001Good evening. I'd like to call this um session of the Orange County Board of Education to order. And I need a motion to enter close session, please. So moved. All All in favor? I I. All right. We will move to close session and be back shortly. You're all set. I'm ready. Go ahead. Good evening everyone. I'd like to call this session of the Orange County Board of Education to order. We are in open session and we will begin with the reading of the public charge. 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 citizens. The board asks its citizens to conduct themselves with the same courtesy toward both school personnel and each other. A moment of
002silence 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 interruption of the meeting. And if everyone would please stand, we will have 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. Thank you. We will now observe a moment of silence. Okay, thank you very much. Tonight we have several recognitions and we will start with um Dr. Laneir I believe with uh Pride Month. Good evening. Can you hear me? Yeah, I can. Good
003evening, Madame Chair, vice chair, members of the board, Dr. Jones, fellow cabinet members, and members of the OCS community. From loved ones to chosen families, and family members, the LGBTQ plus community is an important part of the culture. This month and every month, we celebrate the innovators, caretakers, dreamers, and disruptors who keep our communities fierce and flourishing, honoring the history, resilience, and contributions of individuals who continue to inspire change and champion love, equality, and authenticity. Pride isn't just a word. It's how all of us live, love, and lift each other up every single day. Every aspect of someone's being is worthy. Every version is beautiful. Inclusion, respect, and equality are at the heart of who we are. All of us loving all of us. Happy Pride Month. Thank you, Dr. Laneir. At this time, Carrie
004Doyle is going to read the resolution that this board wrote um last year, I think, is when it was last updated. um and she is going to read the resolution that is titled resolution honoring pride month and celebrating LGBTQ plus students, staff and community members. So if you all will listen for a few minutes. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair. Whereas, the Orange County Board of Education acknowledges the dignity and worth of all students and employees and strives to create a safe, caring, and responsive school environment to facilitate student learning and achievement. And whereas the board prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or age. And as noted in policy 1710, the board will not tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment, or bullying in
005any of its educational or employment activities or programs. And whereas OCS gender support guidelines state that quote OCS staff play an essential role in creating a supportive school culture and advocating for the well-being of all students. It is important for school staff, students, and parents to be aware that transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming students may be at a higher risk for peer ostracism, victimization, and bullying because of bias and/or the possibility of misunderstanding and lack of knowledge about their lives. Schools must be proactive in creating a school culture that respects and values all students and fosters an understanding of gender identity and expression within the school community. And whereas June 2025 marks the 55th anniversary of the first pride parade, which came one year after the Stonewall uprising of 1969, six nights of riots led
006by transgender women of color like Marcia P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, sparked when LGBTQ plus people resisted police harassment and brutality during an early morning bar raid. It was a historic moment that served as a catalyst for the LGBTQ plus rights movement in the United States and around the world. And whereas the decades since have been ones of struggle and celebration for the LGBTQ plus community, despite increased support and acceptance, LGBTQ plus young people still face many challenges. For example, without accepting families, they are more likely to experience homelessness and nearly five times more likely to attempt suicide. And whereas in June 2025, there are 593 anti-LGBTQ plus bills in the US, including bills that would limit representation of gender diverse and LGBTQ plus people in the curriculum in schools, access to medical care, and
007participation in sports. And whereas the Trevor Project reports in 2024 that quote roughly half of transgender and non-binary young people found school to be gender affirming and those who did reported lower rates of attempting suicide. And whereas the Trevor Project National Survey on LGBTQ youth mental health in 2021 reported that 75% of LGBTQ plus youth had experienced discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity at least once in their lifetime. and over half had experienced this form of discrimination in the past year. And whereas LGBTQ plus people in the United States face disparities in employment, health care, education, housing, and many other areas central to the pursuit of happiness in the United States. And whereas Cornell University's what we know project found that LGBTQ plus people of color face disproportionately higher rates of discrimination
008in the workplace and community at large, exceeding discrimination experienced by both white LGBTQ plus people and by straight people of color. And whereas the Orange County School Board appreciates the many contributions made by lesbian, gay, bisexual, tri transgender, and queer LGBTQ plus students, staff, families, and community members to the vibrancy of the broader school community. And whereas it is imperative that young people in our community, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression, feel valued, safe, empowered, and supported by their community. And now therefore, be it resolved that the Orange County School Board does hereby proclaim the month of June as LGBTQ plus Pride Month in Orange County schools. And be it further resolved that the Orange County School Board commits to working with LGBTQ plus students, families, staff, and community members to build safe
009and equitable schools where all students, families, and staff members are valued for who they are and where diversity is celebrated. And be it further resolved that the Orange County School Board encourages central services and administrators to support educators across grade levels and content areas to acknowledge and celebrate LGBTQ plus pride month each June. And be it further resolved that the Orange County School Board urges all students, staff, and community members to respect and honor our diverse community and to build a culture of inclusivity and equity not only during LGBTQ plus pride month but during the other 11 months of the year as well. Thank you, Miss Doyle. At this time, I would like to ask the board if you would be amanable to us adding putting this on the consent agenda as item 12, the
010resolution honoring Pride Month celebrating LGBTQ students, LGBTQ plus student, staff, and community members with the um as item 12 on the consent agenda with the two changes that uh were made in this that this is now the 55th anniversary of the first pride parade and that there are 593 anti-LGBTQ bills in the US including bills that would limit our representation of gender diverse and LGBT plus uh people in the curriculum schools access to medical care and participation in sports. If you are amenable to that, I would like to add this updated resolution as item 12. Suggest that that would be an appropriate motion when it's when we get to the agenda adoption, but I think we still have two more presentation items. But I would Okay. So, just don't say on yet because we're not
011there on the agenda yet, but that we can entertain a motion and just know it's coming. Just know it's come. Okay. We have two more recognitions. Right now, we would like to recommend um honor Kim Freeman from the Hillsboro Arts Council. And I think Dr. PAC is part of that presentation. Good evening, Chair Purcell, uh members of the board, Superintendent Jones, and our community. Tonight, Orange County Schools extends our sincere appreciation to our local arts galleries for their ongoing partnership and support of our students. These galleries have generously open their spaces to showcase our students artwork, providing young artists with the invaluable opportunity to display their talents in professional settings. By elevating student voice through visual expression, our community galleries are not only celebrating creativity, but also affirming the value of arts education and shaping
012well well-rounded learners. We are deeply grateful for their role in nurturing the next generation of artists and for helping us make student achievement visible beyond the classroom. At this time, I would like to turn it over to Miss Shepley, visual arts IB teacher at Cedar Ridge High School, to recognize the owners and operators of those galleries that have been so supportive of our of our students. Good evening, board, Madame Chair, Dr. Jones, nice to see you. Before I even speak about our wonderful galleries, I have to speak about my wonderful kids. I only contacted them Wednesday. I contacted 30 IB kids that have been in the galleries and out of that I had twothirds to answer. One-third is standing here. That tells you that art brings a sense of community. It tells you how valuable
013IB is to these students and in their curriculum. I'd like to recognize my principal. The kids are dwarfing my principal who's here as well to support what we're doing and what we're thanking the gallery directors for. So, both directors, I didn't I didn't hear if you said Mary Knox as well with her husband. I didn't I didn't hear that part. General together. Right. I wanted to read a couple testimonies from some of my students that are not here. I not only solicited written information because I like writing, right? I got these kids to come. So, this is from one of the students that's not able to come. Dear gallery managers Margaret Lane Gallery and the Hillsbor Arts Council have been incredibly generous providing spaces for young talent to showcase their work and experience art in
014social and professional settings. I had the privilege of presenting my IB exhibition, Our Moments in Time, alongside my fellow peer and continuous collaborator, Michelle Castellinus, at the Margaret Lane Gallery. This experience is foundational in my aspirations of pursuing a career in curatorial work within museums and galleries. I began volunteering with the Hillsboro Arts Council three years ago and then became their first intern where I supported their marketing director. Due to these experiences, I earned a curatorial internship at North Carolina Museum of Art for their modern and contemporary art galleries. Further, these experiences contributed to my recent admission and art history graduate program at George Mason University. Without the amazing people working in Hillsboro art scene, I would not have been able to reach my ambitions to this extent. Thank you again to Margaret Lane Gallery
015and to the Hillsboro Arts Council for their continuous support of young artists. This is Melissa Garcia Corona and the best friend that she speaks of is Michelle. Hello, I'm Michelle Castellinus, a former IB art student who was privileged to pres to present my IB art show, our moments in time at Margaret Lane Gallery a couple of years alongside my close friend Melissa. I'm writing to express my gratitate gratitude toward Margaret Lane Gallery and the Hillsborough Arts Council for giving youth and Hillsborough and surrounding towns a chance to shine and be represented in a more professional artistic setting. The opportunity helped me feel more confident about pursuing my artistic endeavors. For instance, I gra I just graduated from Parson School of Design in New York City with a BFA in communication design and a minor in
016printmaking. Additionally, all the events hosted by the Hillsboro Arts Council are exciting and always enjoyable to experience when I'm back home in North Carolina. To this day, I try my best to make it to last Friday to help me foster some of my strongest friendships with two of my closest friends that I met through IB Art. Thank you for everything and I'm excited to see what's next for the Hillsboro Arts Council, Margaret Lane Gallery. And then I have lots of success stories, but I have one more. My name is Sarah Carson and in 2023 I exhibited my work at the Hillsborough Arts Council in my first ever solo show. The artmaking process, planning, curatorial design and the promotion of my show was a huge learning experience for me that has benefited me in some many
017ways since. The Hillsboro Arts Council went above and beyond to make sure all the effort I'd put in was evident through my gallery show and offered so much support and help. They provided me with a beautiful space for my gallery and reception, making the entire process so much more memorable. After my show had ended, Kim, the gallery manager, offered me an opportunity to become a signed artist with the store, which lasted for a year and a half, which I cannot begin to express how thankful I am for that. Just another example of how the Hillsboro Arts Council and its amazing staff went above and beyond for me. Today, I'm working on my BFA, concentrating in graphic design in my third year at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte, where I have had multiple internships
018and work opportunities and a professional as a professional photographer and graphic designer. Having had the experience of showing my work in a professional gallery setting has helped setting has helped me immensely in these roles and it has given me the experience with artist client relations as an understanding of the curatorial planning process and platform to share my ideas and work. Not all my kids go into art. I just read you the art success stories. How many of you guys are pursuing art? They're not all artists but they love art and they loved IB. And you know what? It prepared them for college. That's what they sell us. And it builds a sense of community. And here they are. We'd like to present you all with your awards. if you'll come up. Say their name [Applause]
019a packet for each of them hot off the press from school today. I was late to our dinner, wasn't I, guys? because I was in our office trying to print out beautiful testimonies, pictures of some of the kids, some you'll recognize. It's not all of them. It's just what I could get together for you guys. Okay. It's just what I could get together. Okay. Um Joanna Joanna would volunteered to say a few words. Oh yes. Okay. Um so I'm Joanna. I graduated in 2019 and uh that is the same year I had my art exhibit for IB at the Hillsboro Arts Council. That was that was a year. I can say that. Um, not only did I feel like I was a real artist when I was able to see my art in a gallery
020space, but I know that my friend Miranda Brown, who shared the exhibit with me, was able to sell art. And man, when you're an artist, selling art is a big deal, especially at her age that year as well. Um, and this is a little personal, but my parents separated and that was the first time I had seen them all together and happy in a very long time. So, having that space meant a lot to me and I'm really happy I was picked to hand you that award cuz I just wanted to say thank you to your face because that was that was a big deal for me. Thank you. [Applause] is presenting the award to the other girl. Ryan does not have to say words. Ryan's our metal smith around town if you've seen the
021big Ryan's the metal smith around town if you see the big sculptures, but he learned how to paint in IB. Not with a whole lot of color, but he did learn how to paint. So, art builds such a sense of community, and I just want to thank you all for helping foster these positive feelings. if nothing else, the positive self-worth that these students got from being able to be in your gallery. So, thank you very much. [Applause] Thank you so much. Thank you. What a wonderful opportunity. Thank you. Oh, I do. Congratulations. Less tall. Less tall people in the front. More tall people in the back. I want to stand up on a chair. So let's let's create a little there. Let's have a little hole for Mrs. Hower. So you in in the dress
022and there you go. Perfect. Thank you. All right, students and board. Are you with me? Looking up the phone. One, two, and three. Thank you for that. Awesome. Thank you all so much. Thank you all for coming out tonight. It's nice to see students in here. Even though school is out, we're happy to have students in here tonight and hear your stories. So, thank you very much. We appreciate all that you do. Okay. All right. I need a motion to um approve the um adopt the agenda with or a motion to amend the agenda. Motion to approve to adopt the agenda. Yes. My cold is acting with the with pulling. Is this where I do that or wait for this? We could we could have a motion to entertain the agenda as amended if anyone
023wants to recommend any specific amendments or you could have two separate motions, one to amend and one to approve. We pulling consent items now. Pull consent items now. This would be when you can pull consent items. Go ahead and pull consent items now. Okay. We're doing things a little different, but that's fine. Uh I have been asked that we would like to pull item 5010 for further um discussion. And we would like to add as item number the uh resolution as it was read by Mrs. Do with the changes that I have already mentioned and also I pull item 8 I I on the math the uh co math um curriculum 9 to 12 coherent 8 I I coherent math grades 9 through 12. Yep. Okay. I did not know that one. Okay. So that
024is two items that we have pulled. Item 5010, policy 5010 for further discussion and item 8 I I coherent math grades 9 through 12 for further discussion and and adding the uh LGBTQ plus pride month resolution as I so stated earlier. Two changes. So to recap, I guess we're looking for a motion that would approve the agenda with three changes. pull policy 5010 and the math curriculum from the consent agenda, add to the action and discussion agenda, and add to the consent agenda the resolution that was read previously. So moved. Second. All in favor? I I Okay, that is done. Thank you. We don't have to say that again. Okay, now we will move on to public comments of which I am seeing that there are none tonight. Okay. So, we will have board comments.
025Um, Miss Hower, would you like to start, please? Sure. Sure. Uh, thank you. I wanted to start with a big congratulations to all our graduates. This, uh, the big day, of course, is Friday at the Dean Dome, but just a warning to our, uh, big high schools that partnership set the bar pretty high last week with their graduation uh, with their largest graduating class ever. Um, and also worth mentioning the incredible work of Project Search and AVID and other groups who have been hosting graduation. I feel like we went to a mini graduation tonight with our IB students. It is a very proud time to be on the Orange County School Board. So, thank you all for that. Um, and then I also wanted to extend a big thank you to our board and all
026the friends and neighbors, including our friends tonight who are from public schools strong who took the time to speak out and write to our commissioners for more money for teachers and staff. And it's a really hard budget year, so the commissioners were not able to give us more money, but our teachers and our staff noticed. So, I just wanted to say big thank you for that for for supporting them. Um, also just a note to the board. I attended the um le the school boards association legislative update last week and their feeling is that the state budgets are going to be decided around taxes. And what's happening is the Senate wants to lower our income tax rates u under a schedule that's already been set. And if if they do that, then the income tax
027rates will take priority. The House would like to slow down the income tax cuts so that they can um free up make more money available to pay teachers and staff and other important priorities. So right now that is a debate. Um the House wants to spend more money on schools. The Senate wants to give more tax cuts and we'll see how that unfolds. Uh we'll be I think we'll all be watching this closely. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Anthony. It's been a very busy month to say the least. Um so congratulations to all the families and graduates. Um as mentioned the partner gra uh partnership graduation was amazing. Um I got to attend the minorities and steam at Orange High School. It was a wonderful event seeing all the students engaged learning about the robotics program
028at New Hope and their expansion there. uh the project search graduation and this was something that was started uh as I got on the board and it has just met beyond expectations on how we support and engage our community. Uh the Orange High and Cedar Ridge High senior awards, it's wonderful to hear all of our students accomplishments. uh listening to some of the stories and the teachers and just the excitement from the students cheering themselves, it was very heartwarming. Uh we celebrated the FFA banquet uh was wonderful. Uh always great to hear their accomplishments, especially the community give back. We talk a lot about them competing, but also how important it is for the things they do within our community and their give back. um like to thank uh our human relations department for uh
029the celebration of retirees. It was a wonderful event. I was very glad to see it back and us to you know wish the Orange County Schools family uh our extension uh farewell. It's it was wonderful and a little teareyed but it was wonderful for us to have that. Um the Orange High School art exhibit uh was wonderful to see. they um had it set up for all of their grades and just amazing talent uh from all of our students. Um went to the Cedar Ridge art show. Um that's where Miss Shley had a lot of the art set up. Um they also had the Cedar Ridge ac cappella singing as you walked in. So it was wonderful to have that going on as you walked in. Um, I really liked the 3D boxes that they
030had there. It was amazing to see. Uh, got to attend the HS retirey celebration. Uh, that was separate where had the first principal of HS come out and wish them well. Uh, there were several teachers that had taught there over the years to come back and reminisce about how it started and grew and find out about central office being there at the buildings originally. Uh just wonderful to hear uh the summer's career academy where we signed an orientation to see our students getting the opportunity to not only get hands-on learning but learning life lessons and making real money. It's it's wonderful to see. Um got to attend uh gun violence pre prevention. Uh Miss Padilla was there as well. It was a wonderful turnout to hear from the community. uh sheriff's department spoke uh talking
031about uh ways that we can all um prevent and also they handed out free gun locks and uh snacks to all the participants. Um the other thing is I wanted to thank Miss Doto for taking the time to read tonight and for updating the resolution for us. Um, also wanted to take a moment to thank Hillsboro Art Council and Margaret Lane's Art Gallery. Every time I've gone in there, they are so excited about our students. They want to help. They want to talk about them. And they also always tell us when the next ones are coming up. And also um although we didn't say it, Miss Shepley just amazing how she engages in the IB program and really has those kids think and really shines on what the IB program could do. Uh last, I
032just wanted to also thank everyone that came out and support of Orange County Schools and asking for us being fully funded. Uh it is a challenging time and we're in a very competitive market. So really appreciate all of you that came out and spoke. Thank you. Okay, Miss Thank you. Um I just want to echo some of those um sentiments about our graduates. It's it really has been an exciting end of the school year um in waves uh for for all of us and many of us across the district. and um my family as well. We've had a couple graduates this season. Um and so shout out to all the educators and all the staff members in schools. Um just keeping everything at a high level right to the end and celebrating kids because it's
033it's just really excited exciting to make it to those special events, the award nights, um the different shows and all the uh graduation ceremonies. Um, and also thank you everyone for coming out tonight and and those art galleries really are special places. I mean, they're just carved out zones for our students and that's a really unique gift. Um, that's one of those Orange County Schools gems. So, thank you. Molly, it's great. Um, just ditto on all of the excitement about all of the end of year celebrations. I love this time of year. Um teachers, I hope you get some welldeserved time this summer um to relax. Um you have earned it. Uh and congratulations to all the graduates. Um a couple of other specific things I wanted to bring up. Um I did attend um
034the most recent Orange County Climate Council meeting. Um and just wanted to let you all know and the public know. Um you may have seen some of this on social media from Orange County. They're doing a beat the heat campaign over the course of the summer with weekly tips and things like that. I did not realize this. Heat is in the last 30 years, heat is the number one weather related killer. More than tornadoes, more than flooding, more than lightning. The number one thing is heat. And this time of the year is the most dangerous time because our bodies are not acclimated to it. Um so we're seeing things um you know it is getting hotter um and there's a bunch of actually I'll spread I'll share the uh PowerPoint with you because there's some
035data in here, but you know we're seeing more heat related illness. um in emergency rooms and things and it's it's just really um important. Um and so a couple of things I wanted to suggest. One is just uh following the county on social media on Facebook. They're going to be putting out all of these tips um uh and and in critical times they'll be putting out information about cooling centers and and places that people can go resources um for um when there are excessive heat events. And then the other piece is if anyone has not signed up for OC alerts to get those notices about um dangerous uh heat days, um you can go um sign up for OC if you Google OC alerts. Um you can sign up to be getting text messages and
036those warnings because sometimes it's hard to know and they can kind of come out of nowhere. There were a couple of days last summer where the heat levels came out of nowhere and were really pretty dangerous for people. Um so um climate council only meets twice a year. That's the update from the most recent one. Um and then just wanted to thank you Kat Krie for bringing the um Pride Month resolution. Um Dr. Laneir, you spoke about um Pride Month being all about um the centering of love, equality, and authenticity. And um that's what the month is all about. And so happy Pride Month um to everyone. Miss Padilla. Thank you, chair. June celebrations, there's so many. And I just want to highlight that I'm delighted that uh we brought up the resolution for Pride
037Month. Also to remind everybody that is June 10th to participate in the community celebrating June 10th. And it's also men's health month. So please men go to the doctor. So I did go to that a lot of events like everyone else. So I don't want to repeat them. Um, but I also want to congratulate the community public school strong for keeping us strong and advocating for our community and uh congratulate all the parents and the seniors that are graduating. Um, but now I have a few words to share with you. Despite the constant uncertainty, we need to remember that we are all Orange County. By working together despite differences, we are stronger united for the sake of all of our students in Orange County and beyond. While funding challenges present obstacles, they also offer opportunities
038for our community communities to become more resilient and resourceful. By working together, fostering collaboration, and advocating for everyone, we can we can have a brighter future for all. To end, I wish everyone a safe, joyful, fun, and loving summer. And thank you. Thank you, Mr. Richmond. Do you have anything to add? Yes, ma'am. I think I will add also um congratulations to all the graduates, all the promotions and to all the families. And please please enjoy your summer because we'll be back in school before you know it. The summer the summers get shorter. I would just like to add that uh I have attended many many many things over the past month that have celebrated our students and it is a wonderful thing to see. Um looking forward, excuse me, to graduation on this Friday.
039Um, and I would also like to thank um our uh woodworking shop at Cedar Ridge High School because they created the plaques that the um arts um students presented tonight to the um to Hills to the art centers downtown where they um placed their artwork. So, I'd just like to put give a shout out to them because they did create those for us and uh just thank Miss Shipley for all she does that helps our students so much in that program and wish everyone a happy summer because it's it's here. Dr. Jones, do you have anything? I do. Um good evening, Chair Purcell, Vice Chair Richmond, members of the board, students, staff, and community members. I want to congratulate our students, staff, and community on a successful end of the school year. We celebrated our
040seniors at Partnership Academy last week with an amazing graduation. Um this Friday, Orange High School and Cedar Ridge students will graduate. We are so excited for them. I want to take a few minutes just to share some highlights shared by each principal that we are very proud of. I'll start with Cedar Ridge High School. They have 246 graduates this year. Um they have received 1.5 million in scholarships. 88 students graduated with honors or will graduate with honors. Seven students will move on to play um sports at the college level. Four students earned an associates degree. Nine students obtained community college certificates. There were 17 um IB full diploma candidates and 38 IB certificates awarded, 15 graduates in the min minority achievers program and at least one student attending um Princeton and Duke in the fall.
041At Orange High School, they will have 312 graduates, 5.1 million awarded in scholarships. 126 are graduating with honors. This class has four students graduating with an associates degree, four students who obtained community college certificates, 29 inducted into the National Technical Honor Society, and 30 into the Minority Achievers Program, 50 inducted into Beta Club, 14 completed the Orange Engineering and Design Academy, one first generation college student accepted into Duke University, and another accepted into Duke University. Of the 103 student athletes that would graduate on Friday, 17 are committed to play in college. Last but not least, Partnership Academy graduated 19 students. Um they have one student who will join the United States Army. Four students will further their education and attend community college. And seven are entering the workforce and currently employed. Um, I am eternally
042grateful to all of our partners, our principles, our teachers, our support staff that go above and beyond every single day to support our students. We saw some of that um on exhibit get it exhibit art here today. Um, without the support of the community and a a dedicated teacher and principal, that would not happen. So, I'm very thankful for our board, for this community, for all of the support that they provide our our students. Uh, thank you to our parents, the board, uh, my wonderful team who also works day in and day out really hard to support our students and staff to ensure that we can provide the best education possible to our our our children in this community. Um, I'm proud of the class of 2025 and all of the work that they did
043and I am excited to enter into summer. I think Miss Purcell said they go by quickly, but we're already counting down the summer. So, we have a lot of work to do. We're excited to start um next school year and have even more success stories to share. Thank you. That concludes my comments. Thank you very much. All right. At this time, unless I've got this, hope I've got this right now. Uh we will move into our consent agenda uh with the items that we need to have further discussion on. And number one will be policy 5010 for further discussion. Um are there questions or would you like to just approved consent agenda. Well, I thought we just did that. We we amended the agenda, which did that. You've amended the agenda, but you haven't yet
044had a vote on the consent agenda. All right, I'll back up. Three-step process. A motion to approve the modified consent agenda. Okay. Second. All in favor? I I Okay, my fault. I thought that had already been done when we just approved the agenda adoption, but Okay. All right. policy 5010 for further information uh and questions. Who would like to start? I I guess I'll start uh for the the policy committee because there were some questions about this. Um, so the board is hired the North Carolina School Boards Association to help us go through all of our policies, update them, get them to a standard format that we can leverage a lot of the North Carolina uh, school boards associations policies and modify them where it makes sense for Orange County uh, schools. So this policy
045510 um when it's presented uh it appears that uh we are modifying a lot in this policy and I just want to highlight that everything that's added to this policy is from our existing policy. There was some wording tweaks in a couple of areas just for clarity. Um but it mostly has stayed the same. We did add in there uh instead of a full bar on debit cards that uh the board discourages parent community organizations from using debit cards associated with their account. But I just wanted to highlight that as kind of the foundation of where this policy came from and the wording in there. Uh, and I know Miss Hower, you have some questions. And I do know, um, there's one modification that we talked about doing, uh, in section B, number six, uh,
046where it says, um, failure to attend the training is grounds for the superintendent to deny an organization's right to operate at each school, I believe was the recommended wording. But with that, I'll step back and open up for questions, comments, thoughts. Question. Miss House, I'll just make some comments. First, I wanted to thank you because the old policy um the word egregious had come to mind. I don't know how many people have actually read the old policy 5010, but um and and it's a challenging topic because our incredible PTO's work really hard to raise money. They don't always have financial expertise. And so the question is what is the role of Orange County schools in helping them? Even though the policy is absolutely clear that they are separate, we're not managing them. It's we're not
047their board. We're not we don't run their bank accounts. So, but but but it's our parents money going to it. And I think the if I could speak the entire board really wants to um have asurances that that these organizations have what they need to manage the funds that they collect. Um, we took out as as Will will mentioned, we we took out this u this notion of the failure to attend training um is grounds for the superintendent to deny the organization's right to operate in a school. So, that's good. There's some duplication in the paragraph before. We also added to provide any financial documentation required by the um superintendent or chief finance officer. And I think that's that's covered in the school boards association policy where it says so I would recommend that we
048strike that too because it's duplicative to the school board's policy. There are other things um that I would like to change but I don't think this is my fight and what what has happened to us is we have heard from some of the PTA leaders or PTO leaders and they would like to uh to speak with with and I guess there's a question of who they should speak with but they would like to have some say in what this policy is what services we provide to them and how they even work with each other to share best practices and other things. So my first question is who should the PTO's go to if with to on the policies? Yeah, I'll just share that um after we receive feedback from those uh particular PTA or PTO
049presidents. I reached out to them and um let them know that they can contact me if they have any questions. But I think it's important um one they may have questions regarding the policy that our staff are happy to answer and so that line is of communication is open and two they may have some questions just regarding uh policy and how it's updated in general and we're happy to answer those questions as well but I have reached out to to that and that is open to anyone in the community when they have questions but our um update the way we update policy is transparent which is why we're discussing this now and it gives ample time for folks in the community if they have questions or if they have feedback to provide that to us
050and we're happy to take it. Can I just um follow up on that point with the suggestion? I think that's great and I think you're right that this is the this is why we have vote on a policy two times, right? We discuss it in public and then we vote on it again. Um, I'm wondering because this is one again there are not huge substantial changes to what the policy was in the past and I think that's important context but I wonder if we might if we do have sort of a contact person for each one just let them know after this meeting like because it's about their organizations just sort of let them know like the this is the policy. I mean, you could sort of link to the old one and the new
051one and just sort of let them know in the event that they do have questions or um concerns or whatever. Um, just give them somewhere to go. So, I don't want to confuse any new PTA or PTO or any PTO or PTA presidents that may not be aware of the conversation. So what I've talked with Miss Wrath about is when we do our annual training that the policies will be brought forward then and we can also make our principles aware of policies and they can work directly with their PTA or PTO presidents to make sure they understand all policies. That's really how that should should work. M I just wanted to um seems like a lifetime ago I was a PTA treasurer and I really appreciate the effort put forward. uh Dr. Jones by you
052and your team and Miss Wrath to um provide treasures in particular with all the training to do that job well um because it's you know it's confusing and you're kind of working within multiple different organizations you're connecting with NCPTA and to just have like a cohesive message provided for all treasurers across the district is is really like a nice service that I know is not required of um your team but is very helpful. So thank you Miss Hower, I just want to um comment that you know the our world from the time the original policy was written to today, our world has changed and you know the what I heard the PTO president say was not about commenting on the wording of this policy but commenting on the overall operation and management of the school
053district with the PTO's and they were asking for a collaborative ative and inclusive process where they can participate as a group and and hear each other as well as hear from us, right? They didn't just want to be told this this is how we operate. They want to learn from each other and they want hope maybe us to learn from them. So I just but so that's the process that I heard they were looking for. That's how I read the emails from them. And so I just was curious what is is it possible for us to create a process to engage our really important PTOs who are raising a lot of money with for our schools who are working very closely with our principles and teachers and families. Is there a process that we can
054create for them to engage? Well, this is speaking as a former principal, I think the first process um is a good one in having because when they meet with with finance, they're meeting their principles are there and the president, the vice president, the treasurer of the PTO is there and all of them are meeting together at the same time. So you've got 13 schools in the room that can ask questions among each other as well as to the superintendent and her team and to Miss Wrath and her team. So I think that is a I always found that is an excellent way to get the lines of communication open and let them talk among themselves as PTOs or PTSOs or PTAs. Um, plus you can also give them an opportunity then to talk about the
055rules that they have to follow following the guidelines for the North Carolina PTA board. I have to get all my letters in here. Um, so I think that what Miss Wrath does is an excellent and if I remember correctly, it's done very close to the beginning of school um, for obvious reasons. So, um, I also just I'm not sure that I understood you, Miss Hower, that you said you wanted to pull out something from NCSBA and maybe Mr. Athetherton heard that. Maybe I heard it wrong. No, no. I I um, first of all, just to sum to punctuate your point. So you're you're suggesting that the Rhonda's excuse me, Miss Reth's training session could be and I don't know if the agenda could be adapted to really make sure that the PTO's have an opportunity
056and I know they're they're listening but that they have an opportunity to engage and talk about this. I think that's a great idea. So um you know so that's one thing. Now the only thing I was saying is that we also added a sentence on clause six where it says um it says presidents are required to attend basic management training provided by the school system. I think that period we should period put a period there because this whole paragraphs about training and this option about providing financial documentation is is already covered under funds management clause C. But the the clause six is about training. It's not about providing documentation. So I don't think it was nec that was the right place to add that. It's it's redundant and it's out of place. So I would
057just suggest we take it out. Go ahead, Mr. Um, uh, Bonnie, I noticed that sentence as well because it almost sounded like if you failed to attend, you would receive a fiscal management procedure. So maybe we just need like a number seven. Like I don't have a problem with it being in there, but maybe we just need to indate indent and have a new line about the reporting. Yeah. About the parent or community organizations will receive a fiscal management procedure manual. I mean, that's a fine statement. I just think Oh, that's that's fine. I that that's part of the training. I'm looking at this uh it's the end of the first sentence. um third line when it says provide that they're required to attend training and provide financial documents that really has nothing to do
058with training. So I don't think it belongs there. Hold on. So Miss Wrath, do they bring their documents for part of the training? Is that what that means? Because my understanding was you want them there with their documents so y'all can talk about it and go through what they're what they're needing. Can you confirm that? Yes, some of them do bring the documents with them and some of them come and ask for examples. So, we look at the information at the meeting and uh talk about them and talk about best practices. Thank you. Yes, but that doesn't say that. As as I interpret that sentence, it it it is contemplating that the superintendent could require the PTAs to bring some of that financial documentation to the training. Okay, that's how I interpret it as well,
059but it's not necessarily required, but that but the superintendent could could say, "Hey, bring your financial documents to the meeting." Okay, that was added that wasn't part of the original policy. Well, could we add a section seven as Miss Do suggested and add another sentence to make more clarity or do we need more clarity? I it's I'm I'm okay with the the procedure manual that feels like it fits in with the training for me. You know, I I'm I have hesitance with language that talks about um people that are serving are required to, you know, that imposing requirements on on an attempt to be trained. I I I just have trouble with that language. If you all don't mind it, um you know, I I I mind it. I don't it doesn't addate value to
060me and it's I'm trying to soften the language to make it so well I think most of our PTOs and PTA PTAs and you correct me if I'm wrong Miss Wrath see the training and the information that they get from finance as something that supports them and helps them and helps them make sure that they're doing things the way that they are supposed to be I can confirm that based on my experience when uh these individuals do attend, they are very appreciative of uh the information that we provide them. They're looking for ways to be consistent um across all of their organizations and they're looking for ways to ensure that they are protecting uh what they are receiving from those um parents in those schools. And we're just there to offer best practices and guidance
061uh to them and to more than anything uh get them to network with one another um and introduce them to um other school individuals serving in those roles. Okay. Can I ask how do our PTOs learn about the training? I'm getting texts that that the PTO president never heard of them before. We reach out to the principles at the beginning um of the school year uh to find out who those individuals are and to get contact information and then we will reach out to them directly. Great. Great. Um I have one other question and that's um the old policy was on parent and community organizations and so I wonder what policy now we we have um e everything from robotics and sports clubs like the takedown club or the dugout club. We have the community
062centers. We have pet pals. We have other um they're not they're community organizations that work with our schools. So now that they're not part of this policy, how are what is the governing policy on or if somebody wants to work with Orange County schools, an organization wants to work with Orange County Schools, what should they do? And do we have a I think anyone that wants to partner with us can reach out to us directly. Um we have a process for community partners that they can um enter into and we can support them in that. We want to make sure that anyone that we partner with that they align with our mission and vision and goals within our strategic plan. And so that's part of our process. And so if they want to reach out
063to any of us, we're happy to do that. I think what separates a a parent organization is the access that they have to our students and to our buildings and um to our teachers and staff. And we appreciate all the work that they do. Um we are not in by any means trying to um deter anyone or any parent organization. They have been very helpful to us here in Orange County schools. As a principal, I really appreciated that. Um however when we grant that amount of access they get more access than any other community organization just based on the fact of um how they support our schools and quite frankly what's in this policy. And so I think um our goal is just to make sure that we are clear around some guidelines and best
064practices that I think are good financial practices. And um I'm sure if any uh PTA feels like we're overstepping at at any point, they'll contact me and they can contact the board as well and we'll have those conversations. But our goal is just honestly to um make sure that we protect the best interests of our students, the parents that give so generously and um not put anyone in a position where they have to account for something and that we've not been able to provide them with the support that they need to be successful. I was just my my question was was really a simple one. I I I really appreciate that all that happens, but do we is um there a policy that governs that or is it just, you know, since we don't have
065a community policy anymore, do we have a policy that governs the comm and do we need one? Maybe we don't need one because I know most of them are governed by their own contracts. I think my recommendation would be that um maybe Mr. Athetherton take that as the policy chair for right now and we can talk through that. Um if you want to look for a specific policy or make a recommendations Miss Hower I think the team will take that. Yeah there we have many policies that talk about external organizations and I think instead of trying to do that here we can as you suggested Dr. Jones come back with, you know, is it anouou? Is it um you know, working within a school operations? Uh but we'll we can go back talk within the
066policy committee or whoever's policy chair at that time to talk through it since we don't have any more meetings this year. Yeah. And I do think just to point out we do have active umus with community partners currently and so that is something that is currently in progress and seen seeing a lot of success there. So um there's nothing that prohibits anyone from partnering with us and again all they need to do is contact us but it is important that they align with our mission and vision and strategic plan goals so that we can best support them and they can best support us. And I love that. Thank you. Okay. Any further questions on any of this? So, motion to approve the policy with the changes. Which changes? And and that change, I believe, would
067be to section B6, right? And uh I think the idea was to um add to the sentence that currently reads, "Failure to attend the training is grounds for the superintendent to deny the organization's right to operate." Um I don't know that we settled on precise wording, but you could add something like at each school. uh to be clear that it's it's really not saying no you may no longer exist but you would lose your right to operate have privileged access to the school. Yeah. I'd love to change the sentence that says and to bring if it's means to bring to bring financial documentation but you guys don't want to do it. So um because it was ambiguous to me. I was looking at it from a lens of an outside group. But if you are
068okay with it I'm I'm okay to leave it. Mr. Kowick would like to add something too. Yeah. Um I think uh good evening everyone. Um are we talking about section six B6 B6? Yes. Where it says um and to provide any financial documentation? Um I I think um if I can direct everyone's attention to section C, the first paragraph, I believe um it does say that adequate financial records, including sales slips, receipts, invoices, and any other documentation of expenditures must be maintained and be accessible to parents and school officials on request. So I think if we take it out of B6, I think it's still covered in that. I agree. I I think I think the point of that as I interpret it is that to say it the request could be bring it to
069this training because that's when we're going to be sitting down and talking about things, but you don't necess you don't need it because it's already there that that that the disclosure can be required at any time. So either way, I think it's just it's just meant to give a little heads up that the superintendent might ask you to bring some documentation to the training. Yeah. And I think um sometimes it's beneficial for everyone to have the same type of documentation with them when it comes to training depending on the specifics around the training and especially if we are trying to work in the spirit of collaboration where they can share ideas and they have their documents readily available during the training. Um maybe I mean if that's the intent I think I'm okay with it
070but I'll be happy to go with whatever the board decides. thoughts leave it as is or change. I had interpreted the way Mr. Kowik presented it, you know, so I interpreted it as unre I inter interpreted as unrelated, which is why I suggested pulling it. Mr. Athetherton interpreted as related. He suggested keeping it six of one half a dozen over another. The good news is it can always be changed. That's true. What is the pleasure of the board? Their preference. I'll let the parents I'll let the PTO's comment. I'll let the PT let it sit. Let the PTO's have feedback. They'll they'll have a chance in their training to have feedback. I would like let them go ahead and so let's leave it and then get the feedback. Yeah. Okay. So So then I'll just
071move to approve it with that one single change. Second. All in favor? I I Okay, it is approved. All right. Um I'm going to say now that I would like to um add and get approved the resolution that was read tonight by Miss Doyle. Do I have a motion to do that? It was added to consent. Added to consent, but we don't we don't have to do it again. Okay, y'all get straight to the math coherent curriculum. Okay, it is done. All right, we are pulling item eight uh I I for coherent math grades 9 through 12. Are there questions about this? And thank you to Miss Pac and do Dr. Pack and Dr. Gammons for being here. Go ahead. What questions do you have? Are there questions? So, I just um I mean this
072I I first want to thank you for moving this so quickly. I know we're trying to get this done uh for the year and and I went through the survey and the survey was really fantastic by the way. Really impressive work. Thank you for that. Um so I'm all all the K8 curriculum makes a lot of sense to me. I have some questions about the 912 and um first of all it looks like the general assembly is ready to make a change in the structure of the 912 curriculum and that bill has passed the house it's gone through crossover it's expected to pass the senate and so I was curious how that um will affect this curriculum in 912 that's you want that's one piece of my question the other part of my question is
073I looked at the survey material those and I looked at our grades last year and Orange High School had an amazing year in math. I mean 20 point 30 point improvements in minority subgroups. I mean it's just like mind-blowing. It was beautiful beautiful thing to see. And I noticed that that the teachers in general feel they're okay with what they have and um and they like their tools. So the question is as we adopt this curriculum, how does it get integrated with the tools that they have that are working for them? So um I I'll take the second question first and then we'll back up to the general assembly. Um keep in mind that the survey that we shared with you was done prior to any exposure to any of the new curriculum. So in
074the sight of I have what I have and the unknown I am going to as a teacher trust and rely on what I have and and that's what we hear mostly right through the extensive process that we went through with the curriculum review um we received feedback and the orange high school teachers voted to move forward with the coherent curriculum. So we felt confident that while we had some teachers in the beginning who before we went through the curriculum review were hesitant about adopting a new curriculum that they are now in a place where they're looking forward and understanding the need for this curriculum. How will it be integrated into what they have? All teachers have um the ability in the classroom as they're planning to to plan for the students that are right in
075front of them. The curriculum is a resource. It is not the beall endall of everything that happens in the classroom. But what it does provide is a level base of equity that all math classes will have access to. In addition, this particular curriculum and the reason that our folks are excited about it, it really has a heavy heavy focus on the pedigogy, the way to teach math for deeper understanding. And the reason that they're excited about that is it builds the support for math students as they metriculate. Whether whether the general assembly does away with math 3 or not, we still have students who are going to go through to AP, IB, CCP, eventually they're going to go into college and take higher level math classes. And it's our job and our responsibility from K
076through high school to build a high level math understanding and math thinking, right? so that they're not just um relying on the support of algorithms or tricks or um calculator um tricks that they can do that doesn't really help them when they really get to the higher level math. Um anything you want to add to that? Did that answer your question? That was really helpful. Okay. I um these tools that they're that they're so attached to and and it's what's really blow impressive to me is how well they did and so well you know and this was one year right they they made the change and then in one year they saw like 20 and 30 point improvements so are we going to be able to to you know I mean that's not something you
077that curriculums do that's something that's just like an incredible thing to watch and I don't want to lose it. So one thing we want to remind you is that while we look at data at a district overview level there is disparity among teachers and among schools yes about the how well or how um what what struggles they might have in those scores. So we look at the district average but as you know the scores will come in all around that. Um and that can be contingent on a teacher and if that teacher leaves then we haven't built any sustainability in that um and that movement and forward progress. So again what a curriculum helps us do is build that base common understanding and um something to work from and build upon rather than it being
078dependent on one teacher or one small subset of teachers. Okay great I have no other thank you for that. Thank you for connecting the dots for someone who's not a teacher or educator. Any motion to approve? Second. All in favor? I I I It is approved. Thank you very much for being here. Thank you. All right, y'all correct me if I'm wrong, but I think right now we're going into discussion action items and we're going to ask Miss Sarah Pittz to come up here and talk about our school nutrition this summer and what she has plans for our students. Welcome, Miss Pitts. Welcome. Thank you. Um, good evening, Chair and Purcell, members of the board, Superintendent Dr. Jones, OCS staff members, and members of the public. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm
079here to provide an update on the Orange County Schools summer meal program, as well as updates related to the summer nutrition program for the upcoming 24-25 school year or sorry, 2526 school year. Oops, I got trigger happy. I'm sorry. So, for our summer meals program, when the school bell rings, many of our students look forward to a carefree summer. But some of our children who rely on our school meals that are provided at no cost, summer can be the hungriest time of the year. So, this summer, Orange County Schools is participating in two federal initiatives designed to address the need. One is the summer food service program and the other is the sun the sunbucks program which provides grocery support to families. So last year I think it's important to note that during the summer
080OCS provided 26,552 meals. We spent a lot of time in the heat and we learned a lot. The lessons learned and the input received from our community and staff were used to design this year's program. So, changes include menu availability that were shared with ST by our students. Um, and packaging for the take-home meals that were shared with some of our family members just to make it, you know, easier for them to store. And I wanted to give out a huge thank you to the OCS staff and community members who made last year's program such a success and supported our Orange County School students during the summer with meals. So this year we have 12 host sites with 10 open to the public. Meals are going to be provided at no cost to our families
081and we will offer both daily hot meals to be consumed on site and the 5-day meal boxes available per for pickup at select locations. The program is scheduled to run starting today through August 9th and operating sites and times are sight specific. Meals are available to all children under the age of 18. However, we do not recommend meals for students or children under the age of four due to the meal pattern restrictions for that particular age group. And Orange County Schools will employ 19 of our staff members to help this year with the program. So, looking at our meal option models, the open public sites will offer food daily with no registration required. All parents have to do is show up and obtain a meal. OCS and community sites will offer on-site daily meals to
082students participating. If families plan to pick up a daily meal from a school site for those students who aren't registered in either a summer camp or credit recovery, we just wanted to note that they should report to the front office and we'll be more than happy to bring a meal up to them. Daily meal options may not align with life schedules for all families. Let's face it, you know, sometimes it's hard to say, "Please come at 11:30 to a park and pick up a meal, right? With gas prices and other things, sometimes that's just not convenient." So, we wanted families to know that again, we're going to offer the 5-day meal boxes to families at three school sites, which include New Hope Elementary on Mondays from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Pathways Elementary on Tuesdays
083from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and Graly Hill Middle on Wednesdays from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. We're asking families to register for these meal boxes just to ensure that we have enough food available. Right? It's not easy to run back to the kitchen and make these 5-day boxes and we want to make sure that we have them right there as they drive up so we can just load them in their car. Online registration will be on the website via a Google form and also staff will have paper copies there. So if staff or families need assistance or they didn't pre-register, we will be able to do that on site. The only thing that the families have to list are the names of the students and the ages of those students who are going to participate,
084the guardians authorized for pickup, right? The state requires that we have to know who's going to be there and the preferred sight and day of their pickup. It's important to note on eligibility that the USDA rules state that child may only receive two meals per day. Meaning that if a student is enrolled in a camp, they may not receive meals for the 5-day pickup while they're in that camp, but we can register them and their family can pick up as soon as that camp is not in session. And we will be reminding families this year um of their pickup dates throughout the summer. And just to note that parents are encouraged to submit their um sightsp specific meal needs even though we have them on site for those students throughout the school year, right? It's
085just nice to be reminded of those kids who have allergies who need alternative milk um just to make sure we have that available for them. And families who are looking for meals can look either on the OCS website, they can check the NC site meal finder maps, and they can call 18663 hungry for locations of summer meals. I just wanted to note that the text option this year no longer works. So before they had that really, really simple text option due to funding, federal funding, imagine that. Um, that option is gone. So I can't see my slides. No problem. Thank you. So then it's also to note too that um the USDA is offering the Sunbucks program this year which replaces the former summer PEBBT card. It is a one-time debit like $120 per eligible
086student to help families with the grocery cost over the summer. Students with an approved free or reduced meal application or those who are directly certified were automatically enrolled in this program. Parents should be receiving notification as of now. For families who are not directly certified or for those with preschool age students who maybe attend a private or charter school, they can apply through the North Carolina Department of Social Services. So families are encouraged if they would like to know if they are eligible to take the eligibility quiz on the NCDHH website and benefit cards will be issued miday through August 30th. So for those families who didn't know about this who still want to apply right they are highly encouraged to please go online and do so. And we have been working um with the
087social workers to make sure that our families who are in C schools who may be obtaining free meals but don't have a meal application on file, right? That they're reminded to please check that eligibility and call to make sure that they get approved. And then we've been encouraging families to contact the office and come with us and we will help them with these applications to ensure that they are eligible for money. So, oops, let me go back here. Looking at the 2526 school year for the school nutrition program, I am happy to admit that at the end of April, the po the program is reporting a positive operating balance and we anticipate closing the fiscal year again with a net positive balance. We are working through May and June right now. So, I want to
088give a big shout out again to my staff for their hard work in making this possible. Um, due to the financial status and the continuation of the CP program, we recommend that p meal prices remain unchanged for the 2526 school year. So, prices may be going up at the store, but what families can accept from Orange County Schools is still a nutritious meal with happy, friendly customer service at the same price that they are used to. We want to remind all families that elementary breakfast remains of no charge via the universal model that's supported by the board and also to state that the reducedpriced lunch of 40 cents may return this year. We are still waiting on guidance of whether or not the federal government is going to support that program. So just reminding parents
089to pay attention because as of now it has not been covered but it may. So, we will keep them updated um if that occurs. But families will be happy to know that we do not um expect a increase in prices. And honestly, this is due to the hard work of both school nutrition program and the OCS administrators and teachers, right, of helping students learn about the meal program, increase participation. Um I would also say the leadership of Miss Wrath and Mr. Davis to make sure that we are financially sound right and we are making those changes that need to occur. and also the strategic planning with our entitlement dollars, right? Doing some changes this year that we expect to operate a program next year that is successful without passing that increase off to that cost
090increase off to the parents. Um, regarding the community eligibility program, we recommend maintaining the participation of the same four schools but under a grouped model. So, what that means is currently we have um partnership in one grouping and then all three elementaryaries in another grouping. We're going to recommend that they go under the same grouping. What this will do is increase the free reimbursement rates for our participating elementary schools by about 1% but it'll drop partnership just a little. There's no financial impact that we expect from that as a district in the whole just because of the smaller size of partnership. So we will be able to do that and we should not notice any difference. And then note to families that we will still extend the USDA 30-day grace period. Meaning for those families
091who are leaving a C school and transferring to a nonC school, right? Those free meal benefits will continue for them for 30 days so they have enough time to put in that meal application or if they're not going to be eligible for meals, right? Look at what that financial impact will be to their family. And we will spend um a lot of time marketing and campaigning to alert those families next year that they may lose benefits. So, we would ensure that everything stays the same. Um, and then as far as contracts, our 2526 service contracts are still under audit. We just got those um updates from the North Carolina Procurement Alliance. So, at this point, I do not have those exact prices, but I will bring those to you at the end of the month.
092It is safe to say we are expecting price increases, right? Both on food and on handling fees. But I will tell you due to those changes in way the way we've structured our a lotment dollars, we expect to be able to add a little bit more to the center of the plate and reduce our costs. So we shouldn't notice any impacts there. Right? The idea is we're going to provide the same great service. We may have to scale back on a couple of services, but this the food will still be there and so will our customer service. So again, I will present that information later this month. And I just wanted to say thank you for your time and continued support of the school nutrition program. I'm proud of our staff for all that they're
093doing, right, to make sure that no kid goes hungry both through the summer and throughout the school year. Um, and at this time, I'm happy to take any questions you may have. Thank you, Miss Pitts, for your presentation. That's And thank you for all you do for our students, you and your staff, because I know how they how hard they work, too. So, it's much appreciated. Any questions, Miss Dole? Um, thank you, Miss Pitts. Um it's always exciting to see what we're able to offer in the summer. Um and so um the is it 10 sites or 12 sites where there's daily meal service in addition. Okay. So there there will be 12 sites that are offering. However, some are not open to the public because they just have a closed site that is for
094their specific camp. But there will be 10 sites that the families will have options to to get meals either on a daily or weekly basis. Yes, ma'am. Okay. And for the future, I know we talked about this, but it's been a while, so I don't remember the details. Um, I'd love for us to talk about um universal breakfast for the older kids as well. So, that's I just want to leave that there. Okay, Miss House, uh, thank you for this and I always am so grateful for this. I know it makes many of our summer programs really hum. So, it's fantastic. And I've never heard of a plate analogy before. So there's a whole whole new world there. Um just just so for clarity, this program is available to anyone under 18, right? Correct. Yeah.
095Like I said, however, we don't recommend picking up meals for um ages four or less just because we offer things like a corn dog, right? Hot dogs, those things that could be a choking hazard, especially if they go home and they're not cut up properly. So we recommend essentially ages to 4 to 18. I was just curious if we're um communicating with the health with Orange County Social Services and with it's family success alliance all the Yes. So once we have everything up and operational all that information will go to them. It'll be passed out um we will announce it in the news and we'll make sure that everyone has all that information. So yes. Yes. Thank you and thanks for the positive fund balance. We are really excited about that. Miss Smiley, just a
096um this is all fabulous. Thank you very much. Um and I'm glad that the C program has worked out so well. Um uh did you say the federal government has not approved like the reduced price school meals program for next year? So they they have approved it and typically the way it's approved is reduced price breakfast and a reduced price lunches. So reduced price breakfasts are usually a 30% or a 30 cent cost to families, but North Carolina puts that in their basically continuation budget to cover that. So it's of no cost to families. Um this year there was money put into the budget to cover the cost of the reduced price lunches for students and we got reimbured. So those students who are on a reduced price meal application did not pay for anything.
097Their meals were no cost. We have not heard anything about whether the federal government or the state government will cover that 40 cent cost. So, I just want to make sure that our families are aware if they have a reduced price application next year, there could be a chance that their lunch will cost them 40. Okay. Okay. I thought you were saying that the federal program was getting rid of the reduced priced part and that they were going to have to pay full price, which is would be such a hardship. So, that I'm relieved. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's just the coverage of that reduced price cost to the family. Okay. Excellent. And then elementary breakfast is still free, right? Yes. Universal breakfast the the cost would be $1.75, but it's like we're covering that. Yeah.
098So, with elementary, yes, the paid status, it is technically $1.75, but it will be covered cost by the district. Yes. Okay. Okay. Great. Thanks. Any further questions, Mr. Aton? So, thank you so much for um bringing this and uh congratulations on staying in the black. I know that wasn't easy, especially as we had all the discussions around the Esser Cliff and, you know, how would things work out and all the healthy options. Um, I I'm curious about the high school. Well, first I'll say I agree with Miss Do. I would love to for us to look at it. I think last time we looked at it, it was around a million dollars or so, but I would love to see that because I do believe that the need doesn't end just because you go to
099high school or middle school. And I think it's a wonderful option so people don't feel, you know, stigmatized or whatever their situation is to allow them to have a healthy meal uh if they want it. Um, so at high school, I know there were different options available beyond this and I was curious, uh, if you're not prepared to talk about it, it's fine. You can send it later, but I know we were, uh, looking at like salad bars and I think pizza at some time or some other options that were I don't know if you called them premium or something, but more likely to have students eat. Um, but I'm just curious if you have any results from that. Are we continuing it or So, we are we have not, let me rephrase that, right?
100There are there are certain options that are made as part of a reimburseable meal that if they're bought separately, right, or by themselves, they're a higher cost than other supplemental sales. Um, what we have to be very careful at is not offering options that exceed what meal price could be. So when you look at the model, right, the reimbursement says we should spend 45% on food, 45% on staff, and the other 10% on being able to replace equipment, doing service contracts, things like that. So what we have to be very careful is in offering those things, right? They have to be made available to all. Meaning that if we offer something, it has to be a reimburseable breakfast even for those who are approved for free and reduced price meals. Um so what we are
101doing this year and what we have been um very conscious on is when we're planning is being able to take some of our entitlement dollars and reduce down those options that our students seem to love. Right. So some of those options like you said are a little bigger. They're those thick nice filt breasts for chicken stuff like that. Um putting money into those type of options to reduce that plate cost to allow everyone to enjoy them. Right. So we don't have to increase that cost for families and we don't have to say some may have but some may not because it will not align with the USDA model on pricing. So we're trying to get creative in offering and aligning options with what our students want but still keeping them under the price. But we
102can we can look further into a pricing model of maybe specialty items. No, that's fantastic. That's exactly what I wanted to hear that it's available for everyone. Um just out of curiosity, I know um we have lots of angel funds and for those that don't know what that is, that is where community families donate money to the schools and they use that money to pay for lunches in the higher grades or even at elementary when they can't afford it. And that's why it's called an angel fund. Uh so I'm curious how we're doing with that. Um any concerns? So, I just ran the numbers before we came here today. Um, our total unpaid debt right now is $19,114.64 districtwide. So, what I would like to say is again a big shout out to everyone at
103the school who's been assisting with that because that is huge compared to where we were last year. Yeah. Um, I can say at this time there's $12,273.19 available in angel accounts that could pay down reimbursements. We also have prepayments that were just received. We received notification today. They'll be deposited tomorrow. That could be parents paying off their accounts, right? So, we will wait just a little bit to get in the the remainder of that money. And we also have two to three other groups that have contacted us to say they're interested in angel account funds and they're supposed to meet with us this week to drop off stuff. So, at this point, we are about $6,84155 short of between the angel account funds and what the unpaid balance is. So, it may, you know, I
104haven't closed the month of June, so it may differ just a tiny bit. Um, but that's where we expect to be right now. So, we're just waiting on those remaining funds to trickle in to see what will what will be the nets. So to bridge that gap, I'm sure everybody watching and in the audience would like to know how they could donate to the annual fund. So they can contact the child nutrition office um and we will be more than happy to talk to them um on how to do that. And I would like to say um a huge thank you to some of our senior graduate families whose parents have contacted us and said we would love to donate that. Right? So we've had a lot of families with recent graduates who said we'd
105love to help out those that are coming up and they've donated that money. But yes, they can contact the office. Miss Margot will answer and she will be more than happy to talk them through that. Thank you so much, Miss. Yeah, this is fantastic. I just you said that 19,000 is roughly where you are today and you're and you said there's a big change, but where was it last year? So, I believe last year and I'd have to confirm, right? Just give or take roughly. I think it was about 38,000 is what we ended up with. So about 38,000 while everything was adjusted at the end of the the school year. That was the unpaid student debt, but I would have to get that exact number for you. No, but it's close, right? I mean,
106that's fantastic. That's incredible work. So, thank you to your staff, the principles. Huge thank you to principles too and social workers who have been helping with the call. Dr. Jones who has been greatly assisting. Um, so it's just and all the community for their support. Fantastic. Any further questions? We need to take action, right? Yes, we do. Motion to approve the superintendent recommendations. Oh, it was a discussion action item. It was discussion. It just says receive information. Oh, just received. Just receiving. It was just discuss information. You'll be back with the prices, right? The contracts. Yeah. You're coming back. We'll be back. We'll be back with contracts. Yes. You're coming back the 23rd. Yes, ma'am. Correct. Okay. All right. All right. Thank you so much. We greatly appreciate you. All right. Our last item up
107tonight is for information and it is from Mr. Mc Mun on the buds quarterly report. Welcome. All right. Good evening, Chair Purcell, Vice Chair Richmond, members of the board, Dr. Jones, members of the public, people watching at home, and of course my family watching at home because they are everybody. Um to tonight I have the great opportunity to discuss our Q4 report for OMBbuds which really is the annual report which oxide created a inaugural version of that which is in the abstract. I encourage everyone to reach out and check that out as well. So Q4 and annual report go hand in hand. So basically what that what does that mean? What does the year look like up until this point? I do also want to preface that I work every day. So you can continue
108to keep contacting me even throughout the summer and stuff as well. So I want to make sure staff know that and even though school may have finished my job doesn't finish. So want to start just as a reminder of the standards of practice from the international ombbuds association. These are the core values of how the bbud's office is designed and how it functions under confidentiality, independence, impartiality and informality. I do want to also take a second and pause and say of everyone who's come and see me, it takes a level of bravery. It takes a level of confidence and it's a big step forward and I appreciate the time that I've been able to spend with all of my visitors. It it takes a lot. So, every person who has come to see me this
109year, thank you. Everybody who's thinking about it, I'm here. And if you don't know anything about it, I'm also here. So, what I'm going to go through tonight is just a series of of data points related to the at the time of this report 43 uh visitors throughout the year. So these are looking at it from two different perspectives, line graph and bar graph. Uh just the spikes for visitors over years. As you can see, I had a larger spike there in February. And then the same thing looking as a uh as a bar as a bar chart. The yellow line is just a trend line. So this is looking at the the trends over time since the beginning of the year till June. Um I will also be remiss if I didn't say I've
110had a few more visitors after this has been done. So this data it will I will continue to refine that for the final annual report which will go up on the website which I'll talk about in a in a few slides. So these are just the um the amount of visitors that I've seen this year. So now it's going to break it down by classified versus certified and then the uniform reporting categories which are those nine categorical areas that I classify each one of the interactions with. The two largest ones really is that peer-to-peer interactions and that services administrative issues. So out of the total, those two were the highest number of 18 of each one of those. That means that was the most areas that were encompassing all of them. But you can see
111I have several others that were in there as well, but those two rose to the top. So now I want to transition from the data reporting on the number of people I've seen and the uniform reporting categories into specifically about the outreach into the continued professional development that I am currently doing and ongoing. And there's a there's numerous parts of this that I continue to do. The first one started back in October when I did the foundations training with the international association. Again, thank you to the board and superintendent for allowing me to go to that phenomenal baseline standing and understanding for it. Um I am currently an active member and I will continue to be an active member in the international ombbuds association which I'm very proud to be a part of. I'm also
112a active member in a K12 OMBbuds group. This is for um K12 practitioners all over the country. So once a month I am consistently speaking with and talking to peers of mine in the exact same roles and these are onbuds professionals from California to New York to Virginia to Florida. They're all over the place. So it's a wonderful opportunity to talk about best practices, uh what's happening in the world, what's happening in the region, what's happening in their areas. So it's a great way to professional network, to ask questions specifically to people who are in similar roles that I am. So I appreciate that one. And the last one is um and I'm very excited about this one because I had my first ever meeting with them. I mean, they've been meeting for a while.
113Um is the North Carolina Regional OMBbuds Group and this is a local group. So I get to meet them in person. So extrovert life, I'm really into that in person. Um so I really had a great opportunity to meet with my OM ons colleagues in the area. These are actually from all over the state. So they are onbuds. Most of them are in universities. They are everywhere from University of Charlotte um all the way over to the coast UNC Chapel Hill, NC State. Um so these are my direct peers but most in the university. There are some in the department of justice. There are some in um cities and townships as well. So it's a really interesting diverse group. Um, and I'm very proud to be a part of it and I got a lot
114out of my very first one. They meet quarterly. Um, so I'm looking forward to continue to build those relationships with um, both professionals who are much closer to me in proximity. Then as thinking about the outreach side of the office, um, you can see there on the right hand side, I do have a website up on the on our main page that's there under staff staff and um, employees for the employee on. So please if you have questions you can go there and check it out as well. Um I I do have a trifold trifold brochure which I've given out to all members of the board. Every single school has gotten a set of those as well. I keep them in my book bag. I keep them in my my board materials. If you ever
115need one, don't hesitate to ask. I have in PDF as well. Um so they have been got out to all the schools. Spending time in schools which arguably is one of the most important ones out out of all of the outreach efforts. And as well, I have really really enjoyed the opportunity um thanks to our HR team to being on new employee orientations. So I get a few minutes to talk to new employees from the beginning of their tenure with Orange County Schools. And for me, that's a great opportunity. And I've actually had a couple people come up to me like, "Yeah, I saw you on new employer orientations. Just shout out to new employerations. You're doing a great job." Um so I appreciate the opportunity to be on those as well. So these are
116all part of the outreach efforts as related to the work that I've been doing over the last year and cominging here and at the end of Q4. So with that I want to end with ways to get a hold of me. I do this every single time and I'd start with any staff member can reach out to me anyone. I do have a link to the website that's there as well. So you can learn more about it on our main page. Um but please I encourage staff if you have questions and maybe just a question. Maybe it's not a concern or a complaint but you just have a question you want answered. I'm happy to help with that as well. So this is the way to get a hold of me. Can be in person,
117over the phone, virtually, however you feel comfortable here to support you. So that open to questions, comments. Any questions? U Miss Molly, um thank you for that. Um I am curious. I'm glad that um as you've like built a foundation and like built awareness um among employees that you know you're seeing sort of an uptick in the number of visitors and people who are coming to you um for assistance and I saw that February was like way out of line with the others like did something happen in February did you like go around to all the schools in February oh okay well you can't tell us if it's like about the content of those but is there a strategy you undertook in February so I what what I can say is a couple things one
118Um I think I mentioned in the annual report about 30% of my visitors are returners and one of the things per policy I can meet with groups. Mhm. So when you meet with groups your numbers go higher. Okay. And I will just add that everyone is usually pretty tired by February. It gives time for things to come about and you build up that courage to go see Mr. McHune. Miss Dole. Um thank you for the presentation. Um I love all the data that you captured here and including like the certified um you know roughly threequarter certified versus classified and and looking at all the reporting categories. It just makes sense you know like this is what most people struggle with you know either like some admin issues or just peer and colleague relationships as well
119as some of those other ones which were less. But so I just thank you for the service that you offer because it it really is nice to have someone to talk to and you know be a sounding board uh direct towards resources and have that confidentiality piece. It's it's really just a gift that um that we have this role and that you're serving in this role in Orange County Schools. So I'm glad we you know it was a few years for us to figure out how to do this. Um and I'm just really pleased with how it's going. So thank you. Any other questions? Mr. attachment. I just wanted to say you've done a fantastic job taking this from the original committee from a vision and concern to actually implementing. Um, you know, I as
120I go around as well and talk to people, I'm now hearing they know what anudes. I I'm curious if you can share the the most common way people contact you because that seems to be that first, you know, how do I contact you? So, I'm just curious, do they normally email you or call you or yes to all um I can say email. Email has been the highest one so far. I could see in time phone calls being as well, especially with the direct lines and access, but for right now, email has been the highest um total number of reachouts. Fantastic. Thank you. You're most welcome. It's great job. I'd like to say that I appreciate your enthusiasm. It's catching and I think that the people that you meet with and which I have no
121idea who they are, but um I think they appreciate your enthusiasm as well because you are very enthusiastic about your job and about all about all your jobs in Orange County schools. Um so thank you very much for what you do. You're most welcome. It's my my humble pleasure to be able to do this for all employees, for staff. Um, I really I really enjoy this opportunity and connecting the dots and helping people um as as much as I can. Um, I will be making sure and getting a full final um annual report that will go up on the website. That's standard operating I've seen from my colleagues and that will be a central place that you'll be able to go and see those. I'm going to make sure they get through all of June
122so it gets a full and complete fiscal year because I have still met with others after that. Uh but that will be something that will go up on the website and that like I said is standard to my practitioners in the network as you'll see them year-over-year will be a central place to go and find that. Of course you can always read the abstract because um all the information is in the abstract which a lot of staff members spend a lot of time on. So please read abstracts. Shameless shameless self plug. It's in simply if you want help please ask me. Uh but thank you for the opportunity everyone. I appreciate it. That's great. Thank you. All right, that concludes our business tonight. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? Was that moved? Motion. Second.
123Do I second? Miss Hower, do I have um car moved? Oh, you Okay. And then second. All right. All right. All those in favor? I I All right. Go forth and have a good night. Be