Orange County Board of Education Regular Meeting - August 21, 2023

001thank you I can call this meeting to order oh excuse me I'd like to call this meeting to order we need a motion to go into closed session okay I moved at the board in a closed session pursuant to North Carolina General statutes 143 318.1.11 subsection A1 A3 and A6 to consult with the attorney and preserve the attorney client privilege to consider confidential Personnel matters and to prevent the disclosure of personnel information that uh confidential under North Carolina General statutes 115 C 319 and student information that is confidential under North Carolina General statute 115 c402 and 20 United States code one two three two G okay second all in favor aye aye aye okay okay I got you will thank you foreign good evening like to call this meeting of the October the October August

002the 21st meeting of the Board of Education to order we welcome everyone here tonight thank you for being here we will have our um public charge the Orange County Board of Education pledges to his citizens to conduct this business in a courteous and productive manner showing respect for fellow board members staff and citizens the board asked its citizens to conduct themselves with the same courtesy toward both School personnel and each other a moment of silence would be observed before each meeting the board asked that you check your cell phones and other electronic devices to be certain they are either turned off or on vibrate to avoid interruptions of the meeting thank you can you all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please [Music] thank you we will now observe a moment of silence all right

003thank you and we will begin tonight with recognitions and Dr Merrill or Mr Smith I'm not sure who's in charge of recognitions thank you Mrs Purcell members of the board um we're going to have two recognitions this evening both focused on Hillsborough Elementary School principal Jessica Naj is going to come and give us a little bit of an intro to the first half of the first quarter of the year and then she's going to segue to talking about the teacher of the year Adam canossa who's going to show off a little bit of what he's been doing so Mrs Nash come on foreign thank you Mr Smith good evening chair Purcell Vice chair Richmond and board members thank you so much for having me here tonight I am thrilled to speak with you about what's

004been our first five weeks and one day of school um so we are off to a wonderful start at Hillsborough this year our mission is ensuring Student Success by inspiring hearts and minds and there has been no shortage of inspiration curiosity and collaboration we do have a school-wide theme this year of the power of connection and so we've been really purposeful about building connections um throughout our school day with things like book buddies with our community also building um uh connections just with teacher leadership and building more movement into our classroom setting building in um uh more Hands-On learning we are making a splash you can see our while our dolphin was there a second ago um dancing with Mr Moreno and various other students we're teaching our kids to be safe respectful responsible and

005engaged leaders um some other ways that we are off to a great start are just by keeping our mtss structure strong at our school we've got really strong plc's they're digging in they're looking at the data they're doing hard work making sure that our dolphins are getting everything that we need we have a fantastic dolphin pod and I will say that our staff and teachers are amazing and they have done a great job of supporting each other and supporting our students as we start the year and I just kind of wanted to end my little section by saying that we are very grateful and very happy to have received so much support already at the start of this year um you can see that Mr uh Lee Williams came to visit I know Ms Doyle

006came and opened car doors one day Hank McKee has answered the phone every single time I have called and I've been so grateful we had people come and help us out with kindergarten recess when we needed support and so we were just eternally grateful for all of the support we've gotten already this year and without further Ado I would like to introduce you to the one the only Adam canossa he is our teacher of the year for very good reason he has done some amazing work with his program songcraft and as you can see in one of the pictures there our students engaged using it our kids love it and he's just done amazing work and I'm really really proud to be here with him tonight Mr canosa hello everybody thank you so much for

007having me my name is Adam canossa I have had the pleasure of teaching music at Hillsborough Elementary for 11 years my 12th year I'm here to speak about a program that I made but I wanted to give a little back story on this so coming out of the coveted pandemic into the music classroom we were very excited to be back live but we really couldn't do anything kids in at least in the classroom of my size could barely sing together most of the instruments that are typical for my curriculum we were unable to play and so we did the best we could for a nine-week period and then I went home over an intercession really frustrated without being able to provide something that was engaging and could kind of bring back sort of the symbol

008to Joy that we had prior to the pandemic in my classroom and so I had spent the beginning months of the code pandemic at home kind of treating that like the sabbatical I was never going to have from teaching and rapidly can ravishly consumed coding modules which got me to a point where um on this particular intercept and I was able to create a platform that I've called songcraft it is a game-based adaptive tool that allows students to utilize their Chromebooks as a playable instrument they can play this in Ensemble as a full class or they can play individually and when they do play individually they receive live feedback based on how they're playing along several scales and that data is gathered and sent to me as a teacher which has greatly improved my planning

009time as well which has further helped my instructional time to be able to make sure that uh yeah I'm sucking up every minute of that that I get so I believe you can see it hopefully everyone can see it right now um this is actually the shop right now so when kids come into my classroom let's say a second grade class comes in they pull up songcraft they have this unique room that stairs that's customizable uh there's sort of an in-app currency they can earn through playing songs and they can spend that on things in their home when we are in class session together we head to class and the students pull up the song that they are working on together as an ensemble then they have access to just the pitches that they need

010for this particular song [Music] there is a massive lag right now so I'm not going to demonstrate playing a song because it would look a little ridiculous and I'm sure everything would be a couple seconds behind um so basically there is that ability for them to play as an ensemble and then playing individually looks more like this they pull up the song it's adaptive for their skill set uh ongoing iterations of this program will be more highly adapted I want to speak a little bit to the attraction I've had on this project so my students who use this uh coming back the second half of the 2021-2022 school year not only exceeded you know they they overcame their learning loss from covid but we're actually playing songs and demonstrating better Mastery of Music Theory above

011even a grade level above uh where they had been and it was just simply because they were playing this some students for hours outside of school and experiencing flow and actually really enjoying getting some intrinsic motivation out of just playing music and reading it um that brought me to UNC for a grad program I've been completing the masters of educational innovation technology and Entrepreneurship course at UNC um and this past spring I was actually selected for an NC idea Grant micro grant for ten thousand dollars towards building this thing out which I've employed to Contracting some better devs to take my very disgusting code and make it more industry standard I'm also here because I have been accepted into the semi-final round of a National Science Foundation Grant process known as the vital prize and

012I can't remember the uh the acronym but it's about ex learning Innovative tools and so we started over I think 300 people in that process and I'm down to 154 and I earned twenty thousand dollars again to sort of build out further build out this prototype of mine and this is an ongoing Grant process so over the next three weeks I'll work with a teacher Mentor out in Arizona to further prototype try to get this thing into some other schools to potentially pilot it and see how it works in various systems under various circumstances and hopefully if I'm one of the top 18 we'll be able to earn 50 000 and have a chance to be a finalist to earn significantly more than that so thank you very much for your time if you have

013any questions I'll be more than happy to have you in the classroom so you can kind of see it in uh in real life but thank you so much for your time [Applause] so thanks for letting us bring our episode of Shark Tank here to the board meeting tonight and um we'll try to keep the positive energy going wow and that's our recognition I'd like to go to the classroom and see all of that that's that's just fascinating so thank you very much okay and we will move to agenda adoption and Mom would oh did you say something no okay I thought you were stopping me uh we will move to agenda adoption and I would like to ask for a motion to adjust the agent agenda just for a statement that I would like

014to read to everyone so if the board would grant me that um then I will do that before we um go into public comment but if I could if we could have a motion that I make I read that comment I move that we adopted the agenda with of chair motion at the beginning second okay thank you Mr Atherton is is on the computer tonight um Zoom with with us tonight so that was Mr Atherton um all in favor aye aye okay thank you very much okay at this time I will um make that comment and then um Mr um Richmond will read the um public comment section okay all right on behalf of the Orange County Board of Education I would like to make a statement with regard to action taken by the North

015Carolina State Legislature legislature late last week the North Carolina House and Senate enacted legislation that has caused a great deal of concern and anxiety for our lgbtqia students families and for our school district and for this board as a result we want you to know and understand that the Orange County Board remains fully and unequivocally committed to diversity equity and inclusion for every student parent Guardian teacher staff member and volunteer that is a part of our school system we remain focused on creating a school environment where everyone feels safe and included and are always welcomed within our buildings we respect and value our LGBT iqia students staff and families and we will continue to work to provide a secure and supportive School environment we strongly feel that every student deserves a caring nurturing School experience

016built on trusting relationships with teachers and staff the Orange County Board of Education and Orange County School System welcome all students and families to our buildings the Orange County Board of Education will continue our commitment to diversity Equity inclusion and safety for each of our students our families and our staff and I'm going to ask Mr Smith if he will post this on our webpage I have sent him a copy of it and if he will post that then everyone who is not here tonight and not listening will be able to see that thank you all for allowing me to do that um Mr Richmond now for public comment the Board of Education welcomes public comments which are governed by board policy 2310 and North Carolina General statute 143-318.17 a person wishing to address the

017board must sign up prior to the board's regular meeting comments will be limited to three minutes when the three minutes in the speaker must stop speaking immediately yielding time to another speaker will not be permitted all public comments should be civil and non-disruptive prayer policy board members will listen carefully but will not respond to speakers also remember when you come up to speak speak slowly and clearly for the interpreters so they can interpret what you're saying to the to the community thank you [Music] first up we have Nina Morley day good evening Anonymous you know me I am Nana Morley today I proudly taught in the North Carolina public schools for 36 and a half years all but two of those years we're here at the mighty Orange High School and as Matt Hamlin an

018amazing former OHS faculty member always said once a panther always a panther I'm here tonight to make sure that you know that I fully support public education I want you to know that I understand the process of leading a school system is difficult and often messy many days it's a thankless job to be on the school board these are undoubtedly some of those thankless days recently I've joined the public school strong group through heal North heal together North Carolina because I strongly support their mission that students deserve honest accurate safe Equitable and fully funded Public Schools as citizens of our County and state we cannot stand by while laws and policies at harm our Public Schools students and staff are created I urge you to continue to work for all students in our schools as

019a school system we are making progress but there's still much work to be done this work needs to go beyond the surface changes and it must include the hard work of changing mindsets and how our school environment feels for each student real change is never going to happen overnight and it is going to require a consistent effort for many tenacious people working together please remember that many people in our community believe that our Orange County Public Schools are doing a great job for example I want to thank you for the individual corporate support and recognition that you provided to the various levels of our first robotics program as a member of that community and as a science teacher I will always continue to advocate for a strong stem and steam programs in our school please

020continue to help us provide opportunities for our students to learn Technical and non-technical skills develop As Leaders as they work together with many different people to solve complex problems finally it's essential during these difficult times that all of us look beyond the rhetoric and the positioning that's being done to find the key areas where we can all agree on in order to move forward it's important to always remember the question should always be what is best for our students and how can we as adults work to make that happen part of my solution is always going to be that each student deserves honest accurate safe Equitable and fully funded Public Schools thank you so much for your support and for the opportunity to speak thank you [Applause] we have Hillary McKenzie last week the North

021Carolina General Assembly overrode the governor's veto of several bills that actively harm children and families and staff members of this and every District in North Carolina I applaud leadership from the Chapel Hill carborough City School Board for making a prompt statement that they stand unequivocally with their lgbtq community waiting until tonight was too long at last week's meeting the first public comment sent Atherton Hauser Richmond and Purcell bought out Dr felder's contract the groups and people who support them showed up to talk about Unity while also delivering anti-lgbt while some also delivered anti-lgbtq messages conservative groups like friends of Orange County schools and moms for Liberty support the board majority of four and have strong ties to outright conservative groups like The North Carolina Values Coalition and the Ed First Alliance if you are taking

022money and endorsements from groups who promote anti-lgbtq rhetoric you send a message that these are also your values you may think Miss Hauser that by recently switching your political affiliation to the Democratic party that you will be able to fool people in the upcoming election but we see you for exactly who you are your personal campaign contribution in 2022 to a North Carolina Values Coalition trained candidate for this board is very concerning equally concerning is that you aren't honest enough to stand behind your actual political beliefs and party please stop hiding and start telling the truth you didn't support Dr Felder your micromanagement and disrespect palpable in your interactions with her you associate with alt-right organizations who do not support the rights of every child in this District you are not a Democrat you said

023your priority on this board was academics but then you ousted a superintendent who was making incredible academic strides with our students be honest you said you were worried about the budget and started rumors about financial indiscretions but when two audits showed no wrongdoing on behalf of Dr Felder you still spent two hundred thousand dollars out of the fund balance you claim to be worried about to buy out her contract be honest it's one thing to just not like Dr Felder and want her gone it's one thing to be against steady progress of equity work and OCS it's one thing to have conservative values but just be honest about what exactly it is you stand for if you miss Hauser and anyone else in this room want to work to better the lives of every child

024in this district with all of the intentional and difficult work that comes with that we should all welcome that kind of collaboration and respectful discourse but when people only call for Unity around leaders and issues they support then they demonstrate exactly why justice for all of our children is so important thank you next is Wendy Padilla [Music] hello everyone it's my first time here my name is Wendy Padilla I've been reciting in Hillsboro for the past five years I have formally worked in the public school system I'm here as an advocate for the community I'm also a member of the NAACP I'm here to express my concern on where the public school system is headed I believe that all children have the right to an equal equitable inclusive and safe environment to learn again I

025believe that all children have the right to an equal Equitable inclusive and in safe environment to learn I am wondering why the Orange County School Board is not abiding by these basic simple principles I am wondering if the school board does not have any concern about our future whatever happened to equality and justice for all because this is an injustice in addition to losing the superintendent the supported equality equity inclusiveness in a safe environment it is an injustice thank you for your time thank you [Applause] next we have Stacy Sewell good evening good evening my name is Stacy Sewell my son Sam went to New Hope Elementary stand back and Cedar Ridge so I'm a former parent in this District I'm here tonight because I came last week for the or last time for the

026first time in a long time and I listened to the people who were speaking and they talked about Unity they talked a lot about Unity but all I heard from them was this fear this palpable fear of anyone who wasn't quite like them and they said things they said they wanted to focus on reading and writing and arithmetic and just keep the focus on the kids on the kids and one of the examples they gave was of a rainbow flag on the cover of a yearbook which somehow violated um their focus on the kids in the mind of this particular speaker and and I thought a lot about that in the time since that meeting and I thought about my son who has two moms and who went through Orange County Schools being welcomed being

027honestly we always felt welcomed as families um and and things like that rainbow flag in my point of view are a focus on the kids because the kids need to feel like their families are welcome here not just white families not just straight families but all families and it just feels very disingenuous to talk about Unity but then to only have a certain type of family in mind that's welcome you know and then when you see things like the recent laws coming from the state um it it really makes one think that a school board will have to put their actions where their statements are you know as far as supporting teachers if a teacher acts in support of a family maybe every all the students are drawing pictures of their family and one draws

028a picture with two moms and a kid says what's that about and the mom answers the or the teacher answers the question technically they've violated the law how much support will the board be giving you know what I'm saying like there could be legal expenses there could be a need to support those teachers and and the kids will appreciate it the kids whose families you are supporting and the kids who are you are welcoming thank you [Music] next is Heather Redding good evening my name is Heather Redding and I'm here as a community member parent Public School advocate and Ally with the start of the new school year right around the corner kids should be returning to the classroom with the typical feelings of any student excitement nervousness Etc this year many students are returning

029knowing that they have been let down by those with power in our state as you well know last week the general assembly waged war on public education targeting some of the most vulnerable students and bowing down to the right Wing's ongoing assault on Equity with the passage of the parents Bill of Rights the ban on trans athletes for participating in school sports through criminalizing of gender affirming care for minors many students will be starting the new school year in a place of deep hurt fear betrayal and uncertainty many are starting school not knowing if the classroom will be a place of safety from bigotry because the door has been opened and the red carpet unrolled to welcome in extremist groups like moms for Liberty groups whom will undoubtedly use the parents Bill of Rights to

030gut Public School curriculum of any content that doesn't align with their right-wing America First anti-dei agenda it's not just students being harmed there are now Targets on the backs of superintendents Librarians Equity leaders and any educator who dare advocate for equity and diversity and yet crickets from the Orange County School Board until tonight as right-wing extremists turn back the clock stripping away the progress that civil rights leaders lgbtq plus leaders education Advocates and others have made in the fight for access to an equitable educational environment for all students you must not remain silent or offer lukewarm statements of support silence sends a message to kids and Educators that neutrality is acceptable in the face of bigotry silence invites more extremism in the days to come silence invites more legislation that if we are to learn

031anything from Florida will lead to the Banning of courses like African-American studies and AP psychology in our Public Schools silence indicates approval our black brown indigenous immigrant lgbtq plus disabled and historically oppressed students deserve to be seen and supported exactly right now they deserve to know that you're on their side that you're advocating for their safety and well-being and that as their access to an equitable and inclusive education is being legally Stripped Away you have their best interests in mind not your political careers I urge you to speak out louder and offer tangible resources to students and Educators impacted by these new laws to the few of you who have already spoken up as individuals thank you for your statements to those who haven't made individual public statements the community expects more of you either

032speak up or get out of Education [Applause] next is Megan Dara good evening board and Dr Merrill thank you for taking public comment I want to express my concern about the recent developments in the North Carolina General Assembly that make North Carolina a less welcoming place for lgbtq plus individuals as a parent of an Orange County School student and a Community member I want to show my support for lgbtq plus individuals in our community every student staff member deserves a respectful and accepting environment where they feel safe and valued for who they are our lgbtq plus students and staff are an important part of our community and these new laws lead to isolation and marginalization therefore I'm asking the Orange County Schools Board of Education to honor their commitment to these individuals and those that

033support them I'm asking that all members of this board support this community with more than just a statement a statement given by board chair Purcell a board of education member on record as wanting to remove lgbtq plus materials from the school libraries it rings Hollow and insecure your actions and inactions speak volumes to your commitment by upholding and creating a policy that truly supports lgbtq plus students and staff you can demonstrate your commitment and uphold important Orange County Community Values thank you thank you next is Michael Johnson foreign chair Purcell Vice chair Richmond and the members of the board thank you for your service I will start by providing context before getting into the point or the meat of my comments my name is Michael Johnson and I am a 1992 graduate of Orange High

034School I am the father of two children who currently attend Orange County Public Schools one of whom has exceptional needs my family has lived in Orange County for literally centuries I had a sin from enslaved people who worked on plantations within a few minutes drive from here my torian ancestors upon receiving their freedom were instrumental in the founding of latticeville Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Hurdle Mills my Wilson ancestors did the same for Mount bright Missionary Baptist Church here in Hillsboro I am in some way or another related to everyone from Hillsboro my beautiful black wife who by the way wears natural hair and I recently celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary we are both proud alumni of historically black universities I currently serve as the second vice president of my alma Mater's National Alumni Association

035and finally I am honored to be a member of friends of Orange County Schools I'm here tonight to push back on the false narrative that we are some Fringe right-wing white supremacist group we are simply a group of concerned parents and citizens who seek to ensure Orange County students receive a high quality education that prepares them for success in their future endeavors whether that be immediate entry into the workforce attending trade school or going on to a four-year College our membership spans multiple ethnicities age groups and political ideologies are some of us conservative yes are some of us liberal you betcha and while we may not always agree on everything we do agree that a stellar school system makes for a stellar Community overall as I look at the people sitting in front of me

036I along with friends of Orange County schools celebrate the fact that you are under the capable capable female leadership of chair Purcell that you have highly respected black members and vice chair Richmond and board member Dr Moore that a Jewish woman like board member Hauser has a say in making decisions on behalf of our students and teachers we celebrate not only their ethnic diversity but also their diversity of thought however this diversity must not and this is my personal gripe come at the expense of black students who too often have a mindset of Oppression projected on them from a small group of people with a savior complex and too much time on their hands to Dr Merrill I say welcome friends of Orange County schools look forward to partnering with you and the board to

037make Orange County Public Schools a beacon of light for years to come [Applause] next we have Lynn Carswell good evening my name is Lynn Carswell but I'm here to share the words of an Orange County School Rising 9th grade student in response to New State legislation passed this week they say these laws that are being put into place have been more than overwhelmingly upsetting my friends and I had a safe space with our favorite teacher if these laws are enforced that's gone we had somebody we had some places that we actually felt heard now that's gone these laws are not at all protecting anybody they're not helping anyone they're not really what they claim to be they're only made to put children in danger children why does our government try to control what our children

038do with their lives we the lgbtq plus youth of North Carolina are scared we're scared to get up in the morning scared to leave our homes scared to go to school scared to go to work scared because when laws like this get supported by people who should be caring for us protecting us leading us how else are we supposed to feel about those within 10 feet of us I thank the student for sharing these words thank you [Applause] please excuse me if I mispronounce your last name next we have Kate for herdy all right I'm sorry good evening I'm Kate Verity your pronunciation is fine I'm a proud parent of two young men who went through Orange County schools and in fact attended Hillsborough Elementary and I'm so proud and thrilled to see how vibrant

039and and Innovative and effective that school remains and I I'm just say go Dolphins because my older son walked into that school the first day it opened and I I owe them a lot but I wanted to be here today because I support the public schools strongly and I've also got more comments from another Rising 9th grade student that I have agreed to read and this so this is from this student out of every anti-lg ptq plus law passed one word comes to mind that fits all of them suppression these students have been harassed and bullied in school for just being who they are all of these laws that are being put into place are just fueling that harassment and bullying the laws are just making us feel less and less like human beings and

040more like objects that you can just do whatever you want with everyone says that times have changed and everyone is accepted now but if that were the case why are all these laws being made solely to suppress and silence us thank you for your time tonight thank you next is Kelly suttles good evening I came here tonight to ask the board to issue a statement to reassure students families and teachers that they will still be safe at school and that these laws will not harm these recent laws that obviously everyone's been talking about this evening that these laws will not harm or exclude anyone in our schools I thank you for making that statement tonight I too wish it had come sooner but I still appreciate that you've done that um however I think that

041as another speaker mentioned about the ambiguity of these laws um teachers are being put in a really impossible situation um it's just going to be very difficult as to what they can and can't say in their classroom just discussing families with children I mean it's just it's very basic and lgbtqia folks are part of our community they are our families our school families you know I mean they're just part of our community and so for teachers to not be able to talk about families are just that's very hard so I think you're going to need to make a little bit more um you're going to have to go a little further in your statement and and make teachers understand how supported they are to continue policies that you already have here um so since um

042I don't need to really give my statement urging you to make this statement um I just want to reiterate what Nina said at the beginning um the group that I'm part of public school strong I think that a majority of parents really love their Public Schools love the schools their children attend I know I really like Orange County schools and the school my children go to and so I really think that we're the majority um so let's get back to the work of honest accurate safe Equitable and fully funded Public Schools manufactured controversies or just that so we don't need to focus on that thank you thank you next is Matt Hughes good evening chair Purcell Vice chair Richmond and members of the board while many of you know me and that I'm Matt Hughes

043and I serve as the mayor Pro tem for the town of Hillsboro I'm speaking today in my capacity as president of the northern orange NAACP and is a proud 2009 graduate of Cedar Ridge High School where I also served as the student body president many of my NAACP members are concerned about the direction of the school system since the departure of Dr Monique Felder while Dr Merrill I've heard has many great qualities as a public school leader the departure of his predecessor has shaken the confidence of many of my members as an elected official I'm routinely asked about what's going on in our schools by folks not only in the community but also around the region and they are bewildered and seeking answers and I understand what they're saying when the legislature overrode the governor's

044vetoes last week regarding so-called parental rights this board as a group was silent until this evening no mention of the overreach into the lives of our students no mention of protecting the marginalized no mention of the Republican super majority failing to enact a budget that pays our teachers what they're worth we're expanding Medicaid that would benefit so many of our students and families in our community 14 years ago as an lgbtq student I would have been looking to y'all to have my back and speak out loudly and in real time in a dark and tumultuous time in public education in our state as a proud graduate of our schools I know we can do better our students deserve better and I truly believe that all of you each of you ran because you want what's

045best for our students and therefore let's not fall on the wrong side of history and let's rise to the occasion and do the right thing for this District when it comes to safety equity and opportunity and I hope you can rise to that same school mission statement we said every morning at Central Elementary when Sheila McDonald was our principal that stuck with me well over 20 years later that every child will attain academic excellence and a safe and supportive environment thank you thank you next is Sarah Bert timmel please forgive me it's my very first time getting up in front of speaking speaking in front of a large group other than spoken word good evening first I would like to thank all of our school board members staff and teachers for their hard work and

046commitment to our schools and community I appreciate the opportunity to speak this evening as well our future is in the hands of our children in the community though I am not a parent nor grandparent of children currently in our school system I can promise I care deeply and have been extremely active for our children in the past not only are my children grown are my grown children products of Orange County Schools I have been an active advocate for years not only for my own children but for many others as well my advocacy has extended to those struggled who struggled academically on an IEP or an ESL or perhaps even those identified as gifted I have kept an open door for those who have struggled were bullied suffered from depression or simply just wanted to talk

047I have lived in Hillsboro most recently since 2002 and my former Boy Scout leader in Orange County a former band booster mom at Orange Middle School formerly Stanford a former soccer manager for triangle United a former diving team chauffeur whatever I'll keep going all Wilds working full-time is a paralegal my point is that I care very much about all of our children regardless of race ethnicity gender economic background or sexual orientation as well as their rights I can promise you one must be in order to do our children I can promise you one must be in order to do our children and World Justice I also understand that I am that I and my children had a better chance in our school systems because of systemic racism and privilege it's a hard pill to swallow

048but it's true though I have been on my own since I was 18 years of age worked hard my entire life I had privileges others did not have and my time's about ready to run out so I'm going to go to the end in conclusion this old woman of 64 who considers herself somewhat knowledgeable and experienced on these levels strongly encourages Equity training for staff and students combined with inclusion in our schools please don't stop teaching to our children's differing abilities but please teach equity and true history thank you let's get the whole paragraph forgive me I'm not a speaker next is Lori Tepper foreign good evening board members and Dr Merrill it's time for change for new leadership for a new season for incoming students teachers and staff and change in new laws some

049people look forward to change and some people avoid it at all costs My Hope Is that you are looking ahead to these changes through a positive lens I'm here tonight to encourage you to adapt your current policy to adhere to the parents Bill of Rights in North Carolina that was recently passed and is effective immediately under the current gender support guidelines the following changes need to take place regarding pronouns OCS policy states students are not required to obtain parental consent as a prerequisite to being addressed by the name and pronoun they select that corresponds to their gender identity NC State law states prior to any changes in the name or pronoun used for a student in school records or by school Personnel notice to the apparent of the change is required regarding parental involvement OCS

050policy states in some cases transgender students may not want their parents to know about their transgender status the school principal or their designee should speak with the student first to ascertain concerns the student may have what support may be needed to keep that students safe at school and how to involve the student's parents if at all staff should be mindful that parents of minor children have rights under FERPA to inspect records maintained by the school that are related to their children if a student's parents does not know or is not supportive it may be preferable to not complete the gender support plan NC State law states employees are required to encourage a child to discuss issues related to the child's well-being with his or her parent or facilitate discussion of the issue with a child's

051parents an employee of the state who attempts to encourage or coerce a child to withhold information from his or her parent may be subject to disciplinary action School Personnel shall not discourage or prohibit parental notification of an involvement in critical decisions affecting the student's mental emotional physical health or well-being regarding the pride curriculum that was taught in May of this year moving forward the law prohibits that kind of teaching for grades K through four so not only do you need to make changes you need to add policy and hold the teachers accountable Mr Atherton as the head of a policy committee we expect you to work with your colleagues to make the appropriate changes and additions to the OCS policy to conform to the state law without delay I'm sure you know that this law

052includes remedies including our right to bring action and attain injunctive relief if you don't make this right and I just want to say one other thing if I can it would be very helpful if you scheduled quarterly Town Halls to dialogue with the public about the work that you're doing how much money is being sent as well as answering questions and where this money is being allocated that would be a welcoming positive change for transparency thank you thank you [Applause] next is Danielle price good evening chair Purcell Vice chair Richmond fellow board members Dr Merrill District staff and other community members I am the mother of a sixth grader at Orange middle school and a proud 2001 graduate of Orange High School last week I listened while community members spoke with such Pride about her

053work with hate free school coalition but this past week has left my spirit unsettled and made me wonder how much of what we preached do we actually put into practice I've seen and heard adults take blatant shots and make disparaging remarks at people all while proclaiming to practice kindness and tolerance but how does that work are we only tolerant of people whose thoughts and opinions Echo our own we ask our children to be free thinkers yet we aren't we asked them to stand up to bullying yet some of the biggest bullies are sitting in this room for the past six weeks we found ourselves focused on the actions of adults and I'm begging you to shift your focus to the issues that are plaguing our district and our students classroom teaching positions that have been

054vacant for two plus years widesparated discipline problems poor performing schools service level disparities That Vary drastically from school to school and while it is beyond necessary for us to redistrict without addressing our disparities with access to resources that's only going to further mask our problem rather than fix them so how are we working to prioritize meeting the needs of our students our families our amazing Educators and our admins everyone sitting here today took an oath of service and I ask that as you reflect on that oath that you remember your charges to serve everyone not just the people who voted for you because I'm sure that we can all agree that our children deserve better than what they're getting and what they're seeing from us [Applause] next is latondra strong hello board members how are

055you um I'm here today I talk about a lot of things and I got some things written down but I feel like it's important to say something the whole point of diversity equity and inclusion you don't have to have a long history and a track record to be valued that a just a mom could come up and talk to you and be valued that I don't have to have a bunch of letters behind my name and that you would listen to me that what I have what my concerns for my children would be heard and wouldn't fall on deaf ears that if I don't adopt to A Confederacy Christianity that you will still listen to me that's the point of hate free schools that's why we hate preschools got started so because Equity has been

056on my heart for a long time now here are the things that I will propose that we keep our Equity policy that we don't alter it but that we strengthen it that we follow the Strategic plan that was left by Dr Felder because it was working and we wanted to continue to work that we protect black principals who quite frankly feel under attack and that we examine all the black leadership that has been that have left this District very um or come under attack by Personnel issues in the last year that we protect our lgbtq students and Families because they need us at a time like this that we stop attacking our Equity Department and that we that we um that we call into question some of the ethical behavior that I see that is

057that is troubling by Schoolboy and by board members I think you need to revisit what school board members should be doing and what should be left to District the district and to teachers I'm going to say the last minute for something that's near and dear to my heart I want to apologize to Tamara Matheson for what happened in this boardroom and and the disrespect that was given her and the sharing of personnel issues in this boardroom I want to apologize to Joyce I saw you I saw you stand up and be disrespected by this boy in ways that I haven't seen any person with any other race be disrespected I want to talk about I want to talk to Lee Williams to tell you I'm sorry that people are telling lies about you calling you

058a communist and a Marxist you are a strong man you have you have an education that supports the work that you do and you're a Christian man that's a leader of a home with Christian values I want to apologize to all the students and family that hurt the nonsense that was there that was shared in this community it was hurtful and we shouldn't thank people when they come up and say disparaging things to people in the in the audience we should instead instead caution against it thank you [Applause] next is Gretchen Smith thank you good evening Dr Merrill and members of the board in community um I just wanted to first read this section because it's always enlightening to actually read the laws and not just people that are commenting about the laws but this

059there this was brought up in a question in an earlier comment age-appropriate instruction for grades kindergarten through fourth grade instruction on gender identity sexual activity or sexuality shall not be included in the curriculum provided in grades kindergarten through fourth grade regardless of whether the information is provided by school Personnel or third parties for the purposes of this section curriculum includes a standard course of study and support materials locally developed curriculum supplemental instruction and textbooks and other supplementary materials but does not include responses to student initiated questions like about family for instance um so in in light of the commitment of Orange County schools for every student faculty and staff to feel and be safe in the school district I wanted to share here an alarming experience which was reported recently in the assembly by Barry

060Yeoman on August 7th earlier this month concerning the Orange County School's Chief Equity officer he was quoted as saying one Father William said called him 19 times in a single day do you think you're safe the parent asked do you think your family's safe I have reckoned with this idea this is a work I will die for he said which is the the title of the article there is no evidence available publicly that gives any indication that an investigation took place threatening the life of anyone is a serious crime generally with serious consequences a parent behaving this way undermines the opportunity and Community discussion brought by all community members regardless of however many differences exist between anyone Monster Liberty dances and calls for an extensive investigation of this behavior and for this parent to be

061accountable to the law for the threatening the life and the safety of Mr Williams the chief Equity officer thank you thank you next is Cindy Schreiner okay thank you next is David Ogden a few days ago I went to see a High School tennis match this match was a little different than any I've seen before it was last Wednesday it was 91 degrees outside most of the girls were wearing standard tennis shorts and tank tops however a few of them were dressed in full-length burkas their attire was completely black and it covered them from ankles to wrist to their neck and over their head my first thought was wow that must be difficult playing in those dresses in this heat as I thought about it more I started to wonder what kind of creep would

062I have to be to approach one of those girls and say Hey there you look a little hot in that burka you know you can put something more comfortable on right don't worry I won't tell your parents and you can put the burka back on before you go home so that you won't get in trouble you may be wondering does my own teenage daughter wear a burqa no do I agree that girls should keep themselves covered that way no does our American Society at large agree with that type of dress for girls no does anyone regardless of their position have the right to interject between those girls and their parents on this matter what kind of person would I have to be when I see parenting I disagree with to approach the child and convince

063them I am their Ally and that I'm going to help them do things that their parents can't help them with what kind of misguided thinking could allow me to believe that I have more love or Insight or Compassion or intelligence or understanding or morality than the fathers of these girls our gender support policy authorizes staff in our schools to engage with the child about their sexuality and to avoid keeping written records so that parents do not become aware of what school staff are doing with their child we've all seen how this policy has attracted and emboldened adults in our district who are indulgently gratified by becoming allies and co-conspirators with children regarding their sexuality every lgbtq plus child deserves dignity kindness and a safe place in our community but our community has so-called allies who

064are perpetrating emotional abuse against the children I can't think of a more Sinister way to crush a child's sense of security or identity than to leverage your position of trust to undermine that child's relationship with their own parent this policy and these types of actions are harmful for lgbtq children and their families the mindsets they promote are bad for every child and they are toxic in our community board members I appreciate your commitment to every student including lgbtq students I know you are under immense pressure to give in to the will of one mob or the other I hope you will continue your course to Rise Above This pressure and focus on the needs of every child thank you [Applause] lastly we have Bella Morelli hello and thank you for your time tonight my name

065is Bella and I am a sophomore at Orange County schools and today I'll be sharing the words from an Orange County School's Rising 9th grade student in response to New State legislation passed last week confining stupid unbelievable bad disappointing scary exhausting heartbreaking aggravating upsetting dehumanizing unfair these are some of the many words used by lgbtq youth describing the laws words to describe the mental pain they are feeling words they use to even grasp the feeling of when supposedly going to a safe space that will never be safe words they have to feel each day when waking up the many words they have to think and feel each second each minute each hour each day every month every season and every single year I wonder if I'm going to be okay am I valid I was

066afraid of not being taken seriously am I going to be harassed why am I still here I just want you to love me why do you hate me for being who I am am I going to make it to school okay these are the phrases being released from our hearts and our minds the phrases that put a shock through our bones and our skin we are still children we are still human oh but you don't understand you're a child you're too young you don't know what's good for you but I'm more than just a child you get to sculpt like clay I'm not just a robot you can program with your ways I will always be human oh but you're still living you're still okay these things made you stronger they made you okay you

067were able to overcome this why are you making such a big deal the only thing that should have been making me okay was the milk for my bones and my brain not my pain and that of others being weighed on my shoulders not the pain of wondering if I'll be bullied in school not the pain of being outed to ones who seek me harm not the pain or realizing that the world will never change I didn't need hate all I needed was comfort so I beg and I plead before it's too late love your children love yourself accept who you are accept who others are change the laws change the ways of the world before our world comes into erupting Flames ready to destroy much more than the children and the people you so much

068fear I would like to thank the student for sharing this thought these their thoughts and I would like to thank you for your time thank you that concludes our public comment thank you Mr Richmond thank you again to everyone who came and spoke and brings their thoughts ideas opinions as I said last week we need to hear we want to hear what you have to say and I appreciate it we will now move to approving the consent agenda do I have a motion to approve so moved do I have a second second any discussion okay all in favor aye aye all right consent agenda is approved we move into um our information on Title One and grants I believe Dr Merrill a good evening chairman Purcell Vice chair of Mr Richmond welcome and board members

069and good evening Dr Merrill this evening I'm delighted to have MS Wagner present our Title One budget request which will allow her to the school system to apply for the grant that releases Title One funds if you recall back in June she presented the proposed Title One plan given the what was expected funds how many schools would support and the amount she will provide an update to that proposal and as we get the final dollar we'll come back and share that information with you as well also if you recall around October of last year we presented the title one plan and so after submitting if we get approval to to request or submit the the application then we will come back and present you with the title one clan good evening chair Purcell board members

070and Dr Merrill as Dr Green stated I am here tonight to give you an update from the June 1st presentation that we presented based off preliminary allotments the good news is we are planning allotments a little bit higher than what we anticipated in June and we certainly hope that when they get a budget pass for us it'll be even higher so funds are allocated for a variety of reasons to our Title 1 schools our Title 1 schools this money is used to help support them to provide resources above and beyond what all the other schools have schools can choose to use these funds in a variety of ways but funds have to be aligned to their school Improvement plan and be rooted in stakeholder feedback and a data informed need and one of the documents

071that I've created for them this year for a planning document is that they're tracking that doc that data throughout the year so that we can see are we getting the feedback and the return for our investment with those funds that are being spent for our Title 1 School allocations we've had a few changes since last June as we talked about Pathways Elementary coming on as a title one school this year and also in the recent weeks we've discovered that um partnership Academy will also be brought on the reason that partnership Academy is being brought on although we only serve Elementary band right now is that the state requires us to serve any school that is over 75 percent free and reduced lunch so I've been in very close contact with um Stan over the past

072few weeks getting prepared prepared for that so the allocations that you see there are school allocations this is an increase of approximately two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in direct school allotments from last year's budget a portion of our carryover funds were used to increase School allocations within the allow allowable parameters from Title 1 guidelines allotments are to schools are determined by rank order meaning that the highest poverty percentage is served first and then we go down from there for this school year we identified only two poverty bands which is a change from last year we had three different poverty Vans but because of the increase in our free reduced lunch numbers we've seen our bands are getting closer and closer together in the highest poverty band the freedom reduced percent percentages range from 73

073to 80 percent partnership Academy Central New Hope and Evelyn cheeks are all in this highest band in the lower poverty ban the free reduced lunch numbers range from 60 to 61 percent so they're very close together our minimum per people allotment we determine that by dividing the total amount left to a lot to schools by our number of free and reduced lunch eligible students in the district at all schools that would have been 228 dollars for this year we our lowest per people allotment is 542 dollars for our lowest band New Hope efflon and Grady Brown saw an increase in their planning allocations fifty three thousand eighty thousand and three thousand dollars respectively and CES Central has a decrease of approximately eighteen thousand dollars from last year last year Central was served in tier three

074the highest poverty percentage and they were the only School served in that highest poverty percentage New Hope and Evelyn were each served in tier two and Grady Brown was served in the lowest band so that means they got the lowest per pupil allotment and as you've seen with our growing numbers um partnership central New Hope and efflon cheeks are all served in the highest ban this year since their percentages are so closely grouped together allowing them 675 dollars per pupil in our Pathways and Grady Brown are served in tier two which allows them 542 dollars per pupil our district set aside we are permitted on under Title One guidelines to set aside money at the district for the reasons that are presented here on the slide for private schools for parent and family engagement professional

075learning Administration Pre-K and District initiatives this year we've planned for the following I'm set asides the total allocation for 2324 is approximately 1.1 million dollars that is a decrease of 12 percent from last year which was approximately 1.3 million Although our numbers Rose our funds did not this and we also have a carryover funds of approximately eight hundred thousand dollars a portion of carryover funds was added to School allocations directly to Title 1 schools including Pre-K the total amount for school allocations is approximately 1.3 million dollars this leaves approximately 735 thousand dollars left for district set-asides this amount does include a large portion of carryover funds so what we have set aside at the district is a large portion from our carryover for our administrative administrative costs there is a Max of 12 percent of

076this year's allotment we can't go over that for this year a portion of my salary and indirect costs are budgeted from that category so 83 percent of my salary and then our indirect costs are budgeted from there the parent and family engagement amount is in addition to what has been allocated to individual schools it's so about fifty eight hundred dollars and we've got about 19 000 allocated directly to schools that they can increase their parent participation and partner with their parents the funds that we have set aside the district level for parent and family engagement will be used for district Title 1 family activities and events that we've been working to start planning we haven't got those all figured out yet but as soon as we do we will certainly update you included within district-wide

077instructional initiatives are the following one is our support for CSI and TSI schools as outlined in the June 1st budget and capital needs committee the whole and that's about four hundred and seventy thousand dollars that we have set aside for to support our CSI and TSI schools of the remaining hundred thousand dollars funds will be used for 40 percent of their salary for our district math facilitator and then other district-wide support for Title 1 schools so a big change from last year is that we have only two salaries that are coming out of our district set-asides not including Pre-K we've got them and as a lump sum by themselves is the port 83 percent of the federal programs director and then 40 math facilitator are what's coming from the district set aside so the rest

078are going to be um directly in support of schools do I have any questions foreign thank you so much for this presentation and so I think I just have a couple of clarifying questions um one is I understand that so if I get this right we increased the amount of Title One spending we're doing this year um by using some carryover funding but actually the amount we've received from the federal government where we're going to receive from the federal government is going to decrease by 12 so we're making up that 12 and then spending some additional percent on top of that yes um are we expecting then to need to cut back next year like I guess I'm curious about why the decrease in Title One funds and then also are we going to need

079to like shrink some stuff a year from now because we're spending all of the carryover funding if the allocations continue with the trend that we've seen or it will be cut even more next year we we've had a lot of discussions about what we think that's going to look like with Sr ending at the end of this year but most likely we will have to scale back on what we're able to provide this year next year depending on what that ends up being and so is that like a federal government decision about just how much Title 1 funding to provide to schools or how what why did it decrease by 12 did our number of qualifying students decreased by 12. our qualifying students actually increased by approximately 10 percent but our allotment from the state

080decreased by quite a bit okay that's a great question I wish I knew that I don't want to like go real deep into that right now we have a budget committee but like maybe we could talk about it in budget or something because I don't that sounds foolish okay thank you anyone else Mattel yeah I just thank you first for the transparency this was a really wonderful presentation thank you so much um can you just talk about the carryover and what exactly that is sure so in a normal year you're permitted to carry over 15 percent of the previous year's allocation and in fact we're encouraged to do that to with not knowing when the budget will be passed so that we have the funds here available to pay for our recurring costs such as

081salaries and things like that due to covid um and with the coveted relief monies the sr12 and three the state and federal government have allowed us to carry over more than that 15 percent so we we've accumulated that money over these years throughout covid and so we are looking at a significant amount about eight hundred thousand dollars of carryover funds now that we need to get spent down quickly um because that's the leeway with that is going to go away um soon um from from the states that they've said you know they're giving us this leeway because of us or but as it as it is faded Fades out then we're going to see the other also Fade Out the permission to carry over more than 15 percent to clarifying the carryover doesn't continue it's

082going is it going it's going away too great [Music] carry over like 15 percent to do above and beyond that we're working to get all that spent down so that we don't have anything above 15 percent thank you are you budgeting that 15 like is there sort of a category for like we assume we're going to carry over 15 or do you have to just no I don't have that specifically laid out there and what we see is usually salary costs that we have budgeted for typically aren't quite as high and we'll make it up through there absorb some bits and pieces okay um I have a question about the number of qualified students increasing and since it's a percentage of our student population and we have been gradually losing some of our student population

083to Charter Schools I'm wondering how much is an increase of numbers of students um experiencing a greater poverty band and how much is that we are losing wealthier students to Charter Schools is there any way that we track that I don't know the answer to that question but I can certainly um research that and bring that back to you thank you anyone else okay thank you so much thank you appreciate it very informative okay we have um requests for two part-time graduation coach positions at partnership is that going to be the best by Mr Williams good morning and I'm going to call Mr Dr the great Stan Farrington also to the podium um so we're coming for you today partnership Academy has been labeled a CSI School comprehensive school for an improvement and they've been

084labeled this because of the graduation rate now we all know that partnership is not a standalone school right we receive students from Orange High School and from Cedar Ridge and oftentimes students are coming to them below the credit levels that they need for graduation and so Mr Farrington and his team decided you know we're not going to accept this just to be the status quo so we think about how they were labeled that it is any school that is under 67 percent in graduation rate 67 percent as extremely low Mr Farrington and his staff do a great job of trying to get all the students the resources and the credits that they need but they need some support so because they're a CSI School the government has decided that we're going to give them this

085pot of fun so what we're asking for today Mr franchise speak more succinctly about what it looks like in his building is for these two positions to be approved that come from the CSI funds no local funds are needed there is no pot of money we need from you all at all we just need your support and approval that we can utilize these federal funds that have been allocated for his school because of being CSI to have these positions the idea is that these part-time positions will also be effective in our local high schools and create Partnerships with Durham Tech the idea is that when we get a student in as best as we can we accelerate the opportunity for graduation keeping them close to track so this will give you them an opportunity for

086a future that we all want them to have so as an overall approach this is what it will look like for our district more succinctly would have like for a partnership it turns over to Dr Farrington thanks sir um certainly good evening uh chair Purcell Vice chair Richmond uh board certainly Dr Merrill mayor we we appreciate this time and and I want to just reiterate one thing and then share a couple little things the one thing is that again what we're asking for is not coming from any of the local funds of Orange County schools and it's coming from federal government grants the state of North Carolina uh Department of Public Instruction has already viewed the proposed proposal I've sent it to them they have agreed on it and think it's in genes as a

087matter of fact they the director of it has proposed it to other alternative schools saying this is something you guys should do because it's probably going to help turn them around now I believe it's going to turn us around we have three years to get this done um the 22 23 school year was our first year and what I have found is that it has been very difficult to spend money that's given to us to support students so we want to support these students with the money that's been given it's a strategic way to support p-a-h-s partnership Academy High School students while at partnership Academy High School as well as while their partnering and attending school at Cedar Ridge High School or Orange High School they take classes at our school as well as at

088the traditional high school and so oftentimes when they go to the traditional high school they may struggle whether it's socially whether it's academically whether it's behaviorally and these graduation coaches again part-time graduation coaches federally funded uh graduation coaches will be able to transition with them and assist with those struggles that they may have going from class to class or grade to grade at the high school so we are asking for this support if you look you will see our our graduation rate and typically at most alternative schools the graduation rate is down um this this classification is CSI comprehensive support and Improvement LG that's what it is LG is low graduation rate it follows traditionally uh alternative high schools because our population is so transient we when we first opened it was strictly long-term suspended

089kids and we've worked to get beyond that so that we can help students with whatever needs whether it's mental health whether it was behavioral whether it was academic you know emotional but we're having a Time getting kids who 18 19 17 who may come to us and haven't been in high school three years and have four credits we're having a hard time getting those guys graduated and we're going to need the help we're going to need to be able to analyze what are the obstacles and how we can best get it done in a short amount of time so that we can get out of this 65 64 every single year because they're quitting school and not graduate or graduating in seven years we can do it but we need this approved thank you any

090questions for us I just want to say I know it's going to work I know it's going to work and uh I can attest to it you know before I guess this was thought of I was a graduation coach because my son graduated from partnership but before then he was at Cedar Ridge I was there with him so I when I went to partnership I wanted to make sure I was there with him to make sure he succeeded and graduated and that's what that's what it takes so I'm with you okay yes Miss Molly um I appreciate this I want to say if it takes seven years I know you know this if it takes seven years it takes seven years you know as long as we get the kids you know graduated um but

091I really appreciate this focus and effort um I think it's very promising and there are a lot of things that I think the other high schools could learn from partnership Academy and you know it may be if this is successful there then maybe it can be successful at the other high school so I really look forward to seeing how this plays out it's gonna make it happen yeah that's how it's going to play out we're gonna make it happen guaranteed to add in I think it's also a good place to park to put in space you know we've talked I think individually some of us around what it looks like to expand partnership and you know having a middle school option um and so granted to see how this plays out I think also confidently

092because some students you know we're dispelling the myth that it's always long-term suspensional behavioral some kids just prefer a more private and intimate setting and you know prefer to be in that space and so I think afford that opportunity that's true um Equity work right reporting students so it's all students what they need right right so I just want to put that plug out there we'll shoot that shot later we do have a waiting list there is a way there is a way nice thing to say about we're over full well I'd like to add that being the one who's probably been here the longest involved with this although Andreas been here as well um it's been an amazing process and an amazing journey that has been led by Mr Stan Farrington and I can

093honestly say that this school would not be where it is today if it was not for Stan Barrington because I have watched him come along and move these children only has he helped the children graduate he has helped them through family crisis through all kinds of things that high schools have but may not have the time to work on because he but he takes the time and he and his staff I can honestly say are some of the best that I have ever seen and I wholeheartedly support this I think that it will be fantastic and another another step in the life of partnership and so thank you Stan for all that thank you guys thank you thank you and again it's for it's changing lives it's going to happen absolutely thank you so when

094um no I I haven't nothing to add to those comments but except that I agree completely and thank you and with that I'd like to move the recommendation second all in in more discussion all in favor aye aye aye all right what do you have it sir so I want to just ask now that was the approval for the two part-time graduation coaches not for the expansion of partnership is that correct let's go not yet not not yet [Laughter] we'll talk about it I need to back up just for a few seconds because um we were supposed to approve the title one information in the grant details and I overlooked that and so I would like to ask um if we have a motion to approve our Title One information in Grant details so move

095second all in favor aye and I um motion passes and I um I'm sorry that I overlooked that Dr Green all right now we move into the operations um research and educational laboratory information better known as or red thank you uh good evening Jeff Purcell Vice chair Richmond members of the board Dr Merrill this evening presenting from or it will be uh Thomas Dudley and Brian Godfrey and they'll be presenting our land use study for Orange County which is the next progression and student reassignment as it relates to school enrollment and future School enrollment forecast so I'll turn things over to both Thomas and Brian at this time thank you and good evening uh Madam chair other members of the board I'm Thomas Dudley with Laura and I'm joined today by my colleague Mr Brian

096Godfrey this evening we will be presenting the results of the land use study that we can that we conducted on behalf of Orange County Schools and if you'll give me just a moment here I will share my screen excellent okay we'll begin with a brief reintroduction to our organization because it has been several years since we worked together uh from there I'll be handing it over to my colleague Mr Godfrey who will be discussing the land you study that he has led from there he'll hand it back over to me and I'll be discussing the membership forecast including the school level forecast or what we call the attic capacity table from there we'll have additional time for discussion as well as questions and answers about itri as we call it the institute for transportation research

097and education is a University Research extension part of NC State University and housed on NC State Centennial Campus in Raleigh entry has been conducting research related to transportation in North Carolina for over 40 years our group are is called orad as you said uh we're an unbiased third-party evaluation research group that helps de-politicize the school planning process and we do that through the tools that you see listed there if you'd like to learn more about us we have links to our site there now the umbrella term for the services that we provide is called integrating integrated planning for schools and communities and here's the list of services that we provide and that we will continue to be providing for Orange County schools these all fit under the in the categories of sort of long-range facility

098planning or student assignment and with that I'll be handing it over to my colleague Mr Brian Godfrey to discuss the land you study Mr Godfrey good evening so the foundation for our analysis is the land use study which provides context for where growth is occurring and what drives that growth and so to begin this process we met with officials from the different municipalities around Orange County from planning to Economic Development transportation and utilities and we learned a lot and we wanted to take this opportunity to thank all those who participated next slide please so Orange County is growing and what are some of the drivers of that growth one of the things we always look at are the transportation Network and this is uh something that allows folks to commute it allows Commerce to take

099place and so one of the biggest things going on in Orange County right now the I-40 widening project that's going to reduce commute times it's going to allow for distribution manufacturing and we're anticipating to see additional Industrial Development in the county notably in Western orange the Buckhorn Economic Development district is an area that Mebane is growing into some may have heard of the Thermo Fisher Scientific plant that's going to be opening and we can expect in the next decade to see additional life sciences and advanced manufacturing opening up in Orange County of course you may have also heard of these big Mega site projects nearby Vin fast and Wolf's feed in Chatham County both within commuting distance we can expect to see these employment drivers leading to additional residential growth so in Orange County Hillsboro

100and Mebane are both growing they're growing horizontally and they're annexing additional properties that are what we call Greenfield sites sites that were previously vacant are now becoming new neighborhoods uh some single family Town Homes apartments Etc and so the county is growing overall the water and sewer infrastructure is robust there are some limitations to Wastewater in some areas but the ability of the municipalities to meet demand will will be there so next slide please so as part of the land you study we work with the different officials to gather data as to where pending residential developments are found how many units they contain and estimates for their build out timeline so you can see here this underlies our GIS facial analysis and growth is occurring across the county we also separately have an inventory for

101Chapel Hill and Carrboro 2. and so the results of the land you study is really that there's a wealth of land that can accommodate additional residential development and we can expect to see that in the future so with that I'll hand it back to Mr Dudley thank you Mr Godfrey so in addition to the residential development that you saw in the last slide that was collected as part of the land you study there are several other factors which influence the membership forecast looking forward over the next 10 years one of the major factors to consider is certainly resident libraries in the history and and projected numbers of these births because this is of course important because a large share of these births become your kindergartners five years down the line in a word what I'm

102saying here is uh stability looking back over the historic data and that's what we anticipate for the future as well we also like to take a look at what momentum you have occurring within the district and in terms of membership both at the district level and at the school level here you'll see your historic or historical month one ADM information over the past six school years we've seen a similar pattern here as to what we've seen in most districts across the state which was a decline during covid as well as some slight recovery sense with that information we will then move on to the first forecast slide here we have several pieces of information toward the left of the dotted line we have your historical forecast or excuse me your historical ADM information this is

103just broken down by level elementary middle and high high schools the red middle is yellow and Elementary is is the blue on the top line there so what you can see here over time uh sort of zooming in metaphorically you can see the decline in the elementary school the size of the cohorts during covid and there's an echo of that that moves through the middle school several years later and then an echo up to the high school years after that that's due to the modeling that we're using here and it very accurately has been shown to reflect the reality of as these cohorts move up through the system how they move from one school to the next and up through the grades accordingly so big picture also what I see here is stability as well

104as modest growth at each of the three levels over the 10-year time Horizon next to look at that at more detail we have the at a capacity table and what we like about these is they're a quick visual way to see where your capacity needs are and where they will be in the future so sort of working our way from left to right we have the name of the school the capacity of the school the membership of the school and then 10 years worth of forecasts uh what the membership is anticipated to be based on our work as part of the land you study the coloring in the background is simply based on utilization so that's the number of students divided by the capacity of the school for each one of these rows and the

105legend for that coloring is down at the bottom the utilization Legend now there's a lot of information here to digest so I will pause on this and in fact this is our last slide for this evening so I'd like to more formally ask if there's questions or if there's discussion on this topic Madam chair I have a question [Music] yes sir go ahead Mr Aston so for these capacity numbers and these estimates how how do you account for charter schools that students can come from anywhere or go to anywhere have you modified your model to somehow account for the percent we see and assume that going forward or could you share some insight on how you account for that so the the first comment that I need to make too is uh the presentation that

106you're seeing that's on the screen now is the correct presentation and reflects the changes and data that was established over the past several days so the the capacity numbers that you see here are correct to get to your point about charter schools so the way this model works is it's based on a sort of mathematically it's called cohort survival ratio so looking at what ratios and what percentages of students move up from one grade to the next at each particular School how those cohorts move up through the system and then some different weighting uh schemes based on um sort of which which data is more relevant over time specifically taking into consideration Charter impacts is I will say the most difficult part of what I do because Charter as well to several several of the

107points that you mentioned there um if there are additional specific concerns or modeling approaches that the district would like for us to move forward with uh we can certainly do that but what you're seeing here models four based on the existing trends that occur within the past five years worth of data and moves those Trends forward for the most part does that answer your question yes thank you any other questions Ms Hauser yeah I have a couple of the first one just to build on Will's question last week in the capital needs work group walpert I know you all are working with walpert and they showed us a heat map for Chapel Hill that showed growth in areas and then they showed areas where there was substantial loss of students presumably to Charters but certainly

108substantial expected students are going to the schools but they didn't actually show up in the schools are you going to be doing that for our schools to put it like a heat map like that together that just show us exactly where we're losing students uh yes we're talking about uh sort of historical data based on student residence yes we we could provide something like that very similar to what you've seen from Wilbur yes yeah that would be that would that would be really helpful um I have go ahead could you walk us forward you know in your report you talked about I think you use the term optimal school zones and what the real constraints are on our redistricting process particularly Transportation but do you have any sense about what our school zones what what

109the limits are of what we can do with our school zones that question makes sense it does it does um so speaking towards uh potential next steps there are a series of ways to sort of look at this I mean I guess to answer your question was fully I I would say that the types of modeling that we do related to attendant zones it's minimizing student travel distance but this is the key I think speaking to what you're you're saying it minimizes student travel distance within the constraints of your building capacities so it the models that we use will not overfill a school but in in hand that also means at the same time that not all students get to go to the school that is closest to them and given geographically what you're what

110you're looking at as a district and where your schools are placed there will be challenges related to student travel distance certainly does that answer your question well almost I mean I think the the real question for our board is we want to look at some other factors in addition to travel but but and even for the public art choices are not unlimited and so we just want to know what choices do we really have with student reassignment you know we talk about priority setting priorities so what how far can we go with that this is the real question uh some other uh just based on our experience working from other districts across the state I mean there are certainly other assignment plans that have been generated looking at factors such as balancing test scores or

111specifically wanting to have clean feeder patterns where three elementary schools feed up cleanly into one Middle School that sort of thing those are several of the other major topics that we hear about and that we can use in our modeling to try to accomplish the objectives of the boards that we work with okay I have a I think a request for a clarification and then a question um so the request is small and it isn't going to impact the modeling I think but in sort of your context about Orange County Schools section there's a section called race and ethnicity that sort of lays us out compared to a couple of other districts and and the graphs include race but not we have a significant Latino Or Hispanic population that isn't really reflected there at all

112it's about a quarter of our students and so I think you use census data and that the census captures that in a separate way like a separate question or something but I think it would for the historical record I think it would be good to add that in there so that we have a reflection of our true student body because right now it if you look at those graphs it just doesn't actually represent our student body by race and ethnicity so that's the clarification request um the question I have is so I see I can see a like a footnote Pre-K not included here um which you know makes sense um when you when we get to the stage of actually doing the uh modeling of the assignments will we be able to preserve some

113spaces like that in building so not just take these capacities but say and this one has three Pre-K classrooms and this one has you know an EC separate settings classroom and so that those things we we know sort of internally and have had like endless discussions about how those impact actual capacity in buildings will you be able to take that into account when you're doing your modeling uh yes absolutely um those capacities both the ones in this table and the capacities that would be used as part of the attended Zone optimization work they come from the school district so we would we would be glad to to use whichever set of capacities you would like for us to awesome then that is a request for staff that when we provide them this information we make

114sure that we don't just go with these capacities but also take into account the Pre-K and the other various types of um types of capacity needs we've talked about in the past any further questions from anyone um yes ma'am yes and I don't know if it's for you or for our staff I was just curious what our timetable looks like going from here thank you in a traditional model please go for it yes yeah so the outline we've presented from day one uh we're still able to stay on track whereas we transition to September we have our first draft of maps and the like but prior to that we still need to Define priorities as we just discussed here across the district and what the board is wanting to kind of emphasize in that space

115and as we carry through August we'll have time to be able to do that for a first map presentation has occurred in September so what we have outlined on our website um regarding where we are in this space remains we're still in a good space there [Music] good to know thank you any other questions well Gentlemen We definitely appreciate this information tonight it's very helpful and we look forward to seeing what transpires in September as we move forward with this so thank you very much thank you thank you all right Miss Wrath [Music] yes good evening chair good evening Vice chair board members thank you this evening as you saw on the board abstract that was presented we need to have a discussion about balancing our fiscal year 2324 budget if you recall from our

116budget committee meeting last week as well as the materials that were provided in the board abstract we have identified that there is approximately 915 thousand dollars that remains unbudgeted that I am here this evening to hopefully seek direction from the board of how to prioritize that spending so that we may be able to get a finalized budget before you for approval the intent I am going to try to share my screen and walk through a Excel spreadsheet where we can as we talk through each of these items we can see how they re reduce your total amount that we are looking for we don't really have a way to guide you in the discussion and and Madam chair I guess you just need to sort of manage comments or questions from from your seat and

117try and figure out what the board's priorities are as best you can and we'll subtract as we go can I ask a starter question first um uh you know the Esser funding runs out next year and there are some positions that are currently in Esser um that we might decide it makes sense to keep them on Esser for this year until the funding runs out but then at that point we're going to need to find the funding in our budget for them um is there a world where we can sort of take some of this funding now and reserve it into fund balance knowing that that's going to be our future purpose in the event because if the if the county doesn't give us an increase in funding for next year um you know then

118we're gonna I don't know what we're gonna do about those positions at that point um yes from My Lens we could absolutely earmark a certain dollars of this nine hundred and fifteen thousand dollar increase that we're working with and say that um after our Ester dollars expire that this portion that we are receiving in our per pupil funding will start to allocate to support that position now for this current fiscal year it would roll into fund balance because we would be utilizing Esser until Esser dollars expire but we would be able to identify them going forward if that made sense I saw you had a quizzical look I hope that I that okay that does make sense and you know I'm just thinking about this desire to sort of build up our fund balance a

119bit more as well and yeah so I just don't want us to get caught next year um with positions that are on Esser that we're having to make really difficult decisions otherwise so that's one thing that is on my mind as a board member understand what I tried to capture before you um now to help guide this conversation is those priorities that you did identify when we were looking at building our budget and building our requests for the Commissioners I also I did add um the items that at the bottom of this list that we know have not been funded for the board to have the ability to see what the cost of those were historically to determine if they would like to allocate these funds to support those initiatives and that would be the

120planning period stipends The Substitute incentives and the permanent daily subs so I um I look to you now for some direction based upon this list that you developed and you have discussed prioritization of the list as a board and all of these items were on your final list of how you would Envision the nine hundred and fifteen thousand dollars being allocated towards these I have a question um I don't see the certified increases here so I see the classified salary step increase but we had talked about yes we did and I apologize that was probably um left off because of the the the classified salary step was 500 000 the certified the only thing that we can increase for the certified would-be supplements um because the state determines what their pay scales are the only

121thing that we could address would be the supplements and we can definitely add something in here for that yes I think we had a we had a number for it in the earlier spreadsheet so under the priorities that we have do we have any recommendations from principals what their students and what their school needs I think it would be important to include them since they're there with the students every day so I just don't know if this came from principles that's what I'm trying to figure out correct me if I'm wrong but I think this is what the board had said that we wanted to look at correct yes ma'am the one thing on the list that I think did come from principles via a conversation in the student achievement committee was the permanent daily

122sub I think that's probably the meeting that it came up in um but I think we've heard repeatedly from principles that having that substitute that's in their building every single day that can go where needed um is valuable and that's I mean that's one that I would really support us continuing to fund just I have a question but I just wanted to clarify I think the there's we you and I had a long talk about this as a permanent Subs in the building that's been budgeted right so this is these are right these are those daily subs that were given during covid that show up to the school every day and are there to substitute or to be um assigned wherever the need is for that day so these are the permanent daily subs that

123are in the Bill assigned to the schools which is different than these these are not your daily subs who call into our substitute system those are in the budget yes okay so serious yes yes I'm I'm with Sarah I some reason I thought that was already in the budget but okay could you just clarify for us what we're expecting from the state in terms of raises for certified and classified staff that's a great question I wish I knew I understand I I just I maybe you can give us a range here's what the house wants here's what to say I mean uh so the range is um two and a half percent to four percent uh roughly um and that's looking at one year not over the biennium it is a much larger percentage that

124came out of the house over the biennium but if I just look at it on a year-to-year basis we're looking the ranges are from Two and a Half to four percent and is that classified also or just sort of that's just certified and what does it look like for classified I don't know that's a great question last year I can tell you that across the board it was an average of four percent um I would love to see that for our staff again I'm not I am not real confident that the percentage will be that high again but I would love to see it okay thank you Ms Dole thank you chair Purcell um a couple of questions or comments about um the classified and certified um for classified the the salary step so it's

125listed in the worksheet I think is increase the classified salary step to one percent which is 2 million which we don't have um but we are starting with the we had increased 3 8 of a percent am I correct that is correct we had increased 3 8 of a percent for the fiscal year that we just closed this recommendation would be to increase another 1 8 of a percent to get the salary steps to equate to a half of a percent for each year of experience okay I'm looking at okay maybe I'm looking at a different document I'm looking at the one that's a worksheet the one I'm looking at had it as two million to increase it to one percent and I was thinking even if we did another eighth of that to get

126to the four eighths it would be like 400 000 is that what your yes oh okay okay great and then the other one I was wondering about was I wanted to mention um just the importance in my vantage point of um the certified supplement tiers um and putting Focus there to keep our certified staff I know um Durham Public Schools just granted another stipend to certified staff I'd gotta notice about it this week um and so I think we just need to continue to work towards that and they also support the process for national board certification and so far we don't support that I think it'll be good to begin building towards that so those are a couple um that I think would are important to keep us competitive with neighboring districts one time correct

127me if I'm wrong at one time we did support teachers with the national award certification correct that we pay at least part of it am I correct I don't believe so I'm I'm not aware of us paying part of the fee for them to take the test now we do support pay for the substitutes to allow them to have the time where they can take off to prepare for that but I'm not aware of us paying for the actual maybe that's what I was thinking about I knew that we had done something to help them with that okay I agree with Miss Doyle I think that's important for our staff care please okay yes ma'am okay um one okay so you mentioned the range and state increase have you budgeted for the four percent yeah

128it goes okay okay um the row that you added for the local supplement increase the earlier estimate for that was roughly two million dollars two million eleven thousand three hundred dollars um so just you have a number there um and yeah I mean just in this recruitment climate I just really feel like that is the the local supplement I think we are behind and it needs to be restructured um to be more competitive um and the national board certification relatively is a smaller estimate so um you know I think that helps a bit but my focus is really on the on the local supplement itself we obviously couldn't do the whole two million dollars so we need to look at what we could do Madam chair can I get consensus I guess of how to

129capture what the board would like to prioritize to carry forward in a budget to be able to reflect that for you since were sort of all over the place uh what would be the best way for you to have that information I think what I need from you as a collective body is for you to to state what you want the nine hundred and fifteen thousand dollars to be allocated to um again what has been presented here before you are the items that uh you chose when we were developing the budget and then of course we added in those items that um were initiatives that are not in the budget for you to have the opportunity if you so wish to continue those to add them to the budget so um you know what I

130I'm not quite sure how to to to help other than I know I've got nine hundred thousand dollars that we have to work with um hopefully the range to show the cost that is to the far out here to the side helps us be able to determine we we know this local salary supplements of two million dollars unfortunately we don't have those funds available um to allocate out of what we have right now how would this board like to present this to Ms Wrath it's it's got to be a consensus at least what would you like to do yeah Bonnie has her hand I just have a um because there's things on on here that the board likes and we could talk about some of that but I would be interested in hearing what the

131principals have to say as to what they think is needed for staff retention for delivery of outcomes in schools for the things that they need to do their job so so I'm a little so how do we can we create a process where we might talk about what we'd like to see but how do we balance that against what the principles feel is really essential yeah we talked in um the budget committee a little bit about I agree that I think it would be while these are all of the things that board members are interested in understanding staff perspectives I think that principal perspective but also you know Central and the superintendent's perspective on and I know you just got here but you know on what's what what are going to be our biggest levers

132you know what our strategic plan is and you know some about what's going on right now like what are going to be our biggest levers um I would like to see us just pull out and fund that permanent daily sub thing I feel like that was it was so clear that the principals needed it I don't know I I just with the level of absences we've had I just don't know we need a solution to that so this feels like sorry sir can you say what did you want to pull out the permanent daily subs I would like I would love to go through the Impressions I agree I agree what I'm hearing from one board member is to um to see what that he would pull us to I guess there's a lag in

133my spreadsheet calculating and I would wonder is there if we did that should there be a cap put on it or just go all year long well do you hire the person for all year the permanent daily sub do they still get a daily rate so the these Subs get a higher daily rate um I am sure that it could be considered where we could look at um them being on a half a year employment of course you always take the risk of when you use that approach that you could utilize lose staff who would be willing to commit if you've got I mean there's a budget amount 133 that's your calf 132 000. I mean if we priced it correctly one per school that should reflect the cost to run for the full year

134is there is there board consensus or should we have a vote or something on that one would you like to put that in the form of emotion sure I motion to add I'm not sure we should go through everything this way but I will motion to add um and fund the permanent daily sub I'll second that all in favor aye okay so if we take that into account that brings our amount down to seven hundred and eighty three thousand okay that's Purcell Connecticut yes ma'am I just have a question something that's not on the list that's come to our attention and that's that we reduce the budget for tutoring services this year and I was just curious what the reaction has been to that and whether we need to add that to this list foreign

135core budget was adjusted this year and those dollar that is funded from Esser um the intent from my understanding and please correct me if I'm wrong colleagues is that we would begin to be working for our teacher assistants and others to gain that knowledge to be able to step in and provide that tutoring to our students where it would not be a additional cost to the district at the time that Esser dollars expire and I I'll just if you have further questions I'll look to my colleagues in regards to that I'll stay in my Lane with the budget I have a question about whether there's a specific timeline around needing to like nail down the board specific priorities I think um because I'm seeing things like I see the additional ell teacher on here and

136I think that was added because of the increase in our multilingual learner population this was in addition from my understanding this was an additional ell teacher but that was a request from the board above what staff thought this was a request from um staff not this was one of the staff's recommendations that was presented to the board right so for example in terms of how I'm making my decisions right my whatever I'm going to support that was from our staff based on our increase in multilingual learner i i would support that one over some of the other things um because I feel like you all have demonstrated a real need for that you know and so this is where I'm like do we have a timeline because it would be really helpful for me if

137staff understood all of these things that are important to board members and took all of that and considered them and came back with these this is sort of our recommendation for how do we spend the money so let me I'll try to answer that for my lens so we're operating under a continuation budget at this time so we are within State Statute and our ability to continue operating and going forward some of these decisions impact schools ability to hire staff and also some of these decisions will impact as we're getting ready to start school up and communicating with staff for example um the permanent daily subs that we just got consensus of that this board is wanting to fund those that allows us to ensure that those positions are staffed and that we're able to

138communicate that with our principals as they're getting ready to open up their schools that they will have this position um going forward into the next school year those are the the kind of the challenges and the struggles that we have in particular The Substitute incentives the planning period stipends any of these additional positions we're we're running into the time constraint of actually being able to hire the individuals to have them in our buildings when we're opening schools in nine days I would just one of the things that we don't have is we haven't we don't we haven't seen the grades from last year we don't know what the principals are looking at in terms of their own goals and their school Improvement plans for their schools so it's difficult for us to make decisions about

139priorities right so right now these are they feel like ideas many good ones really good ones but we don't have the the data if we want to make data-driven decisions we don't have data at least I don't see it you know the ell position that staff brought do you know what school needed that was that I would have to get back I do not know that right now [Music] so to the yellow positions which schools yeah would they be at do we know good evening if you recall back in December of 2022 Miss Lewis and I came and spoke with you we presented to you the increase in the ml population data as well as our newcomer population in January we had one new ESL teacher who started we split that position across River Park

140and Pathways due to the increase that those two buildings and we talked then about an increase looking at high schools we have reallocated the ESL positions that we have currently based on the numbers of students that are actively being served whether they are exited or currently active in terms of their services for eligibility whether they're an ml or a newcomer um we would re-look at all of those numbers once we have Wida screener data for all of our incoming kindergartners but we are seeing a continuous influx of our ml population across Orange County Schools I know we're splitting a teacher now I think between Gravelly and stand back right we've added a yes not for ESL or ml or maybe it's okay so I mean I think the question is which schools where would we

141be putting the additional staff that's so we'll have to go back and look at all of the schools and the caseload of the teachers so for example even the teacher that we added in January the caseload for that individual looks different this year than it looked in January and so actually that one individual based on another school having an increased population again is now serving three schools um so that we can balance out the needs in all of our buildings what I'm hearing is that you more than likely need another teacher as do you stand by that request yes but I understand that you also have a long list well given the fact that we do have an influx of of students in this district and they need to be served um I would definitely

142go along with the additional ESL ell teacher a person to approve that oh sorry go ahead will no I was just agreeing that I would as well an emotion to approve the additional ell teacher a second second all in favor okay Madam chair I did have one thought or question um and I I agree with everyone about trying to understand the the principles thoughts around this because we have had a lot of changes right we've had um people that have moved around and one of the things that I remember is one of the items on here was talking about additional Tas and I was kind of surprised when I saw that some schools had more Tas than other schools and you know it just seems strange to me that um you know what was the

143actual needs based on the Tas versus what we saw but I I would I would definitely prefer to hear what the principals are asking for um you know is it planning periods stipends is it uh Tas is it tutors you know what what is what is going to help them be successful or you know is it additional um supplements you know I would I would love to hear that feedback as as well sure for sale yes ma'am can could we add the two nurse Tech positions to this possibly yeah yeah I know they came to a meeting a while back I think that's important to the tutors yes two nurse teams nurse techs the nurse texts oh yes excuse me I'm sorry I didn't understand you um are they your consensus for those to be

144added it's the second I guess addition yeah additional School nurses is that the nurse texts or is that School nurses that's the text okay um so let's go you have no I was going to ask what would be the difference I mean additional School nurses and I think there is three there um so that would that include the two nurse Checks Plus a additional okay yeah yeah yeah two nurse checks and one nurse yes and I can say personally I just know how important School nurses are especially at the high school level um and I can I mean I can't give you a head count but there are numerous calls that go out to the schools where children are in need of some kind of Health Service almost on a daily basis and so when

145you have one school nurse that's attending one student and then another one comes out um that can you know that can be very challenging and so that's why we have two school resource officers at the high school level in case there's a situation that one's dealing with they can and another Horizons they can deal with it that other two so I think that's very important um to look at and consider okay so my understanding from our conversation earlier is that you we could theoretically let's say we just decided to budget that we could take the other 490 and say we're just going to plan to roll that over into fund balance and like spend that on the express expenses next year or something so we're sort of deciding not to do the rest of this

146that's that's a way we could do it I'm not proposing that um what I think that suggests to me is we just need to know from you all like which of these things are the things that are like holding you back from starting the school year you know some of them we could decide to do later national board certification fee support we could decide to do that in March if we have the money you know what I mean there's some of them and then there's other things like are the substitute incentives like do you need that in order to have enough like do you think you need that this year or not you know I don't know whichever if we were able to identify which of these things are really going to hold you back

147right now if we don't decide on them um like the ell teacher like I get we need to and the daily sub is there anything else that's like that in this list where we just need to have a conversation just about that before we decide how to prioritize the rest of the money at this time I think what you have addressed for me would be the most pressing um I do believe that the planning period stipends a decision regarding those as well as a substitute incentives is um a short we're going to need something we're going to need something in the very near future as you know as schools are opening up and you know as we are continuing to recruit and recruit substitutes to come to the district okay so to like I was

148just going to summarize the discussion from budget but there you go well I was just gonna say the the daily subs um kind of crosses over a little bit with the you know if schools have daily subs there's less of demand for the planning period stipends like I don't know how you sort out um how that need is reduced when we when we have approved the daily subs I understand and agree with your logic uh the numbers that are presented here are what the actual cost were to the district last year in each of these categories so in budget committee we talked about capping the stipends and capping it at I'm going to make 25 I don't know if it's 25 000 or 50 000 but it's something substantially lower than um what do you

149have on there 200 000 so something substantially lower obviously if we find that we need more the money then it will force us to ask the question why because we really want our teachers to have their planning periods and so so that's what we talked about in budget committees rather than just throw a couple hundred thousand dollars at it throw a cap on it and then see what we have to do the the other thing we talked about um was we could do it that way and just when the money runs out the money runs out or we decide to keep doing it the other thing we decided we could do is just not tackle it this way at all um say we are unable to pay you for working during your planning period you

150know covering classes during your planning period um but when someone needs to cover for a more extended period of time which I think is some sort of policy decision you all would need to come up with about what constitutes that that we would handle that through a extra duties contract and pay that which so maybe we need a budget for those actions you need a budget for it either way or there's a budget for that and then so because right now I think we're doing it through lapse salaries or something so which yeah so so maybe we have a much smaller budget for that but we just we just rip the Band-Aid off and say we don't have the money for this in a non-esser situation well I think whether we call it an extra

151Duty stipend or a planning period stipend it's still an additional stipend and the question is do we want to but I thought we we did say we'd want to set some budget aside just just cap it yes I think there's a policy decision not you know there's a district policy decision about whether you know if you just cover this one period do you also get that and we we do all of that or is it um some defined longer period of time which is I think what the district's recommendation was and I'm in favor of because I think this is not financially sustainable right now right I don't think it is either um is that total cost on here the planning period stipends last year across the District 194 700 dollars okay so we want

152to contain it I just would hate to not I don't want to ask our teachers to do something and not get compensated for it I understand right I mean we want them to again say this again we want them to take their planning periods but if they're not if they're going above and beyond they should be paid and if that's happening a lot then we need to understand why and see if there's a different problem that needs our attention I I feel like policy 7406 and what has been implemented there will be able to provide the mechanism to ensure that um you know the board is aware and has to approve all of those extra Duty assignments and that extra Duty compensation yes right now we're doing a transaction by transaction that's why we're not

153doing it to a cap so we want to do a tour and and that created some of the problems so the goal is and it's a policy decision we'll have to discuss but the goal is to set a cap so so that we're managing it I agree and I think in budget we talked about setting a cap but we didn't put a price on that cap did we no we did not do you all have a thought about an appropriate amount not on the fly without giving it some consideration I would hate to just throw a number do you have what you need here for the moment if the board has some consensus around the approach to planning periods and stipends I've heard a camp and I've heard maybe some guidelines or guard rails around

154it being for you would get the stipend if it was for an extended period of time that it would just not be as it was in the past where if I taught during the planning period on Monday and taught during a planning period on Friday that I would get the stipend but that I'm hearing correct me if I'm wrong that the consensus is that it would be a commitment for a a period of time and that also that we would cap less than what it cost us last year which is the cap that is in place currently that we would cap it below the hundred and ninety five thousand dollars yeah yeah I mean I think that's just speaking for the discussion we had earlier that's not what we want to do we understand that

155teachers should be paid for all of that time that they do coverage um financially it does not seem like something we can continue in a world where we don't have Esser um and if we can devote any of those dollars to increasing supplements and things like that that are gonna keep people um then maybe that'll solve some of this problem from a different angle and I I would just like to propose that we listen on that because I'm concerned about saying we're not going to do it and then we're finding out that that we have a high absentee rate with our teachers and people are covering classes so if that happened we may have to revisit that so I want us to pay attention to that if we if the board really wants to make

156it go away are you saying that we would lift the cap if we had more people I think the cap the cap is the cap and to me the cap for starters is not it's I'm I right now we're going to set a cap and we may hit the cap in three months but then we have to ask ourselves why are we spending so much time on stipends the point I'm making is I'm hearing the board wants to give longer term stipend we just approved some long-term stipends or extra you know for longer term assignments and pay stipends for that but if it's a daily if we have lots of absenteeism and teachers are covering planning teachers are giving up planning periods to cover classes where I'm hearing the board say we don't want to

157pay for that and if that's happening a lot I'm not sure we may want to pay for that so before we cut it I'd like to have a sense of what that or if you want if the board doesn't want to offer it that's fine but I'd like to hear if we're hearing from the principals and the schools that we have lots of absenteeism and the teachers are covering covering planning for or giving up their planning periods I would like us to revisit paying them for it but I just don't know that we can sustain at 195 000 a year to cover none of this is sustainable if we have teachers if we have teachers that are constantly giving up their planning periods we are going to have to dig in deeper and find out

158what's going on I mean I would I would be setting a cap at something like fifty thousand dollars you know that that's where I would be I'm making up the number it's not a hundred and it's not 200 but I would be setting a cap because it forces us as we're getting close to the cap to go in and find out what's going on what's going wrong good planning these stipends me are are a a warning indicator if we're spraying a lot of them it means out our teachers don't have are not getting their planning periods so if we're spending a lot of money on them we we need to understand um let's back up to the school nurses did we decide that we wanted to do that or not do that the two um

159the text and one nurse I for one am in favor of of that I think that I think it's needed but uh you know I do what the pleasure of the board is but um okay [Music] to me that's something that's needed yes ma'am my notes say that we were paying for that through Esser and we you know do we have the option to continue to fund that at least for the next year through Esser but if we're looking down the road and we don't have Essence we need to start now well I understand I just um just a question there's always the op so when we fund it from Esser you have to look at what you're taking away your ability to do from Esser when we looked at it in the budget committee

160I believe we were down to it was under a million dollars based upon what has already been committed that would be available for summer programming uh for next the a year from this past summer is what we would be basically taking away from and um you know again you have the authority to make that decision to be able to fund it from Esser again the funding Cliff is coming with Esser and of course I would caution about adding any more positions into Esser funding because they are recurring and that funding Cliff is a year away let me just last year we had we were continuing to do lots of covid related work on our and a lot of coveted type screening in our schools so I just don't know are we are we completely out

161of that and do we really have a good idea of what the nurse workloads are and are they are we are nurses on permanent long-term workloads that's the only question I have foreign I have a proposal about one of these items um to get it off the list um and then at some point I yeah okay so I'll just say that one first The Substitute incentives I think we don't know what would happen if we stopped doing the substitute incentives and whether we would have any trouble getting substitutes um but I think if we needed to dip into fund balance to reinstitute that we could so one thought is what if we take that out of the budget for this year and if it turns out we're having difficulty getting substitutes to work enough that

162we dip into fund balance to pay for that or lap salaries or wherever fine with me I I don't know I would be curious for human capital's reaction to that idea I don't know if the proposal is to keep it I think the proposal was to discontinue it The Proposal was to discontinue it yes the recommendation show us the discontinue it so I think we should discontinue it and if we are having trouble with Subs then we go back and find money I'm fine with Sarah's suggestion I don't want to cut that off I want to come back to the nurse question um and uh Bonnie raised the question about how much of this was covered related I I remember that one of the positions with orange high school has to do with the student

163population being so much more such a larger population than um than Cedar Ridge so some of it just has to do with student body and not code related so at least it's just a question it's just a question I'm just providing a response to the question and one of them was not about covid but had to do with student numbers and it is and yeah I know I understand Orange High School does have more of them in Cedar Ridge and I think the nurse techs had been utilized in ways that really helped nurses so um as I said earlier I would be in favor of doing that um I think if we look at the subs like Sarah's idea that if if it's a problem then we find the money some other way but I

164do agree that we need to find out what is at the root of the problem for everybody being out and absolutely taking an advantage maybe I don't know um I think that needs to be looked at um we only have so much money and we have so many things that need to be done option could be at this time that we wait that the board based upon the decisions that you have provided here that um you can always let the additional savings accumulate for fund balance and make decisions for those one time of course I'm I am not for I would not be recommending recurring any recurring expenditure be utilized at a fund balance that's a very dangerous president to set but it is the option that you could look at these funds could be

165utilized to accumulate building back the amount that was spent from fund balance this year and adding it back and then utilizing those funds for the Esser positions that we know Esser is going to be coming to an end to be able to shift those from Esser into your local budget I would support I would support that and it gives us a little bit of opportunity to build up fund balance and a little bit of opportunity to have some flexibility this year if we need something um and be supportive of that I think there's two more items though before we give up and that's the Tas I think there's a question I think will asked it earlier about disparities in the number of Tas in our schools and Tas are allocated I'm sorry for cutting you

166off I just wanted to share that the way that they are provided to the schools is based upon the number of classrooms they're allocated the way that the state provides us funding for those so for is based upon the number of kindergarten first and second grade classrooms understanding the principals use them differently so so one principal might decide to use them and upper grades and some of them like this correct them in earlier the principles had the autonomy to make that decision at the school and so the only question is are there some principles that said you know if I could have one or two more Tas that would make a really big difference in terms of improving student outcomes it's a question for them and because there does seem to be differences in our

167schools in terms of and I don't know if it's it's Tas that are filling in um or teachers I don't know if it's Tas that are filling in other roles you know because of a teacher absences I just don't know what's happening in our schools and whether an additional TA in any of the schools I mean obviously we don't have a million dollars for it but you know are there any schools that might benefit you know feel that they benefit I'd like I would like to hear that and the other thing we haven't talked about is behavior and the proposal was made for Sidekicks Academy to Pilot it in one of our schools um it's a popular program again we don't have have not had that conversation with our principals but you know the com

168there's been a conversation about bringing that into one of our middle schools I think Gravely was at the top of the list but again nobody has spoken to Mrs Williamson about it so um but it could be something that makes a difference so how do we do that so those are those are things on the list that I think the principles we'd like to the principals weighed in and said I want to do if Mrs Williamson said I want to do Sidekicks Academy then I would like to see that on the list if she doesn't want it then I don't care I think with seven hundred thousand dollars and that one's 75 I mean we couldn't give 75 000 every school you know what I mean like it's I don't know I think the idea

169of hearing what principles need is important and having conversations about these items um uh in so that's you know if you all desire to do that and come back with some additional recommendations and that's you know another thing we could do with that fund balance right with what we have given you tonight Ms wrath how much of that 900 000 have we we are down to seven hundred and three thousand that is not budgeted so so Madam chair I the only thing I wanted to add is I I still feel strongly about the district level field trips and ensuring that students get the opportunity I'm not sure that the current allocated amount would make sense given our finances but you know knowing that not all of our elementaries are going to uh the mountains or

170the beaches or even going to these different places that they're reading about and they may never get the opportunity I think it's a way for us to distinguish ourselves and equity and giving barriers removed so when we come back with all those discussions I definitely would like to talk about that one again and the the possibility of how we could look at something like that okay um I think that too is a conversation that needs to be had um by principles I agree I agree that's why I was saying when it comes back to see what they are saying about that and and maybe even Dr Merrill has some ideas on on that I'm not sure I think we I'm toying with different things but I think you're not going to get a unified response

171from principals you're going to get 13 different ways to spend money which is sort of what you're doing right now I mean as as seven of you looking at this so so I'm messing with I'm telling you 700 000 I'm dividing my either all the ADM in the district I'm coming up with the per pupil times the number of kids in a school and I'm ignoring factors and just I'm just going crazy okay and I'm going okay so you've got forty eight thousand dollars what would you do with it you've got 62 000 what it's tailored to what their need is their school Improvement plan it could be a way to think about that that gets a meaningful response from principles for their situation rather than trying to force them to agree well all you

172elementaries you either take Tas or you don't or or you must all take field trips or you don't so that could be a way um to try and get it this this 700 uh or or you play with 500 and you park 200 for when we hit a cap on something we've set a cap on then we come back we've still got a little money to carry us for another month while we debate a solution um so that's as far as I've gone as I've watched you uh not surprised that you're struggling with it um you can't make big program impact with the little bit you've got a big program impact is supplement for instance there's just no money to do it so you gotta you gotta take the little pieces and say okay what

173can we do with this or maybe you do something where you give some latitude to a principal and a school-based team you say okay if you've got this much money what do you want to do with it one-time money um but but we can certainly get something from principles if that's what you'd like that's um because it you know the goal I think of the conversation is we don't want a one one site one size fits all solution and we want to be responsive and I would invite you as you're having the conversations to throw an equity Factor onto it you know to say are there things that affect our could be income it could be um language English language Learners I think the the field trip conversation is really about our lower our lower

174income families being unable to you know pay for the field trips so anyway but certainly I think it's moving to away from a one-size-fits-all solution is exactly I think what the board is is I think that's what I'm looking for what does the board think of the Dr Merrill's idea of giving the principles x amount of dollars and letting them use it we don't almost treat it like a grant here's the potential you could earn what would you do with it subject to our review and your approval yeah they would have to have a plan yes to use that money so so um my reaction to that is I think it's very interesting um you did say in your framing of it one-time money which I do think if if we did it that way

175then we would still have that money preserved for those Sr positions next year which I think would be wise um just so you know we tried something like this with Esser funding where we had a pot of money that was you know schools could apply for grants for one-time needs to meet whatever their school whatever they were seeing in their school due to covid um and um schools we did not get many requests from schools they really struggled to figure out what to do with the money on a one-time basis so that's the throughout there but I'm certainly open to the idea what we ended up with last time was unspent money because um folks didn't request it well my thought on that is that it now we're still struggling with covid and there may

176be a need there that they see that they didn't know about when kids were out for covid so things may have have changed with that a little bit I would think maybe yes ma'am I heard it I'm not sure why it would have to be one-time money I know some of the schools are struggling with part-time positions and other position positions that they would like to bring on more you know so thirty thousand dollars would make a big difference in terms of their ability to fill positions but certainly I don't see why it needs to be um one time it certainly is this is recurring money I'm trying to position you for next spring because you do have uh what close to a million of uh Esser that you're gonna have to reconcile it's a

177bigger discussion we don't have to find out how we're going to fund those positions between now and then um Dr Merrill you helped me with this uh would it be beneficial for you to ask principals if they would be interested in moving this way with us taking say two hundred thousand or three hundred thousand dollars out of this whatever we decide on putting it in um fund balance or wherever the best place is that that's where I asked things to put it and then giving them the opportunity to talk with their school Improvement teams and their staffs and see what they could use this money that would be mo if we had this much money I want it to be the most bang for our buck right and I don't know that these seven people

178are the ones to determine what the best bang for them is I think the principals would love the opportunity as long as it's worth their time if it's ten thousand dollars one-time money I don't know I mean lots of time some grants are too small and it's not worth the energy so you know I'd be looking to take a pretty good chunk of that 700 to be able to affect 13 schools but but I think principals would love to be able to talk about it how much would you recommend as we if we took to put or both of you will probably need to get together and work on that as far as pulling out to put in fund balance and then offering the other two is grants for principals um I'd rather play with

179it a little bit and see I'm somewhere between probably 30 and 50 per School uh just craziness to get somebody's attention and say this is worth our time to try and figure something out well is it the pleasure of this board that we would move in that direction and let you um Miss wrath and you discuss and then you take two principles and see what we could do yes Bonnie yeah I just have one other point in terms of the fund balance we also have lapse salaries right as a possible vehicle that's provide right last year it was about two million dollars if I remember but you know collapse so can we make it make it and it's outside of this budget discussion but if the concern is about restoring fund balance is lap salaries

180a vehicle for that so that we can commit our operating budget and use unused funds over the year lap salaries is a vehicle for that keeping in mind that it is our ultimate goal to fill every position of course of course I agree with the the direction I like the idea of um Dr Merrill and Miss wrath and their team making recommendations and Dr Merrill also mentioned considering ADM of school I believe I heard you say that so I would love for a recommendation that incorporates there guidance okay do we have do you want to put that in the form of a can I just add one more thing to that um I support that as well um and you know if there's some portion of this funding and the the sets of things that

181you think are important that you also want to prioritize like I don't think we need to take every penny necessarily and put it in that pot or fund balance if there's some stuff that we've missed that you think is important from a central level I'd like that to be part of the recommendation as well can can we can we pin down the ones you did agree on absolutely and and consider that part of it and rather than take that and say okay we're going to move that over to fund balance so we can pull it out again I want to name a bucket to put it in as part of the budget rather than thinking it's just going over to fund balance and we're going to come back and get it again and the other

182thing if I can I hear you guys too often going to lap salary as a solution and that ultimately rolls to fund balance but spending money in mid-year as it's going by on a one-time basis which is what lap salary is makes me a little nervous um and maybe I'm it's just terminology for me and it's getting late anyway but but um we would be happy to play with this and involve principles um they're a little busy right now but but we we do want to move quickly on it but you you've hit some key pieces I think for us as one of you asked is there anything else you need commitment on in order to get up and running and I think you've given us a couple of chunks that can smooth the entry

183for us good so do we need to put that in the form of emotion or or are y'all just what do you what what would be the worst best way to handle that Dr Merrill um move that we prove that you asked staff to go ahead and proceed with the ones that you have uh signaled out and we make that part of the budget and that we hold on the remaining balance uh pending a recommendation from staff okay I make that motion second all in favor all right thank you Miss wrath thank you this has been painful I'm sorry okay is there any other thing that we need to discuss tonight or do we need to adjourn Emma wieger second all in favor all right thank you all very much and thank you to those

184who stayed to yeah The Bitter End