles. You continue to allow God's wisdom to pour into you and through you, allowing it to empower you, rejoicing in every battle. I declare in Jesus' name, New Hover County Schools shall remember and call the words spoken at Cape Henry forward. Your kingdom come, Jesus, your will be done. And those who are wise shall shine like the time is up of

101the firmament. >> Ma'am, your time is up. >> Thank you, >> Rachel Burkenau. >> Hi there. I'd really love to focus on what the teachers said, but here we are talking about this. So, um, I'm a mom of two and like most parents, I have hundreds of questions about safety, inclusion, logistics of life-wise, and religious instruction in school. But today, I'd like to focus on my personal experience as a mom with the amazing admin staff at Roland Grace and Hogard. My two teens are in braces, which requires taking them out for appointments multiple times a month. And every time I get buzzed into the office, I'm blown away about how overwhelmed the staff is upfront. To paint the picture for those who may not have been in the office for a while, it is the

102busiest beehive that you have ever been in. Bees going in and out and in and out. Staff's walkie-talkie is going off. The phones are ringing. A student has a boo boo. The confused parent asking questions about the kiosk to check out. They forgot their ID. The door buzzer rings again. One day, I looked at Miss Jay and I said, "Dang, girl, I bet you don't even have time to pee." And she said, "Shoo, yes." While continuing to do five things at once and continuing to try and find my child. To add anything else to staff is cruel. The staff is asking for a life preserver and the last thing we need to do is make their ship heavier. I'd also like to echo Dr. Barnes's research that this opens the door to instructional disruption, missing

103valuable classroom time, where NC is still only 52% proficient in reading, which is still below the prepandemic achievement, and 56% proficient in math. There is zero evidence that Lifewives improve student outcomes. and frankly parents don't want it. Um, keep student in the classroom and I really hope that you will listen to the staff and the parents and not the special interests from board members. Thank you. Thank you. Christina Mercier Christina Mercier's next. In our current culture wars climate, there are people who will accuse schools and educators of indoctrinating students. The true definition of indoctrination is when people must accept a set of beliefs with no option to question them. Sometimes a fact is a fact and there's no belief needed. However, educators prefer students to learn how to think and not what to think. You've

104had many speakers about Lifewise and I want to add in why this program is the antithesis to the purpose of education. whether likewise insists that they are focusing on character education or are mining the public schools for arrows to fill a qu a quiver. While the program is optin, no one is unaffected by its happening during the school day. The program offers a narrow view of Christianity and uses multiple indoctrination techniques to keep to both keep current participants and to get more to join. First, lifewise restricts alternate information about other forms of Christianity. They repeat the same beliefs over and over. By being off-campus, the participants are socialized to only be around others who are sharing the exact same beliefs. The students are rewarded for pariting the program's tenants and for getting others to sign

105up. Non-participants are punished because their peers are telling them they cannot play with them anymore because they aren't part of Lifewise and may go to hell. This is also emotional manipulation for all students, those who participate and those who who do not. Lifewise literally uses every indoctrination technique to maintain its program. If you've ever been concerned about whether kids are being indoctrinated at school, well, this is a perfect example. It does not matter if you agree with this form of Christianity or not. It's still indoctrination. And let me add on as the school year is winding down, June provides the opportunity for several recognitions. Pride, Caribbean-American heritage, immigrant heritage, men's mental health. What's great about these is you don't have to they don't have to apply to you or not. They just all deserve to

106be um celebrated. Welcome the minority voice and happy pride. >> Thank you, Sandy Isles. On March 10th, I emailed the board with concerns about LifeWise's ability to serve all students. In my email, I asked if Lifewise will accommodate all students with disabilities. If so, how? What if a child needs special transportation? What if they read Braille? What if they communicate using sign language? What if they need a nurse or par with them at all times? What happens if children miss IEP services because they're not at school? And finally, what if a child is an English language learner? Will Lifewise be an exclusive club for some children, or will it be inclusive for all children? I followed up my email last week, three months later, because no board member had responded to my questions. After my

107follow-up, Mr. Wabbor responded that the board would be asking these questions and many more. As board members, you have a responsibility to all students. As a community, we expect you to protect all students and not discriminate against any of them. Our board should never sign anou with an organization who intends to discriminate against children. And allus should have a non-discrimination clause. The reality is that our disabled students are discriminated against on a daily basis and it should never happen during the school day. Sadly, it happens far too often, usually in subtle or unintentional ways. But these slights create a very hostile environment for our children. And sadly, our kids are left out of too many opportunities, field trips, yearbooks, extra extracurriculars, and clubs. And now, maybe life-wise. You have a responsibility to make sure that

108all opportunities during the school day are inclusive. Unless likewise can accommodate can accommodate transporting a child in a wheelchair, provide braille reading materials, a nurse for medical needs, etc. Our district has no business signing anou with them. To do so would be blatant discrimination. Our community will expect you to provide answers to these questions and concerns. We will not accept the cruelty of discriminating against or excluding any child. Thank you. >> Thank you, Peter Rowitch. Peter Rowitch. At the last policy committee meeting, while discussing a policy revision, one committee member shared a sidebyside comparison of the current policy with a similar policy from another school district. Good idea. So when updating the code of student conduct ideally next year, I encourage you to make a sidebyside comparison of the current code with the code of

109character, conduct, and support from the Winston Salem forthsight county schools. Your code of conduct is reactive. It begins with an explanation of the importance of interventions and disciplinary actions for correcting student behavior. Their code is proactive. It starts with suggestions for parents on advocating for support and services when their elementary children are facing difficult challenges. Oh, and it offers middle and high school students um ideas to advocate for themselves when they are experiencing academic, social, and emotional or mental health challenges. Their code has six pages on the rights and responsibilities of students, parents, and guardians, and staff. It lists 33 behavioral expectations that they're all working on or supporting. And of course, later it includes a violations and consequences chart. Your code of conduct just lists the 65 inappropriate and dangerous behaviors and their consequences.

110Maybe it should be called the code of bad conduct. It is past time to make support and services the heart of the student behavior codes and policies. >> Thank you, EJ Hanley. To continue with what Peter just said, starting with the 2024 2025 school year, the Winston Salem Fortsite County schools banned out of school suspensions for preK through third grade students for all infractions except for incidents involving drugs, alcohol, assaults, firearms, explosives, and sexual misconduct. All of those exceptions are clearly threats to safety. Love Our Children believes that eight-year-old children should stay in school to receive the support and services they need instead of being suspended for minor infractions such as using inappropriate language, disrespecting faculty, staff, and insubordination. The National Association for the Education of Young Children is a professional organization that works to

111promote high quality early learning for all children through age 8. Their position paper, standing together against suspension and expulsion in early childhood, was signed on by over 33 national associations, including the American Federation of Teachers and the National Association for Elementary School Principles. The joint statement said in part, quote, "We know that young children thrive in the context of stable, supportive relationships with ch with adults who love, teach, and care for them. Expulsions and suspensions in their early years threaten the development of these positive relationships." Love Our Children asks that the board add eight-year-olds to the current suspension policy. If there is no clear threat to safety, then help them in school. Thank you. >> Thank you, Michael Warner. One of my favorite quotes is by the first American philosopher William James who said, "Many

112people think they are thinking when they're merely rearranging their prejudices." His message is that we all should be begin with doubt. Each of us makes our decisions based on earlier influences such as our family, religion, our political affiliation, our political tribe. Most of us choose easy quick answers. Putting aside the legalistic rhetoric and baloney arguments, we all know the actual reason for life-wise agenda, which takes children out of precious school time. Let's be honest, their scheme is to indoctrinate impressionable children with a particular brand of Christianity. Children will be told to recruit their friends. They will be given rewards and entertainment at the church to manipulate them. I've seen it before. Children are easily influenced by their classmates. Children are all about fitting in and not being different. Some feel it's fine to win converts

113by manipulating children before they can rationally assess their own world views. I don't and I hope you don't. I shouldn't have to apply for humanist classes in this body uh where 34 to 48% are non-religious in your in your schools. Did you know that each of you has a choice whether to be a leader and stand for all the religious views, to stand for religious freedom, to stand above your own religious views, your own political party, and allow these children freedom from religious indoctrination. Life isn't for children. It's for adults who wish to impose their religious views on others. Look in your heart and do the right thing. Keep our schools. >> Thank you. Your time is up, sir. Leslie posing. The Lifewise program makes it clear that art and music are not important because

114that's when they want to take kids out of school. I guess we saw at the beginning of this meeting that art is important starting in kindergarten as we saw with the wonderful artwork and music is too. In fact, there is huge amounts of research showing that regular study of the arts and foreign language have a strong positive effect on math and reading test scores. But members of this board and community want to deny some of our kids these opportunities which are also required. You can find those requirements on the NCDPI website. But I want to tell you a quick story. When I was in school, we had art and music regularly. One of my friends went on to be a very successful graphic artist. She told me a few years ago she was so frustrated

115by the academic classes we had to take that if we hadn't had art in school, she probably would have committed suicide. So if parents want their children to be in Bible study, they should take them to church, not deny them subjects that could actually be life-saving. Thank you, Sonia Benon Patrick. Sonia Benon Patrick. I don't know if I'm saying it correctly. Yep. Okay, perfect. Good evening. My name is Sonia Bennington Patrick. I currently chair the southeastern region of the National Black Leadership Caucus. And in reference to lifewise, we are concerned about the time factor that our children are taking from school. We have a goal here to increase our children's educational levels and we feel that life likewise we'll be counterproductive in that endeavor. The church is the most segregated place in the United States

116that lets you know there's something socially and politically wrong. If you and if you approve lifewise, you need to approve other pro programs such as focus which will teach our children that Africa is the cradle of civil civilization and the garden of Eden. Egypt is a country in the continent of Africa. The Middle East is northeast Africa. Christianity beginning in Ethiopia, a country in the continent of Africa. And Jesus was a man of color. This I know because the Bible tells me so. It would clear up the miseducation of the Bible used to oppress black Americans socially and politically. It would also show how slavery disrupted black America and misused biblical principles. I hear a lot of people talk about God in the name of God, but they don't live it. I wonder does the

117white church actually need a course in cultural competency with implicit bias training. We will also teach the psychological impact of Jim Crow on black America and also the impact of the civil rights movement and the faith community. It was the faith community that helped us get through some of the worst forms of inhumity. But it wasn't the type of faith that's implemented to control and manipulate people socially, politically, and mentally. God, there's only one race and human race. Only God is superior. Your time is up. We have no other God before him. Your time is up. >> And this concludes our call to audience. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Mason. Thank you to everyone that spoke tonight. We do appreciate uh everything that you said. Thank you very much. At this time we will

118take a break. Uh I have 704 if we can be back in the dasis 710 please. Thank you. All right, board members, make your way back. It is 10 after now. >> Shave and a haircut. Too sweet. >> One, two, three. One, two, three. >> Yep. Okay. Four. >> Okay. uh either find a seat or make your way out, whichever you'd rather do. At this point, we're going to start up again. >> We can make our way out >> except if you're sitting next to me, >> not you. >> Next order of business is ourus. We have a whole bunch and again, a lot of them are coming up because it is the end of the uh school year or the fiscal year. >> Mr. chair. >> Yes. >> I would like to pull AG,

119the budget amendment, just so we can highlight that. >> Okay. So, you're going to pull a AG. Okay. >> And Mr. Chair, I would move that we um accept all of those that are just simply renewal and then deal with the other ones. >> Okay. >> Motion second. >> Yes, sir. >> Yeah. I would um let me get my notes out here. >> I believe that uh C is a renewal for Dragonfly Athletics. I like to pull that. >> Okay. You want to pull C? Okay. >> Uh I think uh those are the renewals. I correct me if I'm wrong. X and AC are not renewals. Are >> which ones? I'm sorry. is AC. AC might be a renewal, too. Can you >> tell me? Not >> AC is not a renewal. >> Okay. How

120about X? >> No. >> Okay. So, just pull C then. >> Okay. So, pull C. We have a motion and second to approve everything except for in the renewals except for C. >> So, that would be A through R. >> A through R. >> Except for C. >> Okay. A through R. All right. All in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. All oppose, like sign. That passes. We'll go ahead and why don't we start with C. So, let's talk about C first and then we'll move our way down the the list. >> Mr. Perry. >> Yes. Thank you. Um, yeah. Well, I'm I am concerned uh from a data privacy standpoint and data security standpoint that we are putting and maybe Miss Varnham could be give us a little more information about putting

121and co-mingling very confidential information perhaps um you know in with other data from a bunch of other other school districts who may use this application. It is a cloud application and it seems to me that we should be able to sell tickets to our athletic events on some kind of web application we just build in house and host ourselves. So, uh it wouldn't seem all that difficult of a task. Granted, I'm a 30y year IT guy, but that doesn't seem very difficult to me. >> Okay, >> Miss Justice, >> is that a motion? >> Yeah, I'd like to motion that we look into other options before we approve this. Second one. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't believe that this is in regards to paying cash at our games. This is in

122regards to an application when our our children are doing athletics. So, can we have some clarity of the >> Miss Farnum, would you share the purpose of this with us for Dragonfly athletics, please? >> Yes. Um, Dragonfly provides um the application and services for management of student athlete information as provided by parents, most of which is directory information that is um able to be released under FURPA. Um, Dragonfly um may allow parents to opt into upgraded feebased information, but that is it's all about um the parent information or the parent input of that student information. >> Okay, Miss Justice. Uh uh we've had a discussion about the cost >> for dragonfly. >> There is no cost to dragonfly. >> I think you're think I think we have a we're confused. Yes, >> we're not this

123is not the way to buy tickets. This is this is just a directory of >> athlet created by the is it okay? I'm just trying to clarify. Is it is Dragonfly is that separate from the company that we handle our ticket purchases through? >> Correct. Yes. Okay. Totally different. >> Dragonfly is >> with the eligibility, scheduling um referees for games and the overall schedule for all the >> Thank you. That's I'm glad you pulled it off. >> It manages our student athlete eligibility and also um allows us to pay for officials is the system that state uses for us to participate in our conference. >> So it's state provided. So probably across >> there's no cost to us. >> Okay. Other districts probably >> spoken. I'm going to let Mer speak and then I'll let

124Mr. Prepare to speak. >> Okay. Do we have a motion on the floor? >> We have a motion to uh find a better >> C. >> Sorry. >> So, we have a motion on the floor that to find another alternative besides dragonfly and a second from Miss Justice and we're >> discussing that. Okay. >> So, we are in that point. >> Okay. Mr. Perry and then >> Yeah. So just for Miss Farm sake though, can you clarify are this is not something Well, there's two points of clarification I'd like to know. Is this mandated by NCDPI or or by uh North Carolina State High School Athletic Association that we use this? Is there a mandate to it? And the second thing that I want to ask is is our information that the people provide co-mingle

125with lots of other data from other schools that if a hacker wanted to get into it could have a field day and would be very motivated to hack into such a system. >> So I'll I'll start with the first. I do not believe that it's mandated. It allows us with um less um cumbersome activities to be able to have our students eligible for participation in athletics and allows us to participate in scheduling and paying for officials. So I think without this it would be very cumbersome for us to continue the athletic program that we have. Um secondly I I would have to do more research on um the co-mingling of data. Um as your question is asking >> Dr. Mary >> uh asked and answered. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Can can I ask a

126question? >> You may. >> I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> How much personal information? It's not using students social security numbers. It's not using >> No. And >> it's using student ID numbers, right? Which are >> separate. So it the parents input their student information based their basically their demographics. And like I said, it's just about the same information of directory >> and it's the parents putting that system. parents are the ones inserting the information. >> That's my thought. Thank you, >> Miss Justice. >> Um, so this is needed like say you were playing games across the state with other teams, all kinds of different sports and is this the way that they are able to communicate and arrange a lot of a and you said the officials too. So this does a lot of across

127the state information sharing because you need to I'm not talking about students IDs but actual physical putting it together so they can play certain times certain places and make it work >> right it it maintains our rosters and it maintains the eligibility status of our students and it also allows for communication with parents about their student information. >> Due to time I'm going to go ahead and call uh make a motion we call the question. Is there a second? Okay. Any discussion on that? Hearing none. So the motion in front of us is to instruct the superintendent or the >> Mr. Chair. We have to vote on that. >> We have to vote on point of order. I'm sorry. Point of order. >> Yes. I'm sorry. >> Point of order, sir. >> Yes, sir. >>

128Uh when we have a call, if you're going to call the question. Okay. We have to vote on that first. >> All right. Okay. That's sure. Okay. All in favor of calling the question, please signify by saying I. I. >> I. All opposed. >> Okay. So the motion in front of us is to instruct the superintendent or his designate to uh find to uh research alternatives to dragonfly. All in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> All opposed like sign. >> No. >> Okay, that's defeated. 6 to one. >> I'll make a motion that we pass uh letter C. Is there a second? First and second discussion. We've already done it, I think. All right. All in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. All opposed. name >> that passes six to

129one. Okay, we'll carry on with letter Well, I guess we >> SN does anybody want to pull anything all the way down because we we discussed them some last week. >> Pulled AG. So, Mr. Mr. >> We have AG pulled. That's the only p. Yes, ma'am. >> I would move that we accept S through AF. >> Second >> first and second. Mr. Perry, >> pull X and AC. X and what was the other one? >> AC. Okay. So, we're pulling X, AC, and AG. >> And Mr. Chair, I'd just like to note we have about 3 minutes left on this particular section. >> Thank you. Okay. All right. So, uh we'll make a I'll make a motion that we pass all the rest remaining uh um except for X, AG, and AC. All >> favor.

130Oh, yeah. No, we did that. You need that. Thank you, sir. All in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> All opposed. Okay. We'll start with X. Well, actually, we'll start with A G since that was the first one we pulled out. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would just like for the opportunity um for Miss Sutton to highlight the savings and the increased funding that we're going to be receiving with that budget adjustment. >> Yes. Budget amendment. So, um, as we were going through, um, the total budget increase is a little over $4 million. Adding all those together, um, the state, um, fund saw an increase of 1.5 million approximately, and that was due to additional revenue for, um, salaries that we received from the state that hadn't been budgeted yet. uh

131summer reading program, uh transportation, fuel, and equipment um funding that was received through a grant we applied for. Exceptional children also received some additional funding beyond the original budget. There was no change in local current expense, just movement within the fund. For federal, we saw an increase of 532,000 approximately. Majority of that was due to an additional grant we received um from the feds for exceptional children's program. And then we also saw um some increases for improving teacher quality CTE program um and um some transportation for homeless children. So we've got additional allocation there as well. Um, and then for Capital Outlay, we saw an increase here um because the state we applied with the state to be able to lease some additional buses and they approved that for us. So, we're able to um

132have them pay for some additional yellow buses. So, those were the increases we saw. >> Okay, we are >> about a minute left. >> We have one minute left. So, >> with that, I just want to approve I would move to approve the AG budget amendment. >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor by saying I. >> I. All oppose like sign. Passes 70. >> We are just about at time. We have X and AC that are pulled. So I would entertain a motion to add five minutes. >> Second it. >> Well, I entertain a motion. Somebody's got to make the motion. >> Oh, I'll make the motion. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Do we have a second? >> Second. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All oppose like sign. >>

133No. >> Okay. That passes 6 to one and we will carry on. Let's start with X. Mr. Perry, you asked to have that pulled. >> Yes. This is the increase in the micro uh funding threshold from 10 to $50,000. I think during these a time when we have a financial crunch uh and our budgets really you know comes down to every penny that we need to be uh make sure that we are getting competitive bids all the time and that in sometimes as a board I know our staff is working on trying to do cost comparisons but we don't see those usually we don't we can't see that you know they're doing that and it would be good if we could see that and so I I I hate just giving cop blanch to spend

134up to $50,000 without having some oversight over it. And the second thing is too is I want to make sure that we made a a change to policy last year that said we were going to do think more things to encourage locallyun businesses to competitively bid for uh for products and services. And I want to make sure that our local businesses get a fair shot. >> Mr. Bradford. Um, I congratulate the finance office for this great success and I move that we accept contracts extending into fiscal year 2027. >> Second. >> Oh, that was the that was a different one. >> Oh, sorry. >> X authorized increase in microurchase threshold. Sorry. >> And I'll second that. >> Okay. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. This was discussed at our agenda review. One of

135the justifications for the change is that aligns with the state um the threshold use. We are doing things and our staff is doing things to continuously save us money, but it would I'm in favor of this for the sole purpose of having some consistent alignment. It's not saying that we cannot re-evaluate things um as we see different things in our budget, but this is >> this allows some alignment to see that. Dr. Mayor. >> Yes. Uh I want to follow on the footsteps of my colleague to the left who said that they want to um we want to tell the finance department what a fantastic job they've been doing. Uh Miss Sutton has done a great job of making sure that we pay less than we did the year before if at all possible. So

136I think in in thank you so much. Um in light of that I think they deserve the respect and the trust to do their business. Um, if in times of the future we lose that trust, we can always review this again. >> Motion and a second to accept the uh letter D. Yeah, letter X. >> Uh, all in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. All oppose like sign. >> No. >> Passes six to one. And finally, we have AC. Mr. Perry, you also asked to pull that. >> Let's go. Uh, agenda review. Dr. Hamilton said she would look in to see if this was a cloud app that had shared data with that might have coingo with other data and and so I'd like to see what she found out. This is only

137used on our lab computers at the four traditional high schools like the when they have labs like for Adobe and drafting and classes like that. And so this is stored only on those >> desktop computers. This is not on uh the student individual laptops. This is only on those desktop computers in the labs at the four traditional high schools. >> So nothing is stored on some third party cloud app. Okay, that's Thank you. >> You're welcome. Mer >> to approve. >> Okay. All in favor of >> point I think Dr. Hand up. >> That's okay. I I was just going to say the same thing. I move to accept. >> Oh, thank you, sir. Thank you. Well, all in like mind. All right. All in favor of uh AC uh please signify by saying I.

138I I all opposed. >> That passes 70. Carrying on, we have policy. I'll turn it over to the policy chair, Miss Mason. Miss Mason, >> so um just so that there's clarity and not a lot of hopefully um questions the policies under the NCSBA, I wanted to just provide clarity for the public and for the rest of the board. Um for 1310402 um the changes from NCSBA were strongly recommended or recommended. Um for um one part of it modifying the language about Wi-Fi hotspots was required and um clarification was recommended. Um and for 4318 um the language change in section C was recommended and 4342 um there was clarification of language that was required in A5 um and then um that's that's all of those. The other change was in 2120 and that is to

139have um board members have a background check and so I would move to approve all policies as presented. >> Dr. Merrick, >> I'd like to pull 2120 and 4318. >> 2120 >> and 4318. Correct. >> 4318. Okay. So we have a motion to accept I guess the other uh what do we got two >> be 1310 40002 3225 4312 7320 and 4342 >> okay all >> second we have a second first and second all in favor of those approve those policies please signify by saying I all oppose like sign okay we said 2120 so let's start with 2120 Dr. America, will you pull it? >> Give me one second to catch up, if you will. >> Um, so >> I I believe that it's a really good idea that our board members are checked and

140vetted. >> Um, what I don't have is a metric by how we will measure what issues are um beyond the pale and which are not. So, I think this is an excellent uh place that we do need to change a policy, but I think this is still a little bit of a rough draft. Um I think we need to determine how we decide, you know, what things are are acceptable and what are not. And um you know, I don't want this to be weaponized in the future. So, I move that we send it back to policy. >> I'll second that. >> Second. >> Yes, ma'am. Yeah. Um, sorry. >> Sorry. >> I know there's two. >> Um, just for clarity for the public, this was already set to be on the agenda for next month,

141which um, the policy members are aware of. >> Explain. Um, I'm sorry. I I didn't get that. So, the policy committee felt it was very important um at the time to move this forward so that we could get the ball rolling so that board members could get background checks and such. Um we wanted to move it forward with the note that we would be bringing it back to policy the following month. So, that was discussed in policy. >> Okay. So, we have we have a motion now. I get to you, Miss Justice, but Dr. Merrick's motion is to send it the whole thing back to policy without moving forward with it at this point. Correct, Dr. Mary, >> correct? >> Okay, Miss Justice. >> All right. >> I'm I'm sorry, Miss Bradford had her hand

142up like a half hour ago and I keep forgetting her. I I'm going to go to her first and then you. That's >> things have transpired past where I was because I didn't get called on. So, I'll just wait until this happens and then I'll go on from there. >> Okay, Miss Justice, back over to you. I'm sorry. My fault. >> Um, >> got a little >> Trying to go back in the past here. It sounds strange. I know that when I was on the board previously, we did have this policy where we had to have a background check. everybody that was on the board always had it. Um, so I just wanted to bring that up and it was no problem and it was mainly concerned with what and this was ironic. It had

143to do with sexual situations involving children. And the irony is we had that and look what had gone on for years. So I don't I just wanted to point that out that we have had it before and that's what it was for. >> And I'm going to speak and I'll get to you, Mr. Perry. But, you know, you think about it. Anybody that works for our school system, we're not asking anything above and beyond what we're asking for them. And there's been some questions about what exactly does that mean? So, I'm going to ask Miss Geller, can you tell us what a level two >> uh background check would would consist of? >> Well, hang on. Let me follow on my sword first. >> Okay. Follow on your sword first and then >> Sorry. >>

144I'm sorry. >> Oops. >> Go ahead. >> I want to clearly state that Miss Bradford was correct and I was wrong. And there you go. So now that slate is clear >> regarding regarding fingerprint. Yeah. Right. Say it into say it into the mic. >> Um I made an error in level two volunteers have a background check. Employees have a background check and fingerprinting. >> So when I said you don't need to have and fingerprinting in there, I was wrong. You do. So that would need to be adjusted depending on what you guys decide that you want. But it was by error >> because volunteers get a background check, employees get both. So, sorry about that confusion. >> I'm going to go to her because you you >> That will be my motion in a

145moment. >> Okay. M Perry, Dr. Merrick. >> Um, yeah. I I think this is, you know, if our goal is to protect our students, which it should be, our sole goal is to protect our students, then I've got no problem with the theory of of this thing. I just think it needs to be better defined. Um the but the fact of the matter is that you know unlike employees and volunteers who don't have a right to have a job in our school district or a right to vote volunteer us board members we have a right to be here because the voters hired us. They voted for us. They elected us. So we have a responsibility to do our job. Now, obviously, if something comes up during a background check that says shows that they're a,

146you know, registered sex offender or some really serious crimes, then I, you know, I don't want that person, you know, you know, being alone with children either. But I think we need to really define it much more closely as to what constitutes a failure and what doesn't. And, you know, there could be some borderline cases. Dr. Barnes told me that sometimes there are borderline cases where it's it could go one way or the other. And I don't want to start labeling other board members with a scarlet letter just because and in and and if we are going to have it, I think it should just be something between Dr. Barnes and the board member. It doesn't need to be publicly announced to the entire community so that we can ostracize the board member we don't

147happen to like. And I'm going to go back to asking Miss Geller as I did a long time ago. Would you would you mind kind of sharing with us at least what a level two volunteer would have to you know what their background check would be and what might stand out >> as a concern? >> I I would just echo the sentiments of Dr. Barnes. So the volunteers um would need to we would need to complete the background check on them. Our employees have a background check and fingerprinting. There are occasions when with fingerprinting there's information that we find that is revealed in those versus in a background check. Um so that is for our employees who have direct access to our children. It is a much higher level of protection. >> Okay, Dr. Merrick,

148Miss Mason, Mr. Bar, >> I I think I think we're getting off track a little bit. I I do agree with with having background checks and and even fingerprinting. What we're not answering is what we find in the background check. How will that be used? How do we implement it? If we find out that someone had a uh driving while intoxicated uh record 10 years ago, does that keep them from going into the schools? If it's not codified, it's weaponized. And so, it needs to be very very clear what is permisses permissive and what is not. Then I haven't seen that yet. >> Okay. And I am going to because Miss Barnhart has not spoken yet. I'll let her speak and then Miss Mason has already spoken. >> Thank you. I I would be in

149favor. I'm not in favor of sending it back to policy, but I am in favor of adding the words and fingerprinting. Um to have the same standard of expectation of our employees is not a bad thing. To sit here and talk about quantifying when a level two volunteer would get flagged or wouldn't get flagged. we are insulting the superintendent of this school district because he makes those calls and we we get notified when there's when there's an employee. It is not public information. We get we get told when employees are on leave for things that happen or things that we're on watch for. And so this is not uncommon. I do want to my my colleague to the far right did mention something that I think would be um behoove us to have that conversation

150is would that if there was anything that got flagged would it be a public spectacle because I think that's what the fear that I'm hearing in the conversation is I'm not scared and nervous I've already done this for being a level two volunteer in the school district however I think there is something to be said if Dr. Barnes, our superintendent, feels like there should be a protocol in place. Let's say having an escort when you visit a school. He should have the right to do that because he operates the school district. And so if something gets flagged on anybody on this DAS or in the future, he his job is to make sure that we are able to protect our students and having that operational status whatever those triggers are. I don't I don't really

151care to label them out because what if something pops up that I didn't we didn't think about to write it in policy. Um his job is to make sure to have protocols in place so that parents who send their kids to school feel comfortable. Does not matter who is in the room with their kids or the title they hold. They're all held to the same standard. Thank you. >> We are out of time for this discussion. So I'll make a motion we add five minutes to the discussion. >> Is there second? >> Is there a second? She did. She >> I second it. >> All right. Uh all in favor of adding five minutes to the discussion of both of these policies, please signify by saying I. >> I. All opposed. >> Carry 70. Miss

152Mason. >> Um just to address some of the things that have been brought up um in policy. We did talk about what would happen if board members who did not pass this were flagged. And what was stated was that the superintendent would um inform them that they would be unable to be unsupervised with students. So we did address that. That was discussed. Um I think that in the past some some members of this board have criticized the over definition, the over adding of verbiage and muddying the waters. And to kind of concur with what my colleague to the left has said, um what if we forget something? What if we don't add this one particular thing and it is a defining harmful behavior? I think that we run that risk if we if we can

153if we add and add and add and add. Sometimes it's better to keep it simple. There was a a phrase to add a little humor. um that was taught to me a long time ago and that is to kiss that is keep it simple stupid that's what it is and I feel like we need to keep this as simple as possible so that it doesn't get muddied it doesn't get complicated >> Mr. I just wanted to so would a question for my colleague almost furthest to my left. Um, so you would not be opposed to an amended language that would uh keep the uh the the discussion of uh the background check slashfingerprinting check between the board member and the superintendent. >> I'm sure Well, and let me ask uh our attorney real quickly because

154I think that's more defining. >> Since we have to discuss board members in open session, would it be possible if if there was say a person's background check came up and there was some limitations put on that person? >> I think you'd have to talk about that in open session. I can't think of a reason you you'd want to talk. I had a conversation with one of the board members and several of you over the last couple weeks about this. There are a group of offenses that are misdemeanors under North Carolina law that do require registration as a sex offender if the victim happened to be a minor like um misdemeanor solicitation prostitution, misdemeanor indecent liberties. And I I'm I'm thinking theoretically if you can only have your right to vote stripped away for for

155felony conviction, it I mean I I theoretically it seems like you you could have a situation where somebody would be eligible to run for office yet still, you know, could have a reportable uh offense um that would trigger the Lunsford Act prohibition on coming on school premises. I'm not saying I think that would be exceedingly rare, but I mean we saw recently um you know in the in the uh political sphere here in New Hter County where somebody that we didn't expect to fall into that situation kind of fell into that situation. And as I understood it, that was one of the concerns that motivated this >> policy. >> Mr. Bradford. Thank you, sir. Um, we get accused of not being transparent all the time. So, I'd be careful before we make policy to cover

156up anything. >> Yeah, we do have we'll finish with Dr. Merrick and then we will vote on whether to send Sorry, >> got a minute left. >> We got one minute left for two policies. Yes, sir. I I'm not in favor of keeping anything secret and I'm absolutely in favor of keeping our kids safe at uh in any way we can. What I'm not hearing is the way that we make the decision what what triggers uh at an HR standpoint, what triggers an employee not to be able to be in schools, right? You know, is there a metric? How do you make that decision? When you look at an employes's record, when you look at an application, you say, "Oh, I don't like what I'm seeing in the background. I don't think I want to

157hire this person." That's different than if you've got someone who's already here and you find out about that. Which infractions trigger disciplinary measures or the lack of being able to be in the schools? Can you answer? >> I'll start that one, Jen, then you jump in if you need to. Well, I'm going to say a perfect lawyer answer. It depends. Exactly. So, there are certain hard and fast rules that we have a we've developed a a whole sheet of what's in, what's out, what's in the gray area. So, any felony within the last seven years will make you ineligible for employment. Any crime against children, no matter when it was, makes you ineligible for employment. But then I also expect my HR team to use their best judgment. If someone's applying to be a bookkeeper

158and they have four charges for bad checks, well, let's go ahead and pass. You know, someone with eight speeding tickets probably doesn't need to be a bus driver. So, there are there is a level of judgment that's used in there as well. However, we are also stewards of the public trust. And I will tell you that as soon as a student gets a C minus on their paper, they Google their teacher and put their mugsh shot all over the school. We have seen it happen. And then I have to explain to a parent why I think that I need to make sure that if I have a teacher or an adult in a school with children that I would put my kids in that classroom. So, I will tell you that I expect Miss Geller

159to use a level of her discretion, but there are hard and fast rules such as felonies and things like that that automatically exclude you. But again, the difference there is that all of our personnel records are protected by personnel. You guys are not employees. So, that's I think the rub of this a little bit because I wouldn't want to take I don't know. Let's just pick something innocuous. Um, I can't think of anything. Sure. We'll go with eight speeding tickets. >> Eight speeding tickets. >> That doesn't preclude you from being a board member. And I'm not speaking personally, but I do have several speeding tickets. But my point is is that I don't think that would preclude you from being a board member. So, I don't see how it would be my business, right? like

160>> I it would be very rare that I would that I would want to exercise that kind of authority anyway. It just doesn't I don't know. It's a weird it's it is weird. But I think it was being born out of this idea grew out of parody for what we expect our employees to do. Yes. We expect our our board to do. I've had my fingerprints done. >> You guys have had your fingerprints done. Those of you who follow who've been here as long as I have. So, I would tell you I'm sorry I don't have a hard and fast answer because it does depend and there are sometimes gray areas while I ask an employee, can you give me your side of that story and listen to what actually happened? Do you know what

161I mean? Because it it does just depend. Jen, anything I I missed? >> No, I I think you said it perfectly and I think really, you know, um dealing with people things can be complex. Um, so there are several aspects of that decision-making process. I think you've covered them all. >> And once again, we have used up our time. We have two two uh policies. So, I'm going to say one more time. I'm getting used to the record. I should press the button for now. I would like to add five minutes. I'll make a motion we add five more minutes because we still also need to talk about 4318. Is there a second? Okay, we will not then. All right. We have a motion in front of us to pass to move 2120 uh back

162to policy. Miss Buoy, would you please call the role? >> Mr. Perry, >> I. >> Miss Mason, >> no. >> Mr. Wore, >> no. >> Miss Barnhard, >> no. >> Miss Justice, >> yes. >> Miss Bradford, >> no. >> And Dr. Merrick, >> yes. Okay, that uh policy or that that motion is defeated. So, I will entertain a motion to to Yes. >> I move that we pass policy 2120 adding the verbiage after volunteer requirements plus fingerprints. >> Point of order. Mr. Chair, we are out of time, >> but we have this in front of us to do. So, >> but we've already we've already >> we have to vote on it. >> We did vote on it, but she's trying to change it and add something else to it that we don't have time

163for that. >> Okay. So >> now we're on to the next one. 4318. >> No, we were out of time totally. So >> it's going to wait till next time. >> We're totally out of time. >> Mr. >> Yeah, I will uh rule that that is not in favor. We have these two that we have we have to vote on. Yay or nay. So we're going to vote we'll only vote on them. We have a motion and a second to uh add the words um point of order. Point of order, Mr. Chair. We have >> I've already ruled on your point of order, sir. You're out you are now out of order. Yes, sir. >> I make point of order. I would say that it is fine to continue to have a vote on the

164main motion, but an amendment in the main motion at this point is out of order since there's no more time to do it. >> Thank you, sir. >> And I will rule that uh I will I will rule that in in uh good t um let's see what it is. >> I will I will rule that as I can't remember writing. Sorry. >> Yeah, here it is. is is well taken. So we will rule on the the main motion what we had originally in front of us in these two policies. >> I'm sorry. >> Nothing. >> All right. So we have motion. We have the the what we have in front of us for 2120. Uh would you please call the role and that is again without the fingerprinting add. We can add that later

165if we >> Mr. Chairman point of order. >> Yes. >> Did yes. We talked in agenda review and I said I was adding this and because we got wrong information, it wasn't allowed to be added. But we've been corrected that I had the wrong information. So I would protest and and and appeal your decision on that ruling because we all knew that I was going to do this. We've just talked and talked and talked all night long so that we didn't have to do it. I would protest, sir. I would appeal your decision. >> Okay. And you can do that for sure. So, uh, your protest is that we can add the additional, u words, uh, about fingerprinting. >> No, she's appealing your decision, >> right? My decision, which you you can't. So, she's saying

166that she wants to be able to. >> She can appeal your decision, >> right? She her her her statement was that she appealed the decision of the chair. So, we have to vote on appealing the decision. >> Okay. Very good. So this is again she is saying that she would like to add the words is what she's saying. >> Point of order sir. Yes sir. >> Uh she's not saying that she wants to add anything. She simply wants to appeal your decision. So we have to decide whether your decision to take uh Mr. Perry's uh concern as being wellreceived. We have to vote on whether or not it's wellreceived. >> Okay. Very good. Miss Booy, would you please call the role? >> I am confused. >> Point of inquiry. Yes, sir. A yes vote is

167what? And a no vote is a >> vote saying that you don't that you do not agree that your point that you made is wellreceived by me. >> So if I if I agree with your point, I vote no. >> Correct. >> Okay, >> Miss Buoie. >> Point of inquiry again, sir. I'm still confused. >> Just for clarification, sir. Um the appeal requires a second. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you for reminding me that. Is there a second? Hearing none, we will carry on with our vote on 2120 as it is written. Miss Boo, would you please call the role? As is written with the red part in board members will align to volunteer uh level two volunteer requirements. >> Y'all ready? >> I think so. >> Okay. >> Mr. Perry? >> No. Miss Mason,

168>> no. >> Mr. Wlebore, >> yes. >> Miss Barnhard, >> yes. >> Miss Justice, >> no. >> Miss Bradford, >> I have no idea. >> I I I I've lost what we're doing. >> We're voting on >> the plane as it is. >> As it is with the will line to level two volunteer requirements. >> Yes. >> And Dr. Merrick Yes. >> Okay. So that passes 43. So that is now in policy. Uh now we are out of time. So I make a motion. We can either vote you know on 4318 or we can um not I I will make a motion we add two minutes to discuss 4318. >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor of sign of adding two minutes to talk about 4318 please signify by saying I >> I all opposed

169>> believe that is a five to two. So we will carry on. Uh I believe Mr. Perry were you the one to carry? >> No that was Dr. Merrick I believe >> Dr. Merrick. Okay Dr. Merrick please share with us your concerns. Uh I will try to be brief. Two minutes is not long. Um, I like the idea of making sure we do not have students taking pictures of other students because we know this is how most cyber bullying takes place. It is incredibly important that we control this. However, the public has come to me and made me aware of something that I had not considered and so I want to thank the public for bringing this that students need to be protected when they are using video as a whistleblower. if they are taking

170video of a bullying situation, if they're taking video of a a teacher who's acting inappropriately with a student or another student acting inappropriately with another student, they need to be protected as a whistleblower. They need to be able to bring us that information without getting in trouble. And I think that this one of the reasons that kids do have phones because they're scared that they're not safe in schools and they need to be able to support themselves with video evidence and we need to protect them. So, I would move to to send this back to policy and make sure that we have uh that clause in added to it. Otherwise, I'm absolutely in favor of this change. >> And and can you repeat the clause you'd like to add? >> Yes, I would like to

171add a clause to protect whistleblowers who do take video uh or pictures uh of other students if there is inappropriate activity. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> Yeah, I'll second that. >> Okay. So, we have first and second. Any discussion with 8 seconds left to go? >> Okay. All in favor? Well, no. Let's go. Would you please call the role? This is to send policy 4318 back to policy to add uh whistle a whistleblower uh wording. >> Miss Buie. >> Mr. Perry. >> I. >> Miss Mason. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wbore. >> Yes. >> Miss Barnhart. >> Yes. Miss Justice, >> yes. >> Miss Bradford, >> yes. >> And Dr. Merrick, >> yes. >> Okay, that passes 70. So 4318 will go back to policy. >> Sorry. >> And we have no old business,

172no new business. We will need a short uh close session. >> Yes, sir. I would like to make our close session very short so we can go watch the Hurricanes play game one of the Stanley Cup. >> Well, soccer correct. >> Well, I'm I'll read this really fast then. All right. I call for motion going into close session pursuant to general statute 143 31811 to prevent the disclosure of information as privilege or confidential pursuant to general statute 115 C. He's got to read his >> 402 and not consider a public record under the meaning of chapter 132 of general statutes. prevent the disclosure of student records rendered confidential under the FURPA to to consult with the attorney and to preserve the attorney client privilege and to uh consider qualifications, competence, performance, character, fitness, conditions of

173employment and conditions of initial employment uh of initial employed or considered for employment within a school system or to hear or investigate a complaint, charge or grievance uh by or against any individual employee. Is there such a motion? So move >> second. >> First and second. All in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. All closed. >> We are in closed session. Please go directly there so we can get Mr. Perry where he needs to be. Okay, we have a motion to approve the >> second >> personnel report and a second. >> Just you coming or you going? >> Come on, >> we got to finish this. >> We don't need you. >> All right. All in favor of uh approving the personnel report, please signify by saying I. >> I. All oppose. Passes.

174We all here. Seven. Yes, she's here. 70. >> Um, do we have any correspondence? >> My aunt wrote me a letter the other day. >> All right. coming up. >> All right. uh board of education hold an agenda review meeting on June 23rd at 2 p.m. Uh board of education center general public will have the option to u mute remotely on NC NHS TV YouTube and the board of education will hold its that should say July uh regular board meeting on July 7th uh at 5:00 p.m. Board of Education Center public will have the option to view remotely on NHCS TV YouTube. All right, >> assuming it works. >> Motion to move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I sign. No. Okay.