Orange County Board of Education Regular Meeting - April 20, 2026

001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> We'll call this meeting to order. Uh do we have a motion to go into closed session as stated and the printed agenda? Motion to go into closed session. All right. We have a motion. Do we have Second. All right. All in favor, I. I. I. We are in closed session. >> Mhm. >> We'll call this meeting to order. The Orange County Board of Education pledges to its citizens to conduct its business in a courteous and productive manner, showing respect for fellow board members, staff, and its citizens. The board asks its citizens to conduct themselves in the same courtesy towards both school personnel and each other. A moment of silence will be observed before each meeting. In addition to the moment of silence, the board will recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The

002board asks that you check your cell phones and other electronic devices to be certain they're either turned off or on vibrate to avoid interruptions of the meeting. For the safety of all participants, please refrain from bringing or eating any food items that contain nuts or nut products. All right. Uh we'll start with a Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, we'll take a moment of silence. >> All right, we'll get started tonight with our recognitions. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Uh I'm Jeff Coakley. I'm the Chief of Human Resources. I'm up here with Mariah Morris, our Strategic Director. Um we are very um happy to be

003here because um to talk with you about a very special event. As you know, we are all committed in Orange County Schools to finding and hiring a qualified and diverse staff now and in the years to come. HR is very thankful that we get to partner with our wonderful department and school leaders in this effort. One particular value partner is our Academics Department who can share some more information about this one particular effort that you're going to hear about tonight. Thank you, Mr. Coakley. Well, on behalf of all of the future teachers in the room, we are really excited to share more about our partnership with the North Carolina Teaching Fellows. Through their pilot grant, we received $55,000 this year to start our efforts with the future teachers of Orange County Schools. We've partnered with

004the most amazing teacher leaders. Um very early on in the program, we realized this program would live or die based on the staff that we chose. Um and so I'm so proud to have Ms. Reina Grace Shaw representing Cedar Ridge High School, Mr. Xavier Adams, and Ms. Jen Griffin representing Orange High School. So, I'm actually going to turn it over to them to share with you guys a little bit about the programs that we've been developing and the students' interest in the most amazing profession in the world, teaching. Hello. My name is Rena Shaw and I am a teacher at Cedar Ridge High School. I teach multiple different subjects, but I always say to know me is to know that I love my profession. So, I was very honored when I was asked to be

005the advisor of the Future Teachers Club at Cedar Ridge. So, I feel very fortunate to not only be able to hopefully inspire the students in my club, but also um help them just build some leadership skills and uh yeah. So, I'm going to turn it to Paytai Clark, who is our president. Okay. Hello, everyone. My name is Paytai Clark. I'm a junior at Cedar Ridge High School and today I'll be talking to you guys a little bit about some of the field trips that we've taken. Um thanks to Future Teachers Club, we've been able to um go to University of uh North Carolina at Charlotte and C N T and on Friday we'll be going to Appalachian State University. During these visits, we've learned about teaching fellows and also we've been able to um learn

006about different pathways in education. As you can see in the photos, we've had lots of fun while gaining useful information to see which pathway would fit us best. Uh now I will be introducing um Melanie Munoz. Good evening, everyone. My name is Melanie Muñoz and I'm currently a sophomore at Cedar Ridge High School. I am our vice president and our social media manager for our club. And today I'm going to be talking about recommendations of success for our club. So firstly, I want to introduce the idea of kind of going to middle schools and elementary schools more often. I find that children are really good with consistency. So with that, I want to bring in the idea of pen pals and volunteer hours for any students that would need it. So maybe in the mornings

007or after schools. Another recommendation that I have is cross collaborations with different clubs at our school, like BSU, Red Cross, just any clubs, you know, we have a variety. And our last recommendation that I have for you guys is maybe pursuing this club into a class one day for any educators that would be interested, any future educators that would be interested. And now I'm going to turn you over to Christian Garcia. Thank you. Hi, everyone. My name is Christian Garcia Castellanos and I'm a sophomore and I'm the service coordinator for Future Teachers Club over at Cedar Ridge High School. Today, I'm going to be talking about some of the club's goals. Um we practice a variety of teaching strategies, but we also prioritize learning skills that can be used in any profession. Of course, we

008encourage members of our club to become teachers, but we also explore about career pathways other universities offer in education. Lastly, Cedar Ridge Future Teachers Club would like to thank all of you for giving us the opportunity to present up here today. Thank you. And now, oops. And now, I'll pass it over to Orange High School. Good evening. I'm Jennifer Griffin. I am one of the co-sponsors with Mr. Xavier Adams at Orange High School. Um I kind of just want to reiterate what Raina said. It's been a joy and a pleasure to create this pilot program this year and figure things out as it goes along. You guys know how it is. Um but to really kind of see our students blossom from students who may be interested in education to knowing about opportunities that they

009had no idea existed before and kind of understanding the world that education can open for them. So, with that, I'm going to turn it over to Cora, one of our founding students. Um hi everyone. My name is Cora Said. I'm a sophomore at Orange High School and I'm going to talking about our lunch and learns. So, during meetings, um we'll bring in teacher panels and they'll talk about the um joys and challenges of their jobs and it gives us like a um really great perspective of what it would be like to be a teacher. We also have teachers come in and talk about their budgets with us, which is really helpful cuz um all people say they don't want to be teachers because the pay is too low. And we learn that with the right

010planning, you really can live um a life like any other profession. Um and we also have um some special guests coming in at future lunch and learns. Uh Reuben Fafiaro from NCDPI is coming on May 1st and school board members on May 8th. So that'll be really exciting. Thank you. Hi everyone. My name is Katie Side and I'm a sophomore at Orange High School. I founded the branch of the Future Teacher Club called Inspire Ed. And I originally started this club with more of a singular focus on teacher appreciation. However, after more consideration, we shifted that mission towards something even more vital, which is inspiring the next generation of educators. While the primary goal is recruitment and inspiration, we still believe that appreciation is the foundation of that mission. And that if students see that

011teachers are happy and celebrated, they're much more likely to pursue the career path for themselves. So this year, as you can see in the pictures, we started off the we started off by doing multiple projects including hosting a booth at Ag Day where we hosted Sorry. Where we hosted a stand that a lot of teachers can't Sorry. A lot of Sorry. A lot of students came to and they wrote just like personal notes of appreciation towards all the teachers. And then we paired this with a winter appreciation event where we set up a hot chocolate stand in the teachers lounge and we covered the walls with all of those appreciation notes so that teachers could really see how valued they are around the school. And from the feedback I got from all the other teachers,

012and I got a few emails too from them, this seemed to be something that they really valued and it really like just brought up their days and brought a lot of joy and lifted their spirits. Um so, yeah, with Inspire Ed, we really um and the other branches of Future Teacher Club, we are dedicated to bringing extra positive moments to the campus and ensuring that future the future of education starts right here at One Chance School in Cedar Ridge. Now, we're going to have Jake Timmons come up and speak. Hello, my name is Jake Timmons and I'm a sophomore at One Chance School. I'm a member of the of the Future Teachers Club and I'll be talking about the students panels that we had at One Chance School. These panels give students the opportunity to

013speak with the state superintendent and school administrators about our experiences, classrooms, and the atmosphere of the school. These panels are important because they provide insight on what's actually happening inside the school, both positive and negative. One of the main reasons why we do these panels is because if you want to improve a school, you can't do it from a board's eye view. You have to get on the ground where the students are to actually truly learn what school is like. The panels help students feel heard and valued. In return, it allows us to work together to to create a good community for the entire school to students and teachers and it's inspiring to see our administrators and superintendents listen to our voices and use it to great part of the school and our county. Now,

014I would like to call up Xavier Adams. Hello, I just want to say special thanks to Miss Shaw, Miss Griffin. It's been an amazing experience to not only collaborate with someone in my school building, but to also do cross district planning. This is my first experience with that and it's been such an amazing and enriching experience to exchange ideas with different educators and to see the passion that they are able to instill into our future educators. And to the students, thank you so much for your consistency as well. We've asked you to show up at school very early in the morning for field trips at 6:00 a.m. We've also asked you to do things on the weekends and every single time you've risen to the occasion, so I'm really grateful for y'all. And I think

015at this point we're doing pictures. Yes. Yep. Awesome. All right. If you're a member of the board, make sure you're not getting stuck back there. There you go. Two sisters need you to spread apart just about 6 in. There you go. Got you, Miss Houseworth. Very good. Okay. Thank you all. On the count of three. One, two. Mr. Mr. Xavier, getting a little tighter, please. Turn Turn toward with There you go. 1, 2, and I got it. Thank you. Good evening again, everyone. This is a fun night for me as well. So, in addition to being able to welcome and congratulate excellent hopefully excellent OCS employees in the future, um we I also have the distinct pleasure to talk about recognizing current employees. Um and that in particular are four classified employees of the month

016for January, February, March, and April. Um the the our classified employee of the month, uh this is a process by which a principal supervisor or district leader can nominate an employee. Um the we have an internal team from HR, communications, and the superintendent's office who vote on the qualifications of all the nominees. We do not know their names. Uh the all the voters don't know their names, the people's names, where they work. And then one is selected. The employee gets a surprise visit from HR and supervisors at their work site. Um we have two wonderful sponsors, uh Kim's Bake Shop and Jersey Mike's who provide well-appreciated gifts of free food. Basically, a free half dozen uh gourmet donuts and a free and a free sub. And uh without further ado, I would like to call

017up those of our um those of our awardees who are here tonight to stand with me. I will introduce each one of them briefly, and then at the end they can come and you they can you can offer them as board members your congratulations. So, can we get uh Diana Sharoky, Joanna Cannon, Jacquelyn Witted, and Natasha Mitchell. If you are able to come and stand up here with me while I start, uh, extolling them. So, when I when I call your name, just take a step forward so everybody knows who who we're talking about. So, first, our January winner, Diana Sheroki, is an ECTA at Hillsborough Elementary School. Although she's only worked for 2 years in OCS, she has made a huge impact. She goes above and beyond to support the students she works with

018and ensures that everyone around her has has what they need. She shows up every day with a positive attitude and always brings her best. She creates resources, collects data, and brings warmth to not only her students, but to teachers, staff, and the rest of the dolphins. All right, the staff and students love Ms. Diana, and we are so grateful that she is part of the team. Okay? Our February winner was Joanna Cannon, teacher assistant at New Hope Elementary School. Again, for the past 2 years, Ms. Jo, as the students lovingly call her, shows up with a positive attitude every day, even when her day-to-day schedule shifts, as they can do. She approaches each challenge with a determination to always do what's best for students. There is not a part of the New Hope Elementary School

019campus that she hasn't pitched in to help with. We couldn't make it through the day without her, uh, her nomination says. The um, and I I need to note that the brief but extremely festive New Hope Elementary School celebration parade for Ms. Jo was a vivid demonstration of how much the staff and students appreciate her every day. Okay? Next up, our, uh, March winner, Jacquelyn Witted, a teacher assistant at Central Elementary School for the past 15 years, with with Orange County School Service even before that. Ms. Whitted is described as an unofficial fourth teacher from her first grade team and plays a key role in instruction by leading small groups during core instructional blocks. She knows the first grade standards and plans with intentionality for her small groups using high-leverage strategies for teaching early literacy

020and early numeracy skills. Ms. Whitted is also the site leader for the YMCA after-school program and still comes to work each morning with boundless energy as if she just got back from a luxury cruise. As one teacher stated, she is the heart of our workplace, warm, inviting, and unfailingly kind to everyone she meets. Her patience and caring nature create an environment where students and staff feel genuinely supported and valued. Finally, our April winner, Ms. Natasha Mitchell, our bus driver nominated by River Park Elementary School, has been driving a bus for us for about 8 years. What truly sets Ms. Mitchell apart is her commitment to building meaningful connections with the students she serves. She takes the time to learn their names and understand their personalities and needs. The level of care goes far beyond her

021daily responsibilities and reflects her genuine passion for her role as an educator. In addition to her kindness, Ms. Natasha is incredibly dependable and we like that in our bus drivers. She is always punctual, reliable, and ready to support the team in any way needed. Please, everyone, join me in applauding these great OCS employees. >> How's it? Can I get you to shift to your left a couple inches? There you go. Mr. Richard, can you talk? All right, everybody. Look in this way. On the count of three, 1 2 and Thank you. We got it. Congratulations. Good evening. Members of the board, Superintendent Jones, and members of our community. April is Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month. Um this month builds awareness, understanding, and acceptance for students with autism in our schools. Autism or autism spectrum disorder

022reflects one way the human brain develops and learns. This is the heart of our neurodiversity, the recognition that differences in thinking and processing are natural and valuable. Students with autism bring important strengths to our classrooms. Students often show strength, focus, creativity, honesty, and attention to details. Classrooms grow stronger because of these contributions. Our schools continue to build spaces where students can learn as their authentic selves. Educators use supports and strategies to help students access learning and feel a sense of belonging. A deep interest becomes a strength to build on. Sensory breaks become a tool for self-regulation and success. Families of students with autism show deep commitment and advocacy. Families partner with schools, share insight, and support growth each day. Teacher assistants, related service providers show skill and care each day. Speech therapists, occupational therapists, physical

023therapists, and school psychologists support communication, independence, and access to learning. Adults with autism also bring important bring a important perspective. Adults with autism share lived experience, guide our understanding, and help schools continue to grow and show um how we support and and grow in how we support students. Inclusive practices support all learners. Strategies such as visual schedules, clear expectations, and flexible seating create classrooms that are calm, structured, and accessible for every student. Every student deserves to be seen, respected, and valued. Every student deserves the chance to thrive. Thank you for your continued commitment to recognizing the beauty of autism and building schools where every student belongs. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Miles. Good evening, Chair Atherton, Vice Chair Padilla, members of the board, Dr. Jones, and everyone gathered here to celebrate the amazing people who

024make things happen every day in Orange County schools. I'm fortunate to come on this side of the mic for a minute and share Assistant Principal Week. As you can see, I've shared on the screen something that I often bring up when I'm in this space, which is that we use our social media platforms and our website to bring up and elevate the things that we value most. And we've spent time during the week of April 6th through 10th recognizing our assistant principals, some of whom are here in the room, most of whom are at home recovering and preparing for another very long day. They're the ultimate utility player on the field. There's nothing that someone in the school does day in and day out that the assistant principal doesn't have to be ready to jump

025in and do right away for any number of reasons. And that's why although we're going to hear some very exalted celebrations for some members of our staff and who have been leaders for a very long time, in Washington D.C. just last week, there was a national assistant principal of the year also recognized. That's not a spoiler. That recognizes the value of this profession. And so, we'd like to say thank you. We join the National Association of Elementary School Principals and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, which will be combining in July to become one unified principals association for the country. In recognizing these unsung heroes of our public schools, our assistant principals, who are counted on to contribute to school-wide success in some of the smallest and some of the biggest ways every day.

026We'd like to recognize our assistant principals, and if any are here tonight, we hope they'll stand up and we hope that they will hear their names when we call them out. It's worth remembering them by name. When Peyton, Heather Witherspoon, Dr. Bonnie Carmen, Kate Ellison, Sam Wilkins, Chris Palmer, Mark English, Michael Pulver, Intisar Hamidullah, John Wood, Alexis McGill, Craig Dodson, Chris Campbell, Hunter Lancaster, Robin Lowman, Michelle Fournier, John House, Janji Hamby, and Amanda Boleratz. These dedicated administrators were celebrated on social media during the week of April 6th. Thank you, assistant principals, for sharing your information with Jayla Davis, our communications specialist. It makes a huge difference when you do that. They play a vital role in ensuring that each and every student and staff member in all of our schools feel safe, seen, and supported.

027From creating a positive environment that facilitates the academic success of every student to furthering the efforts of principals and fellow educators in service to our students every day. Please join us in thanking, on behalf of everyone in Orange County Schools, and celebrating our assistant principals for Assistant Principal Week. AND PLEASE FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM FOR more like this. >> Just a moment. With that, Dr. Jones. Good evening, everyone. So, I'm a rule follower and this is not up next on the agenda. So, we're going to do it anyhow. Um And when the board gives their comments, typically I give superintendent comments. These are them. So, don't look for more comments after Yes. We apologize for the delay, but good evening to our Atherton, Vice Chair Wendy Padilla, members of the board, students, staff,

028and community members. This evening, we're going to recognize an extraordinary leader. Someone who represents the very best of Orange County Schools and public education across our nation. For the first time in our district's history, or so I'm told by our historian, Ms. Purcell here, we are celebrating a national high school principal of the year, Mr. Jason Johnson. Now, Mr. Jason Johnson, principal of Orange High School, this recognition is not just about a title, it's about impact. It's about the countless hours, the unwavering commitment, and the deep belief that every child deserves to be seen, supported, and successful. Mr. Johnson embodies what it means to pour everything you have into a community. He leads with purpose, he leads with integrity, and he leads with his heart. Mr. Johnson is a leader of leaders. He puts students

029first in every decision he makes. He advocates fiercely for his staff, ensuring valued, they feel supported, and empowered to do their best work. I have seen it firsthand. And over the past year, he has stepped into a larger stage, advocating across the state of North Carolina for educators at every single level. On a personal note, I want to say how proud I am of you for everything you have accomplished in your plus years in education. I'm proud to serve this community alongside you. Thank you for all that you do for each and every student. What an inspiration for your future teacher clubs both at Orange High School and for um Cedar Ridge and what an inspiration for the principals that are here to support you as well. Um I'm proud to be your superintendent. I'm

030proud to continue serving here with you. I can't wait to see what you're going to do on the national level or what it's going to what work is going to put me to to but I'm here for it because uh you deserve it um and we're going to be here cheering on cheering you on wherever wherever it takes you. So, thank you again Mr. Jason Johnson. Well, I was wondering what those principals were doing back there. That is super sweet of y'all. I truly appreciate it. Um this is this is an honor, you know, to be able to represent North Carolina and Orange County Schools on a national stage. It definitely means a lot. Um I also want to say it's awesome to work in a state where we have a governor and a state

031board of education as well as a state superintendent who fiercely fights for public education. It's awesome to work in the district in Orange County where the county commissioners they support us. The school board supports us. It's also awesome to work in a district where we got a superintendent who is pushing pushing hard on behalf of kids. That's truly appreciated. But most importantly, it's awesome to work at Orange High School is an addiction. It is absolutely an addiction. That's why I went back. It's a great community with great people. I love I know we got some Cedar Ridge people here tonight, but I love Orange High School. I appreciate my staff. I appreciate my assistant principals who's been holding lifting the school up all school year. It's truly appreciated. I need you all to do me

032a favor. As you see them in the community, as you see the assistant principals in my staff, thank them. Tell them of the job they're doing cuz I constantly hear from central office of that they're doing a great job when I'm out of the building. And it would mean so much to them if you can just say thank you cuz they're keeping it rolling. They are keeping it rolling. I truly want to thank the students at Orange High School. In a lot of the interviews that I've done, I'm telling everybody this is the best generation yet. This generation is not filled with hate. They are just flat-out awesome. And finally, I got to thank my family. And it's very important that I say their names. Jason, Addison, Ava, and Aiden. And of course, my wife.

033They They've sacrificed a lot for Orange High School. I missed a lot of first steps. I missed a lot of stuff. So they've sacrificed a lot. So when you see them out, thank them. Just say thank you. With that said, I love each and every one of you. And let's make sure we have a great path tonight. THANK YOU EVERYBODY. ON THE COUNT OF THREE, one two and three and bear with me. Yeah. Everybody ready? Sorry. All right, next we have our agenda adoption. Um, I am aware of two items to pull, the financial report and the enterprise fund. And also, I have a request to add to item three, a discussion on the traditional calendar for this year. Motion to uh approve the agenda with uh, changes. Second. A motion and a second. Any

034further discussion? All in favor, I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. All right. Next we have our, um, Orange County Schools Local Board Budget Passage Resolution. And tonight we'll get started with Ms. Priscilla. Again, this is the Orange County Board of Education Local Budget Reso- Resolution urging budget passage. Whereas, North Carolina General Statute 143C-4-1 states the General Assembly shall create a budget for two fiscal years beginning on July 1st of each odd-numbered year. And whereas, it is 9 months into fiscal year 2026 and a current operations appropriations act has not yet been enacted by the General Assembly and whereas, Orange County Schools receives approximately 51% of its funding from state appropriations and builds its budgets according to those appropriations. And whereas, the 2026 short session convenes tomorrow on April 21st, less than 1 month before

035local boards must submit their budgets to county commissioners and whereas, the Orange County School and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School District's county government have had to plan the fiscal year 2027 budget without knowledge of state appropriations for the current fiscal year, let alone the next one. And whereas, the amount of state appropriations impacts the allocation of federal and local funds, as well as the requests made of local governments within in budget process for expenditures, including teacher supplements, and Whereas, despite the provision in North Carolina General Statute 143C-5-4 subsection B, for budget continuation of recurring funds at the level of the previous fiscal year, the failure to pass a biennial budget has has forced the Orange County Schools District to operate with significant budget uncertainty well into the current fiscal year. And whereas, the Orange County School

036Board has been forced to adopt a final budget resolution, which delays planned expenditures, including teacher supplements, restricts hiring, and prevents our district from committing funds for capital projects and other operational needs. And Whereas, despite provisions for step increases, without passage of an appropriations act, salaries of approximately 408 employees in the Orange County School District are frozen at 2024-2025 levels. And whereas, the lack of a budget and frozen pay scales, coupled with a rise in premiums for district employees participating in the North Carolina State Health Plan, has resulted in a net pay decrease for teachers and school employees in the Orange County School District. And Whereas, Orange County Schools strives to meet nationally recommended staffing ratios for school health personnel, requiring sufficient seat appropriations to do so. And whereas, the enrollment of exceptional children in Orange

037County Schools is 16%, but state funding is capped at 13%, requiring the district to allocate approximately 2.4 million in local funds annually to cover the gap and Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Orange County School Board of Education does hereby request that the North Carolina General Assembly immediately pass a 2026 appropriation act that mirrors the House proposal for all school employee salary in the second year of their proposed budget, Senate Bill 257 version 6, includes step increases at every level and provides education-based salary supplements, increases the public school repair and renovation fund from 50 million to 70 million as proposed in both the 2025 Senate and House budget plans, allocate 27.9 million in reoccurring funds for 320 additional school health personnel positions, implements a weighted funding model for exceptional children funding approximately 92.6 million

038reoccurring and 27 .2 non-reoccurring per DPI or in its absence a minimum increase of the cap to 16% of allotted ADM. Be it further resolved that the school board chair and the superintendent of Orange County Schools are authorized to disseminate the resolution to members of the North Carolina General Assembly and the governor and the board encourages parents, students, and other community members to contact their North Carolina legislators requesting that the General Assembly pass a state budget that includes the items listed above. Thank you all. All right. So now we are up to our resolution >> Mr. Mr. Atherton, you need to take action on that item. >> Oh, yes. Thank you. >> Motion. Motion to approve the agenda, the resolution. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor, I.

039I. >> I. Opposed? Resolution carries. Thank you, board. All right. Next we have our uh local budget uh 2027 public hearing. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Good evening, Chair Atherton, Vice Chair Badilla, board members, superintendent, staff, and public. I am here this evening to present a breviated form of the budget that has been presented twice publicly to this point uh to allow for any comments surrounding it. Okay. Next slide. And next slide, please. What you see here is key dates following this evening surrounding this budget. We uh once it's approved, it becomes the budget of the board, and it will be presented to the commissioners as a request for funding. From there on May the 5th, the county manager will be providing his recommendation for funding and then preceding that you will see the dates

040that are listed there where the commissioners will be holding uh budget hearings as well as budget meetings. Next slide. So, as you've heard me talk about, uh we are funded based upon the number of students that we have in our schools. For fiscal year '27, we are projected to have a decline of 174 students, putting us at 7,751. Next slide shows the trend um over the last 10 years with the blue line being the number of students, the green line is our charter students, and of course the bar is our total enrollment. We know right now that we are projected already to take a reduction in our state allotments to the tune of roughly $1.6 million. As you can see here, these are the primary categories that we uh will be seeing these reductions that

041we know about at this time. Uh classroom teacher positions as well as transportation as well as exceptional children are some of the higher areas that we are anticipated to see uh large reductions. We're going to see roughly uh 13 positions uh as a result of this. Our continuation budget, I think it's important to remember that uh the funding that we did receive from the county for this current fiscal year did include um pay increases in it at 3%. However, we don't have a state budget yet and we also had to provide step increases to our certified staff that we received absolutely no funds for. So, as a result, the funds that we received in our local budget had to be utilized to implement that. Next slide. Our continuation budget that we're asking for for next

042year is 1.9 million dollars that incorporates a 4% salary increase for our staff as well as the associated benefit and retirement increases that we are anticipating and a 4% non-personnel increase for the increases we're seeing in our other areas and our other expenditures. We do have an expansion request again for our third year where we are asking again for funds to support increasing our certified teacher supplements 3% increasing our classified supplement for our lowest band of classified staff. Currently, they receive seven. We are asking to be able to increase that to nine and we're also asking in our expansion request to be able to increase our bus driver hourly pay scale to be equivalent to Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools. As you can see here, this is just a summary of our local continuation budget

043of the 1.9 million dollars. Next slide is our expansion initiatives. Again, these are our request for funding to the commissioners for them to consider in their upcoming budget to fund us. Uh both of these would be approximately $3.9 million and require a $504 per pupil increase. Closing out, just want to um lift up what our current fund balance is. It's roughly $5.5 million. Do you want to take an opportunity though um to follow up on the heels of an article that just came out from uh EdNC in regards to fund balances and those districts who um are fortunate enough to have some. $5.5 million does look good on this graph, but I would like to say that if we got into an emergency situation, that would not be enough uh to sustain the district. Our

044local payroll for 1 month is over $2 million and we know we're in a season of declining revenues from the state, and we also know that we're anticipating declining revenues um from the federal government. So uh those fund balances are going to be helpful, but they um are not going to to fix it all. So um I will take any questions. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have public comments. Do we have any public comments tonight? Yes, we do. Excellent. We will now hear public comments. Speakers will be called in the order in which they signed up. Each speaker will have 3 minutes. Yielding time to each to other speakers is not permitted. If a speaker has written materials that they would like to share, please hand them to

045our board clerk, Franklin McCune, and he will distribute them to the board. The purpose of public comment is for the board to hear from members of the public, not to engage in back-and-forth discussion. Per policy, board members will not respond to speakers during the public comment session. The board greatly values feedback and welcomes all comments regardless of viewpoint. However, please be reminded that children are often present at these meetings and that our public comment policy prohibits profanity, vulgarity, and personal abuse of any person. We ask that all comments be civil, respectful, and free of personal attacks. Any speaker who violates our public comment period or otherwise exceeds the bounds of order and decorum will be given a warning. Continued violations may result in a speaker being ruled out of order, at which point we will

046have to move to the next speaker. Our first speaker is Christina Clark. All right. Members of the board, Dr. Jones, um I'd like to start off by showing appreciation for the proposed budget that will be presented to the county commissioners. Thank you for requesting competitive supplement raises for both certified and classified staff who are desperately trying to keep up with the cost of living. Just the other day I found out that one of my colleagues, a veteran teacher, has been selling her plasma so that she can make ends meet for her family. Sorry, I don't mean to scare the future teachers here. Um I wanted to speak tonight for my colleagues, uh specifically those who step up when events out of their control leave students in the lurch. Earlier this semester, my co-workers did just

047that. When students lost their teacher suddenly, our history teachers at Cedar Ridge stepped into the breach, gave up their planning periods, and kept quality instruction going for those students. Initially, my colleagues were told that they would only need to do this for a couple of weeks before someone was hired, and they were also told that every effort would be made to see that they were paid for their time. 10 weeks later, and neither of these promises were kept. Much has been made of precedent. These teachers were told that, in order to avoid setting a precedent of paying teachers for their time, they would have to swallow their pride so that in future other teachers would expect to give up their time as one of their extra duties in our contract. For example, when a teacher

048goes on maternity or paternity leave, we would be expected to pick up that teacher's planning and grading without any extra compensation. Why is this the precedent that we want to set? Should my colleagues feel guilty for starting a family? Do we want to create an environment of resentment? Is this ultimately serving our students and our community? My colleagues' feelings of duty towards students who were not their own were exploited. Should these teachers have requested a contract in writing, a contract in writing? Apparently so, yet the board would have had to approve such a contract. Meanwhile, those students would have been stuck without a teacher for weeks. Will we ever step up for so-called extra duties again? Definitely not. This is the precedent that has been set. Is this what you wanted? Okay. Since I have

049some extra time, I would also like to add that it is disappointing that our district has so far not been supportive of the March in Raleigh on May 1st for public education. While we understand the technicalities of inclement weather days, the scare tactics used in leadership meetings lately have been demoralizing and unnecessary. If you must punish us with Saturday school, so be it. It will be yet another disappointing precedent. Our next speaker is Kristen Garcia. Hello, Board of Education. My name is Kristen Garcia Castellanos, and I'm here to talk about events happening in my school. I am a student at Cedar Ridge High School and unfortunately was part of the civics literacy honors class that witnessed inappropriate content on a teacher's laptop screen, which led to their termination. As a result of this, teachers from

050our social studies department have taken over all of our civics honors classes and AP classes during what is supposed to be their planning periods. Earlier this week, we were informed that teachers doing these extra duties are not getting paid for any of this. With this information, I feel very upset with the fact that my teachers, who are taking time out of their day, aren't getting the money they deserve for all their hard work, such as grading, going going over multiple different topics, and still managing to have that one-on-one experience that helps students. As wanting to be a teacher in my future career, I would hope that the rules don't stay this way and would change for the upcoming students who would want to work in the education industry in the future. Thank you. Our next

051speaker is Dominika Barron. Good evening. Um my name is Dominika Barron and I am an Orange County Schools parent. Uh and I am here to support our amazing teachers at Cedar Ridge High School in the matter of fair pay for extra work. My overall message is that um teachers, like everyone, have to get paid fairly and fully for all the work that they do. Our family moved to Hillsborough in 2011 when our daughter was 18 months old. When it came time to register for kindergarten, many other parents who we knew immediately tried to get their kids into charters as if that was naturally somehow a better option. We were zoned for Central Elementary, which at the time had been going through some difficult times and um we knew other parents who were zoned for Central

052and who were very worried and tried all the ways to get out of that zoning. We visited Central and saw that it was a great school with great leadership. We chose to send our daughter there and she had a wonderful experience. Our daughter has gone afterwards to Orange Middle and now to Cedar Ridge where she is studying in the IB International Baccalaureate program with the amazing teachers there. We chose Central, Orange Middle, and Cedar Ridge because we believe in public education wholeheartedly. But you cannot have public education without teachers. If we want to support public education, we have to support the people who make it happen. Of course, we all know that there are budgetary constraints in North Carolina. That is not a secret, um and that this is not an easy time for public

053schools um in North Carolina and um on a federal level as well. But if there is one priority that we must focus on, it is the teachers. If teachers take on extra work, they should be compensated for it. Um they give their all to their students. No one should be expected to do unpaid work, to commit endless additional hours without any sort of end in sight, as we just heard, without commensurate compensation. I hope that we can find a workable way to show our Cedar Ridge teachers um and all our public school teachers that we truly appreciate what they do by compensating them for the extra hours that they take on. Thank you. And that concludes our public comment. All right. Thanks everyone for coming out to speak today. Uh next we have board comments.

054Uh we'll start with Ms. Purcell. Okay. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for being here. Um in the past few weeks, I had the pleasure of attending the job fair that was hosted this year by our HR department at Orange High School. It was very well attended. It was uh I think a fun event for a lot of people, and there were a lot of people there that were excited to be there and to talk about Orange County Schools. Um so, I was very impressed with with what I saw. Um last Monday, a week ago, I had the pleasure of um touring um the newly renovated Efland-Cheeks Global Elementary School with Sheriff Blackwood and um Mariah Morris and the principal and um several others at um Efland-Cheeks. We had a great time talking with kids,

055seeing what they were doing, and just touring the upgrades that have been done and the renovations that have been done to Efland-Cheeks. It was fun. Um I also attended the Central Piedmont Livestock uh show this year, which is always a fun event to go to. Um uh attended a Parks and Recs uh committee meeting a a week ago. And this morning, I had the honor of being at Orange High School, which I will agree with Jason Johnson is an addiction for some people, including myself. Um and we as we celebrated Principal Johnson, um and I can't I can't tell you and and I've I've been here longer than everybody else, so apparently since I'm the historian tonight. Um but I I have to tell everybody here that I have seen Mr. Johnson through the years.

056I have worked with him as uh a middle school principal when he was a middle school principal and I was, too. I've worked with him when he was in central office. I was principal. Uh we we we go back several years and I have watched him grow immensely in each of the jobs that he has had. And I have to say that for me to sit here and tonight, I have to tell you how proud I am of Mr. Johnson and all the accomplishments that he has brought to Orange County and the work that he is doing with students, including my grandson at Orange High School. And um I just can't say enough that I'm just so proud of what you have done and everything you have accomplished. And you have you have spot you

057are shining the spotlight on Orange County Schools with your work. And it is truly appreciated. So, that ends my comments tonight. Great. Uh Well, just to piggyback on that last one. Yes, I Mr. Johnson, I was watching the banquet in the live stream and when they started describing the winner and like this person leads with love and this kind of stuff, I just burst into spontaneous tears. I was like, it's him. Very exciting. Very well deserved. Congratulations. We're we're very very proud. And I know you are of your whole team and what what you all are building there. So, it's very special. Uh I have really enjoyed the conversations um uh in the planning process for the strategic plan. I think we've had another one of those sessions since our last meeting and just really

058appreciate the thought and the collaboration and just the um the way that all has been structured. I'm excited about where we land with the future strategic plan. Um and um yeah, enjoyed um some time at partnership um with um representative Price and uh Mr. English from the um Hillsborough Town Board. Uh was that last week? Um that was great and partnership is working on a beautiful um garden. Um and so some of the students were hard at work out there filling garden boxes and everything and hope to be growing produce um hopefully to send home with families, which I just thought was so cool. Um so, that's exciting. Um loved having the future teachers here and hearing about how robust those programs are um and just would, you know, bringing together the ideas of the

059future teachers, this resolution that we passed tonight, the upcoming um advocacy effort on May 1st. I would just encourage everybody to um to um advocate at the state level at the low at the local level if you feel so moved um to increase funding for public schools in North Carolina. There are um billions of dollars being um channeled towards private schools and things like that and um our current staff and our future staff deserve that. So, just would really encourage everybody to lend your voice to that um in whatever way you see fit. And that's it. Good evening. Really appreciate the focus on teachers and schools tonight and um all the important um members of the Orange County Schools team who've been recognized. Um and uh I loved having the future teachers here um and

060the example of Mr. Jason Johnson and um all all levels of our school community um working together. A couple of those um young people I heard at the College of Education, they uh participated in co-leading one of the workshops um last fall and um uh I was so grateful that Mr. Johnson has been principal for some of my own kids and um one thing I uh always admired about him um is how he fosters leaders and he fosters leaders among students and he lets them run with their ideas. And so, um change and new ideas happened um at Orange High School and I love that. And even as he's allowing um all of this um fun and funky leadership to happen, he shows up and he's there for all of it. And one of my

061favorite memories was um one of a um a robotics event happening on the weekend that was an opportunity for students from other places including um I don't know if they're private schools or charter schools, but um different schools from across the state, kids came with all different backgrounds. Um and the students facilitated how they had all the spaces that they need for their team in in the school. And they were they were it just really took over Orange High School. And um, Mr. Johnson was there um, just smiling and watching everyone do their thing and lead. And um, I appreciate all the collaboration um, that he has with all the teacher leaders in this school, um, the folks here and um, um, so I know that leadership works both ways and I really appreciate your

062example in that and continues to inspire me. So, thank you. Andre. All right. Thanks for the opportunity. Um, I also attended the strategic plans meeting and really enjoyed the collaboration and being able to be a part of that. I attended the uh, engaging our elected officials event um, with Ms. Purcell also um, and being able to go to Effland Cheeks Global Elementary and and kind of interact with the students gave me a great feel um, of how I miss being a teacher's assistant at Grady Brown for a number years and and so I really enjoyed that. Um, I am super super thankful for all the recognitions tonight um, to all of our assistant principals. Thank you for all the hard work that you put in each and every day at our schools. Um, and as

063a grandfather to an autistic grandchild, I am truly appreciative for Autism Awareness Month. Um, and to our future teachers um, club leaders um, I am very glad that we've started that program, started that club. Um, when I first campaigned that was that was something that I spoke to a couple of principals about was trying to create some type of class or a club where our students could go in and and hopefully um, have thoughts and experience, um, what it's like to be a teacher and hopefully, um, have that opportunity. And so, um, you know, they were speaking about some of the points and some of the, um, uh, information that they would gather in as they were in the clubs. And hopefully, at some point, we can look at having affordable housing for our beginning

064teachers. Maybe that's something we could advocate more for, um, you know, as as within that club. And then finally, to Mr. Johnson, congratulations. Uh, Mr. Johnson and I started the journey at Orange High School and and I saw the sacrifices you made and it paid off for your family. And and a lot of times, that's what you have to do, especially as a principal, make those sacrifices. And uh, when he won teach, I mean, principal of the year here, I told Mr. Johnson, I said, "You'll you'll win at the state level and you'll win at the national level." And and and I knew that because I knew what type of person he was and that he is. And being a principal, being a teacher, um, the root of of making that successful is loving children.

065And he shows that and he expresses that. And that's what it takes. Um, sometimes, that's the that's the sacrifice you have to give is is show love in the beginning and uh, and when you do that and you treat each student like your own child, that's when you'll be successful and those students will be successful. So, Thank you, Mr. Johnson. That's all. Um, thank you. Uh, first, a a quick thank you to the Cedar Ridge High School leaders who came out tonight and shared your view. It's really important for us to hear. Thank you for that. Um, I'll start with my congratulations to Jason Johnson and you have convinced every one of us that you love us and that every student in Orange County schools is magical. So, thank you for that. And for me,

066it was a perfect punctuation two weeks of Orange County schools magic. And that's the stem the new STEM lab at your school, the IB arts shows, the junior livestock show, the night of poetry where Orange County schools named our fourth poet laureate. Um and it's and tonight our future teachers. I mean, it's just incredible and it it's wonderful to show and see the variety of choices that Orange County schools offers our students. And each one is designed to get students excited about school in a way that makes sense for them. I'm so incredibly proud of our students and our staff that serve them every day. And Mr. Johnson, you're the leader of that today. So, thank you for that. I'll add that I ended our Business Advisory Council meeting. That's a joint meeting with our

067CTE team, uh Chapel Hill, Carrboro City schools, Durham Tech, North Carolina Apprentice, and the Home Builders Association who leads our Summer Careers Academy. And that's when you get to see the work and commitment that happened behind the scenes to make the magic happen. Special thank you to Shannon Braxton who is retiring this year um and leaves behind a wonderful team, Ms. Forney Forney uh Mr. Montgomery, Ms. Smith sitting right with her. And a commit and a legacy of commitment to student success. It shows every day in that work. So, so it's just great to see the the match Someone would say someone would say the sausage is being made. I say the magic being created. And just close with a just a preview on our budget discussion. Our teachers and staff need a raise. And

068not just a state budget raise and that's really important, but but a local increase to keep salaries competitive and to sustain a living wage for our classified staff. And we will do our part. You'll You've heard it, but we will need We will not be successful without the public's help. Help. You're paying the bills, and we're going to need you to remind everyone how important it is to pay Orange County Schools and staff. And I'll see you on Raleigh on May 1st. Okay, thank you. Uh thank you everyone for coming um out tonight. I participated in some of the same events. I don't want to sound like a broken record, and congratulations to all the assistant principals, and congratulations to um Mr. Dones um Johnson, excuse me. I prepared a little something tonight that I

069I I believe it's my duty, and I need to share with you tonight. I I memorized it but sometimes honestly I get a little nervous. The fact is that we are a state without a budget. The fact is that our district our The The fact is that our public schools are at stake. The fact is our educators are not paid enough. It is our responsibility to support them as entire communities. My job as a school board member is to advocate for everyone. I plan to go down to West Jones Street on May 1st. We are stronger working together for a future that depends on all of us, and that concludes my public comment. Thank you. So, I'll start off with thanking everyone for coming out for comments. I really appreciate y'all sharing. Uh that's how

070we learn and understand what's going on in our district. Thank you. Uh, I'd also like to congratulate Mr. Johnson. And I just wanted to highlight one thing that you said at uh, the national acceptance is that you resonated in the county. You resonated in North Carolina. And at the national level. That is the impact you are making. And people are saying thank you. Um, I'd also like to thank everybody that's working on the strategic plan. It's wonderful to see our community engaged in ensuring that we're hearing every voice that we can engage. And also thank you to the board for staying engaged throughout that process as well. Uh, it is really great to see us all come together. Um, I attended the Grady Brown 50th anniversary gala uh, with the superintendent as well. Uh, it

071was wonderful to see all the prior teachers and community come together. And it's easy to see why they are the number one school in America. Uh, also really appreciate uh, Mr. Davis and your team for Draw Your Dreams school. Uh, really appreciate Gravely Middle School Middle School for uh, hosting. Uh, what a great opportunity for our community to come out, share their ideas uh, with us as we move on this journey with the new school. Uh, also enjoyed the engaging our elected officials. It was uh, great event for us to share all of our successes and challenges with elected officials. Also want to appreciate my share my appreciation for Mr. Johnson hosting uh, our group uh, through uh, Orange High School. Uh lots of wonderful things and enjoyed seeing the band room updated and probably

072the nicest bathrooms in our in our district. Um also the Orange County Spring Fair. Uh really appreciated seeing all the work HR put into that. Really appreciate all of our schools representing there. I know it's outside of your normal time. Uh really good to see all of the people interested in our district. Um and uh really appreciate the time. The night of poetry, just wanted to do a quick thank you to Miss Shelton, our NC Poet Laureate, and all of her continued support in that program and our staff that continues to drive that and expand it in wonderful to hear all of our young poets. Uh the 80th annual uh Central Piedmont Junior Livestock Show, the largest in history to date. It was wonderful to have the barbecue and see everyone come out and all

073the success of our students. Um I wanted to just quickly mention thank you to all of our teachers uh and special needs teachers as we talk about autism awareness and acceptance and everything they do for our all of our families and students each day. Uh thank you. Uh and last but not least, um I just wanted to uh take a moment and just say that there are a lot of really good things that we don't have time to speak about in here. I saw the the woodworking team that's placed first, second, and third in woodworking cabinetry. Uh placed first and second in other categories. Looking forward to hearing about that. Uh I know that our Hedgehogs are going to Worlds in Houston to compete again. So, really proud of that. Uh I've seen some of

074the diving team results. Uh it's just really amazing to see all the wonderful things that are happening in Orange County each and every day, and just thank you all to help our students who are putting them first. Uh with that, we'll move right into consent agenda as the superintendent has already shared her comments tonight. Do we have a motion to approve the uh modified consent agenda? Motion to approve the modified consent agenda. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor, I. I. >> I. Opposed? Consent carries. All right. Uh first after the consent agenda, we have the FY 2026 budget amendment that was pulled. Yes. I didn't pull that. Oh, I thought it was I pulled the third quarter financials and the school nutrition. >> I'm sorry. Yes, the

075third quarter FY 2026. I have a feeling that our resolution has something to do with these questions, but um thank you for the, you know, actually the financial report you give us every quarter gives great transparency to the state of our books. And what I noticed was, as you talked about, our reduced budget, but our spending about against that budget versus this quarter of last year was substantial substantially lower than it was last year. Um especially in big, well, just in general. I was just curious why our expenses are running so low compared to to compare to last year. Sure. I Excuse me, I appreciate the question and I'll do my best to provide you um the answer. So, when you look at our expenses for this quarter in comparison to uh last quarter. I

076do want to uh uh remind, as we've been stating all along, that we have been operating uh very conservatively and have been working very hard to ensure that we are spending appropriately so that we can protect any positions uh when a budget is potentially released or when other cuts may find their way filtering down to us either through the state or through the federal government. Enrollment is continuing to decline. So, um as a result, right now, we know that we are uh headed for $1.6 million in reductions already for next year. Again, we are trying to operate as conservatively as we can to ensure that we protect as many positions as we can in light of the cuts that we are anticipating. We're also taking a look um at all of our expenditures and anywhere

077that there are duplicates or areas that we can tighten the belt, we've been tightening the belt. Okay, I I hear that. There's part of me that So, I'll give you an example. I'm looking at um regular instructional services as one of our largest line line items. Um last year at this time, we were at set we spent about 77% of that. Am I regular instructional services? I'm sorry, we had spent about 87% of that. And now at this time, um let me see if I'm reading this correctly. Yeah. So, this time we're at 75%. That means we're running it's 12 It's a big difference. So, when you say and I appreciate, I know you all really are managing this tightly and the risks are scary. So, just cur- what what happens is are are things

078getting cut or things happening that, you know, worry about, you know, staffing and you know, like the position these are the budget this is this year's budget. Next year's budget we're going to is a whole new thing, but I'm just curious why we're not spending this year's budget. If I could just quickly add also to keep in mind that the budget that we set does include uh potential raises that have not materialized for staff. >> sense. So, when you look at the budget in comparison to what's been actually spent, you are going to see a greater difference. >> So, this is the county money that's been accrued the 3%. Now, that that makes total sense. That mean, thank you for that clarification. And just also we still have some additional math materials that will be

079purchased and so um again, along with being conservative, I think we have uh also wanted to make sure that we have quality resources in front of our students and um making sure that they do have what they need, but I think uh having the extra uh wait time on a budget but some additional items that will be purchased as well. What What What I'm hear- I mean, it sounds like you know, I pray every night for a state budget. I know you think I'm weird, but um so so um but one Presuming we get a state budget, this these numbers are going to change a lot. Right? >> Yes, they will. >> They were going to change a lot. So, some of these accruals, if you will, are going to go away. So, I really

080>> And and I just want to thank Ms. Rath for the preparation for that because if if we're not preparing for whatever may come of a state budget, then that's the conversation she had earlier regarding fund balance. And where that it's not the purpose of fund the purpose of fund balance is not to um pay for positions. But if we want to be we want to make sure we're in a good place where we don't have to do quick cuts ahead of whatever the budget is going to be. And so being conservative all along and I think we've communicated that um for the last maybe even 2 years. I mean I hate to say it, but just because we know what's coming down the line. And so it's important to do to be able to

081protect our number one resource in our schools, which is our teachers and staff. Yeah, thank you for that. Um second question was So that Thank you. That really helps me. Second question is the school nutrition funds. Last year we were operating in the black and now it looks like we're operating in the red. And we've done the CEP schools. That really helped. I wonder what happened and is this Are we expecting to end the year at a loss and um So let me address the first part of your question uh kind of of um what happened. Um the days that school was um unfortunately closed as a result of weather um made it where we were unable to provide meals to our students. And therefore as a result, we were unable to get any reimbursement.

082However, our staff still were able to utilize um get paid for those days. So as a result, we we did not have any revenue to offset those expenditures. Um Ms. Green is working looking at it. It's going to be close. Um we're not anticipating a huge loss in the program at the end of this year, but um it does get harder to make it up at this time of the year at this late in the year. All right. But it's an aberration in the in the weather. It's not because our supply costs are running at a unexpected I was wondering if we were seeing inflation in supplies. Uh well, we have seen uh we have seen some increases, but the primary driver is the fact that we were unable to provide that and I just

083want to use an opportunity also to state that we have not raised our meal prices in the last 3 years. So as a result um we don't have um as much flexibility uh when these uh type of events hit and of course it's was not typical um of what we had this year either. Yeah. I appreciate that and thank you for raising that the meal price prices. That's not tonight's conversation. I appreciate those explanations. It's really um thank you so much. I move uh both items uh L3 L4 and L5. Motion do we have a second? Second. All right. Uh we have motion second any further discussion? All in favor I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. All right. Next we have uh the FY 2027 local budget approval. Getting your steps in. >> I don't have

084anything more to add in regards to the budget and I do not have anything more to present. It is now before you for consideration for approval. And of course if you have any questions I will be happy to do my best to answer them. So I would just like to say I know that we've had a very deep conversation in the financial committee and that's why you may not be hearing us ask any questions tonight cuz we had those discussions earlier. So with that are there any further discussions? I was just going to echo that. I've really appreciated how you've presented all the information in there Miss Rath as well as the the focus on the items that we are hoping for our expansion request and the explanation of our continuation request and so I'm

085just really pleased with what was put forward. I just want I also am really I've said this more than once I'll say it again. I am extremely incredible budget presentation the detailed one the summary one it really amazing work powerful budget and and I'll there's a couple of things I want to say it's really for the public's benefit. As a school district and I thank Dr. Jones and Miss Rath and many others for doing everything that we're supposed to do. We've managed a tight budget you've been right-sizing the district to align with enrollment changes you've restored our fund balance. And now it's time they always have to wait now it is time to take care of our teachers and staff the three percent and it's really important because people push back on budget increases and

086there are the state increases and these increases are different and we need both and and um it's important that our certified staff increases. The 3% is on top of you talked about 4% state budget. That's the state budget's increases, and this is the 3% for our certified staff is to keep our salaries competitive with Wake, Durham, Chapel Hill, Guilford. We are We are surrounded by four of the top five paying districts in the state. We have got to be competitive with that. We also live in a very expensive part of the state, which is why we need to increase our our staff supplement. The state raises are not going to take care are not going to bring our staff to a living wage. So, it's all of that. So, I just wanted to to for

087all of us that are going out on May 1st, we're going to ask you again to come out on May 12th here at the Whitted Building and May 18th I'm sorry, May 28th at Southern Human Services in force. Bring your friends to ask the county commissioners to approve this budget. And that's all I just needed to say that. And you'll hear more. And if anyone has questions, I know anyone on the board would be happy to ask questions. Answer questions. All right. Do we have other Motion. Motion to approve and adopt the FY27 local operating budget for submission to the Orange County Board of Commissioners for funding consideration. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor, I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Ms. Ross. Thank you for your

088support. Thank you. All right. Next, we have the traditional calendar revision for this year. Yeah, and to help with that, I'm going to ask if Mr. Kowik and uh Dr. Pat can can come up. And I've had them to prepare some uh information for the board. Um so, I don't know if you have any questions for them regarding the uh traditional calendar. So, I believe the board would just like to understand if we do take off May 1st, what would be the options for the district? And what what is required as well? Sure. The North Carolina calendar law requires us to have a minimum of 185 days in our calendar or 1,025 instructional hours. Uh we in Orange County schools, uh the calendars that we've developed over the last few years have centered on having

089a minimum of a a those 1,025 hours. We build in many more hours in case we have inclement weather and allow some cushion. Uh but that that number is the minimum. So, this year we have had um and the calendars vary. Elementary schools um what counts for instructional is everything except for lunch. And then middle and high school, everything except for lunch and transition time. So, you know, in middle and high school and high school has usually a little bit more transition time. It begins to dwindle down the amount of instructional time that you have in the calendar built in. Um so, this year we have had um six days that we were closed for students. And two instances of a 2-hour delay, which also took time off of the calendar. In addition, when we

090have remote learning days, while they count, they don't count for necessarily a full day. So, there are minutes that are pulled off the calendar during those days. So, we've had a lot of the those days where we're down to um the taken off the total. So, um and as a district, our high schools um overall are out of banked instructional time. So, if you choose to make May 1st a teacher work day, we will need to replace that day with a student day. And your options are a Saturday or um June one of the final work days, June 11th. June 12th Well, June 11th. You wouldn't skip June 11th to go to June 12th, but we have two work days at the end of the year. So, I'll ask the obvious question. Uh what is

091the high school principals said about the two options? So, I I wasn't able to speak with Dr. Daye at Cedar Ridge, but I did talk with uh Mr. Johnson at Orange High School. Um Given the the two options, June 11th was more favorable. All right, are there questions from board members on the options or questions? I I have a question about subs. What is the potential of us getting subs the day that the teach enough subs to cover the days that the teachers are out? That would be highly unlikely. At about 4:45 today, we had roughly about 119 substitute requests from employees who need substitutes. The vast The vast majority of those were unfilled at that time. I mean, you don't always fill them right away. Sometimes you fill the substitutes just before. But the

092number has been increasing the substitute requests. Yeah, last Monday our vacancy or sub rate was about 5.2%. Today is 21. It's probably a little bit higher now. It's close to It was closer to 30 a little before 5:00 today. And at 2:00 today, I think it was 21%. So I would So just a clarification point. You're saying about 30% of teachers at this point have requested leave on that date on May 1st? Yes. Yeah, I mean, that seems really challenging to find sufficient subs for. So I'm curious if you all have sort of like a threshold where you would be making a recommendation to like Yes, so we're um we will, you know, yield to the board. So the option is to look at all schools. If you choose to close and make May 1st

093a teacher work day, you have the option to not do that, and we have staff on standby that can come in and try to provide as much support as possible. Our fear is that it's going to continue to rise. And I don't want um, any school to go without. Um, we're seeing it in some schools it's much higher than others. Um, in some schools they were less than five or so teachers that wanted to, uh, that have called out already. Um, but it's going to be difficult for us to fill the gap at some point. So, the options, if you choose to, uh, do the teacher work day on May 1st, is that all schools can make it up on, uh, June 11th. And I'm going to go with that date because and I've only

094spoken to high school principals. Um, can make it up on June 11th or we can just look at high schools making it up. Instructional time is there for our middle and our elementary students. Um, and when we look at our high schools, that would be around exam time and make-up time and I think that that disruption there will be less, uh, minimal for our families. Other questions? And I'm sorry, I heard from Dr. Day as well, June 11th. She's watching. Technology. Thank you. Thank you for the information. Um, as I said earlier, I so it is our it is our duty to support our district and it's in the best interest that we plan accordingly. So, if we know that more teachers are going to be calling out, we need to make sure that we

095align ourselves and not be in a panic. So, I I I personally believe that we need to give the teachers a day off so they can go if they choose to. I will just echo that as well and I just do not want to wait and our parents have to scramble. They they've enough scrambling and I'll just leave it there. Do you Do you need a motion? Yes. Well, Before I I just have a You know, do we have I agree completely. So So, Dr. Jones, on that on the clarity of the June 11th, whether it's all schools or high schools, do you want us We can approve the 11th and have you come back with what happens on June 11th or do you want us to just say it's I think it's I'm okay

096with you saying whether it's just for high schools. Okay. I I mean, unless we want elementary middle coming back Um one more additional day. Yeah, I mean, I I do think if if the other grades have the instructional hours, I don't That seems like an awful a lot of like discombobulation for everyone. So, I I would be inclined if the high schools required to have the additional time just to focus to add that day there. Yeah. And And some of the families may have um vacations planned right after. You just You don't know, but I know with with our high schools that we'll have a little bit more flexibility with that last day with exam time and all that. So So, just so I understand, the proposal is we could we teacher work day Friday

097or we closing Friday? Teacher work day for May. Teacher work day Friday and then um elementary schools will will be will work on will make a scheduling adjustment and high schools will add a day. We'll add June 11th to the calendar. Is that right? Yeah, that's great. That's really creative. Thank you. So, I mean, it's up to the board. So, um the recommendation, I guess, then just to repeat Please. >> is um teacher optional teacher work day on uh May 1st and then adjust the traditional calendar for high school only to add an additional day for January June 11th. Can I ask um would that also impact partnership in the same way or is their schedule different? So would be for all >> as well. All high school. Okay. Can I make a motion? Yes,

098ma'am. I'd like to make a motion that we make May 1st an optional teacher work day and that we take June the 11th for high schools to make up time, get their hours in and uh since we have the hours for elementary and middle, they will be allowed to stay home. It'll only be for high school on June the 11th. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Uh all in favor? I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you all. We'll see everybody in Raleigh. All right. Uh next we have uh the work session with Teacher of the Year round table update. Good evening, Chair Atherton, Vice Chair Padilla, board members, and Dr. Jones. Thank you for the opportunity to share the work of the Superintendent's Teacher of the Year

099round table with you this evening. I'm honored to be joined this evening by the one and the only Jose Hidalgo who is a dedicated science teacher at Orange High School and our 2025 Orange County Schools Teacher of the Year. Together, we'll highlight the work that the round table has engaged in this year and present the team's recommendations for your consideration. The Superintendent's Teacher of the Year Round Table truly spans all aspects of the district with clear connections to priorities 1, 2, 3, and 4 of our current strategic plan. Its purpose is to analyze data related to teacher working conditions, elevate teacher voice, and strengthen the overall teacher experience. These conditions intersect across all four priority areas, reflecting the comprehensive impact of the work. Thank you. The purpose of the round table is to create a

100dedicated space for teacher leaders to engage in authentic uh two-way dialogue with the superintendent and this uh district staff on the issues that matter the most. Uh through these structured teachers and district leaders participate in shared decision-making, elevating teacher voice on critical topics such as working conditions and teacher retention. Uh the round table also meets monthly on to sustain dialogue. And this year included an extended full-day session uh that allowed members to dive deeply into a focus area of work and collaborate on a meaningful project designed to support teachers moving forward. Uh these round table takes a three-pronged approach that is centered around continuous improvement. In order for Orange County Schools to be a great place to work and learn, we have to have a space to analyze what is working well, what needs to

101be improved, and how teacher voice and factor into issues involving working conditions. This three-pronged approach we take to this work include personalizing teaching working teacher working conditions as a form of a survey that identify trends across the district. As a reminder, the teacher working conditions survey is administer administered every 2 years, and we're looking forward to new data coming out in months to continue the conversation forward. The second prong of our approach is engaging teachers in shared decision-making. Teachers are given the opportunity to have a proverbial proverbial seat at the table with district leaders as we roll up our sleeves and thinking about how to develop responsive approaches to the data we're seeing. The third prong of our approach is by increasing communication channels between the superintendent and the teachers at each school. Roundtable roundtable

102members are asked to share information from the roundtable and collect qualitative feedback on issues we are discussing at their own schools. This helps to increase communication and help more teachers be represented in the shared decision-making process. During the 2025-2026 round table we pretty quickly identified professional learning as an area we wanted to focus on and explore. I want to add here that one of the most demanded things was to have like personal not personalized, but identified PDs by subject area that are meaningful and not as a general PD for everyone. After looking at those uh NC teacher working condition survey that data, each round table member was charged going back to their schools and present these questions to the uh school. We asked teachers at each school three simple questions. What is working well? What

103are growth areas? And what ideas do you have as we strive for excellence in professional learning? The team looked at this data and we worked through analyzing it together as a team. And the district also included this feedback in the strategic planning process to ensure a connection between the work of this round table and the larger work of a strategic planning. Through these analysis, we discovered trends that were emerging throughout the district. Teacher are excited about professional learning that is very practical and relevant to what they teach and every day. And they appreciate and seek differentiated professional development that is tailored to their experience level. Additionally, teachers value voices a voice and choice with the PD side and the stars of education as a positive experience where they were able to choose different PD uh

104sessions. Teachers also seek time to implement their new ideas after a professional learning experience. Finally, teachers highly value collaboration as a form of professional learning, whether it is through professional learning communities, interactions with the in- instructional coaches, or through formal or informal opportunities with other teachers across the district. Thank you, Jose. Um the synergy that this group had this year was strong with focusing on professional learning. And one of the exciting things for us um from the district seat was that there was a lot of alignment that dovetailed with the learning and leading collaborative that we were rolling out with instructional coaches, AIG specialists, and multilingual learner specialists. Um and so we had a renewed um focus on professional learning and we were able to take the feedback that we got from all the different

105schools on the professional learning and weave it into the experiences of that learning and leading collaborative who were then able to turn and provide professional learning across the district as well as to feedback that went to our strategic planning process. So we think there's a lot of synergy across those three areas this year and we did really see a blossoming of professional learning across the district that was um school-based where our coaches felt empowered. We have a couple pictures up here. Um one is New Hope Elementary. They're doing professional learning on cognitive load theory. Um teachers are engaging in that. The middle picture was from some feedback that teachers got through this process that our instructional assistants wanted professional learning. Um so this is a session for instructional um assistants at Effingham Cheeks and then

106we have Al Stanback on a workday doing cognitive load theory as well. Um and so it was a neat experience getting to see the work of multiple teams come together with a focus on how teachers seek professional learning. The round table uh then after they received the data engaged in conversations where they came up with a lot of different unique ideas for how to enhance professional learning across the district. But then we got to the question of when. We have all these great ideas, but we also know that from round tables before non-instructional time is very valuable for teachers and we can't roll out professional learning on every single work day or during every single planning period because that would defeat the purpose of really looking at that balance. Um, and so with that in

107mind we pushed ourselves to think outside of the box of what other type of professional learning opportunities can we provide teachers other than the sit and get that might take away from those instructional time moments. We also looked at how professional learning aligned with last year's round table focus on supporting special populations. And we are very fortunate this year to have EC teachers at the table, um, ML specialists at the table and AIG specialists. And it was through this lens of professional learning that we are trying to address how to provide support for general education teachers in meeting the needs of each and every student. And so with that the team came up with an idea that they're very excited about and Jose is going to share that with you. So what we came up

108with like we wanted to understand the balance between professional learning and demands on teacher uh teacher time. Uh it gave us the idea to think about outside of the box. What can we come out we came out with the idea that um through these we were working closely with district the staff to develop an online professional learning and collaboration site that will be for teachers and by teachers. The idea is to not reinvent the wheel but provide support for the teachers that are made from us to our all the teachers. And the idea is to be a site that is easily accessible for all of us not hidden behind many clicks. And also, we work to together to generate a clear clear purpose for this site. And the purpose the purpose of this site is

109to provide to a lifeline to teachers by streamlining professional learning resources and teacher collaboration in an easy accessible place in order to promote educational growth and excellence consistently throughout all of Orange County schools. And we did that during this planning day that we had the entire day and we shared it was it's a wonderful experience because we all had some input and the idea that is made with a like for us and by us it's I think it's going to be a great resource for the entire county. Thank you. And so with an online learning resource that thinking outside the box it hopefully will help teachers save time by having to recreate the wheel every time they need resources. Some ideas that were elevated is what happens when we shift to remote learning and I'm

110working on a second grade lesson but I know someone across the district is as well that will save me time during that my planning my precious non-instructional time to be able to go and get these materials. Um so the things that emerged for what our teachers are looking for um the first one is a systemic support of professional development and that's getting more to the ease of getting CEUs and understanding what they need to renew their credits and having a very streamlined system. Um the second one is an easy place where we house our district curriculum resources. We have a lot of curriculum resources. We've paid teachers during the summers to do some really great writing. Um and so now we want to have a site that's more easily accessible than we currently have. Um

111our teachers are really excited about the third one. They want to improve the searchability features of our current online resources. They have a lot of ideas where they can like it and favorite and share it with each other to help streamline their time. Um they're also excited to look at how we provide collaboration space online across schools. Um we hope to one day have micro professional learning. So if we have a student who might have needs that we don't know how to address, we can go there and get these quick videos or one-pagers for how to support those needs. And then this could become an onboarding tool for our mentors when they're working with beginning teachers and things like that. Um so Mr. Hidalgo referenced that we had a full day round table collaboration that

112was new this year. Um we brought teachers together and we did a deep dive into our current resources, how they're housed, and then what we want to see on this site. We also brought in our online developer that we're working with so that he could hear firsthand from our teachers, show them some of the work he's been developing, and get their immediate feedback and um information as he iterates on the next step. So we believe that this work is really a powerful example um that when teachers are meaningfully included in this shared decision-making, um their insights can not just help shape ideas, but that they can really directly influence the design of the products that they'll one day be using. So we do just want to put this out here publicly that we're going to

113go slow to go fast. Just like with the Stars of Ed conference that started from the round table. It started very small, optional on optional teacher work day, and it has really grown into something larger than it is. Um, than it once was, excuse me. This site will be the same. Everything we just named their wish list won't happen next year. We're going to start very small and very intentional and try and get it right. And then each year we'll be able to layer on something else um, intentionally and build it over time. So, um, we share with you what they hope to have, but um, in that full day we were very open and honest that that won't be ready for the 2026-2027 school year. Um, and with that sentiment, Mr. Hidalgo has a

114very exciting announcement about the power of going slow to go fast. So, we're very, very excited to share the save the date for the fourth annual OCS start of education. So, that is going to happen in August 17th for a full day of dedicated to learning, collaboration, and celebration what it means to be part of the Orange County school community. This event is continued to grow as a signature opportunity for connection and professional learning across our district. And again, this is approved that these is PDs provide by the teachers in our district for the teachers in our district. It is also important to remember the roots of this conference. It began with the very first teacher of the year cohort and has steadily evolved over time into the impactful experience it is today today. The

115same intentional teacher driven growth is reflected in the development of our new online resource. We're taking the same approach, starting small, getting it right, and building with purpose. Over time, we will we will continue to expand and refine this platform until it becomes a vibrant to-go resource where teachers can access meaningful meaningful support, share ideas, and exchange their their practice. Thank you. Yeah. And with that, are there any questions? Questions? I just like to say thank you so much. This is just amazing what y'all are doing, and I'm uh again, makes me want to be a principal again, all the things that are going on in Orange County. Um it's just great, and I really appreciate it. And I'm glad to hear that you already got the Stars of Education plan, cuz last year that

116was that was something to see. It was really great, and I enjoyed it. And uh look forward to it this year. So, thank you for everything you're doing, cuz it's really great work for our teachers. Right. Yeah, I just wanted to say thank you for the presentation, and I'm excited to see the Stars of Education grow. Um and I love the um getting it right and broadening has definitely been happening. It's been very visible um to us, and as a fellow classroom teacher, you know, I love the sharing of resources and getting that um that access, that online access, right? So, you can actually find and use what you're wanting. So, I'm excited for you that that's all building in the right way. So. So. Yeah. Uh Mr. Hidalgo, thank you. I know you're teaching

117in the morning, so thank you for being here at 9:17 p.m. for this. Um and yeah, just really excited. Um I'm really glad that the Teacher of the Year Roundtable has that loop of going back to the school and like getting more perspectives. I think that's really powerful um as a sort of a pathway um to getting all of the best insights. Um and um and I'm glad you're going slow to go fast, because I think this sort of thing is such a good idea to get that self-serve it, you know, just be able to do it on the right time at the right time for you. Um and like obviously these online platforms can become very clunky and difficult to navigate and you know and all those things. So I'm glad you're being thoughtful

118about sort of like the structure of it and all of those things. Um, feels like a great um, yeah, I'm hopeful about the way this will respond to like staff needs. Thank you. I just want to say thank you. I love the idea and the concept that uh, teachers are going to be helping other teachers and that's building community. So thank you. Yeah, I'll add my thanks and I appreciate the way you are working with the teachers and thank you for you know cuz last year um, there were the teacher of the year round table came up with two major topics. One was increased special special population support which sounds like you're absolutely doing and the other was um, protecting individual planning time and I was curious how that has played into this planning cuz

119I know you're trying to make it more efficient for teachers and I'm wondering what you heard and how this is working. Sure. So the unique thing about these cohorts is they all bring different experiences to the table and different ways that the team comes together to look at the data. And this team really didn't focus on the non-instructional time piece. Interesting. Um, they were really passionate about that professional learning and support for special populations and so we're looking at a way to merge those two. However, um, the fact that Dr. Jones and Dr. Pack and myself, we have sat in the last years. We knew that um, non-instructional time piece and so that's why we elevated how do we reach the needs of professional learning knowing we can't go too heavy on taking um, that

120non-instructional time away. So that's kind of where that balance piece came in was exactly what you're saying. Um, and so they got really creative and started thinking about um, like spouses in other industry and how they collaborate asynchronous and online and that's kind of what led to this was a nod to that. >> Yeah, great. Thank you for that. And honestly, what you're explaining suggests there's a culture shift happening in the district and that it's showing in the round table. So, thank you for that, too. I just want to add that the idea of having these sites with the idea to save time for teachers as well because it will maximize instead of trying to look for a resource that is already, you know, it's something that already created. And, you know, even though we

121talk of having even a small lesson samples for beginning teachers there so they can see what it looks like to deliver like a lab that work well for a class or if they need to see how, you know, to teach a topic that is difficult. So, again, but this is a process. It's not going to happen next year, but the idea is with that to save time for instructional purposes and having more planning time for teachers. That's great. I mean, I love the idea of teachers being able to share what they're doing with each other and this opens up that big way. So, thank you. I I just wanted to say No, it's okay. Um first and foremost, uh thank you, Mr. Otago, for leading this and being our teacher of the year here in

122Orange County and Ms. Morris, thank you for your partnership with him and all of the teachers of the year and this such important work. And I also just want to say thank you to the superintendent for elevating these voices and allowing it to be seen at your level and reinforcing how important this work is that y'all do. So, thank you very much. Okay. All right. Next, we have the CTE update. Do you intentionally match today? Great minds think alike. Good evening to each one of you. Oh, they I was going to say while they were uh switching the slide deck. But good evening to each one of you. Thank you all for being here tonight. Um and we're excited to be here. Um I always find pleasure in standing here representing the teachers and the

123students of the Career and Technical Education program for Orange County Schools. Tonight, I'm joined at the podium with Melinda Fornes. Melinda, Ms. Fornes, is the CTE Curriculum and Instructional Management Coordinator. Um tonight we're going to present a CTE update. Because as we prepared this presentation, the North Carolina CCIP system has not been populated with the updated data. Nor is it open yet for us to enter the 26-28 local plan. The local plan will be on the consent agenda in May assuming that it's open uh for us to update, for you to review, approve, vote. Uh the local plan has to be approved by the board for those federal and state funds to fund to the district. Um and so I just ask that you review that in May uh when it's there for you. We

124have been working diligently though with local data. Uh we are ready when the uh system opens and we will be ready to input that information uh quickly. CTE does give purpose allowing students that opportunity and options to find purpose in education through career connections, hands-on learning. Orange County Schools is committed to ensuring that every student graduates choice ready. Prepared to enroll in post-secondary education, enter the workforce, or enlist in the military. Let's take a look at Orange County Schools CTE by the numbers. You have been provided with this infographic this evening. Over 90 CTE courses are available to students, giving students a wide range of opportunities to explore careers and develop real-world skills. Over 40 industry-recognized credentials are available to our students through aligned courses. And in the 2024-25 school year, Orange County Schools CTE

125students earned more than 1,100 credentials. In fact, 73.1% of CTE concentrators, and remember a concentrator is a CTE student who has completed a level one and two course, earned a credential, demonstrating the program's strong focus on career readiness. Students also benefit from over 50 work internship partnerships with local businesses and organizations, providing valuable hands-on experience in the workplace. As a result of these opportunities, CTE concentrators achieve a 95% cohort graduation rate, highlighting the powerful impact of CTE on student success. The success you'll see in our CTE programs is supported by intentional planning and funding. Federal funds govern CTE. Federal funds are through the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006. We call it Perkins 5 for short. Perkins 5 has six required uses of funds and Orange County Schools CTE strategically plans

126for and meets each of these requirements through our local application. Orange County Schools CTE staff and students work closely with school counselors to support the development and implementation of career development plans for all our middle and high school students. They help ensure students explore career pathways early and make informed decisions about their course selections and future goals. We are committed to providing students with meaningful career experiences. To further this work, tonight on the consent agenda, we thank you you approved um the CTE department to apply for the great expansion grant. Um and this will provide opportunities for our sixth and seventh grade students. We applied last year, didn't get it, we're hoping this year is uh going to be the year for Orange County Schools. Orange County Schools offer CTE courses and full career pathways

127in every state program area. Ensuring that students have access to wide range career opportunity. Within these programs, courses intentionally integrate core academic subjects, math, reading, and science through real-world hands-on application, including work-based learning opportunities like apprenticeships and internships, as well as participation in our CTSOs or our Career Technical Student Organizations. Orange County Schools CTE also provides ongoing professional development throughout the school year with in-house training, face-to-face sessions, and job-embedded coaching that support instruction and program quality. Educators are also supported in seeking professional development at the regional, state, and national levels. This school year, teachers have participated in professional development hosted in spaces provided by these local businesses in Hillsborough, helping the teachers better understand the workforce and career opportunities available within our community. Orange County Schools CTE continues to offer plans to continue to offer

128these experiences in the partnerships with area businesses. Understanding the required uses of funds helps ensure that resources are invested in ways that strengthen our CTE programs. One way we see the impact of these investments is through student participation and enrollment in CTE courses. And Orange County Schools CTE is reaching students across the district. 74.5% of middle school students and 69.3 69.3% of high school students took at least one CTE course in the 23-24 school year. While strong enrollment shows that many Orange County Schools students are accessing CTE opportunities, it's also important to look beyond participation and examine how well these programs are meeting student need. This is where the Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment or the CLNA becomes an important part of our work. The CLNA guides the district in reflecting on what is working well

129and identifying areas of growth. It examines six required areas. The CLNA also included valuable feedback from a variety of stakeholders, including our CTE teachers and staff, students, parents, school counselors, and members of our Joint Business Advisory Council with Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools. Based on these findings, the team will develop a plan to continue successful practice while also creating strategies to identify areas for improvement. Based on the comprehensive local needs assessment that we've just completed, Orange County Schools CTE Department is going to focus on improvement areas in these three key areas: teacher retention, program quality, and student support services. We are committed to sustaining and strengthening our program by investing in our teachers through relevant, high-quality professional development that models explicit instruction and supports continuous improvement. CTE teachers will implement rigorous, high-quality instruction, and cultivate

130strong industry partnerships. Orange County Schools will also focus on implementing CTE programs and activities aligned to emerging, high-demand occupations. We will advance program quality through the adoption of the new career clusters, and by collaborating with local community colleges to ensure we have strong post-secondary alignment. Our work will continue to support the career development plans, guiding students towards meaningful career pathways. And we aim to expand our work-based learning opportunities through internships and summer programs that allow students to gain hands-on experience. CTE participants will also receive supportive services necessary to ensure equitable access, participation, and success within their programs of study. Services will be provided to support students by using data to identify barriers, refine services, and implement targeted supports, ensuring that every learner has the resources and guidance to allow them to thrive in their CTE

131pathway. So, what are the next steps for Orange County Schools CTE? We will continue to collaborate with the curriculum and instruction team to strengthen explicit instruction in CTE classrooms by modeling effective practices during our in-house professional development and providing timely feedback through routine classroom walk-throughs. We will continue to integrate literacy and math into CTE courses. For example, last school year the Law and Justice 2 students applied these core concepts to earn a 100% pass rate on the Certified Protection Officer certification. We will continue to focus on strategies for each performance data indicator in part two of the local application by supporting teachers through professional development, analyzing student performance data, and providing individualized coaching to drive instruction, ultimately improving credential attainment and course completion. We will continue to utilize feedback from the Business Advisory Council and

132local industry partners to keep CTE career pathways aligned with workforce needs through feedback, pathway review, and work-based learning opportunities like our summer camps. Let's take a look at some of the exciting things happening in Orange County Schools CTE. In the fall 2025 issue of the Association of CTE Techniques magazine, our work was nationally highlighted recognizing the innovative efforts happening in our district. We are also preparing to launch Summer Careers Academy cohort five continuing our commitment to strengthening career pathways with building our future construction pathways and driving our future the automotive pathways. Ongoing investments include the health promotion grants which supports health science programs and student opportunities in health care careers. Additionally, the district has secured a project lead the way computer science grant to expand access to computer science education. Facility improvements are also underway

133including the new the new Orange High School greenhouse and the development of a new agricultural learning lab at Cedar Ridge High School. Orange County Schools is also proud to celebrate the fifth annual North Carolina Center for the advancement of teaching CTE Teacher of the Year award with this year's honoree being Mr. Cole Watkins who was also just recently awarded his national board certification. Mr. Watkins is pictured here with his agricultural mechanics two class where last year 100% of his students earned their welding certification. A powerful example of the hands-on success happening in our very own CTE programs. Mr. Watkins truly represents what is right with CTE in Orange County Schools. Looking ahead, Orange County Schools will also implement the new nationally recognized career clusters in the 26-27 school year further aligning programs and evolving workforce

134needs. Stay tuned for more information on how these career clusters will impact Orange County Schools CTE. So, as we conclude our presentation tonight, and I conclude my service to Orange County Schools, I want to highlight how Orange County Schools CTE embodies the district's tagline of engage, challenge, and inspire. The Orange County Schools Career and Technical Education team will remain committed that CTE students are engaged through hands-on learning, internships, and summer programs that connect classroom knowledge to real-world experiences. The students are challenged by rigorous coursework, industry-recognized credentials, and work-based learning opportunities that push them to reach their highest potential. And they are inspired to set and achieve meaningful career and post-secondary goals, building the skills, confidence, and experiences they need to succeed in college, career, and life. We are committed to continuously improving our programs and

135practices to ensure we're always doing what is best and right for our students, helping each learner reach their full potential because CTE is learning that works for Orange County Schools without limits. And so, I in in closing, at the question slide, um I do want to uh let you know that the CTE local plan will be on the consent agenda in May for your review and approval. Your approval is needed to approve that plan and authorize the board chair, the superintendent, the chief financial officer, and the CTE director to sign the assurances and certifications stating that all programs and services and activities administered through that CTE local application will be in accord with the CTE assurances listed in part six of that local application. And so I I challenge you to make sure you read

136that at that um next meeting and I approve it on the consent agenda. At this time, we're open for questions. All right, questions board? This um thank you. It's more of a comment. Thank you. I'm inspired. I want to join CTE. Welding, please. Come visit. Come walk through. I just um you know, huge fan and and one of the things that you don't talk about cuz you all support students like nobody and families and and you know that families are asking more and more questions about you. Keep sending them your way. Um including some of our underserved families are coming your way, which it makes me very very happy. But the other thing that you you all do like no one is build relationships with our um community colleges with uh the um Home Builders

137Association, with Chapel Hill schools. And the relationships that you have built make create more for our students. And I think one of the the the secrets or the untold secret is how much work we're doing with Alamance Community College and how many courses our our kids are taking over there cuz there's a always been a question of alignment um cuz um because that's where the manufacturing, that's where the advanced robotics, that's where the welding, that's where the lots of those courses are and our kids know that and they're going there. And um so thank you for that. And I wonder as we think more about collaboration and even the the BAC, do we need to bring Alamance community to the table? And I I would like to see that. I have a question about the

138career clusters and pathways, and you all know that I'm very hung up on the the new state framework. Um or and is that that Is that what that is? The tiers and the pathways? Cuz cuz they report everything through tiers and credentialing, and we don't. I was curious if we're going to be moving to that. The new career clusters and pathway is coming from the national, from Advance CTE. Um and so those will be aligning where we have aligned historically with the seven program areas. Uh you're going to see going forward with the CTE team where instead of us talking about the seven program areas, we're going to begin aligning our courses within those six pillars, um those six clear career clusters. So it's sort of like that same framework, um but if you'll look

139at it and dive deeper into each one of those clusters, you'll see under those six main clusters other uh pathways. And we'll align what we're teaching under those headings. Yeah. So say it Say it I I think um if you look at the state plan, CTE is huge. Right? And you all and we always talk about people leaving Orange County schools, and you're why people come to Orange County schools and stay with Orange County schools. So it's about preparing us for growth. That this is area's going to grow, and and how do we prepare? And is are there ways for us to design reporting structures that we can start to monitor progress? I'll I'll just throw it out there and leave that there, but um you all are amazing, and the outfits are really quite

140uh it's really something. Gary? Yes, may I respond just one Sure. I I do want to make sure we're clear that uh we are partnered by the state with a community college and our partner our assigned partner is Durham Technical Community College and we do partner with ACC as we are able and if you will look back at our student achievement committee data in January you will be able to see how many students are going to each one of those colleges and how many courses each one of those are taking so I just want to make sure we're clear about that I don't want to alienate our Durham Tech partners. Here? Yeah I I just wanted to say thank you for we have such strong continuous success in CTE so thank you for all of

141your leadership and Ms. Braxton we're going to miss you but you know every year people are are being recognized for their success leading in different ways in CTE and that's really exciting and knowing how important these pathways are for students and also these spaces for students I'm excited to see I need I need to go visit and see the greenhouse renovation and um agricultural learning lab underway at both high schools so thank you. Sarah? Yes just appreciate thank you all for being here tonight it has been great over the past few years to see the growth in like the work related internships I'm really I think you use the phrase like emerging high demand careers and like really I'm really curious where that's going to lead us you know in the future thinking about like

142what are those careers of the future and I I appreciate the ways you know a lot of times like being a part of a CTE program and and concentrating can be such a hook for kids to be in school and to show up in school and I really appreciate the work you all are doing to support each of the teachers to also integrate literacy and math skills and to like double down on the explicit instruction and really think about all the ways that it can support sort of the students overall success in their other academic areas as well. Um just a lot of appreciation um for all of the like continuous improvement work that I know is happening and sort of spotting opportunities and taking advantage of them. Just really appreciate all of the work

143over the past many years. Yeah. I just want to reiterate and say thank you because this program has grown exponentially over the years cuz I've I've seen it and it's your dedication, your work, your time, your effort, and um everything you've done for kids is is paid off. That's wonderful. Um my own kids went through it and um uh I just can't say enough about it. So, thank you for all you do. You are appreciated. Thank you. We love CTE. So, um I would just like to say, Ms. Braxton, thank you. When I first joined the board, you probably have to reach way back. The first thing we did was we created a committee to go from start to finish of what CTE is and you had just became your position and there's no way

144this program would not be where it's at without your leadership and the team you have grown. And it shows every day. Um you know, these numbers and these statistics and hearing, you know, about all the woodworking and all the success of our students, you've paved that way. I even still remember the call on summer careers academy when you called and said, "Hey, here's this thing, you know?" So, thank you. You will be missed here and you're always welcome back to the Orange County family anytime. Thank y'all. All right. Um I guess I'll preface this with the last item on the agenda. Uh is the Board of County Commissioners joint meeting discussion. Um so, I have the pleasure of leading this uh with uh support of Dr. Jones, of course, and Ms. Vidia. Um So, um

145I sent out to all the board members uh the items that uh that we agreed on with the the county and Chapel Hill to include in the April 30th joint meeting. Uh the first um the way that we talked about doing this is really starting off with kind of what what is uh what are the statistics in the school district? Kind of giving a snapshot of our district uh including our graduation rates, our growth, student performance, attendance, uh and then uh moving on to spotlighting the CTE, then talking uh into our budget, uh and then capital updates uh uh on what the county manager's recommendation for CIP and then updates for our ongoing projects. The intention of it is really to have this um go through as a conversation as we go through it and

146reusing all of the data that's already been shared with our board and the staff not recreating new content for this discussion as well. Um but with that, uh I'll step back and let anybody that has questions or Wendy, if you have anything to add or Dr. Jones, anything to add. I mean, that's really the, um intent of, uh, the agenda and what would be covered. Go ahead, sir. >> just about, um, the first item about the performance data and state accountability results. I thought in our fall meeting with them, we had shared that. Did we not or We We did. If we >> data. Well, we did, but Chapel Hill wasn't ready. And so, what they're trying to do is, for the benefit of all county commissioners, all of us present in the same manner

147and that way there won't be questions, "Well, what was yours?" You know, so and that was one of the agreement was for the district staff just to make the formatting look the same and that way it's easier for the commissioners to consume. Yeah. Yeah, I'll just say we're trying to be as consistent as possible. Um, but this typically we do share that data in the fall, but we didn't this year. Again, like Mr. Atherton said, Chapel Hill wasn't quite ready yet, but we did share our, um, results with county commissioners separately. Okay. So, that's probably usually we would have shared it in the fall. Okay. So, it is like late and it was time for us to start in the accountability mode again. Yeah. Karen? Yeah, I just wanted to ask with the, um, some

148of the data being shared. We had terrific data shared at our most recent student achievement, um, committee meeting and I was trying to think, is that data that is ready to share at that level or is that more like internal? Cuz it's more like a a check-in with some of our mid-year data. So, I was just wondering if any of that was going to be shared in that setting. No, it's it's more of a check-in. We're trying to keep it like high-level and again, in effort to be consistent with, um Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools. I think it would be confusing to start looking at that and it's really not official data and you know, sometimes it takes us a while to understand that it's not official data. It's just benchmarking but EOGs are really that high

149level official state accountability data that we'll share. What is the goal for these conversations? Like it's for example on the budget conversation is it our time to justify the budget to the county commissioners and explain why this is why the ask is so important. Yeah, the the intention is for us to share our budget and to um put it in context and I think that's why we start off with the data, the performance, what what a fantastic job our district has done in really difficult times. And I think it's also you know, well known with the county that you know, we have managed our budget really well and we have not had the issues other districts have had in the state. So I think that is all part of the story to share with the

150county commissioners. So so so that one of the main goals is to ex provide context, explain our budget and get them thinking about it, get them to understand it. You said that we were also going to be discussing CTE. Yes, so the presentation that was just shared, I'm I'm not sure what the final presentation will be but this was a request directly from the county commissioners to just understand from both schools what what's going on in CTE. It wasn't a specific ask on any specific program but more of just a broad view. They they hear about CTE and they hear about you know, state awards and things, and they were just wanting to get a good broad view of what the program is. And we knew that we'd be presenting CTE tonight, so we knew

151that this could be some carryover, but again, some of this is trying to align with Chapel Hill. So, you know, statistics and numbers will be similar, but of course the program differences will come across as it's discussed, I'm sure. Uh like you said, broad, and so I think a lot of our information's going to come off of the one-pager, CTE by the numbers. Uh again, it's like with small portion of this highlights that they requested. And trying to keep within the time frame of the meeting, too. That was the other concern is the more we're consistent with each district, the better we're going to be able to get through all of the items in both districts will have adequate time to share their information as well. Yeah, we know they they also had asked Durham

152Tech for a CTE presentation, so I think they got that last week or I think I got that last week. You know, so I'm just curious cuz I know both of the teams are interested in exploring ways to work together, cuz the program like Chapel Hill kids want to take our our ag programs, our ag courses, but they can't. Um they and and their health care is an area that I think both districts really want to do so much more with than with Durham Tech. So, how does that conver- Does that conversation come up, or is that way too much for this? So, we've agreed as a board that the top two discussions with the county on working together is mental health and the nursing. Um I don't believe we've ever discussed having a conversation

153about more work on CTE. That would have to be a agreement of the or consensus of the board to go down that road. And I just want to point out that uh students were two different school districts. So, that is not something that I've seen done. I don't know that we can um enroll students in another district across two districts. So, I'm not sure what what you're looking for, Ms. Hauser. >> There's I There's all all kinds of challenges, for sure. And the question is you know, the the cost to replicate the CTE programs in both school districts. We just can't afford it. It's way too much money. So, um because the capital cost for automotive lab, for example, is extraordinary. Our fire classes are expensive. Keeping teachers, sharing teachers is another possible way to

154do things. I don't have a any answers. The only question is is there And it won't be Monday night, but should there there be a way to start a conversation? Just start a conversation to say, "Can Is there benefit to the districts working together?" And not to That That's all. Again, the board would need to decide that. Like, it would need to come from the board here that that is something that we're all interested in doing. Okay. Is that something we interested in? Um I raised my hand. Uh Dr. Jones just stated that we are two different districts. Therefore, we cannot have other students come to our school if they're not enrolled in our schools. So, I don't know how that would be a collaboration, but I would suggest that with the time limitations that

155we stay focused. Sarah? I mean, just um adding on to this thought, I appreciate the ways that our staff members sometimes directly collaborate with Chapel Hill staff members um and with folks at Durham Tech. Um you know, I think um like that's ultimately where if if they were to see opportunities that I mean we don't understand how any of it works that they would that they would elevate those. I do think you know, the opportunity of like our strategic plan and like what is our vision as a district? What do we want to provide to people? Like that you know, to whatever extent like we are thinking about the future of CTE and how that might evolve over time like I mean maybe there's some collaborative opportunity but I think that that would need to

156come I think from the staff um as they're sort of looking for those opportunities. All right. And Yeah, the only there's no answers. There's obstacles for sure. What what is obvious is some some level of collaboration would be of great benefit to the two small school districts where one of what 15 counties that have two school districts? It when it comes to CTE that becomes it's it's limiting. It's limiting in terms of what we can offer our kids. So if you know, maybe we're not ready to have the conversation our our two school districts love working together and I think Durham Tech is part of that and I would hope we could figure out a way to have Alamance community as part of that but there's a question of what's it's it's a exploratory process

157not a a process to say we're doing this. It's just a question of exploring it because it's coming and it's coming fast and we can do more if we're if we've had the conversation. But if we want to do it our on our own then um that's if that's the will of the board, that's the will of the board. So that's just not accurate, Bonnie. Our both of our districts collaborate all the time. The summer scholar academy would not happen without the collaboration of both. We have a business advisory committee that meets and we're both there together talking about it. These teams collaborate all the time. Exactly. >> it's not it's not fair to say they don't. It's it you're wanting more than that and I don't think we're limiting our any of our programs.

158I've not had a single parent call me to tell me we are missing a course that they're not getting, whether it's from Alamance or from Durham Tech and a lot of our students go to Alamance because it's convenient and closer. And so, I I just don't I just don't think it's fair to collaborate. I don't think it's fair to put it in that manner. >> We we're talking about very different things, but let's We're talking about different things and and so I if you want we could either disagree or we could table the conversation, but I'm just um kind of surprised at the the implication you know, that there's no value. When I look at the charts that were put together by our people of our courses and how complementary that that we have courses

159that the courses that we offer they don't, the courses that the courses that they offer we don't. And and so you sit there and go and we can't afford to offer all those courses. We're not having the request to offer all those courses. I I challenge you to give us a single email in the time we've been on the board. >> Stop talking from the board. But that's but our staff is our the staff is as you said, the staff is collaborating, they love working together. Question is do we take it further and would there be a benefit? But that's fine. I think we're not ready to have the conversation. I just want to give a shout to the Summer Careers Academy. That is outside the school year. That is like the place where this

160can function and that's grown from nothing and really uses those spaces across districts, but I don't see it at all feasible. I mean, we don't swap kids in different districts for different classes. That's just I don't know why we would start that. That just seems non-feasible. It'd be 45 minutes on a bus there. >> Yeah, I don't I don't think that's something that is feasible, so And we don't even move students from Orange High to Cedar Ridge and Cedar Ridge to Orange High that are offering different courses. Like woodworking is not offered at Orange High School, it's at Cedar Ridge. So, if a child wanted to do that, he'd have to go to Cedar Ridge and we're not even thinking about that. I mean, it was moved there and that's where it's been. If you

161want to The collaboration is happening through the community college relationships. They're They have teachers there their teachers. Oh, so that's just a a process. A way to do it. I I um I'm just going to I'll drop it. I I motion to adjourn. We have a motion to adjourn. We have a second. Hearing no further uh discussion, uh all in favor, I. I. I. Meeting adjourned. Thank