001foreign it is six o'clock and we will call the August the 14th Board of educate Orange County Board of Education meeting to session into session do I have a motion for us to enter closed session yes I move that the board entered closed session pursuant to North Carolina General statute 143-318.11a1 A3 A5 and A6 to consult with the board attorney and preserve the attorney-client privilege to consider confidential Personnel matters and to prevent the disclosure of confidential Personnel information under North Carolina General statute 115c-319 second all in favor aye okay we will enter closed session and return at seven foreign good evening everyone and welcome to the August 14th Orange County Schools Board of Education meeting I will read the public charge the Orange County Board of Education pledges to its citizens to conduct its business
002in a courteous productive manner showing respect for fellow board members staff and citizens the board asks its citizens to conduct themselves with the same courtesy toward both personnel and each other as poor board policy Robert's Rules of Order will be used to conduct meetings a moment of silence will be observed before each meeting in addition to the moment of silence at each meeting held at school sites the board will recite the Pledge of Allegiance the board asks that you check your cell phones and other electronic devices to be certain that they're either turned off or on vibrate to avoid an eruption of this meeting at this time we will stand for the Pledge of Allegiance foreign [Music] we will observe a moment of silence thank you okay thank you all at this time we have
003some recognitions tonight I have see some people sitting here waiting for that so Mr Foster yes good evening chair Purcell members of the board uh we'll kick off tonight's recognitions by recognizing some True Life Savers uh starting with orange High School athletic trainer Emily Gaddy Orange High School first responder Alicia Harris head coach Jack mcnosa uh Jackie mcnosa apologize assistant coach will stennett and student athletes Abby Monteith Sydney Rogers and Sully Gaddy we recognize these individuals uh tonight for receiving a lifesaver citation from the North Carolina High School Athletic Association uh these citations are given at uh Personnel at member schools who are directly responsible for saving a life out of North Carolina High School Athletic Association practice or game this past spring this team led by our athletic trainer Emily Gaddy saved the life
004of Orange High School Junior Varsity soccer player that were suffering from heat stroke in April uh and they're always calm way athletic trainer Gaddy guided her team to keep the student athletes temperature down and stable and so EMS arrived and took over I believe incidents like this and countless others that occur in athletics at all levels speak to the importance of athletic trainers in our schools and Orange County Schools were very fortunate to have athletic trainers in place to keep our student athletes safe so thank you Emily coaches student athletes for your work and great work that you do every day to keep our student athletes in good condition and safe and I believe uh Emily and Alicia may be joining us virtually as they are in practice with our football teams currently so that
005you know the obviously continue to do the great Workforce there we also have recognized tonight our coaches and student athletes are in attendance as well so thank you so much for the great work and for taking care of our great student athletes along the way and every day and and that they do and are involved [Applause] all right good evening chair Purcell members of the board our career in technical education program has been a model of Excellence not only in our region but across the state of North Carolina I'm truly honored and humbled this evening to recognize my colleague and our resident rock star Miss Shannon Braxton Miss Braxton was recently recognized as the north central region CTE director of the year Ms Braxton was nominated and voted by fellow North Central CTE directors for
006this honor she was formally recognized at the CTE Summer Conference on July the 17th Miss Braxton will now prepare an awards portfolio and participate in an interview against the other seven regions for North Carolina CTE director of the year in February of 2024. at this time I'd like to call Miss Braxton to the podium she is going to recognize some other fantastic leaders from our Career and Technical education program who have joined her but I do want to First give her a round of applause for her excellent work here in Orange County okay you know it's teamwork right this is teamwork so tonight I want to go ahead and call them up Melinda fornes who is the CTE cimc that's curriculum instructional management coordinator and Stephanie Smith who is one of our two Career Development
007coordinators Stephanie serves at Cedar Ridge High School where are y'all so first off um you've seen Melinda fornes this is your third time with her before you um Melinda is doing great things not only here in Orange County Schools but she's doing great things in the north central region and the state so she was recognized as the north central cimc of the year and then the state cimc of the year and in July unbeknownst to us at that same CTE Summer Conference she was recognized as the North Carolina Association of Career and Technical education teacher educator of the year because she works with the teachers of Career Technical Ed here in Orange County and it is such an honor and a privilege to work side by side with Melinda on doing the work here in
008Orange County Schools so congratulations to Melinda on this second state level award thank you it's math one of our cdc's that's the career development coordinators working with students hand in hand with Career Development plans internships at the high school she is going to be serving this full year as the north central CDC Champion which means she's going to work with cdc's in the north central region and Statewide a part of monthly collaboration stations throughout deep uh throughout the state hosted by DPI and she will also participate in the development of next year's CTE Summer Conference for the Statewide cdcs so we're very excited to have her as part of our team as well thank you all right is that all of our recognitions Mr Smith okay congratulations to all of you these folks have been
009working in Orange County for a long time and they have known what they're doing for a long time so we congratulate you all on this excellent job and wish you the best of luck as you bump up and in the State uh finals all right tonight now we need to um uh adopt our agenda for the night um we have a few items that we need to remove from the consent agenda but we need to um Dr mayor would you like to say something about yes please thank you madam chair members of the board there are a number of contracts that were on consent and I need to run them through a few more screens and hope to be able to bring these back next Monday night but I can indicate the changes to the
010agenda um the first is at a board member's request that we move the board committee structures for school year 23 24 to a discussion action item so that's a movement the following are contract renewals that I'm asking be pulled from the agenda tonight starting at number seven the interpretation service is number eight DreamBox number nine Avid number 10 ingenuity number 11 Math 180 number 12 get more math skipping over 13 will remain 14 comes off gizmos number 15 elevation number 16 new Cella and number 17 curriculum instruction with branching Minds so I'd I'd ask that those be pulled for tonight I just need to put some more screens on those before I bring them back to you for approval and hope we can have that ready by next Monday night yes sir do we have
011a motion to adopt the agenda With The Changes still moved second all in favor aye aye aye Dr Moore thank you thank you all right at this time we have public comment uh I think Miss Hauser has the list of public comments so when we call your name you may step up to the podium and you have three minutes first is Polly dornetti foreign of our school board and quite frankly every person in this audience I know each and every one of you is here because you want the best for our children in this community none of you have more things in common than differences yet over the past seven years that I've had a child in Orange County Schools I've watched as the various members of the board who have come and gone have
012focused on their differences have created groups of US versus them I've watched this board swing from one side of the political Spectrum and and then to the other and Back Again each new regime focusing uh I'm sorry each new regime the focus is set on undoing what they did or pushing through what changes they stopped the last session I'm here tonight to ask all of you to stop this divide to ask for all seven of you to quit focusing on your differences but instead on what you have in common a desire for each child in Orange County Schools to become all that they can be that starts with every child in every school in this District having a certified teacher in their classroom every day that means every student teacher and staff member member feels
013safe in their classroom Walking The Halls in gym class at lunch and at recess discipline has got to be brought under control in all of our schools if you're sitting there right now thinking I'm so glad that she is calling them out I want you to know I'm talking to you too I want to welcome Dr Merrill I am hopeful that you bring to this District the knowledge and experience to set our district on a course for student achievement I hope during your time here you will continue the positive strides our district has made towards equity I hope that you will lay the brown work for improved student outcomes for all student groups but most of all I hope that you can bring the focus of our school board to what really matters our children
014thank you thank you latondra strong good evening it's no surprise I'm here to talk about equity and how important Equity is in our district and about how important how valuable it was to me and to my family and to many many of the members of our communities when each of you stood before us and said that Equity is a priority for you when you were campaigning I want to remind you of that promise I want to remind you that eight years ago when I first came before the school board with a a host of other families Equity was not a a promise in fact many people didn't know what Equity was all about see for a long many years we've had students in our district that were not getting any services not the services they
015need but any services and through the efforts of many people who have been committed to equity and committed to making sure many students in our district are getting Services we have for the first time first time that I know of number one in growth and that's not great because where growth is low but it's better than we were and we're supposed to see that happen again and so I'm hoping that you that you will be committed that eight year mark is important to me and I'll tell you why because when in the last time I spoke before the Confederate flag thing I reminded people that when Rosa Parks got arrested it was eight years before we had the first Civil Rights Act went into into law that that that day I thought to myself that
016was a long time I couldn't imagine somebody being so steadfast and working on the issue for so long and not seeing any results and it's been eight years and I'm still here because we still have students that's not getting an education I'm so glad thankful for the growth that we see in the CTE program because I remember when we were revving up this program in our district eight years ago we were also revving up the equity task force and folks were saying we want the CTE program to be similar to the equity task force could you imagine being also getting awards for the equity task force but we have people in this District who want to stop that growth who want to see black and brown children not perform so we can talk about all
017children but unless we talk about it in terms of the children that are actually receiving Services it means nothing to say all children when it's okay for you to say all children and be okay with children not getting the services they need so Dr Merrill you have a big problem in this District because this is a polarized Community isn't that a surprise it's happening everywhere so what I hope you will do is that you will find ways to bring this community together because I think that's a grand idea but it's not a grand idea unless every student is actually receiving Services especially those that have been neglected for decades that's my charge to you and that's my charge to the board thank you Hillary McKenzie good evening members of the board superintendent Merrell staff and
018community members I'm speaking tonight as a taxpayer of Orange County a parent of two students in Orange County schools and as a former member of the school board I have closely watched the actions of this board for the past year when chair Purcell and vice chair Richmond were sworn into office since that time aside from one vote about a federal grants physician in central office every single vote that hasn't been unanimous has been split three to four with former Educators Dr Jennifer Moore Sarah Smiley and current High School teacher Carrie Doyle on one side always voting in support of the district recommendations on the other side and Purcell Andre Richmond Bonnie Hauser and will Atherton have always voted against District recommendations by superintendent and welder to me this is evidence of a deeply divided board
019one that is run by a majority of four who has made no effort to build consensus with the group I have seen and heard the pushback coming from the most conservative voices in our County calling for the removal of Dr Felder I have seen leadership from the conservative group friends of Orange County Schools who supported the four of you in the current board majority say publicly that the board was paying too much attention to black students under Dr felder's leadership and who recently dismissed the enslavement of human beings as an opportunity to come to America for prosperity if there was ever a demonstration as to why Public Schools need to teach accurate history it's these groups making these kinds of statements all while claiming their friends to the to our students those quotes are available
020for review in the assembly article schoolyard Brawl by Barry yeoman to former board member to a former board member it looks like Purcell Richmond Houser and Atherton ousted Dr Felder this action seems to signify that they believe it's appropriate to pay a leader two hundred thousand dollars to walk away from the work of centering students who have historically been underserved by our district even though data indicate that Dr Felder was growing all of our students faster than any leader in the entire state what an utter waste of resources they could have been spent at the school level rather than its central office how can you possibly justify spending well over four hundred thousand dollars only on a superintendent in one year to Dr Moore Miss Smiley and Miss Doyle thank you for your service to
021the children of our County and for keeping the best interest of the students at the Forefront of everything you do to the community listening tonight there is one simple action that will bring back balance and reasonable stewardship of our resources to this elected body voting Bonnie Hauser out of her seat in the spring 2024 election will shift the board away from a rogue majority which consistently takes campaign money endorsements and boardroom direction from conservative groups specifically those who Pine for the good old days of OCS thank you thank you Danielle price good evening board good evening interim superintendent Dr Merrill parents taxpayers my name is Danielle price I'm a fifth generation Orange County school graduate I'm an Orange County School parent and an active lifelong member of this community post covid we've all heard from
022our district is how great we've done but when can parents and taxpayers expect to hear us acknowledge the disparities that are vast within our district and when are we planning to set forth a plan to address them we're a district that so heavily touts equity and while I do agree because I am the parent of a minority's child as a parent I shouldn't have to change my child's school to get her the services that she deserves [Music] excuse me I'm all for Equity but at this point I'd be happy with equality I ask that you all consider to put aside your differences to work together to do what's best and in the best interest of all of our kids I ask that you work together because we have children that are returning to school in
023two weeks My Hope Is that we will not continue to let everything that has happened and transpired in the past two weeks continue to distract us and pull our Focus from what your job is to support our teachers to give parents a peace of mind and to educate our children our biggest picture here are our kids they are our most valuable resources and as all of you stood and took an oath of office that is what you vowed to protect Dr Merrill I welcome you I look forward to the knowledge and experience that you bring and hopefully see immunity much needed Unity to our district thank you Katie Harper good evening thank you for taking public comment you already know my feelings about Dr felder's recent dismissal because I've spoken several times this year in
024support of her leadership so I won't speak on it much tonight suffice it to say I am angry at what appears to be a board majority firing a great superintendent and using the budget shortfall as a smokescreen a shortfall you had a hand in you approve those expenditures out of lap salaries and you knew that once the line item was exhausted you would need to pull from fund balance you knew that the board of County Commissioners had told our district to dip into fund balance which is to say to go over budget and yet still you blamed our previous superintendent as though she made those decisions on her own my main reason for speaking tonight as a parent of two children in the district is to comment on Lawrence Road I heard you say at
025the end of the Open session on July 10th that you would be going into closed session to discuss this land I want to voice my opposition to the potential purchase of land on Lawrence Road it is not a good place for a school which is what the County Commissioners already determined two months ago in June when they designed when they denied the developers rezoning request it is not a good location for water and sewer Services which is what the town of Hillsboro already determined earlier in the year it is not a good place for our school district to spend funds if you do decide to move forward with the purchase in much the same way you decided to move forward with pushing Dr Felder out the door despite her desire to stay here despite the
026positive changes she and her team have made for students in our district despite vocal support from the broader Community the public will know the public will know that our board chair and Purcell is cousins with commissioner Earl McKee who is a friend and employee of Jim Parker Who currently owns the land on Lawrence Road and wants to develop it in a way that is inconsistent with its current zoning the public will know that Jim Parker and former board member Stephen halkiotis have children at a charter school that originally wanted to move to the spot on Lawrence Road but then settled for an articulation agreement with the high school that tried to move their next the public will know that purchasing land on Lawrence amounts to cronyism we do not need a school on this side
027of the county we do not need land on Lawrence Road do not use our public tax dollars to help family members and Friends make backroom deals for the benefit of their wallets and their relatives rather than for the good of our community thank you Tunisia Tanisha Massey Tanisha Massey [Music] good evening I come to you tonight not only as a concerned parent but as a child of God with an immensely heavy heart this pain is due to a constant the constant abuse and misuse of the word of God the Holy Bible the word is surely meant to convict us should we choose to walk along a righteous path it is not meant to be used as a weapon of condemnation in a recent article released by the assembly it saddened me to see some of
028these tactics among other anti-godly Maneuvers in efforts to change things about our school system that friends in our community are against during my time before you tonight I will focus on a few points concerns of friends that directly counteract with the truth as it pertains to the word of God first parents rights as a parent I do think it's important to be all the way in the know about my kids which is why I've worked extremely hard to build an extremely safe relationship with my daughters regardless of my thoughts they can talk to me about anything would you agree I also raise my children on Christian principles and we are very involved in our church in many ways however when a high-ranking member of the local chapter moms for Liberty stated she felt guidelines from
029the equity policy was an encroachment of parents rights my immediate thought was I wonder what she does at doctor's appointments as a mother of teenagers we all know that in today's time we have to step out of their doctor's appointments to honor their privacy this is no different number two protecting our students this this works in both ways uh are protecting our students means accepting their choices as long as they are not detrimental to their health usually this means we should continue to love them all even even through such decisions that we don't agree with these decisions may not always line up with God's plan for their life either our job as parents as Proverbs 22 and 6 says train a child up in the way he should go and when he is old he
030will not depart from it I believe that wholeheartedly mm-hmm it is selfish for us to try and control our kids instead of embracing them we all have to learn to listen and work through these choices and changes most of all pray for them another memory of another member of moms for Liberty stated a book being read in their second year of their son's experience at Orange High School Like Water for Chocolate allowed centered around less than premarital sex I would say the Holy Bible also speaks about premarital sex in the book songs of songs thank you eflin Randy efland [Music] good evening um I'm the mother of two children that attend Hillsboro Elementary and in June the last week of school they brought home their school yearbook and I was shocked to see that the
031pride flag was displayed across the front cover for the first or for the past couple of years I've noticed the pride flag displayed outside of several classrooms at Hillsboro Elementary and being someone who usually doesn't speak out or speak up I turned a blind eye but when the elementary school yearbook came home knowing that I had paid for this and it was brought into my home with the pride flag displayed across it it was a wake-up call for me when I think of a yearbook cover I think it should be a representation of the contents inside the book The Pride flag clearly is not a representation of the student population of Hillsborough Elementary and it certainly is not inclusive of all students families and staffs ideologies or lifestyles it made me really start to question
032what is the intent of displaying the pride flag prominently in our schools particularly elementary schools is the intent to educate our youngest children about the real meaning of the flag to influence them to learn about and celebrate the lesbian gay bisexual transsexual and queer community Elementary schoolers have no concept of these terms so it is our is it our school's goal to teach them about sexual preferences and sexual behaviors I certainly hope that's not the case or is the intent to avoid the true meaning of the flag and um and maybe presented as a symbol of unity or of acceptance or something equally misleading and inaccurate that to me is the epitome of indoctrination are we encouraging all teachers to display their choice of flags and symbols inside and outside of their classrooms to represent
033their ideologies and lifestyle choices or is it only the pride flag that is promoted in our schools it is time for Orange County Schools to choose to focus on educating our children let's stick to the basics math reading science and the like I constantly hear from Orange County that the aim is to foster a school environment that is inclusive of all so let's only display flags that are truly representative of all of our students that's the American flag and the North Carolina flag thank you thank you [Applause] Jim West okay hi everybody my name is Jim West I've lived in Hillsboro since 1996. and one of the reasons why I love Hillsborough in Orange county is because we do have some really good schools here I mean the teachers you guys everybody that's put in
034effort here it's a very concerted effort I grew up in the rural parts of the state where education was kind of a second thought so I do appreciate anybody's time on it even if I don't agree with your positions on certain matters I do appreciate you I do respect that uh I do work for a national CPA firm and one thing we do when we whenever a client wants to consider about moving or relocating to a specific area we always wanted to find out uh the different aspects what's a good fit and everything one of the first things we look at is education and uh you know for the longest time I was very proud about being in Orange County this last time with Dr Felder uh being terminated it was the first time it
035really gave me pause I was pretty upset about it to be honest with you I thought Dr Felder was doing the right thing whenever something is is working why fix there's not a problem don't fix it on that uh the one thing that Martin Luther King Jr once time said you know Darkness cannot drive out Darkness only light can hate can only nothing can make not drive out hates Only Love Can we need to love our kids we need to lose love our teachers we need to love this thing called Equity we need to love everything about equality because I'm going to tell you right now we've got some really good people here and you know there's a lot of people all over the Spectrum here it's uh conservative moderate liberal it's all good we're
036all orange Canyons we can't be blue County you can't believe be red County we've got to be Orange County we've got to have Orange County values and uh I ask you guys do not put another superintendents under the crosshairs do not try to politicize something this is about our kids and I'm 52 years old and I doubt I'll ever have another child since a lot of people probably be glad about that but uh I'm gonna tell you right now I do worry about our Direction after this vote please please really consider your actions this gentleman right here is sounds like a really good gentleman I'm gonna tell you right now I hope the best for you keep him out the crosshairs keep out anybody out the crosshairs keep your teachers out of the crosshairs keep
037your principles out across yours but more anything else keep your kids out of the crosshairs thank you thank you Robin Mulkey followed by Jackie Barker well it's almost that time of year and no not pumpkin spice it's the new school year and the smell of new crayons and the squeak of the new markers it's time that our students and our teachers get to turn a new page it's time Orange County schools and the Board of Education get to turn a new page with what focus on what's best for our students it's time to turn a new page to new ways to positive ways so networking helps recruit so that new staff you get them by new and better ways maybe our teachers would be recruiting teachers because they're happy about working here maybe our bus
038drivers are recruiting bus drivers from some other areas because this is a good place to be folks hopefully that'll appreciate Orange County it's huge territory with all of its challenges that we don't have reliable internet at the most northern northernmost Southern edges of our County that those roads are a challenge especially when those winter storms hit the new page as you embark on this superintendent search and find a new way other than the School Board Association maybe that networking can find a a better way that'll find one to last longer and a new ruler to measure our impact on all the students so I challenge you to turn a new page to use a new ruler and measure how it impacts our children thank you Jackie Barker followed by Allison mahaly evening I'm here to
039talk about finances and influences it's that time of year again we're all excited property property tax bills yay as a property owner I pay the county around 10 percent of the tax value of my property which includes the County fees they do a really good job on the bill breaking down where the tax dollars actually go if you look the majority it's 38 percent that goes to education did you notice it's been cut it was 30 it was 48 last year so I feel like with the majority of my tax dollars supporting education and with less support from the county this year taxpayers have a vested interest on how schools are spending this money specifically who is on the receiving end of the money spent do you think the likes of Rockefellers Bill Gates zuckerbergs
040are getting these tax dollars well they are the district has contracts with non-profits and companies who are directly funded by Gates Zuckerberg jobs Rockefellers buffets and then that funding makes its way right back into their pockets so you see it's a cycle of money passing from one hand to the next and back to the top one example is Panorama education who has so far received 145 000 in contracts from the district who owns this company U.S attorney general Merrick Garland's son-in-law Zan Tanner remember Merrick Garland who called for the FBI to address parents speaking out at board meetings startup funding came from Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs non-profit Emerson among some others Panorama Ed provides student surveys that data minor children in order to force change in school culture and pump out citizens through their design
041by the way parents you can opt out of those surveys they come around three times a year has a district lost local control over who has influence in our schools by giving up to the powerful sitting at the top of the chain or is that by Design are we selling our children out with programs funded by tax-exempt non-profit cartels who possess power influence and capital while we foot the bill who's behind the funding of Newsela DreamBox solution tree Pacific education group Castle rethink Ed some of these are on the agenda tonight there's a reason large Grant making tax-exempt nonprofits are involved in funding our schools when the influence is coming from One Source One ideology with one agenda there will be no diversity or individualism the curriculum grants surveys and training provided through these contracts
042are designed to influence our children teachers and parents who then will go on to vote keeping the same system in place let's start looking into the money that is behind the grants and contracts the board is accepting and paying out you know the saying if it's free you are the one being sold and thank you for your service Allison mahali followed by Sarah Snipes good evening everyone um I want to especially say good evening to Dr Merrill you were my former superintendent in Alamance County and I have very fond memories of the time that you led that school district unfortunately after you left Alamance County went back to being a good old boy School District as it had been before you were there and I'm very concerned about what's going on here in Orange County
043I'm really disappointed in this board for letting Dr Felder go I'm here tonight as a taxpayer you are wasting my money the amount of money that you are paying Dr Merrill I'm sure it's commiserate with other interim superintendents however it is equivalent to five teacher salaries five I don't believe that there should be money wasted when our teachers are struggling to make ends meet and most of them cannot afford to live in this District I'm very frustrated as a taxpayer that my County Commissioners try to offset the expense of charter schools in this District and that that money doesn't actually make a difference and your ability to recruit I'm very frustrated as a taxpayer and I'm paying attention thank you Sarah Sarah Snipes followed by Sophia Stewart good evening board greetings chair Purcell and new
044Dr marrow I'd like to recognize tonight as a new opportunity for our district to refocus on academic education and Excellence for far too long in this district there has been a heavy focus on controversial social and political topics this has been a distraction and a lack of attention on academics a lack of attention on staff and teachers and it's resulted in a deterioration of our district and it's evident in the County's poor performance and budgetary issues the fundamental purpose of a school is to teach academics and knowledge so that as children mature they have the education to make their own individual decisions about the current social and political topics they shouldn't be told how to believe or what to believe we should teach them the knowledge so they can make that decision for themselves knowledge
045is power every person should be afforded the respect the dignity and the opportunity to make decisions based on their own individual understanding of the information so instead of having curriculums focus on racial social or sexist categorization of students I'd like to recommend that our new leadership focus on the individual Excellence of every student there is no need to categorize stereotype certain segments of students teachers or staff that all have the opportunity to be excellent I'd like to challenge the new leadership to focus on those elements that unite students teachers staff parents and Community citizens focus on topics that unify us instead of dividing us I encourage our board and our new leadership to continue being excellent stewards of the staff the students the finances and our community we should focus on every individual every teacher
046and primarily focus on academic excellence and to be good stewards of our finances does entail doing an audit and getting under the hood if you will of where these contracts go that have been negotiated in the past that were called out if we have to spend a little money to clean house so that it goes towards our students that I'm in full support of that as my community dollars go to what's best for every student and to support our staff and teachers in this community thank you Sophia Stewart just followed by and I hope I'm saying this right Kim petinio um good evening board thank you for the opportunity to share a few thoughts tonight my name is Sophia Stewart I grew up in this school district and went to Grady brown stand back and
047Cedar Ridge My overall experience in Orange County Schools was positive especially Elementary School as I remember it the culture and character education when I was at Grady Brown as well as the academics was phenomenal one of the things I remember the teachers telling us over and over was that we were the number one school in America and I believed it we were United by pride in our school and in our country and that was a feeling that I've never forgotten to this day after graduating from college recently I decided I wanted to work in education so I could pass along this love of learning that my Elementary School experience instilled in me currently I'm qualified to teach elementary school as well as secondary level math however as I was looking at different districts to apply
048for jobs for this school year I decided not to apply an OCS for a few reasons first when I graduated in 2016 Proficiency in math was seven percent better than the state average but in 2022 Proficiency in math was four percent worse than the state average to me this shows that this district has not been focused on the basics of Education in recent years like it should Additionally the state of Staff vacancies High turnover and the results of the 2021 OCS Equity report show that this district has not been investing in an environment or culture that supports teachers um from friends and community members with kids at Orange County Schools I also heard about an obsessive Focus from leadership on controversial race and gender issues that were definitely not prominent when I was in school
049clearly OCS has been so focused on Dei concerns that they have neglected supporting teachers and failed to prepare students to be thoughtful knowledgeable citizens which is the entire purpose of public education um so I how about instead of this have a renewed focus on math and reading and science what about looking beyond the tunnel vision of diversity equity and inclusion to character education like kindness honesty accountability and discipline what about educating all children specific to their needs including those with disabilities and those with Advanced learning needs this is what I remember from my years in Orange County schools and I hope that we can go back to that thank you thank you tinea followed by Earl Tai hi [Music] um quotes taken from ruger's investigators investigates the New York Post interviews and the stranger reports
050Helena kirschner a 20 year old D transitioning Deed transitioner from Cincinnati Ohio who was born on a born a biological female first felt gender dysphoria at age 14. she said I was going through a period where I just really isolate I felt really isolated at school so I turned to the internet she recalled my dysphoria was definitely triggered by this online community I never thought my gender or had a problem with being a girl I never thought about my gender or had a problem with being a girl before until going on Tumblr Dr Erica Anderson a transgender woman a clinic and a clinical psychologist specializing in gender sexuality and identity stated I'm concerned that the rise of the transitioners is reflective of some young people who have progressed through their gender Journey very very quickly
051my dysphoria called with collided with my general depression issues and Body Image issues Helena recalled I just came to the conclusion that I was born in the wrong body and that all my problems in life would be solved if I transitioned more attention needs to be paid to psychotherapy Chloe another D transitioner said we are immediately jumping into irreversible Medical Treatments when we could be focusing on empowering these children to not hate their bodies Marcus Evans a resigned Clinical Director of adult and Adolescent services at the trans driver stock in the UK where many youths seek treatment for gender dysphoria said I saw children being fast-tracked into Medical Solutions for psychological problems and when kids get on the medical conveyor belt they don't get off Evans said what do these experiences of children and Professionals
052in the sexuality and gender care space have to do at Orange County Schools we have teachers and staff who believe in their place it is their place to talk with students about their sexuality to teach grade school children lessons about drag queens and transgender activists throughout history and talk to young children about sexual lifestyle choices we have had counselors tell kids on a whim that they could change their gender and use this idea as a catch-all solution to The Growing Pains of adolescents are these topics part of basic education mandates as mandated by the state of North Carolina could the public school be a protected place of academic learning free at least from authorities bringing topics to the children which they themselves resolved as adults is teaching first graders complex levels of love like someone
053sometimes boys love boys and girls love girls as is stated in the elementary Pride slides part of the basic education children who have been loved show an immense capacity to love anyone and everyone they do not connect this unconditional love that they have available in abundance to the romantic love The Pride curriculum is attempting to teach them Earl Ty followed by Gretchen Schmidt good evening I am Earl Tai I am a volunteer uh with a Grassroots organization here in Orange County called friends of Orange County Schools we count among our friends many parents grandparents Aunts Uncles people of varying political affiliations men and women of all Races a young and old and of course taxpayers and despite all of our obvious differences we all share a passionate commitment to the high quality education and well-being
054of all the children in this community and I'm here tonight to thank you for your service and I'm also here to thank you for your unanimous vote that resulted in a change in leadership in this District and to our new interim superintendent Dr Merrill welcome to Orange County Schools we're excited you're here and welcome your experience and knowledge as you work with their school board to make our schools the very best they can be I've attended most every school board meeting since last summer and from my observations over that time it was clear there were a number of problems that persisted much of the year in many cases we have a lack of teachers trained staff and principals and if it's not obvious it bad things happen when adults aren't in the in the classroom
055when adults aren't in the building academic suffer discipline suffers morale suffers and that's particularly a problematic right now given that for the past few years we have our students have performed lower than the state average for the most part that's a problem a discipline has been a problem and all of that is has happened alongside what we would call a lack of focus on academics that has given away to other other kinds of initiatives in a county that is growing we're not seeing the corresponding growth in student enrollment yet the the central district has grown quite a bit the fact is that parents are looking for other Alternatives other education options teachers are leaving and I understand that happens in most every District but it just seems to have reached and maintained at a crisis
056level here in in Orange County uh there's been a persistent lack of transparency and communication uh the big surprise announcement in the spring of this year that there was a million plus dollar shortfall uh that necessitated a half a million dollar draw from the fund balance that's just not how the school district should be should be run um lack of transparency and communication with the the board in the district frequently put the board in a position of having to react to something unforeseen so unfortunately the kids are the ones who lose when when that's the case so thank you for your service and we look forward to your continued work to improve our schools thank you Gretchen Schmidt followed by David Ogden good evening board um welcome and good evening Dr Merrill I've spoken up
057here several times on multiple subjects and where their particular mission of moms for Liberty Orange County is to defend parental rights on all levels of government I have recently heard that word on the street was that we in particular are not wanting the tools teachers resources and services for all children and that we would be for holding the above back based on race I have never heard discussed or thought any of these ideas as far as moms for Liberty is concerned every parent as a parent and as a taxpayer has the right to expect and receive all the necessary tools teachers resources necessary to achieve the basic education the district is tasked to bring to every child to their potential where Equity is concerned every child is an individual and every individual must be held
058in a space and with a focus on where they are at currently and teach them to be the resourceful Learners and build their bodies and their minds to the greatest potential possible for each and every one we would fight and help any parent have who comes to us for support that is not receiving this the main topic of my comment this evening is the handshake the eye contact the greeting that I saw over a 14-year period in Waldorf education the kindergarten parent or the kindergarten child approaches the warm-hearted teachers usually with a smile from ear to ear the first grader approaches with a triumphant sometimes a toothless grin as they confidently looked into their teacher's eyes and gave an energetic handshake the handshake and eye contact evolve over the years and the teachers may have
059to wait several seconds sometimes many seconds with class pans while the Middle School youth has drawn Inward and may no longer have the confidence to look the teacher that has taught and served and loved them for many years It is believed across cultures and faiths that the eyes are the window to the soul when human beings connect with a handshake Souls connect I don't have time to go over all the benefits of learning to have good eye contact and affirm handshake but they are well demonstrated there is sentiment that we as human beings cannot learn effectively if the teacher does not come from our same background or look like us maybe this is true I'm not an expert on this subject but if it is true we're kind of in trouble in Orange County schools
060that means you know depending on your race you might not be able to learn I don't I don't believe that this is true I I think that something as free as a handshake and an eye contact where we can connect um as human beings and let each other know who we are and that we care about each other as students and teachers can overcome many of these kinds of boundaries and I'm not saying this because I believe there shouldn't be you know all kinds of teachers hired but I think that um there are some some free tools that have been used over Millennia that overpower all of these things a lot of these things that we're talking about tonight thank you David Ogden board members and Dr Merrell I'm grateful for the calls for Unity
061and of purpose tonight I think we could have all gone home after the first lady spoke it was exactly what this group needs to hear there are important changes this District needs to make in order to correct its focus towards children I'm going to mention two examples of our lack of focus on children not to attack anyone but to be transparent about exactly what I see that is taking away from our purpose for more than two years I was a guardian caregiver and eventually a foster parent for two black children with exceptional needs who went to Grady Brown Elementary School in the last year I think nearly every child and teacher in that school knew those boys by name the oldest of my children started as a first grader at Hillsborough Elementary and he's now
062a junior at Cedar Ridge over the last 10 years I've had hundreds of interactions with teachers principals administrators counselors resource officers parents and students I've been on many field trips into many sporting events countless times are upset in principle counselor and teacher offices to discuss the needs of children in my care how many of those meetings and conferences do you think my concern was racial intolerance how many times did staff mistreat the children I care for whether they were black or white because of a staff member's own subconscious bias how many times were these children hurt emotionally or otherwise by students or staff based on the color of their skin everyone here knows the answer to these questions many have seen recently published photos of our Equity director Lee Williams office in the picture you
063can see pride Flags resist emblems and political slogans framed on the wall what is missing from this picture I would ask Mr Williams where is the flag that represents the EC students and teachers in our schools who have all but been abandoned by our central office our Equity facilitator Mr Sadie frequently posts things like this on social media he said starting with Elementary and primary years let's discuss systematic racism and white supremacy culture Mr Sadie also is known for heralding flags that represent gender race and social justice I would ask Mr Sadie when will you raise a flag that represents the thousands in our district of every skin color that are not proficient in math or reading or science or writing despite the best efforts of some in our community to divide us the indisputable
064fact remains our children have far more in common than they have that divides them let us rise above flags and stickers and emblems and symbols that detract from our common purpose so that that so many here have called for tonight that every child regardless of how we can group them or divide them will graduate from our schools with the ability to achieve and contribute in whatever path they choose Thank you ebony [Applause] good evening everyone I'm ebony Freeland Bryant mother of a rise and seventh grader at Gravelly Hill and a rising 9th grader at Cedar Ridge in the ptso president at Gravely as much as I am committed to making sure that you don't forget Gravely Hill Middle School I had no plans to come tonight I was so frustrated and irritated with the behavior
065at the June meeting and all the events that have happened since that I said I couldn't come back until September to give myself time to not be annoyed and or quite frankly ashamed because there have been times even during this comments that I wish I had kept with my original plan but I was reminded it's about more than feelings it's about the children of Orange County and it's about the grown-ups who have the power to make things better doing the right thing instead of battling to be right but my heart is heavy tonight and I'm not sure how these students that we're standing for would respond to this meeting so working in education requires courage and it requires leadership we're in a time in this country and in this world we need more people that
066embody leadership more than they're trying to be in charge author J Donald Waters said leadership is an opportunity to serve it is not a trumpet call to self-importance so as we embark on this new school year I would encourage everyone here to think about how you are leading how are you using the opportunity that your role offers how are your decisions speaking for our kids because every day every board or special call meeting every school visit every interaction with OCS staff teachers students families you're called to lead you're called to use the characteristics of leadership like empathy courage confidence creativity and serving a purpose greater than yourself leadership goes beyond a title or a position it is truly defined by how you walk through this life and we recognize however that we walk through this
067life can be greatly affected by the privilege that we have or don't have it's important to consider the ways in which we experience the world each one of us through the things that give us our identity each one of us has a gender a race an ability status an age and these group memberships make up Who We Are so as you board members lead on this board and as you District staff lead in the front office as teachers and school admins and staff lead in the school and as we families lead at home it is important to recognize that everyone can sit in places of privilege and bias your identities can place you on either end of the spectrum and it is important that you remember that when you approach people and how you navigate
068your privilege this year I hope and pray that we all approach every day in the Orange County School District in a way that remembers who we are working for and as a volunteer in a school that would love to have this many folks show up to cover lunch duty and income in concession stands I hope will show up the same way as we did tonight amen foreign [Applause] public comment tonight thank you all for coming out and speaking thank you all who are are attending this board meeting okay it um we move on to board comments um Miss Smiley do you have any board comments um I want to thank everyone for coming out tonight and welcome Dr Merrill um and um one thing I wanted to note on the agenda just a suggestion for
069moving forward and I went back and tried to figure out when this started getting taken off agendas is that in the past historically there's been a section for board reports and comments and for the superintendent to have a report in comment um and so I'd like to see that come back and be a regular part of the agenda as well it's my only comment anything else nope Mr Wolf thank you chair Purcell um I do want to recognize we're starting a new school year and I appreciate the leadership of Dr Felder these past several years um her leadership into a place of strong academic gains postcovid and uh recent closing of gaps in both opportunity and representation for our diverse student body and community and I appreciate you Dr Merrill for your willingness to lead
070us through this time of transition so that we continue to make progress in these areas and continue to move forward with redistricting I appreciate all of our staff central office School level teachers bus drivers everybody for working extra hard to ensure a smooth start to the school year amid a time of change and I appreciate all of our community members coming out tonight um on a summer evening and uh and I encourage you to continue coming and hold us to the vision of our strategic plan thank you Ms Dole um Dr Moore do you feel like can you say anything Dr Moore's home and not feeling well tonight so I will ask her if she has any comments to make or if she would like to to wait I wait because I don't have much
071voice okay I just wanted to check thank you Miss Hauser sure I wanted to also just thank every Community member that came out tonight and shared your thoughts and interests I assure you were listening um and please you know we look forward to you continuing to hold us accountable for the things that we say will do I want to welcome Dr Merrill to our leadership team and I'm excited about working with you I I wanted to say something I don't know if the community is aware but right now Orange County government has a million dollar facility study going on of all its schools that study is supposed to be done at the end of the year and that study will decide if and where we put new schools and only that study will decide that
072so I just wanted to make sure that people know that that that study is underway and um if you want to follow the capital needs work group of Orange County and our board will be talking about that study short shortly certainly you're welcome to do that and I just needed to to go back to the beginning with uh Miss Braxton miss fornes Mr Miss Smith and Mr Montgomery and thank them because I did have an opportunity to sit through our summer Career Academy graduation and in that process learned and you may or may not know that Orange County has this year had about 30 interned students working in jobs in Orange and Alamance County and about half of those students are actually working in the school district they're working in maintenance jobs teaching jobs one's
073even teaching a high school engineering course and those jobs convert I'm sorry those internships convert to jobs and I have to just say I I dare any Charter School to match what you all are doing and I just want to thank you so much for that that's all okay thank you I will add that um we're all excited about the new school year and that I got to spend some time um a week and a half ago with two of our new principals Jalen Brown at Al stand back who has more energy I think than everybody in this room put together he is committed and ready to go to work and ready to get his children in his building and that came through loud and clear to the parents and the people that that went
074to the little reception that they had in the lobby at Al stand back um I think he's going to be a fantastic principal and look forward to working with him in the district I also got to meet with um one of my former students Miss Kristen Madison Williamson who is uh now principal at Pathways Elementary and she too exuded that excitement that parents got to see students got to see as they greeted her coming into Pathways it was very exciting to see the little children engaging with her and and her being so friendly and just ready to go to work so I am looking forward to this school year as we get started I applaud all of our teachers in this district and applaud our principles and all the people that are working very hard
075to get this school year started and off on the right foot and I can think that I can honestly say that we are going to start on the right foot and that there are a lot of excited students that are ready to come back to school there are some that are not quite so ready but I guarantee that that first day of school when they get back in the building they're going to be excited just like everybody else so we're looking forward to starting this school year and once again I thank all of you for coming out tonight and I appreciate your comments I enjoy hearing from you and I hope that you will come back in the future and let us know how we're doing and what we're doing well and what we may
076not be doing so well I also welcome Dr James Merrill here I met him two weeks ago and and um he has hit the ground running and we are are very happy to have him here so thank you again at this time we need to um make a motion to approve our consent agenda with the changes that we had on there and so can I have a motion to make to approve that agenda again motion to approve second all in favor aye aye thank you very much oh thank you Dr Moore um all right we will we have moved the committee report down to under the discussion item um with the continuance or discontinuance of cost-saving Direction and that is coming from um I think that is coming from Miss Wrath Miss wrath are you
077ready good evening good evening this evening we are here to seek input and direction from the board in regards to the cost saving measures that were recommended by staff at the March 20th board meeting in particular we are looking for approval to allow professional development and attendance to workshops and conferences out of the local budget as long as those funds are available and budgeted we're also asking for reasonable Refreshments or snacks to be provided at professional development events as long as they are budgeted and those budgeted funds are available and we are also asking for consideration one of the items that the board asked for at that meeting was for all contracts expending local funds to be brought to the board for approval we are asking for consideration to consider going back to policy 8705
078which allows the superintendent the ability to approve contracts up to fifty thousand dollars is there any questions any questions from anyone I I have a missiles just to clarify the um there was also a central office hiring freeze well that will stay in effect unless the board wishes otherwise um that will stay in effect okay and on the um the contracts if I read the abstract correctly the contracts of 50 000 they would be items that would have been previously budgeted that is correct okay it's a question about the hiring freeze I thought I thought I remembered that that stopped being in effect at the end of the school year is that what is the current score is it currently active I just the board the board and stated it until the board lists it
079it's in in place until the board lifts we could certainly check the minutes to to confirm I don't specifically recall okay we can uh we'll get an answer back to the full board uh before the week's over and and depending on the answer to to the board's Direction um if they are frozen then I would hope to bring one at a time some rationale that says this particular one we'd like you to review approve and fill so we can either do it on a piecemeal basis or depending on what what our minutes had said because we do have a couple criticals that are sitting there and it's close to opening so and that's how it's always been is the freeze has been you know the superintendent Edge brought Droid items even when a freeze has
080been in effect but I do remember the board very specifically putting a freezing effect over the summer until we lifted it you know the concern of course is and we haven't done the enrollment topic yet but with you know we still have a budget to finalize an enrollment is changing so okay on this item do we have a motion to approve so move second any discussion further all right all in favor aye aye aye Dr Moore hi thank you okay motion passes thank you okay we um we have uh Committees of the board and I for those of you that don't know I ask each board member what committee they would like to serve on and we we put them I put them on the Committees that they like had said they would want to
081serve on uh last year we had two committees that were um made Committees of the whole board during the year because we had so many people who wanted to go and be a part of these committees one of them was the budget committee and the other one was the school achievement committee this year I did not um I wanted to wait for a board meeting to discuss that with board members because I did not want to assume that board members wanted to do the Committees of the whole again this year I wanted to make sure that we were doing as you wanted to do and so we do have um tonight we need to decide do we want those two committees to be Committees of the whole again this year or do we want to
082go back to having three-person committees for those two committees as well so I need to know the board's thoughts and ideas on on those yes ma'am as well well um and I'm I'm in favor of the student achievement committee being a committee of the whole you know we put that in place really late in the school year um but it it it before we had that it felt very odd to be having situations where we were inviting school teams in to share how they were working on plc's or mtss or whatever and you know three board members were there being able to have a conversation with them and so um my recommendation for student achievement is that it continues to be a committee of the whole um uh recognizing that a number of board members
083have full-time day jobs I think that we would probably be looking at evening meetings and I don't want to add too many knowing that that impacts staff so my thought right now is having a student achievement committee that meets three or four times during the year at key points so one of the things that we do is look at in your interim assessment data and how students are performing beginning middle end of the year school Improvement plans you know there's certain key points maybe where we would sort of have a number of those topics a slightly longer meeting um probably in the evening so more people could come um so that's my thought about that committee and then budget I think just everybody being able to weigh in on budget as we go as opposed
084to waiting to the end would also be useful so any other comments I support Sarah's suggestion for student achievement ready I I agree and I also I feel that way about budget I think that we have some complex budget issues that we have to take on I'm hoping that we make more progress towards equity-based budgeting which is something we've talked about since I joined the board but we've not really made progress on so um so I'm hoping that we you know and it's it's easier to take on these important topics with the full board rather than a small committee and then without hearing from the full board so I would like to see our budget committee also be a committee of the full board I don't know exactly how many meetings I think we have
085to put a plan together okay do I have a motion that we make both of these committees um Committees of the board all in favor Dr Moore thank you ma'am all right I do need to make one correction on that um Mr Atherton had asked to serve on the business committee as a liaison as well so if it's okay with you all I would like to add him to that because um that was an oversight so I will add him if that is approval with every everyone okay thank you okay we move on we have um updates on the um 24 allotments from Miss Hatcher and Miss wrath I believe good evening ladies good evening Jennifer sale board members Dr Merrill [Music] I'm not sure who's driving we don't are you driving right thank you
086so we come before you this evening just to kind of give you an update on where we are regarding our current allotments we basically per our report in assembly we do have an allotment process that we have been using and updating you all on um and that allotment process um basically starts with a couple of pieces and we've used this throughout the school year and we'll continue these steps as we go through next school year to prepare for our allotment process we have a district electronic and intent process and transfer process which we've used this year um our transfer process allowed us to um we start our process in March in our transfer process actually um in April and it went to June 30th so it allowed more staff who wanted the opportunity to transfer
087to do so um we also had an allotment committee which assured um that we um made certain that we had a program at a programmatic allotment process um that committee consisted of various members of um central office as well as we did have principles on those committees as well um principles were provided um individual allotment times so they could basically sign up for an allotment meeting and get information on their schools and how the process would look they were also given the opportunity to request positions that were outside of their allotment and we wanted to have them actually we wanted to hear from them from the standpoint of is if is there something that they would like to have I was almost like we call it the wish list um and then parentals were actually
088given we started the process with projections um in April and then as the process moved along and we began more after that process we started with more actuals which actuals aligned with power school to actual the difference between as you all know a projection and an actual is the projections are acts actually what is in power school the students that are actually in power school and Power School opens in June I mean I'm sorry in July and we were able to come back once PowerSchool opened and had meetings and conversations with our principals we will and we always follow a continuous Improvement model so we'll be looking at our process to see what worked well and what we need to improve upon we also found through this process particularly with our actual numbers um and
089this is where you'll see there wasn't some enrollment impacts that Miss Raff is going to talk about and as you well know the enrollment drives our staffing so at this point I'm going to turn over to miss wrath and she can talk about some of our enrollment impacts and then we'll take questions at the end foreign good evening as part of this presentation we did want to provide you an update of what our membership is the terminology I'm going to use tonight basically that's the students that have enrolled less the students that have withdrawn so when you look at where we ended um last school year we had 7065 students in membership and our projected numbers for this upcoming year are 6961 at the time that we did this presentation because the numbers are changing
090and we are looking at actual numbers based upon the number of actual students that are being entered into a power school that number is now 7002 so our difference is 63 overall at this time you've seen this information before we just wanted to share it again at our average daily membership this is uh the average number of days that a student is in membership and this is what DPI utilizes to provide funding to the school district at the state level as well as what our Board of County Commissioners utilize to provide us funding at the local level as you can see over the 10-year Trend our overall average daily membership has trended downward and our Charter School enrollment has trended upward the one component that I focus on during this process is how much we're
091off from what DPI has projected our funding on DPI projected Orange County Schools to have average daily membership of 7122 for this upcoming school year if we are over or under that two percent or 100 the district is uh in a chance of having another adjustment made in the November December time frame right now based upon the numbers that we're looking at on an actual basis we are 63 under what DPI has projected we hope that we're able to at least hold at that if not even make that better so that we don't have to think about more funds being reverted from the district from the state and that's all I had do you have any questions just a quick question Mr thank you um could you tell me again what the DPI projection was
0927122 thank you uh Miss Hauser so so just so I understand right now we're good all right that we're not as we're not within that two percent over that two percent threshold we're we're at seven thousand two versus seven thousand one hundred and twenty two so actually we're at um a difference of 120. um we hope and I'm confident that um those students will come and we because we are continuing to enroll uh this is something that we are monitoring daily and watching daily and we'll continue to watch very closely even after schools open to ensure that our enrollment that we are staffed in alignment with our enrollment right now we're at a difference of 120. so so I'm sorry I'm not doing the math is that that's not two percent one 1.6 or 100
093it's uh the allotment policy manual States or one two percent or 100. so we're still we are at risk okay right now we are at risk at the current moment based upon 120 difference between what we actually have versus uh dpi's projection thank you and is this where um they adjust that based on the month one and month to ADM and then so essentially in October early November is where we would know like that's the more official numbers they look at month one month two that is correct they're going to look at uh day 20 and day 40 and they are going to take the best of those and that's what they will use to determine if we fall into a category or of being more than they projected or less than they projected okay
094[Music] situations in our schools where um we've you know you you and I have spoken Miss wrath about cutting to the Bone where we're we really have not enough teachers or we have very large class sizes or um are we moving to combination classes anywhere you know are there any schools that are really affected by this I'm gonna let my counterpart answer that if I make a real lucky too yeah I think she has that data for you actually we are reviewing that data Dr Merrill myself and Miss RAF look at the data this morning we want to make sure that data is accurate and a little tighter so we did ask um Dr Green our chief academic officer to check in with principals as well as I've done as well and we will send
095that information out within the week I was I was going to ask if we could have an update next Monday night just so we're in the loop can we do that all right any other questions thank you thank you both we appreciate it I know you're watching it closely okay is there anything else that we need to discuss okay I need a motion that we adjourn motion to adjourn second all in favor aye aye aye Dr Moore aye thank you everyone have a good night [Music]