Orange County Board of Education Regular Meeting - January 26, 2026

001I just saw a little notification that said this meeting's being live streamed. YouTube looks green on my screen. >> Can you double check for me that I did that right? >> I just saw a little notification that said this meeting's being live streamed. Yeah, >> YouTube looks on my screen. >> Let me log into the account real quick. And Sarah's comment just came in on an echo. So you said it and then it echoed. Repeated. >> I heard it, too. >> That's because I went in a different way and so my mute wasn't ready. >> All right. So Joe and >> Joe Joe and are we are we live stream ready to go to hand it off to the board. I'm ver I'm verifying. Give me just a sec. >> Thank you. Looks good. So,

002we are getting confirmation that we are not streaming to YouTube. It looks like we are ready to go. Mr. Athetherton, Dr. Jones, we'll pass it over to you all. Looks like the meeting is ready to start. >> All right. Um, I'll call the meeting to order. Uh, just a couple of reminders. uh board uh since we are all virtual uh we will do roll call voting and the other thing that I ask is if you do a motion just say your name before it uh and then that way uh we'll have who is who is stating the motion who's seconding it and then we'll cover we'll close it out by doing a roll call. So with that, um, can we go into close session? Uh, close session, uh, pursuant to the items listed in the

003agenda. >> Wendy Padilla, motion to go into close session. >> Second. Carrie. >> All right. Thank you all. Um, we have a motion and a second. Um, I'll just do a roll call. Sarah. Uh, I >> Okay, Bonnie. >> I >> Carrie. >> Yes. >> Wendy, >> yes. >> Andre, >> yes. >> And >> yes, >> and chair uh votes yes as well. We are now in close session. All right, we'll move over to the other meeting and we'll leave this one live while we go into close session. See everybody there. Thanks. Bye. >> [clears throat] >> All right, it looks like we have everyone back on the call. [clears throat] All right, we'll call this meeting to order. Uh, the Orange County Board of Education pledges to its citizens to conduct its business in

004a courteous and productive manner, showing respect for fellow board members, staff, and its citizens. The board ask its citizens to conduct themselves in the same uh 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. And with that, we'll move to the pledge of allegiance. Um, 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, thanks everyone. Um, and we'll move into recognitions. Uh, Dr. Jones, do we have recognitions tonight? >> We do. We'll turn it over to I think Dr. Laneir

005is our first recognition. Dr. Laneir. Good evening everyone. Uh, Chair Athetherton, Vice Chair Padilla, board members, Dr. Jones. Um, we honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who served as a beacon of hope, justice, and equality, and whose vision continues to inspire and challenge us. Dr. King's unwavering commitment to non-violence and his profound belief in the power of love and unity transformed the course of history in the United States and ignited a movement for civil rights that has shaped the very fabric of our nation. When recognizing MLK Day, we not only reflect on his achievements, but also reaffirm our commitment to his dream of a world where all people, regardless of race or background, are treated with dignity, respect, and equality. Let us remember that Dr. King's message was not just for his

006time, but for ours as well. His call for justice, for opportunity, and for peace remains as vital today as it was when he first spoke it. May we continue to work toward the realization of his vision in our communities, in our hearts, and in our world. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Lair. All right, looks like it's up for me. Good evening, Chair Athetherton, Vice Chair Badia, members of the board, Dr. Jones, members of staff, and everyone watching tonight. I have the pleasure of recognizing our whole board tonight because January is annual school board appreciation month from the North Carolina School Boards Association. And tonight, we're pausing to celebrate all seven members of our board of education. On behalf of our students, staff, and families, and community, thank you to all of our board members

007for your time, care, and leadership you give often behind the scenes and away and always with students at the center. Your commitment, thoughtful decision-making, and steady service help move our schools and our community forward. We are truly grateful for all that you do and we're honored to recognize and celebrate you tonight. I would also like to say I do have some beautiful handwritten and beautiful handdrawn thank you card from the students at Central Elementary School that I will put in your hands personally once we are back from this weather. So again, on behalf of Orange County Schools, thank you to our board of education for all you do each and every day for all of our students, faculty, and staff. We appreciate you. >> Thank you, Franklin. >> Good evening, everyone. Um, next week um

008is one of my favorite weeks, National School Counseling Week 2026. Um, and Miss Charity Moore, who is our lead counselor, uh, school counselor coordinator, will come and bring some words of recognition for that week. Good evening, Chairman Athetherton, Dr. Jones, and distinguished members of the board of education. I am Charity Moore, Lee School Counselor Coordinator for Orange County Schools, and I come before you this evening to request your support in recognizing an important celebration within our profession. National School Counseling Week 2026. Theme School Counselors Amplify Student Success and sponsored by the American School Counselor Association will be observed from February 2nd through 6. This week serves as a vital purpose to focus public attention on the unique and transformative contributions school counselors make within our educational system and to highlight the measurable ways student lives

009are changed as a result of what school counselors do across school across Orange County schools. Our dedicated school counselors work daily to help students achieve academic success and plan purposefully for their futures. They are employed not simply to address crisis, but to help every student reach their full potential. Our counselors are actively committed to helping students explore their unique abilities, strengths, interests, and talents. As these traits relate to career awareness and lifelong development, the reach of our school counselors extends beyond individual students. They partner with families to focus on ways to further the academic, career, and social emotional development of children. They collaborate with teachers and educators to help students explore their potential and set realistic achievable goals. Furthermore, they identify and utilize community resources that enhance our comprehensive school counseling programs and help prepare

010students to become productive, engaged members of society. I want to emphasize that comprehensive school counseling programs are not incillary services. They are integral parts of the educational an integral part of the educational process that enables all students to achieve success. This evening, on behalf of the school counselors serving Orange County Schools, I ask that this board join us in acknowledging and recognizing the week of February 2nd through 6 as National School Counseling Week for Orange County Schools. This recognition would honor the school counselors who implement comprehensive programs daily and will bring greater awareness to our profession within our community. Thank you for your continued support of our students and school counseling programs. We look forward to our ongoing partnership in service of student success. >> Thank you so much, Miss Mark. >> Good evening. I

011am excited to share that Orange County Schools has been awarded the North Carolina DPI digital learning impact grant to launch the in OCS innovation academy. An innovation that is designed to develop teacher leadership along with innovative digital practices and authentic community partnerships across our district. The goal of the innovation academy is not just to increase technology use, but rather to develop stronger core instruction that deepen student engagement and provides authentic learning that is aligned with our focus of highquality explicit instruction. Through this initiative, students will build critical thinking skills, problem solving, and adaptability skills that prepare them for college career and an evolving workforce. This initiative also seeks to engage students and our community through a district-wide OCS design challenge. We are excited to share more with our schools in the upcoming weeks about how

012students can engage in this exciting event. The OCS Innovation Academy will hopefully serve as a hub of innovation for our district and a sustainable model for future ready teaching and learning. We are excited that the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction will join us in our February meeting to present a check on behalf of this initiative. Fantastic. Thank you, Miss Morris. I'm also excited to share that Orange County Schools has been awarded a teaching fellow's pilot grant to strengthen our teacher pipeline and invest in supporting high school students who are interested in exploring teaching as a profession. This grant represents collaboration between the curriculum and instruction team, our HR team, and our high schools. I would like to thank Miss Rhonda Wood for her partnership in developing this grant and our high school adviserss, Mr.

013Xavier Adams, Miss Jennifer Griffin, and Miss Arena Grace Shaw, who are taking the lead in bringing this grant to life. This grant is renewable for a potential of three consecutive years. This grant supports our strategic priority of recruiting, developing, and retaining highquality and diverse educators. Through this initiative, OCS will launch future teachers of OCS clubs at our high schools, provide early experiences for students interested in teaching, expand partnerships with the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program, and offered enhanced support for beginning teachers, including professional learning and national board support. This work is about more than filling positions. It's about building a sustainable, homegrown pipeline of educators who reflect our community and are deeply committed to our students. North Carolina teaching fellows will also be joining us in February to present a check as well. >> Fantastic.

014Thank you so much. All right. Um, next we have the agenda adoption. Um, so from my notes, we're going to remove policy 5120 from the agenda to send it back to the policy committee. I also have three other policies I just want to confirm. uh 7210, 4023/7233, and then 5102 uh are the policies that I have a request to pull. Are there any additional items from the board? Miss Mil, go ahead. >> Yes, the the one other item I was hoping to pull was the second quarter financial report. Oh, >> I just have a couple of questions there as well, but yes, those were the correct policies. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh and then as you stated from non-p policies the financial report, were there any other items from any board members to pull? All

015right. Can we get a motion to approve the agenda and pull the uh financial report to go right after um consent and the policies as well in order and 5120 to go back to policy committee with uh comments from any board members. >> So moved. This is Sarah. Thank you Sarah. >> Second. This is Bonnie. Okay. Um, all right. Uh, Carrie, >> yes. >> Andre, >> yes. >> Ann, >> yes. >> Okay. Wendy, >> yes. >> Sarah, >> yes. >> Bonnie, >> yes. >> And chair votes yes. The agenda is approved. All right. Uh next on the agenda, uh we have the resolution for the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Um [sighs and gasps] so this is since we've shifted to um virtual um uh board would it be appropriate for me just to call in

016order here uh to read uh the resolution and we would start with Bonnie to read the first one first. Whereas Hey Bonnie, did you did you hear? >> I was muted. >> Oh, there you go. >> There I am. Um, I'll also I'd like to start with the title. It's the Orange County Schools Board of Education Resolution for International Holocaust Remembrance Day: Commemorating the Past, Confronting Hate, and Committing to a Just Future. Whereas the United Nations has declared January 27th as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a solemn occasion to honor the memory of 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust and millions of other innocent victims who perished for failing to conform to Nazi ideology. And >> and Bonnie, if you could read the next one and we'll have sequel for the rest. Whereas, we also

017honor the strength and resilience of the millions who survived Nazi persecution, enduring unimaginable trauma and loss, including many who have shared their personal testimony in books, videos, and personal diaries. and Andre >> whereas we pay tribute to the courageous individuals groups and countries both Jewish and non-Jewish who resisted physically and spiritually to stand against injustice and protect those targeted from exter extermination and >> and whereas we Remember that the Holocaust didn't start with gas chambers. It began with the erosion of rights and legal protection coupled with state sponsored propaganda, bigotry and dehumanization targeting Jews and others and which escalated to mass murder and genocide. and >> Eric. >> Whereas Orange County Schools is committed to standing up to discrimination and hate in any form and is proud to be one of the first school districts

018in North Carolina to prohibit Nazi swastikas and other symbols of hate on school property. And >> uh Sarah, >> whereas we unequivocally denounce all forms of discrimination, violence, murder, and genocide against any people, and reaffirm our condemnation of anti-semitism, racism, and any form of bigotry directed at culturally, politically, socially, or ethnically distinctive communities. And >> Wendy, >> whereas we [clears throat] value schools in our community that honors diverse cultural and religious traditions, and we affirm our commitment to encourage learning and remembrance in a manner that respects and embraces differences and values, beliefs, and culture. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Orange County Board of Education invites our schools, students, community to unite in remembrance and resolve, committing ourselves to the creation of a world that is safe, inclusive, and welcoming to all. Let the

019lessons of the Holocaust guide us as we foster empathy and justice, speak out against hate in every form, and uphold the dignity and human rights of every human being. Pledge our shared responsibility to build schools and communities built upon respect and mutual understanding so that never again is not a promise but a lived reality for generations to come. adopted this 26th day of January 2026. And I just wanted to also thank uh Miss Hower for bringing this resolution to the full board. Um we will need a motion to officially adopt this. >> Bonnie motion to adopt the resolution. >> All right. >> Okay. Go ahead. >> With a second. All right. Uh Ann, >> I was just saying uh I seconded it, >> but that's okay. That's okay. >> Yeah, I was gone for vote.

020Sorry. >> Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. Uh yes, I approve. Thank you, >> Sarah. >> Yes. >> Wendy, >> yes. >> Andre, >> yes. >> Carrie, >> yes. Bonnie >> yes >> and chair votes yes. We have adopted the resolution. Thanks everyone. All right. Um we are now at uh public comments. Uh Wendy, do we have any public comments tonight? >> No, we do not have any public comments. >> All right. Thank you very much. All right. Uh we'll now go to board comments and we'll start with uh Sarah. All >> right. Thank you. Um okay, so just a few things tonight. Um one on the topic of um MLK day. Um I just wanted to um say what a great series of events um were put on by the Northern AR Orange MLK commemorative committee.

021um including um a really special moment for the district when um Dr. Jones was honored um for um the district's progress and success as well as um Mr. Johnson and Miss Madison Williamson for being the state and Orange County schools um principles of the year. That was fabulous. Um I want to thank our school counselors um in advance of school counselor week. my children have both um benefited from different things that our school counselors do just within the past few weeks. So, one of them um is planning her high school schedule and getting to know what her options are in that world of explor exploration and yeah, just really appreciating our school counselors right now. Um and then, you know, finally, here we are in a remote meeting because those roads are really still very

022slick um out there. I want to thank our operations staff who spend so much time around all of these storms. um checking roads, taking care of our facilities, all of those things. As well as our teachers for making this pivot to remote learning um which is another thing we have been managing in my house today. And I appreciate all of the um work you all did to put together um ways for our kids to keep learning at home. So, thank you Should I call on someone or something? >> Yeah. No, Bonnie >> here. Okay. Well, um, first, hey, it's really nice to hear about the grants and so always wonderful to hear Miss Moore talk about the role our counselors play in schools. But I have to say for me, it's just nice to see

023you all today, our board, the staff, anyone who's watching. It's been quite a challenging few days. And um so I'd like to join Sarah in thanking Dr. Jones, her staff, and every teacher and support person who um did I love Sarah's word pivot to getting our students and materials ready for remote learning. Um and also for arranging for Orange County Middle School to be an emergency shelter. And I not worth it to a shout out to Orange County Emergency Services for preparing us all for the storm and for working with Dr. Jones to create the the emergency shelter. I have to add that it is hard to believe that this is our first board meeting of the year since our board has intended almost in entirety three MLK events, two strategic planning sessions and two

024committee meetings uh more if you're on the policy committee since the year began. I mean it's it's only January. It's been quite a time. So uh nice to see everybody again. Um, and then finally for me, I wanted to just say a special thanks to our board for passing tonight's resolution for um to honor International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Orange County and Carb both passed resolutions last week and tomorrow the governor will be lighting the capital in yellow in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is part of a national campaign. So, it's really a a beautiful tribute. [snorts] Um, and [clears throat] to me, I just needed to say that the lessons of the Holocaust seem more important than ever, especially when it comes to standing up for human rights and dignity and stand standing

025up against state sponsored propaganda, hate, and bigotry. And I'll add that it's an it's an honor to serve with a board and for a school district who lives these principles every day. So tonight's resolution was a perfect reminder to me of who we are. So, thank you for that. And that's all for me. >> Thank you, Bonnie Carrie. >> Thanks, Will. Thanks, Bonnie. Um, and thanks, Bonnie, for reminding us of all the things that we've been doing in January because I forgot about a bunch of those even though I was also doing those things like the um the listening sessions, the listening sessions and the um committee meetings. Um, so there's been a lot of um trying to tune into our community um and our community needs and what I was struck with after we

026read the resolution um the Holocaust Remembrance Day. And I want to thank Bonnie for her work on that and for um I think most most people know, but in case you don't, Bonnie has has for many years I don't know how many years, Bonnie, but for many years um 10 um um been someone who's shared um stories of the Holocaust and has brought about awareness and um promoted understanding and learning. So, thank you for your work and bringing that to the board. um Bonnie and reminded in there with some of that language um you know we we have been um aboard uh who um has stood up for people who have been um marginalized or under attack and um so I also was reminded of just that theme of justice and uh lessons in democracy

027and those are very salient today also thinking of the Martin Luther um junior events that were really um ex exciting and just wonderful um times of coming together different parts of our community um from the banquet to the ortorial event and hearing from young people and um everyone gathering at Mount Bright. Um it really was an honor to be invited to participate in that and you know the same the same lessons the speakers brought um with what does it mean to stand up for justice? Um and then as many of us are feeling weighed um down and and heavy about um attacks on um immigrants around our country and citizens um citizens and non-citizens alike. And it's it's the same same demands for um attention to the principles of our democracy and our country and

028justice. So um it it matters what we do um collectively and individually. So thanks. >> Thanks Carrie uh Wendy. >> Thank you. Thank you uh Miss Doyle Misser for having worked on that resolution. I think it's important. I participated in a lot of the events that everyone mentioned and um with the resolution that we just discussed again as I read it, the line that I wrote that I read reminded me that in this time we need to continue to hold on to that wild hope and continue to work together as a community to uplift those that feel that they're not being heard. those that are being attacked. Um, families being separated. Um, so I do hope that moving forward we continue to do this work, stand and give voice to those that have no voice,

029and I look forward to working with everyone. Um, and I hope our district does a little better to make everyone feel that um, they're safe. Thank you. >> Thank you, Wendy's. [snorts] Uh, Andre. >> Yes. Um, without being repetitive, I just want to say, um, thank you to all the counselors um, as the National um, school counselors week approaches. I am also really excited about the grants that were awarded, especially the North Carolina Teaching Fellows grant. Truly excited about that. Um, I want to say that to all my co-board members, I appreciate you and all the hard work that you do for our district. And finally, happy new year to everyone. >> Thank you, Andre. Uh, and >> good evening again. Um, let's see. Um, I would like to uh reiterate what a lot of

030people have already said tonight and but I would also like to say um a big thank you to the MLK committee. Uh they did a fantastic job of preparing everything this year and um just it was outstanding. But I'd like to also say give a shout out to the students in the ortorial contest. Um they did a fantastic job the Saturday before which was really the kick out kickoff off for all of this. And um for those students to get up and speak in front of people that they have no idea who they're talking to um is is pretty impressive. So I want to give a shout out to them. Uh thank you to Bonnie as well for the uh resolution tonight. I know that this is something that is near and dear to her

031heart and it does speak to what we are trying to do in Orange County and um so I think it it serves multi-purposes and uh do appreciate the work that was done on that. Uh, thank you to our school counselors who I know from firsthand work with them are um hard hard workers and every day they've got children at the forefront and doing what is best for children and I truly appreciate that. Um, so I would also like to say happy new year. It is hard to believe that January is almost over and we have done a lot attended a lot of meetings and all for the betterment of this district and as um all of us I think are trying to do on this board we are working very hard to better our district

032and for our students and our teachers and staff. So thank you all for all that you do. Thank you Will. Thank you, Ann. Um, so I too would like to just thank all of our counselors for all the hard work they do each and every day and all of our schools. I I do just want to re-nowledge the grants, especially as mentioned earlier, the the fellowship grant, especially where that's looking at getting our students that are in schools interested in teaching. Uh, it's an amazing opportunity. I'm an really excited to hear um what comes out of that grant and seeing us renew that as well. Um I do also just want to acknowledge the MLK celebrations. It's fabulous. Every year it feels like they are oneupping every year. And um one one item I wanted

033to to highlight was to congratulate uh Dr. Maleficent Rainey on the order of the long leaf pine. That's just a amazing accomplishment that she was recognized uh during the the celebrations as well. And it was amazing to hear the students get up and speak and also uh many in our community um being there and speaking and coming together especially with some bad weather during that time as well. Um I did attend the uh ONAC meeting. Uh it is fantastic to see this group coming along and uh that is our Orange County uh special needs advisory committee and it's exciting to see some of the things that are coming together in there. Um as everybody mentioned uh from our last meeting uh I did attend the Gravely Hill uh course concert. Fantastic. It's wonderful to hear

034all the students. They had uh some of the audience engaged. Uh I got to see the Orange High School fall art exhibit. Amazing artist. We have the Cedar Ridge winter concert. Uh amazing talented students. Wonderful to hear that, especially in their tradition of having the um audience sing Silent Night as well. uh Orange High School Theater. Two great productions, the uh the Bald Soprano and the Mariposie Butterfly that was given out to the elementary students, which was uh in English and Spanish. Amazing, heartwarming um uh production. And um I just also wanted to take a second and thank all of the board members uh in conjunction with appreciation of uh board appreciation. I I just appreciate your dedication, your collaboration, hard work, and support in our schools, districts, our families, and our community. Um, I

035know our work is not always easy and a lot of challenges, but I appreciate everyone coming together and supporting our families, community, students, and teachers as well. Um, with that, I will turn it over to our superintendent, Dr. Jones. >> Thank you. Um, good evening, Chair Athetherton, Vice Chair Padilla, members of the board, students, staff, and community members. I want to uh first just remind our community that we are in the midst of a year-long process to develop a five-year communitydriven strategic plan for Orange County schools. I am deeply deeply grateful to the students, staff, and community members who have already shared their voices and perspectives in this work. There are still opportunities to provide feedback and we look forward to continuing the conversation. We will host three additional neighborhood sessions in February and the

036dates and details are available on our website. I want to thank um the members of our school community who are working tirelessly to ensure the safety of our students and staff as we remain in a state of emergency due to uh dangerous weather conditions. Your aroundthe-clock commitment and dedication do not go unnoticed, and we are deeply grateful for all you're doing to keep our community safe. January is school board appreciation month, and we are grateful for the dedicated service of the Orange County Board of Education. Uh our board members provide steady leadership throughout um the year, thoughtful governance, and an unwavering support for the work of our staff as we strive to fill um fulfill our mission in Orange County schools. And for that, I am uh grateful um and appreciative. So, thank you for

037all that you do. Um together um we are committed to educating students in a safe inclusive environment where they are engaged, challenged and inspired to reach their maximum potential. So thank you again to our board of education for your time, service, and continued partnership in supporting our students, our staff, and our community. >> Thank you, Dr. Jones. All right. Uh, next we have our consent agenda. Uh, can we get a motion to approve the modified consent agenda? >> Carrie. Motion to approve. >> Thank you, Carrie. >> Wendy. Second. >> Thank you, Wendy. All right. Uh, Wendy, >> yes. >> Sarah, >> yes. >> Carrie, >> yes. Ann, >> yes. >> Bonnie, >> yes. >> Andre, >> yes. >> And chair votes yes. Thank you everyone. All right. Next, we have uh the pulled item from

038consent uh which is the second quarter financial report. Uh Miss Sarah, it's all yours. >> Great. Yes. I just have a couple of like follow-up questions, clarifying questions about the report. Um, let's see. One is I noticed that um for this point in the year that federal receipts are much lower um and like all categories are to some extent, but but um that particularly seemed lower as well as the um uh other receipts. And so I was just um wondering if there's a reason behind um the federal being so much lower. It's at it's at 29% received and last year it was at 55% at this point. Um and other receipts uh last year was at 18% and this year was at 2%. >> So um great question. I appreciate you asking that. Let's start

039with the federal receipts. Um, first of all, last year we still had um a considerable amount of ESSER funding that was carrying over and so we already had those budgets and already had those funds. So, as a result, it was our receipts were higher last year, if that makes sense. um in regards to this year uh that is more typical of how it looks in regards to our federal budgets and um I know you will hear myself as well as Dr. Jones refer a lot of times to this is why we um need fund balance is uh in these situations where those federal funds are slow [snorts] uh to be released to us that we still have to continue offering those services and be able um to basically float those for lack of a better

040term until those federal funds drop. In regards to the other receipts, um I will have to dig into that one just a little bit more um to see if I can I'm not nothing's coming to my mind right now that would specifically make that one uh considerably lower. I can tell you that um those are our um specific grant funds. Um, for example, um, NC PreK is there as well as our reimbursements for our school health and safety services. Um, so sometimes it can just be a timing as to when those receipts actually come in um, versus being build, but uh, I will get a more specific answer for you in regards to that. That'd be great. Yeah, thank you. And I was um the other receipts I was needing a reminder of exactly what

041those were. So, I appreciate that. Um Sure. And on the So, on the federal side, you're saying this is sort of typical for this time of year. You're not experiencing any additional, you haven't gotten additional notice of delays or anything from the federal government. Okay. No, we just know that there, you know, their fiscal year uh it starts in October and so you know as a result sometime those those budgets can be um delayed and being released and we also know that we had a period of time this year where um you know there they had to um pass legislation to open things back up to get through the 31st. And so as a result that can just delay the release of um those funds. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you for asking

042the question. >> All right. And this is just for information. So we don't need to vote on it or anything. That's correct. >> That is correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Uh next we have policy 7210. Great. Um, okay. So, this one, um, I was just hoping, you know, it's a very brief policy about staff involvement in decisionmaking, and it looked like the, um, there were like some shells that were turned into maze or something in terms of, uh, engaging staff members in decision- making for the district. Um, and I I guess I'll just ask like what's the rationale for that? My thinking is like you don't want to make it seem like a promise that staff will be engaged in literally every decision in the district or something like that. So, you

043want to say may um I think that without additional sort of language around this that says like we value staff perspectives in decision- making and we frequently seek them. for example, school improvement teams, um, guiding coalitions, like ad hoc curriculum thing, you know, just saying more about like we actually value this and we build in many opportunities and it's not the only thing that guides decision-m, but it is important. I just worry that taking the the policy and taking the shells and turning them into maze um, sort of doesn't communicate what I think our orientation is to staff input in decisionmaking. Did you want Mr. Kowik or Dr. Jones to say a little more? We can. >> Yeah. A little bit more about the discussion around that that language change and then I guess the

044other piece of it is sort of a general recommendation about what what that feels like missing to me if we make that change. >> Sure. Hey, good evening everyone. Um so uh first of all the the policy does include language of where the board of education encourages the input and it does say that admin you know administrators should seek right it but the the um the what we don't want to have happen is that there can be times when certain policies you know are are mandated. They're dictated by legislation. um or let's say it's a you know may even say like maybe there's a a board mandate that maybe staff doesn't like, right? Um we don't want to put it on the hook where if if staff are not in it that we're violating policy.

045Um so certainly, you know, we we the proposal that came forth was saying that we there's still the idea of we're seeking input. It's still in there in the language. Um, but that's sort of the basis for why those suggestions were made. >> Yeah, thank you. I sort of anticipated that that was probably why it was um and I think that that makes sense. I just think that without um some additional framing, it's um I'm like not a huge fan of that particular change. Um so I don't know if anybody else had any any thoughts on this one. Um >> Sarah, we can definitely take this back to the policy committee as well and see what else we can add like you said on specific areas versus a generic shall um other board members. I

046can't see everybody on the screen. So if you have a comment, please just speak up. >> We can also use the raise hand feature if that if everybody knows how to do that. I agree with Sarah. A little clarity and that'll be great. Thank you. >> All right. >> Well, this is an I I also agree. Let's take it back to the policy and see what we can put in there to make it uh a little clearer to everybody. >> All right. any other >> some of the stuff I shared out loud I'll I'll I'll send an email maybe like some examples of the kind of language that I was meaning. Thank you. >> That's perfect. Thank you Sarah for bringing that up. Um so uh we do need a motion and I guess for

047this one I guess the motion would be to uh send to policy committee to look for additional edits and suggestions based on feedback. Yep. I'll make that motion. This is Sarah. >> Okay. Thank you, Sarah. >> Bonnie second. >> Okay. All right. Uh Wendy, >> yes. >> Sarah, >> yes. Thank you. >> Thank you, Carrie. >> Yes. >> Ann, >> yes. >> Andre, >> yes. >> Bonnie, >> yes. >> And chair votes yes. All right, that is uh policy 7210. Next we have 40237233. >> Okay, thank you. I asked to pull this one too and thank you for sending that last one back. I appreciate that. Um so this is um about lactation support um for um students and employees. And um I think that this may have been it was sort of brought together

048from another policy I think and there were just certain pieces of this that I found a little bit um confusing in how it was structured. So um like uh it talks about like students should um like uh take uh breaks to express milk during like their break times. But I don't think students really have such a thing as like a break time. Exactly. Um like work breaks. Um and then like there's a couple of different sections that talk about sort of like the requirements for a a the space to be provided by the staff or the school rather. Um and then the final piece was I thought that breast milk storage was addressed in the student section but not in the employee section. Um, let me pull the policy back up just to check that.

049But there were there were a few places there essentially. Um, where I just found it a little confusing. I'm trying to follow which which where exactly is the policy in those? This is 10 in which section? I'm sorry. There are so many >> first read Sarah. It's in the first read section. >> In the first read section. >> Yeah. Um, >> Sarah, I have it. >> I see. Yeah. The number 10. Okay. >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Um Yeah. So like the the different sort of like information about the space to be provided like there's um the place must be there's there's some sections it says the place must be functional as a space for expressing milk or breastfeeding, shielded from view and free from intrusion of others. And then below in the blue

050is like more information about a designated space that's a little bit different. Um yeah, sorry I just brought up several things at once. Um so I don't know. We could we could start with I'm not sure whether we should work through now that now that I'm saying this out loud. Should we work through these right now? Is this something we should bring back and I should send more specifics? What would be helpful? >> I I think Sarah, since you have some specific ones, we could send that back with the comments. It's the first read. This is what it's for. Um, and we just motioned to to send it back and >> those comments. Um, I know >> them. Yep. >> Perfect. I know that the purpose was we had multiple policies that kind of didn't

051fit together and maybe putting it together made sense to the reading it versus, hey, I'm reading it clean. This doesn't fit well. So, Carrie >> as well. Yeah. Just want to um also express um as the policy committee works through that that it's really clear about the um space for um for uh women who are expressing milk. So they're not needing to like advocate for or seek out that space, but it's really secure for them. >> Yeah, it's a great point, Carrie. We that's been a strong point we've put in our our district. So, I definitely would not want to go backwards. All right. Any other comments? All right. Uh, can we get a motion to send this back to policy committee to review comments uh to bring back an updated revision? >> Motion to

052send back to policy committee. >> Hey, >> second it. It's Sarah. >> Okay. Uh, and Sarah, >> I have no idea where my video went, but I'm still here. >> See you, [clears throat] Ann. >> We see you. >> See you. We see you. >> You see me? >> Yes. >> Okay. Well, I can see none of you except Will right now. [clears throat] I can see him. >> We can see the North Carolina out there. Um, all right. Let's see. Uh, Bonnie, >> yes. >> Okay. Andre, >> yes. >> Hey, Wendy. >> Yes. >> Sarah, >> yes. >> Harry, >> yes. and >> yes >> and chair votes yes. All right, next we have policy 5102. Okay, this is the other one I wanted to pull. Um so this one um it's just about

053like seeking accreditation for the school district and um I don't know why I've never noticed this before. I was like, "Well, what's the Southern Association?" And and because we get accredited through Cognia and so I think it says that we'll seek accreditation through Southern Association. I think that doesn't exist anymore. I was trying to look into this and I think it got absorbed by Advanced Ed, which is who used to do the accreditation for us, and then that got absorbed by Cognia. Um, and that we're actually seeking Cognia accreditation now. They have like I'm not sure if there's like a named subsidiary that still is the Southern Association of it's SAC SAS C A SI um is like apparently the full name of the thing that used to exist that got absorbed by cognia. So

054I don't know if we changed this to Cogna or or what and I don't know if anyone on this call from staff Dr. Jones or anyone happens to know off the top of their heads, but um >> I don't we can take it back. >> Okay. >> So maybe we just you maybe this one we could just pass like this and bring it. It's so simple, you know, just figuring out is the right is it the Southern Association or is it Cognia? Should that is that what it should say there? We could make the edit for the second read if if so. >> Yeah, we could do that since it's a minor change. >> Okay. >> We would just need a motion to approve and bring back with the updated change for second read >>

055according >> Okay, that's my motion. It's Sarah. Oh, I'm sorry, Naomi. You were gonna say something. >> I just wanted to note I think according to the agenda item, it looks like this is on for second read. >> Oh. >> Uh then we would have to >> Okay. >> have to bring it back. before you actually make the change. Yep. >> Okay, then I will withdraw that last motion and motion to bring it send it back to the policy committee to figure that out. Put that edit in. >> Um I think I believe Neil, we could just bring it back. It would just be motion to bring back with updated change. It just wouldn't be approved tonight. >> Great. It's such a simple discreet change. Unless you all want to have the policy this committee

056discuss it, we could just check fix and bring it back to you next meeting. Okay, that is what I motion to do. [clears throat] >> Thanks, Sarah. >> Thank you. >> Hey, do we have a second? >> Wendy. Second. >> Thank you, Wendy. All right, Carrie. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Bonnie. >> Yes. >> Sarah, >> yes. >> Wendy, >> yes. >> Andre, >> yes. >> Ann, >> yes. and chair votes yes. All right, that concludes all of the items that were pulled. That will put us back on to uh the work session and we are now up to the midyear discipline and attendance data. This is being led by Dr. Laneir. Good evening everyone and I'm actually going to pass it along to Dr. Jessica Dreer. She and members of my team, Mr. Daniel

057Karns Picket and Mr. Kumar Sati will actually take you through the presentation. Dr. Dreer. >> Fantastic. Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. I am waiting for the slideshow to come up. We are here this evening u talk about our uh midyear data specifically around uh discipline and attendance. Next slide please. Before we get into our information of course just reviewing our strategic plan um and our four priorities. We won't go deep into this um as we are familiar. So you see here our four priorities in our plan and then here we see uh within our priorities what our goals are in that area. Um looking at specifically priority one here and then next slide, priority four which is our focus around um specifically suspensions and absenteeism which is what we will talk about today. Then

058we'll move into our core beliefs regarding student expectations. And you'll see those here. Thank you. and we'll get into the meat of our presentation. So we'll start with next slide professional learning. So what you'll see um on here is professional learning that we have delivered thus far um this year within these areas again specifically around priority 4 discipline and attendance. We have it separated here um by administrators, our specialized instructional support personnel, and our educators, which are those that are working in our schools, whether teachers, TAs, and those who are working specifically with students. Um these are in the areas of code of conduct, bullying and harassment, mental health, threat assessments, um and using um our rethinking ed and uh social emotional learning platforms. So these are some of the uh trainings that we have

059provided thus far um going throughout the year. Um and we will continue to provide professional development in these areas as we go throughout the remainder of this year. Wanted to ensure that our staff are equipped and have um strategies and tools in their toolboxes to work with our students in those areas. So, as we move along, want to provide some updates on our fall panorama survey. Again, as a reminder, this survey is a social emotional survey, social emotional learning survey that gathers information from our students. if you could go back one. Um, so we do this twice per year, once in the fall and then again in the spring. Um, asked in a multitude of topics which we'll go over a little bit in a few moments. So we'll start with our uh elementary data.

060Um, this is in grades four and five. Um, as you recall, as we have aligned um, providing our survey to our students in alignment with the parent bill of rights, we did move from grades 3, four, and five to grades four and five to be better alignment. We've also um, made some adjustments to our questions um, as well as making sure that we are monitoring um, with our school teams. The survey um this fall is based on 850 students um in grades four and five and we received a response rate of 86.7 um which is an increase um from our uh fall 24 and fall 23 rates. Um and we have really worked um since making those adjustments to increase our uh response rates for our students again to be able to get that information

061from them. Um so that we know um what we need to provide for them or what areas we need to provide them in um but also making sure that we're working with our schools and monitoring them so that we're still continuing to reach those goals. Next slide, please. So these next two slides are actually just some sample questions from each of the topic areas for our elementary students who are taking the survey. Um there are four. So you see here supportive relationships and self-management as well as positive feelings and social awareness. Again, looking for how our students are thinking and feeling and things that they are observing um as they are building relationships with adults and peers um and if they are able to manage their behaviors um and are aware of their actions and

062behaviors. Next slide, please. Those are the other two slides that you can see there or the other two topics. Positive feelings and social awareness. Next slide. You'll see here these are the favorable responses to each of those areas um that are broken down by race. Um as always as we have done in the past um we are looking for those response u favorable responses to be above 50% um anything below 50% are those that we uh take a look at and target um to provide services for as you'll note on here our Asian students you see it is um less than 30 um and to maintain uh privacy of that group um we are not reporting on that because there are less than 30 students in that area. Next slide, please. Moving on to our

063secondary students in grades 6 through 12. Um, here is 10 topic areas that you'll see in a few moments. Um, this is based off of 3,44 responses from our secondary students. In those areas, you'll see um school climate, supportive relationships, sense of belonging. Um one thing I will note about the topic of sense of belonging um is that previously it only had one question. Um and as this being a part of our strategic plan and um items that we're working on with our students in the areas of SEAL um we're we've added some questions to that topic to make it more robust so that we can get more robust data from that area. You can go to the next slide. So you see here sample questions from those areas. The next slide shows the next

064three areas. Teacher student relationships, self-management, and cultural awareness and actions. And again, these are questions or statements um from each of those areas that our secondary students are answering questions from. Next slide. Diversity and inclusion and social awareness. And then finally, positive feelings and social perspective taking. And again, this is about how students see themselves. Um if they um have relationships with peers, with adults um in the school and in the classroom and how they are getting along, how and how people are reacting to them and they are reacting to others. As you go to the next slide, um the next two slides actually, you'll see the favorable responses for our secondary students in these first five sections. Um you'll see here that we have all above 50% um in our response rates as well

065as favorable responses in each of those areas. I will also make note, you can go to the next slide, that our secondary students um in taking the SEAL survey um have seen increases um it by an average of two points in each topic area um which is positive and that is um from um this fall to last fall in comparison. social perspective taking. Um, as you can see, um, in all of our groups, um, are showing below 50 and we're working to provide some tools and strategies for students in those areas. Next slide. Some next steps um, as we continue on and utilizing our panorama survey. um just working again with schools, working to um make sure that we're providing sessions for our students, whether it be through small groupoup, individual or whole group sessions.

066Um this can also be through our social emotional learning platform, Rethink Ed. Um as well as our student support staff providing those things, determining individual needs for students. Again, it might be referrals to schoolbased mental health or other community services. using this information to be a part of our behavioral planning and expectations schoolwide and also if there is a need for going through the MTSS process and providing support in that area um for students in the area of behavior and mental health. Next slide. All right, if you can all hear me, I'm going to go over the first semester discipline data. Um, I want to first start off by saying again, happy schoolboard appreciation month among all the other great things to celebrate tonight. We can move on to the next slide. Okay. Um, so

067we're going to first start off with in school suspension. So, let's take a look at those numbers. What you see here is uh year-over-year in school incidents of inschool suspension from July to December. I just want to point out these are incidents. These are not uh numbers of students. And you will see that there are two subgroups that are under 30. So we are not identifying those students. Uh we are still monitoring that data, but we're just not um reporting that data here. You will see um as we're looking at this year-over-year that there is an increase in in school incident of inschool suspension. Uh but that is not the full story. So uh stay tuned for the next slide so we can move on and this is where we start to move into out

068of school suspensions. So students who are not in the classroom and not at school because of this incident. Let's look at that data. Okay. So again, these are incidents year-over-year of out of school suspensions July to December. You'll see that there is a drop in pretty much every subgroup and pretty much every demographic subgroup. Um this does not happen uh coincidentally or by accident. This is intentional work um that is happening with schools, with educators, administrators, and families. Again, we have subgroups that are under 30. So, that data is not reported. I'll give you a second to take a look at that and digest that data. Okay, we can move on to the next slide. What we're looking at here is the out of school suspension rate by demographic which is calculated by the number

069of uh students who experience out of school suspension uh divided by the total number of students in uh enrolled in that particular subgroup. So you can see the percentages year-over-year year. I'll let you take a moment. And this does reflect that drop in pretty much every subgroup. We can move on to the next slide. So these are students. We are no longer looking at incidents. These are students who are repeatedly experiencing out of school suspension. We had 36 total students that had um two or more incidents of out of school suspension in the 2425 school year and 39 total students in the 2526 school year and we can move on to the next slide. Providing a summary of this data, the incidence of out of school suspension for female students increased from 44 to 61.

070The incidence of out of school suspension for our Asian students increased from 0 to 1. Incidence of out of school suspension for male students decreased from 204 to 126. Incidence of out of school suspension for black students decreased from 83 to 71. The incidence of OSS for white students decreased from 74 to 57. Incidence of OSS for Hispanic students decreased from 58 to 48. Incident of OSS for multi-racial students decreased from 45 to six. And for our final summary of the data, we can move on to that next slide. 39 students K12 have had two or more incidents of out of school suspension compared to 36 during the 2425 school year and broken down by demographic. You can look at that data here and we can move on to that next slide. Good evening everyone.

071Daniel Karns Picket here, mental health and SEO coordinator. So at this point in the presentation, we want to shift from looking at discipline data to highlighting the preventive and supportive measures that are in place for our students. So this slide simply introduces our tiered approach which outlines how we proactively support students and respond when additional behavioral, social or emotional needs are identified. Across all tiers, the goal is the same and that is to reduce exclusionary discipline and ensure students remain engaged, regulated and connected to school. All right, here we have our tier one supportive measures. So tier one represents our baseline supports. So these are measures that are available to all students and used proactively to prevent concerns from escalating. At this level, teachers are often the first line of support through restorative conversations, communication

072with families, and lessons through rethink ed. Our school counselors also play a key role here by leading school-based SEO small groups often informed by panorama data and supporting restorative conferences alongside administrators. The focus here at tier one is early intervention addressing concerns before they escalate into discipline issues. Next slide, please. All right. Here we have our tier 2 supportive measures. So tier 2 supports are typically used when students have experienced multiple inschool suspensions or at least one out of school suspension. At this level, supports become more targeted and intentional. You'll see many familiar strategies here, including restorative practices, team conferences, small group, and school-based mental health services. And I do want to briefly highlight Bounceback listed here for elementary students. Bounceback is a new program that we are piling this semester in Orange County. It

073is designed to help younger students develop coping skills, manage their emotions, and build resilience, especially after experiencing stressful or challenging situations. Overall, tier 2 is about providing structured support to address underlining needs and not just the behavior we see on the surface. Next slide, please. [clears throat] All right. Tier three supports are reserved for students with more significant needs, often following two or more out of school suspensions. At this level, we're looking closely at discipline data and working collaboratively across school and district teams to determine what additional supports are needed. This includes developing individualized intervention plans through SEAL and MTSS teams, providing target professional development for staff, and ensuring access to more intensive school-based mental health services. The focus here is stabilization, relationship repair, and long-term support. Making sure that students have what they need

074to succeed moving forward. Next slide, please. All right, so this next section focuses specifically on our school-based mental health services and partnerships. These services are a critical part of our tier 2 and tier three supports and allow students to receive mental health care in a setting that is accessible and familiar. Next slide, please. All right, so this slide shows how our colloccated mental health services are organized across the district by feeder pattern from elementary through high school. We currently partner with several community agencies, including both inerson and virtual providers to ensure coverage across schools and grade levels. This model helps reduce barriers to access by bringing services directly into our schools and aligning supports as students move from elementary to middle to high school. Next slide, please. All righty. So, this slide provides a snapshot

075of referral and service data for our colloccated mental health providers as of January 5th, 2026. One important point I do want to highlight first is that no students are currently on a wait list. Um, which is great. That said, some referrals are still pending due to insurance processing, waiting on parent regarding consent or because a student was referred for a higher level of care outside of school-based services. I also want to note that Daybreak Health was launched at the beginning, excuse me, at the end of December, which explains the lower referral numbers at this point. And additionally, the gaggle therapy data that you see here includes both students and staff as that platform is available district-wide to support both of those populations. Overall, this data reflects strong collaboration with our partners and continued progress in

076ensuring timely access to mental health supports for our school community. Thanks so much. Next slide. Thank you. Um and now we'll move into looking at our attendance data. Um this is from the first semester. The first thing that we will cover is average daily attendance. Next slide, please. And here you'll see a definition of average daily attendance. So, it is the average percentage of students who are present each day um during a defined school year or a reporting period. Um so, it is calculated by dividing the total number of days students attend school by the number of days students are enrolled in their averaged. So as an example of that, let's just say that uh their school a enrollment is 1,000 students and the average number of students present per day is 950 students. So

077our average daily attendance would be 95%. What that means is that on a typical school day, 95 out of every 100 students are in attendance while five are absent. In Orange County schools, our goal for average daily attendance is 95%. Next slide, please. So, the next couple of slides, what you'll see is the average daily attendance rates um from July to December um for each level. So, here we see the elementary schools um and their average daily attendance rates. And as you can see, that um orange bar there indicates our goal, district goal of 95%. The next slide is listing our middle schools and their attendance rates for the first semester. And then finally, next slide, our high schools um and their attendance rates. And um as we go throughout the school year um and

078each month, that average changes. And so the average daily attendance rate um or ADA does tend to fluctuate um throughout the school year. The next is chronic absenteeism. Next slide, please. And we'll see this definition here as well. And we have talked about this um previously, but when you are chronically absent um a student misses at least 10% of the total number of days that a student has been enrolled um any given school year. What we do know is that chronically uh chronic absence um differs from truency and average daily attendance. Um it refers to missing school for any type of reason. So excused absences, unexcused absences, disciplinary absences, all count towards being chronically absent. Um, so as an example, student A um has been in school for 180 days. So a full school year,

079student A has missed 18 days um at least 18 days of that 180 days, which is 10%. So they would be considered chronically absent. And again, this is something that averages and that changes and fluctuates throughout the school year as well um as it goes by the number of days in school. So where a full school year, we would look at average about 18 days for that school year. Um we count 10% from midyear and um throughout the school year as well. Next slide. What you'll see is the chronic absenteeism rate for Orange County schools. Right now the total district percentage is 21% which is at a decrease. It is also listed by uh race here. There are two groups that we are continuing to monitor. Um but again because there is a lower number

080of those students they are not listed here. But here is that breakdown for them. And we continue to monitor our chronic absenteeism rate monthly um by school and by district as well um to make sure that we are um seeing who those students are. We can get that by student, by school, by classroom um to make sure that um we have all that information to assist those students. Next slide. We'll next we'll talk about our supportive measures in place for chronic absenteeism and attendance. Um this will be listed by tiers. Next slide. Tier one um is looking at satisfactory attendance. So 0 to 3 days. And so this is everyone um gets this if we're looking from an NCSS model. These are some examples of supportive measures that are put in place for our students.

081So, attendance lessons again through we rethink Ed, our social emotional learning platform, um through small groups um through conferences um with our social worker. This is by a case-byase basis. If we're finding that a student is um having some issues or missing school or starting to create a pattern, they would have those conferences and those conversations. Attendance letters are sent to parents starting with day three of missing school being contacted by the parent and starting to monitor that attendance. Next slide. Tier two, this would be in our uh four to 10 days of absences. We will continue to progress monitor those students. We may implement check-in checkout. Parents will continue to be contacted. Letters will be sent to our parents. Um possible home visits as needed um uh specifically if they are consistent or concurrent

082days. If there is a need once we have made those home visits and made those contacts for um support through community agencies or school-based programming, we'll make those referrals as they are needed and continue to monitor that support. As you'll note, there are some items that are listed in orange. Um, and those are our most up-to-date supportive measures that we're putting um in place um or updating um what those processes are so that we're able to provide those supports to those students and families. Next slide, please. Tier three is for chronic absences. again 10 plus days. Um so we're continuing to monitor those um by having our attendance teams which uh could be uh surprised imprised by our school social workers, school counselors, MTSS teams, administrators um taking a look at um individual students or

083our school information again. So continuing to monitor that information to look and see how we can assist those students and implement those supports, home visits, if there is a need of referral to truency court, again if that is applicable. Um, so if there is consistent um, absences from students, if we're unable to get responses um, or mediation and those interventions are not working, truency court is an option and continuing to refer to those community agencies and school-based programming. Um, so it could be mental health services um, or services through DSS or other agencies in the area that can provide supports as well. Next slide. Continuing to look at next steps for our chronically absent students. We'll have collaborative meetings um with school personnel with our district teams to continue to discuss interventions and the need

084for additional supports. So, as we're continuing to have um individual student plans um as needed to work with students in those areas, getting our parents involved in that process and um interventions for them as well as needed. We're going to continue to monitor the impact of attendance on cohort graduation rate um and looking at the possibility of credit recovery if needed. um looking at our four-year graduation plans um for our students to see if there are um interventions or supports we can put into those plans to assist with our students, helping to determine the need for MTSS support and placement for our students um based off of their cases. Um and then continuing to provide family academy sessions for our students. We want to continue to educate um our parents and our communities not only

085about the importance of attendance but how to provide support to students for um making sure that they are aware of coming to school um and why that matters. And then finally, next slide. We want to continue to provide this education by implementing our OCS attendance week, the first ever. We're super excited about that. Um it is actually kicking off next week, the February 2nd through 6th, is attendance matters. Be here to get there. Um, and so a part of us continuing to advocate for and educate our families and the community about attendance and what it means, we have our attendance week coming up and we are asking everybody to participate. Um, so we'll have some PSAs that you'll see coming out um, as well as some spirit days next week that we're asking everybody to

086um, participate in. So even our board members and Dr. Jones, everybody at King Street at Welcome Center and all of our buildings will be participating with our students as well. You'll see the days of the week here um and how we are dressing. Our students are taking part in it as well. Our schools have some activities planned um as well as the dress out days um for our students. And so we are really excited about attendance week um and kicking off um that. So you see our hashtags there. Be here to get there and OCS attendance week. So be sure that we are dressing in your orange or your green or your red, white, and blue or your college gear next week that you are taking pictures that you are posting them and using those

087hashtags to get the word out about attendance week. And again, we like to have a little bit of fun as we're educating um and telling everybody about the importance of attendance, but really, you know, you have to be in school so that you can get to one of those three E, whether it's enlistment, whether it is employment, whether it is enrollment. Um, and we want to make sure um that we're sharing with everybody the importance of that. So, please help us by participating in spreading the word about attendance week next week. And thank you. Next slide. That was a lot of information in a short time. Any questions? >> All right, board members, if you have questions, you can use the raise your hand feature or if you're not sure, uh, we have Wendy up

088first and then Sarah >> Dre Dreer and your the team for the presentation. And I do have a few questions. Um, it's great to see that the numbers are dropping and we are having less students um, be suspended. I'm still concerned about the high number for black students and Hispanic students. Um, I do hope we do more and um, there and thank you for what you guys are doing at the moment. Uh my question is when it comes to students that need mental health um and they don't have insurance, what are we doing to ensure that these children are getting the services they need? And the other question if I may just I'll just keep it to two so everyone has a turn is can you give me give us a number of truency court

089like how many cases have we've had? Thank you. >> Sure thing. So I'll take the first one. Dr. Dre if you want to take the second one. And so for our students who do not have insurance um we have gaggle teleotherapy which is something that is provided by the district that we pay for. And so no matter what insurance or lack of insurance that you have or don't have, you're able to still receive those services. Some of our agencies also provide proono services, which is a free service if the insurance does not match. And the truency court numbers, I do not have those numbers right on hand, Miss Padilla, but I can get that information to you at a later time. >> Okay. Um, >> should I go next? >> Yeah, go ahead, Sarah. Yeah,

090I lowered my hand in anticipation that I would. Thank you. Um, thank you so much for the presentation and just all of the work that your team does to impact all of these outcomes that we're monitoring. Um, uh, I have I have a couple of question. I'll just start with a couple. Um, one was it was at the very beginning. I think it was about SEAL. Um, one of the professional developments for teachers I think Dr. Dreer, you mentioned was called highly structured lesson components training and I just had never heard of that before and I was wondering what that was. >> I can speak to that since I delivered it. Um so, uh it was requested um at a particular school site. So, I gave it to a variety of teachers at that school

091site and I'm working to expand that out. Um but as um you know our our curriculum instruction team is working really well um to ensure that that folks are wellversed on explicit instruction practices. Um, and I spend time learning about that as well, so that the work that I do can kind of align with that. And I drilled in specifically on one aspect of um, explicit instruction, explicit teaching strategies, which is um, basically ensuring that the the small like the mini lessons, the openings, the the things that you're doing at the beginning of your lessons, those things are actually deeply aligned to the core lesson. Um, and that they are of value and that we're not spending like 45 minutes doing those. um impactful um leadins to the lesson uh and how to like ask

092the right questions to make sure that that we are working efficiently and drawing students in and keeping them engaged in something super meaningful that's going to move on to the rest of the lesson. So I provided that training um to educators and went it went really well and I'm working to continue to expand that out. >> Great. Great. Great. Well, should I pass it on and then we can just round robin or >> Yeah, if you don't mind. >> Yeah, great. >> All right, Bonnie. You're on mute, Bonnie. >> So, I I'll start on the absentee questions. And first, thanks for overwhelming amount of data, so thank you for that. Um, and it's a lot of [clears throat] work goes into it. Is is it possible for us to see this in a trend? So

093this year versus last year, you know, and it looks like the absentee numbers, especially the chronic absentee numbers, it's hard to move those numbers a little bit, but with the bump with the Hispanic students, you know, I'm curious how much of that is due to having federal agents around and students just saying staying home. And it's it's you know it's tough because you you're all working so hard to get kids to school and and then all of a sudden [clears throat] federal agents are around and kids aren't coming to school. So So just curious if we could see a trend and have some idea of how federal agents in the area is undermining what you're trying to do. Um if if I could ask one other data question and that's um on the chron the

094the suspension data is it possible to isolate how many incidents are due to students who are repeatedly suspended and how many incidents are due to kids who are only suspended once. So to address the attendance questions, um, Miss Hower, so we can, uh, provide a a year-over-year um of the, um, attendance information, and so we'll provide that, um, to you, um, as we go through. Um, now while we are able to see, um, and we can monitor reasons for being absent, um, I would be lying to you if I told you for certain that everybody's going to tell us that their reason that they're staying home is due to the agents and things of that nature. And so it may not or be very accurate information. Um and so we are looking into and um

095currently monitoring reasons for those absences um that can help us provide support. Again, it's going by what is reported and so that it may or may not be that. Um we know that there are some who are nervous um and may not say to us that is why. Um but we are looking into um and are currently monitoring reasons for those absences. >> And Dr. Drea, correct me if I'm wrong, but do we provide um year-over-year data when our data is finalized at the end of the school year? >> Yes, ma'am. It'll be at the end of the year in June or May. >> Miss Hower, just to also throw in as well on that slide that we um provided, we didn't report it that way last year. We're trying to be closely aligned with

096how the state reports our data which is the reason why we use this format that we did this year when uh reporting the absences by subgroup for the first you know for that first block of time. So next year this time we will be able to show you a year-over-year and as Dr. Dreer was saying at the very end or excuse me was just saying at the very end of the year when we report out in June we'll be able to do a year-over-year comparison as well. >> Yeah, I see that. You know, it's part of it gets to cause causation, right? Root causes. And without understanding the patterns, it's hard to to get to some of that. And and I hear you loud and clear, Dr. Draver, about we can't be exactly precise, but

097if we knew there were more if there was a higher percentage of absences of Hispanic students at a certain time table, you know, you could it just would be interesting to see that. then we could draw our own conclusions from that. But I I hear it would just be helpful and on the um on the suspension data it would just be helpful to understand how it clusters. How many of our suspensions are due to a a small number of students and how many you know because the numbers are relatively small right number of incidents even are relatively small. So, it would just be helpful to know how many are due to students who are repeatedly suspended. >> And I [clears throat] will point out, Miss Hower, um that that is that is a precisely the

098work that is happening at the school level um as they're looking down at their individual students and the students who are repeatedly experiencing these incidents um and figuring out what supports may need to be provided uh to them. I will also point out um that if you know we we could we could run that data ourselves and um and look into that but we're we're looking at you know less than 50 students per subgroup um that are repeated that are experiencing repeated um incidents of out of school suspension. >> Okay. >> All right. Um Carrie, >> um I want to thank uh the team for this uh great presentation. Just a couple quick shout outs and two quick questions or um points of noticing or concern. So um awesome on the panorama participation. Um it's

099it's really hard to glean a lot from there without good robust participation. I know that's been hard one. um awesome on the youth mental health first aid program. Um I've been able to participate in that and found it um super instructive and useful. Um also the restorative practices and um want to share my experience that doesn't mean that discipline is not also happening [laughter] but restorative practices help that return to the classroom. Um, and I am curious at some point hearing more about bounceback. Um, if that's like a a district piloted program, like an internal program. Um but a couple like um one I'll point out one noticing that hasn't come up yet and that is I felt kind of sad um seeing the fourth and fifth grade data where I know these are all

100favorable because they're over 50% but it seemed like there was stronger um across demographics um positive feelings for that younger group the fourth and fifth and seeing some of that uh dip among black students um when it came to student teacher relationships, diversity and inclusion and positive feeling was lower than some of the other subgroups. Um, and so, you know, if I I feel like I know you all are constantly coming up with ways how can we um meet the needs of those students who are are not experiencing that um that um sense of inclusion or sense of support. And um e even as we're working so hard as a district to um you know create safe environment um students still experience um racist incidents or feeling like you know on the outside of something

101and so um I just wanted to notice that um aspect of the data. >> Thank you. And also in our elementary students, it it has also increased um some points as well. Um and so um I can say though while it is a little low um that um there are some increases and so what we're doing is working um and you know we are working to to do a little bit more um to make sure that they are knowledgeable and comfortable with reporting um you know not just on the survey but to us as well um as well as again whatever those supports or interventions that they need um whether it's inhouse or something that we have to refer out that we're able to do that as well. Um but uh thank you for that.

102>> All right. Uh Sarah, >> thanks. Yeah, and I just want to thank um Bonnie and Carrie for those comments because those were two of the things that I was going to bring up. One is the longitudinal data and just like on every part of these I wrote down like what's the long-term trend, like what's the long term like each of these the panorama data too. who I know early on like a few years ago we had real challenges with response rates but like I'm really interested in understanding what the long-term trend is generally I think in any data point we think matters as a school district so this is sort of a broader and I think that's part of the value of landing on consistent metrics that we report every time is to understand

103that long-term trend and and what we're doing and whether it makes a difference um and then um to K's point I also noticed um in the panorama data some of those differences between white students experience and students of color experiences um and wanted that was part of what you know that's one of those places where it would be helpful to know if we're making improvements um there or not. Um uh and just noticing those differences sort of across many of these different things we're measuring including attendance and knowing that this all kind of hangs together which is why you present it together. Um uh I the question I have is and I think I may have brought this up last time too. this 50% on the panorama as like the threshold for concern. Like I

104think that just like on a like an instinctual level, not understanding the details of the survey, that just makes me sad. [laughter] Like like if like you know, if we're at like 55% of students agree that they have an adult, you know, and that that kind of stuff like uh that [clears throat] it doesn't make like a kind of root sense to me that 50% would be our cutoff. And I'm wondering like does that come from Panorama itself? Like where do we get that number? And like does it really feel right to us that that's what we're sort of aiming for as a district? I know we don't have goals around panorama outcomes which might be something to think about but like I don't know that I don't know if you have any thoughts about

105where that sort of comes from and whether that's really where we should be aiming. It is a recommendation um to look at that from a response rate um as far as favorable responses to questions. um as we're looking in that dashboard, it changes. It's it it's like red green. It's like a stoplight. And so it starts to change right around that 50% mark. Um that's not to say that we're not looking at it because it's, you know, 55 or, you know, 60. We're still looking [clears throat] at that and monitoring that and we're still able to drill down. Um so I absol absolutely understand um the thought um that that's kind of like a low threshold to look at. Um, again, not necessarily a goal, um, but something that we're looking at as when we're

106monitoring and when it starts to change from a, um, hey, this needs to be monitored, we need to look at that. Um, but that's again, we're looking at the totality of those who took the survey. Well, we're actually able to log in and look at again smaller groups. So down to classroom down to individual student um where that may be differently and we can see when we're monitoring where they are and where they fall in that um where we're able to see you know what if there are services how they answered individually and you know what we need to what we can possibly implement. >> Thank you. And just sorry that followup does that happen in sort of a structured is there like a structured follow-up that you all do with the with each school

107or is that sort of like they have the information available and they go through it. >> So the schools do have access to their dashboard where they can log in and see their response rates and break it down just as we can um down to the individual student. And so they're able to see um where they are and help them decide again whether it's a schoolwide um something that needs to be implemented, whether there are students that need to be um invited to groups or uh referred out to services or if they need to be a part of the MCSS process. So they are able to log in and see um their information as well. All right, Bonnie, >> you're on mute. >> I appreciate Yeah, I'm sorry. I I appreciate Sarah asking that and

108I I wondered about that too. And the other thing and Dr. you're kind of touching into it and I'm not even sure that panorama is intended for this but there there gets to a point where you're talking about the relationship between a student and a teacher and how that is and if you know and I don't know if if you're looking at or looking for patterns but there are specific teachers um or specific students that are just not forming relationships. I was fascinated when you had the social perspective taking metrics and they were very very low but I wondered if that's looked at a little bit more broadly in terms of you know how the student is is forming relationships with the teachers how the teachers are in forming relationships with their students >> and

109and those answers are looked at from a general sense. So it does not they're they're not marking the specific teacher or that specific person again because we can see the student who has answered in that way and be able to assist them. Um so it might be a counselor or a social worker or a a trusted adult that they're going to to provide this information to so that we can provide some support to them. Um but they're not notating specifically who they don't have a relationship with. So, we're not able to notate teachers at all, but we are able to help those students individually. All right. Any other questions from anyone? All right. I'd like to thank everyone for the excellent discussion and conversations. I just had just two quick questions. Um, for I noticed

110that Boomerang wasn't listed. Is it considered a diversionary program or is it just still count towards out of school suspension? Because I thought it was a type of diversionary. So, [cough and clears throat] Boomerang is considered um a diversionary program. Um we did not we did not include that data in this presentation, but if there is specific data that you are requesting in regard to Boomerang, we we will be more than happy to provide that for you. >> No, it it's just I think it's a wonderful program and I know we we've used it and it it's very helpful and some of the restorative stuff they do during the program. I just wanted to confirm um uh the the second one I had was around the um [clears throat] the panoramic data. Um, do we

111ever look or is there ability to look at cohort to see if the feelings are changing or the perspectives are changing like when you go from you know elementary to middle school or middle school to high school or you know those major transitions or are they within right you're in high school but now you're not feeling you know as supported for some reason are do we have that ability or is it just in big bigger blocks where we're not able to see that that level of information? >> Dr. Trea, correct me if I'm wrong, but um so the the first way I'm going to answer that briefly for you, Dr. Excuse me, uh Mr. Aton, is remember we are striving for the 95% participation in those particular groups or those age brackets for every single

112school. And so as of last year around this time, we had not really started uh you know that campaign. So if we were to start looking at some of that, we would not be comparing apples to apples. We'd be comparing apples to oranges. That being said, what I will say to you is in the spring technically, say for example, you could look at the fifth grade panorama data and make and and make a comparison to the fourth grade data from last year because that would be that same cohort if that makes any sense. Dr. Am I wrong in that assessment? >> No. Um, we would go back and look at the previous survey for the previous year to look for those grades to kind of show those trends. So, yes. >> Yeah, I I appreciate

113that. I just as other board members, I'm just trying to see if there's other ways to look under, you know, how these are trending or where, you know, where we're seeing the the changes or number >> [clears throat] >> Um the only the last question I had is um in the past we have had the incident types especially when there's out of school suspensions. Is there a way that that could be shared not here it could be shared at some other point just so we can get an idea of what what is causing some of that the uh suspensions? >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you all. Uh we really appreciate y'all's time tonight and definitely your dedication to looking into this and helping our whole district and how we can

114improve and have a better experience for everyone. Thank you so much. All right. Next, we have the update to strategic plan priority 2. Believe this is around operations. Yes. Good evening, Chair Athetherton, Vice Chair Padilla, board members, Dr. Jones, members of staff, and anyone watching this evening. We are here to provide an update surrounding strategic plan priority 2, excellence, and efficiency. Next slide, please. So, we jumped ahead a little bit, but that's okay. Um, the slide before that was just our strategic plan and um a reminder of um that we're going to be particularly talking about priority to excellence and efficiency. From here we are um showing you a reminder of the approved goals for priority 2 and what those encompass on the next slide. Give you a minute to refamiliarize yourself um with those

115Next slide, please. Now, we're going to take uh time to provide an update of um where we are. Next slide, please. Goal one ensures that we are managing our facilities as a system using shared expectations and information to make proactive, equitable, and efficient decisions that support student learning. Together, this goal reflects our broader shift from reactive operations to strategic stewardship using systems alignment and clear expectations to ensure every dollar and decision supports our priorities. Next slide. The actions you'll see here are examples of how we are operationalizing efficiency by strengthening systems, building capacity, and improving service rather than addressing issues in isolation. Modern reliable learning and work environments. We are ensuring that all of our schools have access to modern reliable tools that support teaching, learning, and daily operations. An example of this is that

116we are 800 device staff device rollout for school-based staff, front office, and cafeteria managers. The second block here, safe, prepared, and consistence operations. We are strengthening safety through clear expectations, consistent protocols, and regular training so staff know what to do and systems respond predictably. An example of this is updated safety protocols and trainings, clear roles and responsibilities. Our third block here is financial stewardship and internal controls. We are improving financial stewardship by standardizing procedures and building staff capacity, ensuring accuracy, consistency and accountability across the system. An example of this is our financial trainings that we're doing um orderly for all of our bookkeepers. We are establishing standard operating procedures for operations, long-term asset planning and sustainability. Our updated capital planning reflects a more strategic long-term approach to managing district facilities and resources. An example of

117that would be our um capital improvement plan. And our final area here is responsive, efficient customer service to schools. We are improving how schools access support by streamlining customer service processes and clarifying pathways for assistance. Next slide, please. We are operating with clearer priorities that guide decisions using consistent systems and processes to reduce duplication and increase coherence. We're making decisions informed by data and impact, not habit. Aligning organizational structures to improve coordination and service. And we're ensuring our resources, the time, talent, and funding are directed where they matter the most. Next slide. All right. Greetings everyone. Uh, thank you, Miss Raph, for that go one update. uh go to uh by 2026 95% of OCS students using district buses will experience safe on-time arrivals to and from school. Why is that important? Consistent on time

118transportation supports um academic achievement which is uh why we are all here for student success and we know that uh safe transportation builds trust uh and attendance. Um, and we want to make sure that we provide reliable bus service for all of our community members um that promote equity. And when we can trust that our buses are on time and arrive and dismiss, uh, we can support the students well-being because they can trust in us um, with this service that we're providing. Uh, next slide, please. And so here are some of the things of how we uh can reach our goal of 95%. Uh implementation of real-time bus tracking and performance monitoring. In order to reach our goal, we need to know where we are. And so having these instruments and tools help us uh

119strive to achieve our goal. We want to strengthen driver recruitment and training. Uh because if we don't have uh the essential uh drivers, uh we won't be able to meet our goal of making sure every student has an ontime arrival. And so we look at retention efforts um as you have approved tonight um our substitute driver pay to make sure it is equitable uh to sustain those essential employees uh for student uh success. uh regularly review and optimize bus routes uh and schedules uh as we've done in November. We came to you with uh some student assignment and adjustments to help our efficiency. Thank you so much uh for allowing this allowing and aligning this a priority uh to meet our goal of 95%. U we want to establish clear communication protocols with our families

120um through technology as just well as standard protocols of how we respond in a timely fashion uh to our community. Uh and clearly to make sure that we have uh buses on time. We want to make sure that we maintain and make sure they're safe uh as well as look at innovative ways to enhance our equipment like EV buses and things of that nature. So all those things u we look to install to help us reach our goal. Next slide please. So here are the things that we want to put into practice. Some of the things that you are aware about for those who may not know we have updated all of our uh buses with turnbyturn GPS's. This way uh we we can get rid of the paper that we usually had. Uh this

121will enhance uh and reduce our time that we have to look at our next route. Uh with the use of technology, we're able to provide turnbyturn GPS on all of our buses. Uh we've also increased our visual safety. Uh this can also enhance our goal of achieving 95% by installing cameras on all of our buses. Uh again, we talked about attendance incentives. um working with HR and finance uh we've been able to provide a stipen to those who have shown up on time uh consistently uh to work. Uh as we stated earlier, we wanted to make sure we had equity in our compensation. And so uh we looked at our budget as well as our human resources and made sure that if you're doing the same service uh as a substitute bus driver, you should

122at least be getting paid uh the same uh compensation as bus drivers. And so we thank uh the board for approving that on tonight's agenda. And then we talked about how we can continue to be efficient in reducing uh some of our stops by engaging in our community. And so we talked and we showcase how community stops can be efficient and essential to meeting our goal of 95%. Next slide please. And so in goal three um by 2026 OCS will initiate 100% of capital spending based on key per building performance and utilization rates. We know why this is important because well-maintained and appropriate utilized facilities create safe and healthy learning environments. We know that data-driven capital investments ensure resources are directed where they are and have the greatest need. An efficiency use of facilities supports

123equitable access to quality learning spaces and aligning our capital spending with performance and utilization allows the district to adapt to the everanging needs of our students. Next slide please. And so how are we able to make sure and ensure that we initiate this 100%? We want to develop and maintain a district-wide facility conditions and utilization index. We've spoken about this in our finance and capital planning. Uh the board has u approved a utilization rate. Uh this will help us develop and maintain um our district facility uh needs. Conduct regular enrollment and utilization analysis each year. Uh Dr. Jones um works with student assignment and operations with our principles uh to see just how we're using our facilities uh so that when we need to make those necessary adjustments we can based on the data being

124provided. Align capital improvement planning with instructional priorities uh we engage with our academic um cohorts to make sure uh that the capital spending does improve student success. uh we've developed forms um for capital improvements and the number one priority is that will it make student success and the safety of our students and staff uh better and then we establish a transparent and capital prior prioritization framework. uh we meet uh with our board in our finance and capital planning meetings as well as with finance uh to align the county's budgets and other uh funding sources uh with the improvements um here in the district. Uh and then we want to monitor post investments and their outcomes. We love to hear from our community, our staff, students and administration on the work in capital and how that

125is really enhancing our student success. Uh next slide please. So here are some of these efficiencies that we have put into practice. Uh we meet weekly with our finance uh and operations team just so we are aligned uh with the funding that's coming in and we are making sure we um fund our projects as well as close them out in an efficient manner. Uh we've talked about how uh we've utilized students um staff surveys uh and we've incorporated a new work order system uh to help us account for uh the deficiencies as well as ongoing maintenance to um our facilities. Again, as stated before, we do an annual review of our school utilization, make sure that we are aligning um those needs and prioritize. uh and we meet um with our counterparts both at the

126county and at Chapel Hill Coral City Schools uh to make sure that we are uh doing um the right things. It's always good to have partners uh in the same industry uh to see how we can improve our efficiency. Um next slide. And so with that we've given you the why uh we agree with these goals set forth in this priority. uh the how we have continued to achieve those goals uh and some of the many things that we continue to do uh for priority too. And with that, we'll take any questions um that you may have. Thank you. >> All right, board questions. Bonnie, >> you're on mute. >> Thanks for this, Mr. Davis, Miss Wrath. Um it's pretty exciting to imagine um professional metrics and tools for Orange County schools and honestly you've

127both already done made steps with you know like even the reports that are on our agenda tonight for finance and for our projects that are underway. Those are new. They are reassuring. They tell us that our finances are in control and that we're doing the things we set out to do. So, I appreciate that. On on the strategic goals, you know, if um two areas, let let me on goals one and two, one and three, they're very very broad. And I wondered when we might have an idea of what metrics we'll be looking at and how we measure up, espe at least for the the metrics for the board and the public. Um and how frequency how frequently we'll see updates beyond the reports that we're already getting. And I was fascinated I was glad

128to see your the last page when you talked about the work order management system. That seems like you know the responsiveness of work orders would be a great metric for us to see how that's going. Um, and I'm especially interested in how you're going to work with the county and the collaboration because what I I'm worried about is the county talks about Walird priorities and this and that and we talk about renewal projects and renovation projects and how do we bring them together so we have a shared framework, a shared vocabulary so that when we're doing these projects, everybody's talking about the same thing at the same time. So curious when we'll start to see some of these metrics. Um I have a second question on transportation. I'll stop that for now. >> So Mr.

129Davis, I'll take a stab at the first one here and maybe I'll let you chime in on the second part of that question. But some of the the metrics that um we in regards to this uh goal one uh is our annual audit that uh we receive each year in the fall. Um our teacher working conditions survey and on the offers we have um an employee survey that um is being data is being gathered in regards to that. We have our um capital investment plan that is um developed annually and um presented to the commissioners and then your indoor air quality reports that are also provided to the board. Um >> I will add to to some of that is um part of us uh creating metrics in individual departments which there can be a

130very long list of metrics um so I think there if there's something specific that can [clears throat] be a discussion point but the idea here is that the team is creating systems to put in place so that what some of the things that Miss Wrath just mentioned, you see improvements in a systematic way to improve that to improve our relationship with the county which we have um really done a really good job of working well with them in collaboration with our um uh capital investment planning. So, um, just to add on a little bit to what Miss Wrath was saying, that is our goal here, not to create a list of, um, metrics to report out, although we are more than happy to discuss what that could look like um, at some point. >> All

131right, Sarah. Yeah, I mean just to that last point, I mean the thing that I was going to ask about also is sort of what Bonnie asked about about performance metrics because um I did actually think when we defined that goal um that that's what was going to happen was that there would be some like these are the measures that we're following that we think are the most important ones at least to report to the board in terms of excellence and efficiency. Um, so I really appreciate everything you all shared about like these are our strategies for um, pursuing sort of the overarching priority and like putting in systems in place. I think that's so important. Um, I think all the work y'all are doing seems very important. Um, I um, I guess I just

132thought it would be more of um, like one of the outcomes here would be like some quantitative metrics. Um it does seem though like just given where we are in the development of the new strategic plan like that may be the opportunity to do that is to clarify like what are those really important measures that we want to include um to sort of um judge our performance here. So >> yeah, and to your point, Miss Smiley, in order for us to get to even be able to identify what some of those metrics other than the highle ones that I've already and Miss Wrath listed out that we're reporting out already um where you can make some comparisons year-over-year. I think we're trying to get to that point for you. In order for us to be

133able to identify any type of metric, we're going to have to have some systems in place to do that. >> Absolutely. So I think that has been the point of this new team working together to establish some of those things and then when we get to that point we can have some conversation. But um and this team can better uh take a look at uh again the indoor air quality and we're trying to flush that out you know year over year what that looks like. We even when we talk about um the attendance data and uh the panorama data really getting to where we again that speaks to systems like this is not just operations and finance. that says all departments, right? Where we have systems where we're trying to push and get to 95%

134participation so that we can present um genuine data that speaks to what is actually happening and we can compare apples to apples. And so this is uh across multiple departments um the systems that we're looking at. It's not just because uh Miss Wrath and Mr. Davis are presenting um just sticking to their departments. >> Yeah, I think that's great. And I do think like the the second um goal uh around the school buses and like that that hits your point of like we need the systems to be able to get the good data in order to do it. But that's one of those clear metrics where I was like this is going to matter for kids like if 95% if all the buses are on time 95% of the time like kids are getting to

135school on time and that really matters. So that I I hope we can get sort of similar clarity across like all the different things that are happening across operations and finance and HR that impact the district. Yeah. Thank you, >> Bonnie. >> Yeah, I just want to echo that on two levels. One is I believe that as the county and as we work with the county and Chapel Hill on the core group and the county develops its own dashboard around capital projects that that's going to begin to um shape the metrics and I think the metrics will include priority systems and other things for our capital projects. um budget. I think there's a question about are we spending money on the things that we are most important and making the difference because it it's kind

136of where the buck ends, right? The buck stops with with where we spend the money. But and I think we've made we've made incredible progress already in the in the area of finance on the buses. And I think it's a great example of of you know real accountability um and the 95% uh what is it? 95% safe arrival. I would just like to ask and I don't know if it comes into next year. >> I I I just the um >> I'm I'm getting Are you getting I'm getting an echo? >> There we go. >> Okay. So the question that the parents would like if there was a would be a second metric on transportation it would be uh 100 and like I just want to preface this by saying the challenge of safely moving

137thousands of students every day is extraordinary and Mr. Alban and have team have done an amazing job building trust with our community. So I want to just say they are unbelievable. Um and but what the what parents are asking for is a metric and the number is close to 100% of knowing of communication, timely communication of bus delays. So if the bus is going to be late, they would like to know before the bus is supposed to arrive. So it'd be really nice if we could figure out a way to work that metric in and on that incredible transportation team. Um the goal is not to add work for them and certainly come I would be interested if we need to you know spend more money to make that happen but it's so important to

138our families. Um I just wanted to raise that and I would like to see it would be really helpful to see an efficiency metric. I don't ex exactly know it is. I know we report some things to the state, but as we're making improvements, um we don't always need to know all the details, but would be helpful to see what kind of efficient what what efficiency looks like. And one of the metrics is how long kids are riding on buses. So those are just some examples, but like to but some of those things in in addition to 95% of students arriving on time, those other metrics are really important to our families. There's great great they're making amazing progress. So >> yes, and I think again to Miss Smiley's point, um I I don't know

139how many families um have reported that, but I would assume that um we should see that in some of our strategic plan data that we have collected for the next 5 years. And if that is the case, certainly that can be something that is added either to a metric or a strategy that we utilize to support the work of improving transportation. To speak to your other point about resources and whether or not we are selecting the most appropriate resources, some of the other metrics that you do get uh that are already reported um is our accountability data with the state. And so that should help to support the alignment um of resources that we are utilizing and uh and professional development that we may be investing in. And so as we take all of that

140in and feedback from the community um in the multiple areas that we have received it, whether it is by attending one or more of the listening sessions, the survey, and as we begin working with our focus group to hear from the entire community, um I think we'll be able to form some of that. But I also I want to make sure we're keeping in perspective that these goals for operation and efficiency impact every department and most things that we are presenting to you on a regular basis to include academic data is also impacted by this work. And so as we are improving in the various areas from uh across departments in the district, we should see some of those items. And so um we don't want to delay work by being so heavy on reporting

141at a level where it's not um broad enough. Um but um I think those are conversations that we're happy to engage in. >> Great. Yeah, I think we agree completely. Yes. >> All right, Sarah, >> I just wanted to make a minor [clears throat] point related to one of the things that you had mentioned, Bonnie, about um wanting to be notified if um the buses are delayed, which is um I use I like I follow on here comes the bus um to like keep track of that. I mean, I can I can definitely see when the bus is delayed or, you know, my kid is the first stop in the morning, so I can see when it leaves elementary school and comes around the you know, so um you know, so I do wonder if

142everyone, you know, I just wonder about usage and uptake and whether people are using those tools. So, it's interesting to Yeah, I think honing in on like does it need to be like one of our big goals or is there some like root cause that we need to address in a different way. Um it's just an interesting thing to like look into. >> I'm hearing it's that that parents are getting the notification on where's the bus after the bus is substantially delayed. So that it's not always working perfectly. I know the GPS system has helped but it's even since the GPS improvements have been made. There's still there's still problems, but I agree it could be lots of things causing it. But I think the bottom line is our parents we we want our parents

143to be comfortable that they are hearing if the buses are late for whatever. If they're not, we need to find out why not. And I know Mr. Albert does an amazing job making sure our parents are handed. But it's, you know, it's that's all I I I think it just needs to be something we're monitoring and recording, not anecdotal. Right. >> All right. Any other questions or comments? >> All right. Um, I did have just one comment or uh thank you additional thank you is uh Mr. Davis and Miss Wrath. Thank you for all your hard work around this. I do know that this helps us not be in the state of many other districts that are finding themselves and trying to figure out what efficiencies they can do. being proactive in this has helped

144us out a lot in determining how to save money and how we can do things more efficient around all of these things. So, thank you so much for all you do for the district. Um, and thank you for all the data and presentation tonight. Um, with that, that is our last agenda item. Um, Dr. Jones, anything else for tonight? >> No. >> All right. With that, uh, can we get a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion to adjurnn, Bonnie. >> Okay. >> Second, Carrie. >> Thanks, Carrie. All right. Uh, we'll start with Wendy. >> Yes. >> Carrie, >> yes. >> Ann, >> yes. >> Andre, >> yes. >> Uh, Sarah, >> yes. >> Bonnie, >> yes. and chair votes yes. We are adjourned. Thank you everyone and have a good and safe warm night. Thank y'all.

145Thank you.