001[Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you foreign my first year anniversary was just a couple days ago but anybody who's been here during that year knows that we have seen some incredible highs and some incredibly deep and confusables right but I think that each of those two second pictures gave me chills going through this so thank you for the invitation and please remind everybody to go see the OCS points of Pride on our website and keep following thank you thank you all right so next Dr faulder I think we have another program highlight tonight we do indeed and so tonight we are so pleased to welcome Jacqueline Johnson director of bands and the orange high
002school and the band for a program Spotlight tonight and so I would be remiss if I did not mention that uh Mrs Johnson has taken her own place in history of the school and the band as the first female director of bands at Orange High School foreign Johnson and the band to provide a brief update and we are pleased that some of our Orange High School musicians are able to join Mrs Johnson tonight so welcome thank you all so much um it is great to be here and I especially want to thank the board members and Dr Felder for the invitation to showcase our Band program and specifically tonight a few two new ensembles that we added in the past year and they had extremely successful Seasons so we're excited to to share that with
003you today so right now we're going to be talking about winter percussion and Winter Guard and I'll first explain what winter percussion and winter card is um so winterguard and winter percussion uh these are new extracurricular performance ensembles that we decided to offer this year the students express interest and we said yes this is something that we can offer you all so the season started in late November and went all the way through March and students were hers two to three times after school each week and they performed their shows at competitions across the state of North Carolina they received feedback from adjudicators as well as an overall score and ranking so this was all you know outside of the school day that they put this together and then it was it was a time
004commitment from there on as well so AIA is the Atlantic indoor Association it's a non-profit uh Arts organization that offers a competitive circuit for Winter Guard percussion and wins and it spans groups from Virginia to South Carolina and North Carolina and AIA is the Premier winter Performing Arts circuit on the East Coast so groups that can be in AIA range from beginner level to all the way through world class so there are professional level performers in this circuit as well and it spans about over 200 performance units so it's a very big circuit the OHS winter percussion Ensemble and Winter Guard competed for the first time in school history in this circuit and they did extremely well so I'll start with the Winter Guard um this is a kind of a spin-off of Color Guard
005if you're familiar with the marching band um and uh their show this year was titled El Dorado and it featured um a cornet playing Sheriff searching for wanted Outlaws so they were telling a story and it was really fun we got a lot of positive responses from AIA audiences who saw the show and what was really exciting about their season is that after their first competition the Winter Guard was reviewed by the board of directors in AIA and they were promoted up another class so that showed that they were demonstrating skills that were more advanced beyond the classification that they started so that was a really big honor to see them improve that much and at the end of the season they performed in the AAA South championships and they placed third overall in their
006class they earned bronze medals which is pretty unheard of for a first-year group especially after being promoted to a new class um and here is a brief clip of their performance [Music] foreign [Music] our winter percussion they also competed in the AIA circuit so um the percussion Ensemble their show was titled stories of the Haunted and the music that they performed was inspired by ghost stories of North Carolina so it was close to the home and really enjoyable to teach and perform in the winter percussion Ensemble they actually placed first that every single competition that they attended which was not we did not expect that it was a big surprise and these kids worked extremely hard to be able to pull off that feat um and at the end of the season at AMA South
007championships they earned gold medals and they are the reigning champions of their percussion concerts here's a bridge the Atlantic indoor Association is proud to present Orange High School percussion ensemble [Music] thank you and um really quick can I have all the students that are here for winter percussion and Winter Garden stand if you want to pull out the band for if you do that too so this is not the full group it is summer break after all but um these are the ones that are able to make it here tonight um and uh showcase their taxes a lot stronger there you go yeah there you go and um I do want to thank our staff I am the director of bands of Orange High School but we would not be able to offer these amazing
008additional programs without support from our band boosters and the school administration and so we're able to bring in additional supplemental instructors for these groups so um Ryan Johnson he's our director of percussion Stephen Downing our percussion Tech Ashland Robinson director of guard Larry Leal assistant director of guard and Gwen down also an assistant director of guard they put in so many hours along with myself too to make sure that our students were getting what they needed and to be successful we could not um I also just want to thank the Orange High School band boosters volunteers administrators for all of their support um Mr Johnson our principal was not able to be here tonight but he was extremely supportive of us practicing in the lobby because it was a bigger space and you know going
009to competitions and everything um Mrs Jessica Nady um Hillsborough Elementary School principal and Coach Walker he's the physical education teacher at hes for allowing our Winter Garden practice in their gymnasium throughout their season gym time is really difficult to find in the winter with basketball and everything so we were so thankful to get that space for them to use regularly our band booster president Jennifer Scarlett and all of the parent Guardian volunteers who helped chaperone contests pack and load equipment and instruments you can see the picture of our semi trailer there it takes a lot of folks to to load and unload and move stuff and it's all very important to what we do for preparing helping feed the students meals everything and then like I said our semi driver Mr Tommy Holmes he hauled
010into competitions across the state and we're very grateful for his support um and I just have to say you know I am so happy that at Orange High School we get to offer a comprehensive curriculum and um offerings and ensembles for our Band program and it really just hits every spoke on the wheel um and you can see a um a list of everything that we offered there and so we have concerts and performances throughout the school year and you all are welcome to hop onto our band website and check out our calendar and see everything but we hope that you will join us for a performance next school year and I'm very excited to see what what they're going to do in the next AIA season so we're very excited to see their inaugural
011year and uh see where it goes from here so thank you all so much again we appreciate it congratulations foreign [Music] thank you right questions foreign er do we have any recognitions tonight no it just felt like we had recognition we did but we have two recognitions for uh tonight so here on your screen next slide please uh you see just a few of The Shining faces from our graduation ceremonies here in Orange County schools at all three high schools partnership Academy High Cedar Ridge High School and orange high school so for tonight we simply want to elevate some of the high points and draw attention to our truly brilliant graduates of the class of 2023. so these numbers sometimes shift at the last minute but as we started to the big day on Friday
012June 9th we had 575 students prepared to walk across the stage at this year's three graduation ceremonies three the three students you see here graduated from partnership Academy in a beautiful ceremony hosted at Cedar Ridge High School later that day and the spacious Dean Dome we had 252 seniors graduate from Cedar Ridge High School and 350 seniors from Orange High School this graduating class had so many highlights it's hard to identify and celebrate them all but we can lift up some numbers that put their Excellence into context so the class of 2023 is responsible for earning and so fasten your seat belts here over 6 million dollars in scholarship money for their College and Career Success six million dollars over six million dollars over 72 percent of the class of 2023 graduated applied and received
013their acceptance to begin either a two or four year college so over 72 percent of the class of 2023. 24 of those graduates are going on to play sports in college at the next level 10 of our graduates are now preparing to serve our country as members of the military we celebrated the Career and Technical education wins for many of our students in areas ranging from engineering to It software to web development Animal Care Management and agricultural development through Alamance County Community College and or Durham Tech and we know about the huge importance of both planning and support for our graduates to turn their dreams of success at the next level into a reality so our students at partnership Academy we were fortunate to have their commencement speaker Orange County's own Miss Jackie Shelton Greene
014the North Carolina Poet Laureate and founder of Orange County's own youth Poet Laureate program it was an amazing moment and Miss Shelton green shared with our graduates that this was the first time she had the Good Fortune to name every member of the graduating class during an address our Ceremonies for both Cedar Ridge and Orange High School featured invitations and welcomes translated sequentially into Spanish and we were very fortunate to have students representing a diverse variety of backgrounds addressing their fellow graduates that was so exciting and their friends and families in both English and Spanish and it was my pleasure to announce and recognize the seven es7 sets of twins graduating together in this year's class of 2023. so we want to draw attention uh to our landing page at graduation.orangecountyfirst.com for more information and
015to the photo albums which were posted to social media thanks to Mr Smith and shared by our high schools with nearly 2 000 voters across three graduations so it's lots of photos but they speak volumes about what a great celebration for June 9th was with graduating our students and so again we join our schools families and everyone here in Orange County Schools to shout out congratulations to our graduates we are so proud of each and every one of them an incredibly hopeful for the Bright Futures ahead of them so let's give it up that brings us to our second recognition and so we are excited to announce our next and final recognition for this evening but we also want to make you aware that orange High School's Junior Gabe Schmidt is not with us tonight
016in person but he is here with us virtually and so as he has done for the past couple and this is why he's not here there's a reason uh as he's done for the past couple of Summers he is at a running camp now in Utah I have to spend his last summer in Brevard here in North Carolina all the extra efforts are clearly paying off as we are glad to have coach Brian Schneider win it's coach Brian schneiderwind with us virtually oh he's joining us virtually as well great uh who who is also in Utah of course he would be and so both he and Gabe are joining us remotely so a quick introduction uh this may uh Gabe won his second his second State title and 3A competition when he ran 3 200
017meters or two miles and a crazy good time of get this nine minutes and um 14.94 seconds or 20 seconds better than his time in the same event last year so and he has just won uh just and he was just two seconds off the pace uh for yet another gold medal in the 1600 meters or the mile at this year's outdoor track and field championships so congratulations to Gabe to your family and the school and to coach schwender with welcome to both of you and please take a few minutes to help tell the board and our public what's going on so um how did you get back here uh again soon and um for making North Carolina a t and this spring so Gabe we're turning it over to the end Coach okay can
018you guys hear me yes okay laughs okay well I guess my video will not work today I thought it was right but so generally it is working game so because it's working okay you guys can see me this is Kevin Smith glad you could make it and waiting we can unfortunately see you on a very tiny screen but not on the big screen it's part of our Tech setup here at King Street is instead of witted so good evening I can't see myself so this is interesting so who's gonna go first Gabe or coach schneiderwin uh I mean uh coach do you want to go first yeah let me let me study that's real quick um and sorry I so I'm actually joining from Michigan so uh strangely enough of the two of us I
019feel like I'm the closest uh geographically here to celebrate um and so thank you to Kevin Smith into the school board for um taking the time to acknowledge great games great accomplishment um and as some of you may remember you know Gabe won the cross country um state championship but I just want to highlight that um you know I think the reality is is that the cross country season kind of both of us feel like was kind of a dream season and that pretty much everything that could have gone well did um but leading up to the state championship um gay pad uh a fair amount more curveballs um thrown his way and so I just wanted to acknowledge um how impressed I was with his ability to um continue to stay focused um you
020know keep a positive mental attitude throughout um the the different setbacks um and and still be able to perform at his best um at the end of the season uh and um and I also want to point out uh finally just that um that that although we're super happy with his uh say Championship performance that about a month before that he ran one of the top 10 um fastest times ever in the two mile for a junior in the state of North Carolina regardless of classifications so um Gabe Gabe has been working extremely hard uh to become you know one of the best distance Runners uh the state of North Carolina has already has ever seen so um you know lots of credit to him for being able to be able to handle you know
021both the good times and the tougher times because that's it's pretty hard to be able to do both of those baby coach uh yeah this season was definitely uh like as he said the cross country season was pretty much a dream come true everything got in line and everything got where it needed to be but this season you know we started off pretty strong I went up to New York and I was able to run in the indoor uh Nike Nationals and I was able to lay down a very awesome PR and uh we're really excited and we continued through Raleigh relays in Raleigh and then we continue to also at Arcadia in California which is the biggest high school meet uh in the country and is usually where Us number one is set and
022so it was a great honor to be able to you know work and be able to get to these great races but also to you know come to the state championship after uh suffering a little bit of an injury with my foot I was able to you know work really hard cross training and just still staying hungry to uh to go grab a State title and we funny enough you know maybe you thought our plan was to grab one State title uh our plan was to grab two and we came super close but we were also uh come going to set a state meet record so I guess there's more on the table but I'm super super happy that I was able to pull this off and that I'm able to bring another State title
023home to my house but also to Orange High School because I know it means a ton for my teammates and it means the time for my coaches and the school as a whole and it kind of puts orange on the map for running and for state champions and it wouldn't be possible you know obviously without coach pushing me and sending me uh my workouts every week and really compensating and really working with me individually he's got a whole track team this year the track team had over 70 athletes this year for Orange High School and that is more than uh it's ever been and it was super super I'm super super grateful to Simon for you know giving almost every athlete an individual uh coaching experience but he gave so much time to me and
024I'm you know that's something that I can never you know say I'm grateful for enough and uh my mom you know my dad they uh yeah recently they've been putting a lot of money into me and they've been able to uh uh you know hopefully I've been able to show that it's worth it and it's getting somewhere and hopefully you guys don't have to pay for college but um yeah so I'm super grateful for my parents and all that they do I'm also thankful for uh Mr McAuley you know he passed away uh a couple about a month ago and he was someone who uh someone who really supported him went out of their way to uh when I was gonna go to Nike crops Nationals there was a ton of paperwork that needed to
025be done for me to be able to attend that event and he was right there with me trying to get me there and trying to research all the different rules and getting everything filled out and he did the same for State because we had a couple hiccups and he's just always been there to you know support ever since I you know kind of proved myself he's always been willing to be there and it's something that I'm you know he's going to be very missed and I'm super appreciative of him and uh I'm looking forward for orange uh for this cross country season you know you guys will probably see us back here and the whole team because uh you know they're hungry you know they're at the speedway almost uh three days a week and
026you can catch them running you know we're putting in the work and we're going to come for another State title and bring it home to Hillsboro what time at the speedway again 6 30. we could join us at 6 30 A.M I prefer that time yeah it's a lot of fun we have a lot of fun a lot of conversations and you know it's a great team and it's a great family too thank you for making the time absolutely congratulations good luck out west gentlemen thank you for joining us tonight all right Mr Adam that concludes the recognitions for this evening excellent thank you so much all right next on our agenda is the agenda adoption I am aware of some items to be pulled tonight um item three the the Pre-K Grant the central
027mechanical project and then items 16 of the contract extension for after school are there any other items that I have missed from anyone from the board okay I would recommend just for agenda adoption that since these are action items that we would take those up as the items right after our regular discussion action items um is that acceptable all right I will put that in now okay with that uh can we get a motion to adopt uh agenda with consent items uh move to the end of section three right we have a motion do we have a second the motion a second all in favor aye aye aye Dr Moore okay uh Mr oil I okay thank you so much all right our agenda has been adopted uh next we have our appellate comments uh
028the Board of Education welcomes public comments which are governed by border policy 2310 and North Carolina Juno's statute 143 through 318.7 a person wishing to address the board must sign up prior to the board's regular meeting comments will be limited to three minutes when the three minutes end the speaker must stop talking uh speaking immediately yielding times to another speaker will not be permitted all public comments should be civil and not non-disruptive per policy board members will listen carefully but will not respond to speakers uh who do we have first tonight first up we have Megan Johnson um so good evening board members Dr Felder and all District staff here tonight my name is Megan Johnson and I'm currently the school nurse at Ethan cheeks I'm the mother of two teenage boys to attend Orange
029High and I'm also in Orange County president last night our team our nursing team was informed that our school health technician positions which are held by Konica Smith and Jennifer Gomez would no longer be funded their last day being tomorrow as you can imagine we were all blindsided by this information we are here standing to you standing before you tonight to not only advocate for these positions but also for these two professionals who have now been faced with the challenge of having to provide for their families financially on such a short notice Konica originally came to us through metasores she stayed with us with the county in hopes and assurances of a full-time School technician position she is an asset to our nursing team in Orange County schools for example she led the contact tracing
030team during covid at the facilitated investigations of over thousands of positive and coveted ex positive and coveted exposure cases she has obtained obtained her American Red Cross instructor certification hoping to teach hundreds of Faculty members CPR and basic first aid she made she maintains our school nurse Supply inventory making sure that we have the proper supplies to care for our students she has also developed invaluable relationships with our students she encourages student who was insistent on not completing high school and was behind on her assignments to follow her to follow her dreams that student that Revisited her several weeks later telling her was able to get in her missing assignments and her her grades drastically improved Jennifer has also come to us from at a source she left for a brief moment but then came
031back to us once this position was approved she's also an asset she one of her many qualities it's her ability to speak Spanish she's connected with our Hispanic population and she was able to help students with underlining underlying conditions health conditions complete school when they otherwise would not have been able to about her support and Hope while I've given you just brief statements of of why we need these positions and our school system School technicians just in general are able to provide the care to our students they help us to complete County and state reports which allows the School nurses to concentrate on staff training for medication administration first aid responder response writing and implementing individual health care plans emergency action plans community outreach and school health education for our schools I appreciate all the
032hard work that you all do I know that you want our students to be in a safe and supported environment so they can learn best I strongly urge you to consider permanent funding for school health technicians thank you thank you okay um Jennifer Valdez good evening board members Dr Felder District staff and all the parents that have shown up tonight thank you all for coming out I've had the pleasure of serving this District since December of this past year but the few minutes here and there last year as a contact tracer board members the reason I'm here tonight is appealing for my job as of tomorrow afternoon I do not have one with Orange County any longer and I only found out about this yesterday at 4 45 pm I have two children to feed
033and I have no other and I have looked forward to coming into work every single day I've been in healthcare for a long time well over a decade and this is a special nursing team you have here you are blessed as a district to have a nursing team that not only supports and empowers the students in the district but they care about their health and their wellness and their safety I've been lucky to support them and the only way to continue to support them in the way that I feel best and what I feel that this district and these students need is by funding my position and my colleague at Orange High because I can say without a doubt that Konica Smith has made an impact at Orange High I know I've made one at
034Cedar and I'm not one to be boastful but I know that my schools my teachers my administrators and above all else my students respected me looked forward to me and had my ear when they needed it and I advocated for them in the best possible ways that could according to the most recent DPI report that I was able to find online today in 2021 School nursing in North Carolina is currently at one school nurse for 890 students the recommendation from the State Board of Education is one nurse for every 750. between your two high schools and these are numbers that I pulled this morning from PowerSchool there are 2 276 students for two nursing positions one of which is still posted on the dot website this morning myself and Konica made up for the lack
035of nursing support that is there right now and notwithstanding not doubting or diminishing what this board has done to support their nurses because y'all have stepped up at every step of the way for them however I'm asking again to step up for us to come for us I have made efforts at Cedar Ridge I know for a fact there was a student who came to me because I was the nurse who spoke Spanish and he asked for a vision exam and the funny thing about this was I I was pretty sure this kid could see but when I asked nurse pep in For assistance with performing The Vision exam we found that that boy could not see where Mr chair Atherton is sitting right now we able we were able to get him classes because
036I was there because I spoke Spanish and because he knew that I was there I'm not one again to be boastful I would say that Hanukkah and myself are some of the most humble people you ever meet you ask us to do when we do we go and we go we do and we do what we can for this district and ultimately for these students who all of our mission is to support board members I'm asking you from the bottom of my heart please please find myself and my colleague at Orange High Congressman for the school health technician positions thank you thank you Danielle price how do you go after that good evening my name is Danielle Bryce I'm a fourth generation Orange County school graduate in Orange County School parent and an active member
037of our Orange County School Community as well as one of the moderators of our Orange County School parent page on Facebook I'm a supporter of Orange County schools and invest a great deal of my time with other parents with teachers and staff throughout our district which brings me to the reason that I'm here to speak this evening I was troubled in our redistricting committee meeting um by the push of points of Pride information that was highlighted on our district website last year it is awesome that 10 of our 12 schools exceeded growth but yet at the same time our district which is one of the best funded districts in our state filled below the state average for proficiency consider that 70 of our African-American Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students didn't even perform at grade level
038so I'm asking it's the end of June why are we talking about last year at all why aren't we talking about how our schools did this year what went well and what didn't work for us this comes as a personal affront to parents that are paying out of pocket for tutoring Services because our district has failed to provide a qualified teacher in their classroom to students who are struggling to teachers who continue to feel unsupported why are we patting ourselves on the back and based on information from two years ago no less there's no question that we are all proud of our children and of our teachers especially since this has been quite a challenging year something else to ponder would be that our students and teachers may not feel safe in our school and
039at this point it's not about race or gender identity it's because of the lack of consistent discipline that spiraled out of control and we now have a handful of students that are being allowed to disrupt our classrooms recess and times that our kids so desperately need another point to contemplate is that our teachers and our District staff are not often accessible it's become increasingly difficult to schedule parent-teacher conferences or to connect with necessary District staff to ensure that our students are on track oftentimes parent requests for information are ignored and even pushed aside but parents have known to tolerate it because we know that our teachers are covering for staff shortages and absenteeism they're overwhelmed by countless initiatives that are being pushed from our district on top of their everyday task learning recovery behavior management
040and a myriad of other things left over from coded but none of this serves the best interest of our children and our families and didn't we say that our children and our families deserve better while I wholeheartedly welcome celebrating our amazing teachers and students we can't lose sight of our purpose and now that we're at the end of this very difficult year I'd like to know how we did this year and when can we expect that information thank you next is Ebony Freeman I know Danielle her whole life so I know she knows I'm married ebony Freeland Brian good afternoon uh of Orange County school graduate as well Bradley Hill parent and Rising Cedar Ridge parent now and I'm still the Gravelly Hill ptso president sorry um it's been a while since I've been here
041but I'm mostly stand to celebrate the Gravely Hill Community for sticking and staying surviving and standing through staff challenges leadership changes and principal search we are very happy about Miss Williamson but I stand to remind you the Board of Education and the districts of the important job you have to hold up your call to protect and promote an equitable district from the farthest corners of the county I said to remind you in the face of today's Court decision that though it focused on College and grad school admissions we will still see it vibrate down to the opportunities that our student students have here the diversity of our students and how we celebrate and support them must remain top of mind and while I'm here I'll just add in that as a parent of a student
042with a heart condition who benefited greatly from the support of nurse Johnson at Evelyn cheeks and nurse pain at Gravelly and the whole nursing team please please let's be forerunners at how we treat them let's be forerunners and how we honor our teachers and our staff we find the money for a lot of things I've been in higher education for over 22 years and we do what we want to do but please don't leave our kids lacking I've seen the harm and I would love to celebrate the joy so as I came up here tonight I thought about that in this month over 25 years ago I walked across the stage at Orange High School and at the time I didn't think it meant much more than the ending of a chapter in the beginning
043of the next but what I have realized over the last several months is that it was the day I took on the mantle of being an alumni of this district and it is the day that I remember every time I show up in the school when I show up at this building or at a meeting I want to be able to celebrate that calling with pride and I asked tonight that you please please help me to do that thank you thank you uh Lori Tepper good evening everyone I'm here to express my concerns about Dr Felder and some of her staff breaking a current policy set in place 23-20 regarding compliance with the open meetings law and stating the laws that may be put in place by our state legislator will not be upheld this
044happened on May 24th at the pride in the profession panel discussion sponsored and promoted by Dr falder and her Chief Equity officer Mr Williams who stated that the meeting was not allowed to be recorded in fact if someone was to be found recording they would have been asked to leave and if they didn't comply they would be escorted out this violates article 33c at chapter 143 of the general statutes broadcasting or recording meetings Mr Williams asks the questions in the following are some of the disturbing responses to me Mrs Warren Robinson replied that she makes sure students know who she is and they feel comfortable talking to her about questions regarding their sexuality I don't understand why teachers feel the need to tell their students about their sexuality it is irrelevant they're there to teach
045and there's no need for it in the classroom the panel spoke about experiences with the pride movement how excited they were to be focused on and teaching the pride curriculum in the month of May in preparation for June pride month they were enthusiastic about the recent distribution of Pride materials and slides sent to teachers across the County however none of those materials were distributed to parents again there's a lack of transparency is pride month considered curriculum and part of elg don't we have failing schools in our district Dr Felder felt this topic was a priority since she attended the meeting and focused on it during the final weeks of the year Miss Markham stated our pride slides are now in policy pushed by the district if parents come to complain tough because there won't be
046any opting out because this is what you are here for she also stated we're starting with the babies and I am on day six of the pride slides in my class is this the attitude we want from our teachers in response to the pending state law that would restrict the teaching of this material to preschoolers through third grade Mr Williams responded the central office is not going to uphold the law when it's passed Ms Markham stated that teachers are already saying that they are not going to obey the law if it is past and Dr Felder stated she would be out of a job she also stated wholeheartedly yes please teach it when Mr William asked if they were able to actively teach Bible academic achievement and benchmarking goals have been sidelined to focus on
047identity politics how about celebrating American exceptionalism among celebrate the facts of what it means to live in a free country and how we got here in the unity of being Americans instead of causing division between gay and straight students board members we elected you to not only set policy and direction for the local school district but to serve with Integrity honesty and trustworthiness one final request I would ask that you consider writing policy that restricts teachers from using classroom time to openly talk about their personal sexuality thank you okay David kolbinski there are good news and bad news thank you for listening to us tonight first time I've been back to this room since 2000. yeah after nine years of serving on Board of Education with Susan happy artist when we came on board we
048opened uh stanback Elementary um and then we finished Renovations at CW Sanford we opened the rearound school we uh set up the program with Freddie McNeil and the men of Distinction we are also opened and built Pathways and of course we hired Ray to brew who worked alongside Steve aokiotis to be the prime contractors in the building of Cedar Ridge High School woke up the other day and realized it's been 20 years since that happened the good news is I watched last week's over the last saw the superintendent's Round Table and I felt that someone had heard the cries of the parents that I read or saw on the truth of OCS website that the teachers were disenfranchised felt marginalized and were blown around it was great to see the teachers being empowered listened to
049given the authority to make decisions about their own um yeah um a person who lives in the moment because I don't have a whole lot of moments left so uh not long ago at it became apparent that there were problems in the school system which I wasn't aware of because I hit this when I checked out my kitchen on Scholars we went on the college um and I knew that Steve hafiotis was someone in the system that I had trusted I knew him when he was on our payroll here we knew him when he was um principal and um that's why I asked him Steve what's wrong he said that board has become politicized and so it's what can we do see if he gave me the name of several people here so I hope
050it's happening but I want to refer to uh Lori temperton said that you had a meeting on which it was said that the uh when asked about the state or the public support for the uh uh lgbtq curriculum always said that we've already put that into place and when the parents come to complain tough and there'll be no opting out and I want to tell you that the people of Orange County do not feel that we're co-parenting our children with government um the school board has been taken over by a political agenda one thing we tried to do when we were on the board is we realized while we had camps vying for our election we represented every person in the county and it's your responsibility to find out what the disagreements are and then
051help the community work together or for a compromise for the benefit of the children thank you um Earl top foreign good evening and I appreciate the chance to speak tonight I have got two kids that graduated from Cedar Ridge and we've been here for over 20 years and always had a keen interest in what's happening in our schools here in Orange County and I've been to about every meeting for this past year literally almost every one of them maybe two exceptions and I came tonight just to share a couple of observations as I reflect on this past year that kind of in my mind you know one of them uh look I consider myself a fair person and I like to give credit where credit is due and uh and so celebrations are good and
052they're appropriate a lot of times you know but uh really it's not the fundamental reason we are here and we kind of need to have some perspective about that I think I think there's a lot of times it's appropriate to celebrate but but but again you got to keep focused on what the what the main goal is and so um you know for example we've celebrated uh growth we've celebrated celebrated some growth numbers and you know okay on the one hand that sounds good but on the other hand I think the reality here is that their numbers were so low the performance was so low that just the very modest amount of improvement showed up as a pretty significant increase so you know there's there's two real differentiating and concerning sides to that story and
053so while we're doing all the celebrating I have noted there's some very serious things throughout the year that concerned me greatly and I just want to want to hit on a couple of them the teaching positions going unfilled even when there was good discussion from the board that it didn't seem like anything got done with that of course we know about Bradley Hill and and a lot of math vacancies there mobile units that were approved last fall and they still aren't in place at F1 Chic said one of the most incredible things was in March I'm sorry April at the board meeting where you know there was uh essentially a funding crisis and uh upon asking about when it was known by the staff it was said that it was known about in December and
054I just find that I just find that pretty incredible and I have to wonder about the relationship between the district and the board and things like that happen students are leaving teaching teachers are leaving we've got very very modest uh almost no growth in students and and yet the budget request is is very significant so look I was in banking for 20 or 35 years and and when people celebrate when people are always celebrating and tell you how wonderful they're doing you kind of learn over time that uh maybe there's something more going on here and uh and and I think a lot of time it matched some fundamental deficiencies and I think that's what we're I think that's what we're looking at I appreciate the chances Pete thank you um Katie Harper thank you
055I wanted to apologize for my coughing fit earlier I have consistently tested negative for covet all day um until seven so thank you for taking public comments tonight um I I did want to um I didn't want to say that I think a lot of the difficulties that we face in our district do not exist in a vacuum and that there are teacher vacancies across the state the proficiency numbers that we see in Orange County schools are in part a product of the charter schools that pull some of our most well-resourced students and some of the highest scoring students in the district into charter schools so we have a different population in Orange County Schools than compared to some other compared to other districts in the state I do want to thank the district for
056everything that they have done to prepare our community for the important work of redistricting I also want to thank the district for the recent pride in the profession event the teachers I know who attended that event that it was invaluable thank you for leading the way and making our district an inclusive one the one where lgbtq students and staff are welcome seen and celebrated lastly I wanted to ask publicly while Dr why Dr felder's contract has not yet been reading I've been looking at the Personnel reports and watching the local news sources but there's been no mention of a contract extension beyond the current 2025 end date 2025 sounds like a long way off for a lot of us but it is not a long way off for top tier superintendents who are focused on
057supporting school districts in reaching their goals to serve all students equity Dr Felder came to our district because of our previous board State and commitment to equity and to addressing long-standing decades long disparities in academic achievement achievement Dr felder's team is making strides in addressing those disparities we have more teachers of color working in our district every year 2019 when Dr Felder started 13 of our Educators were teachers of color 20 22 20 of our teenage teachers are now do you have a long ways to go but Dr Feller and her team are meeting us in the right direction early literacy programs my children have benefited from that she has felt a culture across the District of not only being forthright about disparities which is the first step but also being creative in addressing the
058work that we must all share in the work that other parents have spoken to this evening you're about to embark on redistricting a redistricting that it's years overdue but please don't District leadership your support and please expect to end Dr felder's contract as soon as state possible thank you thank you very much that's all right next we have board Cutters um Mr Richmond yes I I really want to say congratulations to the class of 2023. it was a very very exciting and heartfelt to attend all three high schools graduations um and there were some great comments and we had a lot of students speak at those graduations in India's did a wonderful job so it was a lot of Goosebumps coming from me because it was mentioned earlier you know I graduated from Orange High
059School so you know I had to have graduating again so it was great to be there and congratulations to all those students thank you Bonnie first I want to thank the people that came out tonight and for speaking courageously about things that are really important for us to hear so thank you all for that um and it's been heard I promise um I have a couple of just some information from the community I wanted to say thanks to Beverly Hester Stevens Sherry Stinson and the Mount Zion Village for including our board and Dr Felder and their education Sunday you know in this difficult education time Community Support makes all the difference in the world so Mount Zion recognized their students and I might mention also that the same last Sunday Mount bright and white cross
060also celebrated their school so thank you to the churches and for and thank any churches that want us you know we really want to be out there because we need your help to support these kids um second if you remember a couple about a month or so ago we had the orange partnership for alcohol and drug-free youth came and spoke to our board guy on shamlist they're working to make raise awareness around synthetic um THC and of course synthetic cannabis they are now working with slide range and North Carolina Grange and the legislature does have a bill house Bill's 563 which is going to improve the governance of these drugs and their access to kids so I think that's a wonderful development and third is as redistricting gets underway on the board and the public
061to be aware that Orange County has proposed revisions to sappho which is the ordinance that governs the capacity of our schools they're proposing relaxing that we have addressed I would actually like to see that draft and make it make it available to the board and the public and under understand how it might impact our redistricting proposal um great well um happy pride month everyone as we close out pride month I'm not usually one to wear thematic t-shirts to board meetings but it has been a particularly difficult week for lgbtq plus youth in North Carolina several harmful bills have been have advanced to the governor that are threatening to gender non-conforming students necessary Health Care there is a don't say gay bill that would make us some version of Florida where you can't talk about students
062families and and so it's it's a really difficult time and for that to come during pride month I think is really challenging as a district I am proud of the progress that we have made over the past few years and yet there's a lot of work to do and so I just wanted to say that to our lgbtq plus students I see you I love you you deserve a better world than this one the one we're living through right now but I pledge to work with you to help make it a better one and um the the news out of the Supreme Court today um around affirmative action one of the speakers mentioned it again it's not directly related through K-12 but I did want to say that um Justice katanji Brown Jackson's dissent um
063talks a lot about University of North Carolina and North Carolina in particular and the history and the country of the accumulation of racial discrimination and how that shows up today and then how unc's actual admissions process works and how it considers the complexity of individuals um it was really fascinating reading I recommend it for everybody um and then the last point I have is just I do um I do continue to believe that we need additional nursing support at the high schools you know this is something that I advocated for in the budgeting process we asked the Commissioners for it as a specific item all different ways but I I really do think that that it seems like our ratios are off at the high school level and and we need additional support there all
064right well I would like to just add to what Sarah's saying and and I see friends here that are nurses and I know what the nurses do in Orange County schools because I've lived there and um you are appreciated and I think we need to do something I'll just leave it in there um I did attend and I followed up with what Andre said that I with graduation this year it was absolutely wonderful to see the three three schools graduate I also attended the um award ceremony for both high schools Cedar Ridge and orange High and and that was also very very nice to see I was invited to come out to the um the Juneteenth celebration at Mount Zion I had a wonderful time out there it was like a history lesson I told
065them when they asked me to stand up and finally speak I said there's nothing I can say because it was it was just so full of History Reverend Allison gave just a wonderful talk about um his life and what he had done and it it just it was fascinating um and then this again this past Sunday I went back out for um for the student recognition at Mount Zion and one thing I I have told them at Mount Zion that I really appreciate them for is the fact that they have their students participating in things and have them standing up and talking in front of people and getting used to being in front of people and I knew that from the students that I had when I was at Stanford in Orange that because they
066would tell me they would say I had I have to speak to church this week and it was always Mount Zion and so I praised them because I knew that they have done that for so long that it is um and Danielle is one of them I think but um it makes a difference it just makes a difference for children to learn how to get up and speak and be in front of people at an early age and so I openly tonight applaud them again for that because they are their masters at that's all okay uh to the phone uh Dr Moore had said she has no comments tonight uh Miss Doyle yes thank you can you hear me okay yes we can okay great thank you um I really appreciate everything I've heard so
067far tonight um I attended a lot of graduation events as well um enjoyed all of our graduations um and wanted to give a shout out to a couple special events that were collaborations between our district leaders and our school leaders um I found the pride in the profession a really important um first event of its kind creating a safe space for our lgbtq staff and parents I heard from many um parents about how important it was that they felt like their kids were represented and supported by staff there um I also attended our Orange High School teacher conference um uh that was had a keynote speaker who spoke to her immigrant experience um her own personal experience and her experience as an educator she really spoke to uh um a portion of our student body
068that that has grown a lot you know we're at uh 27 multi-language Learners and so it was excellent to hear a speaker speak to that student experience and to teachers um in the classroom and I also um was really felt privileged to be able to attend the two-day Beyond diversity and courageous conversation um training with all of our school principals and assistant principals and District leaders it was excellent um I really appreciate Mr Williams and his team facilitating all of that event with uh with the Pacific education group who came out and there was just a lot of sharing um there's a lot of openness and vulnerability and willingness to learn that and also camaraderie and support that I saw between principals and other leaders and I was glad to be a part of it
069and learn as well that's all I have thanks all right thank you Miss dog um so I would just like to say you know just add on uh a lot of passion tonight about lots of items and I appreciate all the board comments um uh one item that I didn't hear mention that I'll bring up is you know um appreciation of our our own board Equity training um you know even through a power outage and other things you know we were able to to come together and have some very difficult conversations and I just wanted to thank all board members for taking the time to to do that I do want to acknowledge our nurses as well it's a very difficult job some health care for some some of our families the only method we
070continue to find our schools as being our social safety net and it is very challenging and a lot of times we have no idea things until they all come before us so we really appreciate that and I wanted to thank everybody for coming out to speak tonight I know there's lots of things going on but thank you for coming out tonight all right we have a very cool agenda so I'll keep us going on that um first item is our consent agenda uh do you have a motion to approve the consent agenda with the um modified Personnel report or addendum I should say a little emotion in a second uh all in favor aye all right thank you all right uh the next item we have is for discussion is uh board policy 4342 student
071searches and new regulations for searches uh Dr Fowler who do we have to speak on that too speaking on that tonight actually Mr Appleton you're listed um Mr avali and Joyce Hatcher so as they're coming in I'll just give some background on this uh this is uh existing policy that the district brought before the policy committee and had requested some some changes and there was a lot of verbose conversations around this and I think several items that were brought up and I think is important for the community here because there are a lot of misconceptions on how searches and things like this are done and I think it's important for the community to hear that so with that do we have someone that can share the process so um speaking on behalf of um yes
072thank you good evening thank you all for being here um so for and just like you said uh some misconceptions obviously bringing canines into the schools obviously I know there's some people for it there's some people against it this is just a tool it's a free tool I might add up um that is readily available at our disposal to help keep this District as safe as possible not just students but every single person who walks home owners campuses okay one of the misconceptions I want to clear up that we will never have a canine a dog go up and actually sniff a uh a student we would never line students up to to sniff them on their their policy there's regulations that we will make sure that we abide by because obviously we want we
073want to make sure that we are as Equitable as possible and also as transparent as possible but transparent obviously we want to make sure that we let the parents the community know what we're doing in the schools obviously to an extent we can't disclose everything we're doing when it comes to safety insecurity but Equitable we want to make sure that the students who want to show up and learn in a safe environment the staff who want to show up and teach in a safe environment that we give them that opportunity okay I can answer any questions I don't know exactly what what y'all want me to get on tonight um I I think it's important to your point um on the actual process of a search which could be for drugs could be for exposure
074devices and others and one of the common things we hear is that we line the kids up in front of their bags and their dog walks in front of them which is completely not true of how that's done so if you could well one it's random the when that's done and the second just the process so they've decided to have this search of the school just take us through um what that looks like where where will the students physically be you know uh there's concerns that the dogs are going to be in front of the kids while this is going on so I think it's important for you to just just share how that would work okay yeah so correct um these are random searches obviously there is a lot of coordination that goes into
075it because you know working in conjunction with the sheriff's office um yeah there's a there's a lot that plays into it behind the scenes now for instance uh I mean there can be anything from classrooms to locker rooms to hallways to parking lots to just to name a few areas that could be searched but to give I'll just give an example of a classroom just just to um so if we were to search a classroom obviously before any of this happens the superintendent obviously has to be made aware um then one I will be involved Administration for that school will be involved the sheriff's office will be involved there's a predetermined random selection that will take place now when we show up to a school obviously classroom for instance Administration they'll go into the classroom
076they'll let the teacher know hey I'll need your classroom to step out we'll give them an opportunity to get as far away from the classroom as possible to where they won't even see the doll this is obviously a separation this will be it could be anything from um an anxiety separation it can be allergies whatever you may be but we obviously want to make sure that we are looking at that fair and Equitable standpoint as well where the the classroom the canine Handler they won't see whose book bag and obviously the dog I'm in there you know they're not biased um anyway once the classroom's out obviously the doll with the Train on a train canine Handler they'll come in they'll do their sweep if they alert on anything at that point the school administration
077they will be notified Administration they'll ask the teacher whose belongings are these once we figure out who the student is they will be taken to more than likely the office some secure area away from other classmates and then and then that is where the investigation will continue so Administration they do a very good job they know who their students are so you know let's say someone says book bag happens to get a positive alert um at that case that's that's where you you start investigating you start talking an administrator um principal AP they'll start asking hey this isn't like you or whatnot they'll just start leaning into those questions and then potentially a service could come further so I one other thing I think that's important to highlight in this policy is we are adding
078doing the statistics of these searches and who who's being identified and the results so that is something new as well in the policy I'll just open it up to questions from board members around those uh Sarah yeah thank you and I know I had raised most of the questions and concerns about this policy in the first place so I just wanted to say thank you for taking it back to the policy committee and looking at these things and I was happy to see the record-keeping section included so that we can keep track of how often a Contraband is or is not found how often things are being referred demographics of the students searched Etc so I appreciate that and I also saw a number of um clarifications to the procedures as well and so just
079wanted to thank you all for those so um the the line about teachers keeping an eye on suspicious Behavior without a clear definition of what that means right you took that I saw a number of those improvements to make sure that it was clear and precise and could be administered fairly so just want to thank you whoever was involved in click that clarification for doing that um I think the only um thing I would like to clarify even further in the record keeping section well there's two things one is um I want to make sure that it is clear that that the record keeping should which should include the data regarding any further individual searches so my you know a lot of my concern is about when a student is identified and brought to the
080office how often is that actually accurate and is there any disparate impact of of that process and so I would like to request that we add in that g record keeping section it includes it will include the details about the search including location date time Etc I just want to make sure it's clear that this includes those further individual searches so I would like to add after the first sentence this should include the data regarding any further individual searches so not sort of summary statistics of we we searched a classroom of students and here's the demographics of the students of the classroom that's not the intent of that right it's the intent of the like targeting so I just want to make sure that that is clear so I'd like to request that we add
081that um and then the other thing is an annual report to the board to me like maybe we get to a world where annual is right but I would prefer to see a report to the board since we're beginning this more frequently like quarterly or something or do we're supposed to be doing quarterly discipline reports like I think something like quarterly would be appropriate as we're getting it going um so those those are the two things that just wanted to share appreciation for um the careful consideration of the procedures and then request those changes um Bonnie I just um what the feedback I'm getting from parents is that they would like to understand the policy and be informed on it at the beginning of the year so they don't want to like have to be
082expected to read our you know long many many policies but is there a way that we can educate parents at the beginning of the year that this policy it's part of the policy School principal as well so the process is the principles will specifically educate and inform parents at the beginning of the year yes and then we also added uh parents and Guardians will be notified promptly as possible of individual searches by school administrations of children's persons or belongings parents Guardians will also be promptly notified of any random canine searches conducted at their children's school so we have multiple levels of those so they're being notified they'll be educated at the beginning that this is our policy and then they'll be educated they'll be informed that one has occurred all right any other thank you
083comments or questions Andre well I had a couple when sorry just wanted to raise my hand sure I can't so just so list all so you know right Dr Moore I can't see anything so right I got you yeah I just I just jumped on because I didn't know what you could see so I don't know if anyone else was talking first no go ahead and Andre if you don't mind so I I just wanted to add too I mean you know from my experience that these dogs are used more than just for more than just drugs um and you know it states that hearing the policies um at some point speaking of explosives and all of that so they are used for that and they're used as article searches too so if you have
084a student that's missing from campus we can do an article search on their book bag or their coat or their shoes whatever they last wore or the last location they were in and we can try to locate the students that way as well and from my from my experience in law enforcement we have never ever aligned students up and had dogs just go by students and sniff them out and usually when those searches are done within the schools you have your school resource officer there and the principal there as well observing what the dog is doing while this search is taking place thank you Andre uh Mr go ahead thank you um I have a couple things um and I appreciate uh Sarah's comment about um the follow-up after the search but before that I
085have a problem with um students in the hallway and I understand what Andre was saying and what Mr pool was saying that you know it's not that kids are going to be lined up in the hallway and and dogs would walk by the kids in the hallway but I just would really prefer that that language is changed that they're in another room you know the the potential for interaction the hallway concerns me um and so that's on page two for the classroom search procedures um and then I I know some of this comes you know some of this um sometimes we write these details in policy and then obviously the procedure is is what um Dr Felder and her team um would come up with for some of these details but I I do also
086want to um raise the concern about um the follow-up with with any alerts and and how that can be designed in the procedure in a way that is Equitable and consistently applied just a thought on the on Mr Doyle's point about um preferring at sort of a classroom or another space um if um when leaving the original classroom I'm just thinking about that that always isn't always possible um and it so it says teachers will escort students into the hallway or another location nearby I'm wondering if we could flip it to sort of be into another classroom or School room or the hallway if one is not available or something like that I mean procedurally if that if that actually works for how it should work you know I think I think it's more of
087an operational issue obviously but just wanted to throw that out there as a simple way to address that the swapping the yeah teachers will escort students into um a nearby available space or the hallway if one is not available or something like that I don't know again this is the procedures so I really kind of defer to you all on how to do that best but um well as somebody who's done these you're doing you're trying to do it in a very short amount of time because you're disrupting your class number one and you you want to do it and get it over with and get the kids back in the classroom as quickly as possible and it you know it's not always possible to get them into another classroom because the classrooms are being
088used generally during that time but I know that when we did it at Sanford if we came out of a classroom the kids could go around the corner because school was designed that way that you could go around the corner and stand outside of another classroom or across the hall from the classroom up against the lockers and you didn't have to see it but one thing I didn't mind and Andre can probably attest to this too most of the kids want to see the dog the dog is a big big dog for a lot of those kids and they want they want to see that dog and rub that dog and sometimes it's a job more of a job to keep them off the dog than it is getting them out of the classroom because
089they just love dogs but if if I could just time it on that I've seen the opposite where the dogs can be traumatizing so we don't know what a child's background experiences and I would err on the side of caution and to the extent possible um have children in a space where they wouldn't see see the dog necessarily all right other comments all right so this is for Action um so do we have a motion to approve the policy 43 42 with the recommended changes that Ms Smiley had given that includes Miss stalls request so moved the board members of theirs in terms of wordsmithing if you want to give any direction to the superintendent working with your board attorney within the bounds of you know the language that was proposed or to approve it
090with that actual language just if you want to have an opportunity to see it again or to further refine it it's at your discretion so I I'm comfortable with the wording that Miss Smiley had given and we have definitely reviewed this a few times so I personally would be okay with Miss Smiley's wording if you need be we can have her read it back again um okay unless is there some other feeling on this anyone I'm saying no fine with the changes that the smaller makes and so we have a motion from Mr Richmond second Ms Hauser uh all in favor aye opposed and thank you Mr yep yes and uh Dr Moore all right that's unanimous all right the next item we have on the agenda thank you so much wait wait will can
091I just ask did I'm not I couldn't hear Jennifer I'm not sure did she vote Yes I thought that should be heard we heard two different guesses uh Dr Moore are you there can you tell us online if Dr Moore is there she is there I said no oh you said no okay so we have uh six guesses and one no all right second reading carries all right uh the next agenda items uh item is the employee Advocate Ombudsman discussion um this one should be quick um so last time we had a discussion on this one of the uh discussion points was to potentially bring this discussion to uh the policy committee and after discussing with the board attorney on that um the recommendation was to not do that because it's really policy and this
092is more of a job role and description and the recommendation was to create a committee to go create a job role description and then bring that back to the board for full discussion because that's the next step we were at was let's see some of the roles and responsibilities so we could have a discussion and trying to separate the how and the what um so this is just being brought forward as a potential recommendation to form a committee to do to do this work so I'll step back and get thoughts from other board members or ideas so with that just in terms of the scope of that committee's charge would it be also considering you know one of the things we talked to I am I am not confident that we should budget for an
093entire ombuds for example if that's what it is in our budget but consider Outsource in the first year but consider Outsourcing like a part-time or something just given the size of our district and the amount of that's been so would that be within the scope of the committee to sort of um weigh a recommendation of that or would this be an assumption that it's a full-time position in the district as opposed to uh other models of providing these Services the committee we could tell the committee to come back with that recommendation I know one of the things that uh when we were asking about the potential cost and what this would look like I know HR had said well you first have to get a job description to be able to tell what it would
094be so we could ask that committee to come up with a job description and a recommendation and a cost around that to bring back to the board for discussion the main thing was that this work if we tried to do this as a full board would be probably very painful but anyway but we could give back direction as well to that committee to bring back the recommendation on cost and full-time part-time or or we can ask them to come back with options around that yeah I just think the most important thing to clarify is what is the objective of the of the I'll call it a role like not a position like of this role in The District I think the Board needs to before the committee goes to work needs to provide some clarity
095on what the purpose of this is right because I don't want to come to the committee to come back you know with four options we've talked about it being part of Staff we've talked about it being reporting to the board you know and I think we as a board should decide that before the committee gets into the details on it I know I have some pretty clear views I don't know how the board members feel that's right my recommendation would be that the committee provides some like work together to like document the options and then bring that to the board to select one and then if there's further work to do then to actually write a job description and things like that they could do that all right I'm struggling with what would be different
096in the job role on the reporting structure I mean it seems like that would be an option but I think the job scope or role or their job description and purpose would remain the same unless I'm missing something I think I think I don't want to speak for you but I think what you're saying is you want to make sure that there's that the board is aligned on the purpose right before we go and do anything more detailed which I agree with um but I think that my suggestion another pathway of that is like let's identify a committee have that committee lay out some options for purpose or make a recommendation for purpose or something that then the board decides on I guess we've talked about it three times so I feel like um I
097would be interested in hearing what board members CEO you know is is are we talking about another position or you know one option we talked about was a physician reporting to HR is that an option here or is that off the table off well not that's the question if that's off the table then we don't want the committee to come back to us and share that as an option right I mean I again I don't know how that would change what they would be physically doing like if you said they reported to HR or the superintendent or the board what in their job description would change would they not do something now that they would have done that's that's the part I'm not connecting so just that you know and having read so many possible
098job descriptions about from facilitators to someone that helps people navigate the policies and procedures of the organization and figure out who to talk to versus a real employee Advocate that's someone that the employees would call and say I'm having a problem help me and be my Advocate and I think they're very different roles and there's some that I have less interest in and some that I think you know so so when I think the Board needs to have that conversation I think that's what we're doing right well that's what that's why before it goes to committee that we should have that conference what could be helpful about the committee clarifying that is that the committee could at least do the work of um sort of documenting this in a simple way that about those distinctions
099and then bring it back and we have a vote you know I mean that's that's kind of the that was my thought either that or we like hash it out some more in board meetings which is still kind of inefficient um yeah I I'm very concerned that's why we originally talked about a policy committee trying to do something and um I did collect a lot of the comments and thoughts around that and I had sent that to Neo with the intentions of okay policy and he was like no this is not an appropriate Forum to do that especially if you're talking about a job role that should be another um so what what parameters Bonnie would you like to put around this as part of the discussion before we go to my my feeling is
100that it's a position reports to the board and that they are an advocate because you know I mean you could get so lost in the rhetoric around this stuff so but you know I I'm really interested in someone who are employees control and say I need help and they can advocate for that and which means and and The Advocate would come with them or separately but would Advocate to them to the board but you know see this as their person you know they're not a mediator they're not a mediator they're not a mediator facilitator I don't think I don't believe our employees they really want someone up that's on their side other thoughts um yeah I guess um I like the direction where this is going with the suggestions that the committee would look both
101again at the um whether it's an employee um Advocate the Ombudsman whether it's part-time full-time you know we we obviously have other funding decisions to make as well um so you know we were talking about other positions in need of funding tonight as well including nurses we have a whole bunch of things we're trying to decide what to do with our local budget so um is the committee just going board members are we going to have staff like how much staff time should we be using to support the committee when we haven't [Music] um made a commitment to funding this position I realized we need to know more about the different options but what would the committee who would be on this Committee in terms of Staff helping facilitate some of these determinations I mean
102I'll just throw it out there I would think that when the once the committee got to a point that it agreed on what the role is then there would need to be HR to help identify cost I I don't think staff would be needed in the discussion around getting to that but I mean again it's whatever the the will of the board is on this because if it's too big I agree with you I I hadn't considered that there's a lot of Staff involved with this mainly the board members getting together and trying to get I think Sarah to your your words to simplify you know this is what it looks like here's the options okay here's some cost that go with those options and then if the board wanted to tweak some of it
103it would happen at the board level versus trying to Hash that out and want to these regular meetings okay thank you sure other comments so what's the the will of the board to move forward with a committee what kind of timetable how much time is it is it one meeting to just talk about it so the committee has to decide I mean it I mean that's whoever wants to be on the committee that's that's the commitment of the committee agreeing when they're going to be able to meet how frequent um and to bring something back to the board because all committees have to have a defined end so we would definitely have to say the committee's purpose is to bring back a recommendation and at that point that would be the end of the committee
104we could say over the summer right before the start of the school year that's a question about what's the urgency for this you know is there something that's going to go next year is this for next year's budget is this for you know the start of the school year because these are so I I think a lot of us would like to see it as part of the consideration as we determine funding because we would need to know how much it is and then also how it fits in the overall priority but it's hard to do that without knowing what a role would be so is it just is it the committee going to decide options or is the committee going to do describe the role under the option of facilitator employee Advocate or what
105are they going to look at all the options there's many there's so we've seen 30 position descriptions for this yeah it's the the committee has to come to a consensus to bring something forward and I have no idea what they would come up with um yeah and obviously the board can always say no that's not as a whole that's not what we want so where I think having a two-part process and pieces of clear like Choice points and differences like fundamental differences in the role that I think we need board Clarity on first before getting deeper into the specifics of how it would work or whatever you know that's right thank you sir so we could we could create a committee to go forth and bring forward a recommendation on just the role with no
106cost until we're seeing something else well I think we're saying that before the committee goes and does all this deep should decide on what it is we're asking them to look at why are we doing this and what are we asking them to develop us what are we asking them to do we're asking sorry yeah and mine is a tweak of that which is I think the the committee could be helpful to the board in furthering this discussion rather than doing this again to clearly lay out those options and those like meaningful differences between approaches between roles um I just think that could be you know it's not picking one yet it's just doing a little bit of groundwork to say like there are these three models and here are the meaningful differences between them
107and here are a couple of examples of places that do each of these or something like that like as a Sim one yeah and I feel like maybe I I'm ahead of us but I think we've done that here's my only concern is I don't want the committee to do a lot of detail work about a certain option and then the board says no right I want the board to be clear on right so if we could do something very high level that says here's the different options I mean I I feel like we've done that work already but if we feel if you all think we need a committee I think some of that work has been done with conversations that we yeah around what we thought that we wanted yeah I collected all
108the data from all the comments and like I said I sent that to Neil as here's the starter from what we had um but I want to be very clear but a committee can bring back anything at once the board and the board could vote it down right that we we can't not do it because that could be a possibility but then we've wasted all that time so I would like to at least say we want the committee to bring back options because if they're going to pick an option that I that I know today I'm going to vote again so maybe you know what I mean all right sorry the the the discussion I thought was they would bring back different options we've talked about several things that's what we're doing then that's you
109know that's the charge of the committee to bring back absolutely I think if we have the notes that will took right that were sent to Neil and get them back from New York or get them shared by Will that's your starting point and and then you can look at where all some of the different job descriptions we've seen and and fit it for what we need here it's a matter of synthesizing that into some Clear Choices yeah this would not work in Orange County I think I think somebody we think this would work here other things yeah what's important to me is that we have an option that included in whatever comes back was we have an option of a position that reports to the board I don't know what other options you look like
110look at but but we want to have one option of an ombudsman or an employee Advocate that reports to the board and again having read a dozen of these so many of them are facilitators so that may be an option they're interested in but there's also the option of being an advocate for them so I'd like to put parameters around this that says you know what at least you know I want to see the option of an advocate that reports to the board and after that I don't care um just another question so have we gotten input about this from like the teacher of the year groups um ocae I mean I know we hear different things from different people but we also want to make sure that we're doing what would best be helpful
111and supportive so I'm just wondering how we can go about that it's a good idea maybe there's some way for the committee to figure out how to do that well you could easily do that because to get input all right for people I mean I don't know I wonder if you know I'm thinking that this is this purpose of this is what to help with staff retention yes yes yes it was one of the items that we brought up as climate culture right right really happy here and people that might not be happy so and how would this help right if we really want to get into the research those are the questions I think if you're going to pull in ocae and other groups then you need to have something to show them the
112notes that will have some of the documents that we've looked at something so that they have a clear idea like I mean we had to look at things to to figure out so have some for them too so they can have a way of coming up with things that they would feel are most beneficial because they're the ones that are going to be using this all right are there Fox around us okay how would we like to proceed I'll share what I've what I've heard so committee to look at um foreign the employee Advocate options not a single one but multiple options the committee would also also look at feedback on on the roll and they would bring this back to the board for further discussion and the the committee would use the notes from
113the prior board discussion and I can actually read those now now there's not a huge list but I could read those now if just to refresh the board the first one was and again these these are just the notes from it neutral person unbiased and objective confidential conversations uh uh independent of reporting structure was one of them advocate for employees and staff share concerns and Trends occurring in the district um potentially could start part-time versus full-time which was which would be a option that they would discuss and then one of the other items that was mentioned or the last item was um they work under a code of conduct so those were the the main comments that came out of of the original discussion so in addition employee that they would also advise the board
114on patterns or Trends they're seeing yeah that was that that was the items slightly it's an expanded scope but that's very interesting okay just wanted to clarify thank you all right any other items for this committee to consider or cover so you said extent of how much time or is it part-time full-time that's in the notes part-time versus full-time I think one other consideration is in some school districts the when it's an ombuds the ombuds role also plays a role for students and families in addition to staff and so that's like one of these Choice points as well all right I'll I'll say that I would be very concerned starting off with that scope given the district I wouldn't be against adding that at some point but really focused for me focused on employees and
115then as that role evolves like if they start part time and then we eventually say yes we want full-time and that person would then have larger scope but I'd be concerned at starting off with such a large scope for this one person I think they would become overwhelmed and determining do I spend the majority of my time with the families or do I spend the anyway just just some initial thoughts on that the teachers employees so the list that you just went through was that an employee Advocate it sets some of these parameters that would limit the eye says is really the option is an employee Advocate reports to the board so what are the options you know it pretty nicely describe I'll read some others that I pulled from other policies that would be
116um specifics because what those don't have specifics of what they would be for example um listening to complaints concerns problems or issues helping employees explore and evaluate options uh clarifying certain decisions policies and practices create access to information if appropriate and to help open channels of communication uh referring to helpful resources assisting and servicing issues that can be addressed in a formal process taking an objection objective action to resolve matters that fall outside the established forms and procedures identifying new issues and opportunities for systematic change in the district and breeding systematic issues to the board's attention for resolution but see those are again those are taking those and putting what does that mean like what's the day in the life it's like a job description right it sounds like you have the option and you
117have the factors of those uh things that you just described are in the work of human capital so sounds like there's some overlap that would need to be clarified I think if the committee goes forward that it would be helpful for the committee to talk about what the policy implications will be so for example do we need whistleblower but we've gotten comments about whistleblower policies and other things so let me be clear what the snow blower is coming to the policy committee we've already discussed it and the draft is being brought forward from the attorney on that and that we already have some of those in place but this strengthens and gives clear I'm curious if the if the committee should be looking at that be looking at we have this person you know it
118would work in tandem with that I I would worry about getting too far on that until the board gets Direction based on what they bring back and that and that could be brought to the policy committee to look at the implications but you know okay I'm trying to put it together to say you know you bring the position and you bring the you know let the they inform each other yeah all right anything else for the committee um all right if so um we would need a motion to create it and how many people I would assume it'd be no more than three people from the board um do we have interest in being on this committee I I personally would be interested in participating in this I would be okay with participating okay so
119with that that's uh Sarah myself and Andre for the committee do we have a motion to move forward with the committee to look into the employee Advocate to get options and bring them back to the board for further discussion using the notes and then also looking at um what those could potentially be for the board to decide next steps after that so this way we don't go too far with it and then find out there's too many problems but then we could then look at what are the policy overlap issues or concerns to to address as well Pilots should be pilot right how to implement it yes and that's part of the the notes all right with that we would need a motion no motion do you have a second second the motion second uh
120any further discussion all in favor I I thank you both um all right with that uh we have a committee form um the one item we did not Define and we will leave it to the committee is to find the chair at their first school all right um now we have the consent Ida agenda items that were pulled the first one we had was the Pre-K Grant application um yes Dr Green Chief academic officers going to speak to that was a good question yes um so I know that uh one of the questions is first and foremost this this is great to have seen and found a Grant such as this the question is in the grant the grant is really looking at the setup cost of the room the professional development the playground and
121having that all um what isn't in the the abstract is um there's six positions there would be two teachers and two Tas each for a total of six but it doesn't say where that funding would come from for that uh and what would that look like um I know today most of the Pre-K is under uh the title one funding and we had discussions early in the year about looking at middle school and the needs from Title One funding so um where would the funding for this come from so the the purpose of the grant is to be able to give funds to um to expand the program to expand to Hillsboro and to New Hope Elementary School with the hope of acquiring licensing and then once they acquired that then they picked up like
122the NC Pre-K under the company and so without the grant to help with uh with moving that work it would be almost half a year before they were getting and so once we have the seats NC Pre-K from the state would provide additional funding to the district for all of those positions all six positions I believe but let me double check on that because I I raised the same question around just sustaining the uh the program and so it's my understanding that um once the rising of licensed shirt is in place then NC Pre-K can pay that across that I don't know how what the full scope was so let me find that out okay so I guess with that answer couldn't this come back to our July 10th so we know I think the
123concern that we all have without saying it is that's that's a lot and if we had to do it on local funding I I it would be a lot and I raised that question too here and so my but I didn't want to you know in terms of so let me get that clarification and yes it definitely can bring back piece I did also ask the question with regard to the deadline because they are now in the SEC would be in the second round for the application thank you okay okay just how did we pick those three sites they selected the grant is very competitive so they they tend to look at areas that are aboard a Pre-K programs so to to make it more an incentive and make it more interesting for Orange County
124Schools they looked at where we have uniques like our year-round schools in Hillsboro and the Dual language so that's what those two okay so um board if if you're willing I believe we would teach a motion to table this to the July 10th if that's you know aboard can we submit the grant can we motion to submit this Grant application now I mean that's why I asked if when the grant was due if we could wait till the July 10th ticket I don't know when the second round uh do because they the first round was the end of May okay around my only concern is if we don't know that we are committing local dollars for that it's not true um can we get confirmation contingent on getting confirmation that there would be NC Pre-K
125funding for the staffing suicide um as long as you know that may be something you can find out from the dance or wherever so I would be okay with that which means if it isn't then then right we don't approve significant Grant unless we also have the funding Prova how many Pre-K classes classes this would make the same okay so with that um uh do we want to have a motion motion to um approve the submission of this Grant and acceptance of funds contingent on confirmation that we would receive the funding for the positions from ncpk okay we have a motion do we have a second second okay we have a second uh from the stall all in favor aye aye opposed okay thank you okay thank you so much the next item is uh
126the central mechanical project um all right so um does any of the board member want to to ask their questions about this or I can ask on behalf of them okay um so this is uh almost a million dollar change order and it states that the reason is the contractor was expecting to have an empty building for the duration of the project um when did we find out that the fender was expecting that uh expecting no students in the building like we have communication with the vendor last week regarding the uh addition or the the idea that it wouldn't be bacon their original bid vendors did it on the idea that they would be making all right so the previous staff so they did bid on that and it was not an alternative in that
127space But in communicating with them last week to realize and getting this other additional information on it I mean it was last week yeah and let me provide more information this project was um it predates all of us so we had to start some history but there was a September 1921 work session where they were getting identifying Capital Improvement priorities number one Central at that time they uh enlisted or they enrolled employed so that Associates to complete a bid baggage that was put out forbid and that bid package came back it was about acting open at 9 million but those big documents the drawings everything that was operated from was predicated on the school meeting so there was a year and a half prior to when it was put back out for a bit again
128they were operating under that premise the school was going to be vacant so the bid packet said it would be bacon correct and that was that was dating information and nobody saw that or well we we saw it uh pre-construction meeting after the Bill card at that point segments I don't want to use the word phase it because phasing exposed as an option but that would have all renewing the documents yet again to structure the projects so it could be completed phasing phasing is always much more expensive so they were willing to accommodate us as best they could in certain areas for walled off had to be used for instruction we take a a contract with 288 days and narrowed it down to 202 and all personally all of this is expands for overtime for
129six hour weeks for that 202 days they're doing 288 days worth of work at 2 days associated with too much of its way essentially Saturday includes overtime anytime you have in those segment periods you also have to stand down cruise Subs to come in and work that time period as well so and them doing this what is the risk to these students and faculty and the building for them doing this are they doing any work while the school's in session so this is only all of the overtime and such would be done when the school is not open that's correct there the work that has wood potentially impact students be done as we speak that portion there had a schedule but they do have a a hard and fast November 1st Stop date at that
130point the the instructions and taken as far as they might take okay other questions or comments from North was it ever thought about moving the students out of central because I was asked my opinion of that in April and I mean I I never went anywhere obviously it didn't come to us so was that something that was talked about with you all I was never brought to the economics of it too there's a 400 000 contingency built into the 5.5 million dollar contract s this this figure this 942 is roughly 17 percent that in this environment is reasonable adjustment contract so we've got 400 000 in reserve that doesn't account or allow us for other potential expenses in the future but we also have identified funds from other capital projects they're being merged just a
131matter of housekeeping right now that collectively is up to well we had 3.2 we'd have to spend on real estate so that's it any other questions cannot those students and faculty and staff deserve their bill no information and to affirm that the the any delay would be more explosives I got it I just you know in my mind I keep thinking about the facility project and as a facility project that's going to be done at the end of the calendar year is that going to say something about this particular campus you know yeah music and I just don't know but right now we're kind of already into this so I think all right if there's no other comments can you get a motion to approve questions oh and favor I I okay um motion passes
132unanimously thank you so much all right the next item is the after school contract and service one point for just procedure for everybody because this owl is picking up things that are the louder we are before speaking our interpreters are having a difficult time teasing this out and I mean some people at home might also be having a hard time hearing so no no thank you thank you all right um for this item the after-school contract I I pulled it myself I put myself and um so um there's special meeting three weeks ago on after school summer programs I said that I would not be supporting the extension and I just wanted to list out why I'm not originally this came to us it had we had a lot of questions about the company and
133what was needed we were told three major items the grant some metal that was due in April not to risk our five-star rating renewal to give the required training for five stars right after that meeting I was told by multiple School sites that we already had our renewal of the five-star rating for each of our sites at least two months prior which was easily seen on our State website I was also told by staff that they had already taken all the required training for the five star and nothing was needed and we'd already paid for online training of the amount of 300 that covers that I immediately shared this feedback with the superintendent we the board and the sites got an email that the contractor company would be expanding their role for the After School
134summer program I had several people reach out to me to tell me that this contractor company already had a full-time job that was never disclosed to us multiple people also share that the contract was not asked about this before the email went out I again shared this concern with the superintendent the contractor reached out to me directly the day before our special meeting and they shared they could not do this and they were not asked about it yet but they had a meeting later that day during our special meeting they were brought into the meeting and confirmed that they wanted to keep their original scope during that special meeting again I brought up the concerns that were told to us about the five-star training at that point the superintendent shared that those items were not
135the items but two development needs were need CPR training that's required and needed to be in person the bsac that's needed for each person to start an after school right after the meeting the site shared that CPR training is done today in two parts the first part is online then the second part is done by the Orange County Nursing staff for the in person and it's been done that way for years and I've confirmed with our nursing staff that this is done and there's no additional cost to the district the sites also shared that they have a contract with the training Company online for three hundred dollars that does all the bsac trading which is five hours that's required and the service does not expire until September and all the sites have been trained and
136are ready to go for the summer programs um and the service has already been used for anybody that is needed that will come up we found out during the special meeting that we missed the grant for April also this contract was put uh was put in place after this contract has been in place we have lost three District staff which multiple of them had 20 plus years of experience in Orange County Schools all of this is showing me some disconnect between the district and the schools I will not be supporting this uh this contract I also want to point out that after that meeting that we were told that this person would not be taking the extended role that the job posting on our website right now shows the contractor as the contact person for
137these job postings which means their their role which is not defined right now would be employment and positions so I say all that to just say the board is welcome to do a motion on this but I will not be supporting it tonight well I need to address Mr Atherton those items so you mentioned that um Miss Mar Mathis has a business she does and we know from that meeting where the attorney was present that has nothing to do with her being able to take on uh additional work she mentioned that's her business and so this she's coming on as a consultant not as an employee we also know that Miss Carr who is overseeing after school is currently on leave that I have stepped in as the interim and that Mrs Miss Mathis is
138the expert in this area and her support is needed I made that perfectly clear in that last meeting yes she was she did reach out to you she said she did because she heard so often her name was being tossed around and she wanted to speak to you directly and she reached out to you she also clarified that she had her the company or whoever it is that she's working for you mentioned that she works for a non-profit in endurance she said she got to that's her business that's between her and the person who employs her if she's available to be of support to us in this interim period where we don't have a director for a summer school program uh her expertise is is needed and um and so we do need her in
139that capacity now with regards to what's posted that is clearly an era um that she's no she's not working for us in that capacity so that's something that can be corrected I see msaturn nodding her head in affirmative is an error that can be corrected but her expertise is needed to get us through until we can determine if Miss card is coming back or not this one point of clarity about this person is full-time at a different job not the business it's they have a full-time job with a company and they own this business that's doing this and she's said she spoke with her supervisor she said that in this room you were present she said she spoke with her supervisor and her supervisor said she had flexibility now whether that's true or not that's
140between her and her supervisor but what she can do is continue to be a consultant enough support this is her aunt she's known uh in throughout the country for her work and after school she knows it like she knows the back of her hand and there are from what I understand one of one of her other roles around the b-sac she talked about how important it is to get that training in person uh that yes it is available online but that's not the best way to learn how to work with children and so she would be available in that regard she also would be available for as new staff come on board to be of support to them in terms of providing training but I made it clear in that meeting how much her knowledge
141and expertise in after school uh for that program is needed until we can determine Miss Carr right now is on leave until September 5th we have a lot to do between now and then we are trying to run a summer camp we also have to get ready for RTA Aftercare we also have to get ready for the start of the school year with regards to after school beginning with Hillsboro Elementary School so we will know by September 5th whether or not miss Carr is returning but until then her expertise is is needed all right I just have a simple question on we originally hired this firm for the grant to work on a grant I was just curious why they missed the deadline so I believe that I'm sorry so miss Mathis wasn't on staff
142or supporting us at that time that fell under the contract came to us after or I came back we approved it on April the well April 4th really yeah so the contract didn't come to us until way after and it was back dated to the the actual start and it was due that Grant was due on the date that that that she was brought on so so we were late so regarding this regarding Miss mathis's contract first and foremost Miss Mathis was a retired North Carolina State Employee so therefore she could not start with us because being a retired employee either it was six month window that you have to wait so we had to confirm she had to confirm when she could start she found out at April 1st that she could start and
143at that time we began working with her environment and that but by then it was two it was already too late for the first time yes that correct that is correct so has she done the the July one that's due is it submitted that that I can't tell you let me rephrase she was hired to make certain that the grant submittals that are due to make sure that we get our funding for this Enterprise program is done timely I've got a conversation came back with her um and I think she may even mention to the day we were in here and that she did um so she was up to date but she said she was up to date and to that we have again we have no staff member that knows how to do
144that I mean that that to me is a this is why it feels really important to me to support this contract is because of this Gap in knowledge about in some really important areas including the grant until we have um clear stable sort of leadership over this program um you know the fact that it's a contract up to so that we'll be leveraging her only at the times that we need it is that makes sense to me I'm glad we're doing it that way the it has been said that when she was here before she didn't do very much to help with the running of this program that the person that was let go was the one who was doing most of the work and she was having a hard time with the grants so
145how what's changed to what I know first of all she bought the grant to us that's right we wouldn't have gotten a grant without her knowledge so at the other things I don't know and I'm not going to dip in to begin to talk about Personnel matters because you're not supposed to yes but but I'm just telling you what's out there I can't speak to that but I can speak to the fact that when she started working for us um I couldn't remember the date one of the things she did bring was the grant to us and we had not had the grand prize for coming so this is before the board to proceed there would be to be a motion a motion to approve the contracted Services contract extension okay we have a motion
146do we have a second a second that we have a motion in a second may I just interrupt because I want to be clear about what will happen if we don't approve this contract so if we don't approve a contract to get the support that we need I'm very concerned about we don't have the expertise in the district at this time to do all the things that she can help us with through Consulting so I'm just making it clear I mean unless we are going to advertise for again this is the position already of someone who happens to be out on FMLA out sick and so we have to keep the district running in this Regard in her absence so if we're gonna do we want to hire someone if will we get someone how
147is that going to impact our ability to stand up after care for Hillsboro Elementary School which will be starting up uh in July and the rest of the school this work begins now so I am very very concerned do we shut everything down our families need after care we have uh one of the um uh most inexpensive summer camp programs that Miss Mathis brought so I don't know why we're hung up on the fact that she has a business and she works for someone else she's retired and she's serving as a consultant she's of the previous Grant at twenty thousand dollars that that Grant can go up to she's billed us for a thousand dollars that's been well worth it so I'm just concerned that's all I'm putting out here is that I'm concerned about
148what what what do we do what what would you recommend that we do uh should we not be able to consult with Miss Mathis yeah I want to be very clear on my view of this not being told everything is the first concern but my bigger concern is the climate and culture that I hear continuously and having three people that have long time in the district that walked out within a short time is concerning I am more than willing to accept a different proposal that is from someone else to do the work and cover it I'm more than willing to consider that but I I cannot in good faith go forward so just for clarity are you suggesting that the walkout was because of Miss Mathis and that's why that's hearsay where's the evidence the
149hearsay is from from them but I that's hearsay it is it is a fact of where we are um anyway I like I said my my view is I'd be willing to entertain other options just not this contract so we have a motion and we have a second all in favor aye aye aye okay we have three eyes opposed nay nay emotion does not carry all right the next item is for discussion um for the work session it's the m-class data Jones oh good and so the NC Pre-K will pick up a part of the funding and we've heard people funding it'll cover salaries the other part will come from the EC budget and then the remaining will come from type one so those would be the three funding sources for the prepaid do you
150have any sense of what share of that will come from our existing difference the the easy money and the and the title one will need to like reallocate from somewhere else so do you have any sense of what the share of that is my understanding that it's the both of it will be the per pupil from NC Pre-K and then from that the next tier will be and I which I can't we don't have much of a percentage of the smallest amount will come from is there a way to find out exactly how much would come from each pot and and because we we're I mean we want to expand obviously there's a waiting list for pre-k we want to expand it um well you know are we gonna have to make big cuts in
151EC somewhere else or you know things like that in order to afford it we can simply do an approximation because we need for it now the greatest looking at 16 to 18 students per site with one teacher each and two teacher assistants and so we can kind of use that compared with other sites and and to get a list obligating ourselves to the staff to hiring Staffing so we're also getting mistakes okay all right thank you for that update I'm glad to get that information back to you well I'm it's always excited to bring forth and talk about a student achievement and our data and so this evening here I have my Dynamic team who's ready to present the end of the year of data on m-class aims with plus as well as Access Data
152here and so with this I think this will you will find a lot to celebrate celebrating in terms of our student at achievement as we look at at cohorts of students here from one year to the next year celebration as we look at across the grades of our students from from the end of the year last year to the end of the year this year in celebrations as we also look at some of our student groups and the achievement and how we are making growth in student groups along with that we also want to look at where we have challenges and where we need to put focus and putting more attention as we always do with data when we look at the instructional program we try to frame instructional program around four key questions being
153wouldn't want students to know and you will hear from our team of what each assessment is assessing we also we the question around how do we know that they know it and that's a big piece of information what is the assessment tell us the third is what do we do when they don't know it how are we providing supports in remediation and then the fourth is what do we do when they know how do we extend how do we expand and learn so as you look at the data here see those points of Celebration whose points they're going to talk about the challenge and also how it impacts so at this time I bring forth here this Mariah Morris will be involved by miss Emily Emily Myers and the engineer good evening we are excited
154to be here with you guys today to share some of our end of the year assessment data we're going to begin by looking at m-class civil's eighth assessment so as we get started this evening we want to just pause for a moment and briefly share an overview of the m-class civil's eighth assessment so that we're all on the same page when discussing this data so the m-class doubles eighth assessment often referred to just as M class is administered to all students in grades K through three this assessment is comprised of short subtests that each measure a different aspect of foundational literacy skills five of the subtests are short 60-second assessments that are administered in a one-to-one setting where the student Works directly with the assessor the six sub-test maze is a three-minute measure that is
155given online that is supposed to measure comprehension the devil's 8th Edition is administered three times a year and that each benchment Benchmark window students receive a composite score this composite score is calculated to be the most robust indicator of reading risk that a student can have in K through three that composite score outweighs any of the other individual subtest measures so for the first part of this presentation we're going to be talking about that composite score which refers to the overall indicator of risk a lot of times board members and the public ask does M Class relate to EOG proficiency so we want to just take a moment to talk a little bit about that the dibble's eighth assessment refers specifically to foundational reading skills we know that in order to pass the EOG reading
156test a student must have strong foundational reading skills coupled with comprehension skills coupled with attention and focus and Longevity with reading these passages so this is a part of being a skilled reader but this by no means is indicative of what EOG scores will be when they're released later we're going to begin by looking at beginning of the year data against end of year data Broken Out by grade level so you'll see that with kindergarten we saw a 41 change for proficiency tonight we're looking solely at proficiency with m-class not at growth so this is our students at grade level in Reading we're very proud to report that in kindergarten 71 of our students are proficient with their foundational reading skills in first grade we found 18 point jump which is significantly higher than we
157saw last year to 75 percent of students second grade we saw 11 Point jump at 69 percent and third grade remained the same at 53 percent just for comparison the 2021-2022 school year North Carolina average for kindergarten was 67 and the national average was 60 percent so we were higher than both the state and National for kindergarten first grade was 63 in North Carolina and nationally 62 percent and second grade was 58 in North Carolina and a national average of 58 percent they did not release third grade so we were higher than both the state and national average for what test scores were last year North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has not released that for this year the next slide is a really interesting slide for us to look at on the literacy team
158because it shows the percent of students proficient last year at end of the year compared to the percent of students proficient this year we like to look at this to look at the overall health of our Core Curriculum to make sure that our students are growing and that we're continuing to build capacity with relatively new curriculum choices so in kindergarten last year we were at 75 percent and we did notice a slight dip at 71 percent we are looking at that and it is important to remember that this is an average so we had a number of schools that were higher than this when we saw increases at a number of schools so we're looking at why there were certain areas that did tend to pull back down in first grade we went from 67
159at the end of the year last year to 75 so that is that large jump that we saw last slide to this slide and we're really happy with that increase of eight points second grade we saw the largest jump from 59 to 69 percent we're particularly proud of this because our literacy coaches came together after middle of the year and thought about core plans for the second grade looking at our phonics progression to make sure we're getting into more multi-syllabic word um coding so we're really proud to see that and then third grade we saw a two percent increase when we look at our scores disaggregated by student group we see a number of trends that we would like to highlight as well as dig into deeper to think about how to move the needle
160even more whereas we were just looking at the composite of all of our students together we understand that Orange County Schools is only as strong as all of our students and that in order to move the needle for all of our students we have to recognize that we do want to make sure that we're having a positive impact on all demographic groups and all students from all different backgrounds so Orange County schools for the composite change is noted on that first row so we saw a five percentage Point increase from last year to this year when you looked at all students in Orange County Schools grades K through three when we look at the black student group we saw a seven percent increase the white five percent Hispanic four points Asian 12 points multi-racial 2
161EC students one and ELD seven so when we think about the implications of this data one thing is it's really exciting that each student did or sorry each group did show growth so that is something worth noting however we do notice that some groups are showing faster rates of improvement than others we also know that some of these groups are historically performing at different rates and so when we think about how this work intertwines with our Equity Department we want to make sure that some of these groups growth rate is faster because we're trying to close gaps so that we don't want it to just remain the same so those are conversations that we're looking at we're looking at how to align this work with some of the equity work that's coming out to ensure
162growth with each student group so for this next part of the presentation we're going to move away from that composite score which was the overall indicator of risk and look at some of the subtests to look at how is our core going so we've been on this journey for two years together where we implemented Hagerty we implemented decodables we strengthened Letterland and so these subtests give us an idea of the health of those implementations just as a reminder when we built those Scarborough reading ropes I think it was last year we are looking at that top part of the Rope which are foundational reading skills specifically phonological awareness and our curriculum for that is Hagerty and then decoding and site recognition and our curriculum for that is Letterland New Hope is piloting the hmh foundational
163skill lessons and as well as the addition of decodables SMH into reading and into literature I'm sure is burning in your minds as that is our new curriculum but we're not going to touch that until our EOG scores come out because that touches more of our bottom part of the road so when we look at how Hagerty is doing this is a big point of Pride for the district um we note in here Emily's going to come up and she wears all things mtss and she loves to talk about our goal is 80 of students achieving during core for core to be considered a healthy Core Curriculum and we're getting very close for kindergarten and first grade and that's exciting as this is just the second year of implementation this is from end of the
164year last year to end of the year this year so we saw six points increase in kindergarten and nine point increase in first grade and then when you look diagonally you can look at how a code work is growing so if you look at kindergarten students last year we're at 67 percent those same students are the first graders at the end of the year this year they grew 10 points to 77 percent so phonological awareness yes can I have a Clarity question okay so you're saying those are the phonological awareness scores so hegarty works on phonological awareness and this is how that's growing that's exactly right so if you notice we have the part of the reading progression and then the curriculum and phonological awareness is our most foundational reading skill um if a student
165misses this they are at risk for further reading problems for the rest of their life as well as spelling um so this is a very important foundational reading so we are happy with how Hagerty is progressing and we think Emily Myers is going to be very proud of us for almost reaching that 80 there next so now when we come to the next slide we're looking at how are our foundational skill lessons going this is Letterland and six out of our seven elementary schools with New Hope being the one odd man out that's piloting the hmh foundational skill lessons as well as the decodables that we purchased last year for all students in all elementary schools so again with kindergarten we did note that slight decrease there so we are going to be looking at
166what that might be attributed to I will say we were above both the national and the state average last year we kind of like hit it out of the park so we're not sure but we are going to keep an eye to see why we saw that slide dip for first grade we saw 13 points increase so we went from 65 percent of students being proficient last year to 78 this year second grade we went from 61 to 74 for another 13 percentage Point increase and then in grade we went from 56 percent to 65. this is really great to see in second and third grade it's harder to move foundational skill data because students are being challenged with harder words on the assessment so they're moving away from some of those shorter easier words
167into more advanced phonics patterns and traditionally with these measures for students really across the state you don't see as large of an increase so that is something that our team is specifically proud of again comprehension those scores are coming we will be looking at our EOG data which has not been released yet and we're not allowed to even like take against that quite yet but that is something that we will look at to see how that hmh implementation is moving along so celebrations and pride points orange high schools did have a five point increase in Proficiency in grades k-3 from the end of the year in 2022 to 2023 each student group did demonstrate growth and proficiency we had double digit growth in kindergarten first and second grade from beginning of the year to end
168of the year Hagerty is working as evidenced by the increase in proficiency and phonemic segmentation fluency subtest scores which is the data we were just looking at and then use of decodable readers and connecting phonics instruction which is something we're learning in letters does seem to be working in grades one two and three as evidence by our increase on the subtest subtest measure nonsense or influencing some responses that we've begun um based on this data as well as trends that we looked at last year at the middle of the year is we are holding leader um excuse me data meetings with leadership teams at each School so we go ambra myself Beth Swain as well as anyone else who wants to join us we do go to meet with principals assistant principals and coaches at
169their school and share their data broken down composite student group EOG and class aims web we also have data meetings with our literacy coaching team which are coaches from all of our schools that have literacy coaches to look at our district Trends as a whole and that's how we came up with the second grade core plan to attack More multi-syllabic Words which we saw paid off with our data we are we went through and did professional development with all K-8 schools on engaging with complex texts and that was in response to things that we were seeing during our instructional walks where we wanted to build a common vocabulary for how we talk about grade level reading selections we're also having professional development with our literacy team to help them be the leaders in this work
170we're engaged teaching and coaching Cycles both district-led as well as coach LED based on specific School needs and then we are facilitating learning walks so that District staff can see school-based teams in action some growth areas and next steps we want to continue our core plan for second and third grade based on some of the foundational skills we did make the decision to move forward in our from phonics to reading curriculum that we've done for the last two years but we're adding in a more complex level next year so we're moving from level B to level C which is a an additional degree of difficulty because this data shows our students are ready for it so we're excited to push them a little bit more in third grade and see what else they can do
171we also are trying to increase our use of high-yield instructional strategies to pair that with our hmh curriculum we know that no curriculum alone will move students it is a highly qualified teacher with strong instructional practices coupled with a research backed curriculum so we rolled the curriculum out this year and next year we're going to really dig in to make sure that our instructional strategies are high quality and in conjunction with that we also plan to continue our focus on student groups to ensure that each and every student in Orange County schools has Equitable and engaging literacy instructions so at this point that concludes our section on m-class and I'm excited to pass my baton over to our director of ntss Emily Myers good evening I'm here tonight to share our Orange County schools end
172of your data from Ames web plus we have many celebrations and positive Trends in both reading and math thanks to the hard work of our instructional staff and our support Personnel at the school and at the district level so as an overview for aims web Plus in Orange County Schools we administer three times a year just like we do M class so we have voi Moi and eoi students complete the reading assessment in grades four through eight so we pick up where M Class ends in North Carolina we are provided m-class for all of our students K3 after that school districts have to make a decision about how they would like to continue screening so we use aims web for reading grades four through eight and it is also our math assessment for all students
173in grades k through eight this assessment data provides a risk determination in the area of those foundational skills so just like Mariah shared and there is some connection to performance on eogs however screeners measure foundational skills and the eogs measure Mastery of statements so those are two different things all right here is our aims web plus reading data for grades four through eight at the end of the year for all of our students who completed the reading benchmark 68.8 percent were determined to be at low risk 13 were determined to be at moderate risk and 18.2 percent were deemed to be at high risk all eligible students should be assessed at each window as this is a universal screener ntss guidance suggests that risk thresholds are at about 80 percent of low risk that's when
174you have confirmation that you have a strong and healthy core fifteen to eighteen percent of your population at moderate risk and only three to five percent at high risk so you'll notice that our percentages are slightly off of what that ideal is our next slide shows our aims web plus reading data by grade this graphic shows the reading data for all students in grades four through eight for the three Benchmark Windows across the year in all risk areas so it's it's a big chart um for example in the fall 27 of fourth graders were at high risk so that's that very first data point at middle of the year that dropped to 24 so it's positive we're moving in the right direction and then at the end of the year it dropped to 21 so
175we'd like to see our high risk numbers dropping our moderate risk numbers dropping but we'd like to see our low risk numbers Rising so for our fourth graders we actually had a six percent positive change from the beginning of the year to the end of the year so we're moving in the right direction that left-hand section is all of our high risk scores um at boy Moi and eoi at every grade level the middle section is our moderate risk and then that right section is our low risk the same data is shown here disaggregated by student group and you'll notice that there are a couple of student groups where we did not have enough students in those groups to have a number to report out so those are blank but this same graphic will be
176shown in a few moments for math data our routine our overall math data Emily can you put that chart back up and just I'm not sure I understand there you go so so the red you know um just if you could help sure so for each student group so for example our Hispanic students um the number of students who were in high risk for reading at the end of the year so this is kind of their summative measure um is the Red Bar the yellow bar underneath it is the number of Hispanic students who were at moderate risk and then the green bar is the number of students who are at low risk that were part of our Hispanic subgroup and then same for black or African-American white asian is very small number of students
177represented here and that are multiracial group and just and the reason the white bar so far is because there's more students that's the number of students yes and remember this is just for four eight because K3 is M class and we don't screen at the high school so this is only four grade spans can everybody gets tested it is a universal screener so we do screen every student in membership there are a few exceptions for students that this test would not be appropriate teachers are trusted to make that decision based on those individual students but this encompasses the entire student population so this would be students with disabilities general education students who don't have any special services are multilingual Learners ARG students yes okay so here's our math data in the area of math all
178students in grades K-8 were assessed 76.3 percent were found to be at low risk 10 at moderate risk and 13.7 at high risk again all eligible students should be assessed at each window as this is a universal screener we are closer here to the ideal of 80 15 to 18 three to five but you'll notice that our kind of point of concern is that our students who are considered at high risk is almost 14 and we really like to see that much closer to three to five so in the same format as we saw for our reading our high risk data is on the left um moderate risk in the middle and then our low risk is to the right you will notice that in all grade spans and all risk levels we had Positive
179Growth this year so that is quite a celebration you will notice that there are some areas where that growth is smaller and then you have some areas for example a kindergarten are low-risk students move from 36 percent at the beginning of the year to 80 at the end of the year and that speaks to that high quality core instruction that our kindergarten students were receiving in math so they hit that 80 percent which is our kind of our Benchmark there here's our disaggregated math data very similar to what we looked at for reading this is also disaggregated by student group same high-risk moderate list moderate risk and low risk for each one of those student groups however this is a larger group of students because the reading was just ranked four through eight and this
180do we need to extend the meeting um Ward uh I want to point out we do have um two other topics um on the agenda as well um they do have additional time to to cover we could uh choose to not do those or we can but we would need to extend appropriately Dr Felder do you have a idea of what it would be for the last two items or well um it all well it depends on the robustness of the discussion so to speak we can we what do you think Denise AIG Middle School staffing needs I mean that's not what we have to get at tonight and that has implications for we just want to put it out there uh and we can come back you have the data for the other ones
181so we can come back so um I guess based on that we could finish this topic and then have those other two items for uh one we already have and the other we could discuss at a later meeting if that is the pleasure of the board for me okay if I could I could like to discuss the other one at a board meeting I know you have the information it doesn't have to be the next one but at some point absolutely would like to um present the data from the the administration of the teacher working condition survey okay absolutely all right so can we get a motion to extend um how much how much more time plus some discussion can be done in three minutes okay so and then we have access data um that
182is limited because it is preliminary I'll motion to extend the meeting by 10 minutes it's very ambitious three minutes and I do believe we would need to also include tabling the other items and table the other item number hi and thank you all so much please continue celebrations and positive Trends um there are several celebrations and positive trends for our aims web Plus data for this school year high quality core instruction and targeted intervention has been successful in lowering risk for students across our district in both reading and math and you see some of those high points there in response to this data from the Boi window so the beginning of the year school-based mtss teams created their student groupings for targeted instruction and monitored health of both the reading and math core at the
183middle of the year a comprehensive data evaluation was conducted with school-based mtss teams in the areas of reading and math as well as attendance and behavior this overall data review provided teams with an opportunity to determine which efforts were yielding positive results and what areas of focus needed to be addressed for the remainder of the year data provided at the end of year window is being used to determine student groupings for intervention and Inter and enrichment for the start of the 23-24 school year continued coaching for specific School needs will continue into the next school year as well as continue to work with our district level instructional coaches and finally our growth areas and next steps moving forward with the help of our literacy Department we're going to continue to focus on instruction and intervention
184in Reading in Middle grades if you remember back that was one of our areas where we had a little less growth and then we actually had a one percentage Point drop in one grade level which is is not extremely significant but we want to take a look at that and see what may be at play there additionally school teams will continue to be supported in their decisions regarding intervention groupings instructional material choices as well as instructional practices that are responsive to student needs across all tiers of instruction at this time Amber Wilson executive director of literacy will share our preliminary access data all right I'm going to share quickly with you a little bit about our preliminary access data so again just so we are all on the same page access is the um language
185proficiency assessment that we give students annually typically we administer this assessment in like the February March time frame students take an assessment and speaking listening reading and writing and they have proficiency scores for each of those access is not an assessment of grade level proficiency the access assessment is looking at the language proficiency skills that a student has to have in order to access instruction in the classroom without modifications and extra supports we also administer an alternate version of access to our students with significant cognitive disabilities that are in our self-contained extended content classrooms and so this year I'll get to that in a moment but we were able to exit one of our students on Alternate access which is the first time we've done that so here we go all right so you can
186see that we've experienced some growth just a little bit in our ELO population here in Orange County Schools last year we tested 824 students in the spring this year we tested 912 and that number continued to climb as we like I said we administered this in February March and we assess any student who enters while that window is open that is eligible to take access but so we have added an extreme number of students into this population um we did have 49 students acquire English proficiency and exit ESL services this year but I do want to remind you that when a student exits ESL Services they don't come off of this caseload of our ESL teachers they remain what's called a monitored El for four more years so when we think about the way that
187we allot positions and teachers and balanced caseloads across our district we count those students who are exited but being monitored as like a half and then we count newcomers as one and a half does that make sense so that you understand how that's kind of weighted in the service and the work that it takes in terms of caseload managers to continue to monitor these students I'm not going to go into the breakdown of how you get the composite scores with that information is there for you but in summary we had 5.4 percent of our ml population exit this year and last year we had 3.3 percent so we are up for this year the next slide is going to show you the elementary schools the students who exited from last year is in the lighter
188blue the darker blue is this year and the number on each bar tells you the number of students that exited in that grade level you will see the trend that we had the most students exit in fourth and fifth grade that is typical it takes three to four years for a student to acquire the skills that they need and to have language proficiency so that is a typical pattern um and not we're not out of the norm in seeing that pattern here here you have the secondary school same data we do not have as many student to exit in secondary schools the majority of our students if they come to us in elementary school should be exiting in elementary school but this is an area that we continue to focus on and work on and
189we are doing some professional development targeted at specific schools but also offering some professional development across the district to support all of our classroom teachers in developing strategies that support language acquisition because what we know is those strategies that we use for our ml students in the classroom are good for all students in the classroom so we are continuing to lean into that and doing more collaboration we even have a book study two of them actually that the literacy coaches and the ELD Specialists are going to do in collaboration this year so that we have people as a team to go back into schools and help lead that work in conjunction with some professional development that Emily Lewis our ESL coordinator is leading across the district the reason that this is still preliminary data for
190you is this is only a partial data set so you are currently only looking at the number of students who exited we do not yet have the individual ml annual goal data so we can't tell you the progress that students are making so if they didn't exit we still have to look that they're improving and they're gaining language acquisition and proficiency at the rate that is appropriate for them and those annual goals are set by the state we will get those in the fall usually it's october-ish when we finally get those reports and that is also part of our school report card formulas as well so at this time we will entertain any questions for myself or Emily for Mariah I know that we only have a couple of minutes but we do appreciate the
191time with you and to share this data and if there's things that we can answer for you here on the floor tonight we're happy to do so and if we can't answer it tonight we can compile the data that you need and we'll get it back to you all right questions Miss Violet well it's awesome to see all of the the progress across these areas so that is great one area I think it's just a dated request so I understand that why Ames web is not like directly linked to eogs standards versus like foundational skills I would love if this is possible to see the correlation between EOG scores and aims web uh risk categories and just just sort of even like those categories of risks and those scores like how many kids fit into
192the different bubbles because I remember from last year that there were many more students who were in The like low risk category than actually past the EOG in math in math especially as the one that I remember and so like even seeing how directly correlated they are is something I'm interested in I can pull that together and based off of people last year's end of year screener data and compare it to last year's EOG data just to give you an idea a sense of General um and I can share that with the board in a weekly update that'd be awesome yeah I think my sort of concern related to that is if we're using aims web to identify which students need tier two tier three supports it's not going to hit all the kids who
193ultimately are not set up to pass the eogs so like how does that all fit together which is probably our topic for student achievement communicating you won't get into it now sure thank you I think so all right Bonnie yeah I have a couple closures first you know I just want to thank you for doing this and so my question and and just so you know just checking up on you guys you have built incredible relationship with the schools and I just it's really you fine so there's no higher professional compliment that so so there's several questions one is um obviously when we see no growth in third grade what are they going to tell us about are you have the eogs the state you know we have we've sent them to there's some idea
194um I also notice and from our perspective remember we don't do we don't do core instruction and um any of that stuff but we do have a resource responsibility and if you look across our schools there are pretty substantial disparities in the grades across our schools and we don't see subgroups but I'm particularly looking at the New Hope data that was in on the agenda substantially lower than the other elementary schools and it's just curious and then when you presented the aggregate it showed the Spanish kids are also the lowest performing subgroup right or is it the economically disadvantaged I remember that wasn't in the package the question so the essence of the question is how can we help and where can we target interventions um and support and and it also could be I
195don't know if you've looked at teacher um absenteeism or teacher turnovers and how is that affecting it and do we have schools that really need help yeah so when we sit down and look at our data there's a lot right and we unpack that data in multiple layers and we then look at it school by school teacher by teacher class the class and we think about those stories too because like you said we're in the schools a lot so we know like for example we know of one school that had no teacher in fifth grade all year we know a third grade classroom that had a sub for like 70 percent of the Year those things impact right and we have to take those things into a consideration for multiple reasons how are we then
196supporting that Lit coach how are we supporting that classroom how are we ensuring what's happening for those kids but then also those kids have that situation in third and fifth grade how do we support those kids as they go into next year right and what supports do we need to put in place with those kids in addition but we do look at the resources across multiple buildings and we look at professional development needs across multiple buildings and engage in really in-depth conversations with principals and Leadership teams at schools and and we're interested I mean I'm interested in other areas where we need to look at smaller class sizes research disparities are classified as across our school s are there things that we should be looking at and we're in budget process and you know but
197we have to allocate our funds but we don't get that feedback from you and these are you know are there ways that we can help by that would help to stabilize and help these kids bottom line thank you for always asking that question that's the only one I know one of the things that um by assessment um test to determine okay what is it that is impacting the data and what will be the the best resource to apply to that one is also we do look at interventions as you saw here with uh Hagerty uh achievement and also uh what we didn't present is the the success of our NCA Corps tutors and working in small groups because they penalized we have that data from correlation we've already correlated that so we built groups in
198Dibbles so we can monitor the kids that are being served by that intervention structure against kids who are not it helps us to know which of those things we should be spending more money on which of those things we should or apply differently but yeah that's right keep going I'm sorry well the only other thing is that as we you know I appreciate the question but also one of the things we want to make sure it's not always additional things that's needed is how we are in the using resources effectively how we are building capacity across the board of all our teachers I'd be able to show we also do leverage our literacy intervention plan that is now required to go to the state every year for submission and which then in turn um directly
199determines when it's approved if we get our prc085 allotment and those funds have strict stipulation to be used to support literacy and K3 so let me just flip you upside down for a second okay all right because because when you talk when you guys talk about this what I hear is I hear the programmatic um changes that we're looking at which that's part of what you have to do you know but our question is the School level changes that are needed and so for example ncn you know this we haven't really been told NCAA is working or should we stopped funding it you know these are you know or is is there a certain intervention that our Spanish students are making this up that our Spanish students need that we need to be looking at
200you know should we expand the newcomer I've been told by teachers we need to expand the newcomer program in Middle School because it's not long enough the kids need you know so what are those kinds of pro resource and programmatic changes that we can make that would for a single reason and that's to help our kids to help the kids especially the kids that are underperforming and I think just to not to take away from you all responding that question but you know the Middle School example there was the request for an additional MLL teacher I think at the middle school level in order you know that that was not that's a resource right that's right the schools are asking for they're saying a weekend a newcomer program doesn't do it they need a month
201or two months two months or three months and you know I'm just making it you know but yeah my broader point was I think some of these additional resource pieces when they see them I think they have shown up in some of the budget requests as well yes and when you look at our lip that was revised last year before submission which is um the service model that we write for how we serve our email students including our newcomers and look at each proficiency level you will see the robust increase in what is required to support their students we've made massive revisions last year and we will maintain those revisions going into this year even though we continue with our increase in population to struggle to meet the the standard that we're setting for ourselves
202but that's what we know is best for kids so we're going to keep our standards High even though we know we're pushing to get there and that like you mentioned that is why you see Staffing requests like additional ml teachers that we added last year in January right so what happens is with this the summarization the aggregation loses undermines the board having visibility to where the challenges are you know and so that's what what would help us to see where the challenge is and they're not always yours right it could be a particular school with a particular student group or whatever to it so I don't know how we can get that they're just kind of sharing that yeah I understand but but you are doing great thank you and I'll take a note of
203your request back to you all right any other additional questions thank you all so much for coming tonight and all your passion for our students all right with that we are at the end of the meeting uh do we have a motion to adjourn so moved now the motion is second all in favor aye record have you finished