001setting it up when I get back. >> Is Sarah here? >> No, Sarah's not coming to this. >> Okay. >> And Andre is not. >> It's going to end up being what would be a good topic for >> maybe a parent academy or maybe a specialist. >> We'll call this meeting to order. Um, can we get a motion to go into close close session per what's stated in the online agenda? >> Salute. Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I >> I. >> We are in close session. I'm good. >> We'll call this meeting to order. The Orange County Board of Education pledges to its citizens to conduct its business in a courteous and productive manner. Showing respect for fellow board members, staff, and its citizens. The
002board asks its citizens to conduct themselves with the same courtesy towards both school personnel and each other. A moment of silence will be observed before each meeting. In addition to the moment of silence, the board will recite the pledge of allegiance. The board asks that you check your cell phones and other electronic devices to be certain they are either turned off or on vibrate to avoid interruptions of the meeting. >> Okay, with that we'll go ahead and do the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, we'll take a moment of silence. All right. Thank you. We'll move now to recognitions. Dr. Jones, do we
003have recognitions tonight? >> Okay. Good evening everyone. >> Good evening. >> Um, my name is Jeff Ko. I'm the chief of human resources. I have the distinct honor to um recognize our 2025-26 principal of the year, Kristen Madison Williamson. I may asked to come up here now as I am speaking. Um and as she as she comes up here, I do want to say what a wonderful Orange County school representative as our principal of the year. As a student, Kristen Madison Williamson attended the former Cameron Park and Efflin Cheeks Elementary School, Stanback Middle School, and Orange High School. After graduating from Fateville State University on a full scholarship for music education, she came home again to start her teaching career at Hillsboro Elementary School and then also worked in Charlotte, Los Angeles, and even in
004China. That's five OCS schools on the ledger. And she hasn't even become a principal yet. After returning to OCS in 2016 as a New Hope Elementary School teacher, she conducted her principal internships at Orange High School and Cedar Ridge High School, earned her MSA from North Carolina State University, and then worked as an AP at both Cedar Ridge High School and Central Elementary. For those counting, eight of our 13 schools have been fortunate enough to be painted pink by her presence. Which brings us to Pathways Elementary School, her ninth school, where Principal Madison Williamson has worked since the start of the 2324 school year. In her short time there, she has nurtured a culture where she lifts up students and champions her staff, balancing instructional leadership with genuine care for people. At the same time,
005she has dramatically raised academic achievement through consistent focus on improved instruction, student support, and family engagement. In just two years, Pathways has been res recognized as exceeding growth and have moved their school performance grade from a C to a B. Pathways was also in the top 9% of North Carolina schools as measured by EVAS growth and she's only been there two years. Here are some comments from her nominations from her peers as um for her for principal of the year nomination. Miss Madison Williamson is principal of the year because she shines both in spirit and in real life. She is intentional and strategic in her approach to the work and her ability to lead with love is exceptional. Her leadership style radiates warmth and inclusivity creating a space where students, families, and staff feel welcome
006and respected. Families consistently note her openness and accessibility. teachers see her as a trusted partner who not only sets high expectations but also provides the guidance and resources needed to achieve them. And the cherry on top, Principal Madison Williamson currently has on her staff all conflicts of interest, you know, of her inspiration and role model her mother, Victoria Madison, who also graduated from Orange High School and worked in OCS for 29 years and still counting. What a homecoming it has been, and we look forward to celebrating even more successes in the years to come. As our 2526 principal of the year, Principal Madison Williamson will represent Orange County Schools in the Wells Fargo, North Carolina principal of the year program with an opportunity to interview and submit a portfolio to become one of eight regional
007finalists. Finalist names will be named in January 2026 and the state principal of the year will be named in May. We are so proud to have you as our principal of the year. one of our high schools. Congratul Thank you everybody. One, two, and three. Thank you. [Applause] So, good evening. We are also here to celebrate our beginning teacher of the year. And so, I just want to take a moment for those of you who are educators or even parents who have had uh students in a firstear teacher's classroom and think for a minute way back. I have to think really way back of what that was like to be a first year teacher. Um, and many people will describe it as overwhelming but joyous, stressful, but also a learning experience. Um, we have lots
008of first year teachers in our district, but we are here to celebrate one very special beginning teacher. This is her second year. So, just to tell you a little bit about our program, the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching uh honors our beginning teachers through a recognition and celebration program. Each district gets to nominate one beginning teacher of the year to go on to serve as Orange County's beginning teacher of the year. And at the state competition level, I just want to read to you a few words that one of her colleagues wrote about this person. It says, "Miss Gors has worked extremely hard to learn her students and their special needs. She has established a great rapport not only with her students, but also with their families to ensure they are growing
009and learning both academically and socially. With the help of her teacher assistant, she has reestablished our students in the school by providing a treat cart to teachers that the students prepare, sell, and deliver. She manages the documentation of her case load with a smile and a spirit of curiosity. She's always seeking the best answers to serve her students needs. In addition to being an amazing teacher for her case load, she also serves as the track coach for our school team. She's not going to tell you this, but she was a track star. She went to school on a full scholarship for track. She has been brilliant and is continues to be a brilliant beginning bulldog. We are thrilled that she continues her career with us. So at this time I want to introduce you to
010Miss Rebecca Goris who is an exceptional children's teacher in the adaptive classroom at AL Standback. Miss Goris, will you join us at the stand? [Applause] Thank you so much. >> All right, y'all bear with me on the count of three. One, two, and three. Miss Py, I'm going to lose you if I'm not careful. There we go. Right. Please hold. >> Thank you. [Applause] Good evening, Mr. Chairman, Madame Vice Chair, members of the board, uh Dr. Jones, stakeholders. In recognition of Indigenous People's Day, it is vital for our school district to recognize the rich heritage and invaluable contributions of indigenous communities to our society. This observance not only honors the history and culture of indigenous people, but also serves as an essential opportunity for our students to engage with diverse perspectives. By incorporating indigenous voices
011into our curriculum and activities, we foster respect, understanding, and inclusivity, helping to build a more equitable educational environment. Embracing this day enriches our community, enhances students of cultural competence, and prepares them to be informed and compassionate global citizens. Let us commit to honoring this heritage and integrating these vital teachings into our schools and our communities. Thank you. [Applause] >> All right. Does that conclude all recognitions? >> Yes. All right. Uh for agenda adoption, I have one item to pull item 11. Is that correct? I would recommend >> uh us adding that at the end of the consent agenda right before the work session. >> Can we add that after the conversation on enrollment? I'm sorry. The conversation on um >> on the school opening data >> or at the end of that >> after B.
012Is that what you >> B or after D? Whichever is easier. >> Okay. We we'll just add it to the end of the agenda then. Okay. So, um, add it there. So, we'll add that as after item D for approval. Okay. Any other items? I'm not aware of any. All right. Can we get a motion to adopt the agenda with the amended changes? >> Motion to adopt agenda with amended changes. >> Second. We >> have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I >> I. >> All right. That agenda passes. All right. Next, we have public comments. We will now have hear public comments. Speakers will call in the order in which they signed up. Each speaker will have three minutes. Yielding to other speakers is not permitted. If a speaker
013has written materials they could they would like to share, please hand them to board clerk, Mr. McKune. And he excuse me, it's not a good day today. Um, he will distribute them to the board. The purpose of public comment is for the board to hear from members of the public, not to engage in back and forth discussions. Per our policy, board members will not respond to speakers during public comment, the public comment session. The board greatly values public feedback and welcomes all comments regardless of viewpoint. However, please be reminded that children are often present at these meetings and that our public comment policy prohibits profanity, vulgarity, and personal abuse of any person. We ask that all comments be civil, respectful, free of personal attacks. Any speaker who violates our public comment period or otherwise exceeds
014the bounds of order, the decorum will be given a warning. Continue violations may result in speaker being ruled out of order at which point we will move out to a next speaker. Our first speaker is Xavier Adams. Good evening, members of the board, Dr. Jones, cabinet members. Uh, I'm Xavier Adams. I get the privilege of working every day at Orange High School as a social studies teacher there. I've been in Orange County schools for six years, and I've had the honor of representing our state as the 2022 North Carolina beginning teacher of the year. Um, in my role, I've had the honor of traveling the state and seeing what public education looks like. I've been in Mon County schools all the way in the west. I've been in Pender County schools all the way in
015the east. Been in Cabaris County, Mount Ary City Schools. And I love public education and the work that teachers across the state are doing. Every day teachers get up effort effortlessly work for what's best for students. And every day, I've chosen to work particularly here in Orange County schools because this has become my home. Although I'm not originally from North Carolina, Orange County Schools now holds a second place in my heart next to my hometown. And I've chosen Orange County Schools because every day Orange County Schools chooses our students. We choose our students through the programs that we offer our teachers to support students. We choose our students through the programs that we offer our students. For instance, when I came to Orange County Schools, I was a beginning teacher and I started my career
016over Zoom through COVID. and we had an amazing beginning teacher program that has only grown since then. In my new role as a teacher, I didn't know much of what I was doing. But through the mentorship, the opportunities, the supports that Orange County Schools offers our teachers here, I was able to grow and become the person that I am today as a teacher. Additionally, we offer so many programs like a day that celebrate different parts of our school community. We have different programs for CTE students. So many opportunities for them to explore any opportunity that they might be interested in to craft the um future that they might have for themselves. And so with that, I have invited some students with me today to just express their gratitude for Orange County Schools and the work
017that we do here. So, thank you for your time and I'm done with my comment. >> Thank you. Our ne next speaker is Esta Rocha de la Cruz. Hello dear members of the board. My name is Estrea Roch de la Cruz and I a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I graduated from Orange High School in 2022 and I'm here today to share why I appreciate Orange County Schools in Orange High School. During my time at Orange High School, I was surrounded by teachers and staff who truly cared about my success. Not just academically, but personally. As a first generation college student, navigating navigating the college process felt overwhelming at times. But my counselors and teachers made sure I had the guidance I needed. They helped me explore scholarships, understand financial
018aid, and believe that college was not only possible, but attainable. Because of that support, I was able to attend UNCC without having to take on any depth. Something that means so much to me and my family. When I was a senior, a tree fell on my house and my family went through a really difficult time. Orange High School staff came together to raise money for us and made sure I didn't fall behind in school. That moment showed me how much the Orange County Schools community truly cared about students, not just as learners, but as people. Those experiences have inspired me to become a teacher myself. I want to give back to students the same way my teachers believed in me by creating classrooms where every child feels supported, supported, encouraged, and capable of achieving their
019goals. I'm deeply grateful for the educators and programs that continue to invest in students like me. My hope is that Orange County Schools keeps expanding resources that help first generation and underserved students access higher education without financial burdens. Thank you for your time and for your ongoing commitment to our student success. >> Thank you. >> Our next speaker is Kaden Winstead. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Kayen Winston and I'm a 12th grader at Orange High School. I'm here today to share what I truly appreciate about Orange County schools and especially Orange High School. Since my time in Orange County, I have been truly thankful for teachers, staffs, and programs that make our school feel like a community. I've really appreciated getting to see, learn from, and be supported by my teachers
020like Mr. Parker, Mr. Xavier, Mr. Leman, Mr. Griffin, Miss Phillips, and so many others. Each of them has greeted me with kindness, helped helped me when I struggled, and treated me with respect. They've made me feel seen, valued, and capable of achieving my goals. I also wanted to highlight a few programs that have impacted my life and our school, especially the Minority Achievers Program and FCA Fellowship of Christian Athletes. These clubs have given me the voice both in school and life. They've helped me co connect with others, grow as a person, and feel a part of something bigger than myself and the world. One of the things I love most about the minority achievers program is how all cultures are welcome and are accepted with open arms and everyone is accepted, supported and encouraged to
021be who they are and express who they are as a person and as a member coming from their cultural backgrounds. Most importantly, these teachers have shown me that I always have people around me who care. People who will guide and support me whenever I need it. Because of them, I'm not only grown academically, but socially and culturally. I've learned to believe in myself and the power of community because community helps you express and helps you grow not only as a person, but as a whole. Thank you for continuing to support not only me but Orange County Schools and the teachers that help us thrive for greatness every day. I thank you for your time and I thank you for being our voice, not only for listening to us, but for listening to the people that
022stand behind us. Thank you and have a good night. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Nadia Clayton Jones. >> Good evening, members of the board. >> Good evening. >> My name is Nadia Clayton Jones and I am a 12th grader at Orange High School. And today I'm going to talk about the things that I enjoy about Orange High School as well as Orange County. One of the main things about Orange High that I enjoy is the minority achievers program. I am proud to say that I've been a member of this club since my sophomore year of high school. This program has allowed me to express myself in a way that allows me to show my confidence in a different perspective as well as find ways to network with other people. As far as Orange
023County, I really enjoy the events that there that are planned such as the Hispanic Heritage Month event because it shows that Orange County cares about showing other people and their cultures and making people feel included. Another thing about Orange County that I like is the people that are involved in it because the people in it show that they care. They show compassion and they're not afraid to say what they want to say, which is a lot like me cuz I don't care about saying anything that I want. Um, so that's all I have to say. Thank you so much for your time and continue to change our county for the better. >> Thank you. >> Our next speaker is Carrie Jones. Dear members of the board, I am Kyrie Jones and I am a third
024year at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. I graduated from Orange High School in June of 2023. Today, I intend to display my appreciation for Orange County schools in Orange High School. I could talk for hours about how much I appreciate the staff and students at Orange High, but I have a limited amount of time. So, I'd like to focus on the educational impact and uh the educational impact and personal understanding my time at Orange High has given me. Being a student during the COVID pandemic was not easy and educationally restricting for all students. Quarantine added stress on top of everything else life has to offer. Uh I struggled to find passion and motivation to do anything and hadn't the slightest idea of what I wanted my life to look like. As my teachers
025and peers held me accountable for thinking critically about what I want out of life, I started taking courses that challenged my self-perception and understanding of the world. Two classes that were especially notable for me were honors African-American studies and AP English literature. I am a double major in English and Spanish at UNCCG with a minor in African-American studies. My time at Orange High, my time at Orange High School inspired me to undergo these curricula that I take now through the ideas that writing and reading are essential tools when it comes to procuring agency and having your voice being heard and that and that an understanding and knowledge of history is vital in understanding one's own lived experiences as well as my peers. Um, these ideas were reinforced in the walls of Orange High and are
026concepts that I especially grateful for as someone who aspires to be an educator. I've come to realize just how special my time at Orange High School has been. When I've talked with other college students and about my appreciation for various teachers, classes, and perspectives I got to live throughout my time at Orange County Schools. I am always met with, "Wow, I wish high school was like that for me." This reinforces me, this reinforces in me an appreciation, especially for my teachers at Orange High School. uh the lessons and advice given to me from my teachers help me to navigate and interact with the world today. Thank you for being here and for hearing us. >> Thank you. >> Our ne our next speaker is Mariah Mariah Kelly. I hope I pronounced your name correctly. >>
027Mora. >> All right. Good evening members of the board. My name is Mora Kelly and I am a senior at UNC Chapel Hill. I graduated from Orange High in 2022 and I'm here to share my experiences with OCS and OHS. Um, as the end of my college career approaches, I spent a lot of time reflecting on what I want to do next. And that comes from looking back at where I've been. I'm lucky enough to be a product of our public education system. I started at River Park before going to Orange Middle where my sister is now. And finally, I ended at Orange High. During each step of the way, I felt the care and support of teachers, school staff, and administrators. I wanted to share a couple moments during my time that I felt
028have really informed who I am today. It starts probably in fourth grade. I remember going to um the Outer Banks on a field trip with my mom and my classmates. And when reminiscing about that with my mom since my sister couldn't go, um she remarked to me that it was the first time that some of my classmates had ever seen the ocean. It was one of the first opportunities I think I've had to really sit and check my privilege and also get to explore the world around me and really broaden my worldview. Something that I think also applies to many of the other students that were there that day. Um, another field trip, promise it's not all field trips, but another field trip in fifth grade was to DC. Um, and it was also another
029formative experience for me. It was the first time that I realized I wanted to go into public policy, which is different than politics. Um, I bought this ugly purple and zebra print hoodie and I remember deciding that day that one day I was going to live there and I was going to make a difference. Um, I'm not sure that's where I'll move postgrad. Probably not. But right now I'm completing my capstone in public policy and working to expand access to credit unions in North Carolina. Um, another thing I wanted to share was how our teachers really work to meet students where they're at. Anybody who knows me and my family knows my siblings and I are very different people with love. Um, my sister and I love to read and our experiences with Readathon or
030Battle of the Books or AP Lang and AP Lit um really encourage that love that I still do today. Uh my brother on the other hand really prefers hands-on learning and science and sports and his opportunities to do experience experiments sorry and dissections fostered that love. Um and now he's pursuing a degree at NCSU. Um despite the interruption of COVID during my time at Orange, I look back really fondly. The teachers there encouraged a love of learning that's pushing me through college and hopefully one day grad school. It's where I developed a love for civic engagement and education where Mr. Schneider helped me hold my first voter educ registration drive that I still hold today at UNC. Um, it really helped me prepare for not only college but life and fostered a love for helping
031other people as well as other hard skills. Sorry. I wanted to thank you for your continued support of our students and their families and providing opportunities for them to learn, grow, and figure out their futures. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Lindsay Wood. Dear members of the board, my name is Lindsay Wedell and I'm a senior in high school. I'm here today to share what I appreciate about Orange County Schools and Orange High School. There are so many things I could stand here and talk about, but for the sake of time, I will just talk about the thing that I'm most grateful for. Orange High School has one of the greatest, most well-rounded, and most helpful Spanish courses that I have ever seen. I've learned so much throughout my
032high school career, but the subject in which I have learned the most is Spanish. The Spanish course is the most inclusive and challenging courses I've ever taken. Each class continues to build upon all that has been previously learned, which ensures the connections necessarily to truly understand and retain the information learned are made. But enough about the course itself. The course wouldn't be memorable without the incredible staff at Orange High School. Our Spanish teachers have been my greatest supporters throughout my high school career and have continued to lift me up even after I've completed all of the courses offered at OS. I'm incredibly grateful to all the I am incredibly grateful to have been able to meet this amazing branch of staff and will continue to look up to them as the years go on. Without
033these incredible courses and amazing staff, I wouldn't be who I am today and I certainly wouldn't be bilingual. Thank you for caring so deeply about the character of the teachers in which you employ and the depth in which these classes go. I will forever be grateful that I had the opportunity to learn in the Orange County school system and I'm proud to say that my school is backed by one of the most dedicated and passionate boards of education that Orange County Schools has ever seen. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Our next speaker is Aaron Campbell. Good evening, members of the board, and thank you for your time. My name is Aaron Campbell. I'm a parent of two students at Central Elementary and a resident of Hillsboro Heights near the Fairview and
034West Hillsboro neighborhoods. I'm here to express my deep concern and disappointment over the recent decision to close Central Elementary as a neighborhood districted school and in its location build a new Hillsboro Elementary, a year-round choice school. While I understand many details such as redistricting are still undecided, I want to highlight the significant impact this will have on our local communities. Central Elementary is more than just a school. It's a community hub that connects and supports multiple neighborhoods. Families move here to grow roots and send their children to a nearby school without relying on a lottery system. This decision threatens that connection. Have you considered what will happen to our community when that anchor is removed? Will the children be bus to another town like Efflin? We still have a place. Will we still have a
035place in our own Hillsboro neighborhood? It's hard to understand why a choice school that pulls from across the county is being prioritized in the heart of Hillsboro while local families may lose access to a school in their own community. Wouldn't it make more sense possibly to place a countywide choice school in Efflin and keep its new facility for the families who live and work nearby? The Efflin campus also offers an opportunity to have a K through8 year round option in a more realistic way in the future. This is not about having a brand new building. It's about preserving a sense of belonging and continuity for families. The decision feels driven more by property convenience than what's best for students and communities. There's been poor active communication to the public from the board about the bond
036decision, delaying the response of community uh in losing central. The bond decision come came at a time of year when families and educators were consumed with end-of-ear tests and activities and it took months for the details to be published and only after public request. As the gentrification reshapes historically lower income areas like ours, removing a neighborhood school risks accelerating the loss of community diversity. Public school should help lift all families together, not reinforce inequities tied to income and property values. So I ask again, what is the plan for these communities? When will we know what redistricting looks like? Right now, we're left with uncertainty and the loss of a vital community school without a clear path forward. On behalf of the Central Elementary PTO, I would like to invite members of the board to join
037us at CES with the community of HES to um an open discussion session where we might ask more specific questions as a community impacted by this bond decision. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. And that concludes our public comment. All right. >> All right. We next we have uh board comments. We'll start with Miss Hower. >> Sure. Um fir first I just wanted to congratulate Miss Madison Williamson and Miss Gorus. on um their awards tonight. It's really wonderful to see it. And now that all these students have left, I really um was wonderful to hear Mr. Adams and the students, even the university students that took the time to out of their busy schedules to let us know that things are going pretty well. So, thank you so much for that.
038Really makes a difference for us. and um and just want to say I'm open to a meeting at HS with HS and and Central Elementary School. >> This one. >> Oh, no. Uh Miss Pelle. >> Okay. Um I would also like to say thank you to the Orange High School students and to Mr. Adams for coordinating that and and having those students here. uh these are leaders that are um popping up in our school system and it's great to see great to hear what you have to say and some of them are former students that I had. So I it's really nice to see them. Um, I would also I I had some things I was going to say, but I'm gonna scratch that and I'm gonna say something that came through very clearly with
039um Miss Madison Williams and and with Miss Gorez as as they were being talked about by our uh HR department, it came through that they are exceptional at building relationships and to have a strong school, you need to have people in the building that have relationships with each other and enjoy working together and enjoy being in the school together because it's not always sunshine and roses when you're in a school. You want it to be, but occasionally there are things that come up and and you have to rely on each other and you have to have a friend in the school. And I know Miss Madison Williams very well. My granddaughter is in that school right now and my grandson came through that school before she got there. I've known her mother since she was
040born and it is uh she's just a wonderful person at building relationships and it sounds like our uh beginning teacher of the year is following in those footsteps and uh doing that at AL standback and I just want everyone to know how much I as a former educator appreciate that because that is the backbone of a school and I applaud them for that work. So, thank y'all for pointing that out to us tonight. >> Um, good evening everybody. Um, I also wanted to give a shout out to the students. Um, and um, what what a treat to hear what um, made a positive impact on them. Um, that that's a great uh, ask or prompt that uh, Mr. Xavier um, cultivated there. And um a couple of the things I wanted to share my uh
041board comments. I what I thought um Mr. Xavier was doing was I thought this was going to springboard from the the students he brought to talk about podcasts um at the color of education um summit um that was a few weeks ago and and really enjoyable. Um so thank you um Mr. Xavier for being someone who um is always elevating student voice and um coming up with creative ways to do it. it it continues to inspire me. Um, I wanted to um mention um a request I made um to uh the policy committee for um the policy um 5015 parent volunteers to be re-examined. Um the way that policy stands now um for parents to participate in groups like task forces and committees, they have to go through a background check. Um and I spent
042some time looking at neighborhood uh neighboring districts policies and they just they just don't have that requirement um for groups like coalitions or task forces that don't have um you know they're not working with children. So that that layer of protection is just not needed. And I'm concerned we're not hearing from a broader cross-section of parent voice um which is essentially a cross-section of students uh lived experiences as well. So I want to elevate that request and hope that it um is on the next policy committee um agenda. Um so for example um the main task force in the recent years that I've been on the board um has been our equity task force. But some other examples of task forces, Durham public schools has had an LGBTQ task force, um a safety and wellness
043task force, Chapel Hill Carbo City Schools tends to call them coalitions sometimes, as well as task forces. They've had some um engaging with the strategic plan, with curriculum, with some um technology issues, including AI. And I I just don't want us to have obstacles that um hinder parents um uh accessibility to participating and and sharing their perspectives. And that's all. >> Thank you. Thank you for your comments everyone. And I was glad to see a lot of the students here. Um, I actually I am ending my public comment with a quote and actually aligns with what they were discussing in a way about community today. Um, but I thank you for bringing that 50 15 up. I think we need to revisit that one because it's also causing confusion in the community. Uh, October awareness
044month, breast cancer, ADHD, domestic violence, LGBTQ plus history month. The one the one everyone looks forward to is National Pizza Month. I had the privilege to attend various community events throughout our district and in county. And I like to leave you with a quote tonight that resonated with me as I move through the count the community events. Community is more than the belonging to something. It is about doing something together that makes belonging matter. This was by Brian Solis. Thank you. >> I too would just like to thank uh Mr. Xavier Adams for his work on the color of education and also all of his advocacy for our students. And definitely thank you all of our students and graduate students that came back to share their experience. It really helps us understand some of the
045valuable programs that we have and also what can help future students. So, thank you for taking the time out of your night to spend it with us. Um, I would just like to highlight a few things uh as well. Uh, the board did get the chance to have our joint meeting with the county commissioners. Uh it was a good discussion on how we want to collaborate in the future. I appreciate all the board members for participating and taking time to do that. Um also we had our snack meeting. This is the Orange County Special Needs Advisory Committee. Um a lot of great discussion and looking forward to that committee putting out its first newsletter. Um, I did get the opportunity to speak at the exchange club uh recently. A lot of great questions about the
046bond and some of our academic results. Um, they wanted me to extend a thanks to the district and all the staff on the results and looking forward to continuing that. Um, also uh got to attend um the Gravity Hill and Efflin Cheeks joint Hispanic Heritage Celebration. It was wonderful to see all the community out there and all the uh specific uh events that students and parents could do. Um I do have one other comment that um I didn't have originally on my list, but I want to make it is this board has not made a decision to close any school or to combine or move any school period. Um, also, uh, those discussions won't occur until we get closer to the school completing, which is not projected until 2029. So I'm not sure where the
047confusion is but definitely I'm willing and I know others would be to have a conversation to understand the confusion around that because we have not done that and definitely concerned if there is a belief that that is something we are actively doing because we are not. So I'll conclude my comments with that. Thank you everyone for coming out tonight and sharing comments. And uh Dr. Jones any comments tonight? I do. Good evening, Chair Athetherton, Vice Chair Padilla, members of the board, student staff, and community members. Again, congratulations to Miss Goris, um, our beginning teacher of the year, and Miss Madison Williamson, principal of the year. Both are very deserving of those honors. I won't go into all the details. I don't know them as well as Miss Purcell, but um, both great educators. um and
048uh to see what they've both been able to do in their um classrooms and in their schools has been absolutely amazing to watch. Um they will both represent OCS well. I'm excited to invite our community to join us in shaping our next five-year strategic plan. Uh we just got a bit of a preview from some of our students with what and former students with what they love um and what has shaped them. um throughout their journey through Orange County schools and beyond. Um but this is a tremendous opportunity for our current students, for our families, our educators, our staff, neighbors, and partners to ensure our collective voice guides what we do next. Our current plan has focused on priorities including teaching tomorrow's leaders. We saw some of those this evening, excellence and efficiency, exemplary staff,
049and empowering culture. We heard a little bit about that as well tonight. As we look at our current plan and look ahead to 2631, we want to build on our successes and respond to what matters most to you all. That's everyone listening. Um the strategic plan will serve as our roadmap. It's going to align our work to best support our students. Sometimes we get busy and we forget that that is why we're all here to support and elevate our students. We want to listen first to your perspective on what works, what needs to be improved, and what your hopes are for our future school district. When families, students, and staff, community members all have a seat at the table, our strategy is richer. It's more responsive and more likely to succeed. Shared ownership equals stronger
050outcomes. This evening, you'll hear about our community listen sessions, listening sessions where we'll share about the state of our schools and spend time gathering your input. We're excited to bring the conversation to neighborhoods through our neighborhood listening sessions as well. We'll present about those this evening. A few thoughts as you consider participating. Bring your hopes and dreams for what our schools can become and your honest feedback of what needs to improve. Consider the broad lens. Student learning and well-being, staff excellence, school culture, and operational efficiency, just to name a few. And think long term. Where should our district be in 2031? Share your voice and encourage others to do so as well. When diverse voices are included, the plan is better for everyone. I am deeply grateful for the commitment of our community to supporting
051our students and our schools and I look forward to charting our next chapter together. That concludes my comments. >> Thank you, Dr. Jones. >> All right. Next, we have our consent agenda. Do we have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Okay. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? >> All in favor? I >> I. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> All right. That brings us to our work session. Uh our first agenda item is our finance audit report. Good evening, Chair Athetherton, Vice Chair Padilla, board members, Dr. Jones, listening public. I am here to introduce um our external auditor, Dale Smith from Anderson, Smith, and Wik, who will uh provide a report on our fiscal year end audit that uh was just completed for the
052year ending June 30th of 2025. All right. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, board members, Dr. Jones. Good to see y'all again. Um, appreciate y'all allowing us to perform the board's audit for the year ended June 30th, 2025. And I think each of you should have received um an electronic PDF uh draft copy of the report. And you um should have also received uh that that report's kind of lengthy. So, you should have also received a seven-page summary report and that's what I'll be going over with you this evening. Um, it summarizes the areas of the report that we feel like are of the most importance to you all and overseeing the finances of the district. Uh, now you probably noticed that that report uh is still labeled draft. Um, the federal government uh they're extremely late
053this year with releasing the uh federal compliance supplement. Um they did release a draft of this report um in August which we reviewed and it's got steps in there that pertain to title one EC some of the bigger grants that flow through the district. We've reviewed that draft report. We've done all the testing that's required. We feel pretty confident that there's not going to be any changes that have to be made once the final report is issued. But uh uh nevertheless, no audit firms in the country are allowed to release single audit reports until uh until that final supplement's released. So um you know, with the government shutdown, we don't know when that thing's going to get released. So we're just kind of on hold with it, but we do feel comfortable going ahead and
054talking about the draft tonight. Um now, the audit covers two main areas that we're required to issue reports on. You've got the financial statement section, uh and the compliance section. And within the detailed financial statements, there's four letters that we issue that pertain to these two audit areas. And these four letters are summarized on page one of the financial statement summary that I gave you, that seven-page report. If everyone would go to page one of that report and we'll talk about those four letters uh just for a moment. And the first letter is the report on the financial statements. And for the financial statement section of the audit, uh we perform an audit of the actual finances of the school district. Uh this includes all the amounts and the disclosures that you see within the
055financial statements. And our report on the financial statements is a clean unmodified opinion and that's exactly what you want to receive. Uh this means that based on our audit procedures, we feel the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements are reliable and that the financial statements are free from any material errors or misstatements. Okay. The next three reports that you see there uh pertain to the compliance section of the audit. And these three reports relate to various detailed testing we have to perform uh on the internal controls of the district and on the uh district's compliance with applicable state and federal laws and regulations related to the state and federal funding that flows through the district. And the first of these reports is the report on internal control and compliance. And um we did not
056report any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies uh in that letter and there was no non-compliance reflected in that letter. And if there were budget violations or other um uh violations of local or state policy, they would be reflected in this letter and there there was none to report. Uh the last two reports are the reports on major federal and state programs. Um and this past year we had three major programs we had to audit. uh COVID 19 ed stabilization funds uh title one and state public school fund were the major audits um for last year and we're happy to report that uh both of these letters are clean unmodified uh reports which means there were no findings question costs uh or any issues noted in any of those letters. So all four of these letters
057combined are all clean unmodified reports which is exactly what you all as a board would want to receive. Anyone have any questions on this page? Okay. All right. Let's go to page two and we'll talk about the district's general fund. And this schedule shows a three-year summary of the general fund assets, liabilities, and fund balances, as well as a three-year summary of revenues and expenditures and changes in fund balance. And all amounts come from the district's audited financial statements for the current and the prior two years. And we'll be focusing on the shaded column to the far right, the June 30, 2025 column. And you can see that there at the top, ending cash balances were 7,11968 uh which comprised a majority of the fund's total assets of 7,149 806. And then right below that,
058uh, the fund had liabilities of a,63474. And if you take the assets minus liabilities, you get the district's fund balance at June 30th, 2025, which was 5,486 332. And this amount represents an increase of 2,436507 over the fund balance level that was reported at June 30th, 2024. And you can see that 2,ion436 at the very bottom of the shaded column. It's on the net change in fund balance line. And as you can see, if you look at the 2023 and 2024 columns there at the bottom in the uh 2023 year, you can see the district reported a loss in the general fund of a million 513170. And uh for the 2024 year, the loss was 369,932. Um and even though it's not shown in the uh 2022 year uh the district used 1.7 million of
059fund balance. So uh for the three years prior to to 2025 uh the district had used 3.6 million of fund balance. So this year y'all added back 2.4 of that 3.6. Um and we had talked the last few years about the district needing to reduce the level of fund balance usage. And these past two years, y'all have done an outstanding job of that, reducing last year down to uh just using 369 932 and then this year adding 2.4 million. Um I would like to point out a significant factor in this year's increase was the discontinuation of the child care program uh during the 2025 year which resulted in a 1 uh3 million increase to the general fund. Uh if you look next line up from the bottom you got tr transfers from child care fund
060a million282 271. Uh so even besides that you still added about 1.2 million to fund balance last year. Uh which is great to see. Um we would consider fund balance to currently be at an adequate level for a district this size. Um you know we would recommend trying to maintain it uh at the current level and if you have to use fund balance try to only use it for non-recurring items if at all possible. So, did anyone have any questions about the general fund? Okay. All right. Next page is uh school food service and it's set up uh same as uh the general fund was. We'll be focusing on the uh June 30, 2025 column. And if you look down at the bottom, you can see that the um net loss for the year was
06132,735. And in the uh 2024 year, the loss was 84,218. And in 2023, the loss was 139,986. So you can see I've been steadily making improvement the past two years. Uh this past year, the loss uh decreased by around $52,000. Um, and if you look up at the top, cash and cash equivalents, uh, the fund's got a million 804676 of cash in the bank at, uh, June 30th, 2025. And so, the program is still in very good financial condition with that 1.8 million in the bank. And hopefully the program can continue to make improvements and uh, get to at least a break even level uh, in the near future. Does anyone have any questions about this about this fund? All right. Okay. And the next page um is a summary of the findings and question
062costs for the past three years. And as you can see, we as I mentioned earlier, there were no findings or question cost in the current year to the far right. And you can also see there were no findings or question costs in the 2023 or the 2024 year as well. Okay. Okay. And starting on page five, uh on pages 5 through 7 actually is what we call the require communications letter. And uh this is a three-page letter that details specific audit items that we're required to communicate to the board about. And it discusses that there were no difficulties or disagreements encountered in dealing with management during the audit. Uh it points out there were no uncorrected misstatements noted and that there were no significant reportable issues noted during the audit. Um, now on page one,
063it does uh mention there in the middle of the page, uh, that there was a new accounting standard that went into effect last year, Gazsby 101. And, uh, and this standard required the board to start, uh, recording a liability for the estimated amount of sick leave that employees would would actually use for sick time. Um, as you know, the employees can accumulate an unlimited amount of sick leave. the portion that uh is used for retirement is not calculated and and and we didn't have to record a liability for that but we did have to record a liability for the estimated portion that would be used for sick time. So we looked at the last several years activity come up with an estimate and uh so there was a liability added to the books of 15.6
064million uh to the beginning of year uh liabilities uh to reflect the estimated amount of sick leave that would be used by employees. Um, now this liability has no impact on the budgeting process that y'all go through. This is what's considered kind of a non-cash item. Um, in years past y'all added liabilities for uh uh the the uh pension, the oped. Uh y'all been carrying the liability for annual leave and uh again, y'all don't budget for these items because they're not just they're not paid out on a normal basis. Um, but for full ac cruel accounting, we had to record it. So, I just wanted to point that out to you. But again, I don't think it needs to be of any concern to you. Uh, but in case you'd read about that, I didn't
065just wanted to be sure I touched on it tonight. Um, we also performed detailed testing of receipts and dispersements for the individual schools. Uh, there were no significant issues noted there. Uh it appears that the uh principles of bookkeepers are all doing a good job of overseeing the uh finances at their schools. Uh we typically note various minor items that we report to Miss Wrath and um um it's usually bookkeepers maybe turning money in a little bit late. Uh things of that nature, but nothing nothing significant was noted. And that was pretty much all I'd planned to cover from the report. Um and overall the audit went very smoothly. um you know finance is doing an outstanding job. Uh we pick a lot of uh transactions, general dispersements, payroll and have them pull backup documentation
066as part of the audit. Uh everything is well documented, very transparent. Uh there were no issues noted um as far as that testing went. You can tell the folks back in finance take a lot of pride in what they do and they do an outstanding job. So again, that was pretty much all I planned to go over. Was there anything I didn't touch on that someone had a question about? >> Looks like you've done a fantastic job. >> I appreciate it. >> Well, if any questions come up later, Miss Wrath has got my my sale number. Be glad to answer any questions you might have. >> And I'd just like to extend the thanks of the board to Miss Wrath and her team for all the hard work they do for our district. Thank you
067so much. All right. Next, we have the school opening data. Good evening, chair. um Athetherton and Vice Chair Padilla and board members Dr. Jones. I'm honored to be here to walk us through our opening school data this evening as uh the impact of uh enrollment uh is felt in all areas of our strategic plan. And so it's important that we keep an eye on these uh these data. Uh before we go into the data, we just want to have a level setting, make sure we because this is like really confusing stuff. I don't know if if y'all have problems with it, but I have trouble keeping it straight. So it's good to go through the definitions to ensure that we all are talking about the same thing. So first, we talk about enrollment a lot.
068And enrollment is that total count of students who have simply put in their paperwork that they want to come to Orange County Schools. And we have to remember that uh if they're enrolled, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're in membership. And so we look at membership. We use these words interchangeably, but they don't mean the same thing. And membership is that um status that is given by the state that we use to count the students. So those are the ones that are actually in attendance. So, we do have some students who are enrolled who are not currently in attendance for a variety of reasons. And that leads us to talking about average daily membership or ADM. Uh, so you hear us talking about ADM a lot as we're getting uh talking about funding. Miss Wrath
069talks about ADM because it's closely tied to funding. So uh it is a formula that the state provides us and it's basically the sum of the number of days in membership for all the students who are in nonviolating membership. That's very confusing language but basically it means that they haven't violated the 10-day attendance rule. All right? So they they are coming to school and then uh ADM is calculated uh each month uh for a grade level at a school and then added together to create the school's ADM. So, um it's a complicated formula across the whole district because um they take the higher of the two for PMR uh with the principal's monthly report, which is our next um vocabulary word. Uh and they take the highest of month one and two to do your
070ADM, the the amount that you're funded on. Um so, the principal's monthly report or the P PMR, you'll hear us talk about that a lot. uh that is done about a month interval. So a month is usually 19 to 21 22 days in a in a school year and uh those reports include the average daily attendance, average daily membership, membership by grade, race and sex and membership on the last day. Uh the uh these reports are approved at the school level and then sent into DPI and then DPI compiles that information and we get it back. All right. So, just a few reminders before we go through this data is that um attendance uh excuse me, enrollment and membership numbers are constantly moving there. They when we talk about this, you have to understand it's
071a one point in time, but we constantly have students moving in and out of the district for a variety of reasons. Um, we are using PMR1, principal's month three report one, um, in some of our numbers tonight, but I want you to understand that it will be revised because there are some students who may be pulled off of that list because they're in the middle of a 10day violation, uh, you know, non-countable days. Uh, so, uh, the numbers that we get tonight may shift. So, if we look at next year's not, you know, if I'm standing up here next year and there's a little bit of difference, it's not because I didn't do the math right tonight, it's because it changed because of the adjustment. Um, and then just a reminder, well, like I said
072before that the month one or two, the best of those is what we get funded off as a district, as a district. Um, all right. So, let's talk about average daily membership. So this chart shows you a uh a compare uh a comparison across the last 10 years. It should be familiar to you. This is a uh we gave this at the joint county commissioners. And so over the 10-year period um our overall ADM these are our funding membership amounts. Uh the asterric is on school year 2526 because we haven't got an official ADM account for this year yet because it will be the best of one and two. We haven't finished month two yet. This chart shows us uh what we expected for this year and those are numbers are based on last year's
073ADM um and uh what we have versus month one PMR that has not been revised yet. So again, these are um the numbers of you're seeing by school in blue what we projected, which is what their ADM was last year and what um what it is at month one currently. When we look at some of this data, I thought there was some interesting information that I wanted to share with you about student movement. We have a lot of questions about where are students going? Um why are they not here in u in OCS? So we can pull a report uh that shows all the students that were in OCS last year for school year 2425 who are not in school this year in 2526. Okay. 604 students were on that report again. um this was
074they're enrolled last year so this won't count kindergarteners um and it doesn't include like graduated seniors that they don't count as like leaving OSS OCS in this regard um as you can see here over half of the students who moved out or didn't return for this school year simply enrolled in another LEA in the state somewhere in North Carolina but not in Orange County schools Uh, I also like to point out, um, the orange is the charter school. They, uh, indicated that they were going to a charter school when they left us. And that the, uh, the blue at the top, sort of like at the 11 to 12:00 on the clock, um, is private school. So those are the students who left us and didn't return as of October 1st because they could come
075back and that would they would be on the other list. So I just want you to see how like we have to kind of pick a point and stay there. All right. So then we can also run a report that shows the students who have moved into our district who were not enrolled in school year 2425. So, they're enrolled in OCS in 2526 as of October 1st and they were not enrolled in OCS in school year 25, excuse me, 2425. That was 416 students. Okay. Um, as you can see again, almost half of them came from another LEA. The orange again uh at the bottom left is um charter and the top right is the um private school and a large chunk came to us from another state. This also is a repeat graph but
076thought it was important to share this with you again. Um this was based on our early preliminary numbers, but they still hold um even though they're like one or two numbers off uh at this point. Uh but it shows the the cohort stability currently. Um and I think it's an important story to show in that there is um a perception that we're losing students at the fifth to sixth grade transition and uh the cohort is fairly steady steady across that transition currently. also um between the eighth 8th and 9th grade transition. You can see that we are not only steady but also increasing those students into the high school. And now I want to talk a little bit about our kindergarteners because we have seen a reduction in the number of kindergarteners that we have.
077So what where are our kindergarteners? um are they uh do they leave um our other schools and enroll in Hillsboro Elementary? Is that why we have a gap here or there? Um so we pulled those numbers for you and um it's fairly level across all schools with a little bit more from New Hope uh for kindergarters who are attending Hillsboro. Um the uh there are some students who came from outside of Orange County and those are staff children just as you to make you aware. We also uh can look at our charter school billing and see which kindergarteners didn't they went to charter and they haven't come to us yet. So we didn't even have a chance with these these students. Um understand please that this is from our September billing. Uh there will be
078an October billing and um so some have not been build for yet. So based on what we have that have been build for and that we have have uh ensured that they are our students. These are the kindergarteners that started at charter schools and where they were zoned for. So they were zoned 11 um for Central, 11 for um Efflin Cheeks and you can see across the board there. That gives us an idea of where how that would impact our schools if we had those students. And finally, we want to give you a graph about our demographics. Again, we did this last year. We're just going to keep showing you the four-year trend here now instead of the three-year um in terms of our PMR1 demographics. So again, this goes back to the PMR1. As
079you could see, fairly steady across um all demographic groups except for white. So what can I tell you about this data that I haven't told you already? I think it's important to lift up a couple of things which is um that total membership we know this you saw the big line up and down is it's decreasing year-to-year which does impact funding. Um when you look at those clock graphs or circle graphs, donut graphs, whatever you want to call them, um comparing to the out versus the in, we did have more students going out than coming in. Uh but we did have a net positive of more students coming back from charters than going. So uh we had seven more students come back then um than went. Uh the opposite was true for private school. We
080had a net loss of 49 students to private schools. Just a reminder that our cohort stability is strong. uh which indicates that once we get students into Orange County schools and you heard some of that tonight that they're benefiting from that and they're staying with us. Um unless and this is our last point that perhaps this about mobility then uh dissatisfaction with our our school district that people are having to move or relocate for financial or family or all the other reasons that they do that. Um and that just is um a separate and apart from the schools. So with that I will open up for questions. >> Um thanks thanks Chair Ethelerton. Uh thank you Dr. Pack. This was um super super helpful. I don't uh I don't remember getting this data in quite
081this way but you know I might have forgotten but I really like how you presented this data and what you captured um and um for example I have been guilty of uh stating you know this hundred student you know or 800 student lost to charter schools kind of thing and um this this kind of challenges some of those easy um summaries. Um so I appreciate uh the level of of detail. Um and uh also thinking about demographic changes um you know less fewer kindergarters coming in, you know, is it you know birth rate up here? Is it you know slightly older populations? People that and is it also families leaving because Orange County is less affordable? you know, so some of those things really have nothing to do with, like you said, charter schools or
082programming. So, um there there's a lot to think about um with these trends. Um the charter school that with your conclusions in the charter school just want to check is it's is it percent or is it um numbers because somewhere I had 12% leaving for charter schools, 19% coming in. Does that equal >> seven students? seven students of 49 different. Yes. >> Okay. Um again, thank you for everything you captured. That's a lot of work. And I also appreciate the definitions. Um and and I understand what you're saying that some people enroll and they're not they don't show up and move for all kinds of reasons. And so, uh we see that in the data. So, thank you. >> Welcome. I also like to thank uh Joy Tolen who could who's not here with me
083tonight who helped gather a lot of this data. So, just want Thank you, Joy. Bonnie. >> Yeah, thank you for this. Um I really it's fascinating to see the the private school data because we've not seen that before and that um and these are just kids that left last year for private school. Correct. It's not other kids that are >> Yeah, it it's students who left us uh who didn't come back and told us that they were going to a private school. So um there might have been a records request that ver verified that, but that's the information. So we when they're leaving they're telling us where they're going and that's what we capture. >> Got it. So So here's the question and I really appreciate the kind of patterning and the the movement and
084and um our community is changing. Our de our um the placement of our students is changing in lots of ways. Um and it's affecting our school. I'm not sure which word to use. ADM. Our school ADM. Um the part that that um I can't see here and if you go to other presentations about us it talks about grades and there's a general pattern that that people talk about and that's um students don't come the loss of kindergarteners and then a return of kids back in the upper grades especially high school and and it's hard to tell from this how much of that we're seeing here. So are the kids that are coming back from charter schools, are they coming back in high school mostly to because of all the benefits that they get and are
085there things that we're doing in high school that we might want to do in middle school to get kids back earlier. So um and I realize this is not a strategic conversation. It is a conversation about here's where we are in enrollment, but how do we look at th those kind of patterns because I think they're important in our decision- making. So, um I think uh there's been some conversation with the county commissioners at the joint board of uh joint board meetings that um that Chapel Hill has experienced some of the same and questions. They're wondering like the why and some of the other factors that impact this. I can only tell you what our records show. Um, but there they've contracted with Carolina Demography and we'll be working with them to investigate some of
086these trends and some other surrounding data that could perhaps give some background information about where these movements are coming from and where what to answer some of the questions I think that you're heading towards. We don't have um that data because we only have our school data. Um, so we can't make some I mean we could we certainly could make some suppositions about this data but it would be um it would be too much just >> I I saw that and actually they hired Carolina demography also the chamber the Carolina chamber has a presentation but they very specifically show kids leaving in kindergart kids leaving kindergarten coming back later. So, so that was a second piece. I think the Chapel Hill School District had a entire board retreat on this topic and I don't know
087if that's something we should be thinking about. Um, but I think it's it's just important for us in terms of understanding what's happening under the numbers there is that I think the term is compensating balances. Um, one other question and that's HS. Does HS have a wait list still? And does HS have a wait list? >> It depends on the grade level. Um, there are some some students on a wait list primarily at the kindergarten grade level. Um, but they've at this point in the year they usually have exhausted most of their weight list u because they're already in through their first quarter. >> Okay. I'm just Yeah, I'm kind of asking if it was bigger, would there be more kids in it? But no, the weight list is >> they're at their capacity, >>
088right? The building capacity today. >> They have a set because they're um a lottery entry school. They have a set amount. It varies slightly from year to year because they also have an EC inclusion class that's placed there um that counts in their enrollment, but those are not lottery seats. Yeah. And so it's I know it's confusing if you look one year there's five students different or three students different. It's because that's going to be your variable. It's not that we're losing enrollment or we're not filling seats at Hillsboro. That's >> that's not true. >> So So um it looks like you're pretty close to this. I wonder if there's a way to get just a report to if you could just email us something that shows the um the numbers by grade. Can we
089see charter school lost by students that are going that are leaving by grade? The charter school students that are coming by grade and the private school students, you know, when are they leaving us and when are they coming back? Is it possible to get that? And I don't want to make work for you. I'm not allowed to do that. I just wonder if that's readily available and if that's something the board could get. >> It it is not readily available. It would be a student by student search. >> Really? Okay. I guess we'll have to find a different way to get it. Okay, thank you. >> All right, any other questions? >> No, I'd just like to say thank you to Dr. Pack and her team for the amount of work that went into this
090and and I appreciate it and it's very comprehensive and it's very uh informative for us to have. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> And thank you for highlighting um the teachers and the students that come with them as well. Thank you all. And I agree this format has is e easy to consume and understand. So thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Next we have uh the school opening data for staffing. Good evening again everyone. Um, we have a little bit of a tag team approach, but I'm going to leave most of the presentation in the hands of uh, Connie Bmeraltz. Uh, so we are here to provide you just as we did last year, our uh, staffing update. Um, next slide. Oh, I can do this. Sorry. Um, again,
091we have our strategic plan priority which we follow um, which you can read on the screen uh, here. As you may recall, in the spring of 2025, we did have um we do have now amended goals for this school year. And our presentation is going to be tied to these uh goals from our strategic plan for the remainder of this year. And whoops, sorry about that. So, we're going to start off by talking about uh certified employee demographics. I do want to share with you of our four goals. We're kind of going to be going in reverse order to keep sort of the order of the presentation consistent with what we showed last year. So, we're going to talk about demographics first, which is more in line with our goal four of maintaining our commitment
092to supporting and hiring qualified and diverse staff that demonstrate a range of skills and qualities that support student success. I do want to take this opportunity to lift up um the other members of my team who are not here in human resources who along with Connie Bmer Cultz do a terrific job of keeping um HR running in an excellent and an efficient manner. Um we work with all the other departments particularly finance to keep things um moving smoothly and uh consistently. So, I do want to make sure that I shout out to Connie who heads up our staffing team, to Meg Merritt, our lead hiring manager, Phyllis Vincent, our classified hiring manager, Angela Turnbill, who is our benefits manager, and Amanda Parsley, our assistant director, who all work together to provide all the personnel reports
093you see and the presentation ahead of you. With that, I will turn it over to Connie. >> So, good evening. And I just want to start by did uh saying ditto to what Mr. Kowick said. Our team works tirelessly and as most people wind down for the year, go home for the summer, we're kicking up and it is our most busiest time. Um and some years we don't stop. Some years the hiring just keeps going. Um, but I just want to to thank them all because um they work tirelessly to make sure candidates are responded to quickly and get their questions answered and processed in a timely manner. Um, we are going to start today just looking at a summary of our hiring. I always um joke and say I want to come in front
094of you at least one time to say zero vacancies. This year is as close as we've gotten since I have been here. It has been an outstanding hiring year in terms of uh filling our vacancies. So, uh we're going to start with our certified staff and certified staff are employees who require a North Carolina educator license for their position. Um this year we hired 109 certified staff currently, which is pretty consistent with last year. We did see an increase this year with the number of beginning teachers we hired. Um and as you can see uh we also s uh showed a notably increase of the new uh of our new hires of beginning teachers who are seeking lure through alternative pathways. Um 66.7% last year was right up right at 50. So that's a considerably
095an increase. Um, as far as our classified staff goes, and I just want to remind you again, classified staff are those employees who do not require North Carolina educator license. We did hire 122 new classified staff members this year, and that is on par. Um, if we compare to last year, just one note about the slide, we did make an administrative change. So, we didn't list returning substitutes on our board report this year, which is why you see uh a gap there. Um, we just made that change this year so that we did not have to proc them process them again. Um, and we do continue to look for substitute teachers and bus drivers. We had 65 new substitutes this year and 12 new bus drivers. As it in previous years, we're going to share
096some demographic data for our certified school-based staff. That includes both classroom teachers and support staff. Um we collect this in September of each year. And just uh to note that our support staff positions include things like media specialists, counselors, instructional coaches, etc. The racial demographics of our classroom teaches teachers has remained fairly constant over the past four years, showing some stability in our in our classroom teachers. Our support staff uh the racial demographics of our support staff has shown more variation over time. However, um it is important to note that that this is a smaller group of staff members and so changes in individual uh positions can have greater impacts. Uh each year um in September we look at September October we look at the SS 200 which outlines full-time employees and it compares race
097and gender. We do know that nationally about 70 or 77% of our classroom teachers are female and 23% are male. Uh Orange County is closely aligned with that national average. However, we do know that the the gender diversity falls off at the elementary level where approximately 90% of our classroom teachers are female. And just a note for the SS 200, anywhere K8 counts as elementary. Another area we look at is the educational level of our staff. In general, the standard port of entry for teaching is a bachelor's degree. Um, we do have a few exceptions to that in our CTE trades lure areas that require just an associates degree. Again, we pull all of this data from the North Carolina Educators License. So please know if they don't list on their license, we don't know
098about it. Um when we look at our number of classroom teachers this year, we did observe a cre an increase in the number of classroom teachers holding master's degree. At the support level, um we do see for our support staff M's level being the uh right at a little over 60% and that's pretty normal because a lot of those positions require master's degrees. Experience levels are also tracked across four categories. We look at zero to four years which includes our beginning teachers, 5 to 10 years, 11 to 19 and then 20 plus years of experience. We did observe growth in the number of veteran teachers. um those are the we consider those 20 years or plus of experience which is a positive indicator of retention and stability in our schools. There are some notable disparities
099when we break it down to the school level. So when we see those, we use those data points to identify strategies such as putting student teachers or interns in those schools or providing additional beginning teacher support. So a little bit about our beginning teachers, we have 77 at the current moment. Um we have seen a as I just mentioned an upward trend of individuals coming through they're seeking lure through alternative pathways. Our largest cohorts of BTS are in elementary education exceptional children mathematics and CTE. Um and if you'll note that three of those four the latter three are also what the state defines as hard to fill positions. Just a bragging point for this year, we did increase our national board certified teachers from 63 of September last year to 84 of September of this
100year. Um, we do know from our own data and from research that uh nationally board certified teachers uh have a positive impact on student achievement. Orange County um has invested in helping our national boards uh certified teachers with the cost. It totally it's about $1,900 for the four components required. And this year we were able to re reimburse every candidate 40% of the cost. We will continue until we uh you know to increase that and look at ways to do that. Um we also hosted a information session with the help of our CNI department and Miss Wood um at the starts of education. So we'll have a new cohort of nationally board certified teachers coming in. So that this number will continue to increase. Next, we're going to look at goal three, um, which is
101to to fill at least 90% of our vacancies within 60 days, um, in June 20, 2026. This goal is about keeping our sta our schools fully staffed in a timely fashion so that uh, services for students is not disrupted. So, one thing I do uh want to note is that as you can see our certified vacancies, and I said this before, the lowest they've been in four years. At the current moment, we have nine certified vacancies. This was at as as of the end of September, but currently we have nine certified and eight and a half classified vacancies. The only thing that that does not include is bus drivers, and you'll hear a little bit about that in a few seconds. Uh if we look at the total fill rate for both our hardtofill positions
102and just our certified and classified positions alto together all of those are over 90%. Um that was at the end of September. Of course it is higher now. Um and so we are looking at around above 95% field for all of our vacancies. This year we have added a new measurement. We are looking at the fill rate for both our classified and certified positions. We calculate that based on the number of days between posting a position and the number of days a job offer is made and a candidate formally accepts. Um we also track the average time not only by school but we look at position type. That helps us identifies challenges and target recruitment efforts more effectively. Um, so just to give you for example, we know now that our EC support staff, which
103is our OTPT and and speech are requiring additional recruitment strategies. We know that those pay at a higher rate outside of schools. So it's important for us to start partnering with our universities to get more interns in Orange County schools so we can fill those in a more timely manner. We also saw that science uh which is a state hard to fill position has slowly crept up on our radar and is taking more time to fill. Also, we are tracking fill rates for substitutes also. And uh this includes those individuals in our schools, our classroom teachers, our exceptional children TAs, and our pre-K TAs who require a sub when absent. Um so this this data is helping us to identify that although we may have this amount of subs how many subs are actually working
104and filling vacancies. So what we do know is we have 36 136 approved subs on staff. We have 86 that have been active thus far this year. We have followed up with the remaining to see uh to make sure that they want to continue to sub if there are any barriers that we need to overcome so that we can continue um to grow that population. And just a fun fact, Wednesday is a pretty good day if you want to be absent. We have a pretty good fill rate on Wednesday. So, we're going I'm going to turn it back over to Mr. Coit who's going to talk about transportation. >> Yes. Sorry for the interruption. and I'll just be here for one slide for now. Um, I want to thank uh Mr. Davis and Mr. Albert
105and the rest of the transportation team for working together with HR so we can uh really try to present some new measurements for you on key areas such as like bus driver staffing. So, we have determined and as you can see from the chart um we do now have a handle. We've got a reference we know which driver is on which route on which bus and we're tracking that monthly. Um, and so what we have determined is that if we had 42 and a half permanent drivers and an appropriate substitute uh bench of substitute drivers, we'd be all set. Currently, we are you can see the difference in the chart. Um, you know, and of course, just as we heard from Dr. Pack with student data is constantly in and out of people coming into
106the district. So too goes for staff. Um but we are um but we do track this on a monthly basis. We have 38, you know, we have 38 full-time drivers currently. Actually, it's 37 because we've had some churn since we finalized this from you, too. Um but we are um working to um to to shore this up. We're keeping this monthly impact because we know our transportation department has been working really hard to keep us out of the news. they've been doing a good job, but um we we definitely want to partner with them to keep our vacancy as low as possible in this area and creative ways that we could uh make driving a bus either as a permanent job or as a substitute more attractive. John. >> So, goal one underscores our commitment
107to retaining highquality teachers, ensuring their students continue to receive consistent and excellent instruction. Now, one note I just want to note that some of our slides talk about retention, others talk about from the state level attrition. And we'll talk about some of the differences. So when you look at NCDPI reporting um they report through the state of the teacher profession. So every year during the summer we receive a a file in which we send back to them and then we get our results in the spring. It's always done a year in retrospect. So you don't have you can make some um some data from informal data but our former data will not come back to the spring. Um, DPI looks at teachers only, classroom teachers only that are in on the payroll of March of
108one year but are not on the payroll of March of the following year. So if you look at our state attrition rate, it was 9.6, which is slightly below the state average, which is 9.88. Um, DPI also now publishes a dashboard that provides information for eleas. This allows us to track where teachers go when they leave Orange County schools and where incoming teachers are coming from. Now again, this is the 2324 data. So when we look at that, we know we gain more teachers from Alamance Wake and Durham County than we lost to those districts. We also observed that some teachers left OCS for charter schools. Um, and so that again uh brings up a area for us to consider when thinking about recruitment and retention. We do have some unofficial turnover data for uh
109242 showing that OCS retain approximately 82.58% of classroom teachers. Uh and when we look at that reason code uh or when we look at that data by reason code we see that out of those resonations 23.6% was our highest category to teach in another NC public school. It is important to note however you cannot compare that to the state data as state does not they do not publish attrition rates they publish it for the LEA at the state level. they're not considered attrition because they are still teaching. We also break down our uh retention rates to look at beginning teachers overall and then by the support that is provided them. Um so last year unofficially we have we were at uh 74.16% retention and then if we look at it over three years we're sitting
110uh right at 80% retention of our beginning teachers. Um now one thing to note is we do look at it by lure area and there is some state data to compare to when we do that. So only 61% of the teachers who receive either a permit to teach or an emergency license will convert to a residency license over the course of the three years and the permit to teach and emergency license are issued to alternative lensures in the first two years of employment. Um, so we also know that we bring in the North Carolina new teacher support program to predominantly who serve our um our permit to teach in our emergency license. When you look at that data, we know that our lead mentors do outstanding work. Um, however, the time that is required and
111the training and the commitment to people who are starting and had no student teaching or education background is great. And so I think that is reflected somewhat in our data. Um keep in mind also that our uh permitted teaching emergency license are served predominantly by the new teacher support program. So the group for our lead mentors is rather small which also can skew the data. Um on the flip side of that when we look at folks we know once they get to residency and are in a residency program which is a educational preparation program they're staying that once they get to that level. So that begs us the important to start to think about how we can support people and get them through the first two years. Um I also want to say you may
112be asking yourself, well why did we have folks that um the new teacher support program served who were not alternative licensed? That's because they serve teaching fellow um folks who have come through the teaching fellow program and that is a state mandate. We actually don't pay for them. They are free to us. So again, we know that highly effective mentorship is what's critical for all BTS regardless of of their license, regardless of um what grade, subject, and all of the above. Um so we have worked really hard to build a community of support for our beginning teachers. Now, a lot of the strategies you see here, we've talked about before, so I'm not going to go through each of them, but I did want to highlight that we have worked really hard on making lure
113not the obstacle. Um, making sure that that piece is taken care of. And so, we were able to bring in a consultant who did a edpa workshop, not just for our VA teachers, but for our lead mentors and for our administrators. We have we got really positive uh feedback from from the workshop and she will continue to answer questions for us and help us be able to think through how to support our candidates. Um we offered those BTS last year uh throughout the year three writing dates to work on their edpa. Um, we also work with a consultant um from teachers of tomorrow to purchase a a code or a voucher for a tutorial system for their stateboard test they have to take which is the Pearson andor practice. And so what we know um
114from that is that we had last year we had um out of 30 beginning teachers in their third year all of them were eligible to come back either through a limited lure or through a SP uh to lure. So um we are we're happy to report that some of those things have made a a huge difference. Oops. I do want to say too that um speaking of our lead mentors, we have had such huge interest in um individuals wanting to support our beginning teachers. This year we had uh 55 55 applications and we hired 36 lead mentors. And so that's grown from 25 in the be when we first started looking at it through the through time and are now up to 55. So um just to highlight a few key strategies for the upcoming
115year and again I won't go through all of these but probably the most successful uh strategy we have in terms of hiring certified candidates is to make sure our a lotments are done in a timely manner make sure principles can hire at spring break. >> Um this year we hired 27 candidates from our spring job fair. That data supports that that is the most effective strategy we have. We are also um as you've heard through um Miss Moors, she's been working with the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program. We are the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program has expanded out and are and now are looking at residency candidates and individuals who have are coming through community college and need to go the other two years. So we are uh steadily trying to get that information out.
116We have a session Wednesday of this week for employees. Um we have worked with other departments to provide paid leadership opportunities for our staff members. So uh one example was our lead uh EC mentors or um staff members at each school who are serving as leaison between for compliance so that we have a smooth transition there. There we have also explored the ATR grant. Uh I know many of you have asked of that uh about that grant and so we're looking for ways to um to increase the leadership opportunities of our staff and also mentor our beginning teachers. And then the one goal that we're not reporting out about tonight is goal three. Um we are looking at a staff survey to come out in January entitled OCS is a great place to learn and
117grow. Um, so when we have that information, we will come back. And I just want to close by saying, you know, there are challenges that we face with hiring. We're competing for a limited amount of of um resources in a competitive job market around us. Um, so, uh, just to give you a little food for thought, if you look at our new hires, you can see that we were able to recruit at the the 12% range and the 18% range, the middle of the range and 14 and 16%. And we still recruited, but it was less of our population of new hires. But in saying that, um, I also want to say that Orange County is a great place to work. um it's a great place to come and be feel supported and so despite
118any challenges we have I do think we also have many successes so uh in saying that I will take any questions you may have >> thank you chair etherton just a couple of comments Miss Brimmers once again as I said to Dr. pack as well. Thank you so much for so much terrific data and context and um really um so many questions can be answered here. Um just uh quick noticing noticing um like the leaving um it's slide 19 teachers moving from orange and teachers moving to orange. I was just looking and comparing numbers. A lot of them were pretty similar, but noticing people um moving to Orange aside from like Alamance, Wake Durham. Um it seemed and I was pleased that uh our sister district did not take any more than it lost. Um
119but it seems like people are moving to us from farther away, you know, and maybe going and taking jobs at Person or Cadam because they can drive there without moving. So just thinking about that a little bit. Um and then um wanting to give a big shout out for mentors. I mean mentors really can be everything especially building that comp confidence you know as a um beginning teacher. And one question I had um I think it was slide five noticing our participate numbers dropping and that you know participates are dual language um international teachers um that we contract with and so is there more of a story there or is it just happened to be we had fewer? I don't think there's more of the story. We continue to partner with them, provide opportunities for
120uh principles to hire um our international staff and we have lots of international staff who are interested. Um however, you know, we also tried to be proactive and help them pair up with the company. Um so I I really don't think there the additional numbers. I think we have a large group that's probably you know they our employees can stay three or five years depending. >> Um so and just I know at New Hope we have they have a number of participate teachers who are sort of in their final year or final year. So that number may rise next year. So it's it just it's also a function of cohort. >> Gotcha. Thank you >> Bonnie. >> Yeah. Thank you for this. I wonder Miss Brimmer if anyone Miss Brimmer calls if anyone could say
121no to you. I wonder if you do all the interviews and everyone just says yes to you because you're so knowledgeable and so enthusiastic about what's going on and u really represent us. Well, thank you for that. Um I um and I really appreciate what you were saying about the alternative lensures and the BTS. Here's one of the reasons I was wondering about that is we're hiring so many BTS but the percentage of BTS of our total staff is declining and I didn't understand why that is. So is that because they're turning over faster? >> I do think some of that is because you know they turn over they do turn over. We know we know that um even nationally data shows if we can if we can hold teachers to year five then they
122typically stay in the profession. >> Interesting. >> Um so I do think some of that is that also keep in mind that we have a very large uh what is the word I want to use definition of BT. So so if a BT serves three years but they still have lensure requirements we don't just cut them loose and say you're on your own. we keep them and we say um we say how can we still support you? So sometimes the retention may be year four and five because we've defined them as a BT but in reality they're not by state standard as a BT if that makes sense. >> Y and on the mentors what um other the stipens that we're paying them is that works. I mean obviously people are signing up for it
123>> and just you know a shout shout out to uh Orange County and to the board we have some of the highest stipens around. >> Yes. Good. Like that. And then um uh finally if you were directing us which I kind of heard there said we want raises more money for all our teachers but if you got to pick you know and it which is a bubble buster for me because I really would have picked the veterans but you're saying those two middle the five to 10 and the 10 to 15s are the ones where you're having the most trouble this in addition to those hard to fill positions. Is that that what I heard? It would be interesting to look at that that population for our surrounding areas in terms of supplements and how
124we relate. >> Yeah, >> I don't know the answer to that, you know, uh I don't know that I have a stamp answer, but I do think it would be a very interesting um data to look at. >> Yep. Super. Thank you so much. Great job. And if I can just say um I'd be remiss in not um echoing your comments, Miss Hower, about Conniey's impact on everybody she meets and people looking for jobs, but I'd be remiss in not mentioning the uh other district leaders who are constantly recruiting, particularly our principles, um our department supervisors as well. Um they are all you know it is a it's an allin experience to get folks in here and our principles do do a great job. >> Yeah I'm sure. Thank you. Thanks for >> I make
125one really short comment like we have a lot of principal stability now then you know that really matters. Um it's been exciting to watch the principal stability develop further on the in the past years that I've been serving here. While our I I totally agree and to add to that while our supplements are lower than some of our most competitive neighbors uh still one of the things that we extol about why OCS is a great place to work and grow not only principal stability but stability of our finances the way you know the cabin the way Dr. Jones has assembled her cabinet and everybody is working together and collaborating. Um, it's it's it's a big picture that we're constantly selling about the stability of Orange County schools. >> It also goes back to those relationships
126that you're building along the way. >> Questions? >> Well, I would just like to say first, thank you for the very comprehensive data. I mean, this is probably >> the most detailed uh background and information on the district. Really appreciate the the details. >> I really appreciate the use of pictures of our staff and active and about. I I notice that and appreciate that it's not stock images. These are people in our district. I really appreciate that. and um you know just want to acknowledge the alternate license or what we call grow your own and I know that's been very successful and I know Connie that's been something you have grown through your career here and just wanted to acknowledge that. Um I did have a question. Um, I know every year, um, we give
127high school graduates a contract and say, "Hey, you know, if you're going to graduate, come back." I'm curious, do we have any feeling of how many are or actually taking advantage of that when they leave and then how many are we getting back that actually come back to the district? >> So, that's a great question. I will tell you. Uh so in my time of being in HR which is since 2017 um we have had students come back and to say I am here looking for a position. Um I do I am excited that we are going to be able to now um partner with our high schools with the help of our CNI department who's a who's really pushed that and that's been their initiative to start growing our own within our own community.
128Um, and I and I can't tell you how I have a son who wants to be a teacher. And so to hear uh him talk about the impact teachers have made on him because they talked about the profession in such a positive way is very uh rewarding to think about growing our own in our own community among our high school kids. So I'm really excited about that piece of it. I'm excited to see how it it translates and and Mr. Kowick and I have been talking about not just teachers to be to look at participating in the high school job fair so that our uh we're recruiting not just teachers but all across our district. >> Yeah. And and just to add on to that, part of that is the the fellowship program, right, which
129uh students are actively within our district seeing other people in the profession and us hosting them to get them to be interested. And like you said, my understanding is we're looking at actual classes that students can take to get them more interested or along their way on it. So that's a wonderful program and given all of the challenges that the state has in filling these positions just thank you all the whole HR department for ensuring Orange County is the best place to work. Thank you all. >> All right. Next on our agenda we have the strategic plan 2026 to 2031 update. All right. Hello again. Uh, and this time I have with me uh, Miss Mariah Morris, our director of strategic initiatives, who's going to stand beside of me as we present together uh, about
130this exciting update for you about the new strategic plan. As we finish out strong with our current strategic plan, we're looking towards the future as Dr. Jones talked about earlier tonight. So, we're going to use some details on what she has talked about. Thank you. The strategic plan, like a compass, keeps us aligned and moving in the right direction. It helps ensure that every decision we make as a district from the classroom to the boardroom is guided by a shared vision and clear priorities. Just as a compass keeps travelers guided toward their destination, our strategic plan will keep us focused on where we're headed as a school district, what we value, what we're striving to achieve, and how we'll me measure our progress. We hope this will not be a static document, but that it
131will serve as a living guide that helps us adapt while staying true to our direction. During the remainder of this presentation, we'd like to update the board on the planning process for our next strategic plan, the guiding compass for Orange County schools from 2026 to 2031. Perfect. >> Thank you. Throughout the 202526 school year, we are engaging in deliberate and inclusive processes to ensure that our next strategic plan reflects the voices, values, and aspirations of the whole Orange County community. Our commitment in this work is to ensure that our next strategic plan is truly communitydriven, reflecting the voices of our students, our families, our community members, and our staff. To support this commitment, we've partnered with Mr. Smith and the communications team to develop a strategic plan website that serves as the central hub for
132engagement and information. This site will allow stakeholders to follow our progress, explore upcoming opportunities to provide feedback, and see how their input is actively shaping our plan. It's designed to keep our entire community informed and connected to this journey every step of the way. Our year-long planning process follows a three-pronged approach that brings our district tagline to life. As we engage our community, we challenge ourselves to write a communitydriven plan, and then we inspire with the launch of our new plan in the 2026 school year. During the first stage, we engage our community by creating multiple opportunities for students, staff, family, and community members to share their perspectives for Orange, the future of Orange County schools through surveys, through listening sessions, and through focused work groups. We challenge ourselves in the next phase to think
133boldly and critically about our what our students need to thrive in an everchanging world, ensuring our goals are the right mix of both ambitious and achievable. Finally, we will launch our plan, a plan that reflects a shared vision of the hopes of our community and sets a clear direction for the next five years of growth and innovation. >> All right. So thank you Mariah. We now we want to move into uh just giving a little bit more detail about the we engage portion of uh this uh this project rollout. And so we're going to start with we have already done this one. We've uh uh executed a community feedback survey through the month of September. It was open for a month. Uh Mr. Smith did a lot of pushes out to the public. You probably
134got several emails about it yourself. Hopefully you shared that with other folks. It was linked on our website and we had a um toolkit for our principles to include all of that messaging in their regular messages each month. I mean, excuse me, each week. Um so that data is still being analyzed, but we do have some information we wanted to share with you tonight. So during that time, we had 611 responses across uh staff, family, students, and community. There were two types of questions. There was multiple choice questions. Most of them were multiple choice, but we did provide some um opportunity for open response. That's what we're still working on uh coding and and sifting through. Um we asked for input on our current strengths and future priorities. And so you can see here uh
135the again this is this data is only the u multiple choice. We're going to give you the other data once it's all analyzed. But just so you know, uh, current strengths are high expectations for teaching and learning, preparing students for the next phase in life, having a welcoming environment, providing SEAL support for students, having a safe and secure buildings, and clear and effective communication. So, we're pretty proud of that. Those were really high scores right off the bat. And then we asked folks like, "What is what are your highest priorities?" And we gave them some choices and they had to rank them between, you know, low priority, moderate priority to high priority. So we pul these four stars are things that folks overwhelmingly chose as the highest priority. So that was increasing ear early literacy
136rates. Uh recruiting and retaining qualified and diverse teachers, which you just heard about, graduating students who can demonstrate work ready skills. So Miss Braxton is going to be real proud about how CTE showed up right there. I am as well. And then again offering courses that align to a job and labor market demands. >> So this is you. >> So after our survey, we are now going into the community to seek group feedback sessions. As part of our commitment to the communitydriven process, we will host two large community listening sessions. These sessions will provide open, welcoming spaces for participants to share their perspectives, their hopes, and their priorities for the future of Orange County Schools. We hope you mark your calendars. November 3rd, we're going to Cedar Ridge High School, and December 2nd, we are
137going to Orange High School. After our two community listening sessions, we will then take the show on the road and come to a community center near you. We will be going into five different community spaces to ensure that we're able to meet our community where they are. These sessions are designed to be accessible and to provide more personal opportunities for our community members to engage in dialogue. All sessions, all seven sessions will be translated into Spanish and our Spanish speaking session will be translated into English. So, everyone is welcome at all. By bringing these conversations into our neighborhoods, we aim to gather a wider range of perspectives and ensure that every community member feels heard and represented in our next strategic plan. We are also committed to including OCS staff and students opportunities to provide
138feedback as well as our community. Through our internal focus groups, school administrators will have the opportunity to provide invaluable feedback during sessions at our leadership team meetings. The superintendent's teacher of the year round table this year will align its work with the strategic planning process so that the work of that team is not happening in a silo outside of this larger planning um process. We're also committed to including student voice as Dr. Jones and her leadership team will be attending schools to receive feedback from student groups through structured sessions. Our first session will be tomorrow at Cedar Ridge High School. Finally, cabinet is leading department workg groups where central services staff are also able to provide feedback on the areas that most directly align with their work and their leadership. By engaging both staff and
139students in meaningful dialogue, we'll ensure that our strategic plan also paves the way for a strong implementation as we are working to create the plan with the people and not for our people. Once we get this feedback from those different groups, uh we will compile that and uh we will be forming some priority work focused workg groups and those folks will take all the feedback together and begin drafting uh the beginnings of the new plan. And so uh th these priority focused work groups are going to be made up of OCS staff and community stakeholders including our board members. will be asking you to be a part of these priority work groups. Um, in folks who are interested in serving on this, they're they're going to be small work teams. So, think about it kind
140of as a funnel. We're funneling down information, right? We're getting lots and lots of wide openen information. And now we're going to come together and bring this together and and work on what does all this mean and how do we uh put this into our priorities. And so uh in January we'll have uh an opening for people to express interest and uh that they want to be a part of these work groups and which group that they want to be a part of. So more about that to come. So we're excited. I don't know if you can tell, but we're really excited about this process. And uh we uh we know that we will inspire, engage, challenge, inspire folks as we go through this process. And that's what we are here to do. That's our
141model. That's what we're uh sinking into. Uh we showed you this timeline back in um the summer. And I just put it back in here to show you like we're on time. We're doing, you know, we're doing it. It's a lot. Uh but we're in uh midst of the stakeholder engagement and feedback phase and uh once we get all that we'll be pulling it together. Uh that's where it may end up stretching. So I ask for again remind you that we may need some flexibility about where that because we it's not about meeting a deadline so much as making sure we have the right plan together. Uh but right now we're on time and we're looking forward to the information and meeting with our our community soon. So for that we'll take any questions that
142you might have. >> I don't have any questions. I just want to say thank you for going through all of this and and as as you were sitting here as I was sitting here listening to you, my mind kept going back to the students that were in here tonight >> and our our current Yeah. Our current students need to be a part of this. But we had some impressive students that are graduating college and in college. That would be a a nice poll to choose from to get some more kids to try to get them in here to to give us some feedback and give us some perspective that we don't have that us older folks don't have. I guess the best way to put that. Um, so I kept thinking how we could incorporate
143those children to >> young adults to come back, right? >> Not children. >> We were like, why weren't we why weren't we recording that? So, but we're going to we're going to go back and watch it and capture their comments. >> Yeah. But great job and um we appreciate all you're doing. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. So, if I've learned anything, it's that you all are incredibly knowledgeable about education and some of the challenges that lie ahead for us that we're going to have to strategically look at over the next five years. And I was curious if in your and and I love that you're going out to the to the community. And I love the sites that you picked. So, thank you for that. And but I wonder if you're going to use the
144process to educate the community and get in front of them and show them how smart you are and how compassionate you are about what what we need to really deal with and engage them in in if you will joint pro I think you miss Padilla opened the meeting and talked about working problems together but to to not you know to go past what would you like to see to these are some of the challenges we're dealing with and here's some of the things we're thinking about to really get the conversation to a different level. Are we looking at stuff like that? >> Um, so at our convenings, it won't just be all listening. There'll be a an opening and we'll talk a little bit about the state of our schools and where we're headed. Um,
145and that will give an opportunity to to lay the groundwork for some of those items. Um, I think some of that will come in some of the work groups as well. um uh we will strategically align some educational experts with each of the priority areas that emerge so that um those groups can really focus on those those topics as well. >> Cool. Anything you want to add to that? >> Um thank you. I mainly want to say thank you. This looks really um uh not just on time which but like the timeline is smart and it's uh like robust and multiaceted. Um, I I love the two large listening sessions and then the five really clear um neighborhood listening sessions. Really glad there's a Spanish um a prioritize Spanish language um listening session. And I'm
146noticing uh you know just going back and digesting what's in here the different months when different things are targeted like the big listings November December neighborhood January February but those uh workshop groups like the um leadership team superintendent to etc student that's ongoing right like that's not the month in between like February March those are ongoing so all throughout the process you'll be um like you said you're working with students tomorrow so um really really glad to see that so thank Thank you. >> I just want to say thank you. I wasn't feeling well. I just want to make it clear once again. I do have a peanut allergy and there was some peanut airborne in here that I was not feeling well that I needed to take care of myself. So, can you guys
147be mindful if you if I have to remind you before I be meeting to not to have anything with peanut because it's not a good feeling. But thank you so much for the presentation and I look forward to going into some some of the meetings in the community, but looks this looks really good. >> Sorry that happened. >> Yeah. >> All right. So, I just wanted to say thank you as well. And just a perspective is the last time we did this, we hired an outside company. And so, I just want to say thank you for taking this on and leading it as our district and pulling in all of the groups. And the last plan was not nearly this comprehensive. So, thank you for all the thoughtfulness and the teams putting this together. I'm
148looking forward and excited to see the outcome of this. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. And the last item on our agenda is uh the uh ORAD school planning and student assignment contract. You >> want me to take it? >> So, Mr. Davis, thank you for for the proposal. And I just want to maybe start by thanking you for your courage to tell us that we had all the data about our schools and our projections and our growth wrong. And we were wrong. Walpert was wrong. Orid was wrong. And we were looking at a 12% growth number. And you said, "Nah, not that. Really more like 6% decline." And then tonight's presentation was even more sobering. Um you also in the last episode we we thought within the decline that Flynn was a
149growing school and now with a new charter school coming in and others that that trend has changed and I don't know if it's one data point or if it's directional. We know the charter school is adding grades over the next few years and there are other um pressures on enrollment. And so, um, what I thought we were doing, and maybe I had this all wrong, but I thought when Orid was here last month, was it last month? Last month, month before, they said they were going to be doing a I thought of as a baseline redistricting study or assignment. They weren't redistricting. They're just telling us where all the kids were and um where all the kids where all the students were and where they seem to be going and also how does transportation look
150and the context of that I thought was to validate for our board that the new school in F1 was the right place that that was the right place to put the school. That's what I thought. So when I read the proposal, I saw the the uh work that you want to do, the important work that you want to do to look at the capacity of the schools as a modeling process. I thought that was great. I wasn't expecting that, but that the student assignment work and the transportation study didn't happen for another two years and I thought it was going to happen this year. So tell me where I got that wrong. >> I think it's about the cadence. Um early on we thought we understood the data as Dr. Pack and her team. so
151eloquently uh showcased today is ever changing. And so uh in speaking with Dr. Jones, we want to make sure our cadence with the student assignment is aligned um with the new facility and the master planning of all of our facilities. Uh and so talking with ORED, we outlined in the proposal what we will be doing and those deliverables uh for over the course of the next three years. Um so that uh once the school is built uh students will metriculate to their assigned schools based on our facility efficiency which aligns with the new strategic plan um that we're currently in uh and hopefully uh we'll have some of that same important strategic plans in the new strategic plan that the community uh upholds. So I think to answer your question uh it's a little bit
152more comprehensive than just salows of transportation and and student assignment and it's a bigger picture that we expand over the next two to three years. >> So when do we start the the I think we still have a capacity question and when do we start the design of the new school? >> Yeah. So the design of the new school uh we're currently RFQ out for designers now. Um we anticipate the school opening in 29. So if you uh rewind this about two years of construction, about a year of design. So we're right on track um with completing that school in 2029. The student assignment um based on policy uh needs to be completed by 2028. And so any students that are are new or may be going to the new school uh they need proper
153notification and so outlining the propos proposal uh is the cadence of how or will help us achieve our goal. So, no concern given the the apparent the changes in the numbers. There's no concern that or I don't know if concern is the right word, but there's you don't see a need for us to validate the data because we're looking at replacing a Hillsboro school, I think. And I mean, I don't know. I guess I'm just just wanted some validation. I don't know what the right answer is. >> Miss Hower, do you have questions about the contract? Well, I have questions about should the you know, we moved when it was presented to us, we were told that we were doing a a study now, but now that study's been moved out two years and so
154the question is what would it take to move the study back and do it now just to improve our confidence and is that a because I thought it was like a $25,000 piece. It wasn't a very expensive study. So, so I think what the approach that we want to take because redistricting, I mean, if we take a look at the history here, it's been a challenge, right? >> Absolutely. >> Also, um the fact that we really want to be intentional about master planning with our facilities and really understanding what is happening in Orange County population and our district. And because those numbers change over time, we just want to be um comprehensive when it comes to that so that we can have better informed decision making throughout this process. And so it's not we did
155not engage in this contract to um validate any decisions that were already made. It's really looking ahead at the work that's in front of us. um knowing that we're going to have a school come online in 2029, knowing that we have some decrease in enrollment, there's some work that needs to be do with projections, we don't have the expertise in our um district to do that. And so that's why we have a three-year contract to look at all of that in collaboration with the county who's um contracting with Carolina Demography. They're going to take that information. We're going to work hand inand along with our student assignments um department providing them information so we all have a complete understanding of what's happening and inform the decisions moving forward. And so um again the the the
156contract was not to um confirm or validate any decisions that were already made. It was just to keep us pushing and moving forward in that direction. >> Yeah. I'm sorry. I thought it was to confirm or validate our assumptions. In a perfect world, the study though the the planning in the master plan would have been done before we built any schools or planned any schools, right? That would be the overall goal of the master plan. But um I I hear you. I'm I'm a little disappointed. I think it would have been nice for us to have the validation. I thought that was what we had talked about. That's what we had talked about a couple months ago. So, but this is a change. I I understand. I I would Is it um does anyone on
157the board I would love to to add add back the the validation. Am I the only one on the board that that is interested in that? I think it's in the interest of the taxpayers to do it, but so I'm saying no interest. I don't we voted to have the school where it's going and then that's a process that's being planned. So, >> we're working towards that goal over these years with everybody that we have. >> I understand. And the underlying data assumptions that were given to us that we based that decision on have changed. And so now that the data has changed, is this a time to take a look, not change the plan, take a look and make sure we're still on on the right direction. That that would be the goal of
158this. And again, it's not about change because I love the idea that you put the whole proposal together. I think that's great. I was um disappointed to see that this this step that we had talked about at several in several meetings had been eliminated. Just just a comment that's not directly related to your concern, Bonnie, but just I I feel like we once again like the stability piece and I think uh I know Dr. Jones, you've talked a lot about just annual uh building utilization rates. You know, I feel like we're having more consistent this isn't it's not like we're waiting and we won't know until after ORA does work. you know, it's not like we we aren't tracking our own data, but it's like a a broader contract, you know, that that will have
159alignment with the county, which is which is always helpful because we always have challenges, you know, when we're doing our conclusions and then we're kind of explaining our conclusions to the county. So, I think it's it's a good uh important um agreement, but it's not like we aren't looking at our own data. Dr. Dr. Jones's team is doing that, and you know, I I trust that process as well. So, um I would I would like to um when people are ready to not discuss further, I'd be ready to >> Yeah, I agree with that, Carrie. I miss Doyle. I I agree that that the broader contract is a better contract than just doing the isolated one. It's just that we took an important piece that we were going to do sooner that tied to our
160project that is on the table now and we eliminated it. So, we are going to go with the old data which we know has changed. So, if that's the board's pleasure, you know, wouldn't be my preference, but I'm not going to stop the contract. >> Let me just clarify. Um, the more inputs guarantees a greater output. And so, what the contract proposal identifies is that there are several inputs along this three-year journey. Um, and it's just not data. its data and then disseminating that data, getting community input so that when we do have a comprehensive plan for student reassignment, uh those that will be impacted know why we got to this point and not just data. And so, um this includes uh the data we have now and the data we'll have in the future
161in this comprehensive plan. >> Right. Understood that. That's understood. >> All right. Well, I'm happy to move the contract. >> Okay. Do we have a second? Second. >> Not happy, but happy. I'm moving. >> Any further discussion? >> All right. All in favor? I >> I >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Having no further business for the board, uh, can we get a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Have a motion, a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I. I. I. I. >> This meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone for your time tonight. Enjoy your ride.