001e e e so yeah I didn't even take a picture I'm going to and they like Kevin [Music] good evening I'd like to um call tonight's session um make have a motion to enter close session before we start our regular meeting tonight do I have for the reason so stated on the agenda um do I have a motion Some Mo do I have a second second all in favor I I I okay we will move to close session e e e meeting of the Orange County Board of Education for March the 10th to order welcome everyone that's here and those of you that are watching at home we welcome you here tonight we will start with our public charge um that I will read the Orange County Board of Education pledges to its citizens to
002conduct its business in a courteous and productive manner showing respect for fellow board members staff and citizens the board ask its citizens to conduct themselves with the same courtesy toward both School personnel and each other a moment of silence will be observed before each meeting in addition to the moment of Sil vience the board will recite the Pledge of Allegiance the board asks that you check your cell phones and other electronic devices to be certain that they are either turned off or on vibrate to avoid interuption of the meeting and we will now stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the FL of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you all and
003now we will observe a moment of silence okay thank you very much we move into our uh recognitions and we have several tonight first one I think being Miss Amber Wilson is going to introduce our spelling winners always fun good evening thank you for the opportunity to be here to introduce a couple of our spelling be winners um to you this evening um as you all know all of our third through e8th grade students here in Orange County Schools have the opportunity to participate in the spelling be so it starts with a classroom level be that is conducted in November and December um and then in January there are School level bees where those winners go on to compete um so this evening we are going to recognize the 10 School level spelling be champions
004for Orange County Schools um and many of them also went on to the Duke Regional spelling be and I will share a little bit of information about how they performed there as well as we go and we do have a couple of them here in the room but many of them are not with us this evening um and they will be recognized at their school with their trophy there so first up Central Elementary School um William do from effn cheeks Elementary School we have Dallas McCain from Grady Brown Elementary School Eric Albert Hillsboro Elementary School's winner is Joey Von fenberg New Hope Elementary School we do have RJ oou here with us this evening so RJ you can come on up [Applause] from Pathways Elementary School we have Francis um hernie from River Park Elementary
005School Alice Bergland from Al stach Middle School we had K McKinny who placed fourth in the regional B but is not able to be here with us tonight um from Graal Hill Middle School we had Katherine prom and our last um winner that is here in the room with us tonight is from Orange middle school and that is Rosalia panic and she plays third at the regional spelling B so congratulations so we'd love to get a picture of these winners with you all good job can we and thank you for the opportunity to recognize these students this evening well thank you for your work with this absolutely congratulations conratulations congratulations conrat excellent don't mind we're [Applause] okay great job and we wish everyone could be here but we especially happy that the two of you
006were here tonight so thank you all right it is also um Orange County Schools disability acceptance week and disability awareness month and uh Stacy Burns is going to talk about that welcome good evening everyone I appreciate appreciate the opportunity to stand before you you today to recognize March as um disability awareness month and also celebrating OCS in recognition of disability awareness week it's a time to honor the achievements and contributions of students with um disabilities excuse me this month serves as a reminder of the importance of recognizing each student's unique ability and ensuring they have the supports and opportunity to learn grow and thrive in our schools we witness daily the dut determination creativity and resilience of students with disabilities the accomplishments Aspire Inspire us to continue foring environments that encourage learning and per on
007personal growth whether mastering a new skill building meaningful connections connections or achieving academic Milestones every success is a testament to their hard work and the dedication of those who support them I want to take a moment to acknowledge the unwavering commitment of our um school board members superintendent Educators related service providers principes support staff and families your advocacy dedication and belief in every student's potential make a profound impact shaping Pathways for success and helping students achieve their personal goals this month is not only about awareness but also about celebrating progress and reflecting on Collective efforts that help students with disabilities Thrive it is a time to highlight their contribution tions to our schools and communities and appreciate the perseverance and strength they show every day let us use this month as an opportunity to learn
008show our support and continue working together to ensure every student has the opportunity to reach their fullest potential thank you thank you m okay up next we are going to talk about National School social worker week and that is with Dr Dreer good evening good evening good evening everyone I am delighted to stand before you as we recognize National School Social Work Week 2025 that took place on March 2nd through March 8th this special week highlights the invaluable contributions School social workers make within our educational system this year's theme unite to ignite celebrating our impact perfectly captures the collaborative spirit and transformative influence of these dedicated professionals School social workers serve as vital Bridges between students famili schools and communities ensuring our children have the support they need to thrive academically and emotionally it is
009now my honor to introduce our District's lead School Social Work coordinator Miss Avis Barn strange who will share more about the incredible work happening with our school social workers and the vision for continuous support of our students and families thank you good evening board members superintendent Jones I am Miss Avis Barn strange the lead School social worker coordinator I am here on behalf of the amazing Orange County School social workers last week we celebrated School Social Work Appreciation Week a time to honor School social workers incredible impact on our students staff School communities as we all know schools are more than just a place for academic learning they are environments where students grow emotionally socially and psychologically and that's where our school social workers come in school social workers play a vital role in creating
010a safe and supportive space for all students we help students navigate personal challenges whether it's dealing with mental health issues family struggles conflict with peers we provide counseling support and resources that help students build the resilience they need to succeed both in and out of the classroom but our work goes beyond individual support we also Advocate systemic change we collaborate with teachers parents and administrators to create programs and policies that Foster a positive School environment for everyone today let's take a moment to recognize the dedicated compassion and professionalism that our school social workers bring every every day we are the unsung heroes who make a difference in students lives empowering them to overcome challenges and achieve their full potential on behalf of the school social workers thank you for recognizing March 2nd through March 8th
0112025 as National School Social Work Week in Orange County Schools thank you [Applause] thank you both and I will say that we have wonderful social workers in Orange County schools and we are happy to celebrate them at any time so thank you both for being here tonight all right up next we have Dr pack who is going to talk about uh arts and Education Month good evening chairperson C board members superintendent Jones and our our guests in the audience um I am here on behalf of Miss Braxton who could not be here this evening to present the Arts and Education Month Proclamation for North Carolina March has been proclaimed arts and educ excuse me arts and Education Month by our governor as a time to recognize and celebrate the essential role of the Arts in
012North Carolina schools the Arts provide students with opportunities to develop creativity critical thinking collaboration and communication skills preparing them for success in whatever career pathway they choose in Orange County Schools we are proud to offer a robust Arts education spanning three distinct disciplines music including instrumental and vocal Theater Arts and visual arts our students have the opportunity to engage in arts education at every level in elementary school they have General music and visual arts in 6 through eight Middle School band course and visual arts and at the high school they have the opportunity for band chorus Visual Arts and Theater Arts through these programs our students not only develop artistic skills but also build confidence resilience and a lifelong appreciation for the Arts we are grateful for the support of our school board our Educators
013our families and our community and ensuring that Arts education remains a vital part part of Orange County Schools thank you thank you very [Applause] much okay at this time we need to um approve uh adopt our agenda do I have a motion to approve this the agenda adoption don't consent items we take care of later correct no well take care of them now so I'd like to we consent you need either a motion approve the agenda or amend it do what you need a motion to approve the agenda or amend it okay to approve or or uh amend the agenda so I would like to um call the number oh I'm sorry I don't have the wireless I would like to pull uh policy 4318 use of wireless communication devices for so I'd like to
014to pull that that item that would be for discussion for discussion for discussion and action 4318 for discussion yep are there any more that need to be pulled 4300 uh does anyone want to we can pull 4,300 and bring it back okay we will bring back 4,300 we will pull 4318 for discussion do I have a motion to approve this motion to approve with the two changes second all in favor I I okay that is approved and we will discuss 4318 as we get into the um consent agenda okay and we will move on right now with public comment okay Mr Richmond we will now hear public comments speakers will be called in the order in which they signed up each speaker will have three minutes yielding time to other speakers is not permitted if
015a speaker has written materials they will like to share please hand them to our board clerk Franklin mckune and he will distribute them to the board the purpose of public comment is for the board to hear from members of the public not to engage in back and forth discussions per our policy board members will not respond to speakers during public comment session the board greatly values public feedback and wel eles all comments regardless of viewpoint however please be reminded that children are often present at these meetings and that our public comment policy prohibits profanity vulgarity and personal abuse of any person we ask that all comments be civil respectful and free of personal attacks any speaker who violates our public comment period or otherwise exceeds the bounds of order and theorum will be given a
016warning continued violations may result in the speaker being ruled out out of order at which point we will move on to the next speaker our first Speaker tonight is Kate CER good evening chair pcel superintendent Jones and members of the board my name is Kate Center and I'm here tonight as the president of the Hillsboro Elementary School PTA and as a parent who like many in this room is deeply invested in in our future of our schools we are here to formally present this open letter signed by over 320 parents teachers and community members urging the board to establish a year-round Middle School option in Orange County to those here tonight in support of this initiative please stand or raise your hand this is not a new request for years parents have advocated for a
017yearound middle school recognizing the benefits it would bring bring not just to the students coming from Hillsboro Elementary School's yearr program but to families across the district looking for a more balanced academic calendar without it we continue to see students leave Orange County schools for districts that offer that what we do not this is an opportunity to keep our families in our schools strengthening our community and providing choices that the meet meet excuse me meet the needs of more students the letter we are presenting tonight outlines the numerous benefits of a year-round Middle School including reducing summer learning loss which dis disproportionately affects disadvantaged students preventing student and teacher burnout by incorporating regular breaks throughout the year easing the burden of on Working Families who struggle with child care during the long summer breaks providing
018more enrichment opportunities for both struggling and and advanced Learners retaining more Hillsboro Elementary students within our district rather than seeing them leave for other year yearr round options like the Expedition school or Eno River Academy with its modifi year round schedule we know that space resources and long-term planning are factors in your decision making however we know that other districts have found ways to make year-round middle schools work within existing schools though creative scheduling and reallocation of through creative scheduling and reallocation of resources we ask that you take an intentional look at what is possible rather than dismissing the idea based on its current structures the families here tonight and many more who cannot attend are looking for looking at you for Solutions additionally this is not about one group of students a yearound middle
019school would help all families in our districts by providing greater educational Equity flexibility and choice more families are seeking alternative op schedules that work better with their children's learning learning and work life balance providing this option would make Orange County school districts more competitive and more attractive to families who might otherwise look outside the district the question is when will a decision be made parents are ask have been asking for this for years years this need has not changed but time is slipping away with major decisions being made about school facilities and program the time to act is now we urge the board to put this issue on the agenda hold a discussion and provide families with a clear timetable timeline for Action over 320 members of our community have signed this letter because they
020are looking to you for your leadership and action when will you make a decision the families here tonight and many more deserve to know where you stand and what steps will be taken I have printed copies of our open letter for you tonight and we have sent a digital version to ensure your ease of access we appreciate your time your service to the school and your consideration of this issue we look forward to your response thank you thank you the next speaker is Chelsea Morrison good evening my name is Chelsea Morrison and I'm a proud parent of a third grader and a kindergartener at Hillsboro Elementary School and their three-year-old brother tonight I stand with Miss Center and so many others from the hes in support of a year-round middle school as a priority in
021future planning for the district I have a few points to add to hers coming from my own perspective as a former student at yearound schools in Wake County from 2 grade through 12th grade one common concern I hear about EUR round middle schools is that athletic programs will suffer but I don't believe this is the case I attended Durant Road elementary and middle schools and then Southeast Raley High School a 4A year- round Magnet High School and I was a four-year Varsity athlete in Cross Country indoor and outdoor track since its founding in 1997 Southeast has had Stellar Athletics including in its Short History state championship wins in women's cross country country women's basketball cheerleading women's and men's indoor track and outdoor track friends and acquaintances of mine earned College scholarships and not only the
022above sports but also baseball men's basketball football women's soccer men's soccer and women's golf at a time when the school was less than 10 years old how did we do it when two of the intercessions took place in the middle of Sports Seasons we still had practice that sounds overly simple but it could be whatever the team made it for cross country for example we might meet once a week for an early morning run and then do individual workouts and then attend the meets as scheduled coaches worked around the schedules of both Rec Sports in the community and working parents and needless to say it worked my intuition says that those worried about Athletics at a yearound school suffering don't yet have experience with a yearound school southeast Raleigh also had an asset that is
023one of the main reasons we chose Hillsboro Elementary School greater cultural and economic diversity than options outside than year round options outside of the district Southeast was both the zoned school for its neighborhood and a choice school because of being year round when considering kindergarten we we applied and were accepted to many local Charter Charters including a k through eight year round Charter School in the end year round at HS was the right choice for us there was higher diversity there than at the charter and conveniences like inexpensive school lunch and busing were available to us the sense of community at hes the way all students are supported and the way the schedule supports our learning means a lot to our family we urge you to take action toward yearound Middle School for the benefit
024of Orange County students and families thank you thank you next speaker is Monica Meyer good evening uh my name is Monica Meyer I a parent of a student at Hillsboro Elementary School I have two older two sons my eldest went to Orange and then Cedar after we moved across town my youngest started at Kinder sted kindergarten at Hillsboro Elementary and is currently at first grade there I'm a V military veteran so my eldest always is changing districts based on our movements and our financial situations my youngest enrolled at HS after his best friend in our neighborhood started there as well the schedule has been great and the opportunity of my youngest having a community to grow with teachers as well as friends is so valuable to our family Mr Moreno taught at Orange Middle School
025when my eldest was there and we were Beyond delighted to have our youngest son enjoy his passion for teaching Spanish as well as having the experience of saying he taught your brother it's not something that we can always do when you're moving so often I believe that the local families might consider HS if there is an ability to have a year round allowing for more diversity at the school from local communities and selfishly I would love more than anything to give my son a close-knit family and friend group regardless of our district thank you for your time thank [Applause] you next speaker is Katie Harper thank you for taking public comment and for everyone's hard work serving students in Orange County I have two children in the district a middle schooler who went to elementary
026school at HS and one who will finish at HS next year we have loved so much about hgs the teachers most of all and also the schedule with regularly spaced long breaks that help my kids and their teachers to recharge the breaks were especially helpful to my more neurode Divergent kid both my kids made sweet friendships at HS and I that I hope May grow into lifelong ones what I've struggled with as a appearent at hgs is the way that our school polls from a subset of students in the district without being representative of the district at large it reminds me of our local charters in that far fewer students are eligible for free and reduced lunch compared to our district average at the two local Charters 5 to 10% of students have typically been
027eligible for free and reduced lunch at HS that number last year was 20% the district average is currently around 50% and at some of our District's elementary schools the number is close to 70 when I think about requests for a year round k through eight I feel conflicted on the one hand I want my kids friends to be able to go to a school they are really excited about with a schedule that really works for them on the other hand I want our District's decisions to benefit as many students as possible and not perpetuate a system of Consolidated advantage and Consolidated need if we could figure out ways to make our current year- round program more representative of our district at large I would have far fewer reservations about expanding the program to middle schoolers
028thinking about the bond I don't know the best way to spend $1 $25 million on Capital Improvements when our district has $1 billion in identified need what I do know is that the wilper study was really thorough and thoughtful I appreciated that the study was made available on the district's website and that wilper Representatives came to several board meetings to make presentations I also appreciated the community input sessions this past month particularly the discussion about accessibility at all schools being a top priority I'm concerned though that very few people were able to attend the input sessions which could influence the to takeaways for example orig Middle School is listed as a high priority in the wilp report but the idea of replacing a middle school received the least amount of support from the 20 to
02930 attendees at both input sessions the survey may also produce skewed results only 2% of the 391 survey respondents are about eight people listed in affiliation with Central Elementary if option one is to be seriously considered I hope many more community members who would be affected will have opportunities to weigh in I wore this public school strong shirt tonight because I wanted the organization values of safe Equitable fully funded public schools to frame my comments I know we are nowhere near fully funded in North Carolina due in large part to the NCGA strangle hold on state funding but I hope that you will take the funding we do have from this bond to do the most amount of good for the most number of students with special consideration for the voices we haven't heard from
030tonight and the community members who weren't able to fill out the survey thank you again for your time thank you now final speaker tonight is spring doson good evening to the board Dr Jones I'm here to follow up on the resolution that the board unanimously pass on February 10th in support of our immigrant students and families I want to follow up specifically on the last three bullet points of that resolution and ask what's happened in the month or so since then the first bullet I'll read out recognizes a responsibility to minimize disruptions to the learning environment and therefore reserves the right to deny entry to school system property unless there's a legal right of Entry or exent circumstances I urge you again to be explicit about not allowing ice to enter our school buildings unless
031or until legal council confirms that they have a Judicial warrant the next provision the board encourages the superintendent to continue to collaborate with community-based organizations who Provide support and resources for undocumented and mixed status students and families to better understand and address whole child concerns to connect families to resources and update the board on these collaborative efforts as far as I could tell and I might be wrong but I did check my email before coming here tonight the only districtwide communication about this issue was on January 29th the subject line of that email was safe in welcoming schools for all students and families and it said some really important things that came from the prior board meeting but with regard to supports for families it said we encourage all our families to contact their school's
032student support staff if their child has concerns or social emotional needs at any time when I read that as a parent that places the burden on the parent and I don't think that's right in this context I hope and believe that communication is happening one-on-one in multiple channels that I can't see and I think think that messaging from the district matters and when I receive multiple OCS family updates in the intervening weeks without including steps to address the current threat to Immigrant families it doesn't feel right I understand that school leaders across the country are cautious about retaliation from our federal government and from local groups and I urge you to Center those who are most vulnerable to immigration enforcement threat in your decision making if there's a tension between angering adults or protecting our
033children I believe we must courageously and strategically move to protect the children and our community final provision was requesting superintendent continue to monitor relevant data and provide regular updates to the board so I'm simply just asking for followup about when and where that will happen so that we can follow along as I shared in January there's strong reason to expect that immigration enforcement threat is broadly impacting the Latin day and immigrant communities in County including students and staff regardless of documentation status further I believe that this affects all of our children as they witness what is unfolding with many kids feeling the fear and anxiety of their friends and classmates the federal Administration has made it clear that they are not just seeking to deport violent criminals they are defining every adult and child without
034legal status in the US as a criminal our children are watching and listening and in need of anti-bullying messages of care and inclusion and a clear moral stance from the adults they count on thank you thank you concludes public comment okay we move into board comments um Miss Padia can we start with you sure I think it's my month it's your month thank you everyone for your comments and thank you for being here um I'll start with saying I'm grateful that we're still celebrating women's history month and I'll start with a quote there's no Force more powerful than a woman determined to rise that's um we be the boys what I did this month I like to say I ran around I did go to the ACT Summit where we our Orange County um school
035had a table and I spoke to some of the students there and they're very happy with the program the ACT program that we have and um two of them said that they want to pursue farming which is speaking to my heart um I also attended the Black History Month student Expo which was phenomenal and I spent some time down at 16 W West Jones to speak in support of of HB 78 and hb80 I also attended a um I'm going to say this word a little wrong Memorial memorializing of Daniel Washington and Thomas Jefferson Maro who were lynched in Hillsboro and this is a reminder that we cannot and will not repeat history I also participated in in the uh poetri at loud in Charlotte over the weekend where a lot of students from various
036um count uh competed with poetry and it was just amazing to see that a lot of our students um have passion for poetry and a lot of them spoke on what is happening um right now and I just want to thank the social workers without you we would be lost and thank you thank you Miss Miss Molly um yes thank you um to everyone who came out and spoke tonight um and thank you to our school social workers um and our Arts Educators and those who work with our students with dis disabilities um you make this experience um Rich for our students um and congratulations to the spelling be winners that's all I got um thanks everyone for coming out tonight and voicing your perspectives and concerns um appreciate Miss Pia that you mentioned um
037the morrow family um Memorial which which was really moving I've lost lost track of time um but that was since the last board meeting and um that was that was local history um the lynching that happened of those three men um recently I was able to attend the um the FFA ham and egg evening at Orange High School I know how um what like a a valuable opportunity FFA is for many of those kids um it's it's so many broad skills as well as the egg egg skills and um they're really a professional bunch and that that was a pleasure and then also the next night was the um African-American student Expo which is which is excellent and I I love the different groups um that come from across the district to um perform um
038I was able to attend one of the community Bond conversations and I appreciate those um and the uh input we we heard I I do feel like we um need to do more in terms of hearing from broader sector of the community with of course translation and I'm hoping we can plan some reverse translation Community um meetings we've only done one or two of those that I can recall in past several years um one impr promptu one was more um candidates um last year and and I given given the um the demographics of our district I think we owe it to our community to have some reverse translation um events so that we're hearing from a broader sector of the community thank you Miss Hower sure um I want to add my congratulations to spelling
039be winners and thank you to the social workers um who are amazing um I also want to thank everybody for coming out tonight and for your thoughtful comments um and I do want to add my support for a serious look at the yearound programming and its role in orangee County Schools this debate has been going on for years and there have been many conflicting narratives and I think we need to bring them together and say what what are the facts and the Board needs to have a conversation about whether students and teachers and the district would benefit from expanding yearound programming it's a great time to have that conversation given the work that's happening now with facilities and the Strategic plan so I'm wondering if we could schedule board conversation on this maybe as part
040of student achievement or a special board work session or retreat but would like to have the it's time to have the conversation we've been delaying it for a long time um I also wanted to in honor of Art and Education Month I'd like to shout out to lri Shepley and the cedaridge high school IB students who had a lovely exhibit at the Margaret Margaret Lane gallery and to the gallery for wel welcoming our students into their space and I'm sorry I missed the Poetry um program that that went that Miss Pia mentioned I also I just have to say um thank you a special thank you to Sher Thomas Sherry Thomas and the effin cheek student chorus because a few weeks ago the fifth grade chorus sang an original song that was written by Miss
041Thomas and it began in our I won't sing it I won't sing it in our school everyone is different in our school that's what makes us great and it ended with the students reciting the 50 countries that are represented in their Global Elementary School I couldn't have been prouder and I just love the way Orange County Schools uses the Arts to reinforce our values and our commitment to Student Success thank you Mr thank you for everybody thank you everybody for coming out with your comments and contexts uh really appreciate it uh agree a conversation is definitely needed um congratulations to all our spelling be winners um thank you social workers for all your work that you do every day and continue to do no matter if it's a holiday a weekend whenever families need you
042we really appreciate it um I was able to attend the effin Chic concert definitely was F fantastic love hearing all of our students the music uh the engagement it was definitely I would say a soldout event um got to attend the County Commissioners meeting on the bond and the management I'm definitely looking forward to our discussion tonight more on that update um love seeing the third annual Black History Month student Expo where our students got to perform and uh just amazing the talent our students have in our community the ffaa breakfast dinner uh attended as well uh it is amazing to see those students and the give back they give to our community every day uh as part of that the leadership and also um how they are competing um on a national level and
043representing Orange County um hope to see uh Ceda Ridge as well bring their program on and get their uh pole barn uh in place um attended the uh baseball first pitch dinner uh was wonderful hearing coach de come back and talk about uh our Athletic program the requirements of the not only the Athletics but also the academics the expectations of how you represent yourself in the schools and uh how baseball has changed over the years uh so definitely appreciated learning a lot more uh the LA well second to last thing is the the celebration of the school bus drivers and the breakfast just wanted to thank Sheriff Blackwood for his ongoing support of our bus drivers uh making sure we have a breakfast to celebrate them and all of the sheriff's department supporting them especially
044uh when we have people passing our buses as students are trying to get off um you can't make this stuff up um last thing I just wanted to do was just remind our community members that you're always welcome to come volunteer in our schools and to help out and there's no time better than now whether you're going to come in and help out during a lunch come read a book to a class or just help out with the day-to-day activity I know our schools would really appreciate you taking sometime whether it's a lunchtime breakfast whenever you can um come and volunteer in our schools thank y'all for coming out tonight Mr Richmond yes ma'am thank you um I want to congratulate all the spell spelling be winners um and um even the students that competed
045in the spell and bees um congratulations to those students as well for just being a part of that um thank you to all of our social workers for your unwavering commitment to our students that's a tough task I've had to work hand in hand with the social workers and that is a a tough job but um very fulfilling at the end of the day um I did attend the National FFA day um ham and egg dinner which was very delicious um I learned a lot um and it was great to see those FFA um officers recite um their um not their Oaths but their positions they had to memorize those positions so kind of hit home with me because in Freemasonry which I think FFA was kind of founded from you have to remember um
046and recite th those wordings for those specific uh positions so that's great um and then the next day I actually got to attend the black history Expo which I loved and enjoyed I got a great niece who was on the step team who was leading the step team and so it was great to see her and all of the students that that attended and was a part of it um and the singing that was wonderful and then finally um I was able to attend coach Richard Lions um Memorial um and he was a um coach and teacher and driver's ed teacher here in Orange County for about 32 years he started out at the old Central High School the black um High School here in Hillsboro and during desegregation he was able to come over
047to um Stanford Middle School now orange middle school and so um I was able bble to attend his memorial service and the board had um had put together a proclamation um before he passed away during um when we recognized um the 1969 basketball team so we we um created a proclamation for him then and so I was able to read that um at the memorial service for the family so that was good thank you I would just like to re reiterate what everyone has said about um all of our groups that were recognized tonight um I go back to the time that I was a principal and the spelling be was always a big day at the school because the students got to come into the auditorium and they got to spell words some of
048them didn't like it some of them loved it but it was it was always a lot of fun to watch that so congratulations to all of our our spell and be winners and all of our social workers we couldn't have schools without social workers it just wouldn't happen and um to all of our uh arts in Orange County um it's just phenomenal um I got to attend the love the bus and see all of our bus drivers or as many that were that were there that day and uh that is always fun to see them recognize for their hard work and uh dedication to students and uh and parents as well because they're they're looking after children every day on those buses and we appreciate everything they do um I also came and attended the
049um the bond um community meeting we had here last week and I see some Familiar Faces tonight that I met there last week and I appreciate you coming and speaking to us tonight and you have been heard so we will have those conversations um I also got to attend the uh Board of county commissioner meeting in Chapel Hill couple of weeks ago where we were discussing all of the the bond and and next steps and so that was interesting as well um big thing that I got to attend was the um Black History Month C celebration and um to see the amount of talent that um we have in this district is just phenomenal and I give a big shout out in kudos to Kim de de graphen Reed for pulling that together and and
050finding all those students to come and be willing to get up on the stage at Orange High School and perform and sing and dance and do all the things that they did it is just um it's phenomenal to see them do that and um just great um so uh those were the things that I have done this past month and and um I do appreciate all of you being here tonight we are always happy to have people come and speak so thank you very much for those who spoke tonight Dr Jones do you have anything yes ma'am I do good evening chair pcel Vice chair Richmond members of the board um student staff and community members I wanted to take a moment to extend my gratitude to our community for your support and approving the
051recent Bond uh thanks to the trust and investment from our community we will be able to improve our facilities by addressing some of the critical needs identified in the facility assessment conducted by wpart while the wilper report outlines facility needs we value the input from our community I want to personally thank those members of our community that took time to share their feedback either through our survey or by attending one of our community input sessions we will continue to keep you informed about our progress and communicate when additional opportunities to provide feedback will become available in Orange County Schools we recognize the importance of supporting families throughout their child's educational Journey last month we hosted a kindergarten registration event which was very well attended despite the weather it was wonderful seeing families bring their little
052ones some shyly being guided to visit School tables While others Bounce from one activity to the next full of energy I couldn't tell you who was more excited between the children and the teachers but um everyone there had lots of energy uh coming from a middle school person right um all all the babies were bouncing um but I can tell you that this event is more than simply learning about kindergarden it is um about welcoming new families into our school community and that was exciting to see on this Thursday March 13th OCS will host a preparing for Middle School um event at at Orange middle families will have a chance to meet principles from each of the three middle schools and learn about the available course offerings and practical tips to support um their child
053during their transition to middle school if you have a rise in sixth grader please try to make these events um to make an early connection with the middle school teams we have also held multiple events to support our middle schoolers who will transition to high school in January our High School principles engage families to discuss the various opportunities available in high school from leadership opportunities clubs Athletics Cultural Arts Career and Technical education opportunities and how to earn college credits tours were also conducted at Ceda Ridge in Orange High School shortly after this event if you miss this event feel free to reach out to the schools directly to schedule a tour finally I want to thank um all the teachers and staff both at the school and District level that work tirelessly to prepare these
054events and all of the other events that you all named um that is in addition to their regular day jobs that we ask them to do in supporting students and staff um there these events are designed to support students and their families and to build strong connections between home and school um thank you for all of your comments and recognizing the hard work of our staff and that concludes my comments okay thank you all right we now move into our uh consent agenda with a motion to approve with two changes uh policy 4300 we bring back policy 4318 we pull for discussion tonight so moved second all in favor I I okay um it is approved and policy 4318 is open for discussion did you want to start that Miss Hower yeah just really simple
055I I like the policy I appreciate us putting something together on this um the only um question I had was on section c the search of wireless communication devices which um gives us the author authorizes us to search a student's device if there is evidence that a student is violated violating a law um violating board policies code of conduct or School rule um I just wanted to add that um parents will be informed if this happens and that's all just a really simple addition to it yeah I the intention is to follow policy 4342 which includes parents being notified for clarity I would recommend we just start that sentence with following policy 4342 the school and then just continue on the Senate and that way it's very clear that the expectation is that it would
056follow that policy and parents would be notified and the board would get updated and a quarterly report on any such searches I'm not sure are you suggesting that we just rely on 4342 as that people leave it to interpretation or that we should change the wording no I'm saying add at the beginning of the sentence following policy 4342 the school officials must contact and that way when you go to 4342 it everything applies perfect I I that works for me Mr Coe do you want to say add something sure good evening everyone good evening so I will note that it uh um if we want to add something about parental notification we already referenced policy 4342 in the first sentence of that paragraph if we add per uh policy 4342 at the start of the
057additional sentence which said the school official must that is that's not included in 4342 so it gives sort of a false impression that's saying that for that 4342 is saying we must contact this the the school official must contact the superintendent and 4342 does not say that that's right 4342 says there has to be parent notification as soon as reasonably possible but but not there's no requirement to contact the superintendent before the search per so perhaps adding another sentence of per 4342 school officials must contact uh must provide parental notification that would be a a a accurate statement to uh I think account for what the board is expressing yes does that cover it yeah I think that's yeah that's consistent so would say po per 4 342 um parents will be notified you know
058okay the school is that do you want to say it differently well was the chair of the committee maybe go ahead something like parents will be notified of any such search in accordance with policy 4342 yes yes okay thank you motion to approve with modifications second all in favor I okay motion is approved thank you okay for discussion and action we have an update on our strategic plan priority uh three that is coming from Mr cwe again good evening everyone board uh chair purcel board members superintendent Jones staff Community um I am honored to be here to present to you an update for the Strategic plan priority three regarding exemplary staff okay um so as you can see our first um you know we we are here to talk about uh the priority 3 update
059again whoops sorry um getting a hang of this for priority three our current strategic plan from 2021 to 2026 instructs us for OCS will will recruit higher support and retain culturally proficient and highquality staff committed to providing all students with an excellent education and a welcoming environment again Brief Review our oops sorry our four um priorities are listed on this slide here here um exemplary staff uh is one of the four in along with teaching tomorrow's leaders excellence and efficiency and empowering culture of course all our strategic plan priority goals are linked to our Equity plan goals which are listed on this slide um building the equity leadership capacity of District leaders Equity plan goal three and recruit higher support and retain teacher and staff that reflect the racial and language diversity of the student
060population Equity plan goal four this is the current strategic plan goals all right so um as an update on our current goals um so our first goal was that Orange County school teacher retention rate of 81.9% will increase the strategies that were originally brought for goal one was to create Staff Affinity groups that will promote inclusiveness community and provide relevant PD for staff um this was an effort that had been started in the past and has been reinvigorated this year the second goal was to obtain feedback from the superintendent Roundtable to provide more transparency to staff and gain trust with OCS employees this uh feedback has been going uh on the two specific feedback that we have received that HR has received from this was in regard to back in the spring of 2024 regarding
061substitute teachers to have more substitutes more training that has been in operation since that time and the other feedback we received from from the teacher of year round table back in the spring of 24 was related to employee onboarding experience that also has been an ongoing process recent discussions tie-in between our finance it and HR department to make that process as as smooth as possible and finally uh the third um strategy was to utilize 360 survey survey data to address areas that are presented as not inclusive and Equitable um as you know I started in August well after the strategic plan has started I I don't know of this 360 survey data yet but if you bear with me when we get to the recommended goals I'm going to talk about a little bit about
062this then all right so as far as some key performance indicators um you can see from this chart uh you know we had a target a Target goal was sent was set of a teacher retention rate of 81.9% will increase if you look at the level of years there increasing to 89 .9% in that second column for the Target goals in the year 2025 26 we do have some actual data um you can see that in our 2223 data um this data typically comes out in late March so that's why we're sort of behind in reporting the official data so we our most current data uh is would be 23 24 sometime later this month but we haven't received that data yet we can see from 2122 to 2223 that um we actually sort of
063went in the wrong direction we see the no change or decline hopefully once we get our numbers uh later this month we'll be able to report a uh positive uh change there for strategic plan priority 3 goal two which was staff retention rate for teachers of color will increase um the strategies that were listed were to create Staff Affinity groups I've already talked about that identify teacher leaders of color through evos NIS OCS observation and staff prop and staff proposals to lead professional development um and to establish a cohort of Veteran staff of color to Mentor new staff of color to provide mentorship community and partnership as they navigate uh work in OCS um certainly one of the uh strategies that has been implemented by our excellent executive director of Staffing who was unfortunately unable
064to be here tonight um was our guide m mentors um for those of you unfamiliar guide is sort of an is a acronym for guided mentorship for underrepresented staff to create inclusive and diverse educational workspace so there's a few extra words in there but guide is in there in the acronym um that is a program that is in operation um and used to help support our uh beginning teachers as far as key performance indicators our staff retention rate for teachers of of color you'll see it's a similar chart is what I presented in the in for goal one um again we seem to have a drop from 2122 to 2223 um our unofficial data because we have not yet received the DPI file see it seems that we have reversed that Trend and our retention
065rate in this area has actually increased so once we get official data we'll have updates to this as well but a positive sign uh for for go two as far as goal three sorry um going right which is the represent representation gap between staff and students specifically between Hispanic students and teachers will narrow that was the goal um you can see from the key performance indicators our Baseline data in 2122 was we had a 215% um differential between percentage of Staff versus percentage of students um that uh we can see as we went to 2223 we we that Gap actually increased so that was going in the wrong direction it seemed to reverse itself for 2324 based on our October 2024 data and we don't have any updated data from that point on so that's
066an update of what our current goals were um and listing them out as the as you can see on the left hand ins side of the screen our current goals goal one was to increase our teacher retention rate goal two was to increase teacher of color retention rate and goal three that the representation Gap Narrows between staff and students um in proposing some recommended goal amendments we wanted to bring um our these recommended goals on the right because we believe that reflected more sort of what exemplary staff is it's not just te I mean of course teachers is our large just bulk of employees every day they're doing incredible work every minute of instructional time is important but the school system is a lot more than just teachers um and we wanted to be able
067to reflect that in our goals as we finish out this strategic plan through 2026 and so by goal one um we are proposing a new goal that the proficient teacher retention rate to be above the North Carolina State average goal two by June 2026 to create and Implement an annual Orange County Schools employee survey which resulting in 90% of all employee subgroups indicating that OCS is a good place to work and grow and finally for goal three by June 2026 at least 90% of all uh vacancies to be filled within 60 work days all right talking about the strategies uh for these goals okay um so for the first proposed goal about the provision teacher retention rate here are the strategies some of them are in operation some of them are you know are upcoming
068but we will continue the resource Affinity groups to support all teachers we do have a number of reimbursement and support programs for national board certified teaching candidates and for uh candidates who are seeking their initial license to complete the edtpa the portfolio which is often uh a barrier to uh employees getting their uh initial teaching license from an alternative license we are also increasing collaborations HR and our EC department has gotten together to work uh together more to support both individual teachers and be a presence at group uh EC um teacher support for beginning teachers HR offers uh reimbursements for lure tests um there's also a note here about increasing HR access ability we feel the more that our employees know about their rights and responsibilities um from the HR department the more likely that
069they're going to want to work in a district such as OCS with our values and principles um increase teacher recognitions um I'll note here you know we're also planning to investigate the viability of advanced teacher roles for OCS which is another way for our teachers our Advanced teachers to stay and take on extra responsibilities for extra money um just as a note I will be in Charlotte tomorrow for a presentation on Advanced teacher roles um uh to um learn more about this program application for that is in June we'll have to see how we can fit that in moving forward but it's certainly an Avenue to explore um in addition to other grants so that is some strategies that we would have for our proposed uh goal one moving on to um goal two so
070creating an implementing an annual OCS employee survey such that 90% of all employees would indicate that OCS is a good place to grow and work we've already talked about um employee onboarding process improvements we hope to begin a classified employee of the month award beginning next year as well um again increasing HR accessibility we've already begun having uh specific onboarding modules and trainings for specific OCS positions such as like for example School bookkeepers where you you know if somebody moves into that position they haven't done it before it's a whole new world it's a whole new language we have to be there to support them for Success increasing um HR professional development offerings and collaborations okay this has already begun um whether it's with uh principals or the assistant principal Academy talks with operations with
071Finance um so we are all part of a whole as again the more our employees know about their their rights and responsibilities the more we think we think they're going to appreciate the OCS way um and will lead to Greater uh work satisfaction and retention we will continue to uh support our resource and Affinity groups and we're also reinvigorating our teacher of the year and retiree celebrations um as a way again to make sure that OCS is a good place to work and grow finally um oops sorry okay am I go three yes thank you um finally goal three by June 2026 at least 90% of all vacancies to be filled within 60 work days um we're going to continue the best practices by our HR Staffing team and OCS leaders that uh create and
072maintain pipelines um and contact with OCS applicants to fill vacancies as quickly as possible we are spending more attention on um increased emphasis on bus driver vacancies so far our transportation department has been able to keep us out of the news for transportation which we love um part of that uh is looking at how we can get our current employees and new employees access to their CDLs to be able to drive a bus just last week we had a meeting with our Orange County depart Department of Social Services to talk about Mutual partnership um they're looking to hire people we're looking to hire people how we can support each other they may even have a booth at our job fair coming up on April 12th so we've got we've got a number of things in
073the pipeline there we're continue our partnership with local universities um you to help us increase the numbers of student teachers interns and cohorts at Orange County schools and finally trying to make better use of our Orange County School properties and staff to help recruit locally um you know we've got a lot of people who come into our buildings for parent nights and we we want to do more with that to um increase our recruitment so there is an action item for um this presentation which is to update the goals for um the rest of the 2021 through 2026 uh strategic plan and I leave that um for your consideration and any questions you might have Miss Dole um thank you for this thorough presentation Mr kek um I understand you looking at the original goal
074to of increased teacher of color retention rate um I understand how replacing it with you know all employee subgroups if we retain all employee subgroups we're going to also retain teachers of color I so I I appreciate how that in is um um you know broader but still includes that that goal which I think is an important goal um I have two points about not keeping the goal three of representation Gap Narrows between staff and students um and the data you had that showed that we went in the wrong direction um I would personally be interested in some more fleshed out data to that end because I I know at some points we had um data that was showing particularly increases in our number of Hispanic teachers so like just having it as one number
075um doesn't break out some of those different groups and so that's one question I have um I am curious when this new data comes out if what what we'll see there and and I am concerned about not holding on to that goal in any shape or form that I can see because I think that representation Gap is is um you know has an impact from my understanding so I'm I'm curious why we aren't wanting to keep that so it's um it's not that we don't want to keep it it's just that um a lot of that a lot of that goal may be out of our control we can't you know you know we of course welcome all our students and our um our population of Hispanic students is growing and growing and growing and
076we sometimes cannot control who applies although we do our best to recruit where we can so to have a goal that we actually have very little control of what of sort of the outcome doesn't mean we want to remove it in spirit but to have it as a goal may be difficult to have measurable outcomes that we can that we can count on so that was that was the spirit behind it it's not to remove the principle of the idea or to work to um for um to increase the diversity of our staff but that that was the rationale behind it and just to add to that if I can um that also doesn't um exclude us from reporting out um as well um if that is something that just because it's not a goal
077doesn't mean we can't report out on that okay and and while you were talking that made me wonder we still could have been increasing for example our Hispanic educator population but you're one part of your point I believe is that we are growing our percentage of Hispanic students for example faster than we are increasing our Hispanic Educators so the Gap could be widening even if we are making progress of just not making it fast enough is that part of well I can't predict the future um that's certainly the trend in terms of when we look at the number of Hispanic teachers and Educators we have compared to our changing demographics over time and the patterns so thank you miss m yeah I just want to um so I appreciate all three of the goals that
078you are proposing and I think they're great and I'm glad that I think they address some other gaps like the one addressing vacancies I think is really important so very glad to see those um I don't support removing a goal related to um uh the representation of our um teacher population growing closer to our student population in some kind of way I think over the years um over the past Maybe five years we've put significant effort towards impacting that and have significantly increased the number of uh Latino Hispanic teachers that we have um the number of black teachers that we have like that has actually made a difference um over time um and I think that's really important so that's you know that's something that I would I would like to see us add and
079I don't know that this you know maybe it isn't particularly phrased this way or something maybe it's phrased in a different way but I do think that um having some sort of attention and focus there has made a huge difference I mean I think we like tripled or five times increased the number of Hispanic teachers I mean it was you know and the numbers were still very small and not nearly representative of the students and the student population grew faster um but it makes a difference in where we decide to recruit you know so like the the strategies for the proposed goal three um you know they include Chapel Hill NC State Durham Tech they don't it doesn't say HBCU minority serving institutions like I'm must we do have those Partnerships and relationships and I'm
080sure we would continue to do that but there's something about naming it that I think prompts us to make sure that we have those strategies so sharing that feedback okay M Hower yeah thank you for this um and I have to just compliment the work that you and Miss Brimmer are doing to really bring our HR department to a new level and really a Powerhouse so thank you it's a small it's a tiny department but you are doing an incredible amount of work and I really appreciate the high expectations that you're setting for yourselves in the district that's a big deal so thank you for that um I also you know you know this I just have to say this I am thrilled to hear that you are exploring Advanced teaching role so big big
081thank you for that I think you know way county has adopted it this year chadam is looking at it and I didn't know if you're thinking about applying for the grant the DPI Grant to do the planning you have a little bit of time on that but would' love to hear what you think after CH after you visit Charlotte um on the employee survey you said you'll be looking at what we're actually doing would employees have a role in creating that survey they can I that hasn't been flushed out exactly how we do it but um that's certainly it's certainly the OCS way to get um buy in from our employees when we uh when we do something like this okay great and I actually I like the aggregate goals and I like the focus
082on retention of proficient Educators because that again it raise sets a higher expectation I like that um what I wonder about um first of all you know there's metrics about the subgroups and also schools and while I don't think we need to capture every single group in school it would be helpful to capture outliers so if we have a school that has a particularly High attrition rate or a subgroup that has a particularly High that's not close to the average um I think it would be helpful for us to know that it suggests it needs something that needs attention and and I hear loud and clear um the question on rep representative proportionality of Black and Hispanic teachers um when I talked to and it's a hard goal and all the things that people said
083it's the numbers are changing are black students are declining are Hispanic students are going up maintaining that proportionality is a is tough what parents have told me is and this is Black and Hispanic parents that it's important for them to see for their children to see leaders and people in their school that look like them and so there's a question about coverage and I I wonder if we could at least take a look at coverage and do we have um coverage of of Black and Hispanic and um teachers in our schools that that's all just something to think about thank you very great great job thank you so much Mr did you to say something you look like you did yes I do so I I do have concerns about completely removing goal three and
084the representation I I think we can come up with some wording that reinforces our commitment and tells our district that we do want to ensure this and that it is top of mind I I agree that the the the increase is not attainable based on the pipeline but I think as soon as we remove it from kind of us saying this is what we are trying to do I think it less or makes people feel that it's not as important and I know that's not the intent but I I I feel like we should have some wording that emphasizes that although we can't control it we are wanting to ensure that and to have people that look like me or you know and all of our schools that people have looking forward to so I
085I would say that I would definitely like to see something come back on that Miss P I just wanted to add thank you for the presentation it's beautiful um I'm in line with um Miss Smiley I believe that if we erase we will forget so I think it's important that we keep it so we don't forget because we do need to see more representation um so um it's important I believe that we keep it so we continue to work on it and I the same thing like she said we have a lot of talented Hispanic teachers we just need to tap into the schools like she mentioned the HBCU I mean we have great colleges near us so I I'm I'm in line I don't want this to be forgotten so when I walk into
086a school I'm not walked into just showing I've been shown only the Hispanic teachers when I went to Simply see all the the the teachers and visited the school it was kind of okay um so I don't want it to be like that I want students to feel that they're seeing in people that their teachers that look like them yeah I mean I think hopefully you you saw through the strategies nothing in sort of the way we're doing things would be changing so whether it's just to have a fourth goal or you know to keep the existing the current goal three um you know is you know something that can that can happen as well and it seems that that would it we wouldn't be changing necessarily any of the strategies because the strategies are
087still focused on the same outcomes and goals that you've you've all expressed so that could be a Mr Richman you have any comment I just I I'll say that um I really appreciate the presentation and I do agree that we do need to have more teachers as representative of our student population but I also understand how tough it is I mean if you go to some of our HBCU like Central um you already have Durham County Schools tapping into those those teachers and getting those and then if you go to an um you have Guilford County tapping into those teachers there so it's kind of tough um trying to recruit and hire um teachers of color but um I know you're going to speak more later on on the Staffing presentation I will say that
088if we're able to tap into our students by creating hopefully creating some type of um student teaching Co-op program I think you know hopefully that would that's that's what I Envision is us being able to tap into our own students in Orange County schools and hopefully getting some teachers out of that especially some uh minority teachers so thank you for the presentation um I do agree agree with everybody else that we need to keep that in there um not just for students but for the staff in the building as well um there's a lot that people learn from each other in the building and I think the more Diversified it is uh the better it is for for everybody students and staff so I would I would hardly agree that we keep that in there
089some way or the other go for whatever um um do we need to see that before we approve I I I would say um we keep goal three and make the recommendation goal three goal four second I would just ask if we're able to bring it back okay and that way with with um recommended goals yeah we'll we'll bring it back and that way you can it the way you yeah feel like it needs to be okay all right well hold off tonight and then let you let you come back all right thank you very much thank you do we need to do we take action to say bring back no um no if you don't take action then it it can just be put on the agenda for future meeting thank you okay all
090right we now move into Staffing update is that you Mr Coe not a very long sit over there okay well good evening everyone again um so uh we will now talk about uh Staffing updates um the last time that uh HR brought to you uh Staffing uh report was back in October of 2024 we're going to Pro we've broken down our Staffing update into um both a classified section and a certified section to give you a sense of where we are so uh under um sorry our classified staff um just as a reminder classified staff are non-licensed or non-certified staff they provide essential Support Services to the school system you can see the bulleted list of um which includes a majority of our classified staff um uh titles as far as we seem to be
091missing a we're not okay well we well we will okay there seems to be a no there we are yep sorry about that I thought I was on the wrong slide so here's just a reminder of where we were uh at the beginning of the year with its data was from August 26 2024 um comparing to our middle of year which was February 27th you can see a list of different classified employees in the chart you see the number of a beginning of year vacancies at the time which totaled up to 20 vacancies when we began school on August 26 as our at our middle of year point we still had 12 and a half vacancies um I will point to you that there's this is not a straight onetoone relationship sometimes you know this
092is not like we naturally just filled those or some people may have left there's shall we say some churn as we go sometimes people um separate from the school system we have to replace um but overall um we're certainly pleased as we're we would like to have zero vacancies um but we're certainly pleased that the number of vacancies has reduced overall as a district from the beginning of the year to the middle of the Year some of our uh Staffing Solutions that we have done to in addition to the usual um you know sort of maintaining our pipeline reaching out recruiting has been we've used um EC contract employees for related Services as necessary um and another thing of note that we've brought in to uh is to uh reinvigorate our pool of substitute custodians
093just keeping in mind typically custodians don't get substitutes but this is if if a if a custodian is out on non-paid leave then the funds for that position are free and we can put somebody in there to help out at the schools so that's something that was uh OCS did in the past before my time um and we've we've reinvigorated that all right for the next slide our new classified hires um you'll see from the chart that in 2024 2025 our HR team has process and made 245 new classified hires um I will do need to make a note about the substitutes um in all prior years every substitute who was re sort of reupping for the new year would get on a board report over the summer you'd approve them we had 108 substitutes
094who were renewed and then we've added 49 more I talked we talked before about the feedback from the teacher of the year Round Table of increasing our substitute pool so that's been an emphasis that's why that number is so large 108 were from last year who reup to be eligible for substitute teaching assignments for this year um all right uh for next slide is this just another way to see the data um in terms of where what where you know where they are as we can see the highest number of new classified hires were are bus drivers and monitors um which included 10 new bus drivers that we've hired since the start of the school year um 21 ecta is a high number and of course our large number of substitutes why is this data
095important well our classified employees are important I mean there's sort of straight way to say it is is just that um we know that we know how important our classified employees are to every student to every staff member um and so so some of the steps that we have been doing to support our classified employees is collaborating with our EC Department to provide training for ECT um to help increase retention collaboration with Transportation as I talked about previously in terms of trying to get more folks with their to get their CDLs I've already talked about increasing the substitute the attention to substitute um we have started to be very intentional about collecting Baseline data on daily fill rates um to monitor efficiency of substitutes and we hope to bring that as some regular reporting and
096Staffing updates in the future um we had a very successful classified Employee Appreciation launch back in November um and in addition our resource groups that we that I mentioned back in the earlier presentation they're open to everybody so you know anyone who wants to come for a resource Group we we are not exclusive in any aspect um and so we we think that's a source of of strength and in our resource groups we it is not uncommon for us to have um a diverse group that's there so uh we we we like that aspect of our resource groups all right certified staff um same sort of chart that I just showed you for classified is here for certified as you can the dates are the same the beginning of the year was from August 26
097of 2024 middle of year was February 27th 2027 um our numbers are about the same well they are the same 17 and a half again this is not a one: one um I know there were some uh questions about elll teachers um at stach this information does not take into account the March the board report that was just approved on consent agenda we've hired another one so that's good news um but some of the creative Staffing Solutions we have is we're tapping into retired teachers we have made use of extended work agreements that uh for hard to fill teaching vacancies that was only able to be done by the foresight of this board our finance team from last year to have money in the budget to do that um we student intern use uh to
098for instructional support staff and then again contracted services for CTE and EC related Services is helping us to keep services for students uh as best we can as far as the location of new hires um here's just a chart of our um of our different schools essential services for our certified hires uh as you can see generally some of our larger schools are near the top of the list including our elementary schools we're going to talk about that in just a second like um here's a breakdown of who we're hiring as our new certified employees um you'll notice that the biggest group of employees that we've been hiring are Elementary Core Elementary teachers okay 36 um of this group you'll notice on the chart uh on the right the inset on the right you know
099the total number in the district of Elementary core teachers 161 we hired 36 um and um that is a a fairly high percentage it's almost 25% of our elementary teachers Core Elementary teachers are new hires it doesn't necessarily mean they're a new teacher but it's a new hire to the district um you see the EC teacher is also um a high uh a high number percentage of our big group of our new hires as well as our instructional support uh Personnel this is certified instructional support I will note just for for the record um we do have one correction on this slide we did not hire four certified Chiefs um apparently I still count for my teaching license from a long time ago so I'm one but we really did hire three uh directors and
100executive directors and it's only three Chiefs so if you're counting who's who's that fourth certified chief that person doesn't exist right now so um so where are our new employees okay where are they in terms of their experience levels and their supplements well you can see from the circle graph there in the blue almost 50% of our new employees are being paid on our 12% supplement meaning they are zero to five years okay um on the flip side if well not the flip side but on the opposite end of the spectrum almost over 20% one fifth of our new hires are have 20 plus years of experience okay which puts them on our highest level for our certified supplement at 18% I will note that nine of our 24 employees who were hired with 20
101plus years of exper experience um so you know just over a third um were either retirees or are providing instructional support okay just a little fact about that why is this data important because we have a lot of teachers who are new right in that zero to five year so HR has really structured um our support for the district right um about supporting our beginning teachers it's it's critical we all know the rates of attrition rate for beginning teachers that you know that sort of thing um some of the things that HR and our team has already done before I ever got here the three pre-employment days that are available to beginning teachers to help ground them and get them started um this professional development the guide mentors we have a beginners to national board
102certification program as well to help support that the licensure support report that um Miss Brer colz has instituted over the past few years I mean just I think uh a week and a half ago on Friday there was one of our first edtpa workshops where we had two U mentors come and there were about 10 uh 10 teachers there working on their portfolio to get their initial license it's a great Vibe helping them support them with their portfolio their writing I mean we're doing all of this Focus to try to keep certified teachers uh in front of students so these are all um ways that we are supporting some of them I've mentioned previously in terms of lure support we have new Partnerships um are are constantly being filed we have a new North Carolina
103teaching fellows Grant which is going to be able to provide other opportunities and even some money and resources to new teachers who are not a teaching fellow but we can still use that um we have just scheduled a North Carolina State University teaching fellows visit on March 27th um as part of a new initiative with NCSU again talking about OCS is a good place to work and grow extra PD for ecbt summer training um and continuing to support our employees by letting them know that OCS is supportive of new teachers um of all uh of of a diverse population talking about lure which is another important issue for Staffing um again what I'm what I'll I'll I'll use that middle column first where it's talking about the license these are for beginning teachers 0 to
104three years both new and returning so as long as they're in that group of 0 to three years we had a grand total of 81 teachers in this category as you can see from that list the largest number 45 right 45 out of 81 of our new teach teachers this year um who are on a beginning license they had their initial teaching license that's still a pretty good rate from what I understand from other districts that's over half of our teachers who are coming in have their initial teaching license um I know in other districts the numbers can approach 60 70% you know even more of new teachers um who are alternatively licensed okay now it's not to say that alternatively licensed can't be great teachers too but once you have that teacher teaching license
105you don't you can spend 100% of your efforts on what you're doing the class as opposed to worrying about a test you have to pass or doing more coursework that sort of thing um and you can see the permit to teach emergency license and residency license those are our most common alternative licenses that are steps I think as I've said before sort of the rungs of a ladder As you move towards your initial teaching license um but basically almost 50 % but under 50% of our our BTS are alternatively licensed um and 25% of our entire teaching staff are in years0 to four um so and you can see the list on the left about where our beginning teachers are why is this data important because it is sometimes it is difficult for districts to
106find teachers with their initial teaching license who are ready to go who've been through the education program have their tests have done their student teaching all of that um so to help with that um Miss cols LED in OCS alternative license your for back on January 28th 99 individuals registered for the fair including 21 of our own classified employees to find out information about how to get licensed to potentially become a teacher we had seven University Partners they're listed down below who were available virtually and offered individualized sessions that um that um people who attended the fair could get into breakout sessions um and speak specifically with one of those institutions ECU and nccu also offered sessions on their ta to teach programs and since the January 28th Fair HR primarily Connie has met with
10726 candidates to answer further questions see where they are along the pipeline so um this is part of the ongoing work of our HR Staffing team to keep that pipeline uh as as full as possible so national board certification um we love talking about national board because of course in addition to the recognition and the impact of students we love it for our employees because the state pays them 12% more and they're still in the classroom so we love it when the States paying more for our teachers um at the start of 20 2024 25 we had 63 National board certified teachers we have gained 15 this year 11 of them were our own who achieve this well there'll be a official recognition coming up in the near future and four that hired into the
108district um So currently as you can see on the chart in the top left the classroom teacher in the spring we're at 133% of the district is has national board certification um if you look at the chart on the right about where the national boards are located you might notice a very interesting stat there that we have a fairly small Elementary School with an extremely high number of national board certified teachers okay and I'm talking about Grady Brown here one of the things that we have certainly learned over the years is that when we have cohorts of employees or teachers doing it together working together a supportive environment they urge each other on and so you know we certainly are know that that is a place that we want to devote our resource to especially
109when we're talking with Partnerships in other universities even with this is off national board but with student teachers bring them in cohorts let them feel like they're part of the team right a part of the of of OCS working together for Mutual success um our goal is to get to 20% um and that's why one of the reasons we're trying to devote resources our beginner to board uh uh beginning teacher to board certification programs and reimbursements for those teach for um North n National board uh candidates why is this data important um national board certified teachers typically have higher student outcomes um increased retention we already talked about the uh acknowledgement and the extra compensation from the state in addition if you see the second section here exceeded growth um 32% of our national board
110certified teachers were at the exceeded growth status as opposed to the overall population of our non-national board certified teachers we're at 17% so this is just the more resources we put in this the better for everybody um so that is something that we uh we certainly look to has already begun and we look to continue another note we do have our OCS Job Fair coming up in April um we have found over the years that virtual attendance typically is a lot higher than in-person attendance and we don't want to do away with the in-person job fair but what we have done is we split it up into two events a candidate can come to one the other or both is fine um we will have opportunities for individuals who attend virtually on the Wednesday April
1119th from 4: to 6 that may be convenient for people if they're coming from afar they can do it virtually they'll have the opportunity to go into breakout rooms for individual schools they could potentially set up an interview time and set that up ahead of time for Saturday but we will still be having a sort of a truncated version on Saturday morning we started a little earlier a lot of times a lot of districts have job fairs all on the same day so they can come to us first and then you know get them to an early contract especially if they're a math teacher um and then we can they can go to the other job fairs so that's the ideal case any questions Miss Pia thank you um for the presentation I I'm just
112wondering about the height turnover for elementary why are why do we have a height turnover I I can't point to one specific reason um we get lots of different reasons on for example resignation forms um it could be that they go to other districts it could be it could be lots it could be lots of reasons I I I can't sit here and say that there's you know this is the one reason so we have been colle the data as to kind of track why teachers are leaving Elementary School what we do on their forums there's a spot to put you know why they resign um in terms of tracking exact you know what everybody puts there um we we don't we have not been tracking that yet um but we certainly know for example
113like on the board report you know when we produce the board reports and report on the separations we see the patterns that emerge uh and one of the patterns we know is um you know sometimes they go to other districts to pay more sometimes they're leave the profession sometimes they retire these are all sort you know these are all reasons that people put on there okay I'm just concerned because you know Elementary is essential for our student body so just the number is really high thank you Miss Molly um great presentation lots of information and um yeah just a lot of gratitude for all of the different strategies that um Connie and the whole team everyone is is putting in place here it's a lot of additional support and work I feel really good about
114like the beginning teacher supports and a lot of those things um uh and I do Wonder for um attrition rates I'm Cur I'm curious how much is retirement and how that how much how that compares to other districts um I know we have like a fair number of teachers in the like 20 plus year category um so if we ever break out the data I think the state report that comes out at the end of March they do do they do they split it up that way including like go to teach in another District leave the state like does did they count retirement as well as one of those Pathways re I believe retirement is but I'd have to check it get back to you yeah I mean I'm just I'm curious about that and
115to understand how much of that is an impact um um and then the I saw the high rate of um new hires for e teachers and also Tas and I was wondering if you happen to know off the top of your head how many ECT we have I'd love to know that because hiring 21 ecta in one year seems like a big number too so I'd love to know what how much that is you don't I'm not going to quiz you on the spot never mind if you can follow up I just presented this with the allotments last at the LA at the was it just so just a couple weeks ago it was in the allotment presentation but I don't want to you know in public say a number that I don't remember exactly
116I'll go look it up that's fine that's fine thank you um okay and then love that you're starting to capture capture the daily fill rate um and how effectively we're able to cover uh those like substitute cover the vacancies yeah love that thank you m just just real quick just um really appreciated uh the data presentation and the different ways you broke it out um beginning of year middle of year by sight by position sort of had classified it really was well presented and um very understandable with lots of detail and I appreciate that um touching on the uh national board certification um you know that's something we just started supporting just a couple years ago um so I'm glad that that's already um reaping some benefits and I'm wondering my recollection is we were
117supporting half the costs and I'm looking at you have some some good details here and I was wonder if you could remind me or EXP explain to me because you have financial support for uh nbct candidates on slide 18 there um reimburse 10 candidates for purchases of required components um local funds to assist so did did some of them have everything covered or how did that work so generally the so there's four different components to the national board certification process and reimbursement typically is you can get reimbursed for the first take of it not everybody goes for not everybody applies for the complete national board package at one time so somebody may want to split it up over two years and do like two components this year and two components next year we we're we're
118trying to find the funds as much as we can to support everyone who's going through it to try to give them full full reimbursement and as much as we can do that we feel that the benefit to OCS is that's just a very valuable use of whatever funds or grants we can sort of move around um you know for examp example there was um there was a grant to help uh there was money allocated to uh support a reimbursement for teachers taking their lure tests but then we got a grant for that and we were able to move that money to have available to reimburse for national board certified teachers right so that was done in uh in conjunction with Dr pack and and academics so we all realize the benefit for for national board
119certification but as far as how much is reimbursed we we try to go full as much as our money will allow okay I gotta thank you so much appreciate that Mr yes thank you thanks for this um and you know so funny because I I didn't pick up so much on the number of people that we hired but I thought I was very impressed that the number of openings was relatively small and I love staying out of the news so thank you for that um I I have questions related to some of the things I was said about matching the supports that we're providing with our needs and um on the beginning teachers actually one of the reasons I'm so interested in advanced teaching roles is the mentoring support the on-site mentoring support for beginning
120teachers but with all these beginning teachers do they all have mentors are we able to provide enough mentors to support all the beginning teachers every beginning teacher has a mentor the question is is how many do is you know is it just one Mentor for one beginning teacher I don't believe that's the case we don't have enough necessarily mentors to match with the one oneon-one with each beginning teacher yeah I guess I'll say it's budget season so I'll just leave it there on that but it would be you know it's it's great to have the you know these creative strategies are fantastic but we have to really provide the support right um I have the same question with Sarah R I i' never heard the term fill rate on substitutes is you know it's great
121to see all these substitutes but are we able to cover the classes and and it seems that that there may be an answer for elementary schools that's different than the answer for secondary but I it would be really helpful yeah we look forward to in the future getting that in a position where we can report that so hopefully by If October is the next Staffing update then hopefully we'll have some numbers by then great and one last question on school social workers the unsung heroes I love that that um we have five new ones that's actually a high number for us for as a percentage and um social workers get lost because unlike counselors or psychologists they don't get paid for master's degrees right the the counselors and social and psychologists do get paid for
122Masters the social workers are on the teachers pay scale so when teachers lost Master's pay so did the social workers um and for us it actually mean meant changing the job to ition for our social workers so my question is with so many new social workers are we do we have the supports that they need as beginning social workers um especially if they don't have Masters or clinical experiences we don't even have the equivalent of national board certification for social workers so um and if we don't can't provide the support for the few number of social workers should the board be considering reinstating Master's pay just for social workers it's a rhetorical question I'm put it out there but I think it's you know want to know if we're really able to adequately support our
123social workers um thank you I will then leave it as a rhetorical question for now um um I do want to say before I I don't know if there were other question oh sorry go ahead Mr Mr well first thank you for all the data and all the information it's wonderful to see we're tracking this and how we're making improvements I also want to thank you for actually using pictures within our district I love seeing the real pictures of our district and in those situations um just a couple of things one I think one of the thing that's really important about Orange County Schools is that we bring in teachers based on their experience and that was a change that happened I know after I came on the board where if you were a teacher
124that had 10 years of experience and you came here you started at year one and as you show the breakdown of how many years you have experienced and I think that's one of the big reasons we're getting more experienced teachers because we support whatever your experience is and I think that's a wonderful thing we do um the other thing I think that really sticks out to me is 43% of our beginning teachers or alter alternative licensing or what we've been calling for years grow your own and I think that will continue to be one of our good sources of bringing in people that are already in our schools people that know our students know our staff know our culture and easy to bring in so really excited to see that program grow and people utilizing
125it um I I had the same question about the uh national board certification kind of how how often are we having education sessions or information sessions out to teachers and staff about that I I know they talk to each other about it but how how are we engaging to let them know that we are interested in helping them uh become certified so um so first of all I've got to mention other team members here so first of all the pictures in the presentation we got to thank Connie for that as well because she's the she's the brains behind that operation um but Rhonda wood over in um in Dr pac's uh shop in academics and Connie work together a lot for the support for national board there is regular sessions it is somewhat cyclical like
126you have to apply by a certain time and be part of a cohort as you go through it's not like you can just sort of sign up at any point during the year so there is there's all staff emails about you know sessions to learn about national boards and then the support um some of the support for national board is statutory nature like national board candidates can have substitutes for three days to work on their national boards and that's something that we support in addition to having other sort of mentorship sessions uh but yeah but there's there's plenty of information that goes out about in staff email and we know that our teachers are required to be on emails and read their emails all right thank you so much Mr yeah I just want to
127Circle back around to um the um comment that I made earlier the uh prior presentation but have we done any research to see or any surveys to see if we have any students that are um possibly thinking about be becoming a teacher and um maybe starting uh that student teaching um Co-op program I think Orange County would be in a unique um you know situation to start something like that and try to not only grow our own but um you know try to recruit more um student teachers so I know in the past OCS has had even I think some scholarships for teachers who are who are moving on I'm not sure that in in the has oh please thank you Dr pack that's a little bit in my area so I'll help um so
128the answer is yes uh uh Mr coic talked about the partnership they were having with the teaching fellows program MH excuse me oh all right out of breath just coming over here sorry um and part of that plan is to grow our own and so some of the you guys at the next meeting will get that Grant proposal to approve but part of that proposal is to use some of that fun funding to take a group of students give them some extra activities and support who've expressed some interest in teaching uh some type of internship and you know grow them ourselves create that program so that's a piece of it as well as our new teacher support awesome thank I just want to add on to that because I think one of the wonderful programs
129I've seen is where the Cedar Ridge seniors go over to Grady Brown and actually participate they volunteer and many of them that I've spoken to said you know after doing this I really want to teach you know this is this is what I want to do and I think us having those schools so close and that opportunity for them to be able to do that I think helps Mr richond to your point getting the interest early and actually seeing them be able to do it so yeah the part of that is to um have those authentic experiences part of that that program for both high schools that's what I was going to add Orange High School also participates in that awesome thank you thank you if I can say one thing I'd just like to
130thank you for putting this in this format because it makes it so much easier to understand so much easier to read um one thing I'd like to see you add to that is if you have this information and knowing Miss bumer CS she probably could find it out how many teachers do we have in Orange County right now who came out of Orange County schools because I know there are quite a few and that would be something that is interesting to see and maybe tap into them in helping facilitate help get more people that are coming out of our system that would be interested in coming back to Orange County Schools um just a thought um um I know you got plenty to do I've seen tonight you you've done plenty tonight here just to
131see it to show us this stuff so um I appreciate it thank you yeah I mean our greatest resource are our people right that's where most of our money goes it's to our staff and if we can use our staff to help recruit more great employees we're we're going to we're going to look into it yeah but some of those people that have come out of Orange County might be interested in going into a high school and talking to or coming to a job fair if if they know that um some of the people that may be from Orange County I don't know just just a thought as I sitting here but thank you for all this hard work it's greatly appreciated thank you thank you you all right let me get my glasses on
132so I can see I think Mr mccon with our on buds report for this quarter hard to believe it's quarter three right it's F by good evening chair purcel Vice chair Richmond members of the board superintendent Jones members in the public and of course the uh the public watching at home I'd be remiss not to say that cuz my kids are watching right now hi boys um tonight I bring to you our Q3 report for ombuds I'm excited to bring forward this data uh per policy to see how we're doing so far so I want to start really quickly just as a reminder of the why of course we're here and we work for children I just want to make sure we always Center back to that as part of our mission but just again
133remember our our our what we're here year for the second one is a reminder of the standards of practice these are the four standards that set by the international UDS Association that set the for set forth the work that I do in supporting employees as UDS those four pillars are confidentiality Independence impartiality and informal so I want to make sure that just leading with that as well as a reminder that's what the standards of practice are the second reminder are the nine uniform Rec reporting categories that's presented and given to me by the International osz Association these as again a reminder these are the categorical areas that I that I code each individual visitor or group visitor interaction with so they fall into one of these nine categorical areas in my next slide I'll go
134into a little bit of feedback because I did get I do remember the feedback that was given at the last board meeting and I did reach out to my colleagues a little bit about how that goes because if you notice in the abstract I do have the full uniform reporting categories and each one of those nine have a a bunch of subset categories so I did reach out to my colleagues in the K12 ombuds group that represent ombuds practitioners from all over the country and asked how do you all use these uniform reporting categories and most all of them said we use the nine so I said I about do you use any of the subset categories and their feedback was really we stick to the nine because it allows us to focus on the
135primary need in hand however that helps us to be able to categories categorize areas now that being said as some additional feedback if you notice on the very bottom of those files those were written in 2014 so these uniform recoring categories from the international UT Association are 10 years old now at this point and I did get feedback from the group that the International uzz Association is seeking to update those which is some great opportunity so I'm looking forward to be hopefully be a part of that conversation moving forward with my peers and colleagues all over the country so as of now sticking to using those nine uniform reporting categories to code the interactions with the employees so now we'll go into the data so since August I have been able to meet with 30
136Orange County School staff members 30 and these are individual and or individuals in a group that's the total people so some of them were in groups and some of them were individual 87% are certified staff that's that that would make sense we have a lot of certified staff but 133% are also classified staff so we have representation from both the highest uniform reporting category is pier and colleague relationships that category is the is the highest one that I've seen in my interactions with with staff members with a very very close second at 43% being services and administrative issues so that means those are the top two uniform reporting categories that I'm seeing in the interactions with the staff members I do want to also round out and get my top four I do have small
137numbers in safety health and physical environment as well as small numbers in compensation and benefits of course through 7% out of 30 you can tell that those are very very small um as a reminder I am able to meet with staff as as individuals or in groups per policy and at this time I don't have any broader trends that are systemic in nature acrossing the entire School District to be able to elevate and Report here at the board floor but those four areas with peer and colleague relationships being the primary area that I'm seeing the most feedback from I do like to say this and I've said this before the feedback is a gift the reason it's a gift is we get in the present and I'm I'm I feel very honored to be able
138to have this opportunity to meet with these individuals who really show and I I I do I can't say this enough do show a real Act of Bravery to be able to do this and I appreciate that interaction with them and taking the time and effort to meet them where they are I do want to say again I mention off the slide I will meet you where you are I will call you where you are I will come to you where you are however you feel comfortable I want to make sure that's there so here are the data that I want to present to the board based in policy that's the total number of visitors our Ser for is classified and our highest uniform reporting categories as a reminder I don't just meet and listen
139one of the largest things I need to be doing is providing agency to staff to make a change that's a big part of this so I listen I follow up with them to make sure that they have an idea in that conversation what are your options for next steps I will also say I have returners I have individuals to meet with me and then come back for a follow-up conversation to take the next steps cuz sometimes you just got to be honest they're not ready in that moment to take the step I've provided options for them and just be like I need to go back and think about it I need to uh take some time and then they come back and ask for that feedback and I provide them all the options I do
140not tell them what to do but I tell them what they can do that's the Staff Agency to make sure they have a clear and present understanding of what they're able to do in their own life so as a reminder here's all my contact information I do have Flyers over here I've given Flyers out to the boards thank you for the sh plug appreciate that I'm working on getting them out to the schools as I continue to meet with them and bringing them out to staff lounges and really it's about meeting staff where they are and being able to provide that service and that opportunity it really has been just a a very fulfilling opportunity because I think we've talked about it here at least once or twice before about it's not always just bringing
141a concern it's answering a question or being there to support that too because I can as well and I can assure you if I don't know and I'm able to I'm going to find an answer because you deserve that chance as well as all as for all of our staff members so that's my um my onbut report for Q3 I'll turn it over to you all for questions any questions Miss do um uh thank you Mr mun just a quick comment I appreciate um the presentation and um you know and how you're fleshing out this role and providing an understanding for all of us of how it works and um I like that you have data to share and I understand it took a little while to have you know because you're protecting anonymity you
142had to wait till you had some data to keep um it uh Anonymous and so I I like how you presented it because it gives enough information for um you know board members to understand some of those areas um but protects the anonymity of the individuals and so that I find that very helpful so thank you I do also want to say that um out of the total number 63% have have been since the new year so the numbers are going up and I appreciate that that they're coming so for what it's worth M thank you thank you for that presentation and how you put it so easily um I'm just wondering about um what percentage if you can say or if you know the information of some of the issues brought up to you
143have been resolved just curious is so I I I feel comfortable saying I have provided every single staff member great options to take the next step and a lot of them have already done that they already have and I know that through anecdotal conversations I know that I've been in a return visit with them can I say all 30 have been completely fixed no but I can say confidently that a a good chunk of them have taken the have taken the options that have been given and they have taken that Agency for the next step I don't not always part of what that next step looks like CU it's on them um if they come back at for support I get a little bit of a window in how far they've gone but I can
144say that they have all been given the options to be able to make the change that they need to see and feel comfortable with because that's what it also comes down to where the Comfort level is because some of them are just telling and I say here are your options you have the choice some choose to do something some don't so to be able to say I know all of them have been fixed I can't be able to say that but I do feel good about saying a good number of them have been able to make the change for themselves where they feel comfortable well thank you I do like the fact that you're the agent to kind of alleviate some of the issues they might be learning or not understanding how to navigate so
145thank you you want Miss Molly uh thank you so much for this report I was I was a little surprised there weren't more um uh folks coming to you about evaluative relationships like their supervisor um since I think that's the like sometimes we hear about that kind of stuff so but the data is the data um and uh I'm just curious two things one like are there any broader themes um that would lead to any recommendations for us the board in terms of like broader action for the district or anything like that and it may still be too soon to tell but like I would say as you build up information over the course of the year and we sort of come around to the full year I'd be interested to know whether there's any
146sort of broader uh recommendations for us um and then I'm just curious obviously this without giving away any specific examples or anything I'm curious what sorts of followup like Trends and the kind of follow-up you're recommending for people are these like conversations that folks need some coaching and guidance and support to like you need to initiate this conversation with your peer and like coaching how they might say it like what what kinds of follow-ups are you recommending to folks so the best first way to to describe that question would be to make sure they understand what they can do CU they're still coming to me for a reason it's I don't know what to do something has happened I I don't know what the step is what are what are the because you have a
147range right what are the formal Pro policy sides of it or the informal policy sides of it so it have to be able to meet them where they are to make sure they understand what the options they have and then the coaching can happen and it's not really coaching it's providing options because I never want it to come off as like this is what Franklin would do do cuz that's not the nature of the role the nature of the role is make sure they know what they can do so that helps them lead to whatever the next steps will be and could that be correlators Co correlators coaching a little bit but it's really making sure they're really clear about what they can do and that's really where they're coming to me in the first
148place because they don't they don't know where to start or they're worried about where the the role is going to take them or the questions or what has happened to them so it's a safe and comfortable environment to really just ask all the questions there's no rep me I'm I'm not out of value with a supervisor I don't evaluate them so they can be very open and honest about anything and everything so that way they feel comfortable when I present the options to them okay these are these are legitimate things that should be taking into consideration and then leave every conversation with you don't have to have the answer now you can come back and see me think about it maybe you have an additional question after you thought about yeah I'm leaning in this
149one what does that mean walk me through the process we you know I have a range some are like okay I've heard the process some are like I need like a step by step what does this mean if I did this what is that if I did this what is that so I have to meet them kind of where their understanding is and their comfort level did I answer your question Miss Marley Miss Marley um do you ever coach I'm sorry I we know we know must be The Hil I don't know what it is um do you sometimes you know people come and say things like I don't feel supported and that could mean a lot of things and I was curious if you ever help them become more precise about what it is
150that troubling them and how to get become more focused well the first step in that is really listening I have to listen through what they're presenting to me because maybe that support is weaved down inside of where the pain is or where the trauma's at so if I can help kind to like listen through kind of like all right so here's where your options are then I can help point you to where support is because maybe they don't know where the support is at all and the first step is I need to be able to tell you where the the challenge is so I can at least point you in the direction of support and then that helps them be able to be take the agency to make the change so it really it's it's
151deep listening to where they're coming from because as you said the support could be very very different you I see that in firsttime visitors I see that in returning visitors and they look they look very different and the most important thing you know this is a big this is you know school systems have a lot of moving pieces they need to make sure they understand where they can go for help and how they can do that and take the agency great thank you thank you m Mr um Mr MC I just want to thank you for stepping up taking this role uh really uh going out and empowering our staff and I think it's an important role and as Miss Smiley said I would be very interested at the end of the year kind of
152those hire items that maybe we can learn as a district what may not be bubbling up or falling through the cracks whether it's you know training whether it's um uh acknowledgments or you know just things that we may not realize because it doesn't fall under a policy or an item like that that really will make a difference especially in subgroups we don't know what each person really needs and and I think that can help us be a better District you know if at the end you find something that may be common that keeps coming up that's not obvious so definitely looking forward to hearing more thank you you're welcome the only thing I could say parallel to that is the feedback I get is I appreciate you being here I appreciate this option I appreciate
153having a place to go so that's a step in the right direction right and that again that's a Testament of the board from the moment the conversation was started several years ago any comments Mr Rich I just thank you for what you do yes sir yes sir thank you for this report it's it's it's nice to see that people are feeling more comfortable and coming out and know that this is there for them you are there for them so thank you for what yes ma'am and as a reminder please I mean I have I brochar I know you all have them I'm trying to get them out the schools for staff who are listening I'm here for you thank you all thank you Mr Davis Bond update good evening good evening evening just a courtesy
154uh it's 9:35 just want to do a time check everyone is okay with that yeah cuz I'm calling people by other names up here so all Righttime obviously Davis chap Operating Officer uh good evening to everyone here uh as noted uh we have a bond update primarily to give you an update of where we are as well as a review of some Community uh input sessions and some surveys um just want to reiterate how we got here um and so we had a facility assessment and feasibility study um by the wer report and it is a comprehensive data collection a series of options and a final recommendation um the best return on investment for Orange County residents students um and these questions followed some things that you will see uh given the condition needs of
155each building relative to its replacement cost should it be maintained renovated or replaced given population Trends relative to school capacity does Orange County need the same more or fewer facilities given the size and adequacy of these buildings would a renovated facility be more of a viable option that is able to educate students for decades to come and overall what is the best strategy to make certain every student in every Community has access to safe and educational adequate schools and so from that report um the r report um developed phases based on the urgency of the requests and a 0o to5 uh a five the 10 and a much further uh Lookout on the needs uh here in the district again if you read that report you will know that there's over a billion dollars worth
156of need um and just a finite uh amount of money as you can see here in Phase One U at that time the estimated total was around 179 million as you know in November uh the community voted unanimously for approval of a $300 million Bond of which uh 125 million would go to Orange County schools and so if you look at Phase One it lists the potential projects um and rank them based on the strategy uh that I mentioned earlier on answering some of those questions uh the components of the portfolio include a facility conditions assessment the educational adequacy assessment uh enrollment and capacity that brought these schools to the Forefront of phase one and so we've looked at a variety of of different options we've come to the board on several occasions in our
157finance and capital planning meetings uh started to see what is available in our current portfolio and so on tonight we're going to continue to briefly update you on those options option one is a new K5 onsite a replacement at Central Elementary this may be new information but uh stated in our previous slide it has always been a phase one and a priority for the district to look at the potential of a new K5 on a replacement of Central Elementary option two a new K5 on the gry hill uh site or adjacent to the grvy hillsite and then option three a new K8 onsite replacement at Orange Middle School uh further detail on these options considerations that we continue to work with our Consultants uh to refine and in future meetings we will continue to drill
158down to the best project uh to start uh in the fiscal year 2026 so again uh K5 onsite replacement at Central Elementary things that we're considering to make this a viable option is uh whenever we make a decision what will impact students we look at things like swing space and the access uh that will be needed during construction we also look at the age of facility and the educational adequacy making sure that our students are ready for 21st Century Learning and then option two on the Greenfield site not disturb Ed uh a K5 near grle Hill Middle School again land availability as we' talked in future and previous meetings uh about the time it would take to uh buy appropriate land with appropriate size and appropriate conditions um we know that we have a finite
159period of time and time is also associated with money uh we also would to look at the locations of these sites uh because it would also impact uh other modes of transportation uh transportation department our Child Nutrition department in terms of deliveries as well as this would require sumary districting in the 28 29 school year and then our third option is new K 8 on site replacement at Orange middle again as we look at our total list in phase one we'll be able to uh appropriate a a new Elementary as well as appropriate the sizing of a Middle School uh again we've seen benefits of a matriculation from K to 8th grade and so that will kep keep with our r ion of Elementary to Middle as well as we will rightsize our district by
160consolidating into one project uh reducing our facility operation cost over time as well as phasing the construction uh and impacts to our traffic as well as as we know that on that main thoroughfare with orange middle and orange High it can be congested during school hours so that was kind of the quantitative we'll get to our qualitative we want to make sure that we provide you enough information when the time comes for you to render a decision that bases on facts figures feasibility as well as the community input so here are the couple of things that we launched a survey in February we just closed it last week um in a minute we'll show you the respondents uh but we wanted to ask who are the folks that were um engaging in this survey the
161household size um things about how well our current facility meets the students needs um any recommendations importance of programming importance of transition and also some other questions about opting into future Bond updates so we had over 391 respondents kudos to Kevin Smith and his public relations information team of really making sure we posted um on every media our newspaper as well as email and text threads I thank kudos to his team for getting such a large number of respondents as you hear it's broken up every school in the district was represented uh as well as staff Community students parents and Guardians and so we had a a well uh wide variety of where we saw these respondents coming from just want to take a minute to look and extrapolate Jeff for that word um some
162of the data that we uh have seen and current facilities impact on learning as well as preference for new uh versus renovated schools so uh for the current facilities of the 391 respondents um they felt that the current facilities we ranked them from one to five was at a three so we're not so bad we're middle of the road which is pretty good kudos to our maintenance U department for keeping us up and running uh and then we've what is the role of facility impact on student achievement and so the community at least from this data really wants to make sure that our facilities uh are impactful for student learning uh it is also important uh we saw fives on both the importance of program options as well as the importance of transition to sixth
163grade and so this information again is uh taken as a collection to our Consultants uh that will we will see in future presentations um provide greater uh opportunity to render what project the school district um does first uh when it comes to preference of new versus renovated this to your right uh shows that we have a larger preference to renovate schools uh versus new schools but of the preference to do new schools uh it was at the elementary school level as you see at the bottom that took a slightly uh greater Advantage uh when it comes to new versus renovated so we want to talk about some of our community engagement sessions we've had two over the course of the last couple of weeks here's some images of our illustrious superintendent as well as Community
164uh input and our Consultants really listening sessions capturing uh the voices uh who will be impacted from this decision again we had over 25 attendees um on February in total from February 25th and the March 3rd meeting U we had two kind of exercises the first one was stating the importance of of program choice and as you see from the data we wanted the respondents to rate their highest priority versus their lowest priorities all having great impact on the program once the project has been determined for OCS and so just a quick stand out um stem and steam um has one of the largest kind of priorities for the district uh Arts was a focus no one thought that should be a low priority um as well as magnet and school choice was also uh
165Rose to the top of of this data the second excise was that the Consultants provided us a time to uh play with some money each respondant got a total of 125 which represents the total amount of money the county has uh stated to give us over the next 10 years uh and this is not a representation of how the bond money will be spent um but we created these five buckets K5 K8 Elementary School renovation a middle school renovation and a high school renovation um and from the two nights the data looked something like K8 Rose to the top on a um spending basis and a high school renovation um was a close second again this is not any representation of the direction or uh input in terms of a K8 or high school but
166this is just an exercise to show that if you have $125 million uh in this need uh is really difficult to to make sure all needs are taken care of so I think um the respondents from listening to them really got a sense of just how difficult the decision that the board will have to make when making their best for students so what of our next steps so again just want to reiterate uh that the options that present to you have not come out of left field they've always been a part of the wh study uh we have just really done a deeper dive and the feasibility of the options as well as placing our priority list with again the finite money and time that we have and so the next Bond update um will
167be on the March 24th where we will bring further analysis of community input uh and some more feasibility on the options that you saw here today with that we'll take any questions question M Hower sure I'm GNA um thank you for this and thank you I love the introduction thanks for that that was great um and and thank you for the progress that you're making on this I attended both Community meetings and really appreciated the quality of the conversation that um you all had with the community you've got a great team congratulations on that and the topic is really complicated so and I just I just want to take a minute to say one thing that I'm getting questions about I just want to clarify something for the public um the County Commissioners set aside
168$300 million for the bond but they also set aside another 250 roughly $250 million to do maintenance on schools that's roof repairs hva and other things that are the smaller projects um and we get about I think we got about a 100 million of that and so if people are interest so people are worried about what about all those projects so if people are interested in that we approved the capital investment plan that lists all our projects and that's on the January 27th board meeting so you can see so the bond projects are the big Capital the big capital projects or it's just two or three of them or I love the way Mr Davis refers to them as 21st century these our 21st century learning projects it's not about roofs and HS um I
169just have to say appreciate these updates but I find it confusing because the options are changing and I don't know why I don't understand the data behind it or why I like the idea of K8 but without data it's just like another opinion and so I need your help to guide us through the decision-making process um and of course if um so so here's some of the questions that that I would like to hear about I'd like to understand more about enrollment Trends not redistricting but new students losses and other information to help us understand how much capacity do we need to be planning for and what's the ideal location for K5 or K8 again it's not redistricting but the question is where will we how will the location of the school impact transportation to
170say that differently if our kids are in Hillsboro should we be really looking at building a school in effland so that's one thing the second question is will the location of a beautiful new school help Orange County Schools attract families to OCS and does the location affect that and and there's a a question on K8 on the orange middle campus the obvious question is whether or not it makes sense to colocate an elementary school with the high school don't know the answer we need I just need your help and guidance on that um I realize that you're planning buildings but in addition to optimizing the size and the location of the schools we need some indication of where we're headed with yearround and if it will impact capacity and building configuration I'd also like to
171understand um what's happening with the county on program management and the interlocal agreement I'd like to learn about that before we're asked to sign it so the board really needs an update on how that's going and I actually like to hear from other board members on the process I personally don't I mean you guys have so much work to do and you're doing a lot of work I don't need an update every two weeks but what I would love is for you to pull the data that you need and the options and really let's sit down and talk about it all and once we've had a chance to have a review then bring it out to the public so the public can weigh in and I'd of course like to see the communities that are
172most impacted by the schools to be engaged actively engaged in the disc in the discussion these are critically important we're a little school district um we've got a you've got a great team and I just would like to engage a little bit more deliberately and toward a plan that we can all be proud of but you're really making great progress but I just I'm kind of suggesting some things for going forward and I'm curious what other board members think thank you thank you so much any other comments questions miss m um I have a question about the um K5 on-site replacement at Central because that's like a newer option we talked at least briefly about both of the other ones before so um I guess I'm just kind of wondering like how that one would
173actually work like is that really a feasible option like we don't have swing space like uh I think one of the things that we've discussed is the need to close the facility that houses Hillsboro Elementary School so like but I assume in this version that wouldn't happen because the elementary school that would be being replaced as Central like H how I don't know like is that and then I always feel like I always felt like the Topography of that site like there was some issues there so like is how did that one get sort of surfaced and like how is there like a vision for how that one might work if um if we went that way thank you for your question so the first uh thing is land availability um so we've determined that
174it it's better to use the land that we currently have versus spending some of our bond Monies to uh buy green field and so if we looked at the potential of land that is currently in our portfolio Central um given the facility conditions assessment and the educational adequacy uh as well as enrollment and capacity Rose to the top as a viable option um if that is decided on it is enough laying behind the current location um to uh look at designing a building in at footprint where we either allow uh operation of the existing Central uh until it's finished and then do uh some of the Meandering or traffic calming measures uh as we uh demolish the existing Central um the other uh opportunity will be that you demolish the central uh and then you
175use uh location proximity of feeder schools to Central uh as the swing space until the new school uh was be will be built we will look at uh when you start talking about programming the capacity um again as stated uh through the wh report uh consolidation and right sizing our district uh maybe some of the um pinch points um but we want to make sure that we reduce the amount of uh disruption for as fewer students as possible um and so when you look at um the Traditional School of central uh as opposed to other schools that uh may be of choice uh that makes it a little bit less of a hurdle than some of the other options that have been U risen to the the front okay and then have we looked at
176other schools where they have like a lot of acreage and could like I just saw something earlier like Cedar Ridge has like 70 Acres or something so like have we considered all of those sites where we just have a bunch of additional land that's not yes so of of the available land that we currently own uh these are the three options um that can go either way in terms of a K8 or a K5 but uh we thought that the board understood that time was of the essence uh and right now spending money on the Green Field site if we had some available land currently in our portfolio was a better efficiency of the use of dollars um but we definitely can look at um some green field sites and the Costa we haven't seen
177them come up yet uh in terms of viable of what we need um but we can definitely uh continue to to look at that angle if board is giving in those directions Mr um thank you for your presentation and for your answering Sarah's question um I thought with option to um my recollection of talking about the acreage at graval Hill uh was that that land is already there so when it says Greenfield site that to me means we'd have to buy land next to graval but I thought we talked about how it had 40 to 50 acres and had enough for an elementary school and my remembering wrong that is correct um there have been some discussions of potential uh nearby adjacent land but uh yes we do have land for ak5 uh to be
178um positioned on the currently owned gravley Hill Middle School thank you any Mr a thank you for the updates and also all the community engagement and definitely looking forward to more Community engagements for option one on the central um I know there's under the considerations I think one of the big ones that comes to mind from me going there is the traffic you know right now I if I had to guess there's about 80 cars that come in and the rest of the students are coming over bus and we're really talking about you know 500 600 students and those nowor Ally increasing I can't imagine that traffic going over that roadway and you know definitely have heard concerns about traffic from the community that lives there and you know what that would look like especially
179the parking right right now the parking barely meets the staffing needs and and you know how that would look so I I definitely would like to understand as this one evolves just just how that would work and we don't you know over overburden that area or you know parking as well um but I I do like the idea of of swinging the space like you're saying and growing in the back but I I'm very concerned with just the the management of the traffic uh that would be there yes uh that is also a concern of ours but we do have some subject matter experts who have done in compact neighborhood sites um just really quickly um the school uh there are new parameters that would allow us to carve into the site to deal with
180the offsite Road improvements that are currently not there and so I feel confident that with the available land we can address some of those off-site Road improvements with bringing the some of the traffic inside the site we currently is not available to do that in this current condition okay that makes sense the um on the graly option I think one of the key items that I think is important to consider is how do we get families off that road right and not back it up and that's very dangerous area and also looking at how we interconnect the schools right behind the um uh soccer.com there's that parking lot and getting rid of that and you know whatever I just think that it's important as we're looking at these some of the things we're learning from
181other schools and vicinities and you know how do we make it easiest from parents that go from elementary to a middle school if that if that option is considered and then option three you know that just comes to mind I know all of these are challenging regardless is you know I know I hear all the time about the traffic on that road and and you know I think those are key things as yall are looking through these and recommendations how how we would answer that right because obviously putting an ele School in there we're now going to have more families coming through there and you put you know the the the afternoon with the buses with the parents and the Athletics of the high school and the middle school and you know any programs going
182on that that's that's really a lot but I think you know you've got options with that but I think those are some of the key things that as you're going through this I'd definitely like to understand what's the thoughts and how do we address that to make it you know um very efficient for our transportation and our families uh and you know how we can collaborate in any of these spaces as well thank you thank you anyone I have do we need a motion to extend by five I move to extend the meeting by five minutes second all in favor I I didn't even notice the time thank you m so so I just you know to to Will's point it would be helpful to know if it was a perfect world and you had
183no constraints where would you put this school because then as we look at options we could understand the real cost because the cost is not just the construction cost or the land cost it's the cost of 30 years of Transportation it's the cost you know you've made a pretty compelling case for K8 and the administrative cost so there's lots of costs and I think of those as the macro costs the costs that we're going to have to live with for years so and it might make sense to invest I'm going to make up a couple million dollars I don't mean to be Cavalier with the Public's money but it might be make sense to invest in order to to put the school in a good location if that option exists but I think the ideal
184would be really helpful as a baseline yeah we're taking all of your comments um we hope to come back on the 24th uh with a rubric that addresses the pros and cons and so if one site has a rating of five when it comes to traffic one site may have a rating of four and so it'll be up to you uh to interpret uh what's the board's Vision um again we want to minimize as much of the student disruption as possible U and so we want to make sure that we impact as much of the students in O OCS as possible and so we'll be bringing you numbers of how many students are impacted by decisions uh in terms of matriculating to middle school or in terms of of year round we've heard that and
185so we're going to bring all that information on the 24th uh and hope to have some further discussion great m m I do just have a request as you do that I think thinking about the cost um uh when we had an earlier this was probably a year ago we had a presentation on the relative cost of building a k85 K8 School versus k k five school so um you know making one choice or another there's trade-offs in what we can do in other spaces in terms of an addition or a renovation or something like that so I think take having that information as well would be helpful yeah if I could just elaborate on that a little bit CU I think that you know the part that was missing when we heard it last
186year was K5 and I'll use your numbers K5 is a 500 student School K8 is a 800 student School bigger school cost more money and I think if I'm listening to you correctly you're trying to do this more efficiently and possibly um newer fewer schools right that that was really the question that's why what's the need right what's the overarching need and that's that's really hard I think for people for all of us to wrap our heads around right it's like what's the overarching need what problem are we solving what's the portfolio look like and how does this project impact the portfolio thank you thank you okay i' just like to say thank you for your presentation I look forward to the 24th when you come back with some more information and ideas thank you
187we appreciate it all right do I have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second all in favor I thank you very much thank you for staying past 10:00 I appreciate it