Orange County Board of Education Regular Meeting - October 23, 2023

001sa him [Music] from good evening I'd like to call this um board meeting to order um we are we do have two people that are online or phone tonight and I think Miss D will be here so we're going to go ahead and get started it is a little after 6 the board will enter Clos session pursuant to NC General statute 43-31 181 A1 A3 and A5 and A6 to consult with the board attorney and preserve attorney client privilege to consider confident iial personal Personnel matters and to prevent the disclosure of confidential Personnel information under General statute 115 C- 319 I need a motion for us to go into close session so move second all in favor all right thank you Dr Mo we will move into close session and be back shortly you good

002evening I'd like to call this um meeting of the Orange County Board of Education for October the 23rd 2023 to order we welcome everyone here tonight thank you for being here um I will read the public charge the Orange County Board of Education pledges to its citizens to conduct its business in a courteous and productive manner showing respect for fellow board members staff and citizens the board ask it 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 asks that you check your cell phones and other electronic devices to be certain that they are either turned off or on vibrate to avoid Interruption

003of the meeting and we will begin with the Pledge of Allegiance everyone can stand stand please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all thank you and now we will observe Our Moment of Silence okay thank you first up tonight we have recognition and I'm thinking that that will be Mr Smith thank you madam chair so we have two recognitions on tonight's agenda and first will be the principal of the Year hosted by Mrs Joyce Hatcher okay thank you good evening chair perel Vice chair Richmond board members and Dr Merill on October the 18th cabinet members board chair and vice chair arrived at New Hope Elementary to surprise Dr Meredith May Meredith mayor that she

004was going to be our principal of the year once we arrived there and we surprised her we walked the halls of New Hope Elementary School where we saw every student in that building with signs with hugs with cheers and both English and Spanish and that immediately let us know we had chosen the right person for the job um and it also let us know that she loves those students and the love that she gave we saw that love given back to her on Wednesday so before I bring Dr mayor up I want to just read a little bit of her summary that she will be submitting to the state um as to why she should be considered for a principal of the year and move on to the state level she said service and love

005are synonymous for me as a school principal because school Improvement is community work leading providing creating and experiencing holistic growth love Community Care and achievement via connected connection persistent and Equitable access education is difficult personal work and as a principal at New Hope Elementary I invested my team and our students and families to relentlessly pursue racial positive change and to do so with joy holistic growth love and Community Care at the center of our work without a further Ado I want to introduce to you Dr Meredith mayor our 2023 2024 principal of the year hey everybody um good evening Dr Marill and to all the members of the board um thank you so very much for this incredible honor um I was truly surprised and I am very grateful to all of you and the

006panel of Educators who helped with this process and to my entire School community and team um Joyce stole some of my lines um but I'm going to repeat them um so if you've ever visited us at New Hope you already know that New Hope Elementary School is a really special place filled with some of the most brilliant and hardworking people that I have ever met um and ever had the privilege to work with in the course of my entire educational career it is the honor of my life to serve our students in the school Community here and we have been able to accomplish some truly inspiring gains in student Proficiency in an overall student growth in the last two years so Within These two years we have almost doubled our overall grade level proficiency for

007grades three through five as measured by our um School Improvement grade um that's issued by the state and we have more than doubled Proficiency in fourth and fifth grade math and more than doubled proficiency in fifth grade science as well I say we because education in no way shape or form is individual work my staff our students and our families show up every single day with their best and in the face of many different circumstances um and always with students holistic growth and achievement in mind I am so honored to accept this award on behalf of our entire community and I say this very often and as Joyce um helped me um it is because I truly believe that school Improvement is community work and so many people have had a hand in helping us

008move New Hope in the right direction teachers and staff Administration instructional coaches our student support team our school Improvement team Our Community Partners and our students and families of course um for that I am truly grateful and I am so excited to see uh what else we are going to be able to do this year and Beyond um thank you for this recognition again and for those of you who are able to come and see the joy of the surprise celebration in person um after what we will call my initial exclamations uh here in the mic um and my attempts to run away uh it was wild to experience that level of volume and support and I am so grateful that our kids and our staff were all a part of that because this is

009absolutely a reflection of their work just as much as mine um I'm in this work because I truly believe um in radical positive change um although it does involve um some special attention to racial Equity um I what I wrote was Radical positive change um and I believe that radical positive change is possible attainable and real and I thank all of you for supporting me and continuing to support me in both doing um and keeping that work going at Orange County Schools so thank you so much and co- voyagers thank you have your picture taken and can we shake your hand thank you congratulations you so thanks thank you all right I um don't know what to do to follow that so um I'm here today to talk to you about um disability awareness employment

010awareness month and um when we think about this I just want you to think about this one question if you're out at a gathering dinner with friends um new people you meet what is one of the first questions that you're asked what do you do what do you do and so in thinking about that um disability employment is one of those things that Orange County Schools is charged with um doing as we talk think about our mission that says an inclusive environment and so the word awareness versus inclusion I just um want to point you to those slides we can be aware of disabilities all we want but when we think about inclusion what does that mean for employment and so I wanted to bring awareness to this and celebrate this because we do some

011really good work in our department of exceptional children um our teachers especially in the high school and our project search site really work to find um internships and places where students can it's not my computer so and it will not go forward going so the photos that you're going to see show some of the places where our students have internships um Orange High School in our for our students with complex disabilities they run a coffee cart um our occupational course of study students from Cedar Ridge are at Papa John's and you can see the depth and the breadth of the work so to me what it means to um bring awareness and to think about what does it mean to be um employed as a person with a disability how do we honor their um

012uniqueness all of us have uniqueness so how do we include their uniqueness in our places ofy employment and so as we celebrate this month of disability awareness for employability I want to uh place a challenge to all of us we have internship sites um in the community they are um Papa John's within the the Hillsboro Community uh I've just lost some of them we've had Tractor Supply we have uh Advanced Auto Parts how can we as Orange County Schools find some internships within Orange County Schools I think that would be really neat to have um a build your own grow your own and then thinking out into the community what are some places that you may volunteer that could also host an intern to be able to help them learn these valuable job skills so

013that when we talk about Orange County Schools being inclusive of all this is what we are truly talking about so thank you so much thank you [Applause] okay we need to uh adopt our agenda um do I have a motion to adopt motion to adopt agenda second all in favor I I I okay thank you all um agenda is adopted and we will move into um public comment at this time we will now hear public comments speakers will be called in the order in which they signed up each speaker will have three minutes yielding time to other speakers is not permitted if a speaker has written materials they would like to share please hand them out our board clerk Franklin C and he will distribute them to the board the purpose of public comment is

014for the board to hear from members of the public not to engage in back and forth discussions per our policy board members will not respond to speakers during the public comment session the board greatly values public feedback and welcomes all comments regardless of viewpoint however please be reminded that children are often present at these meetings and that our public comment policy prohibits profanity vulgarity and personal abuse of any person we ask that all comments be civil respectful and free of personal attacks any speaker who violates our public comment period or otherwise exceeds the bounds of order and decorum will be given a warning continued violations may result in the speaker being ruled out of order at at which point we will move on to the next speaker our first speaker for a public comment tonight

015is Lyn Carswell good evening board members Dr Marill thank you for this opportunity to speak I come before you tonight to provide Clarity and Express gratitude during the Board of Education meeting on September 23rd we introduced our our Orange County Public Schools strong group we shared the public school's strong goal to advocate for honest accurate safe Equitable and fully funded public education Public Schools strong is an initiative of Heel North Carolina we are proud to be part of a coalition that strives to ensure that all children in North Carolina including those in the Orange County Public Schools get the high quality education they deserve we're sooud to be a part of heel that we literally wear it on our sleeves and to be clear we also strongly support teachers especially those of this District at

016a time when our North Carolina legislature is passing budgets and policies that are driving our teachers out of the profession or into other states we support teachers being well paid for their work to educate our children we advocate for funding that allows schools to be well well resourced so that teachers don't have to spend their own money on supplies for their classrooms we advocate for salaries that make it inviting to work in our Public Schools so that teachers don't lose planning time covering for lack of Staff we advocate for their safety protect to protect them from those who would accuse them of indoctrination we support all this so that our teachers can do what they entered the profession to do focus on providing high quality instruction and creating trusting classrooms where children can learn and

017Thrive and now my gratitude in addition to attending the bimonthly General Board of uh education meetings I have also attended or viewed policy committee meetings a meeting to discuss the hiring of the new superintendent and the combined meeting with Orange County Commissioners through your discussions your policy decision recommendations and priorities for a future superintendent I have observed that you too are working to provide an honest accurate safe and Equitable education to our children and I'm sure that all of you who work so hard to stretch our limited monies for our schools would like nothing more than for them to be fully funded so I am grateful to share in this work with you thank you next speaker is Jackie weand hello my name is Jackie Wheeland and I am here to comment on regard comment

018on the possible Orange County School Board changes to the parental Bill of Rights SB 49 the intent of the law is clear Parental Guidance is crucial to help a child make crucial decisions please remove the workaround language or vote against its adoption D transitioners are coming out and we cannot fix the damage God bless them and all the struggles that they're going through now they can sue 25 years after they turn 18 well if the Orange County School Board can be sued that means we all fall into that suit and the courts will be tied up in this the true beauty of a child is shown when he or she reflects the image of his or her creator nothing else needs to be done it's all it's all given to them thank you thank [Applause]

019you next speaker is Lori terer good evening board and Dr Merill um I took the time to read your policy changes that you seem to think complies with the parental Bill of Rights clearly you are are using language to get around the law in order to push your agenda parents have the right to know what their children are being taught in the classroom and made aware of any physical or mental health issues transparency is key I'm here tonight to tell you to strike the language that you are currently developing or vote against it completely the spirit in which the bill was written and passed is to keep parents involved and informed in all aspects of their education including their physical and mental health you are required to uphold the law and are subject to liability

020if you choose to continue playing the game of not abiding by it from a Biblical perspective you will be held accountable for the policies you set that harm children in any way shape or form I sincerely hope you consider that when you're making your decisions thank you thank you next speaker is Jennifer wheen hello my name is Jennifer wheel and my comment is regarding the upcoming potential osc policy changes driven by compliance with the S sp49 law recently passed by the North Carolina legislature the intent of the new law is straightforward and obvious in my opinion parental Authority is of utmost important an especially when making important life altering decisions such as social gender transition at school and for sex education instruction these issues are controversial because they can conflict in many cases with family

021values that are taught at home the law makes it clear that parental rights are fundamental parental Authority is undermined by the use of verbal gymnastics in the new gender and health education policies wiggling around the laws intent only leads to more conflict this can result in Family Division with potential alienation of a child from his parents it is within the parents right to teach their o parents rights to teach their offspring according to their experience and values grounded in Parental love they teach their children what they believe will be the best path forward for them in life the public school system should never insert its authority to divide and destroy the parent child Bond no teacher school counselor or administrator knows the child better than their parents and Li life altering decisions and controversial topics

022need to be addressed at home not at school if not quote feeling safe unquote is used as an excuse to circumvent the law the school needs to contact Child Protective Services if true abuse is suspected these the school should not try to work around parental consent by deferring to OCS policy language which in no means guarantees true safety of the children please follow the intent of SP 49 please respect parental Authority and honor parental rights to raise their their children according to their values please remove the workaround language from the updated policies or vote against its adoption if the updated policies are adopted as is Orange County School District will not be in compliance and further legal action is imminent thank you thank you next speaker is Wendy Padilla good evening I got to tell

023you I'm happy to be here I came home to a little surprise from a pet I'm hosting and it wasn't pretty uh good evening School Board I hope you had explendid weekend my name is Wendy Pia I'm a member of the NAACP the community acknowledges that new laws are making your jobs harder and we support your efforts to support teachers students in families at this time it is important to remember everyone's rights students teachers parents and Guardians since the main topic has been parent Guardian rights these rights apply to all parents and Guardians yes all we have the right to make our own decisions to allow or not allow our children to be exposed to certain books or topics we hope that the board does not take take away the ability for us as parent

024or Guardians to decide we hope the board makes Equitable decisions and respects parents ability to decide for their children and not violate any of the parent Guardian rights thank you thank you next speaker is Kim uh Peno okay so she excuse me she asked me to translate it into Spanish okay um yeah she didn't take her whole time so yes all right thank you go ahead so I'm GNA say in Spanish good evening for um thank [Applause] you Miss Kim Peno is that correct that thank good evening board and Dr Merill I am speaking on agenda item D policy 3540 Comprehensive Health and sex education program approval the update to the section of the policy regulating K through fourth grade instruction is openly circumventing the state law in order to achieve the goal of keeping

025sexual activity sexuality and gender identity curriculum and classroom resources in place which will no doubt lead to students asking questions about it and then teachers being able to respond back with answers this by definition is instru ction the very thing the law was put in place to prevent the school district will implicate itself into potential lawsuits if the board votes tonight to approve a policy that in effect violates state law thank you thank you next speaker is Sarah Snipes good evening board Dr Mar I believe that we were all created by a higher power that our creator has us here right now for a specific purpose I believe everyone in this room was created for a unique specific and excellent purpose and I believe that every student in our district is created for a unique

026specific and excellent purpose Romans 14:19 says let us pursue what makes for peace and for Mutual upbuilding Romans 13:10 says love love does no wrong to a neighbor therefore love is fulfilling of the law 1 Thessalonians 5:11 therefore encourage one another and build one another up I urge all of you board members to act with Integrity to build up the entirety of our community I've heard that policies are being written and in some cases potentially to circumvent the law in order to allow students and Educators to keep secrets from parents if our school district is truly behind the effort to improve diversity equity and inclusion then why would policies be written to exclude parents shouldn't parents be part of the inclusion element of Dei Exodus 20:2 honor your father and your mother that your days

027may be long in the land of the Lord Colossians 3:20 children obey your parents and everything for this pleases the Lord Proverbs 1:8 child hear your father's instruction and don't forsake your mother's teaching we are to honor our mothers and fathers shouldn't we do our very best to include them Matthew 19:14 Jesus said let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven Mark 14 verse excuse MEAP 10:14 says Jesus said to them let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of God is theirs Matthew 18:6 whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in me to stumble it would be better for him to have a great Millstone fastened around his neck and be drowned in the

028depths of the sea this is said three more times once in Luke 17:2 and again in Mark 9:42 I encourage you to build up our community put in place policies and standards that raise the level of integrity and Excellence for all the goal should be transparency across every aspect of a child's education nobody benefits from division or secrecy or driving a wedge between parents and students I challenge you to take the high road our district used to be first I moved here to bring my child into this district and now I homeschool him because I'm so disappointed in the district Excellence can be achieved through inclusive transparent policies and Leadership with a new superintendent thank you thank you lastly we have Gretchen smid good evening uh members of the board and Dr Merill as all

029of you know the North Carolina legislature passed with this super majority the parents Bill of Rights this summer the intent of the laws to affirm the top position of authority care responsibility in all things for a child are the parents or the Guardians parents have a solemn responsibility to love and care for their children in love and righteousness children are an inheritage of the Lord they have a sacred duty to rear their children to provide for their physical and spiritual needs to teach them to love and serve one another to observe the Commandments of God and to be law by fing citizens wherever they live parents will be held accountable parents will be held held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations both Regulation Code 1710 and policy 3540 are in direct violation

030of the parents Bill of Rights and the intent to place parents solely in the driver's seat of their child's life you have crafted language to circumvent the purpose in the intent of notifying parents and even added more paragraphs which make the policy seem like it might be coming from a defiant 15-year-old rather than adult leaders of education for children in the Comprehensive Health Ed you've crafted a situation to inspire questions that would not be there organically from K through 4 Age children so that they could then be taught by the teachers topics prohibited by the law for that age you know that this was not the intent of that provision in the law when children are possibly in a situation of neglect or abuse there is already mandatory reporting required parents not agreeing with their

031children is not a reason to insert the government into the family relationships of parent and child if you've raised a child to adulthood you may have experienced disagreements to work through their whole life in my experience this changes so much when they grow to 17 18 19 and Beyond mom I didn't get it then but I see now that you guys were right I see what you meant thank you for not giving up on me I'm asking you to strike the language that undermines the purpose of the law or vote it down altogether there are Provisions in the law for remedy which will be taken if this is not done as your policy also States your main concern is for the safety and the well-being of the child well that is also the priority of

03299.99% of parents in this District so please make that statement genuine and honest by rejecting policies which divide parents from their children thank you thank you and that concludes public comment okay thank you Mr R okay at this time we need to a motion to approve our consent agenda motion to approve do I have a second second all in favor I I okay it is approved we will move to our discussion and action section um our employee advoc committee committee report on policy 7960 uh we have a first reading and Miss Smiley do you want to I think that's what we decided as a committee was I'm going to present the outcomes of the committee and then um uh will and Andre are going to add um whatever I forget um so so I'll just

033give a little bit of background and then we we can have a discussion um and just there's more background in the abstract but essentially the board in the very end of June created an ad hoc committee to explore options for creating an UDS or employee Advocate type position in the district to address um sort of long-standing concerns that um we have heard from various staff members about you know fear of reprisal Fe fear of speaking up um in in various situations and so um wanted to um explore um what sorts of structures could address a problem like that um and so first I just want to say thank you to Andre and will and uh Neil and Dr Merill for very productive conversations um and um for yeah just really good discussion um debating different

034aspects of this we um looked at a bunch of different models from different school districts and so attached to the assembly are two things that sort of Encompass our recommendation the first one is a role overview and the other one is a policy and each of those were drawn from one particular example as a starting place and then um revised given our particular context in North Carolina law and and things like that um and uh I'm assuming everybody has had a chance to look at those ahead of time because I'm not planning on going through them bit by bit but essentially um what we're recommending is an organizational UDS um position now we have we have a recommendation um from the committee for outsourcing versus staff position but we'll talk about that in a minute

035but essentially the a role um that would be an organizational EDS um and there is a particular definition of that from the international UDS Association um and most of the examples that we saw in districts um were grounded in that um and so the this there an UDS would be guided by a a set of um ethics and standards of practice and the Heart of it is um that the role would be totally confidential so n none of the information we would be disclosed without the person's permission um with some exceptions for things like imminent risk and all of that that's laid out more in the policy that the the ud's office would operate totally independently from other entities within the school district um they would report directly to the superintendent and Board of Education

036um and they would be totally impartial so not taking sides um having no personal stake in the outcome and that it would be an informal resource so not um this wouldn't be the place for filing formal grievances it would be the place you go first to try to figure out what is I'm having this challenge um with you know my supervisor or whatever and uh trying to figure out U more informal ways um and so the policy lays out for an example like that that you know there are sets of things where um they would be required to refer them to whatever the actual procedure is for a formal uh complaint um in addition to the UDS being available for any staff members who want to talk to them um and sort of work through

037whatever that concern is um they would also give a quarterly report to the board to highlight Trends um if there were a trend that they were noticing um in a particular department or something like that they wouldn't wait for the quarterly report to sort of surface that to the superintendent or the school board but um we would at least get the quarterly report about um the sort of themes um uh in in the people who were contacting their office um the end of that overview document we worked through um some qualifications both required and preferred um that could be either pulled into a job description or could be part of the criteria for selecting um sort of an outsourced source and then at the very end it lists a set of things that the UTS

038would not do um including making decisions for staff members taking sides um let's see I'm trying to see if there's anything really yeah um providing legal advice or psychological counseling it wouldn't be like that although they might you know if someone was having a lot of difficulty figuring out how to approach their supervisor themselves they could sort of Coach them through how to have have that conversation um for example um that's at the high level the overview of the role um will or Andre anything else you want to highlight there for folks um so I I think I just want to highlight that I think the position is to you know it's going to be a position where and it's it's stated here the ability to gain and maintain trust at all organizational levels and

039so I think that's the key key point of of having it is so that that we can have someone in the district that our staff trust and feel comfortable in going to and and sharing concerns or complaints and things of that nature um so um I don't know if if Will had something else he wanted to add no I I would I would Echo that I mean this that's how it started um we were very fortunate to to find other some others that had some of these uh written out and you know just really appreciate you know uh Sarah's uh commitment to help leading the committee to get us to this and I think it's a really important step for our district and giving um you know our staff this option and to be able

040to talk through it great um and then um the other document is the policy um Neil is there anything there in particular you want to highlight has everyone had a chance to read through the policy not in particular it's a it's a dense policy happy to take a questions and of course we can always address questions in close session if there's more appropriate there if there's something straightforward I'd be happy to take it now yeah I mean what we thought would be helpful this is I don't know five pages longer yeah five pages long um it lays out um what the expectations in great detail it the the policy that we modeled it on um many of the sort of wh ifs that we came up with they're addressed here um in terms of what

041the next steps would be so um yeah even things like if it um if the UDS finds that they need um to consult an attorney like what is the procedure for that you know so so there's there's quite a bit there I won't go through it all but um y uh so then the final thing I'll just highlight and then we can dive into um discussion um answer any questions questions um is we also talked about the pros and cons of hiring this as a part-time staff position versus um contracted Services um and um two-thirds of the committee thought that we should hire um hire um internally so that is our official recommendation um I will share that I fell the other way um but but you know it was a really good debate um

042I don't think there's one clear answer here but but um we we I will say that our official recommendation is to is to create the role and hire the role some of the advantages of that um it might be easier for the superintendent to sort of oversee performance um it would demonstrate to staff that a more of a long-term commitment or investment um and they might be more invested in success um because they're a part of the system um some of the disadvantages of of creating the role um omeds roles can be difficult to fill and because this would be a part-time position position it could be difficult for us to find the person um we might um trade off quality for like the local availability or the the part-time you know it just might

043be harder um and um they would definitely be available across like defined limited time frames we were talking about like we could sh you know we could shift the hour so some of them are in the evening when staff is actually free and could talk to them um but but it would be more defined in some of the Outsourcing firms they have broader availability because they might assign two people to you so they can sort of cover more time um uh but yeah and then so some of the advantages of contracted Services there might be you might get a perception that they even like an even stronger perception of Independence because it's not a staff employee um um and if we decided to discontinue it arguably that would be simpler than uh elating a position

044um you know some of the disadvantages of going outside um you know some of the firms that have more robust support like the deepest expertise um could be out of our budget um there's a range there um and if if the company changes you know if somebody leaves that service then we wouldn't have very much control over that um and um their ramp up time might be well we talked about like experience with Orange County Schools um and ramp up time would be longer if they didn't have that experience on the other hand people with experience in Orange County Schools already have particular established relationships which could undermine the independent impartial perception so that one I think is neither here nor there nor there okay that's all I'm going to share about the pros and

045cons of those different models those are all the recommendations so in the assmbly are the the three actions that we're recommending for the board um which which is moving forward with the the mod the model we're proposing in the roll overview approving a first read of the policy and then charging the superintendent whichever you know if we decide to create the staff role which was our recommendation um to charge the superintendent to go ahead and and do that um with we talked about the chair being our sort of because the role is supervised by both the chair being sort of the liaison um to weighin on process and so forth with the superintendent so I guess I'll just open it up to questions reaction [Music] Sarah I I just had one addition I I think

046one of the big things that came out of the discussions was the person being in person like to build that trust I mean even when we ask the superintendent about the preference it definitely is iners to build that versus here's a phone and you could call them and that way the there's a lot more ease and Trust building for the inperson regardless of you know contractor or employee to be in in person in some manner yep that's a good point and in the overview we said um at least 50% of the time the talent person in me wants to tell you that's really going to shrink our pool of people with real UDS expertise um but it we we decided you know like try try finding a staff position and you know if that doesn't

047work maybe we go to contracted services and try that but in either case we talked about them being in person I think if that ends up being the barrier Let's cross that bridge when we come to it Bonnie yeah I'd like to start with some basic question first of all thank you for this work I think it's really thoughtful very you know a um I did read the policy very thoughtful um we didn't write it so yeah yeah so thank you for that um I have a qu you know I'm hyper sensitive to power relationships and the essence of the onsman role is my boss isn't giving me what I need right I want to transfer my board won't my principal won't allow me to transfer um is blocking it or some board members being

048disrespectful to me you know whatever but it's this is about power relationship so if I have a problem and I go to the ombudsman the way I read this is the ombudsman not going to solve the problem for you that's correct they will not solve your problem for you um they will um advise you on the right way to approach a situation like that um and I'll say you know a lot of UDS like that is the heart of the work in a lot of different organizations not even necessarily just a school district especially the like power relationship with your manager so um they can coach them through different options for how to solve that problem but at the end of the day they're not going to call up the principal's boss and make something

049happen for you so how is the employee protected from retaliation so let's say the boss hears there's been a complaint it's gone to the edsman how's how is the employee protected um well it's totally confidential so unless they tell someone themselves nobody would know okay so so I'm just trying to understand what the employees if the employee is going to get thing how things are going to get fixed for the employee you know they're going to get told oh you can navigate this but now you still have to solve you still have a problem right so I'm just trying will are you trying to step in there go ahead yeah I I was going to inject so so say that an employee comes in and uh gives a certain concern about some specific issue and

050the utman or person talks to them and and you know makes a recommendation but then six other employees come in with the same concern that's going to Bubble Up immediately as an issue that's systematic that needs to be addressed and then the visibility of the problem not the person reporting it uh now gets the visibility and the concerned and what options there are for superintendent board whoever to to address those versus you know uh board member a heard this or board member B heard this or you know this you know secondhand stuff and things like that so you have an Avenue of you know sensing the climate and culture in that way as well and we also I mean we have policy against retaliation so that would cover that I understand that people people don't

051you know people still worry but that's that's the reality you know and I'm hearing that if one person complains it's one thing if two people complain then it's a structural problem that will get attention that's what is that what I heard will that's I don't know two Rises to the pattern level I mean you know go ahead will no I all I was going to say is it to me it depends right you you've got a person there to make a judgment call on what they're they're hearing and seeing and you know at the same time um you know listing it out as if that person believes it's an issue that needs to be addressed I I would assume in the quarterly report that may come to us but if something is many people I

052think to the point of the the policy Etc it's going to come to us much quicker um but also I mean don't forget that a person could come and speak to this person and say Here's an issue or a concern and this person may be able to redirect them or let them know about resources that they may not be aware of because they could go to them and say hey I really want to get my license but um you know here's my situation and they could talk through that and you know show them the resources available um you know grow your own Etc so it's not just somebody feels like there's a specific issue there there's a very broad range that they could address or help okay hello yep can you all hear me yes

053go ahead Dr Moore okay thank you um while I think this position is something to really consider I'm concerned about the use of the 50,000 local funding right now um if the person is hired internally that could be a potential recurring expense with possible part-time um insurance benefits attached so I would like to focus on securing pay raises for our classified staff so for that reason I I don't support the position at this time thank you thanks for sharing that yeah go ahead Ronnie I I have just one to on the decision to Outsource or hire um I'm sensitive to the cost but um since it's a new position in a touchy area that I would be inclined to contract it initially see how it goes see how it changes and then decide if we

054want to make it permanent I'd like to Pilot it with the contractor until we make a you know and then we can see how much how much actual interest there is in this role um others have questions or comments or suggestions Mr you have anything um I I like Bonnie's suggestion I think that makes sense and it um partly speaks to Jennifer's concern as well okay I'd like to thank yall for your work on this it obviously put a lot of thought and time into it um I think it's an as I was sitting here thinking listening to you discuss it um my thought was it's another level of communication in the district and I think that is needed and um I too right now with um funding would like to to follow along and

055say maybe a contract position see how much this is okay uh actually used and and you know I don't want somebody to come in here and be overwhelmed but I want people you use it y um so that oh sorry go no that's fine and that's we we add ended up adding a bullet point in the job descript the job Des description that said and other duties as assigned because we don't know if we're you know if it's a 20 hour week position and you're not hearing from staff for 20 hours a week or you're not busy preparing the reports is there sort of wasted time there but it is a funny question I'm sure that the superintendent could come up with some things for the UDS to do during that time um but since

056they're supposed to be not involved in anything else but that it it limits really what what else they could be doing with that time so um I think it could be of a great benefit for the district um because I think I think there is a level of trust that needs to be built back yeah and I hope this would help the one other thing that an a skilled on buds can do is really develop the communication skills of the staff members who go to them right so a lot of times you you you may just have no way of knowing how to handle this like sticky situation or how to approach the person or what to say um and so that there can there can I mean onds literally can sort of like roleplay

057with folks like different difficult conversations they might be having so hopefully we're also addressing the underlying trust issues so that if when as people learn to address these things directly and they learn that there are not repercussions for them because there shouldn't be that we're helping to get at the root causes a little bit more too that's a hope absolutely I also like the fact that you put in what they will not do because I think that's very important as well we saw that and and a lot of this roll overview actually not the job description part but Parts like that what the what the UDS does and does not do it was literally a brochure you know that that a school district handed out to staff members so in terms of the once we

058have someone one they'll build up their whole communication plan so that staff members know it like really understand um the various reasons they might go to them and and um try to encourage that usage too all right anything else all right I'm G to hand it over back to you to do um votes and the the Motions that we were looking for are in the um in the agenda I think the um the I don't know if we should vote separately on the contracted position piece or not um but we could we could just put that into the third motion I guess it sounded to me like there was a majority for trying Contracting first um so maybe we could weave that into the third so is you're asking a motion to move ahead with

059the edsman on a contract basis or Pilot basis really is what yep yeah I just want to make sure I'm getting right here as well yeah policy as well yeah there's three there's three motions that I put into that I would okay the um as I'm reading it is approved to move forward with the proposed on buds model as described in the role overview approve the first read and charge the superintendent with taking the next steps to staff this role um and initiate the program into the district um so with the first one it would be approve moving forward with the proposed ombuds model with the change that it would be a contract position at first correct y okay then approve uh our first read and then charge the superintendent with next steps to begin

060the program um in Orange County schs okay so moved second all in favor all right and um Dr Moore a no okay um so uh Miss pcel um the one question I have is since we are telling the superintendent to go for forward I'd like to make a motion to wave the second reading of the policy and therefore uh the policy will be in place while they are looking for this position okay I'll second that all right um all in favor I I I okay U thank you for bringing that up [Music] and Dr Merill your good okay all right thank you all once again for your work on that policy and uh the time can can I thrw one more motion on that that once we have the udman in place within three months

061we get a report on how it's going and then we could decide whether or not to go forward with a position or any changes we'd have to make yeah and that I think would be um they would do quarterly reporting so I think we' just be asking them to hit the first three months y so three month trial to to give it three months okay all right okay as we move on to the authorization for the bid for renovations of the interior of Ean cheeks Global Elementary good evening Mr Foster how are you good evening thank you chair pcel Vice chair reg members of the board Dr Merill uh this evening we're seeking authorization to bid uh the interior Renovations work at effin cheeks uh back in a July 10th board meeting the board approved

062uh moving forward with the design uh plan for it we have our modular units in place now that uh create swing space uh for our students for this work to be done uh we have here today Paul Young from sud Associates that will walk us through uh the design uh at effin Madam Madam chair Vice chair board members thank you I'm going to walk you through the uh design tonight um several Renovations um and upgrades to the school on the first slide here you can see U the layout of the school and below it uh several of the things that we plan to do we will be replacing all the finishes the floor finish and the ceilings um we are actually leaving the ceiling grid if you know a lay in ceiling you've got a

063a ceiling grid but we're going to take all the tiles out and replace all of those we're going to place all the windows um they uh the newest window there is over 45 years old um and in some cases some of those classrooms um need to have code upgrades for emergency see erass out of the spaces so we're replacing all the windows we are adding several egress doors also um those students who are prek in first grade need an atg grade access store to get out of their classroom so we'll be adding those um we are replacing all the interior doors U many of them um have seen their days also wear and tear has been um quite uh detrimental to them um we are replacing or removing a lot of the casework in the

064building we're replacing the LCS and Tac boards I realized I used a architecture acronym there an LCS board is a whiteboard um liquid chalk surface if you are curious uh Ada bathrooms many of the bathrooms that are in the classrooms at effin cheeks are not Ada accessible we'll be making all of those Ada accessible uh as I said new erress doors and windows we are also replacing the lighting on the interior and the exterior we're replacing Plumbing fixtures uh we're painting almost all interior spaces um curious which one we're not touching we're not touching the main office that was renovated recently um we don't need to touch that space uh Plumbing work as needed electrical work as needed um several of exterior sidewalks uh need some work especially on what're we're actually thinking of as

065the newest edition which is all the way down at the end uh towards the woods uh there's several sidewalks you need to be replaced there we're adding two exterior canopies to the building um so the erress doors that come out of the classrooms when the students come out they're not immediately in the rain there um and then we're repairing some of the minor roof drainage problems that the school has this is a phasing drawing um we have worked with the principle U there to work through how we're going to phase this the students will be there and so we need to make sure that they are first safe and second that they can learn um and third that a construction project can happen while they are doing both of those so we've looked at how

066we can phase this uh project um and you'll see the different phases there the pink phase will actually have have to happen during the summertime um that is encompasses the cafeteria the gymnasium art Music Room those spaces so we'll have to do that during the summer the rest of the phases will be done during the school year and we've we've sort of captured a group of classrooms each time that we can have out in the modulars and then once that renovation is done we'll move another group out there so sort of moving a the musical chairs but once we get all the way to the end which is actually going to be the green phase that you see here um we will be completely done with the project and then cost um this is our

067opinion of cost it is not a bid I will say that right off the bat this is a pretty good opinion of cost in in our estimation um but you'll notice that number is not the number that you have in your board packet it's a little bit lower is because this is the cost of construction the cost of the overall project also has several soft costs in it including design fees permitting fees those sorts of things um so that's why the number that you see on the screen here is not the same same as what you're seeing in the board pack questions that you might have for me uh about the school or about this project yeah first I want to thank you for this you know I volunteered in that school for many years

068and I'm like not sure that this is really happening so this is very exciting so thank you for that wonderful um I have two questions one is you know the big walport project is going on with the facilities plan I was wondering if you've smashed that's a technical term if you smash this plan against what walper is saying needs to be done in the school cuz they're looking at the educational adequacy I'm particularly interested in the Ed educational adequacy of our classrooms because I'd hate you to do this and then they say oh you got to tear the walls down okay I'm I'm not um sure about that I'm going to sort of look back over here and uh ultimately the wport designed is just that to knock down walls and and and create uh

069larger classrooms and things such as that uh the interior design here that was always been developed was strictly floors uh doors windows things such as that so uh what wport is is suggesting is again was strictly on creating larger Spaces by doing some uh knock down of walls and things such as that that would not be included in um in sud's construction so should it be I mean shouldn't we the wilart report's going to be done in two months so shouldn't we be comparing this plan against what they're recommending should we do it once rather than you know rather than do it over well I think when you look at again what was approved some time ago prior to even what we coming on board it was strictly here the the interior designs that uh

070that uh sud was was contracted to do can can I ask a question about this this this the level of change that wips recommend amending there in terms of like knocking down doors and walls and making bigger classrooms that's like several is that several that must be several years down we don't have funding for that right so we need the new Bond and we don't know but the plan is is done is pretty I mean the plan should be coming I'm going to talk about that later but the the plan is the draft is done it's going to be coming to the board in the next month or two so it would seem to me that we should at least look that plan and compare it to this so that we're not redoing work I

071would like to do it once rather than do it over so it's a simple it's a simple concept but it's about a two Monon delay but I do think it would be um I think it would be fiscally irresponsible to commit $6 million to a project on a structure that's about to change I just think that that would be irresponsible well I think when you look at the Timeline that uh uh wport is is in terms of the options that they presented it started at 510 and a 15-year Mark uh in terms of the work that would would be done or or that we could recommend that they're recommending uh uh to be done the board could approve uh with that timeline is a 51 15E Mark uh in addition to the funding that has

072been approved for or that can be approved I should say uh uh for S Associates was again established uh back in July obviously for those for those particular designs again not that it can't you know be done all right but was established some time ago and the reason that we actually moved the uh and put the modul is there to get that work done uh as well let me say this differently I really want to do this work right I really love that school I want everything we can do for that school and I'm asking before we pull the trigger on this that we simply compare it to what w walbert's um I don't even remember if effland was in their phase one and um and there's a lot of things that this board still

073has to discuss and all I'm asking you to do is just look at this plan compare it to what they're suggesting and if it is if it's 10 years out before they say effland then that's fine I just want to do some validation against this plan against warts what walart is asking us to do and and um so that we're not redoing work and I have a second really trite question and I don't even know the answer but for a long time there was no hot water for staff facilities staff bathroom staff sinks I was curious if there'll be any hot water for this staff yeah the simple answer is yes we are actually creating a new staff um toilet on one of the hallways because the one that they're using now is is U

074is beyond its time um and there is a water heater there so that will be associated with that bathroom great thank you if I could make a couple of points I'd like to 2013 uh the board commissioned a study excuse me uh with CRA to do a comprehensive facility study of the whole system that was 10 years ago that study very much mirrors almost identically what wpart is suggesting now just for Orange County Schools so many of these repairs are have been needed for 10 years that was updated in 2015 with a comprehensive HVAC renovation study by sud Associates and again revised in 2018 the other crucial issue we have here is that any delay in construction because we already have the H HC renovation underway could postpone this phase of this six months to

075a year and I think that's going to greatly impact um the instr construction uh at uh effin cheeks so just would like to be aware of that as well is that we've got um direction for quite some time and just have not had the staff or funds to execute that I think what we're hearing is that what you're doing right now is in in Windows uh replacing ceilings uh replacing bathrooms and Floors as need be is something that I think we all as a board have known needed to be done at effin many years ago um when the warart report comes out we have to decide along with the County Commissioners because they're a part of this process too I from what my understanding is we have to decide what we're going to do and

076how we're going to tackle things but but I think what you're doing right now is the maintenance that has needed to be done on that school for years am I correct in saying that that is correct I would agree with you wholeheartedly okay so I I would say that we continue on right now when the walart comes out we look at it and if if there's something that we see that needs to be we feel as a board needs to be um a high priority right now then we go back and we we start the process and say okay this is what we see as a need how long is it going to take to do it how much money is it going to take and uh there's a whole lot that we have to

077look at when we do get the walart um reports on our schools I'd like to propose that we ask the staff to meet with w we don't have to wait for the report they have to I think there has to be a conversation between you all and walart to look at this plan against what walbert's recommending to just see if we're throwing um money away I just don't want I just want some confirmation that we moving forward with this isn't going to get redone in a couple years that's all I want it's a it could be done in one meeting with walper Madam chair I I'm concerned I'm concerned in Waiting this stuff in here is basic the plumbing mechanical uh the canopies the electrical blinds the windows I I can't imagine that these things

078anybody would not recommend given the state and what what that school deserves I I'm for moving forward and if there's a a difference in it we address it once we see it I can't imagine these basic things we would not move forward with um I I had just one question well I have two questions that I wanted to ask as well the LED is the lighting upgrades the LED lighting ye yes sir we we would go to all LEDs both um interior and exterior the only space right now that does have LEDs currently in it is the gymnasium so we would not be replacing those lights okay the the one feedback that I've heard from many in the district that have had the LED lighting is in the classrooms to have dimmers on them so

079they can control that because they are significantly brighter than what people are used to um the the second one I had was you mentioned water uh in this plan does this mean there's no sandbags needed against doors to prevent water penetration yes sir we have been told about that um and is our goal to fix that problem both through the sidewalk uh improvements the canopies and the roof drainage um there are some areas around the building that we've noticed where um long ago there was a design intent to recess the um roof drainage leaders into the wall probably not the best decision that was made at the time they've been crushed over the years by probably basketballs thrown against them so yes sir we are we are addressing that um in multiple ways all right

080thank you Miss do um thank you I'm I'm in favor of going ahead with this um I I agree that this seems like general maintenance things I'm not seeing um looking at the wpart presentation from September I'm not seeing anything related to effin cheeks on their like first draft of what needs to happen and you know we also approved 2.6 million um track and Tennis resurfacing on consent and uh this isn't the same ballpark but these are some really important needs for Basic School functioning s i I do hope though that when the wolp par study comes out that you all look at it like next to each other and if there's any near time frame just think about are there any pieces of this that should hold off on I I have trouble imagining

081what those might be but you know if it if it seems like a near time frame and it would cost a lot to redo I think it would be good to look at that so so just so I understand is the board against you all having one meeting with walart to just because there the the I saw the plan on went last Wednesday and it's phased it's by school again I you know so you'll see it it's um a lot of money it's very different than what anyone expected um I don't remember if FN was in even in Phase One and so I'd rather not guess I just am asking you all to have one meeting I want to do this again I started this by saying I've been in that school for many years

082I've been in the floods I've seen it all we need to do this there's no question about it I'm just asking you all to have one meeting with walart is that possible to have one meeting with wart say hey here's what we're planning to do let's see what you're recommending and then go have at it yeah we're certainly not against communicating with Warfare I mean we it's that's a regular basis uh that we do but in terms of kind of moving this along now we're asking potentially to continue to delay to bring back this again uh for for yet approval so how about if we approve it with the provision that you will meet with walart and if there are changes then you could bring it back how's that sure second I I understand what

083you're saying but at the same time if walport is going to say that things are a lot different than what you all are doing which I can't imagine that they would do but we as a board have to decide where we're going with what walport brings when they talk about the whole County as a whole with the design correct and I'm glad you said that because again we're not just talking about what wpart and and effin all right that decision that we'll make once that report is finalized deals with the entire District all right and and what has to go and the funding that has to go into that as well so we're not just specifically looking at you know effin CHS in that regard but the board certainly having to make decisions regarding everything

084that will occur across the district and the funding uh in in that way of course and it might be that if there are changes that Walford suggests with effn cheeks you've already made the big changes that you have listed here tonight that um are getting the school back up to the standard that it needs to be for the students and the faculty and parents to be in the building uh it might be that it since that has been done with uh the information we get from wpart that something else in the district could be taken care of since effin has gotten a good change um would be my guess I don't know I'm I'm y'all are the experts which you're right I mean priorities will have to be determined in terms of that funding as

085I expressed just just a moment ago yes so I'm so I'm GNA vote you know it's funny because there's nothing I Want More Than This having you know my heart's in that building but if we can't get some confirmation because I don't guess with $6 million I can't I don't like to guess I don't like to speculate I would just like to know that there's nothing that we're doing here that walbert's going to say oh no it's really a bad idea I don't think it's going to happen I'm just asking for one a good confirmation so I'm going to stop there so if we if the board does not want to get that confirmation then I'm going to vote against this easy I just have to say that I'm looking at the list and if

086they were against something on this list then I would question it these are very basic things for the building to run and it be a safe conducive environment for education I I would I I can't fathom that okay I just want to know that's all I don't want to guess let let me make one point and I'm going to ask Paul to address this because he and I have talked about the execution of the actual contract uh particularly since since this is being done in phases so in that respect we have the capacity to to put it on hold we want to get started but there is a margins built in so I'm gonna let Paul speak to that sure thank you um so we have a checkpoint where we have to go to Department

087of uh public construction to have their school uh Planning Group review these plans so we will not actually be able to go out to the actual bid until we get past the holiday season there's no use in bidding over a holiday season you lose two weeks anyways a lot of contractors actually close for those days so we will have a period in which if there is something that needs to be changed we have an opportunity to catch that change so you'll have time you tell when you say the holiday season you mean Christmas and New Year's yes so you have two and the wpit reports can to be out by then but you'll have time in the next two months and you'll personally meet with wper you all will be able to meet with wper

088compare this and you'll come back to us if there's any discrepancy I don't think there will be I just like a little bit of certainty that would be fine with me okay thank you for that clarification do I have a motion that we proceed motion to approve staff recommendation second second all in favor hi hi okay thank You' all very much for the information and the work thank you we appreciate it okay up next um Board of Education meeting quarterly forecast I think Dr Merl yep thank you members of the board um want to propose a a planning doc document if you will for both you and staff that we would build in on a quarterly basis um I really look at it as sort of a three-month plan of work for us and for

089you um and there is a document that's underneath assembly that I think our folks have been using for a while called the long list some of you may be familiar with that um this is a little tighter um and a little easier to track than than that in my opinion um we would um seek to modify this for instance when we review it in other words in December I'll bring you the third quarter forecast for January February and March um and this is only about materials that would come to the full board meeting on the Monday nights it's not about committee meetings some of what the Committees do since two of the Committees are you know the whole board some some of those agenda items might move to the Monday night uh others may be

090worthy but not need to come to Monday night so this represents what all our departments have said we see on your agenda for the next couple of months um this and and I would say that you would get used to this as well when you look at this you say well I was sort of hoping we would see something in December and I don't see it here that's what we that's what you would raise with with us we'd see whether it was either going to get folded into a committee meeting and whether that would satisfy the board because I'd have to ask then the board the committee chairs to see if it was on their agenda um or I would say okay I think we can include that or I'd say we're kind of full

091and we can roll that into the third quarter conceivably so we're really sort of negotiating the plan of work with with you um Auditors do the same thing they say I can give you 2,000 hours and I'll hold 40 in reserve and then we can use them as something comes up we're not an auditor but it's the concept is similar um all we've done here is try and take our major departments and show you what uh they would be bringing forward um it's not particularly heavy some departments are heavier than others our staff is still figuring this out some too and trying to Envision what would come come forward it also becomes a checklist for my office in Franklin to look back and say okay did we get all these accomplished when we're near the

092end of when we near the end of December and if not why not can we roll it forward or did we miss a deadline so so it's a monitoring tool for us during the quarter as well the the second part of this which we call administrative FYI or the kinds of things and our staff's still getting used to what that means I've tried to Define it three or four times and I'll try it once with you um the things that are probably significant ific enough that the organization would would feel it let's say you bring up a new software system clearly the organization's going to feel it you will hear about it doesn't necessarily need board approval not a contract for that would but but for instance and so it's like you just need to

093know it's coming just want you to know about it that's what we're saying when we're saying administrative FYI you might look at something in the FYI and say I think that needs board approval uh or or vice versa and I say no no no this is Administrative we'll just go ahead but we just want you to know this is part of our work so that's the difference between the first section and the second um any reaction or question or clarifier or insertions of work uh I would say that between now and and the holidays that were just referenced there are a lot of meetings getting scheduled with the board between committees that you're trying to get caught up on special meetings on superintendent search and the Sip meetings so there there's a lot there but

094um I'll I'll give it to you madam chair Miss Hower I like the idea a lot thank you for putting that together and thanks for the clarification that it's not the Committees because there's some things in the committee that I'd like to see but um speaking of walper you know walart the county is trying to schedule a meeting with us to review a draft of the walart report you were in the meeting the capitals and you know if it's um I'm guessing it's either going to be November 6th or or de December 4 but the wpart report is coming to this board very shortly thank you good all right any other comments I think this looks very good it's very laid out and um there's PL Madam chair I I did have one question yes

095sir um where would we and I've looked through it a couple of times where would we see uh you know every year we used to have a Str strategic plan outcome results H how would that come forward to the board would that just be in committee or would the board be that be shared with the board and kind of uh the community as well that's going to be up to you to guide uh in honesty I've sort of put a pin in the Strategic plan work while I'm here uh there were multiple meetings that had been scheduled for a cast of thousands to be reviewing and updating I just felt with everything we're trying to get on top of I'll just put a pin in that for the time being doesn't mean the results aren't

096start still going to be coming back but at this point I've gone nowhere with that okay I can I can go where you wish though okay did I interrupt you Mr Atherton no no no no I you you I I understand the how you're approaching it it makes sense and um you know I I think that'll be something we can look at um with the new superintendent like whoever comes in next so thank you yes sir okay U Miss Dole would you like a um a motion this recommendation I would okay um I move that we um approve the Board of Education Meer meeting quarterly forecast um as recommended by the superintendent I have a second second all in favor hi hi hi thank you thank you very much okay up next is let me

097find my spot uh policy 3540 our Comprehensive Health education program approval this is coming back um for second reading tonight we have had some conversation about it and um um I want to be very clear with everybody that we are going to follow the law on this um piece of legislation and we're trying our best to do exactly that uh we have um some issues that we would like what to take this piece back rework just a little bit in the way that we put things and where we put them and then bring it back in another two weeks to do our approval um uh would anyone like to speak to this sure I would okay um thank you chair purcel um yes I I like the way this language um ended up I appreciate

098that it is um incorporates language that Pro uh protects um our diverse student and families um and I am supportive of of restructuring so that definitions are in a a different section of the policy but keeping the content that's here okay and and Mr do just for clarification it looks like the version posted in assembly was the vers the last version we discussed I've made some modifications since then based on further Communications and I I take it that you're in support of the most recent version that's not yet reflected in the assembly is that correct yes so we will bring this back on November the 6 is that correct um and look at it once again and vote on it at that point in time with changes to the definitions and where things are in

099the plan am I correct okay so and if so if you all would like to see a a definition section separately for instead of having the definitions in the flush text of the policy is that right yes any questions thoughts okay do I have a motion to bring it back on November the 6th with the changes so move second second all in favor I I all right thank you I thank you Dr Moore we got you all right up next is our Middle School Ultimate Frisbee funding M rap yes good evening uh what you have presented for discussion tonight is um Ultimate Frisbee in the past uh the past two years Ultimate Frisbee has been something that the board has elected to uh fund a coach an assistant coach for it is a non-sanctioned sport

100so as a result it um does not typically fall on our athletic supplement scales for um the support of a u payment or supplement for a coach and an assistant coach um it was funded through um an extra Duty stien last year in our budget discussions it was noted as one of those things that would be um eliminated July 1 um it is being um presented back before you tonight for discussion to determine um if you want to elect to um treat this non-sanctioned uh sport as a sanctioned sport yes ma'am um and I want to thank you for for bringing this back and um just admit that when we were going through the budgeting process I don't think we talked about this one very much so I didn't notice it in the list of

101siens that would be going away um or else I would have expressed my support for keeping it um at that time so apologies that we're coming back around but um yeah I mean I I think that you know when when the two years ago when we started funding it we had received a bunch of emails from families about the you know advocating for that um and I see in the abstract that there you know it is part of Pac our like conference that we play in um so essentially to the students it feels exactly like any other OPAC sport um and I know that the teams are very large and so um and I've heard that coaches may not decide to do it for free um so you know I'm I you know it's not

102a lot of money um and it's you know an OPAC sport that some districts are funding I think that we should fund it um and uh you know it's it's just not a it's not a lot of money it does impact a lot of kids gives them something really healthy to do after school um so I am supportive of of keeping it and I would love to do it in a way that sort of like makes it official so that we're not revisiting it every year I see you have two proposals here and so I'm in favor of just sanctioning it as a district saying you know we now have a high school program and you know there's a pathway there and everything um um yeah I mean there have been national champions have gone

103to our schools and uncc's men's and women's teams are multiple national champ it's a real it's like a legitimate sport I think DPI is a little bit behind the times maybe but M I'd like to Echo similar feelings um it's it's definitely been a thriving um so much enthusiasm about it so many successful athletes coming out of this program and continuing to play through college and nationally um for years I I would like it to be something that we support in an ongoing way anyone else no com well Madam Madam chair yes do uh Mr Aton yeah I would just like to say I I originally brought this to the board two years ago because of this question and i' I've been to many of their games and it is such a fantastic sport where

104lot that people can participate in and be part of I think it's important for us to have and um you know as Miss Smiley said it's it's not a large cost I I fully support it so with that I motion to approve okay do I have a second second all in favor I I all right and I too um will say being the person that was here I think when it was was started it has grown um and students are very excited coaches are very excited so thank you may I ask for clarity please is this for permanent that we treat it as a um sanction Sport and that it's permanent and that we do not bring it forward in the future yes I would say so yes all right thank you thank you very

105much this technically we'll increase the athletic budget at budget time to incorporate this in and then set scales for it as well but that's where that's what we'll be paid for and right now we're looking at the athletic funds also to fund this so we want to try and stay in that category if we can that would be great thank you can can I just add one one thing I know that this is for the middle school program there is a high school team this year but it's funded by an outside organization um the coaching for that one and so hopefully they keep funding that but if not I hope we would continue to have sort of a pathway for the sport in the district it's not a this year problem okay sounds good all

106right thank y'all okay up next we're talking about beginning of year data review with mclass am web um and a couple other things that I don't know what they mean so I'm going to let y'all tell us what they mean well good evening board chair Miss pisel Vice uh board chair Mr Richmond board members and Dr Merill superintendent we're always very pleased to come before you to share data and how our students are performing a couple of weeks ago we shared end of year end of course data and we refer to that as lagging data because it really is that moment in time at the end of the year that we look at our students performance and and begin to see what has been the progress over that year with regard to the standards questions

107always come up and we're always end with what are we going to do about the data how do we impact student performance as we move forth what are those pieces that help us to gauge any risk prediction so this evening we want to begin and looking at we refer to as leading data and some of the leading data tonight will be the dibles 8 mclass um data that we're looking at literacy the Ames web data that we're looking at literacy as well as math I'm always delighted to have members of my team so you will see my team here ready to present as well as answer any questions that you have with regard to the data following the mclass as web data we will go right into our multilingual learner data as well as the

108newcomer information so thank you thank you Dr Green good evening thank you for allowing the cni team to come and share our beginning of the year student assessment data with you all this evening tonight we're going to begin by analyzing our mclass dibble's e8th Edition assessment data which as a reminder is our K3 literacy assessment that measures student risk for foundational reading skills such as phonics pheic awareness influency this is a state mandated test that specifies that all students will take this assessment in grades K through three during the three Benchmark windows on the screen you will see student proficiency from beginning of the year in 2022 to beginning of the year in 2023 you'll notice percent change on the far right column but what is particularly impactful at looking at beginning of the year

109data as compared to previous years is not necessarily reading the line across but looking at cohort data so for this evening we're going to be looking at how cohorts have grown throughout time um to measure the strength of our core so there's little arrows to indicate cohort growth so our kindergarten students who were beginning of the year 2022 kindergarten students you'll track that diagonally down to beginning of the year first graders for 2023 and this is essentially important for us because it's the same group of students minus some attrition here or there but we can see how the same group of students is traveling through and therefore the impact that our core instruction and our mtss system our PLC work is having on these cohorts of students so here we have our kindergarteners from 2022

110who are now first graders in 2023 we see a 20% increase in proficiency from 30% to 50% this is a rather large increase which we do expect considering a lot of our kindergarten students this was their first time ever in any sort of formal education we see that first grade is maintaining from 57% to now second graders 57 um percent as well and we see that our second graders from last year saw an increase of eight percentage points to 66 percentage points this year as third graders my clicker is not working so for the next few slides we're now going to take specific measures out of mclass to look at how our core curricula that we have implemented over the last three years in literacy is improving student outcomes where our strengths are and then

111where some of our challenges still exist so we are aggregating out specific measures as corresponding to different curricula that we have brought to the board the first um piece that we're pulling out is our pheic awareness measure and this is measured by phoning segmentation fluency pheic awareness is the most foundational skill that an early reader must be able to master in order to be a skilled reader later in life um there is a direct correlation skilled readers do not lag behind with ph IC awareness so this is a crucial building block in our kindergarten and first grade classrooms we implemented Hagerty at the district level back in 2021 and many of you guys came and saw it in the classroom so that was nice to have you guys there and you'll see that those efforts

112are paying off in large part due to the hard work of our kindergarten and first grade teachers as well as our literacy coaches who have implemented this um across kindergarten you'll notice that there really hasn't been a change in fact they've gone down three percentage points but that is completely out of our control that's how students show up to Orange County schools in kindergarten with zero instruction from us um compare that against first grade where we've seen a 30 percentage Point increase from beginning of the year in 2021 to beginning of the year in 2023 you can also track that cohort data I didn't draw the nice little arrows here but you can track that now that I taught you on that first slide so kindergarten students in 2021 were at 40 4% they then

113went into first grade at 63% um kindergarten students in 2022 started out in 36% and then they moved up to first grade this year at 70% so we are seeing that we are experiencing a very healthy core with the hagard curriculum um our teachers have done just a fantastic job kudos to them um and to our literacy coaches for lifting this work this next slide we've pulled out our nonsense word decoding measure from mclass and this really tells us how the health of our core is with our phonics instruction as measured by Letterland hmh structured literacy lessons and decodables these are all purchases that we've brought to you guys for the board so we do think it's important to show return on investment here um that we are seeing increased proficiency for our phonic skills

114um you can track across the measures for all three years to see that kindergarten is staying stagnant again we don't expect growth there but then that is really um interesting to look at that juxtaposed against once students receive instruction Orange County schools first grade with a increase of 22 percentage points across the three boy Windows second grade 11 percentage points and third grade 23 percentage points again you can also track that cohort growth um which is also seen significant increases for the majority of the grade levels are we where we want to be with foundational skills no we want those scores higher um and that's what we're striving to this year with some pieces in place so we have not arrived yet but we are at least making strides in the right direction this next

115measure is the maze component of mclass and this is the comprehension um piece students take this on the computer um and measures their reading comprehension it is only administered in second and third grade here you will see that second grade has experienced a seven um percentage Point increase and third grade a 15 percentage point and you can also track that second grade second graders from 2021 did see an increase um as I'm sorry as third graders of 2022 and then second graders of 2022 did see an increase um to third graders of 2023 for that cohort analysis we're now going to shift out of the world of mclass and go to another Universal screener that you've heard a lot about as web um and look at the am web reading just as a reminder when

116we brought this to you at end of the year we reminded you that the as web assessment is a universal screener it is used to determine a student's overall level of risk with found ational reading um problems it is not a standards aligned instructional tool it is not predictive of EOG scores um so we have to look at this assessment within the light of being this Universal screener here you will see um fourth through eth grade literacy data from 2022 to 2023 um you'll notice that grades sixth and seventh did have the largest increase um in that we did see increase from the cohorts for grades fourth through 7th where we did see a drop was in eighth grade um and that is both at that cohort level as well as across the board this

117is concerning to us and we are digging into some root cause analysis about why we are seeing this at this level um and we are really using this data to fuel some of our work with our core instructional framework as well as our seconde implementation of hmh to try and address of these concerns um from that particular data piece at this point I'm going to transition over to Dr gamon um who will share with you some of our math data points thank you Mariah good evening so I know that you've received in advance uh several data points uh regarding our math data particularly with Ames web um in an effort to to be as brief as possible this evening but also to hit just kind of our snapshot of the data I want to note

118that in looking at our data slide here we're looking at kindergarten through 8th grade math um and we're looking at AMS web data comparing beginning of the year in 2022 to beginning of the year in 2023 um same process that Mariah shared just a minute ago um as you can see in looking at this data there's a lot of positive um that's gleaning from this from kindergarten through 8th grade um especially when you're comparing the beginning of the year numbers last year to the beginning of the year numbers this year um additionally that cohort change that was referenced with the Red Arrows um students are showing a positive increase from 2022 2023 um for example our current first grade cohort of students who are considered tier one are at low or at low risk or

119at 52% this same cohort started at 36% last school year in kindergarten the arrows again on the slide are showing that progression our largest cohort increase um is from third to fourth grade which is a 14% increase and while this does not um equate to our in of grade assessment measurement as Mariah noted um it does show a a common comparison there where we did see a positive trend in that EOG data in fourth grade um as well one of the positives to admin ministering a universal screener um is the flexibility in administering the assessment um there is not a formal testing window so there is flexibility across schools in logistics of administering the screener um however as we've worked to dig deeper into this data we did notice um a discrepancy in the Middle

120grades a beginning of the year numbers for 2022 um in the spirit of full transparency um we do want to make sure that we are pointing out that the current numbers that you see in front of you are reflective of those actual numbers for beginning of the year 2022 this change actually reflects the complete screening data from last year which would be the 2022 beginning of the year um rather than the information that was originally displayed on this slide in assembly when you received it um the data that was originally placed on the slide um was only reflective of students who were screened PRI prior to the screening deadline last year and so as has been noted that screening deadline can can is set but there is some flexibility to still screen outside of that

121window since this is not a state mandated assessment um this was a clerical error on the slide um and the data that is displayed now is representative of all students who completed the screener last year in 2022 um including those who were screened past the deadline and as a result of those adjustments we we do still see um a consistent trend of positive increase which is great um but we also still see in seventh grade that there is a slight decline even with the adjusted numbers um and so same with literacy we're looking at um doing a deeper dive not only with our math coaches um led by Jennifer Parker our prek-2 math facilitator um but also really working very closely with our plc's at the school level um we've invested in a partnership with

122solution tree and we're at a space now where it's really intentional work that's happening across grade levels at the core level um that is obviously having an effect here with the as web data for Boi um but we also are looking you know ahead to see um how will that impact our upcoming NC check-ins and other data points as we move through the year um one final thing to note is that the overall data in math for boy our students that are considered at low risk um are at 55 5% K8 um that overall is a comparable number to the proficiency composite for K8 math last year which was at 53% um but we do still have approximately 45% of our students that are flagging as missing foundational skills um so we we know that

123through our intervention support um the master schedule where we have those growth times built in that's a space to really dig into not only tier two but also tier three work where we're really working on those off-grade level skills to build those foundational gaps at this time I'm going to throw it back over to Mariah and I believe she is going to talk about our bog data I'm back so our beginning of the year third grade reading data is oftentimes referred to as our bog data um and this is the only um grade level and subject that is administered a beginning of the year assessment by the state um that is much like an EOG type test this assessment is given for a number of reasons it is tied to our read to achieve State

124legislation um with Senate Bill 387 as well as it sets the marker for our growth measures at the teacher level for evos as well as the student level um and it also gives us a really great snapshot of a leading measure as Dr Green noted for where our students are starting with their very first standardized reading test so on the screen you'll see our beginning of the year reading data um at both the district level as measured in Orange at 20 um 22.7 percentage points of students scoring proficiently um and then aggreg disaggregated by school level as well so at this point we're going to trans transition into the so what what are we doing about this leading data as Dr Green noted um the exciting part about analyzing beginning of the year data is

125it's actionable it's not the old data it's the data of our students who are in front of us who are showing us what they need to be successful and how we can respond as Educators to meet their needs the Orange County Schools literacy team is attacking this from a three-pronged approach the first is really building the capacity of our literacy coaching team um our literacy coaches they are a phenomenal group of Educators in Orange County Schools we're very fortunate to have them in each of our school and we're pouring into them so that they can pour into their school based staff we're doing this in a number of ways one through our monthly literacy coaching team meetings where we are discussing data we're modeling plc's with the solution tree model we're leading professional development on

126the science of reading and best practices with them as well as getting their feedback about what they're seeing and what they're needing in their schools to be successful we are also leading a book study in collaboration with Emily Lewis with our ELD Specialists and this is focusing on how our English Learners have specific needs that are unique in Literacy for them um and we are reading a book together and going through a monthly professional development series with them um book study that is in conjunction with those monthly meetings and then lastly we're trying out something new this year where we are doing learning walks with our coaches where they're going to Shadow other coaches um we're pairing them up strategically so that they can learn from each other and have that thought partnership um about

127how they can improve their own craft we're also um strengthening our core instruction we are in year two of hmh and how far we have come since last year when we stood before you right at like opening the boxes up at this time of year um this year now that we've had the opportunity to learn what it is and to go through the lessons and try it out with our students we are now working really hard to dovetail this with our core instructional framework that our literacy coaches wrote two years ago this core instructional framework outlines the instructional best practices that are aligned with the science of reading so it is essentially how the curriculum is taught no one curriculum is going to move children on its own it's high quality curriculum plus high quality

128instruction with the art of teaching so we're really leaning into the art of teaching and making this curriculum come to life for our students and engage them um and so that is a huge focus and that also dovetails with that solution tree work that Dr gamman mentioned as well as the mtsf framework that Emily Myers is leading um we have also launched the Ia Academy this year for our instructional assistants along with our edore tutors where they come monthly and participate in professional development they are assigned students that they work with their teacher to get they get the student data and they're leading small group during core instruction so we have as many adults as we can making an impact on core instruction and then lastly we've worked really hard to tighten up our tier

1292 and tier three processes in literacy alongside Emily Meyers um and this looks like implementing our education core tutors again um and trying to make sure that we have a successful second year of implementation we've entered into anou with the Hill Center um based on a local philanthropist who has donated a significant amount of money um to strengthen that partnership we're now offering a um actually we're offering two sessions at Al standback with a Hill Center tutor who comes to us um and tutors our students we have professional development and support for our um 95 WP which is formerly Hill WP they were acquired by the 95% group I'm so we're really excited about that partnership that's growing and expanding um and we've worked really hard to lean into our intervention block during um the

130Middle School classes so that that is purposeful and intentional um and we are providing Hill wrap just words fluency groups Advanced phonics through multicab word attack as well as comprehension and writing um so through these efforts we are trying to be as responsive as we can to our beginning of the year data um at this point Dr gamon is going to talk a little bit about how math is responding as well all right thank you again Mariah all right so for math we're really focusing on a couple of key points and and it's really about alignment but it's about habits it's about good habits that are consistent that can be monitored over time um we've referenced this partnership with solution tree a couple of times and the reason that we're noting that is because the

131heart of that work really gets at just a few things that we as a district want to be very tight about okay so when we're looking at our core instruction not only in literacy but also in math like we are really focusing on our collaborative teams having time built into the instructional day where they are not only planning together looking at data together that is in real time but also having space to do that with support So math coaches that are in the buildings um other instructional Assistance or support staff they in the buildings they being a part of those collaborative meetings that are consistently on the schedule that are happening week to week and that are monitored by not only administrative teams but also our district facilitators and math coaches that are working with

132them in those meetings that happen they are really working diligent ently to unpack the most essential standards because we want to make sure that we are honing in on that guaranteed and viable curriculum for our students um because we want to make sure that we are providing the best opportunity for all of our students to be successful um not only on the integrade assessment but also as they are moving up in their trajectory to the next grade level and so in order to have a better snapshot of what that's going to look like at the end of the year those collaborative teams are working intentionally on building common formative assessments but in order to do that there has to be time there has to be support there has to be coaching to make that happen

133and that's what this partnership has been about is what the partnership will continue to be about and what's really been beautiful about this is to see folks building those habits and to see those habits starting to take root and then to see the data and the return on that even in just small bits um that can really start to ignite um better work as we move forward and so in order for us to have that consistent time to have those common formative assessments built to really unpack those most essential standards um we are trying to to live um this this walk or this focus with our math coaches to where they are really in there they're supportive they're with teachers they're not only in the classroom but they're also in those PLC meetings um and

134so in order to do that we have partnered with UNCG UNCG has been providing direct professional development and coaching support for our math coaches but this is happening in our schools in the classrooms where those coaching partners ships are actually being leveraged at the student level so that we're working directly with teachers and then lastly um outside of core instruction we are working to provide systematic and and intensive um support for students through our growth time and that's been built into the master schedule as well as enrichment for students um because following those four questions of that PLC process we want to focus on what the students need to know those most essential standards how are we going to know that they've learned it okay so how do we know we got to monitor that

135through those common formative assessments and then if students have mastered it what are we doing to extend that and if students have not mastered it what are we doing in real time to retach that and so those habits of that work are really what we're emphasizing in math um kudos to our district facilitator our math coaches but our teachers because they are really diving into this work and digging into it and we're excited to see where this takes us all right so at this time throw it over to Dr Green and I'm G throw it over to the team for to answer any questions you have regarding the data presentation Miss Miley well first I want to thank you all for this data that you walked us through and also the other information that's in

136the slides that were attached to the um presentation I was glad that that broke it out um by um identity and things like that and to see all of those different levels um and I love that the the thing that you emphasize is the cohorts and this group of kids are we getting more of them to a more proficient place over time that's awesome um and I was also glad it wasn't in the slides here but in the attachments I was also glad to see the use of the hmh growth measure for Middle School um I will be really curious to see if that ends up correlating to eogs and you know is more sort of predictive and is like a really good pulse on Middle School yeah we're really excited about that as well

137so the hmh growth measures are a standard aligned assessment um and that was really missing we never want to throw another assessment on kids just to throw another assessment on kids um because we all know how cumbersome that can be for students and teachers but the difference here is that in middle school Ames web is really not predictive of Standards grade level um achievement it's more a risk level so hmh measures does provide an adapted computer-based um standards aligned measure and all three principles said no we're doing it we gave them the option we gave all K8 schools the option um and the three middle schools they were all in I will say um out of transparency not all students took it it was our first year right so we're still trying to jugle well

138does English one at the middle school need to take it there's still those types of questions um but the majority of middle school students did take that assessment so we're excited about that and we're excited about how that fits into that PLC model already great conversations coming from that measure that's great um and the one question I had you just touched on it like does English one take the assessment I was wondering if in the eth grade results um do the eighth graders who are taking High School classes take as web as well they do okay so they're they're Incorporated in there okay since um I'll use my teacher voice but I'll step up as well um since it's a universal screener we do screen all students in membership at each grade level with the

139exception of um a few students who are part of like self-contained classes and it wouldn't be an appropriate assessment but all other students do take it great thanks Miss Hower yes yeah thank you for this it looks like we're making progress I I um had two questions um one is on letters and how is letters affecting this sure that's a great question um that goes back to our core instructional framework um approximately two years ago our literacy coaches we came together and said okay we don't have a framework of um what we believe to be best instruction and at that time we also didn't have hmh so what is our road map and we decided did we want to roll out a framework first or a curriculum and they were hands down framework first because

140that will guide our curriculum choice and decision that framework they came together to to write um we then sent it to all teachers through plc's and they gave feedback and then we presented it to principles and they gave feedback and we edited it and changed it and now we have um a framework that framework is rooted in science of reading that's aligned to letters the two of them go hand inand and so that specifies the how so hmh is the what it is um a curriculum that provides grade level texts and resources is but it would fall flat if we didn't have quality teachers in using all of those strategies from letters to deliver the instruction so the letters and the framework are the how and the curriculum and the standards are the what second

141question yes ma'am yeah thanks for that and you know I think about there the teachers in the you know so my second you you set up my second question and that's teachers you know and I looked um I even have I have the EOG data with me I carry it around I have it on my phone you know what school do you want to know um when I looked at it and I only looked at it anecdotally one of the variables I saw one of the drivers was teachers and not we have great teachers but in our classrooms where we didn't have teachers our kids didn't do well and so I'm curious how we're looking at that CU I mean what you guys are doing is fantastic we could do but if we do programs

142and we don't have teachers to deliver this stuff you know and and so I'm just wondering what we can what can we do to help our teachers more to get more teachers in the classroom and I know we're going to understanding I know we're going to hear about the school Improvement plans but we all know now that when we hear about school Improvement plans we don't talk about Staffing so um so part of that work is really looking at the teacher working condition survey and what that says about teachers at each individual ual school as well as collectively across the district and that's part of the work that Dr Gren and I led last year with our teacher of the year round table was we took the teacher working condition survey data and then our

143teachers the year were able to get pulse checks at their schools on an area that we were interested in um so that's one way that we take their feedback not just on one-off conversations of grabbing me in the hall when I'm walking down but looking more collectively at what teachers are saying about key measures of the school Improvement um process my question is more basic than that I'm sorry it's not you know it's have we actually gone through our schools and looked at our open positions um beginning teachers and and putting the supports in place so do we know where we have the holes in the staff because our teachers that's it's very tactical absolutely and I think one of the things we talked about was how the use of our coaches and providing support

144to our teachers also in a couple of weeks you will hear about the beginning teacher program and what we're doing to build their capacity not only their capacity in one year but a multi-year approach to instruction it also uh professional development with our administrators our administrators in understanding the curriculum understanding what to look for in a classroom so that they can also be a part of guiding their instruction so um PD is a key to keeping our teachers building their capacity which is why during our uh last year we put back in place our end of the year conference designed and and led by teachers and you want to continue to look at that as an Avenue of keeping our teachers thank you anyone else yes sir you always love it when I pull the

145microphone what's he gonna do now you can you can um you can just answer this in the future but what language you would you suggest we use board us staff when teachers are saying you're overloading us look at all the things that we've got to do and we're going to involve this and we're going to develop that if and you don't have to answer it now but but if we hear that and I'd like to know how you're responding that when you're walking around classrooms and everything else and you don't need to do it now if you don't want it's okay but but I'll give a brief response to that and we had that situation last year when we put forth several initiatives all at once and we heard the outcry that you know there's

146a lot a lot of good things but a lot of things to juggle so we had to pause and really assess what we refer to as tights what are the non-negotiables what it really that we want to accomplish and when we want to to accomplish so we had to look at a multi-year approach and then we had to look and then we identified things that are loose things that it would be great uh we did that with implementation of hmh we we looked at the roll out of that plan we didn't start at the beginning of the year we started to look at how many things we had to really try to gauge we took their feedback to determine okay what flexibility we want to give schools but also recognizing that we had to have

147some things that were non-negotiable and how many of those things that we put on the table for teachers um Dr Moore do you have any questions no ma'am okay Mr Atherton I would just I do not thank you okay I would just like to say that I am glad to see The Return of the Hill Center in Orange County Schools I'm glad to see the return and the work of plc's in Orange County schools and I am thrilled to see that common formative assessments is a word that you are using again and that it is back obviously in Orange County Schools um I worked with those things for a long time and I know they work and I think that you're you're doing great stuff with um getting those back and especially the work that

148I'm hearing with plc's that teachers are a lot of teachers in the district came in didn't know what plc's were and um I think there's great benefit and I'm glad you're working with solution tree again too that's um topnotch so thank you for the work you're doing and thank you for this report thank you very much and just when you thought you were getting rid of cni hey we saved the best for last so we have a second presentation that is going to deal with our multilingual Learners and our newcomer population Miss Lewis good evening thank you for allowing me to come present on our um multilingual learner enrollment Trends and our English learner proficient or progress data for you this evening um before I jump into the numbers I just want to make sure

149that we're all using common language so in March of 2022 the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction made a shift in the language they were using So currently we use English learner our familiar term only for policy and legislation purposes and DPI has made the shift to multilingual learner for all other purposes multilingual learner is a more um asset-based term and therefore that is the terminology you will hear me using tonight in my presentation over the past five years Orange County Schools have seen a 32% increase in our multi-lingual learner enrollment currently our multilingual Learners make up approximately 133% of our total student population in Orange County Schools the schools that have seen the largest increase in multilingual learner enrollment include Hillsboro Elementary Al standback middle grle Hill Middle orange middle Cedar Ridge High School

150and Orange High School you may have noticed a pattern there with the exception of Hillsboro all of our secondary schools have seen incredible increases in their multilingual learner enrollment over the past 5 years all of those schools have seen a greater than 50% increase in the number of MLS enrolled in their schools Hillsboro has seen a 300% increase in the past year they only have eight students currently identified as MLS but when you're used to not having any students in your building identified as multilingual learners having eight students on your campus totally changes the needs for your staff and your students in your building the schools with our largest ml populations continue to be New Hope Elementary Al standback and Cedar Ridge High School these three schools alone house approximately 50% of our total multilingual

151learner population the grade levels with the highest number of mLs are fifth and ninth grades the majority of students who exit our ml identification do so in fourth or fifth grade so you will see a decreasing number of students identified as ml in sixth grade however you will see a large number of ninth grade students identified as ml because um promotion and attention at the high school level is based off of credits earned per year so for a student to be considered a 10th grade student they must have earned or passed at least six classes at the high school level our students who enroll from outside of the United States who are over the age of 14 and age appropriate for high school often come to us without high school records if we don't have

152school records from the home country it's difficult for us to to prove that a student has earned any credits at the high school level therefore students are placed in ninth grade however I have been trained we'll say that I have been trained in international transcript analysis so when students do come with school records um I work with the family and our counselors and our data managers at the high schools to make sure that we um Grant credit for as many courses as we can at the high school level in hopes that we can help students along their graduation path so they can meet our four-year graduation requirement um I want to focus a little bit on our newcomers and before I dive In Too Deep I want to um make sure that we are all

153using the same definition for newcomer the US Department of Education has a very broad definition of newcomer they Define a newcomer as any student between the ages of 3 and 21 who is born outside of the United States or Puerto Rico in Orange County Schools we tweak that definition slightly um and go with a definition that is a bit more mainstreamed and more widely used so we consider a newcomer any student who is born outside of the United States that is within their first three years of us School enrollment some districts and States Define a newcomer as a student who is within less than two years of us enrollment some one year or less than us enrollment but um for our purposes here and in most districts across North Carolina we use the three-year threshold

154to determine a newcomer or to identify a newcomer um in our district out of our total ml population only about 14% of our total ml population are identified as newcomers we currently have 134 students identified as newcomers caveat we had 134 newcomers last week when I pulled this data I know that um we enrolled four today so um every day that number is increasing um and is fluctuating greatly um and as mentioned in the abstract that I shared with you in symol we um will continue to see an increase in enrollment we always do and then in late January early February at the semester change for our high schools we typically see another large increase of enrollment for newcomer MLS currently 31% of our newcomers are enrolled at the high school level Al standback cedaridge

155high school and Orange High School House 43% of our newcomers in additional 19% of those newcomers attend New Hope Elementary School at the end of last school year I was able to share with you our um yearly Access Data um and we talked about how many students um actually exited the program um so they scored the composite overall score of a 4.8 or higher in order to exit um ESL Services um but they are still students that we continue to monitor for four years and count toward our school accountability model in the multilingual learner subgroup um but tonight I um want to touch base um with you about our multi- learn our multilingual learner progress um which was released in August so you will see that about 17.8 of our MLS met progress as measured

156by access in February and March of 2023 this is an increase of 13.4% the Year prior as you look at the data on the screen you will see that the majority of this progress was made by students in grades K through five we still have a lot of work to do particularly at the secondary level but I'm happy to share with you some of the in initiatives that we have in place um that we started this past school year and have seen and a positive impact from and then share with you some additional um some additional things that we have put in place this school year to continue increasing the support um and increasing the progress for our multi-lingual Learners so we have adapted our language instruction educational program called the LI for short um

157to include an increased amount of service time particularly for our newcomer students um so they are each receiving an increased amount of time it's about 45 minutes per day um of direct ESL instruction um in addition students who score below a 2.0 composite score on the access test also qualify for those increased Direct Services don't be mistaken though those are not the only services that those students receive students also receive um ESL instruction through a push-in model at the elementary level where teachers are going into classrooms and offering small group instruction that is connected directly to the content for which they are supporting and at the secondary level our ESL teachers co- te in Math Science Social Studies or Ela classes um wherever those students are clustered so the general education teacher and the ESL

158teacher are delivering instruction together focused on both content and language additionally I'm happy to say that um with your support we were able to purchase a program called elevation and we talked to you last year about the platform data side but this year we have added on the implementation of the strategies component and strategies Prov provides OnDemand self-paced um professional learning modules that all teachers can access each module can be done in any order based on the teacher needs they take about one hour to complete um the teacher walks away with a toolbox full of strategies that is connected to the realtime data of the MLS sitting in their classrooms so the professional learning modules are tailored to meet the um needs of the students literally sitting in front of the teacher who is completing

159the module at this time um we have 19 modules that have been completed which we just started in late September hasn't been quite a month yet and we have 20 modules that are already in progress by teachers in our district um so considering the ESL teachers just learned um the very end of September how to share these modules with their teachers I am happy to report that we already have so many teachers who are diving in and using these modules we have also revitalized the ESL add-on professional learning opportunity for classroom teachers who wish to build their skills in working with multilingual Learners and potentially take the ESL pratice to add the ESL teaching certification onto their current teaching license um the next cohort will begin in January of 2024 and although I am still

160taking um registrations um I will be able to take except between 20 and 25 staff members for this next cohort and we already have 30 teachers in our district who have applied for and would like to complete this program um additionally we have partnered with rethink education to to provide professional learning for ESL Specialists on using formative and summative assessment data to progress monitor English proficiency so we're not dependent upon our one-time access score when access is taken in February and we don't get those scores until June and we don't see our students again until August that data doesn't hold a lot of weight so we are working with rethink education to provide training around um progress monitoring specifically for language growth um we also are providing school-based whole staff and PLC or grade level

161professional development on strategies for working with multilingual Learners I've been very fortunate that many of our principles have reached out and asked for myself or our ELD specialists at the school to come in and provide some support um so as the needs are changing in our schools we are able to um provide some some kind of quick strategies that teachers can take with them and Implement tomorrow if they had the professional learning today but furthermore we're able to dive a little deeper and really provide some extended professional learning opportunities that include additional coaching and feedback between our professional development sessions I currently am researching and connecting with similar um sized districts that were recommended to me by DPI regarding newcomer support um via additional Personnel creating a newcomer school um lots of different options and

162um also we have had some teachers who have specifically asked about um ways that we can determine literacy and math skills in a student's first language and although we do do not have tools to um assess all students in their first language most of our MLS have a home language of Spanish and we can use am web in Spanish to assess our newcomers literacy and math skills we also have our elementary school Bridges math curriculum in Spanish and we often use it to assess students in the elementaries um or at the elementary level and um Mariah spoke to you about the hmh growth measures we also have those for grades K8 in Spanish so we can assess students literacy skills connected to the North Carolina Standards as they work through our curriculum all right that's

163all I have do you have questions Miss how first can you I just have a basic numbers question so uh the newcomers are the kids with less than three years but it's the uh what you call the MLS or the uh DPI calls the Els that those are the kids who need language help yes right and so that's the real number it's a thous it's a 950 or so kids about 949 yes myam so so that's that's the target audience and and if a kid grows out of the three years of a newcomer they're still very likely in the El program absolutely so research says it takes 7 to 10 years for a student to acquire academic proficiency in English or in a target language so um yes students stay with us a long time

164yeah if you ask me to learn another language it would be bad it would be ugly so I get it um the other question is we have a in our narrative we say our kids speak 44 different languages and I was curious if you know where the kids other than Spanish happen to be where are they and how many of those are I think there's so they're very they're very small I can tell you that most of our other languages are less than 1% of our students speak those languages um the next largest population of speakers would be burmes and Karin um and they are all mostly in one area of our district yeah NE yes yes um yeah so I I I'll leave there and other people ask questions I'll come back yes ma'am

165um miss m um this was great um really good information and it was great to hear about all of the different strategies you're pursuing because I know this is a particular Focus for the district um is um yeah especially with the growing population um I think my question is so the the issue about newcomers going into high school and then being placed in ninth grade really led me to wonder like do kids age out of this like are there what do we offer them summer school to catch up credits like how are we tackling especially because it's a growing number of students and not just like one or two like how are we helping kids who come out who maybe are 16 but you have to place in ninth grade to complete high school and

166get a degree so um anyone who has not graduated high school in their home country is allowed to attend school until the age of 21 um we do have students enroll as ninth graders who are 18 or 19 years old um unfortunately because the number of credits they need is so great they typically do not make it to earning a diploma but it is our goal to give them the best education we can give them and give them the strongest foundation in English we can give them as possible so we then can offer them some other tracks once they are no longer able to be in our K12 system um and those include things like um getting their GED because um the number of well first off their English proficiency once it's greater it's easier

167for them to pass the GED assessments but also the number of credits that they have earned in high school impacts what they have to take in order to earn their GED um we also talked to students about other Pathways um when they enter at such a kind of an older age um around training certificates for certain lines of work and things like that that they do we do have students who attend um summer school to earn credits I'm going to be honest it is very difficult most of our um credits that are earned during the summer are earned through online coursework and it is very difficult for a newcomer student to be successful in um an online course but I'm making myself a note because I think that that is something that I can brainstorm

168with my high school e specialist about how we could um potentially provide some of those courses needed toward graduation during the summer great that's awesome and can they sorry one more thing can they do like credit through Master can they like pass a test to demonstrate that they have the knowledge of this okay so they can do credit by demonstrated Mastery um most of the time they only our native Spanish speakers like to do that for their World Language credits um but I'm not sure that they have thought much about doing it for other cour that they may um be able to show Proficiency in only because or North Carolina is an English only testing State and I think sometimes the language barrier um I mean a math test yes okay yeah right great thank

169you now if it's not an EOC subject there are alternate ways to get that CDM so um classes that are not like your math one English 2 math 3 biology it is possible for students to to um potentially earn credit through an alternate pathway M um just wanted to thank you for all the different um angles of this um work that you've shared as well as the other cni work and all the the growth um as the need continues to grow the one comment you made I was curious about um when you mentioned that um when students exit they tend to do it after fifth grade or in fifth grade but could you explain what that yes I can so the state of North Carolina um has a um a threshold for the access test

170that if a student scores an overall composite of a 4.8 out of six on the access test then they quote unquote exit the ml program so they no longer um receive English as a second language Services um however we do continue to monitor their progress in grade level content level classes um as they do count as part of our ml subgroup for those four years after they exit and if a child or if a student um is showing that they need additional support then they can be pulled back in on a limited basis to provide some support to try to catch them up um and if we still see that there's a need there there is a process you can go through to have a student reclassified as ml yes after one year she added

171that so um yeah I just I I I do want to add my thanks by the way for all the clarification on the terminology so that's really it it really when when we when we know what we're talking about then we can really try to understand it I I just have to comment that you know our numbers our outcomes for our Els is disappointing it's pretty bad compar you know so um and I and since other the Statewide the results are a lot better other districts we have to figure out what what we're missing and there's no one more passionate about this than you I thought I was but I think you're way ahead of me so thank you know so I'm really being candid with you I um you saw I sent a note

172to you all from a teacher today who's at um one of at standback actually who is dealing with this every day and she asked a couple of things she asked about you said we could do the Assessments in Spanish or we do do the Assessments in Spanish we can do the Assessments in Spanish I don't think I was just talking to Maria about this I don't think that all of our staff is aware of that so as part of our book study with our lit um coaches and ESL teachers we are going to make sure that they are all aware that that is something that is available so when a newcomer enrolls in their school they can utilize those tools right cuz then we could figure out if we have a literacy problem or a

173language problem or both so that's great thank you and I'll I send a thank you to that teacher to absolutely to thank her for that I appreciate her thoughts and um She also asked about a boot camp if we could do a boot camp for students and parents and Carrie I don't know if you remember we did a family engagement last the year before last and we had counselors from orang high school we had family success Alliance people we had our we had folks from standback we had our own family Liaisons and they were passionate about about the need for more um Spanish language speaking people in our schools you know and even to the point where um people were being pulled from teachers were being pulled from classrooms because they needed somebody to help

174with translating with a parent meeting and so um so there's two questions there many questions in there but one is what can we do to teach let me say the other thing they like to tell us is the kids are coming from one one room School houses and they're coming into these you know modern contemporary schools so what are we doing to teach the parents and what you know and is there a boot camp that we can offer for parents and can we provide some kind of Intensive English language tutoring even for a week or two I thought we were doing that I guess we're not but can we um so I'm not sure the answer to your second question yet about a week or two kind of intensive separate setting place for our newcomer

175um I would have to look at Logistics of that a little bit um before I could give you a good answer um as far as how are we kind of transitioning parents who are coming with these newcomers or families of these newcomers as well we do offer um a newcomer family night we had our first one for the school year in early September well September 13th I think so about 3 weeks into the school year um we have another one of those it's not scheduled until second semester um about 3 weeks into second semester so we can get that next crop of large crop of um students who are enrolling um to get their families there um because we this is our third year bringing back our newcomer family nights um this year we were

176able to differentiate the sessions that we offered so our family Liaisons were amazing um and offered a session for our newest families around um how to navigate schools in Orange County um who are the important people in my child's School building that I need to know how to contact and what do I contact them for um how do I access my child's grade um get student or get parents access to um the parent portal for power school or as parent observers and canvas um and then we had some of our bilingual ESL staff um who did presentations for families that are in their second or third year in our school system um provide presentations and resources specifically around how do I help my child at home I may not know English very well but my

177child is coming home with this homework how do I support them at home and we gave them some um some resources and strategies that they could do to help with literacy and math skills at home regardless of whether they understand the language or not um so that's where we are right now we don't have a boot camp so to say so to speak but be nice to have one something you think about I have one more question and that's um newcomer school and I realized like Guilford just opened their second I realized we're not there right um and I'm not sure that's what we want but I am fascinated by CH what Chapel Hill is doing by putting newcomers in an elementary in a middle and high school and I would love us to explore

178that because I'm worried about and especially in middle and high school because of all the things you've said but it looks like we just don't most you know the the students are already concentrating so if we were intentional about it could we resource the schools better since our Spanish language support is scarce if we can concentrate the students can we serve them better so I actually reached out to Chapel Hill carboro today and I'm waiting awaiting a response and I um Winston Salem for Scythe has a similar model so I also have reached out to them um to kind of pick their brains a little bit um around what that looks like to having that school within a school model thank you so much thank you so much okay thank you all very much for

179all the information it was very good we appreciate it thank you we have one more presentation I think to talk about um are redistricting and Mr Florence F I've got my names all messed up tonight okay thank you chair pel uh as we dive further into uh reassignment we've reached this next step where we have first draft Maps uh with us tonight uh from or that has helped us uh with developing uh first draft maps are are Thomas dley and and Brian Godfrey um and they'll be presenting tonight our first draft reassignment maps for orang County schools in addition to uh taking a look at the data uh that helped to develop uh the maps and and the points of emphasis related to board policy and the pillars of uh 4150 as well while we'll

180see first draft Maps options uh for all levels uh we've asked you know or to develop additional options for elementary schools uh still focusing on again academic achievements all right and proximity balance so at this time I'll turn things over to uh ID uh as they take a look at our draft Maps here Master thank you chair purel other members of the board Dr Merill pleasure to be joining you this evening I'm Thomas dadley joined by my colleague Mr Brian Godfrey and as Mr Foster mentioned we'll be highlighting the results of the attendance Zone optimization study that we conducted on behalf of OCS about my organization oh I'm sorry just rearranging everything up here here we go okay I hope that uh works better here so about itri and ored is where we'll start just

181a brief re introduction before we walk into uh discussing your board policy 4150 very briefly and then bringing up the scenario Maps themselves looking at the actual uh draft assignment plan from there we'll have additional time for board discussion as well as Q&A about itri itri is the institute for transportation research and education we're part of NC State University and housed on NC State Centennial Campus in Raleigh it has been conducting research in North Carolina related to transportation for over 40 years ored is our group uh we're an unbiased thirdparty evaluation research group that strives to depoliticize the school planning process we stand for the operations research and education laboratory and we're able to do those things through the services and tools that you see listed there this is your policy 4150 which is the

182guiding it's the guidance behind this whole policy and the the work that we've been doing it's been derived or it's been used to derive the assignment plan we've heard consistently from the board that achievement and balancing student achievement is a primary objective followed very closely by operational efficiency and proximity and also not forgetting stability as well so that's the guidance that we've used we've heard consistently that these are all important and what this looks like from our software from our modeling standpoint is we're looking at minimizing that student travel distance so that's the proximity component your third pillar within the constraints of your building capacities so that's balancing utilization and short getting to operational efficiency and as the models are doing that and we fold in the student achievement component as well that does leave

183stability but uh as I read the stability component this speaks really more to uh assignment policies related to Legacy students or grandfathering which isn't something we specifically model but it's an important component of a full assignment plan as well with that I'd like to move on to the first scenario as we look at the elementary school level speaking briefly to the symbology here on the map you see on the left side what we're looking at is the the blue lines are the existing attendance zones and the background color those are the proposed boundaries for the schools as part of this assignment plan I will acknowledge and uh I will highlight and mention multiple times that as part of this uh presentation there are high resolution maps that are attached so if you have questions about

184specific uh streets any questions down at that level please refer to those Maps this uh this slide is a big picture map of where changes are you can see of course the uh substantial reduction in the size of the effin cheeks attendance Zone that's making room for new students and New Growth that will occur in the future and as we talk our way through this I also want to highlight the table over to the right here that displays some summary information we have working our way from left to right we have the name of the school the school's current capacity the enrollment of the school currently and we calculate from those first two columns or the second and third columns the utilization of that school so for example Central Elementary it's that first row is

185currently being utilized about 65% of that those seats are being used next we have what that enrollment would be under the scenario followed by that updated percentage of what that utilization would be at the school and getting uh to the point of the student proficiency that balancing achievement um component of this as well we've also included the proficiency of students that exist within each of these attendance zones uh what their test proficiency would be as a summary at the very excuse me at the far right there so to highlight a couple of these as well you can see uh as far as minimizing underutilized schools which is part of your uh operational efficiency pillar that would be certainly Central uh planning for growth at effin cheeks Pathways increasing its utilization significantly and helping with overcrowding

186as well talking through the list of other changes at the elementary school level we have of course the uh cleaning the Middle School feeder up in the northern kind of North Central Area shifting that line to the west to align it with the Middle School feeder we have Collins Ridge being sent to Pathways we have centrals ATT tenant Zone moving down um into more of Hillsburg and Pathways attendant Zone moving down to help relieve uh River Park so those are the changes at the elementary school level I wanted to move briefly to the Middle School level just to acknowledge that after a thorough examination of the Middle School level and your attendant zones we are not recommending changes at this point uh these attendant zones are in short they're doing what they were designed to

187do you have some slight uh imbalances in utilization but you still have some growth where or some room where growth is anticipated uh we're not seeing substantial differences or uh what we would call sizable differences and proficiency at the middle school level and so we're not recommending changes at the middle school level at the high school level I went ahead and zoomed in here again speaking to the symbology it's similar to what you saw before uh at the elementary school level so we have the uh current lines is the red line that's the current boundary and the proposed is the background color so with the burgundy maroon that Cedar Ridge and the tan is is Orange High so that's part of the scenario and what we see here is on the Eastern side that shift

188of the line to the north that's aligning the High School feeder pattern with the Middle School feeder pattern and also helping balance utilization in the long term between CED Ridge and orange and on the western side again the boundary moving up north uh to along the train tracks that's balancing utilization in the long term uh helping with that operational efficiency pillar and we've also presented some summary information here about the high school scenario you can see of course the capacities of those schools information about the uh enrollment the utilization and then how that can be balanced in in the future as well and the proficiency of students there as well to provide a little bit more information about the proficiency that was the test score end of grade test score from uh the most recent

189uh EOG for reading was the data that was used in input as part of what's reported here and what was used in the in the full process with that I'd like to more formally ask if there are questions or board uh you know discussion on this topic especially please don't forget the attached maps that have the higher resolution uh maps and labels as well as well okay any questions miss how I have first on the transportation you talked about proximity what do the maps do for transportation what happens so a driving Factor behind and I'll just go back to your board policy here a driving Factor behind uh many of these changes in the maps is minimizing that travel distance so that's that's that doesn't mean everyone gets to go the school that's closest to

190them of course but it it is a driving factor in behind um how that works mathematically and that that is a consideration but within the constraints of those building capacities so are there any landmines in the transp is there anyone that's going to see longer Transportation you know I mean have you looked at that is does the transportation side of this work is really the that is a critical question which will take uh coordination between School staff and possibly other other Consultants as well so there's um I'm unfamiliar with exactly what skills and expertise the transportation staff in the district have but that's certainly something that can be explored over time as far as uh over the development of a assignment plan so so we don't know yet in short we do not know yet

191okay um can um I have two questions on the maps on the high school map and I don't know if you the two little dot the spot zoned areas on the top left my left are those going to stay at St Cedar Ridge or are you going to proposing those become part of Orange High School so it's part I know the symbology is not incredibly clear on this one but for these the the assignments would be the proposal is that that southern one would go to Cedar Ridge and then the more Northern uh assemblage of parcels uh would still be considered going to Cedar Ridge as part of this proposal so those two top one would stay at Cedar Ridge that's correct that's the current assignment and that's where they would stay okay um and

192one other question if you can go to the elementary models and when we had our um we it's something we've been talking about a lot um and that's the SE the capacity of this the real capacity of the schools so when I see 405 students at Central that seems like a lot I don't know if we really have that you know when you throw the prek in there and some other things and to have that school at 95 Capa per capacity without counting these other factors it feels too tight so just a and I'll leave it there and let other people ask questions can I ask a a followup on that because that struck me as well is um just some of these schools that are high capacity but their numbers does this um what

193did I write down in my notes okay I wanted to know if this utilization level takes into account sort of what I'm thinking of as like special use classrooms so like some prek classrooms um EC classrooms where there's a lower number of students um specials like art music we call them specials I don't know what call them like does this account for all of those spaces being in existence yeah as well so that's a critical question and I have to refer to based off the numbers that we have displayed here we are working with or to to to uh recapture uh the capacity numbers and what they develop the maps on all right so we'll be looking into specifically uh what those numbers mean for us from a standpoint of those uh classrooms that you

194just identified so we have to work with or a little bit closely to identify those and see what those numbers come out to okay so so right now this doesn't take into account like specials classrooms or EC or prek not specifically all of them correct okay okay yeah because I I do think that's really really important like I think once you added those back in per Central they'd probably be over 100% um and and you know it just relates I think to my second point which is I would love to see the utilization levels and sort of the free space I understand you want to maintain extra space for effin cheeks because of the growth on the western side but like some of the others I worry about it being like 95% and like 74%

19584% um that feels really different in a building I think M Jo um thank you um a couple questions so to that point so understanding that the goal for having effin cheeks at 74% is the um anticipated continued growth and I'm curious if the 74% of path at Pathways um scenario utilization is deliberate as well since it does have a higher number of EC separate settings classrooms or I'm not sure how it got to 7 it there might be a good reason for it to be at 74% I'm wondering if that's planned so in this scenario that we're looking at here uh there a couple things going on as far as what Target year it's it's act no sorry thank you again uh so there are several things that are occurring here in the background

196and what's going on and what's um really targeting that particular utilization is uh a little bit longer term than what's currently being reported in this table so one quick thing that I briefly acknowledged was in this scenario that Collins Ridge for example would be going to Pathways well that's a significant number of students in the longer term and that's part of why there's room that's allocated there at Pathways as one example simple okay could we stop one second because we are hitting the 10:00 hour um Mr Foster how much longer do you think we need to extend this meeting I would say to be save 10 and 15 minutes 15 minutes to extend I move that we extend the meeting for 15 minutes second all right all in favor I thank you okay I'm sorry

197to interrupt go ahead I I do have a couple more I mean not not seeing the maps you know not having the files um I I feel like we need some more information um to move this forward um and I'm also curious about the the not making recommendations to redistrict Middle School um might be the right move and I'm curious if the idea is that as the elementary schools equilibrate that that will indirectly equilibrate the middle schools over time I would need to ask for clarification uh about equilibrium and and what you mean by that phrase in well like currently orange Middle School is is at lower current utilization than the other two so is the goal that the the elementary schools that feed into orange middle is they reach um more balanced utilization with

198the other elementary schools that then that um Middle School that those elementary schools feed into would that then be more balanced with the other two middle schools I'm still not sure that I'm following that exactly um okay well just because there's specific elementary schools that feed into different middle schools right and right you know for example Central um is currently at 65% utilization but if it got up to 94% utilization that would over time increase the number of students going into orange middle school but it wouldn't because the Middle School Maps haven't changed that address would just still go to whatever that school is okay so I think my question is by not moving the middle schools at all are you creating the thing that you're fixing in the high school with that those few

199students from Stand Back going to Cedar Ridge like have you looked at when you lay over the new Elementary to the middle do we have more of that happening so I think what it to the extent possible um that has been explored and looked into and those are not issues that are present that's correct okay I think I'd be interested to know how many students from each of the elementary schools would be are they 100% funneled to a particular Middle School are they going to three different ones because not each of them is one to one there I mean have been some elementary schools where they're split so just understanding how this would impact that would be helpful excellent yeah can definitely do that are we in agreement that we need corrected maps for elementary

200school with the EC and prek and specials right we need we need to have that um and I just so the board knows and I we have to decide but it's part of the phase one in the Walford plan they are recommending that we build a new Elementary School in mevan so that's that's a phase one recommendation just saying so you know but it's that's we we probably have six months before we finalize that decision one other thing um I think you said you're going to be exploring different scenarios um at least for the elementary school and and I guess this applies to the high school map too is I would like to see sort of contiguous zones rather than the oneoff like let's pull pull up here and get this one neighborhood or Collins

201Ridge to me the idea of like a large number of families like families driving cars and buses all the transportation going up Chon in the morning it's it's already a really backed up road so um that particular one off seems like it's going to create a lot of like traffic problems I agree completely and the high school the high school's end element I agree completely to to that point I mean I'm not not knowing right now where the map where the lines are but um you know Pathways didn't draw from um like B Meadows you know some some neighborhoods that were really just right across the street and down half a mile all those those neighborhoods also fed into River Park which is overcrowded so I'm I'm curious if some of those closer neighborhoods that

202wouldn't be cutting through downtown traffic um are getting um redistricted to Pathways because that seems like would makes sense that's certainly something I can explore I'm look to thank you Miss Hower yeah I just wonder if you could bring the high school map up for a second so the um we talked about the islands and moving those in the right places the the homes on the that are on on the western side of the map that are north of the interstate and now that have been moved from Orange High School to Cedar Ridge can you talk a little bit about that and how many homes are in there and the same thing on the right we just curious who we're redistricting So speaking to that first uh component on the the western side there moving

203that line to the north of the high school level would affect roughly 25 or 26 high school students and to give a sense of scale moving uh that line on the Eastern side to align it with the Middle School boundary that move would move roughly 58 high school students can you tell us about them the they can is there anything you can tell us about them cuz um you know are these you know these mostly trailer parks are they mostly you know do we know anything about I know that that the area in effland is most is right along the railroad tracks so I just don't don't know what you could tell us about the kid let me just let me be completely transparent I'm interested in seeing what it would take to move the

204orange high schools um um uh English language Learners to Cedar Ridge and I'm wondering how far you're getting us with the redistrict Ling F that that's the essence of my question fair enough I see I see how you're connecting those dots got it um I I have very limited information on okay on those students we be interested in in learning that absolutely just miss house on a on a related point if it is possible to see the impact of the proposed Maps on the demographics of the schools I know that we cannot use that as a factor in reassignment and that is fine but I would love to the the students race um for example you can't take that into account when drawing your Maps but I am curious what it would do to the

205demographics of the different schools if that is okay legally it is in fact you can take general account of the the impact of reassignment plan on racial demographics you cannot reassign on the basis of race in in order you know to to assign individual students to individual schools because of R is clearly unconstitutional but just being aware of the impact of a a proposed reassignment plan is Pros in the in the aggregate could we look at income too or like qualification for free and reduced lunch or something like yes uh income just raises some complications which I can get into um with staff probably don't have time in the few minutes of extent remaining on in terms of free and reduce price lunch data which is tightly controlled by the federal government but there are

206other measures in measur Census Data Etc that you can use so I'd be really interested to know what that would do to the balance um because of the way we assign C call certain schools Title One and make those determination you know it's just good for us to understand how that would impact things so what happens now what's the next steps I mean take a moment to switch screens here keeps coming up escap out of that okay cool got it all right so now that we have draft Maps we wanted to outline opportunities where uh members of the community could Prov provide feedback and um shown here both uh in person and virtual sessions where members of community can can do so uh information sessions will be held at both schools uh and Community sites

207uh these opportunities outlined here were carried through the first week of November which will lead us to providing this feedback back to the board uh at the November 6 meeting um informational draft Maps can be found in uh District wide communication uh on our website uh social media uh within the news of orange local newspapers and media uh will all be uh published there uh the maps will go live also on our website uh as well immediately um after that November 6th uh board meeting uh will then have second draft Maps will begin to create additional Maps uh for the public to see uh and inform information sessions will run through uh the first week of December uh again continue to provide and bring back feedback uh to the board uh at that time um

208in addition to the public meetings here we do also have meetings with our reassignment committee uh that will be providing opportunity to provide feedback as well good toon know Mr Foster thank you very much all right thank you any other yeah I what are we doing I mean especially the elementary Maps you know it's changing all over the county um and I'm wondering what we're doing to reach the gral families the pathways you know I guess AR you know what are we doing to get closer to to Really reach into the impacted communities as opposed to these big meetings all right so in addition to being at school sites we'll be Community sites as well so I wanted to uplift that so that folks again we can kind of dive in and bring information to

209them in that way as well as opposed to just you know saying it will'll be at the school uh will be in the community as well so can you share that list with the board please yeah that'll be again after the uh the November six meeting after so it would be the second dra exactly thank you Miss Molly I'm curious what you're using the reassignment committee for so how does that differ from the big group info sessions sure the uh reassignment committee represents certain groups right uh as we talk about the different individuals that are on that uh committee whether it's teach or the whether it's staff whether it's principes whether it's community members whether it's parents Etc they represent a certain SE segment uh of community um that they can provide U information to

210based on these maps and also ask question answer questions uh that individuals they have in those groups and be able to take that information back uh go back to the uh some of the beginning sessions where we asked them uh to poll again as we got uh information that aligned actually with the board in terms of uh the two pillars that that the maps focused on on in academic achievement and and and proximity uh and as in essence in those meetings as well we continue to get that feedback from them um we've Divi you know uh design will will establish you know small groups where they can get that uh information uh uh to us uh and to provide back to you uh what their thoughts are Miss Smiley I do we two minutes okay

211um just recognizing that given some of our feedback I do expect the elementary school maps to change because of the changes in capacity and all that I do worry a little bit about families who might look at the first version and say like we're good I don't need to pay any attention to this District thing that's happening um but we know that those maps are going to change so I don't know how to wrap that into this except big bold text that these are not you know we do expect actually the elementary school maps to change to some extent um if you know if we're not going to have them it I mean ideally we have a another draft ready for these meetings but I just don't know if that's going to be right I

212can emphasize enough the word draft right even you know what's been presented today they're all drafts they will change uh so they can't emphasize that enough uh in all of our meetings that we'll conduct and everything that will be published obviously on on uh all the The Avenues that I uh just just Express in terms of where things will be published about about reassignment that word draft is very important absolutely is it possible to how how long will it take to make the changes they wondering if we can if they the changes can be done before the first Drafts come out because this is jarring to our families right so we don't want to traumatize them it sounded like the most uh complex request there was looking at uh I mean looking at the elementary

213school level focusing more on proximity basically proximity being a driving Factor the driving Factor am I interpreting that correctly no go ahead Sarah it's the it's the capacities of the building and accounting for because I think some of those schools would it would go over 100% once you account for that that would not be something that we could uh turn around before these meetings that's correct I wonder if that should impact our timeline I don't know that I mean think it would have to impact our timeline yeah is it worth it to delay the meetings a week I mean the meetings haven't been announced yet and again to to people things that are going to change Dr so we're going to tell them twice we tell them once and then we're going to in the

214case of the elementary schools we're going to tell them three times information set session meetings have been announced those are have been uh published the meetings that you're seeing here is that the meetings you're referring to yeah so I mean we could they could change I guess there's a question about is it worth it and I don't know how the board feels about it well I think you would have to tell them that that the maps are changing and tell them why if if you going to go ahead and have the meetings when you had them then you show them and then say we are looking at capacity in these buildings now that we did not look at before and there may be some changes coming right again I can't emphasize enough the word of

215draft and knowing that there'll be additional even after the second uh uh uh draft there'll be you know uh component where things will change uh there as well I think if I may the there are implications for us not having this completed by the end of December um and if we roll into January um there's a lot more due process procedure that needs to occur so we're on the proverbial horns of a dilemma a little bit right now we want to be able to bring accurate Maps the first time as best we can but we're backed up against a deadline and in order to buy time to get the best maps we're going to be into January we're going to be closing a transfer window we're going to be shortening it we're going to be

216doing some other public meetings that are required full hearings everything else we we may just need to go to that and and if you're if you're if you can without any more information that I've just shared tell us take the time we need to get the maps the first time knowing there'll be some scheduling ter oil into January and February then that would help us if you want to give us that direction you're trying to finesse us I think and and um and I give it back to you I I just I believe people are going to react to the maps and I think if we show them incorrect maps that they're react you know they're reacting to something that's change that's there's a question about how far are they off right it feels like

217some of it is off by a lot and so you know it's hard to it's hard to tell it's hard to tell and I'm I'm worried the pleasure of the board here I mean I'm I'm also inclined to think you know you're not going to get folks to show up to two rounds of info sessions about it so you want their best reaction at the first one um so I mean personally I think it's worth you know communicating that these dates are moving I know I saw the announcement about them like I think it's worth communicating that the dates are moving back a week or whatever it is I agree with that and I also think it's important to have the committee um input and and the board I think if the committee input and

218the board input is is closer to consensus then we're in better shape to move forward my question is how long do you think it would take to get this corrected information I believe that's a question for uh we need the capacities first that's what's you know gonna take time after that and yeah we're talking a week so miss so I I have I'm I'm confused by that we have worked on the um capacities with the county and have provided that with safo as here's your number here's our number number that that information should be readily available I mean that is something that we have used with the county multiple times on concerns of how inaccurate safo is so I'm I'm confused by that I I think the issue is I mean particularly for the uh

219specials classrooms like it sounds like those classrooms weren't s sort of held out of the total number of like available classrooms um to put make core classrooms um so that's a little bit different than the sapo thing I it doesn't seem like something that should be super hard for the team to calculate I would imagine like you know the EC and the um yeah you know specials is what like four classrooms I mean the sapo did update it for specials that went through each one and was updated on what the actual usage was for each Elementary um when I was chair that's what we did we went straight through it and challenged Sappo because all the numbers were off and also just some of the physical sizes uh were not correct in some of the

220schools and what rooms were being utilized for M ma if we could stop one more time we need to extend this meeting because we've gone over our motion to exceed 10 minutes to TW that's um 10 minutes to 10:30 second all in favor hi hi okay I'm Sorry Miss no that's fine I was going to let you know that after reviewing the capacities music and art were not considered core classrooms as part of the capacities so really the only changes um to what the Capa the capacity that is provided does not include separate classrooms for fles the student Lang the elementary foreign language and it does not include holding classes aside for preschool we have doubled the for let me say that differently um we currently according to the woart study have about 12 classrooms

221for prek we are only using half of those classrooms right now and then um it would be the fles classroom so after investigating the capacity concerns that you you have are valid they're not as far off as presumed thank you okay thank you m i just just a question does that include the Head Start classroom prek yes great and it accounts for EC classrooms having much lower capacities I see you nodding so yes yes okay so those were considered that's great okay so we're hearing that it might not be as far off as what could be correct and we'll be able to get that right to order uh in terms of the rerun uh with those numbers do we need to cancel any of those meetings that you have already sent out information about I

222do not believe that we need to cancel because again I think well one point that was made is in terms of uh getting folks back out all right we got a series of meetings that will will will occur again I think the term draft and the like uh is important uh to emphasize uh as we are going through these meetings if I if I understand that the the in-depth Community meetings with the impacted families will be after the second will be on the second Maps it won't be on on these Maps it'll be on the second these will be General meetings but the the detailed Community meetings will be after the SEC the revised maps are done correct those that will be at a non-school site uh in the community would be correct after the

223Senate that make that'll help okay go ahead can I can we just have confirmation that the committee has had time to meet I know they've had to cancel a a couple of the meetings with the redistricting committee so has the redistricting committee had the chance to weigh in on the these Maps so far yes as I mentioned these what you see here are just the public meetings we did not I did not publish the show the uh reassignment committee meetings that are scheduled uh to occur before these occur before okay that's what I was curious about they're before thank you okay any other questions comments thoughts perspectives all right thank you thank you all very much and we look forward to um seeing even more okay motion to adjourn we need a motion to adjourn

224second second all in favor I I thank you all very much we are adjourned