Orange County Board of Education Regular Meeting - March 18, 2024

001e know kind like I'd like to call this um meeting of the Orange County Board of Education into order and I need a motion to inter close session for the reason so stated on the agenda so moved second all in favor I I all right let's move into close session thank you much e for e far as I know eoc's aren't changed they're like second to third week of May and that's what I do I just take a few out and cook it did you the [Music] sheet good evening everyone I'd like to call this um meeting of the Orange County Board of Education to order please welcome to everyone that's here tonight it's nice to see students here we always like that um we will start with our public charge Orange County Board of

002Education pledges to its citizens to conduct its business in a courteous and productive manner showing respect for fellow board members staff and citizens the board 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 silence the board will recite the Pledge of Allegiance the board ask that you check your cell phones and other electronic devices to be certain that they are either turned off or on vibrate to avoid Interruption of the meeting and at this time we will stand and have the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice

003for all we will now observe Our Moment of Silence okay thank you very much we begin our meeting tonight with recognitions good evening we are going to Kickstart our recognitions for the evening and talking about our disability disability awareness week and disability awareness month so I'm going to bring miss Connie Kerens our executive director of exceptional children up to give you some information about uh celebrations this week all right good evening board Dr Jones staff and the community at large I am here to raise up that this week March 18th through 22nd has been designated by Orange County Schools as disability acceptance week thank you to all Orange County schools for embracing all people with disabilities and looking around um we are there today was orange um to lift up attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and

004so is where orange but I look around and I see many people who have um participated so thank you so much much um as you know words and actions matter when we recognize groups of people I want to take a moment and read these statements um to highlight the difference between awareness and acceptance awareness is knowing that you have a classmate with a disability acceptance is inviting him her or they to hang out with you awareness is simply real realizing that someone has a challenge acceptance is engaging in real conversation with them awareness is seeing someone with a disability do something you maybe didn't expect acceptance is telling them that they are awesome cheering them on or working together with them awareness is saying you have a friend with a disability acceptance is truly being

005a good friend to them awareness is appreciating the gift and challenges of those with different abilities acceptance is volunteering your time to help awareness is agreen with these statements acceptance is sharing them awareness does not imply doing anything different acceptance is taking action while it is good to be aware we must strive to accept and Empower children and adults of all abilities everyone has strengths and challenges and gifts to share so I hope that these statements resonate with you and will help to find acceptance versus awareness and just thank you for um and remember to wear blue tomorrow to show your acceptance of people with speech impairments thank you and we appre and on behalf of the all the um staff that works with students with disabilities We Appreciate You raising this up and celebrating

006with us thank you thank you good evening chair forel Vice chair richond members of the board Dr Jones uh this evening we would like to recognize our winter sport uh Team uh State recognitions uh we have quite a few want to first start with our Orange High School swim team so please come on up coach gu uh please come on up as well thank you the winter sports season had a ton of success in particular we had winter teams that uh has success at the state level uh tonight we like to take a moment to recognize several teams that competed at the state championship level first we have the Orange High School swim team a group that gets in the water five days a week at 6:15 a.m. uh led by Coach Ron and Christy

007guy the Orange High School swimming team finished the 2024 swimming season as state Champion Runners up have a whole list of accomplishments uh throughout this season uh first starting with they were Conference champions both men and women uh we have the conference swimmer of the year uh for the men Luke Roman and for the women uh Katie Bell Sykes uh we were the regional runner-ups for men and women State runnerup for the women uh women's 3A State swimmer of the year uh Katie Bell Sykes and women 3A State sportsmanship award ktie Belles uh the Orange High School broke several records uh throughout the season as well for the men three records were broken throughout the season uh out of 11 uh and for women uh seven uh uh Records that were broken throughout the season

008as well uh they also get it done in the classroom all right so scholar uh athlete recognition we have the State Association scholar athlete award for both men and women the women's team has been the top scholar team in the state the last three years uh and uh they've also received the national inter Scholastic swim coaches association gold level award and that is award where the team GPA must be 3.75 or higher uh so they're getting it done uh in and out of the water uh coaches have Ron and Christy gr have coached Orange High School team for the last five years uh Coach Ron our head coach has won coach of the year four out of those five years um and I'd like to bring him up he'd like to talk about a memoral

009moment um throughout this season so they were plenty but he will recognize uh just one thank you all very much for having us uh it's nice to see my swimmers I haven't seen them in like a month since the season ended so it's nice to see the group here and thank you all for having us today uh to say a few things first of all I'd like to thank Orange High School our principal Johnson and our uh new ad Jason nap they've done a phenomenal job supporting us uh throughout the season so we could have a successful program and so first most that that's important that we thank them and thank you guys for supporting them so that we can be here um he talked about a lot of the accomplishments and a lot of

010swim accomplish we had tons of them this year it was a lot of fun uh the season um it was nice to uh get to be with this group uh if you don't know much about swimmers uh they're good people um and so like I said we had a lot of good uh participants on our swim team and again academic wise um we're not athletes if we're not students first and so that's certainly a focus of our team and uh they did a very nice job um we also have a Morehead Kane scholar uh for next year that's on our team and then uh you know that's always something that we're super proud of and being able to recognize um a memorable moment from this year so about our swim team um we had five

011six state champions this year and so just take a second here we got Riley white we got Zoe we got Piper we got Luke and we got ktie Bell and Angley so there're six of them that won state championships this year and uh one of the events we had was a relay and so it was uh 200 uh medle relay so each of the four participants swim a different stroke and so we mixed up the order how we normally had it and had some stuff and so we were basically trailing um for that last uh 50 yard swim um and we actually had one of our underclassmen uh Miss Piper white here who found it in herself to just overcome that anchor leg and came an out touch and it was literally like a boom

012boom type of thing and we ended up winning that state champion and that that started our role and able to do a couple more relays some individual state champions and Luke won his event um so it was just a phenomenal the whole place just exploded you know the whole crowd there's a great picture out there if you hadn't seen it of the girls behind the blocks jumping and celebrating the guys as well just celebrating that uh that relay so it was certainly pretty phenomenal moment and so we appreciate and thank you guys one thing I would say here before I leave the podium is uh hope to get into Open Session here and I missed the sign up but we want to talk a little bit about the sports FX and about the county Support

013and the school system um and our ability to effectively have a swim team every year because of the cost associated with having a swim team and again our County owned facility the Sports plex is is something we'd like to discuss so I'll save that for hopefully after this thing but nothing to take away from these guys U this is just part of our group we had 30 kids this year a phenomenal group and we're going to miss a lot of them for next year but we got a lot of them coming back too as well so thank you all very much for having [Applause] us the coach did mention to me that he will return about 22 24 swimmers no pressure at all right no no pressure uh to get back to this Podium next

014year and and and uh uh be bring that state championship home we're going to stay in the water and and go to cedaridge high school [Applause] morning we would like to recognize from Cedar Ridge uh swimmer Sophia stennet and also our head coach is here Amanda Jones uh Sophia's accomplishments include a third place finish in the 100 backstroke at the states state championship swim championships as well uh Coach Jones earned also men's coach of the year uh in the conference this year uh again another group that jumps in the water at 6:15 a.m. uh uh to get their practices in Coach Jones excited about where the program is going and and I've asked her to share some memal moments as well um throughout the season and about Sophia hi thank you guys for having us

015today um I have a few comments to make about Sophia um she is an outstanding student athlete both in and out of the water she goes to our required morning practices again at 6:15 in the morning without any sort of complaints in addition to her three-hour long uh practices she has every single day with her year round team um and those are six days a week so she really puts in the work to get to swim at the level that she does on top of her dedication to her sport Sophia balances a rigorous academic course workk schedule taking a full uh class uh you take full AP and college classes yes I just wanted to confir sorry I didn't get to before coming in today um but she's taking college classes AP classes while swimming

016three or four hours every single day during the winter sports season uh despite her demanding schedule Sophia always brings a smile with her wherever she goes and that positive energy is seen throughout the team's Dynamic I truly believe her ability to inspire and need others is a huge reason that our relay teams continue to break school records season after season uh this season we had two school records broken uh with our relays and she broke an individual record with her 100 yard backstroke at the state championships um so I'm excited to see what Sophia does for senior year I'm excited to see her lead the team um and I'm really happy that we're going to be bringing back a lot of swimmers next year as well about 25 swimmers so um that's all I think

017thank [Applause] you okay good evening board chair Miss pel Vice chair Mr Richmond board members and superintendent Dr Jones on February 21st Governor Roy Cooper honored Black History Month and recognized North Carolina's African American Educators for their dedication to the students and families of North Carolina and their contributions to the state Governor Cooper and the norcina African-American Heritage commission hosted prominent black Educators and community members at the executive Mansion it is my honor tonight to announce that one of our very own teachers at Orange High School Mr Xavier Adams was recognized by the governor for his dedication to the students of Orange High School and and Orange County schools with that being said I introduce to you and he's no stranger to you Mr Xavier Adams good afternoon board chair Vice board um superintendent Jones

018um thank you for this opportunity to just be recognized um by an incredible School District um I've worked in the school district for four years it's been four of the best years of my life I've been truly grateful to be able to work work with the families the students in our community um when I stepped into the executive mansion in Raleigh it was a very surreal feeling I mean um being recognized beginning teacher of the year for the state was a surreal feeling in 2022 this was also a very surreal feeling for a different reason uh mainly because of the fact that I was by far the youngest person in there and it didn't feel like an honor I was you know worthy of I mean I've only been teaching for 4 years and um

019quite literally there was a woman in the room who was 107 years old um and so to just think about the lifelong contributions of the people in the room um in respect to to my four years um felt very humbling and it also felt like an incredible reminder of um the work that I need to dedicate myself to as a career educator um given that that's my goal um and thinking about that one of the things that I always love to talk about when I get a talk about my classroom is the fact that I was not responsible for bringing the classes that I teach to Orange County Schools um there's a long history in our school district um most recently with Brenda McCormack um who taught here for 26 years minority studies in Orange

020County schools and so you know I was very grateful in 2020 to to revitalize those classes thanks to the work of uh many students parents um people a part of the equity team at Orange High School to bring those classes back um but even in thinking about that I I think about the reality that we are in a very fragile moment um with public education right now um given this election season and in no way am I up here endorsing any certain candidates but um the reality is for the entirety of my teaching career I've always had to defend the legitimacy of my honors African-American studies class of my Latin American studies class um both within the community and even um on a political level Statewide and of course we know the national conversation around

021this and so um with the upcoming election season I just um I really emplore us to think about being intentional on how to preserve these classes um in my very first year of teaching House Bill 324 was proposed at the state legislator which would have limited conversations on race and racism um effectively making me not able to talk about my parents my parents went to segregated schools in Kansas City Kansas um I've learned a lot about that history and you know had that bill pass I wouldn't have been able to talk about that experience with my students and um the rich communities that my parents grandparents grew up in um The Following year there was um the lieutenant governor um created a task force that you know also was very intentional about trying to silence

022these conversations um in 2023 House Bill 124 was passed not passed sorry proposed to again limit these types of conversations so and so um with that I just I I really encourage us to continue to support the work of cultural Studies classes um there's a huge demand for it at Orange High School I have four classes this year um the average size of those classes is 28 students um so there's a deep interest for a lot of these students it's either their first time in an honors class or an AP class and so it does a lot of great work for bringing in underrepresented backgrounds um into these upper academic classes um and in fact there's such a huge demand that you know every year we have to turn away 60 plus students um just

023because you know there's only one me and I also have to teach world history which is a great opportunity and so um really appreciate y'all's commitment um as people invested in public education um thank you for thinking of the best interest of our students here in Orange County schools which I truly think is the best District in our state um so with that said thank you for this recognition in your [Applause] time okay thank everyone for being here tonight and congratulations to all of our students and to Mr Adams um I think you probably heard how I found out about this your your honor um and um so we're very proud to have you here tonight and um celebrate with you and thank you to everyone who who is being recognized tonight we need to

024have our agenda adoption so do I have a motion to adopt the agenda I would like to pull policy 3320 the school trips from consent for discussion okay um do I have a motion for the agenda with that being pulled so move all in favor I okay all right all right next we have public comment we will now hear public comments speakers will be called in the order in which they signed up each speaker will will have three minutes yielding time to other speakers is not permitted if a speaker has written materials they would 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

025and forth discussions per our policy board members will not respond to speakers during the public comment session the board greatly values public feedback and welcomes all comments regardless of viewpoint however please be reminded that children are often present at these meetings and that our public comment policy prohib prohibits profanity vulgarity and public um personal abuse of any person we ask that all comments be civil respectful and free of personal attacks any P any speaker who violates our public comment period or otherwise exceeds the bounds of of order or decorum will be given a warning continued violations may result in the speaker being ruled out of order at which point we will move on to the next speaker we have one speaker tonight and and that public speaker Gretchen SMI good evening board members um Dr

026Jones I'm going to be speaking on one line found in sb49 to create awareness of the situation happening in the district which does not fall in line with the new law um and creates an unequitable and exclusive environment among School the school communities in this one line the law reads a parent has the right to direct the upbringing and the moral or religious training of his or her child depending on a teacher's decision to use class time to focus on a basic education or not students are being taught ideas around gender identity and sexuality during the month of May um especially this in 2023 extensive curriculum was sent to faculty um not to parents though interestingly to focus potentially daily lessons teaching a certain set of ideas through uh this lgbtq curriculum ironically I feel

027like I need to pause here and state the obvious that I am standing at a Board of Education meeting um for the public education of Children and Youth this is the only reason for speaking this comment my own friends in the lgbtq community who are adults have shared some of the same concerns within this school district 15 different religious tenants are espoused and for the majority they believe deeply held views which are different than what is being taught throughout the year and especially during the month of May when does the district plan to give time for all the views to be given equal time if not why not if not then why not fully publish what is being shared around these ideas everything that has being shared around these ideas and let parents know that

028especially during the month of May they're bringing their children not necessarily for a full education but for partial indoctrination we're not going to be teaching all the ideas around your topic then that's what we have going on um around this idea at least and as we just heard we don't want to shut out we don't want to shut out other ideas we don't want to make um especially around as such an important topic that touches moral and religious beliefs we don't want to shut out any ideas right and so let's um let's think about that across the board and just an invitation to either stick to education of of what the Mandate is or if we're going to step into these ideas let's give everyone an equal chance thank you thank you that concludes public

029comment okay we now need to approve our consent agenda do I have a motion to approve that agenda so with policy 3320 pulled so moved second all in favor I I okay approved all right first up tonight is the capital project options the 202 yes sir Madam chair we're in the agenda are we moving the policy 3322 yes we didn't we didn't establish that you want to do it now it should be quick I hope okay we can do it now Franklin thank you for that reminder do you so so the request to pull this was mainly so we could wave second read and to see if there's any concerns this was brought back to the board through policy committee based on on concerns about how long some of the specific um if you will

030VI moving violations could impact our families um and after a good discussion with uh The District staff review with the attorney uh we've narrowed that down to a three-year window uh for a violation of certain magnitude um but really my purpose for pulling it was to wave second reading so parents wouldn't have to wait or be impacted if they have a upcoming field trip um but if there are concerns or comments obviously we could address them or send it back to policy yes ma'am no I think I think that's a good change um and I'm happy to move um the wave of second reading approve the policy and wave the second reading second all in favor I okay policies approved okay Mr Foster I'm [Applause] sorry good evening again board uh with me this evening

031uh director of Maintenance HK mcke director of capital planning uh Patrick Florence and uh Chris Whitley from the Cummings group uh this evening we can get to move the slide here go in our February 29th Capital uh needs meeting uh the task from the board was to bring back a recommendation uh between a uh K5 School uh and K8 School uh as we reflected we considered uh certainly both options and and we decided that a new elementary school would be the best option as Elementary level uh has the greatest need uh from enrollment projection there's uh some growth there at the elementary level uh and at the middle school level uh Orange County school has uh sufficient space uh for the foreseeable future in that regard uh financially uh we take the uh 49.5 million

032uh that we have to build the 600 student Elementary School and uh uh we believe that the remaining funds uh will help us to address the high priority needs and educational adequat y um at the other schools and Facilities uh pretty pretty significantly uh with our uh Elementary School uh replacing one of our oldest Elementary facilities uh with the greatest list of needs and and provides an opportunity to ensure again that we're meeting educational adequacy needs are are met certainly uh reflecting on an eight on a K8 uh for that matter uh would require a larger site uh would be more expensive construction and essentially impacting uh the funding needed to address the needs of other schools uh and Facilities so we uh leaned on and decided that uh the K5 would be our best

033option uh at this time um for the replacement um uh School uh in our district uh on this particular side you'll able to see uh the breakdown of of funding overall uh where you'll see uh the the the the cost per project uh and which each school would receive uh and then ultimately looking at the uh remaining funds that would go to each School uh otherwise uh additionally we were asked to hey identify what would the anchor projects be right uh for the bond and uh uh We've listed those for you uh to see you know certainly uh the replacement Elementary School there um partnership Academy kitchen cafeteria uh and a host of other uh items within that $120 million Bond Mark now note that this is not consume the $120 $120 million Mark but

034these would be the anchor projects from that and you'll see in a on a a different slide uh where you'll see the total breakdown uh of the $120 million uh Bond projects capital projects uh uh that are listed but these would in essence would be our Marquee projects right uh related to the bond uh itself uh the other ask was hey can you identify what the CTE EC and art of graves might be okay so we've outlined those for you uh as well uh in terms of what we will be able to do with the funding I had great conversations with uh our CTE leadership uh as well and uh we're able to get some really good ideas based off the funding and what that would look like uh the four host of bond projects

035are outlined uh in this next slide here uh will you're able to see the breakdown of the 420 million so again it includes the anchor projects uh that was shown earlier and every uh else all the other funding would would go to um based across the district in both uh School sites as well as our other facilities as well the final uh three or four slides gives you the host of uh CP projects per site uh initially you had it slide by slide per School uh but this just gives you an opportunity to kind of see uh from the remaining project and funding that will be associated with each particular school and each particular site um that that are outlined so we thought it' be a little easier uh way to look at uh the

036sites and projects as they're outlined here finally the uh final slide is is one you've seen before four uh which gives the breakdown of of the full funding uh related to both Bond and uh cfp funding that would be received uh we'll take this time to answer any questions you may have Miss M um well I just um wanted to share some reactions generally which is first of all I think this um presentation is very clear and does a really good job of communicating um the plan um I think it's great I love um that you've split out the bond versus CIP that you've named The Anchor projects um that you've put all of the CIP projects all the schools sort of on those few slides um so I I you know overall I think

037that makes a lot of sense I think the recommendation for elementary versus K8 um makes sense um and um you know my only um small suggestions um for whenever the next time this is presented um um my my one suggestion I think is on the funding summary page um it could be helpful to have this money column that you have as like 10year total and then a column for like estimated annual you know sort of an annual because this is a 10-year number um but some of it like the CIP is sort of given out every year right and and recurring C like all of that is sort of year by year so just some sort of way to Signal this is like a 10-year total right so ultimately we will be able to do

038that um part of the plan uh after getting certainly sign off uh is that a county will need our our list of projects all right so both wport and the county will be supporting us in terms of phasing based off the funding we rece we will receive for each year what the projects look like so we'll then be able to detail uh the win you know for the projects based off the funding that we we receive so we will be able to do that uh after I I say getting sign off and and moving forward with uh presenting those projects will probably vary Year bye depending on the projects and their approach am their approach for how they're going to go forward with the funding so maybe just on this just sort of like OCS

03910year funding summary or something um just so it it makes that um clear I did have one other question but I can't remember what it is so I'll pass to somebody else while I try to remember what it was can I say one thing just to clarify so when when it's done this way we say that it's a 10-year project then every year when the money comes in then we're going you're going to be reporting to the board how much money there is and what that money will be used for for that year correct so just as we bring you each year the list of CIP projects outlined we'll be pulling from the overall list so that you can see you know 4 25 this is what we have on the docket in terms of

040what's going to get done you know 252 so on and so forth Just wanted to make that clear to everybody thank you sure miss Miley so I I actually have some questions about the elementary school but I'm going to come back to that I want to talk about the anchor projects because the conversation that that I'm curious about is the conversation with the voters and we're going to have to have a conversation with the voters about $120 million Bond and about a 10% roughly a 10% tax increase and one of the things that the Commissioners have done is they've said we're this is not business as usual and we are going to modernize our facilities and really modernize our classrooms so um when I look at the so I'm just curious about the anchor projects

041don't comment so the new elementary school that's clear the Grady a couple of these projects like the Grady Brown um improvements the alarm system these I would call as critical safety improvements for our schools um the CT EC art upgrades are educational improvements in educational adequacy um the fencing and canopies I think are safety improvements right so I don't know if we need to because we're going to need to explain to the voters what that is but I'm not sure how the HVAC lifecycle or the cedaridge life cycle flooring got into this list of critical projects and why orange middle school and ALS major improvements which are about uh over $15 million each didn't get into the list of voter approved voter sanctioned Bond projects because these are the projects that we're going to commit

042to the voters that they're going to we're going to do with their their money the rest of the projects we have discretion with okay so I'm just curious why we pick those I mean ultimately the the the list of an project we have here we thought these these were the Marquees in terms of uh uh uh we we like to refence from time to time uh big and shiny for for voter to see right in in that way and not that the others aren't yet um we we also want as you mentioned about voters and spending money things that they they they will see in essence if we're getting HVAC done well I don't see it the HVAC you know Improvement or or the turnaround for that yet uh when it's uh quite warm in

043August and there's an issue you know we do get those calls that uh you know there's an issue with HVAC and needs to be uh corrected so it doesn't mean that it's not an anchor project but in terms of visually seeing uh uh projects that are uh that that the voter would want to see and lean on that's why we identifi these uh as a as anchor and that those others others aren't right uh but again in terms of the 4120 million why we listed that other slide that would indicate the $ $120 million spending so why didn't orange Middle School very old school very desperate need of Improv movement and investment why didn't that make the list of anchor projects all right so when we look at Orange Middle School let me go to

044their slide they're getting $16 Million worth of of funding okay overall based off again but when you look at things such as exterior life cycle upgrades and again not that it couldn't be added as a quote unquote like a project or it's not something that in essence you see okay so those those uh items that you are that we had indicated earlier are things that again visually all right from a a voter standpoint and the like things that you that you actually see yeah it's just which column do we put them in and which column do the voters want to hear that we're going to upgrade orange middle school or we're going to put in new flooring at se at our new high high school at cedaridge so that's my concern is are do we

045have these in the columns that will appeal to the voters we have complete discretion on the other projects but the voter the projects that go up in front of the voters we won't have a choice on they must move forward and they must move forward as we present them all right and that's why again it's listed in this way in terms of uh the breakdown by each school you're able to see uh how much funding is going there all right and detailing exactly the work that's going to be done from both Bond and CIP yeah sure so with a project like orange Middle School it's so much need that if we wait for the funding as Bond money is not all going to come at once mhm if we wait for that money it might

046be a little bit or we're pushing back one of these other anchor projects where if we start taking a little bit at a time this summer next summer these other Summers through our Capital money then that's the approach we were taking with this list so you want to do some of the orange middle school projects before the bond is approved the bond will be is going up in November yep so when we bring our CIP list in two weeks rough roughly there'll be some projects for orange middle on that out of that upcoming 11 got it that's that's helpful thank you I just some of these projects are not quite that sexy so that's all I'm just really looking for something some of those projects will be at the late end of the bond money

047like the Cedar Ridge flooring was I believe might have been on there um right now it's not a need but at the tail end it will be of that 10year period but it's not SM um yeah just I mean I think around the the communication around this related to what Bonnie is saying I do think um when we communicate to folks about this it'll be important to share all of this other work that we're also going to make happen through those other through the CIP um you know I mean if the bond doesn't pass presumably we would have to like relook at both us and figure out which things to prioritize you know but like at the moment assuming it passes the plan is we're going to fund all of these important improvements to these

048schools and we're going to uh make all of these other improvements with the bond and all together it comes into a set of Renovations and improvements that are really important so very important as well as the timeline is as you you know we talked about earlier in terms of that phasing and what it's going to look like Hank mentioned too as well um once they are allocating the funds appropriately determining what's going to occur when so I just think communicating that whole portfolio um is is important so folks understand it's not just the Marquee projects that are getting done there's actually a whole bunch of other work that's going to be done too and I just want to add is my I understand it all the county is putting all the money up front so

049that we last year we waited we're still spending the 2016 Bond money money but Chapel Hill spent it in year one and two so that option we will have the option to get the money faster if that's our plan but that's going to be up to us to communicate that to the county so my my thing is I don't want us to wait I don't you know I'd say if we we we need this let's go get it Miss Dole yes thank you um chair pcel um thank you for this presentation I I Echo um that there's really good communication in here and Beyond the um clear communication um I appreciate how um you all have helped us um clarify our thinking and I think we've come together as a board in a way uh

050speaking for myself but my P perception of us um coming to some better agreement and understanding um I I think it is important that we are moving ahead with the um assuming the bond funding happens with the new elementary school which was uh you know key to the recommendation from wpart and there's just been a lot going on in our district um with transition and R you know there's been a lot so it it it took some extra conversation that I think was really worthwhile and I appreciate the work that your team has put into all those conversations and it's it's really come together in a way that's that's thoughtful um I appreciate you're exploring the the K8 option and uh explaining why the K5 option seems better um and um and I am excited

051to see the um like educational improvements as well as some really key um safety and facility improvements like around Grady Brown would be the safety and Improvement but excited for partnership you know with the C kitchen and cafeteria excited about all these um sound booth improvements and you know Hydroponics um so there's a lot to be excited about and I appreciate all your work and and Shep shepherding conversations and I think it sets us up better um for when we return to the redistricting um conversation I do want to ask the just one question on slide two where it says for a new elementary school um location and programming to determined um and you know it it says K5 and and we've had conversations about location so programming um is there anything more specific that

052we are referring to with that word are we are we talk about whether there's prek facilities or not or what exactly do we mean by programming for a K5 school okay not not necessarily and it may have been uh a little bit of an over and we were talking about both uh K5 and K8 so that was probably left on there unint yeah so thank you but but we did do want to emphasize that the K5 we are looking at making sure we have some space if we do expand prek and I think the funding would have been the same 49.5 million thank you I will note that this would be a larger facility uh uh where uh than larger than our our current elementary facilities I should say uh we're probably talking roughly 75

053additional more uh students uh that will be able to accommodate which would obviously lead us to some room for for pre Miss house yeah just so I understand this and for the transparency the um school that we are the campus that we're abandoning is hes is that correct oh that is not a definitive in term of which campus we just know that it is a one of our oldest facilities we want to look at so a decision would have to be made in terms of for the bond I believe we're going to have to and we could find we have a capital needs work group meeting on Wednesday but I'm pretty sure we are going to have to be specific with the voters about which school we're replacing you know I don't think we can

054say we're going to just build a school and also I think we hold the public transparency around this right so the cas that we have to have as a board but we're going to have to have it sure miss um mly just a couple of other questions so the sound booth upgrades is that like middle and high school auditoriums is that essentially what yes we'll hit all of those as needed I guess um and then the um the EC upgrades um the oh let me see how you found it that l it EC classroom interior finish upgrades so I think what we had talked about earlier was like some of it I think was even like adequate restroom facilities and stuff like that is that possible in this amount of funding or is it is

055that intended to be part of that we were still able to highlight that uh as well as as a need and and based off the funding received that we'll get that we decided what that will still will be a go okay great great great Mr a uh thank you all so much I I just want to Echo it it's much easier to read and understand and clear on how we're separating out the money um one of the questions I have that um probably ask every time is the transportation facility for Chapel Hill how is that being accounted for because it's not on the Wolford report and it's not on ours but we're the head right so I was able to get an answer for you since we did not bring it up in February 29th

056me that didn't come but I did reach out to the county and there's no expectation for us to be able to pour to have to pour money into uh the facility at at Chapel Hill we did they did know they pointed out um that that was something previous I want to say was it the 16 Bond they had mentioned I forget um that there was a a talk of being able to uh pour money into both those facilities but there was that expectation based off our funds to to have to pour into that so let me let me ask differently is there needs for repair or anything in the Chapel Hill facility where we may it it will have to be addressed right my concern is not do we need to use our money for

057it my concern is it's not accounted for and our plan or their plan and then if it does come up is this going to make it to where the the county has to make a decision to allocate funds to do that I'd rather us be up front with the county with the Chapel Hill about how is that I I have no idea what the condition of that facility is I should say that up front but I do know it's an older facility because we talked about having a combined Transportation so I I I think it's worth the conversation to at least understand if there's needs and whether we bring it up to the county that there are needs or we ask Chapel Hill to bring it up I think it's important so we say we've

058done our due diligence and that I definitely can Circle back with that conversation flipping it back to the county and saying hey we've identify these needs and uh you know you indicated to us that we didn't have to use our funding to do it so where we're going to look at so I'll definitely Circle back with that conversation thank you uh the other one I had is um the the K5 I really appreciate youall looking at that and coming back with a recommendation um I would just like to ask as we build build that out we build it similar to what we did with Cedar Ridge with the ability to expand it so if the opportunity for a K8 or prek or whichever comes up we do have the footprint the infrastructure built out to

059have those modules added on because as we've learned I think over the years it's much easier to do that than find new space and and build on we've had those conversations in particularly with uh the cuming group and Chris and and um uh as these indicated facilities that are built these days in essence you know you want to have that infrastructure where you can can expand if needed all right I have one last one so when do we sit down with wolbert and have the consolidation of this was their original recommendation here's what we've come to to make sure uh in the prioritizations and review of this that we're in alignment and there's a good understanding of the approach for for us right so the county have asked that they want this in April in

060essence so we're right an alignment to being on track with that timeline um I know we have the meeting on Wednesday uh and that's you know in terms of they having that said specifically April what you know in terms of a date but we're right an alignment you know if we get approval here uh to be able to uh you know tie up loose end to be able to present and provide to the uh to the county uh and to Warford this is our plan and for them to be able to to identify so they did say some time in April I would like us to try to get with Wolford before we present it to the county and that way we at least understand if there's some issues or concerns they have and it

061doesn't become a public discussion before we have a chance to address it just I mean I'm just a single board member but that that would be my preference M and and I'll Echo that because especially one of the things that was built into the Walberg plan was swing space right so they built the facilities up front to avoid to avoid the cost for swing space and obviously that's not in there so you know we want to hear from them that's all before this goes too far um the other question I just want to make sure there's no intention here to eliminate our mobile units across the district just in the interest of transparency uh not currently on this on this plan Miss mik um okay last thing on the on the slide eight page eight

062um the CIP projects if I if there's one thing I've learned as a board member is it is that you cannot do life cycle mechanical in any building for 35,000 or like a roof replacement for 135,000 so are is this like partial funding for these projects like this is this is for like maintenance Administration Annex there's like small numbers here that I know cannot actually fund the list of projects that are here so what what's going on there all right so this is It's the next it might be the next stage after this one and I'll say this first um that over the last few presentations you know we've had to adjust the number right uh for those for the products in particular um but I'll I I'll have Hank dive into like specifically uh

063what portions of things would now go to what's outlined for the uh that that that we outline in Project ter of how much can get done now with the funding yeah and it's I think the whoever's controlling the slides it's the next one after that I believe yes that so which one are you questioning well really okay so the maintenance department item the and the administration Annex 2 item and really even the first Administration Annex you know doing roof and life cycle mechanical and life cycle plumbing and it that seems real low for that so I guess it's it's all three of those so those facilities are small real small um so their overall need isn't as huge um you know it's just a it's similar to shingling your roof with both of those facilities

064okay but and the maintenance department uh maintenance department it's small but it's not tiny but it's not in not all of it needs it like the roof needs to be replaced or whatever okay not the four buildings we have one roof might need it not four okay okay all right so we think these are good numbers for those just because of the size of the buildings and everything right great thanks any other comments I too would like to Echo thank you all very much this is um very easy to read very easy to understand for those of us that are not mechanical or carpentry oriented um so thank you very much for your work on this much appreciated for everybody okay is recommended that we approve this recommendation for the new elementary school and the

065CIP projects tonight so do I have a motion to I have a motion is the approval to send it to walart right do we get it back from walart before we do a final approve I mean approval means it goes to the county or it goes to walart or what is the approval what's the next what are we approving at that you're approving a K5 school as opposed to a K8 okay number one and number two you're approving the uh related CP projects with the remaining funding that's associated with it is the approval okay and then um if Walbert comes back I'm just saying and says blah blah blah and they wanted you to make a change does it come back to us or were approving it to go to wpart or were you approving

066it to not never see it again well you'll see it again because again it has to go to both the county and the Warth to determine phasing uh of the projects and as well as the uh timeline for uh funding and the like would be the next step but we wanted to certainly start with the K5 which we've done it sounds like uh and in related projects would then associated with it and then it's moved on from there but not but not as a um uh point where changes could not be made or things along those lines it's a great step for where we are I just think it sounds like we just need a little bit more that the conversation with wart has to happen before we can approve it to go to the

067county well that's that's what the county wants us to do in terms of it going these list of projects going to both the county and wford to determine that that that phasing so I'm I'm a little confused should we approve it to go to wpart and then come back to us or well we can't if we don't have a decision on what we have outlined then nothing can go to wpart or nothing can go to the county then I move to approve the this project plan to go to wpart it again it's not necessarily the approval to go to warport where we are approving both the K5 which we've done it sounds like and the project are approving the school and the CIP and these projects and these projects and we're approving it we're saying

068we want it and that we're ready for it just to want to add you will have other discussions about the bond and the use of the bond proceeds that there'll have to be an actual referendum uh and then the county will have to determine there'll be there'll be conversations and and multiple agreements um so you you you're not necessarily locked in but as I understand the administration is asking for direction on is this the plan to proceed with this so I'm I'm I will move this plan I just would like if wart has a m if something comes up in a major problem it will come back to us right for you're going to make change we're going to proove this plan if it changes you'll bring it back to us you will see based

069off the conversations that the county has for phasing and wolp put has in terms of what uh what the phasing in and for these projects would look like okay right but we cannot do that without having a direction on what we have outlined and I'll move to approve this plan for next steps second all in favor thank you thank you all very much okay after school all right good evening chair porcel Vice chair Richmond members of the board uh Dr Jones and our listening Community I want to thank you for the opportunity to share this update uh regarding the after school program and our recommendation for outsourcing of the program for the 2024 2025 school year um as we walk through this process I plan to touch on the background of the after school program

070uh the recent request for vendor proposals our committee's review process um as well as our recommendation and next steps um before we begin I I would like to publicly thank all of our after school program staff for their Daily Commitment to our students and our families and their patients this year through transitions in leadership additionally I wish to thank our Review Committee uh for their time and commitment to this RFP review process while they're also juggling many day-to-day responsibilities as well so the after school program has traditionally been run internally as an Enterprise fund um over the course of the last few years um there have been multiple leadership transitions within the program in late January um I was informed that oversight of the after school program would be transitioned to to myself um with

071support from our director of mtss um at that time I was also informed that a request for proposal or an RFP um had been created and posted to solicit local and National Vendors for outsourcing of the after school program um currently the after school program serves approximately 420 students across all seven of our elementary schools and all three middle schools families pay $60 a week for five days of after school care um with a discount for families with two or more children in the after school program and for children of Orange County Schools Employees all site based staff um are part-time and there are currently two full-time PR program Specialists who are supporting the day-to-day administrative components of the program uh we are currently operating at a fstar rating um it's important to note though

072that due to the duration of time we serve students uh in the after school program which is four hours or less we are not required to be a licensed program um however ler has played um a role in our ability to receive supplemental assistance for qualifying families um through the Department of Health and Human Services so during the pandemic um districts were held harmless to maintain their lenser status which means we are currently operating at that five-star status based on ratings that were conducted in the past um this grace period is ending in June of this year um and a new evaluation cycle will begin to determine our our licensure status moving forward uh to complete that lure process the Department of Child Development and Early Education to dcde um they will be conducting observations

073um with ratings in in three particular areas program standards education standards and quality points um the ratings are completed on a seveno scale for each of those sections um you receive one point um just for meeting minimum requirements um the highest you can earn in each of those categories is seven points um however credit is received for theow EST point total in a given area so for example when looking at the educational component of Staffing um if an administrator or a site coordinator receives a rating of seven based on their educational qualif qualifications and training uh but a group leader uh receives a rating of four based off of their educational background and training then the total score for that section would be four so we must attain a rating between 13 and 15 to

074be considered fstar so what's our rationale for outsourcing uh the RFP noted um challenges in consistently Staffing the after school program um high debt levels and pass due accounts as a few of the factors leading to operational constraints um during the pandemic OCS began offering before school care options and continued Staffing but we experienced a reduction of that time in students participating in the program um which was a part of kind of the the onset of some of this financial burden unfortunately during that same window of time the governor did approve a stabilization Grant um that went into effect late 2021 into the 2022 school year um it provided needed funding to sustain and grow the program um but it was also based on the ability to increase Staffing um to continue accessing those funds

075um OCS experienced difficulty increasing Staffing during that time so those funds were reduced over time during the winter of 2023 District leadership began exploring options to Outsource um the program and thus the the RFP was created so I was tasked in early February uh to convene a committee to review vendor proposals um in an effort to make an informed decision um it was important to ensure the committee was composed of District leaders um School administrators after school program Specialists after school program site coordinators um and those who are are parent reps that have students um in the program uh the committee did utilize a rating system anchored to key selection criteria uh proposals were evaluated on the key criteria deemed to be in OC's best interest including cost to families um priority hiring of Orange

076County School staff meeting safety and lure requirements Academic Program components maintaining summer and intercession care um as well as employee discounts so once the committee completed the rating process all four vendors we had four vendors that submitted all four were invited uh to share more information with the committee about their program and to engage in a question and answer session it is important to note here on the slide you can see that vendor 4 was the highest rated um but vendor 4 um it should have read 602 as the rating number the original slide that was submitted read 604 and that was just a simple typo but I want to make sure that we clarified that um for this evening so the selection committee or the Review Committee identified strengths within all of the vendors

077proposals and we are grateful for their commitment um to the process and their interest in supporting our students our staff and our families at the conclusion of the review process the committee determined that the YMCA of the triangle met all necessary criteria and the YMCA had the highest overall rating they are a local entity with a proven track record across multiple decades serving the greater triangle community and neighboring school districts their flexibility uh their willingness to find Creative Solutions to meet our needs stood out the RFP noted that this partnership will initially be a one-year engagement future years are contingent upon satisfactory performance from the vendor and so that they were aware of that going in um upon board approval um we will begin to map out all logistical elements with the YMCA through a

078former formal mou or memorandum of understanding um there are a few key actions though here that I want to highlight along the timeline uh the first being around Staffing uh the Y has ensured us Orange County Schools um that our staff will be given priority employment status um through this transition um while position titles um will match the wise structure for position titles the Y will continue to match the operating procedures that we have currently in place so some examples here so the why youth director position those are tagged to two or three sites each meaning that they are boots on the ground in in the buildings um throughout the week um they are tag tagged to two or three sites each and they operate um in those spaces um with students with staff um

079on a weekly basis we do not currently have that layer of oversight all right so this would be a positive addition the Y youth site coordinator um will be housed at each site okay and that does compare to our current structure which is an OCS site coordinat that's that's at each site um the Y also has y youth counselors that will be working directly with our students at each site and that compares to our current group leaders that we have across each of our sites another element or layer to this is family support the Y has committed to matching the current price scales for our families so again they've committed to our current price scales for the 24 25 school year summer day camp um intercession care and teacher workday rates will be based off

080of our current OCS rates or in a situation um in which the program does not currently exist um that would be off of what the Y has as their rates um the Y does re-evaluate rates annually um and utilizes rate increases um but does so as a way to ensure appropriate wage compensation for staff um year every year so any future increases if those do occur um would be done in an effort to support increasing staff wages family communication being another element of this timeline um there are three main Avenues um for parents um family members to lift up concerns to the YMCA um directly one one Avenue is directly to the site coordinator um who will be at the program from start to finish each day um if they so choose to skip over

081the site coordinator um there will be the full-time youth directors that are as I said assigned to two or three schools that they can go to um who not only supervise those sites but also would be working to to support supervising those site coordinators um in addition to that a confidential um reporting hotline um that connects directly to the wise risk Department um is also available um parents are given access to the contact information for all three of these communication Avenues um in additionally the wise expectation of Youth directors is for them to have regular touch points um with our building principles um administrators two to three times a year um to ensure that open lines of communication between the school and the why staff um is occurring um and that's a proactive measure on

082the side of the why but we certainly can ask for more communication if if that's something that's needed at the building level um in some instances you know a parent May lift a concern during the school day I mean a concern could be brought up about after school in a parent teacher conference um that can be funneled to to the site coordinator um from the OCS staff member um who has filtered the concern or it can be funneled to admin um to be able to communicate that directly to the site coordinator so a a last um area here along the timeline is around licensing um if chosen the Y is confident um to have full licensing um by the start of the 2425 school year um we as Orange County Schools will be the first

083district which the Y partners with in the Triangle that's still requiring licensing um this makes the time frame for which the Y becomes festar somewhat unclear um but based on current estimates it will be sometime within the 2425 school year um guidance that we've been provided thus far um has been that for for Orange County schools that we would maintain our L your status up until the 2425 school year before transitioning that to the new entity um if approved um because then there is a a six-month grace period window there where they would be able to work to to accommodate that ler status and make sure that it's fully in place during next school year um the Y does have a close relationship with the Division of Child Development Early Education um and they they

084have a dedicated learning and Leadership Department um which will help with that onboarding process um the Y is very aware of the value of completing this process to ensure that they are able to meet meet the needs of our families um and the vice president for Youth Development with the w will be responsible for carrying out um this ler process um I I do want to note a couple of final points that um our outside agency partners so the Department of Health and Human Services DHHS they have stressed um that unless we have someone that is in a full-time you know director role over the after school program who is a full-time point of contact that is their their kind of number one main priority um for school age programs um that it it does

085limit effective oversight if you don't have that in place um and so right now you know we are not currently working um effectively in that manner so that do want to point that out and so as as we enter this final stretch of the school year um I do want to be clear that if the decision is delayed um we will not likely meet the existing licensing criteria um just because we're thinking of a Time timeline right now when we're heading into the new school year um which means many of our families that do rely on that supplemental assistance um would not be able to receive that per the lens your status um now if approved the YMCA has committed in the coming weeks um in months to to meet this aggressive timeline um to

086be fully operational by the kickoff of our year round schooling in July um as well as our traditional calendar in August and so I'm going to pause there and and open it up for questions Mr ad so Dr gamon thank you so much I know that this is falling in your lap literally and really appreciate your work and all the staff's work around this um I I first want to say that you know I was kind of confused by the the Outsourcing looking at that um Orange County after school has historically been a well-run well financed group that that's funded itself and uh as you mentioned uh many students take advantage of it um one of the things that that concerns me is there was a restructuring last year that removed that position that kind

087of put us in this position of where we're trying to struggle to get all of these things back in place um my really big concern is the vouchers and people not realizing if you're not at least three star rated you cannot accept those and you would have to go elsewhere outside of Orange County which now means parents that are really in need of this can't do that um also it may not be obvious to the listening community that currently I believe it's called dual employment where our after school staff actually uh is a uh employment under our school and under after school and so when they're working Beyond The 8 Hour day they're getting paid overtime and so with this they would not get that because now they would be working for the YMCA nothing

088against them but that essentially changes the Dynamics of our staff that are dependent on that um so I mean I could go on about a lot of things but I would really just like to ask the question you know h have we really looked at this and thought about is there something else we could do to get us back to where we were to um have that position in place have the oversight and ensure that our our community is getting this benefit our our teachers and staff who uh love these kids have been doing this uh you know need the money can can can benefit from it is there something else we can do besides just voting to move this out especially seeing that they're going to have to go get lure anyway and we

089have it um so I i' just like to ask you know either you DR gamon or Dr Jones is this a possibility for us to have some more thoughtfulness around this before trying to Outsource it yeah and I do want to Echo um thanking the team this literally did fall in their lap um there's no one here that's presting that ran after school or that's responsible for the current state that we're in so thank you for your your hard work and you know as I'm entering into Orange County Schools this was already the train was already moving so I was I'm hopping on this moving train um I would ask uh Dr gamon has been um instrumental in the research having knowing nothing about after school programming um if he could walk us through a

090little bit of what it might take for us um just for what he may know now and then we can come back um at a later date and maybe look at that um in April if we have um the resources to pull that together um you know our fear is not having the opportunity for our students to have somewhere to go after school and I think this was kind of that last Stitch effort but if you know of what it might take Dr gamon briefly to speak on that and then if we have to come back we can do that as well yeah I I do know that and and I guess to one of the points that that you made and I I definitely understand as far as when we think of current staff

091that are working during the day and then they're serving in the after school program a couple of points there um and I think this This lends itself to your point Dr Jones as far as us being able to look at options um I noted some of these prior to because this was something that bubbled up for us um this that was not directly written into the RFP okay so so in the RFP that that we received it did not note that point which I think is it's an important point that you raised um in communication with the YMCA um they're very much aware of that at this point um that we do have you know groups of Staff members that would fall into that category um so there are some some options that we could

092consider um you know we could decide between you know honoring those current Curr wages as they stand um if we look at it through that lens then we have to start looking at where's the give and take like is there an increase in fees on the other side of that um to make that happen are there other local you know agencies or Partnerships from grant funding standpoint that they could pursue to be able to make that difference up um could be an option um that they're very flexible and committed to pursuing that um I think a third kind of thought process or thinking there is do we grandfather that in where where we make sure that we make make that right for folks that are currently in that transition but in future years is that

093not the the way that they operate I mean that's just another another way to look at it so I do think there are other options I think to Dr Jones's Point um that gives us space to explore those but that also is really a part of the partnering process to really start to iron out what those Logistics are and and mainly are we able to get to do what it takes to get the licensing I think that's the question um yeah do we know what those steps might look like and is that something that we would be able to pull together I think because I don't know what those steps are um if he could if you could talk a little bit about that so I I will say that that it I'm never going

094to use like think I'm not going to say it's impossible okay would it be extremely challenging yes with the timeline that we're working upon and I think what I mean by that now to your point we're talking about a fstar star rating okay because that that's what it's been now if if there are conversations around there being concessions with that where we look at a fourstar a three star rating then that changes the conversation sum as far as where we can go internally at that point okay so let us bring that back um let us bring back um what it takes to be able to accept the vouchers for our students the three and five star um ratings and then what it might take for us on the district end to do that and we

095can bring that back so that then you can decide between Outsourcing or us revamping a program knowing it is going to take a dedicated person to do that and we can we can look into that so let me let me just pose one other thing is that we have in past used outside contractors to help us who are very knowledgeable about the programs and the the requirements and you know we I think we should be considering as well like you know besides you know I just worry about the team trying to figure it out themselves versus bringing in someone that's familiar with our program that we've used before and them coming in to to help as part of that but again I I'm I'm a single board member I don't know how everybody else feels

096but I I feel like we we shouldn't just HT this but anyway do Mo has a question um thank you Mr gam for for taking this on and um Mr Aon thank you for sharing your concerns cuz I had some of the same concerns too um a concern that I have is about Transportation so when I worked after school at the elementary level the students just transition from their class to the um after school program uh within the the school building so on one of the documents I read that the school district will not provide transportation for after school so I'm wondering if there has been any discussion uh with the YMCA because I'm thinking of parents that may pose a problem for them because now they will have to make two daily trips or

097like make arrangements versus just having to come to the school afterward and pick their student up so my understanding through this process is we would keep operations the same meaning that students that are at their current school they would remain there for the after school program the YMCA would come to our sites and they would would run the program just like we're doing now so they wouldn't have to be transported gotcha yeah thank you okay Miss how yeah I just I have some more basic questions I I agree with will I also wonder if there's a different model where and but by the way I appreciate what you've done and I also think very highly of the why so I think that's a good choice for and I think we've worked with them in the

098past on after school type programs um so is it possible for them to give us EX for them to be the quote consultant but it continues to be our program so that's one option but I my my other question is about the employees so will the why let's assume we did this would the why match our compensation for our employees and would how would it affect their benefits if they're state employees yeah so what I can't answer this evening is that their intention would be to match the current pay that our employees make now I I don't have specifics getting into the benefits piece and all that I would I would talk with Rhonda about that but they would no longer be state employees right so they would not would they be correct their benefits

099would not be impacted in this um situation because um anyone who is you have to be in a status of um over 20 hours a week to be able to receive benefit so everyone who is in the program that would be dual employed are already receiving benefits from their primary job so the other individuals who work just after school don't meet the 20-hour a week minimum anyway so they're not receiving benefits now so it would not impact them so the Dual employment if we have people in dual employment that that go get involved their benefits would no they they would not be impacted because they already meet the threshold for the requirement to get the benefits on that on their primary job be it a teacher assistant bus driver cafeteria thank you Miss Molly yeah

100I mean I I just um I think these are good points that folks are raising but um you know personally I'm in favor of moving forward with this program right now it seems like it was a thoughtful um review process um where they're going to match our rates for staff members I understand the overtime thing is a different question I do think there's a like Financial sustainability of the program question there just thinking about the over the turnover we've had in those staff roles and the level of disruption that causes to the program when that happens I would I I am in favor of Outsourcing to a very reputable vendor who runs after school programs in lots of our surrounding districts and you know holding them responsible for leading those programs um rather than um

101you know this kind of situation that we find ourselves in at the moment um you know long term I am concerned about what would happen to the rates over time um you know uh but I understand that this is sort of a one-year version and presumably if it got so expensive that we didn't think our families could afford it we could always bring it back in house um you know so um you know I appreciate the concerns but personally I'm in favor of um transitioning to to an this extern to the why um to to run this for us yes ma'am um I appreciate the conversation and also um had some questions about compensation um partly because we're we're bringing in another you know dynamic with Outsourcing so it seems like we'd have less you

102know there would be overhead for working through the Y um and I'm wondering have we ever gotten to where we have been charging at the middle school level because that was uh a lack of funding we had for a long time we were providing you know free after school um is that something that we have now built in I I know we've talked about it multiple times and I don't remember exactly where we are with that so I do have like a a financial question but I also agree that this is um I think this the stability of doing this for a year could be really good and I do like the additional site uh oversight component that's built in here so um I appreciate the plan but I do have a question about the

103that financial piece yeah so the way the RFP was crafted this would be at no cost to us okay because they are operating within our facilities they would be handling all programming um so that piece and as far as middle schools we do have a middle school like a feed schedule that that is in place there as well thank you thank you Mr a can you tell us the fund balance for the Enterprise fund for the after school program I mean we've heard Financial issues so I'm curious to know the amount at June 30th of 2023 the fund balance that was reported in the audited financial statements was roughly 1.2 million so financial statements is really talking about us recovering money from the people not running the program based on that amount is that fair

104well there there's that I I'm speaking here there's definitely a concern about money that we are bringing in I think that that has been a large concern not just this year but that has also done in preceding years as well right and that's that's really focused if you will on the management of the program and making sure there's a person dedicated to doing that and I do understand the disruptions but with another vendor and somebody leaves you're still having the disruptions right that that doesn't go away and it could be people from outside the school district at that point and the even if they guarantee the pay for the current staff any new people would come under their the rate that um what was it $10 an hour what what's the rate it's 10 $10

105an hour so there would be a significant difference when new people came in so if somebody in the staff decided to come in they would not come in with the benefits that they would cost structure that we have right well that should that would be a conversation through the agreement with the why like if they are approved I do want to point out too to your previous point I think one piece that that's important to note is that if there are departures or if there are oversight concerns our ability to fill those quickly now is is I don't want to use non-existent but it it it takes a while whereas a reputable program like that they would have folks that are highly trained that can immediately fill into those spaces just because their bandwidth is

106larger than Irish currently in the way that we're structured that's important to note right and that's again because of not really having dedicated resources and also not necessarily incentives that we could use from the fund balance to help with that not our fund balance but the fund balance of the program can can I just get a clarification the stabilization Grant was a $2 and5 million Grant right so is that does that co-mingle with the with the so the 1.2 million includes the fund from the stabilization Grant how will that be affected how is that and how much time is left on that Grant and so um the grant has sunsetted um yes it it is completed in regards to um if the program if the decision is made to Outsource the program um I'm going

107to have to spend some time looking at what is in fund balance to ensure that um there's not any issues with whatever may have if anything there is received from that Grant so to me it begs the question of um so the is part of the one the 1 point million 2 the 1.2 million is more than I would have expected for you to have in that is that because of this it is definitely because of the stabilization Grant yeah so the quit so let's take the fund balance away is the proposal from the why does it sustain it is it sustain itself or is it going to drain the fund balance so from my understanding it is not going to cost Orange County Schools anything zero dollars if we turn this program over to

108the why um what is left in fund balance is the is the property of Orange County Schools so it would be Orange County School funds I would have to ensure that there were no um caveats associated with what was received as part of the stabilization Grant um to make sure there I've got to really do some research and dig in about those funds um to ensure that they don't have to be given back and are any of those funds fees from parents and so there's no comingling in that way okay no it it's primarily all associated with the stabilization Grant great thank you I have one last comment yes so I just um just to be mindful that if we have potential compliance issues and not enough staff to manage the sites which has happened

109over time that can create a huge safety issue issue for our district so it may be feasible for us to move forward with the plan so that we can stay in compliance just kind of remember safety first and if I can just add again I just want to reiterate that what they were asked to do was to bring a proposal to Outsource and what that would look like there was there was no conversation about Outsourcing or maintaining our program here the directive given to the team in January was out sourcing and what that would look like we will do what you ask whatever you need us to do to feel comfortable with it so we have a proposal for outsourcing I think they did a a outstanding job with what they had and considering that

110there are no staff here that are experts in after care at the same time if we need to explore what it would take um to get our lure um we can do that as well and bring that back now to the the the downside to that is it may take us some time to do that yes we can contract folks in but there's no guarantee that we could do that in time for families in um the year round program to have after care programming and so that is where I'm torn coming in um in the middle of this while this was already in in motion but whatever you decide we will go back and and do Mr s Dr Jones just a follow up do you have concerns with doing that do you feel like

111we're putting Children at Risk if you go look at that or do you feel like that is not a good use of time I'm number one I'm concerned with putting this on staff um with the time that that might take what for staff to go back and do um number two I'm concerned about the possible outcome of us not having the ability and missing the opportunity to offer something to kids that need it the most I mean we can have an an after school program in the summer that's that doesn't have the three to five star rating and that means that students that need it the most won't have access to it so not knowing like I said all of the details and what it will take and the timeline um I would have to

112dig a little bit deeper into that to really fully understand what it would take the impact it would have on staff's time and our ability to get that done in in this quick turnaround to be able to say for sure um how I feel either way like I said the teams I'm on this train Midway but the team's directive was to bring Outsourcing I want to just re ask again because I think I heard it right our staff is going to have First Choice at jobs for this after school program that's correct that is in writing somewhere that that's going to happen it if if this is approved and we work through that that would be in writing yes it is in the RFP but it is it's carefully it's carefully crafted in the RFP

113because you can't dictate the operations of another entity so it's I don't think there's any way to say you shall hire every single Orange County School staff member however there's a very strong preference for that in the RFP and my understanding is the vendors expressed you know interest not just willingness but interest in hiring those people to staff the operation I I understand that but I want to make sure that the people that we have in this District are given priority over someone else and I I do think there is an interview process that they would have to go through with the YMCA but yes I I did see that it was they would give priority that was one of the criterias um within the rating system okay yes sir want one last question hopefully

114on um the cost of the program we started with at $6 a week and we hadn't talked about what they will be offering is it the same or is it changing based on shifts so the the communication that we've received through the RFP process is they would maintain the same fee structure okay for for one year for one year well we have I'm sorry I was going to say at the end of one year are we can we opt out of this or can or we just keep going yes you could opt out or renegotiate we've also included as an essential term in the contract that the vendors agreed to assume a termination for convenience Clause that would allow you to terminate the contract midyear I forget the notice period but something like 60 days

115notice okay good and do we have um a say in the fee so if they want to hike the fee by 10% and we don't can we offer to subsidize it for example do we have any say in fee increases and it's a away but can we again I think you could that could be a term that's negotiated um and uh we don't yet have an a memorandum of understanding for this year but that would because it was an RFP term it's something that would be reflected um in in the contract there would be parameters on fees and if you were to renegotiate a future contract for another year or longer term you could do the same thing yes maam I just want to name I think that it is because the um increases in

116staff hourly rates in the program were funded by the stabilization Grant I think it is unlikely that if we kept I think it is likely that if we kept the program we would also have to significantly increase rates in order to have a financially sustainable program is that accurate I believe that would yes so in either case I think it is likely that there's going to be some rate increase maybe not in the first year of this YMC one but over time um given what staff need to be paid I think it's unlikely I mean it will likely be more expensive in either case so okay yes sir so given everything we've heard um motion to approve second all in favor I I all right thank you all so much for your work because I

117know this has not been easy thank you all right retesting and good evening board chair Miss purcel Vice chair Mr Richmond board members and superintendent Dr Jones I am pleased to present to you um this year's remediation re administration of our end of year uh end of grade end of course uh assessment plan last year I shared with you the what the state is allowing school systems to as an option for our end of the year assessment and this year we are opting we would like to opt to participate again in the re uh remediation readministration of our end of year assessment is with some slight changes for this year and I want to point out those changes I have my Vanner over here helping so one of the things that um we're put in

118place last week at the student achievement committee we talked about the final stretch plan and the final stretch plan is what principles are working on now for the final nine weeks looking at skill boosting test taking strategies small group instruction what are they doing to prepare students for the end of year assessments that's the plan for all students part of the re remediation reassessment is that they're focused on students who need to retest and for the end of the year um eog's eoc's the state gives some restrictions the state only allows us to do that after you have finished the testing period and that students have gone through the readministration um part they do allow us to do skill boosting for everyone so between now and the beginning of the testing we expect that schools

119a very deliberate very focused with everyone in preparing students for that end of the year test Ing we also expect that schools are very strategic in how they are designing their testing window the testing window begins uh March 23rd for a yearound schools excuse me May 23rd for our year round schools and May 24th for our traditional and middle schools and they go through the end of the school year for our uh secondary schools that are on semester courses they begin that last week of school being strategic for for the courses that they are planning to do the reassessment we would like for them to begin the testing early in the in the testing window that allows them to finish the assessment and then they can begin to work with the students who will be

120a part of the readministration making begin that very small very focused uh group at the conclusion of the testing and then um be do the testing after the school year ends we are extending the testing per testing days from one day to three days this year to give a longer window for the assessment so that students will have one two and probably no more than two but if some choose to administer for three assessments it gives them that time period to do it so you will see that the re uh remediation day for our traditional um uh elementary middle and high schools will begin on Monday the 10th and for our year round will begin on Thursday the 6th and then the three days of readministration retesting will be from June June 11th through the

12113th and for year round will be June um 7th through the 11th communication Miss do asked last week about the communication pie and making sure that our parents understand that schools uh will have the option for the readministration so that students families can if if they have the option to plan around and not plan their vacations right at the very end of of the testing window we expect that as schools work with students through the skill the final stretch they will have a sense of who will be invited for the readministration and begin the communication process so as part of the communication plan we hope and expect that schools are in communication with families to inform them that they there is a a possibility they will be invited for the readministration to plan for that

122to not schedule um for the last three days after the school year ends and then formal once uh they have completed the testing formal communication will go out to families inviting students for the readministration so as part to the next one so one of the things that that are part of the not negotiables that we will be communicating with our principles on is looking at the Staffing who will staff the remediation and readministration be very intentional about the staff that they using unfortunately we will not fund teachers to do this this year so looking at the Staffing not only their teachers but also looking at the 11th month staff their coaches that they have in building uh to assist with the program how will they determine the students who need to be a part of

123the remediation and readministration plan and also what is the communication plan again for notifying parents and to be very intentional be not only just using one form of communication what are ways what are other ways that they're communicating with parents about the program to ensure that they're reaching out to every family and that students who are indeed eligible are taking advantage of this program and the very last thank you so developing a communication plan working with their families making sure that everyone is informed right here also the relationship that the schools are developing um with their families is very important here and we will assist um as part of Central LA office last week you you heard about a final stretch plan we are in the process now of working with schools and developing those

124plans uh next week we will be providing feedback to schools about the plans and in between now and the end of the year working with our schools on those plans and then certainly following up with them as we get closer to the testing period and and during the testing window so we hope that that with this very deliberate very focused approach here that uh we will see greater outcomes and again the readministration the retesting impacts proficiency it does not impact the growth measures on a a test are there any questions M D um thank you Dr Green and uh forgive me if I'm asking a question that um possibly is answered in there a couple people were um thinking about um having like the one uh uh remediation day and then multiple readministration days is

125there um you know would a student be able to take multiple um tests if they don't have adequate time you know um um retooling for each test so I'm just kind of curious you know would you really be able to go to three sessions and then take three tests um in in one day of remediation so I have a question about that um I I did like the sample scripts that were provided um I know that communication piece and encouragement to prioritize that is really important and um did did you just say there isn't there's no pay for teachers and staff doing this yes I I just because otherwise these these teachers are off right during two of the days the three days for the traditional uh staff for the re uh remediation and the

126retesting are during the teacher work days okay thank you um the two days for the year round um here or during the teacher work day one of the days uh is beyond the teacher work day that's why we are also encouraging schools to look at their 11th month staff thank you and for the we're extending out to three days to provide the options not not the requirement here so they have to look at their their um students to see and also the remediation um can begin for the small group once the testing period ends so during that window when the testings um period begins from from May 24th through the end of of the school year if they start for example if they start with the science test first and they um finish with the

127science test uh by May 26 they can begin the remediation on May 27th so as soon as they finish with the test for that grade they can begin that process before the end of the school year they cannot do the retesting until after the school year ends thank you Miss mol um okay I have a um a few questions um one do what were the outcome you don't have to answer this right now but I would like to know what were the outcomes last year of remediation I remember seeing um prior to that plan that um in Wake they had significant additional students end up passing the EOG so I'm curious what that looked like for us and I'd love to see what that looks like this year um another idea I have or question

128can we put this on the calendar when we're approving the academic calendar for each year like can we know that far in advance because I think um that would be helpful also for for families um as they're planning um and then who who will be invited to how How are schools deciding presumably it's not every child who does not pass an EOG or EOC or maybe it is um how are they deciding who will be invited to do the retesting we're asking School right now as they're looking at at all sorts of data for students and and significant data piece that helps will be last year's EOG uh performance EOG EOC performance so as to not only looking at this year's um data as they're working with students to get a sense of of how

129students are performing looking at last year's data looking at Evas data uho um boyy data um Comm informative assessment data tier also different resources as they're looking at the final stretch um plan they were provided with uh various resources also some resources including some release assessments EOG EOC assessments to help gauge how students might perform on the end of year assessment will give them a sense of how students that are very close to passing and need that little extra nudge will be that group that they want to Target so they're going to Target students who maybe um they in the end students who get a two on an assessment rather than the but they seem like maybe they might could be rather than student who's pretty far off from proficiency because one additional day of

130remediation is not going to be impactful in that situation that is correct Miss how yeah first of all I really appreciate how proactive you're being with this this year it's great um just correct me if I'm wrong but we did not do um the the skills boost targeted in Tru we didn't do that last year did we we did some of it last year we didn't we were didn't start as far out as we're doing this year so we are we are using the entire 9 weeks period to really really be um very comprehensive in the approach and also not only looking at the final stretch plan uh schools will be asked to develop the remediation reassessment plan that will identify um eligible students identify their their plan for addressing remediation as well as identifying

131the staff that they will use yeah so just a second just a sec um to clarify the um the kids who do the I'll just call it targeted instruction this whole they that's in preparation for the eogs that's the test that counts if they do the remediation does that get considered in our end of grade scores for our kids our schools our district uh it will count toward proficiency it will it will not go in the growth uh part okay so we'll go toward the 80% part of that score not the 20% so the retesting scores count proficiency to proficiency Mr thank you for this and definitely like seeing how it's structured and understanding the timing and um how it would be approached um one thing this is voluntary right so you you invite the

132parent child and if they say no then it's then they're they're not required to I just wanted to clarify that as a point Thank You SM one other thought here you know the um I believe in taking advantage of every day of instruction in a school you're up until the very last day of school um and um my experience as a parent has been at least at the elementary school level that a whole bunch of the last couple of weeks of school or like a lot of really fun activities and these kinds of things and so um it it makes me wonder how whether we are supporting schools and teachers in understanding any possible strategies for um helping the need for additional remediation during that last few days of school to not feel like a

133punishment to a child to help teachers understand how to structure that in a way where it isn't um stigmatizing you know it's it's it's really tough to be like we're having all these fun activities and by the way we're going to yeah time to do some more math you know like thanks for taking those eogs like time to do more math um like are we providing any support to schools on that you raised an important Point um here and I think we have to be mindful of the approach that we're taking so that students don't feel like um While others are out having the extra recess I'm in doing the extra math problem here that's an important conversation to have when we talk about the communication that schools are having with with families what is

134that how does that communication look how are we structuring our day how are we be how are we balancing that time with with our students so that they don't feel that I'm being being punished that what is the messaging that they're giving families what is the messaging that they're giving students that it is you know we see potential in you it is for that group of student that's right there on the edge and that's what you want to make them feel that you know you have you know you we know you have it you know you can do it here's another opportunity you know to Showcase your skill sets so that's important and that's what we want to remind our schools in helping our students in the year on a very positive and exciting note

135and not feel like you know this is something you know that they they dread let me let me just add uh getting this approved tonight will allow us to work with principles this will be a little bit of a shift from the previous year with having more days and more time to focus on remediation and the retesting when we do that um and we're working with principles I make it very clear that this is not a punishment for students and um I've done that in the past and yes in Durham as well we saw some great results with our retesting it is a nice way to give a push but at the same time we're dealing with children and we want to make sure there are endof the year activities that they're not missing out

136on because we do want to continue to work with them and motivate them to to succeed academically so um yeah that that will be made clear with working with principles through the end of the year until we get up to that point and whatever support they need in doing that we'll be happy to help them also to address the concern with teachers um we want to provide some support for principes to make sure that our teachers aren't feeling overwhelmed during those work days right having to retest and at the same time closing out the school year so we'll be working with them with that as well and also uh this is not just a cni plan we have um the equity Department we have our EC Department the ml Department right here um my student

137service department working through to ensure that we are indeed be looking at all aspects and that we are inclusive and not missing out on any any parts you know that um the social emotional element of this so thank you for raising that point any other questions motion to approve second all in favor I I it is approved thank you thank you for your work well I'm going to stay up here and hopefully this will be short and sweet but yeah I want to present to you the school fees we are recommending no increase in school fees for next year um here you will see in the abstract here the proposed fees for this for next year the same proposed fees as we had last year um the we are also continuing to purchase the recorders

138at the elementary level um those will be the musical instruments also we will support the the high schools and their musical programs and you will see the the variance there because of the different competitions that the high schools take part in and a couple of the that we are removing because we no longer do them so we're not carrying those items on that so what will be posted will not include the library fee and the technology fee that's listed there so I ask your your approval of no fee increase on the school fees motion to approve second all in favor I ah thank you very much thank you IED to hey Miss wrath good evening chair purcel Vice chair Richmond board members Dr Jones and all of our community I I am here this evening

139to uh walk you through the superintendent's recommended budget for the 2425 school year first um our budget calendar at our budget meeting that occurred on February the 29th we had some uh discussions about the recommendations for the budget that we are bringing forward we are here tonight to formally present those to you at your next meeting on April the 8th we will be holding a public hearing to allow for the public to make any comments uh in regards to the recommended budget we will also follow up at that meeting with a discussion from you about those items um that you want to add or take away from the superintendent's budget or potentially keep it as it is to carry forward to our County Commissioners um we we will then bring it to you for final

140approval on April the 22nd it will then be submitted to the board of County Commissioners as our recommended request for funding for the next school year I always like to start these presentations with kind of taking us back to the previous year and picking us up where I left you off the last time we talked about this so um I want to point out that um some things that we were able to fund fund with the additional money that we received from the Commissioners last year we were able to fund uh the increases that were in the banian budget for the salaries as well as the benefits we also were able to hire four High School um security staff we were able to add a u multilingual learner teacher we were able to add two

141health technicians we kept the permanent daily sub for each of the schools um we were also able to hold the schools harmless for three uh state funded positions that were lost as a result of our decrease in our average daily membership and then we also earmarked um one-time grants for our schools for them to have the ability to submit applications of things to enhance learning opportunities tutoring Etc throughout this school year where they had had total flexibility to be able to utilize those funds that was $4.2 million and for those things that we weren't able to fund um the focus last year uh from you rightly so was a big push to try to keep staff compensation a top priority however we just weren't able to do that with the additional funds that we received

142so all of those compensation it items that we had very thoroughly discussed last year we were not able to fund those included looking at our local supplement tiers and increasing those it included looking at adding additional supplements for specific populations it also increas uh included additional supplements for uh staff who had longer years of service with the district we also looked at some stem opportunities particularly um looking at adding more stem teachers uh at each of our schools um as well as the percent step increase it would have taken to get the classified scales for each years of experience um equaling 1% and then a few of the other items that you see here that were a top priority of yours that we were not able to fund also were um the national board certification

143some additional nurses increasing some athletic supplements and uh District sponsored field trips all in all the total of these unfunded requests was $8.2 million now let's talk about where we are now this year our projected ADM for the coming up year is 6,990 um I want to take an opportunity for the public as well as to remind everyone here that um there was a session law that changed the way school districts are going to be funded so DPI will no longer be projecting average daily memberships for school um for school districts they will actually be basing the funding on what your actual ADM is so what that means for us is we will no longer be seeing reversions out through a school year where they are taking money back from us when we have decreases

144in our enrollment we won't have um adjustments for uh decreases in ADM nor will there be Charter School adjustments which we have typically received as long as I have been in this position uh they do have terminology built in um and procedures built in if a school district's ADM does s start to increase where they will provide you uh per pupil funding for those increases that you see as you can see here our total overall billing student billing base for the next fiscal year is projected to decrease 67 students when you factor in the increase in our Charter School enrollment and then take out those students who are considered out of district and not paying tuition wanted to show you what the TR Trend um for the last 10 years has been for Orange County

145Schools as you can see here the blue bar is the total the yellow line is the DPI projected ADM that where they have projected us annually and actually the purple line is where we actually were so as you can see for all but uh two years of the last 10 we've actually been actually under the DPI projected and of course you can see that our Charter Schools um are continuing to increase and are actually at 1,092 here what I wanted to provide you is a look at Orange County Schools against a look at the state of North Carolina and overall Orange County Schools is reporting a 5% decline in total enrollment the number of white students enrolled in Orange County schools has declined 14% since 2020 while the number of Hispanic students enrolled has increased

1466% it is important to note that this is just not an Orange County Schools phenomenon the state of North Carolina is also reporting a 10% decline in the number of white students enrolling in public schools and a 10% increase in the Hispanic enrollment for the same period of time additionally overall the state of North Carolina has uh shown a 3% decline in enrollment here is a look at our 13 schools and how they have trended over the last 5 years as you can see here three schools experienced an increase in enrollment while the remaining 10 schools did see a decline in enrollment so let's talk about our continuation budget when you factor in the number of students that we are projected to um have in our school district next year remember that number of students

147equals funding because we are funded based upon those bodies in those seats that uh comes to 42.4 million based upon what we think are going to be here next year when you factor in the other revenues that we've received from the county which are our fines and forfeitures and our interest we're looking at uh anticipated revenues of $42.6 million we know from the banian budget the anticipated increases in salaries for next year are uh 3% for staff and there are also benefit increases when we look at those as well as the increases that we're experiencing In our non-personnel relation ated cost we're looking at um needing $1.9 million to bridge the gap between what we're projected to receive and what we're projected that we're going to pay out in regards to our expansion budget these

148are the items that we are recommending that be included for consideration for request a point five of a custodial in this is to uh support the increased square footage that is associated with the partnership expansion um also the percentage increase to represent a 1 half step between the classified salary scales um would be $500 $500,000 excuse me we also uh recommend that we carry back and continue to advocate for uh certified supplement increases for the uh class the certified license staff to increase those local supplement scales we also um have on here the recommendation to continue the partnership with NC Ed core tutoring also to um look at adding additional resources for stem steam in our schools and to provide training for our teachers and coaches to facilitate the integration of these programs into our

149current curriculum and then the district sponsored field trips of $200,000 that would bring our total expansion requests to 3.1 million and overall including um continuation and expansion we would be short $5 million so that would basically equate to a $636 per pupil increase that would be needed over what we received this fiscal year to fund all of these items wanted to give a quick update on our Esser funds what you see here are the remaining pots of Esser money that we have available the largest pot and the one with the most flexibility is the one uh the very last line in the chart which is the sr3 um funding there is approximately $2.1 million that is remaining available in that pot that will be expiring in September of 2024 here we wanted to give you

150a look at how we plan to spend that um sr3 for the upcoming year again to project that uh we will not be reverting any of those funds that we will be utilizing those in support of our students and supporting um additional instructional needs um the Personnel expenditures are associated with uh the staff that are being funded from that Grant right now uh the tutoring is the additional uh tutoring that will continue up until the time that the grant sunsets and then the summer programs for June of this year um have been budgeted um at a million dollar and then that leaves us um roughly $398,000 for indirect costs professional development and contracted Services I do want to point out that all of the other grants um that I showed on the previous page are

151very specific and that we do have plans in place to also extinguish those funds but um I wanted to focus on what our largest balance was remaining in Esser at this time so I'm happy to say that right now um looking at what we're projected the end the year at based upon uh where we closed out fiscal year 23 our fund balance was at 3.4 million the board has um assigned or restricted 1.2 so that left us approximately $2.2 million in our fund balance that was unassigned um unrestricted looking at how our budget is currently running I'm anticipating that we will be able to add um $500,000 to a million doll back to our fund balance for this fiscal year so next steps April the 8th we'll have the public hearing and allow for um

152input from the community as well as input from you on what you have seen in this budget that you would like to keep or take away or any additional items that you would like to add before it is presented to the Commissioners we will bring any of those changes back to you on April the 22nd for final approval and then that is what will be presented to our commissioners for consideration for funding I do want to um just say for any of the public that are listening that these items are recommendations that this budget has not been approved and uh we will not know what our funding is from the Commissioners until uh early June when they have heard all of the input from all of their individual departments and um assessed their funding sources

153they will make a determination of what our per pupil funding will be and at that time we will be able to set our final budget and based upon that we will be coming back to you or um to have more discussion about if there are hopefully the continuation budget will be fully funded and there won't won't be any need for us to have any discussion about finding funds that we are not receiving and hopefully we'll be in a situation where we will prioritize our expansion request of uh some expansion items that hopefully we will be able to do and now I'll take any questions is so thank you for this um I I have a qu when when you presented to us in budget committee there was some items that you were looking at redirecting

154existing funding to fund things like and the thing that I remember is the uh increase in Co in in supplements for athletic coaches and you were suggesting that you might you were looking at can you do that and can you do that without increasing the budget and is that did I hear that right did and and were you successful at that and the reason I'm asking is I I would love for the public to know that you're doing that kind of um work to redirect resource to things that are really important to our schools um yes we we had several items um that were funded uh I'm will start with the items that were funded um historically under Esser that we want to continue those initiatives um instead of looking uh to the county to

155fund those uh we made the decision to look inter internally and um I worked with the team and we worked hard and uh we scrubbed hard and we gave up some things and um as a result we were able to find the funding uh to be able to continue um hmh to also be able to continue solution tree um branching mines and Panorama and one of the other items was also a um percentage increase to the coaches supplement scales that we would be bringing forward to you as a budget proposal that we would fund internally when we finalize this budget so will those items be in the budget that you present on a on April 8th great great thank you anyone else question on Mr um just a I guess a Clarity question on the

156expansion budget request um on the items like the classified salary scale and the certified supplement increase do we know how that will impact uh every year on our continuation budget or we or is it calculated in that hey if we do this the classified celer scale at 1 half that the 500,000 is going to cover it year-over-year or will we have to insert that into our continuation budget it will have to become part of our continuation budget based upon any raises that the governor legislates in his budget Bill okay let me ask it differently I I get your point I was thinking more when we talk about the certified supplement increase where we change the scale to be 1% for each level independent of whether the state gives a raise will we have to adjust

157for that and the reason I'm asking is I do know that the County Commissioners don't necessarily have to give us a continuation budget and I I just want to know if there's any additional funding we'll have to consider when we when we get to that point between each step level so if you're at step one and now you're going to step two this is funding them where they're at versus hey I'm going to go from level one to seven for example does it make sense what I'm asking so let me let me try to um explain what I think I'm hearing yes please and um maybe we'll figure out where we need to fill in the holes so the $500,000 here to get to where it is a half of a percent step increase that

158would be a 1/8 of a percent that is needed because right now we have a 38 of a percent step increase so 1/8 of a percent for all of our staff currently paid on these classified scales as well as the 3% budget increase that we know is in the vium budget will cost us $500,000 next year so going forward if there is another 3% increase in the next fiscal year we're going to have that will become part of our continuation and be a continuation increase to sustain that did I answer your question well no but that's okay so so I shouldn't have even said the classified salary mine or I shouldn't have said um the classified the certified is the one I'm really interested in because you have people that make different amounts right throughout

159the scale and when they go between the scales they're going to increase by at least 1% each year and so I'm curious if the 2 million accounts for it independent of any pay raise by the state or are we going to have to say Okay this year to put everybody on the scale it's going to be 2 million but next year you're going to shift and now we need an additional 200,000 because they've got an additional 1% increase because they've moved on the scale does that make sense what I'm the two billion takes into account everybody moving up one step on the scale okay so it it does take that into account out for the 2425 year but not okay M and and um I think one way to think about this is every year

160we sort of have this situation regardless of these increases where people are moving up a step in their years of seniority and we never have to go to the Commissioners to say oh our our staff is slightly more tenured now so we need x amount of dollars to make up the Gap mostly I think because folks are dropping off of it also with more years of experience and we're adding people with fewer years of experience and so it kind of works itself out and and yes that's a very good way to explain it and a lot of it does wash itself out because you have people coming in and going out at different years where that kind of washes itself out in in totality but if I could clarify if I remember when we did

161this we said um we're raising the scale so when you get on the scale your step your salary will be higher but we're not pro promising an increase as you move up in years in the scale is that correct I remember having that conversation are we talking about the certified supplement increase I'm talking I think it I'm thinking about the classified because I remember having that conversation we talked about and I actually remember way County putting a statement at the beginning of their salary scale saying no promises about increases year toe yes we did have that caveat as well because it would be dependent upon funding classified salary scales so that's a salary scale that individuals are hired on right based upon your years of experience and then each year that you get a year

162of experience you move up a step and get a 38 of a percent increase right now so our if the staff doesn't change at all our classified payroll would go up through would increase by 38 of a percent in terms of cost and and that's been accounted for in the continuation budget okay the local certified supplement scales are the local supplement that we provide to licens staff that is over and Beyond what the state sets on the state scales so um right now ours are tiered I believe it's 0 to 5 years is 12% 6 to 14 maybe I'm I'm shaking cobwebs here or and we were looking at um changing those to where they were a little higher on the low end um for those 0o to five years is what we had looked

163at when we discussed this last year so that is um a little bit different scenario but that is a percentage of your salary so as your salary increases your supplement is going to increase got it got it Miss do um thank you Miss WTH um I mainly I just want to say I appreciate the the presentation and our data about um where our ADM is and the per puple increase we'd need um correspondingly for a continuation budget I do um like the recommendation for what we'd be putting in our expansion request in terms of um I'm really glad we're we're pushing to do the 1/8 classified salary scale I know it never seems like big enough but sometimes you just have to do PC mail to keep making progress um I did read that the

164Chapel Hill Board is looking to increase their supplement so we we need to keep working on that and um the nced core tutoring seems to have been super beneficial um I know we're going to get some more information about what that actually looks like and um as you know I've been a big advocate for the Steam and stem equity and I I like this approach so I appreciate um your plan regarding that in particular Dr Jones thank you just sming um at some future date I'd love there are certain pieces in the sr3 funding where we've um like heard or seen a decent amount about it in terms of like the math enrichment tutoring um or the summer career accelerator programs but at some future point I'd love to just know a little bit more

165about how some of these other pots of monies were directed so on driver's ed um homeless 2 the homeless 2 category from Kenny vento students and um the cyber bullying and suicide prevention um you know how we're planning on um or either either retrospectively how we have or in the future how we're planning on targeting um that funding um there're just some of them that we've heard a little bit more about than others any other questions thank you Miss wrath this looks good and we look forward to hearing more just a reminder what day Miss wrath do we go to the County Commissioners with this so the public will know that if they want to know is it the 25th date written down right here it is April the 25th when we have the uh

166joint school board meeting with the Commissioners where we will present our um actual budget request to them at that time thank you ma'am okay anything else we need to discuss tonight all all right motion to okay motion to adjourn second all in favor I I we are [Music] adjourned