001foreign [Music] good evening and welcome everyone I'd like to call the board of Cleveland County Board of Education meeting for Monday November 8th to order and our first order of business is our invocation we have Reverend Francis Weber with Washington Outreach Ministry good evening good evening let us pray dear God we say thank you we thank you God for allowing us to come here tonight God to assemble God we thank you God for allowing us to entrust us with your children of God in making decisions God for them and for the community God God is a privilege to be here tonight God bless each and every one that you have put in charge God over this session tonight and God we say thank you it is a privilege to be able to pray we thank
002you God in Jesus name we pray amen amen thank you and on a personal note I'll say uh Reverend Weber's Ministry is outstanding I got to visit last year she does a remarkable work her and her team if you ever get a chance to go visit I highly recommend it take your checkbook or your work gloves they'll take either so they do a good work so next we have the Pledge of Allegiance Mr Hunt pledge allegiance of the United States and next we have some special recognition and I'll call them Miss Wendy Fitch foreign chairman Queen board members Dr Fisher thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight the exceptional children's Assistance Center is a private non-profit parent organization committed to improving the lives and education of all children through a special emphasis on
003children with disabilities and special Health Care needs the ecac recognizes the power and value of the voice and ideas of young people especially those with disabilities in October 2020 ecac launched a newsletter young exceptional perspectives a quarterly publication produced by and for North Carolina youth with disabilities the young exceptional perspectives North Carolina's Got Talent column was designed to put a spotlight on the many talents and abilities of North Carolina youth and young adults with disabilities submissions included poems artwork blogs videos songs and essays tonight we have three Cleveland County students who are here with us and their talent submissions were featured in the one-year anniversary edition of the young exceptional perspectives if I could have BJ Ross Isaiah Watson and Thomas Hopper to join us up here [Applause] BJ and Isaiah submitted songs and Therese
004submitted his original artwork and animated videos we are so pleased that these young men were able to join us tonight and we want to let them know just how proud We Are of them so please join me in congratulating B.J Isaiah and tareez for their accomplishments thank you [Applause] Dr Scholl you want photos okay if y'all would come down in front of the lectern [Applause] foreign [Applause] thank you okay something new as part of our recognition section we'll have some announcements added from the board from the school system to help get more information to the public and the parents some of these you you may get through emails or notices from your school but we're just creating reiterating those for you tonight the American Legion oratorical contest the post 82 oratorical contest will be held
005on Saturday January 15th at the Boys and Girls Club on Sumter Street and information is available at each high school or with Dr Greg Shaw if you have any questions please contact your school counselor or Dr Shaw and November is Career Development month November 17th is cdcd the career development Proclamation from Governor Cooper's office is attached to the Friday email Cleveland County Schools is extremely proud of our career and Technology programs teachers and staff CTE and career development is a pathway that directs students to post-secondary success in their careers and in life Cleveland County Schools has a rich history of excellence in Career and Technical education as well as career development just recently students from Burns and Chris competed at the national level in their respective areas of interest and I believe Dr Fisher and
006Dr huntel have some certificates thank you Mr Queen members of the board as miss queen said Governor Roy Cooper has joined the nation this month in declaring November as Career Development month and November 17th as Career Development coordinator day Cleveland County Schools and our Career and Technical education department are fortunate to have four outstanding cdc's in our high schools our cdc's work diligently every day to support our CTE students teachers and programs their passion is involved in career guidance and work-based learning opportunities for our students and tonight we recognize and honor our cdc's for their critical role as they play as a part of our CTE team if when I call their name if they'll come up Dr Connell has a certificate for them and we'd like them to come in front and get a
007picture with their board the great work that they do first for Burns High School Nicole Hamrick thank you second from Crest High School penny clontz from Kings Mountain High School Kay Harris and from Shelby High School Ronda branch please join me in congratulating these cdc's for the Wonder Boys we'll ask you guys to help [Applause] just have two more uh report cards were distributed this past week it was a happy week for all our students I'm sure as many people know the student information and grades are kept in the student information system called PowerSchool parents can use the parental portal and PowerSchool to quickly look up their child's grades if you're a parent and have not signed up for access to PowerSchool please contact your schools your child's school for login information and parents will
008have to visit the schools to get that information due to confidentiality concerns and finally the Cleveland County Board of Education and District staff would like to recognize three employees who have passed away since the beginning of the school year please join our school family in Remembering these individuals and their families we have Bruce Bridges who is a teacher Chris middle David Lattimore was a permanent substitute and bus driver at Shelby high school and Sierra porch was a teacher's assistant at Kings Mountain intermediate so we keep those families and our thoughts and prayers and recognizing guests do we have any principles or assistant principles with us tonight I know we've got a few raise your hand and wave maybe they've already lived any North Carolina Association of teachers assistants you have any teachers or ncae Representatives
009any elected officials and parents do you have any parents or grandparents okay I finally got some folks to raise their hand for some okay all right next is adoption of the agenda I do have one change to make before voting item 8.04 which is our Surplus properties that's the grover property and Central School we need to move that to the end at 1401 after closed session so we can consult with our attorney before deciding on that so with that change what's a pleasure I'd like to amend the agenda that we move the Personnel report uh to after the closed session okay if there's no objection to the from the board I'll we can just do that I'll do that as chair forward but okay so we'll put Personnel is 1402. and we'll get to adjourn
010at 15. all right what's the pleasure of the board on the agenda motion by Mr Fitch second by Mr Taylor any further questions or discussion on the agenda all those in favor if you raise your hand and that's non-zero next is public participation and we have 12. I think that's right we have 12 signed up for public participation so that's 36 minutes that exceeds our 15 is there any objection from the board to opening up and allowing all 12. I make a motion we allow them to speak all right is there any objection if there's no objection we'll just okay um I'll remind folks there's three minutes for each speaker there's a timer you'll be able to see that on the screen it turns yellow at 30 seconds left turns red when three minutes is
011up I'll do my best to hold tight to the three minutes because we have so many if you've got prepared notes three minutes is about a Page worth if you've got four or five pages you're just not going to make it so you might want to start working on your notes before your turn to speak but we'll proceed our first speaker is Marge Hooper foreign I'd like to talk to you about the deceitful way the chairman the vice chair and the person sending to your immediate right have behaved in the last two weeks it's unprecedented that a chair and vice chair would work to unseat a board member that has been elected for nine years contrary to what your ex-officio GOP chairman has told everyone he does not run Cleveland County he did not get
012Tim Moore elected he couldn't even get himself reelected to the city council when Violet Duke trounced him several years ago the city council celebrated ask anyone and the city council they did not want him on the city council the people voted for the board member for nine years not the former GOP chairman I dare you I dare you to tell all of Cleveland County tonight that the former GOP chairman is the one running Cleveland County that person is a misogynistic narcissistic pompous a a this is a deceitful scheming plant to unseat someone who has worked for the students the parents and the taxpayers I think this is like there's something wrong here don't you have an Ethics Committee don't you have something that says we can't do this can you really go Rogue and do
013whatever you darn well please and get this man off the board really Conformity is doing what you are told no matter what Integrity which you don't have is doing what is right no matter what you are told [Applause] our next speaker is is Glenda green Miss Green Dr Fisher Mr chairman board members I'm Glenda green I'm here speaking for Glenda green I'm representing Nobu I because I work at Crest High School part-time uh it does affect some of that my first question is how much money did you receive from the federal government or state are combined for covid how much of it have you spent why did you spend it for or do you plan to spend the remainder on before my next question would be um we're short probably every school I don't know
014I can only speak for our work at Crest High School with custodial staff I was thinking in my mind if there's any money available possibly at night on the weekends hiring a cleaning crew to come out and help our faculty and our principals Mr Robson has been washing kabodes and sinks Mr Shields has been doing the same thing hauling food I'm just asking for help if there could be maybe from that for a cleaning service maybe other schools need the same thing I don't know but that may be as a possibility of having a cleaning crew at night on the weekend step out and cleaning the schools and getting things in shape the second thing I would like to mention is excuse me Jada Brown is into um in charge of our lunch I would
015respectfully ask that a couple of um microwaves be opened up at the high schools that the students could want their lunches that they bring from home uh I watched the days I'm over there more food is wasted than it is even uh you can only eat carrots broccoli and cauliflower so long until it gets kind of rough but it would be nice if they could have some microwaves in which to warm up like they bring some home if at all possible I don't there might be a reason she can't I don't know another thing I'd like to mention is and this is strictly I've heard this about word of the grapevine from none of you but word of the Grapevine and when our new auditoriums are built a possibility is that part of the um
016front yard at Crest and maybe Burns it's going to be taken up with parking lot maybe that's the only feasible way to do it I do not know I do know it will ruin the looks of the high schools if parking lots have to be placed in the front yard of either school or both schools we want our auditoriums we want them needed them for 50 years so I'm sure I'm not talking it down I'm just saying could we go to the drawing board if what I've heard might be happening that those parking lots be removed from the front of the building and placed somewhere else if at all possible and I would like you thank you for what you're doing and thank Dr Fisher for what he's doing but that's what it's my interests
017tonight thank you thank you next is Jeannie Barrett [Applause] I'm curious of what kind of grade each of you on the school board and leaders of the school system would give yourselves I'm sure it would not be the same grade we the taxpayers would give you you tend to be a narcissistic group of do as I say not as I do leaders how are we the public suppose trust leaders who are sabotaging each other secretly having meetings and going behind each other's backs to overthrow one another I do believe it was the voters who elected you to the board it will be the voters who will vote you off of this board if there is going to be any overthrown it will be by the public in the past 10 years the leadership of this
018school system has been disgraceful everything starts at the top bad or good for a decade this system has been decaying the good old boys mentality of different rules for different fools at at different schools is wearing thin your self-righteous blatant behavior of punished the innocent and praise the guilty has not gone unnoticed you are not listening to the students employees or taxpayers open your ears you are in your own little world doing what makes you look good and especially what looks good on paper you consider it public perception we consider it BS the citizens of Cleveland County have been watching a circus run by a behind the curtain ring Master enough it is time to clean up the mess perhaps the reason bullying runs so rapidly throughout the schools is because you so-called leaders are
019at the top of the food chain of bullies it is the trickle-down effect from the board to the county office leaders to school administrators to faculty and staff and finally students you are the one setting the bad examples by the way your final grade is an F for failure it is time for all of you to go back to start or turn in your resignations you have wasted enough of our time and tax dollars foreign sellers I don't know if I can compete with that I'm just going to wing it I'm waiting on my three minutes to pop up there we go all right um I think it's pretty terrible that y'all would have a meeting behind closed doors about one of your fellow colleagues honestly that's that's terrible y'all have lost the ones that
020I did vote for this past year you lost my pretty much my respect when y'all keep going on with the Mass mandate I know there's religious exemption I know that there is a medical exemption as well but there was a five to five to three six to four vote now there's only one person up here and this is the one that's held his ground the entire time and y'all were trying to overthrow him he's the only one that wants a person's choice I think that's ridiculous I think it's hilarious that half of y'all put them on mask when the camera comes on and then you take it off as soon as you walk out that door I was going to bring my my yard sign that I had for y'all but I mean after hearing
021what y'all have done to him I mean you lost my respect for the votes for the People's Choice now you lost my vote Dina Spangler when did school stop being educational institutions and become a medical one last week I heard that our schools could start giving vaccinations without parental consent so anything that I hear like normal I do my own research because I don't take it at face value I want to know what's going on the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services website under covid-19 vaccine update which was updated last Tuesday November the 3rd it I was deeply Disturbed with what I read on page three there's a section titled can people under the age of 18 get a covid-19 vaccine without parental consent here's what it says once a vaccine is fully
022approved by the FDA written consent is no longer required North Carolina law also gives people under the age of 18 the ability to make certain Health decisions including the choice to get a covid-19 vaccine if they show the decisional capacity to do so decisional capacity is a person's ability to understand their health and Health Care needs and options basically what they're saying is if you guys will allow a vaccine clinic to be held at the schools like I know one was done at Crest High School I called talked to the school nurse this morning before if my 14 year old son decides he wants to get a Copa 19 vaccine he can do that without my my permission that's wrong he can't even remember to brush his teeth in the morning and at night before
023bedtime I'm his mother it is my responsibility to make his health care choices until he becomes of age who decides at the school what his decisional capability is he's smart don't get me wrong but he will also follow the crowd and do what his buddies do even if that puts his health in jeopardy I'm not okay with that you guys should not be okay with that these parents should not be okay with that just because other schools decide to do that in other districts and other counties does not mean that Cleveland County Schools should follow suit we need to be bold we need to be brave we need to be Unapologetic when it comes to standing up for our children and putting our children's health at risk is unacceptable it's unacceptable to me it's unacceptable
024to my family to my friends and it should be unacceptable to you guys you guys took an oath to do what's best for our children the question is simple is this in the best educational educational sense for our children if that answer is yes go for it if the answer is no it's a simple it's a simple no you don't do it we are not a Medical Institution you guys don't allow the schools to be a Medical Institution please do what you were elected to do stand up for our kids we can stand out here and we can fuss all day long but until you nine unite and put political agendas aside and say this is what is best for our kids in Cleveland County we're done for we're done four and I'm disappointed I
025expect you guys to look out for my child and everybody else amen our next speaker is Nan leonhart [Music] thank you sure [Applause] I'm gonna speak up and speak loud and Mr Queen if you would chairman um please put your microphone down so that the rest of us can hear there's a lot of people here so as I handed you the pictures they were censored and if you'll read the second page that's the names of the books that I've been told are in Cleveland County Schools our lieutenant governor his speech is on the third page I'm going to read a few words this is from our Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson out of the wral.com newspaper and TV station teaching about those issues in public schools however is absolutely off limits we're talking about filth books
026in our schools those are adult topics that should stay in an adult place they have no business around children he said homosexuality is not a culture homosexuality is a sexual preference and sexual preferences I believe do not need to be discussed in our schools those are adult topics that should stay in an adult place they have no business around our children homosexuality is not a culture homosexuality is a sexual preference and sexual preferences I believe do not need to be discussed in our schools so in front of me I have Cleveland County Schools policy code 3205 third paragraph down its states if a parent has concerns about instructional materials used in their child's classroom or school they are directed to policy 3210 which is Parental inspection of an objection to instructional materials which outlines the
027process for parents to review and object to instructional materials and I noticed that uh I've been coming to these board meetings 10 out of 11. that that policy was changed July 16 2021 when I've been speaking about CRT in our schools and I wanted to say Veterans Day is coming up this Thursday November the 11th I salute all veterans their families and I just want you know to make that public that you know I'm thankful for their service and God bless you guys thank you [Applause] next is starlina Smith I've been a parent of Cleveland County Schools for 16 years two graduates and I also have two elementary students in school I've also been a employee of Cleveland County school for the past nine years I've always been very proud of Cleveland County school on
028October 19th I received a positive Cova test my elementary schools were out of school for eight in-person learning days um one of those days was a remote day not counted in that eight on that remote day it got me thinking after a week of being positive with covid my kids didn't even have their Chromebooks at home with them to do a remote day um in order to bring them home every day four days of my quarantine that I tested positive I couldn't go receive their work had they had their Chromebooks on those days they could have done some in-person learning or some online learning some reading phonics and their math stuff on on their computer I understand that elementary schools don't learn as well as they do um in person obviously but they have to
029do better than eight days with no learning at all no nothing but paperwork to figure out how to do on their own no way to look it up my students in in their self we don't have laptops at home I've asked the board this I sent an email out there's this great button that emails everybody on the board out of that email and those questions I got I got a response from Mr Fisher and Danny Blanton I asked these questions I asked if our children are not doing remote learning with their Chromebook books what was y'all's intent and understanding on our remote days um and why are elementary schools being left out why are they not bringing those Chromebooks home for days that they get stuck at home with someone that's tested positive they missed
03010 days my kids also missed three more days after being back for two because my daughter also tested positive why are our elementary students getting left behind on this I knew our high school were in our Middle School they bring their Chromebooks home they learn well on them but our elementary school students cannot miss eight days of learning without some type of way to have access to learn whether it is something on there or not and if y'all could please answer my email answer the questions that I've gotten those answers from the other two people um I was very nervous because I am an employee here to come and speak to y'all I shouldn't have to worry about speaking up as a parent and an employee and I hope that it doesn't affect my job
031in any way I just I just want our children to learn I've been very proud of Cleveland County school and I want to continue to be please take that in consideration thank you [Applause] Annette feign whether y'all chose to choose to look at these or not did a lot of praying on the way here [Applause] well I'm here again you know three minutes is Never Enough For Me I agree with this young lady back here I'm very disappointed in our school board I have three major things to hit on tonight I've voted for the Republicans I'm very ashamed of my Republican party that you would stab Mr Blanton in the back the way you have at your private meetings you probably should look around and see who your friends really are before you start talking
032about putting him out I am here to tell you I'm one parent but there are thousands of parents out there that feel just like me we're like Buncombe County we're taking our school board back we're taking our schools back and we're taking our kids back y'all work for us we don't work for you Mr Blanton has done more in the last year Dr Fisher didn't even know the program I brought up last year Rodney knew Danny Blanton knew the rest of y'all sit here like you were just bumps on a log because you didn't understand what the summer program all kids all around somebody lost their job because somebody got to them that was giving me information there are teachers I have information the pocket there is broken School benches at some of the elementary
033schools teachers can't speak out because they're afraid of losing their jobs you're a downright disgrace a disgrace I'm ashamed to be affiliated with the Republican party they say money talks in Cleveland County baby we're bringing out the old money because this is it these terms there's two people on this board that will be re-elected and I can promise you that there's another thing that is close to my heart I'm the mother of a gay son a gay son that grew up here in Cleveland County and had to hide what he was we got a boy a boy at Burns High School that went into the boy's bathroom wearing heels not the girls the boys and was videoed and it was shared all over his school Dr Fisher as our superintendent you sir seek these individuals
034out at Burns that this parent went to you get rid of them or we're going to get rid of you it's plain and simple that's your job you work for us gay straight I don't care black white green yellow orange honey I got a multi-colored family okay so I speak for all of us and it it's not going to be any more this good old boy Mr Queen I voted for you but I would like to ask you to stick to your resignation resign tonight we don't need you or want you anymore I will go to the news media with the rest of it Ronnie Grigg well I've got a couple of things here uh one is the North Carolina Republican party organizational plan that I'm going to read from it just a few minutes
035um any registered Republican attempted attempting to influence or influencing the outcome in an election against the Republican candidate or a republican endorsed by the Republican executive committee or legislative caucus other than by supporting and opposing Republican candidate and a Republican primary may be declared ineligible to hold office under the state of organization at the state district and Precinct level for party disloyalty now there's more to this but I'm not going to read that I was going to um I'll have that available for anybody else that wants to see it but a few weeks ago Mr Bailey Dennis Bailey Mr Queen Mr Humphries the chairman Mr Allen Vice chairman Mr wisnet went to a gathering where they had three candidates for the Republican party for school board that they met with and they asked them to
036help them get Danny Blanton voted off the board now some of these people were in the room they were at that meeting [Music] so y'all are at the meeting you know what took place so I spoke to Mr Bailey the next day and he told me that he runs this board that he's in charge of y'all that he got you put back on the Cleveland County College Board and I have your letter of resignation from there and I also have a letter where you knew you wasn't getting the votes to go back on the board but on your letter you asked you you resigned saying that you didn't have time to be on both boards then and part of the letter it says that you want to be removed from um consideration for being reapported
037re-appointed to the Board of Trustees but in the other letter you said you knew you didn't have the boats you also said it was too much on you to be on both boards but then within hours after that meeting on the 15th with the County Commissioners your friends Dennis Bailey and Wes Westmoreland with the college was on the phone to Ted Alexander had Ted take the woman off that he was going to appoint and put you back on there but yet you said you couldn't couldn't handle two boards but there you are right back on there now I'm gonna tell you right quick I think this whole thing about three minutes have expired it's a disgrace you guys are just crazy I will take the rest of this to the media I will take the
038rest of this to the media [Applause] Miss Carolyn Behringer still here we go good afternoon good afternoon Dr Fisher and chairman of the board Mr Queen and Mr members I'm here to talk about Washington Outreach Ministry which is a ministry that's dear to my heart and feeding the home I'll pull the mic a little closer please thank you oh sorry I'm here to talk about Washington Outreach Ministry and our event that we're going to be having and we're going to be having this event on December the 4th 2021 and this event is taking place at 2007 caperna Road we're doing this event and we're raising twenty thousand dollars and we're doing this so that we can help uh keep our facility going and this is for the overhead of our establishment we also are doing
039this to help feed the hungry and to help Cleveland County Schools uh teachers anybody that's living in Cleveland County this is what we're doing this for so we I have an invitation and I'm going to leave it here and you all can read it at your own convenience but please please come out and help us on December the 4th with our virtual Outreach Ministry parade of text thank you thank you [Applause] it's Michael I think the last name is Smith I'm having a hard time yes Michael Smith I'd like to first thank the board for allowing me to address you this evening I'm here to address you concerning the sale of King Central School in Kings Mountain uh my name is Michael S Smith I'm a retired public school teacher spent my entire career in
040Kings Mountain teaching school except for two years in Gaston County two years in the military I came back to Kings Mountain I own property two pieces of property in the historic district of Kings Mountain right across from the central school property I've served on the historic landmarks commission I've served on the uh historic the the school of the I've been very active I've been perfectly honest I'm I'm telling some of my friends I'm I'm standing in line waiting for my ticket and or waiting for the trumpet to sound but when I found out that central school was going to be sold I didn't find out about it until last week in the paper I don't think this the city the school system has given the citizens of Kings Mountain uh any respect enough input into
041what happens to that property and I would like you to reconsider pull back and respectfully give us some time in Kings Mountain to address that property and what we wanted to see the citizens of Kings Mountain want to see I may be perfectly honest I probably should just fold my hands and just let things go but I think you owe it to the people of Kings Mountain to get to get some input before you make a decision I don't know what the hurry is you said on uh your website it's going to take 12 months to get out of the building and why why are we in such a big hurry to wash our hands of a building it's on the historic landmarks National historic landmarks commission the heart of the historic district I I
042I hope you'll certainly reconsider do something to give us a chance to have some input God bless you thank you [Applause] last is I think it's dusty horde my room just give you update my kids still haven't worn a mask at school they've been called to room 101. oh you've been uh you need to go quarantine you've been around somebody tested positive now you're going to school you ain't staying at home and they continue to go to school and this China virus they haven't called it yet so I mean quit being a puppet and do what you're supposed to do thank you [Applause] just to clarify a couple of items um and Dr Fisher and Miss think you can correct me if I miss on any of this as far as it is correct we
043are not medical professionals or a medical institution and those laws are created by the general assembly not the school board um as far as vaccines this board is not mandated any vaccines and according to the law once a child turns 16 they have a right to get the vaccine on their own however and hear that however if any child asks for that we do call their parents and check that out before we we allow them to go through the clinic so just to straighten that up um some things were said about uh library books and curriculum I would bring your attention to our policies 3210 and 3210e that if you have any concern about anything that may or may not be in the library you can use those policies contact the school principal and start
044there if you don't get what you need you can contact Dr Brian honnell or Dr Fisher at our central office and regarding the sale of Kings Mountain Central School uh Kings Mountain City officials were given a chance to tour the building back in April I think it was April or March but I do expect further discussion on that tonight especially during our closed session and we'll be making a decision one way or the other afterwards so next item on the agenda is approval of the minutes of the October 11th business includes session there was a minor correction that went out on email this afternoon uh what's the pleasure of the board motion by Mr Fitch second by Mr Hunt any questions on the minutes for October 11th all those in favor if you raise your
045hand that carries nine zero next is approval of minutes and general account of the closed session there was a minor correction to that one that was sent out by email what's the pleasure of the board motion by Mr Glover second by Mr Hunt any further questions all those in favor if you raise your hand that carries non-zero now we're on to committee reports finance and Personnel that's Mr Shores yes Mr chairman Finance Personnel committee met on Friday October 29th at 10 30. Mr Fisher presented the proposed new classified salary tables including the proposed salary tables is a dollar 25 in our race for all classified employees Provost scale includes experienced bands employees of Advance on the scale based on experience within the district after discussion the community supported the proposal and made the Fallen recommendation
046for to for consideration for tonight's meeting to implement the attached salary skill providing classified employees a minimum of 1.25 an hour raise and give it a year to experience step is outlined in scaled if approved the proposal would go into place with the payroll period beginning Saturday November 6th and will be paid beginning with the December paycheck Dr commissioner provided an update on the state budget there's still nothing tangible in regards to the budget but information come from only indicates there are sides are relatively close to a compromise if the budget passes The District Police salary updates will be included and district will need to readjust salary tables Dr Fisher updated the committee on federal mandate concerning vaccines for Harris Head Start employees a survey was sent to Head Start employees Mr Wampler updated the
047committee on current vaccines the district is seeing some significant Staffing challenges especially in the areas of preschool and classified staff the proposed salary increases will hopefully help with some of the classified vacancies Mr Wampler and Dr Fisher stated the additional adjustments were being made to the lead custodian salary scale and coaching supplements the lead custodian tables will go into effect with the new classified tables and the coaching supplements will be applied to this school Year's coaching positions Dr Fisher shared the new District organizational chart and stated the interaction chart will be added to the district website but the new business meeting was adjourned the next meeting will be November 19th at 10 30 A.M thank you Mr Shores there's two action items out of this of course we postpone the Personnel report till the end
048so the first action item is the classified salaries classified salary scale and the hourly rate increase that has come from committee as a recommendation any questions or discussion Mr buyer are they going to come up with the is this better or will we be changing that dollar and a quarter if the state comes up with that 13 and uh because we was going to add to the 13 and then so on and so on if somebody is already making 15 it would they would get that adjustment there and so I can answer that question that the salarys could change based on what the state we are given a dollar 25 regardless it could go up if the state comes so they're going to get the dollar 25 plus to go up is that what you're
049no Dr Fisher would you like to elaborate on that foreign so the proposal that you had before you denied is to raise the uh salary scales for classified employees up for a dollar and a quarter per hour so that gets all employees over 13 an hour so if the state budget was to come and say well all employees are at 13 an hour then we've already done that now we don't know what the state budget is the state budget says um if it's 13 an hour or a percent the greater of well we've already given the dollar 25 so we would then add the percent to that and so we would adjust again so to answer your question there is a good chance that we could have to redo these salary tables again but we're
050at the point where we've waited on a state budget uh and we just don't feel like we can wait longer any longer we need to go ahead and implement the new salary schedules if the state comes back with something different and we have to do it again then we'll readjust this Escape of the tables again and they'll get an additional amount but the dollar 25 is the minimum raise that they would get okay all right my next question is when when we switch these people to the hourly pay uh a year or two ago I we I've had many calls stating that they making less money than what they was beforehand so and we were going to K they would catch that back up in the next uh month or two that would get caught
051back up or they would see it at the end of that year well I'm hearing that it did not happen uh that they didn't get caught back up they did not catch it back up and I'm hearing this from teachers not just uh the classified teachers I know the teachers that didn't affect the teachers but the teachers knows about what some object was you know I would say if a classified employee has that we'll be glad to look at their situation run that but that should not have happened assuming that they actually worked the same number of hours if they didn't work same number of hours there could be could be some differences there you know each individual situation but but that's not you know they're they're getting paid that hour they're they're working that
052they'll get paid that matter of fact you know they may be seeing more money because now because of some of the employment issues we're paying out some of the overtime especially driving the bus so they may actually actually seen more of that okay if individuals have questions we'll be glad to help well I do know that a lot of people they've been people that's asked questions and uh and they really didn't get a satisfactory answer and uh and I guess this uh well uh I guess that's other neat my other question needs to go wait till the Personnel comes out uh on a sheet that we've got uh that sent out to us okay any other questions on the salary schedule I think Mr Twain one thing I would like to add to make sure
053it's a no because I do think it's a point of emphasis that that I need to make sure that working with the board the Personnel finance committee and and getting feedback from the board we have banded that that salary schedule and now for the first time ever those classified employees will move up on experience regardless of what the state does so you know that I'm I'm working and I'm in zero to four and then when I move to year five I'm gonna get that raise and in the past you've not moved up on the salary schedule or the experience schedule unless the state get a raise so you know we're going to move those employees up along that which is a really a benefit for our classified employees foreign any other questions on the salary
054schedule does uh does that include like some of our Tas and stuff they drive the bus in other words uh they don't is that that Donald rage that they got here a while back that took care of that situation is that correct this is a dollar 25 on for everybody with the current so the the dollar raise that the bus drivers got you know several months ago that reestablished their skill and then we've gone a dollar and a quarter over that so you've got the bus driver's gonna get another dollar and a quarter is that correct all classified folks and you've got the copy of the the salary schedules all people that are on that classified scale will get that dollar and a quarter hour okay race [Applause] one more time all right any any
055further questions all right all those in favor of the classified sellers salary scale as presented if you'd raise your hand and that carries nine zeros the Personnel is postponed to the end educational programs Mr Hunt I believe you're going to share that for us or not foreign committee met on Friday October the 29th at 10 30. Paula peeler director of office of School Readiness uh presented the minutes and budget information from August and September Head Start policy council meeting the minutes included enrollment information Head Start is close to full enrollment it starts still needs to hire four teaching assistants and three teachers the committee recommended board approval of the Head Start budget at tonight's board meeting ginago mtess coordinator provided an overview of the NC Star online platform each school has two documents and there
056are NC Star folder system the first document is a PDF of each school's NC Star plan including the Mission Vision goals and action steps Mrs gold explained the layout of each school's plan each plan includes key indicators and initial assessment what it would look like when the indicator is fully implemented and the action steps that will be taken to meet full implementation the second document has school Improvement team members the leadership team members the parent advisory council members and parent Representatives School Improvement plan vote date and count is also included and required by law school Improvement plans are included on tonight's board agenda Mr Humphrey spoke about the district's social media curriculum committee looked at the log off character Ed curriculum but it's still in development in development Common Sense Media in addition to school
057selected resources is what we are currently using in our schools this has also being discussed in the Safety Committee and the letter will be sent out for the district to make parents aware of the concerns regarding social media Cleveland County Schools is looking at hosting a parent University session regarding uh social media the meeting was adjourned and the next meeting date is scheduled for November the 19th at 10 30. thank you Mr Hunt there are two action items out of the educational programs committee first is the Head Start report that is coming from committee recommendation for approval those are the August and September reports are there any questions or discussion on the school Improvement uh hold on we're we're on okay Head Start reports first all right anything on the Head Start reports all right
058those in favor of the Head Start reports as presented you'd raise your hand carries 9-0 all right on the school Improvement plan Mr blank yes uh I've had a few calls that uh that we're not getting the word out to the parents uh or in other words by my understanding it goes by the size of a school uh correct me if I'm wrong it goes on the size of the school and that is percentage there's supposed to be a percentage of uh parents to be on that team and uh and they're supposed to be the outside of that school so uh maybe the parents from that school but like teachers is from the outside and everything and I'm wondering are we reaching out to these parents to get them on these teams and and then
059they're just not getting involved or what are we doing to try to get these parents involved and uh to be a part of these teams uh if we're wanting the parents involvement then I think we need to we need to be a reaching out to them to get it and I I by my understanding is so it's so much uh uh they go into a percentage of blacks whites or whatever you're supposed to have a percentage of uh of the be represented by parents on those Improvement teams I hope I said that uh well enough to where you understand yes uh Dr Fisher put you on the spot again would you like to explain that process here Dr Hunter not both of you at one time Mr Blanton uh I'm not aware of any concerns
060and I'm not sure from our instructional team if we've had any concerns from from uh parents or schools this is a process long a long-standing process that we've had uh if you look at those plans look at that information there are parent Representatives the the I believe the law doesn't give us a specific percentage it does say that it should reflect the student population um and and you know obviously a student population that's larger than than a small school would have more parent Representatives or could have more parent Representatives on there but there's not a certain it's not does it say five percent or ten percent well I'm not I'm not aware of any uh concerns or nothing's been expressed to us about parental engagement involvement there I do think our schools through our Title
0611 departments I spent a lot of time on Parental involvement parental engagement um you know whether it's through parent-teacher conferences or Title One events all those type of things I would encourage anyone that wants to be a part of the school improvement process our school of the team if they'll reach out to their school administrator if they'll Reach Out directly to Dr Honnold we'll make sure we get them connected and with the right people on that school Improvement team as a part of the planning process we do want parental engagement we want parental involvement that's an important part of what we're doing parents are huge stakeholders in in this process for for the education of the students and children of Cleveland County so if someone has those concerns definitely reach out to the school principal
062or Dr Holland we'll make sure we Loop them in on school Improvement team meetings if if parents or community members want to go to the school websites those School Improvement team meetings are publicized on that website I have those options to do that any other questions on the school Improvement plans all right those in favor of the school Improvement plans is presented if you raise your hand and that carries 9-0 next we have operations the operations committee met on Friday October 29th Hamilton Court with McMillan padsden and Smith was at the meeting to provide an update on the district's facility assessment MPS provided a sample of school and District information that was coming from their assessments the Assessments in Shelby and King's Mountain zones have been completed MPS also updated the committee on the demographer's
063work and we expect them to be on the agenda again at our November committee meeting and we expect some recommendations from that soon Miss Wampler Mr Childers provided the October Capitol projects report and we discussed the increasing cost of materials and maintenance and transportation not only is the district seeing some significant increases in cost of material we're having a difficult time getting some parts and materials and Child Nutrition is also experiencing challenges and getting some of the normal products Miss Brown provided the Child Nutrition update and we discussed the nutrition and finance team excuse me the nutrition Finance teams has worked on a plan for the Esser money some of those Esther funds are restricted to bonuses for Child Nutrition employees and it does it can only be spent on bonuses and only for Child
064Nutrition employees so we discussed that and the committee supported Miss Brown's recommendation for those bonuses uh also had some Surplus items from Child Nutrition that we'll be voting on shortly Mr Wiese provided a technology update and noted that technology deliveries were also delayed Mr wies commented on the technology and the staff development area and the plans to upgrade that technology Mr police informed the committee that Kings Mountain intermediate field lighting by the city of Kings Mountain was complete and the project looks good and is already in use as you'll recall we exchanged that for the property just to this just to the north of Kings Mountain intermediate the city of Kings Mountain put those lights in in exchange for that as a matter of new business Miss wamper informed the committee that there would be
065a cmta kickoff meeting on Friday November 5th and that's with our heating and air programs for the high schools no other business a meeting was adjourned next operations committee is meeting is scheduled for November 19th at 9 00 A.M and we have a couple of items for Action first is the Child Nutrition Surplus items committee is recommending approval any questions or discussion all in favor of listing those items at Surplus you could raise your hand carries 9-0 there's some CTE Surplus items in your packet we did not have those in time to discuss for committee so I will need a motion and second from the board should you wish to approve second motion about Mr Hunt second by Mr Glover any question on those items all right those in favor of the CTE Surplus items
066you could raise your hand and that carries 9-0 and surplus properties are moved to the end next is our policy committee and Mr Shores I think you're handling that one too yes policy committee made on October 19th at noon it's Dr Fisher again the meeting with a discussion on policy 7230 from the old manual the policy is not required and is not needed in a new manual the new manual already excuse me already contains a policy that covers parent organizations and booster clubs the committee recommended moving forward with retiring the policy Dr Fisher I like that this was the last remaining untouched policy in the whole manual there are several pending board actions but after November the transition to the new manual should be complete at that time the new manual will be moved to
067board Docs Dr Fisher and Miss sink review proposed changes to policy 4150 the changes focused on removing board action on initial transfer decisions transferences will be handled through superintendent's office and your board will receive a monthly notification for their information any appeals to administrative decisions will come to the board the committee feels that this is a cleaner and more effective way of handling transfer requests this process will be used for all transfers regarding regardless of whether it's an initial transfer mid-year transfer or reassignment Dr Fisher and Miss sink will clean up some of the language and the modifications to the policy it's on the notch agenda for first read as part of the new business the committee to discuss the District academic freedom and parental inspection 3205 of any objection to instrument instructional materials policy
0683210 both of these policies are in the new manual policy 3210 has specific guidelines related to instructional materials the committee reiterated the need for the use of grade and age-appropriate instructional materials in all classes directly supported high quality instruction for students materials used should be support student learning and be tied to uh curricular objectives no other new business the next policy committee meeting will be November 16th at 12 noon thank you Mr Shores you have one policy for first read and that is 41.50 again that's on our website under board docs you'll be able to find the changes in red should anyone from the public like to see that then we have several policies for approval and bear with me while I read these into the uh into the minutes so these policies are recommended
069for approval 17 10 40 20 72 30. it's just discrimination and harassment prohibited by federal law 3120r is video usage in classrooms 3210e requests for reconsideration of instructional material 3226 and 4205e is Parental request to deny access to the internet 3230 73 30. it's copyright compliance 3460 is graduation requirements 40 40 7310 staff and student relations 4125 is homeless students 4240 4312 is child abuse 4335 is Criminal criminal Behavior 4700r is maintenance review and release of Student Records 6320 is use of student transportation services 7720 is employee political activities and 8341 is limited clean settlement others come from committee as a recommendation for approval are there any questions or discussion on any of those policies all right all those in favor for those policies as present if you raise your hand and that carries 9-0
070Safety Committee Mr Fitch thank you Mr chairman Safety Committee met on October the 27th at 12 o'clock David class updated the community on the traffic concerns at Crest Middle Mr Pless presented a handful of potential options but every situation presented other challenges including calls one of the problems is the intersection of Crest Road and Beaver Dam Church Road at the request of the committee Mr place will reach out to the Department of Transportation about that intersection Mr borders provided an overview of the school resource officer meeting the past week and highlighted the excellent work being provided by our school resource officers Greg Scholl and Sandy Hamrick were a part of the school resource officer meeting and echoed Mr Border's comments Greg show reported information on the school safety plan updates and the ongoing status of
071the code red drills that are required each year as of the meeting about one half of the schools had already completed their drills and the others were scheduled for the upcoming weeks Sandy Hamrick spoke about the ongoing mental health concerns president in our schools and Community the committee discussed the serious nature of the mental health and noted the need for structure and support to be placed for students staff and community members Dr Fisher reminded the committee about the yearly reporting of suspensions and Dropout data the information is found on the DC DPI website the 2020-2021 data for schools collected by the D.C the NC DPI should be available in January or February of 2022. as a matter of new business Lieutenant Daniel Howell expressed concerns over students sending and receiving inappropriate messages and pictures via
072social media and internet the committee discussed several strategies to bring additional awareness to students and parents of the dangers and possibly criminal consequences of such actions Sandy Hamrick will work with the school counselors and social workers to involve resource officers in sessions in increasing awareness in education additional strategies including parent University Community Information sessions and additional parental communication was discussed in addition it can be discussed security for outside events such as football games in the county Lieutenant Howell will work on this with Mr Pless on the planning uh I asked for an update about the cameras and interests for the elementary schools and our bullying prevention task force Dr Fisher reported that the camera work is ongoing however there has been delays in getting Equipment Technology equipment has been severely impacted by the supply chain
073issues Mr borders reported that the bully prevention task force is scheduled to meet in November with no other business the meeting was adjourned the next safety committee meeting is scheduled for November 17th at 12 o'clock thank you Mr Fitch and there are no action items out of the Safety Committee next we have administrative update and that's the coveted update Dr Fisher thank you Mr chair members of the board do have a a brief covet update I think I said that one night and it was 63 minutes promise you won't be 63 minutes tonight uh to go through our coven numbers um so a couple things that you're accustomed to seeing you've got this data in front of you as well uh here is an active covid case count uh this if you remember from previous
074conversations this data is pulled on Monday and Friday there may be a few days where it's pulled on a Tuesday instead of a Monday but we've definitely pulled that on board meeting Monday so you've got the most accurate active case count this is not a cumulative number it's not a number that you can go through and add up and say well all those act positives you had you know a sum of that column those are Active cases on that day so if an active positive you may show up on two of those dates because it's still going ongoing as an active case so as of Friday November 5th we had 28 active positive cases and 77 active contacts I did delay a uh just an updated sheet at your spot with numbers from today from
075the health department and this information is generated through our School nurses and and Health Department Partners as of at the end of the day today we had 21 active positives and 84 active contacts so you can see where that data is continue to look and this is the same data that you've seen in in a chart form in a graph form you can see as we started school uh we we had a spike there in September um and looking at middle September starting as we end in September we started to see that data continue to go down and this graph just like the chart that you saw has the data as of the end of the week last week on November 5th it does not include the data from today so that is the Active
076cases of positives in this you see a very similar looking graph active contacts and and so um with that I can't emphasize enough of the great jobs being done in our schools from our school administrators our teachers our assistants our custodians bus drivers everybody in our schools is doing just a phenomenal job to help control and limit the number of coveted pauses and to spread as you can see not just the positives haven't gone down but those contacts have gone down and that is large part of the work that's being done in our schools our you know School staffs have just done a phenomenal job of of working through that educating our parents and community and so it has been a tremendous team effort to continue to drive those numbers in a positive direction I'll
077continue to emphasize school-based practices including cleaning of high touch areas not traffic areas just as a reminder that all passengers and drivers of school transportation must wear a face covering mask at all times that comes from the at the federal level from the CDC we continue to need good parental partners and parental assistance please don't send students to school if they are symptomatic or rating test results I think that that message is communicating I really just appreciate our parents they have been wonderful through this process in terms of making sure it communicate with the school and and not doing that and making sure uh that we try to keep each other as safe as possible continue to have information posted on our website including parent information forms and flowchart uh for quarantines I think it
078was our board meeting in September that we introduced that which started the school year there seem to be lots of confusions about what we're quarantines what not we're not quarantines and a lot of misinformation and so by working with the health department they put those charts out and I thought that was a a very positive thing so one of the things as we you know our numbers continue to drive into a positive direction we've had feedback on some areas that we can continue to make our schools better and provide better opportunities for our students and so beginning this week and into November over our schools are beginning to utilize cafeteria spaces for breakfast and lunch some of our schools are using the cafeteria spaces in a really limited capacity but that capacity will will start
079to Quicken we're not going to and I'm we'll be meeting with principals tomorrow and one of the things I'm going to tell principals is don't just start using the cafeteria open on full bore on Wednesday you know it's a process we need to get in there but we need to begin to utilize our cafeteria spaces for breakfast and lunch more I think that'll be a welcome thing for our our staff members but I also know our students need that interaction things that we'll consider seating charts when applicable the capacity of the cafeteria and appropriate Staffing and so we'll work with those with our principals to make sure that will be a an integrated process again we're just not going to you know on Wednesday ring the bell and everybody go to the cafeteria there'll be
080a process through that and we'll work with our schools instructional activities such as field trips will begin to be considered based on safety protocols and educational value we've really tried to limit those sayings and as our numbers have gone down numbers have gone down in our community we understand that's a valuable part of the instructional program and so we really want to look at those at the safety protocols things that we can put in place and also the educational value that lends itself to there's there's again again lots of things from from an intellectual development but also social emotional development that we need for our students as always Cleveland County Schools will continue to monitor the covert impact of activities and make appropriate adjustments as necessary if we if we introduce some of these strategies
081and and the numbers and Trend goes in the negative direction we can always pull back if we begin to use our cafeterias more and we start to see some negative impacts we can always pull that back a little bit as we need it but I believe it's time to to do that in many of our areas we do get questions about booster shot availability from an employee and a staffing perspective and we are working with the health department to have a Cleveland County Schools day for booster shot availability but if folks have questions about that obviously there's lots of of places they can go get a booster shot that is their choice but we will work with the health department to have a day where employees can do that again just some information and you've
082seen this information before about covid contacts quarantining mask wearing that information is not new so be glad to try to answer any questions that you may have in terms of our covid practices our numbers and things that we're doing in our schools any questions for Dr Fisher Mr Blanton I got one question or two or I don't know might have three uh I get in trouble when I go to asking questions about what I've Been Told but uh we went on a school visit today and uh I just don't feel I didn't feel I love the school visit and I've seen a lot of exciting things and a lot of things going on but if our parents and our grandparents cannot go I don't feel like we should be going to those schools as a
083group and I want to make a motion that we don't go until we open the doors back up to the parents and the grandparents for us as a group I'd like to make a motion on that to uh bring that before the board that we did not do that until we opened the doors back up to the parents and grandparents because it's not right for us keeping them locked out and then we're going in as groups don't get me wrong I love to go because I enjoy seeing but I'm just I'm looking at but before I entertain a second I'll let Dr Fisher speak to what our policy is as far as visitors right now and and I um I think personally my opinion is that the school board visits today were good I think
084it's great that we began to to work in that process I think it's good for board members to get into schools and see what's going on I think for the for the most part you are able to uh social distance from students we weren't sitting that close I think we do have students and uh do have parents in our buildings we have parents that come to IEP meetings we have parents that come to 504 meetings we have parents that come to parent conferences with with teachers or employees parent-teacher conference back in October we did primarily do that from a remote uh uh day but that was again several weeks ago in October we did have options for parents to come in and do that I think the big the big area in terms of that
085we're not haven't opened yet is really launch for parents to come in and have lunch with their child and because primarily up to this point we've been having lunch in the in the classroom and that's been very diff that's very difficult to manage I do think it is very different from from uh people going in towards immediate or a school visit versus having lunch in the cafeteria sitting around other students from an adult perspective but I respectfully will will entertain the wishes of the board but we are you know parents can come in schools parents can do those things we are having you know meetings and conferences and and those type of things in our schools we have not opened it up for lunch yet um for several reasons one of which primarily is the
086fact that for the most part we're eating you know lunch in our classrooms at this point okay so as I understand there's no no policy no rule that we're limiting parents other than like lunchtime lunch buddy sort of thing that that is the that is the primary time where parents come in again we've we've had uh we do have some online IEP meetings we've had some online 504 meetings we've had some online meetings and sometimes that meets the need of parents but a parent has wanted to come in to meet with the teacher wanted to come in and meet with an IEP team doing our administrator that's that's something that they can do we'll continue as we open and continue to move in this process we can continue to reiterate that to the administrator so
087make sure these options are open for parents if they choose they want to do that all right Mr Blanton has a motion on the floor it's a proper motion but I don't know what we would change it doesn't sound like we have any policies or rules to limit parents attendance so do you want to let the motion stand on let the motion spin because I'm hearing from parents that they're not getting to go well all right and I think any further we've got to have is there a second to the motion also all right second uh Mr Fitch any questions or discussion yes sir that fit your work not that I'm aware of unless it's for lunch or something like that now it could be filled I mean uh class activities that type of thing
088but for a meeting I'm not aware of those Maybe uh I understand exactly hold on we need everyone in the audience to be quiet I'm trying to listen we're all trying to listen and get all the information so we can make a proper decision so we've had public participation you're welcome to call any of us afterwards or or be here next time thank you and I agree with it I just the way the motion is formed if someone wants me as a board member to come and look at something in school the basically what your motion just says is all board members will stay out of schools no no I I I really needed to bring that up if somebody needed a board member to come or especially with these committees and one needs to
089go check something out that's a different you're not going as a group as a crowd in there so let me just add that in there to it if a board member needs to go due to due to our job that's another thing but you know the committee you know going to visit is our job in a sense uh I see missing standing up would you mind coming to the podium please I think the discussion is great but we can't technically add anything to the motion until we vote on the motion again all right that's why I was concerned because the way that came out if I show up at a school tomorrow and get videoed or something like that then obviously okay I took it that the motion only applied to school visits well I'm
090just going by how it's written down okay I mean the motion was no say it again what was the motion all right my motion was that I didn't feel that we should be going on school visits as long as we was keeping the parents and stuff out that's my motion because we're going as groups and basically that would cover that wouldn't that wouldn't be like if you went to a school and checked okay as our school visits and don't get me wrong I like going on the school visits but if we're going to keep the parents out well I just think it's a good idea for us to stay out period two until parents can go in regardless or whatever and that's kind of what I can say all right it's just gonna look good
091to me we'll see go ahead and make the motion that we suspend School visits for the board until we re-examine it the first meeting is that what you were basically I think that's what he's doing I think that's the same thing by the board as a group board is a group called schools okay for the scheduled Sports visits on Monday morning okay just want to make sure I was okay so what is your Amendment changing I was trying to clear it up just a little bit I in my opinion I think you said the same thing as for his school visit so I don't think the amendment's necessary if that if that sounds good all right chairman queen I'm not trying to put words in anybody's mouth but maybe if I'll just State the motion
092as I understand that would be wonderful um that we will suspend School visits by board members as a group until parents are allowed to enter the school property for social purposes that's enough does does that apply to operational committee meeting if there's a need for the members of the board but if it's as a board in a group we gotta there's need to be some needs to be a little different wording there because if you and I and Robert as a committee need to attend a facility with Dr Fisher and maintenance staff to look at a problem we're going in as a group so we need to if you're gonna we need to do that I don't disagree with you either but we need to clarify however we can do that okay and I guess
093the the email that got sent out the other night where y'all had a schedule of these board members are on team one player these are on team handle that alone is what we're talking about those the scheduled schools the scheduled School visits will be suspended all right Mr Hunt yeah uh you know we we're on a lot of committees right now not a lot of committees but you know we've got different memories on different committees and we've got new board members uh that are actually trying to uh listen and ask questions in these committee meetings to find out what's going on in the in the various schools as far as educational programs and the things that they're doing for remediation yeah today was a good example of uh you know the things that are going
094on in the school we had a chance to meet with that administrative team and then and to visit a couple of classrooms we didn't go in every classroom but we we got enough to have a snapshot of what was going on the remediation that was going on how they were catching students up from this covet era you know what they're doing at springmore you know it's it's fabulous you know they I feel like they they're on point they understand what they need to be doing and from my understanding uh everybody's on board the administrative team didn't emphasize that enough now we're saying that you know we the boy's not a full board going into any school and we're cutting that in half and everybody on my team had masks on so and I think we're
095doing ourselves a disservice if we eliminate that we go in there once a month uh at the various you know we don't go to the same schools we rotate it but it it's enough to at least give us a snapshot and we are getting back into the school schools are getting back into the swing of things you know things are looking up we're not there yet and you know we got to start opening up a few things and I think those those board visits are are important especially for the new ones that you know haven't been in that rotation and been able to go into different schools just to see what's going on you have anything Miss green I want to give you opportunity do you have anything I can uh yeah go ahead the
096only I agree with Mr Hunt I think it's very important for us to get into the schools but I think it's also important that we go into the schools at the right time um I'm looking I'm gonna look at it on a different way I'm looking at it on the teacher's View that I heard some conversation and some thought from some teachers is there's a one more thing on my plate that I gotta change something or entertain the board one more thing in in the conversation with the teachers this year has been more difficult than last year so if we can eliminate one thing that's on their plate I'm for it and I think for us to go to that school I know it's just once once a month but it's going to affect some
097teachers and some administrators that we're putting one more thing on their plate so I I would be in favor of suspending it right now I think everyone's had a chance to speak I I guess I just have trouble with emotion because it it says it will stop scheduled visits until parents are allowed back into school and I don't see where we're not allowing parents in other than for lunch time I think they're probably not a critical thing but for meetings and I believe any parent if they called the principal would be able to schedule a meeting to get in at school and and take care of whatever they need to get taken care of not also not doing volunteers right now classroom volunteers and so we're you know that's where we're I think somebody may
098have said volunteers uh so we you know the effort is to try to make sure we keep our classrooms as safe as possible and do that but we we felt like we could bring uh you know do a board visit with that and do that safely but again that's it's really you know discretion of the board not a any further questions or discussion on suspending board visits can that motion be amended yeah it can be amended well let me just try to clarify and that way I would like to amend that motion that we suspend all scheduled board beanies to schools until January and at January's meeting we revisit the scheduling of school board meetings at schools okay so we won't do December and we won't do January because January would happen the day of
099the meeting right we revisit in January to see where we stand with everything all right we've got a an amendment on the floor is there a second to the amendment for a second any questions or discussion on the amendment I'm gonna beat this dog down the road can we take the word away school board meetings at the school because it's not really thank you and it's all about wording because if somebody reads the minutes years yeah I hope everybody understands what I'm saying okay we have a an amendment to the motion which is putting a date on it it'll be suspended until January and we'll revisit it I think it's January 10th is that right I believe so any questions on the amendment important all right so just explain we'll have to vote on the
100amendment if that passes that modifies the motion then we'll have to vote on the motion is modified so we'll have two votes here all right those in favor of the amendment which puts a date on it of January 10th if you'd raise your hand three four five six any opposed so that Amendment carries six to three so now the motion before the board is to suspend scheduled School visits until June January 10th and we'll revisit as a board that evening that's a paraphrased everybody got that all right those in favor of the motion as amended if you'd raise your hand those opposed and also carry six to three all right any other questions on Dr Fisher's covid material and again for Senate Bill 654 we're required to vote on mass or not each month so
101we either need a motion to continue or a motion to change something Mr chairman I'd like to I'd like to make a motion that we pitch we move to completely optional with our master look at that motion uh oh [Music] [Applause] before we do the second so your your motion is to go back to optional on the mask completely optional during instructional hours okay um and doing away with exemption forms okay um do you have a start date now and let me let me ask Dr Fisher if he recommend can recommend a start date what do you need staff wise is there any preparation I think Mr chair that there needs to be communication to parents obviously some parents will um or maybe here tonight maybe watching the meeting but there will be a lot
102of parents that don't have that information until their child goes to school tomorrow and then you're putting a child in a situation of well is mass optional what does my parent tell me to do I think it needs an opportunity to clearly communicate that so I would say at the earliest if the board approves that motion that the earliest would start Wednesday my recommendation would be to start Monday because we do have Thursdays as a holiday uh so you're you know if you if you start it Wednesday and you get Wednesday then you got holiday and you have Friday I just think it for for good and efficient operations of the school uh with with over 2 000 employees with with over you know 14 000 plus students plus Pre-K all the different moving Parts
103I I feel like it's fair that we communicate that and make sure that parents have the option of communicating with their child what their parental expectations are for those children going to school and not put that child in that situation on Tuesday morning with with without some parental input so I would recommend my recommendation if if that's the direction that the board wants to go my recommendation would be um beginning next Monday but I think at the earliest next Wednesday gives next Wednesday would just give us you know obviously one day to I mean this coming Wednesday yeah to do would you like to add a date to your motion we'll go with November 15th which will be next Monday give us a school time all right and second time well I've got a question
104first well let's get a second well I might I might give you the second guess as soon as I ask my question I'm still this People's Choice completely 100 and I've been that way from the very get-go is that meaning the same thing that he's saying means okay cause I'm sticking to my gun on uh people's children do you want do you want a second emotion or is anyone yes I'll second the NFL People's Choice all right so the motion on the floor is to change the mask requirement back to optional everything else stays in place like Dr Fisher and his staff as we did in the very first motion is responsible for the day-to-day covid operations if you will this will not change anything on the school buses because that falls under the federal
105requirements and we just don't have any Authority there so the CDC still requires mask wearing on public transportation is that your that's your understanding of Sam okay so that's a motion on the floor we've been seconded uh any questions or discussion because nobody has an ass now well another word if they want to work I'm sorry I said without the with without having a mask on does that mean that the quarantine numbers will go a different approach because now like two Mass people nobody quarantined so would that mean our quarantine numbers will be going back up more kids will be missing school possibly um you know when you if you go mask optional then you have less people wearing masks you still may have two people wearing masks and so a mask and a two
106masks means you do not have to quarantine but if you have one of those two folks without a mask then you have a quarantine so quite possibly Bishop does that apply how does that apply to kids that are vaccinated and not vaccinated vaccinated students do not have to quarantine but they have to wear a mask when they come back if they don't test so it's my understanding that that's not an option that would be a mandate that if I'm vaccinated I'm a close contact I do not have to quarantine because I've been vaccinated but for me not to quarantine I must wear a mask or have a negative test so I think that would you know the mask optional would not would not really impact that because it I could still stay in school but
107I'd have to wear a mask so I would not because I was vaccinated that's one we would definitely you know whatever the board votes I'll run through our health department to to make sure but I think that the vaccination status you can you don't have to quarantine but you do have to wear a mask until you either test negative or continue that 14 day period so okay so just to just to add to that People's Choice I agree you don't want to be vaccinated don't get vaccinated but if you want to be vaccinated and you want to you want to to you it's your choice we're just now able to have kids five to eleven to get that vaccination can that all right so we're saying we're gonna we're gonna go no Mass till in
108on what'd you say next November 15th so are we allowing are we does the county allow are we able to kids five through eleven who choose to get vaccinated again I'm going to reiterate that who choose to get vaccinated I know there's folks that don't agree with it and by all means you can agree with however you want but if we can allow the kids that want to get vaccinated give them a certain window to where you get at least at least one vaccination if you have to get two that we that we prolonged the mask after long enough to give these folks some time to get vaccinated if they choose that's why I said I'm gonna turn my mic on yeah the uh the quarantine rules are the same again those are not decided
109by the school board that's the CDC and others so the quarantine rules remain it is a possibility that with less mask you could have more quarantine and and I'm I'm getting there and as far as uh vaccines I believe it has been approved for younger that's up to the families with parental consent they can go do that and as I understand you were talking about delaying long enough to give them more time to get there yeah did you make that in the form of emotion or an amendment or just given your opinion at this time I want to make sure I didn't miss an amendment in there I would like to make that into a formative Amendment to the motion to allow it to prolong the the mask mandate as mandatory with exemptions for a
110certain amount of time for whether it's two weeks one week whatever give me a date okay foreign unless you're gonna do it two weeks after the second shot it doesn't make a difference if you do it or not I didn't know if you were gonna finish an amendment the floor is yours I know I'm thinking uh can I say one thing yeah I think our numbers are really doing good but I think they're doing good for a reason because we're doing the right things but I also know that they're expecting a surge over the holidays Thanksgiving and Christmas so I don't know if you want to take that into consideration or not that's my opinion I'll leave it at that okay I guess the only thing I ever say is it was just a few
111weeks ago that the County Commissioners were asking us to limit the number of people that come to our any kind of sport events because of covert and uh and we didn't do that um but it's kind of just kind of trying to look from that uh from the outside we made a vote and it passed just a few minutes ago that we're not going to do school visits mainly because of safety issues for us to be in the school but now we got a motion to get rid of masks which relates to safety so it's kind of a little confusing that one way we're really looking at the safety and we don't want to be in there we don't want to expose the kids we've got to be careful and then on the other hand
112we're going to make a motion to just wipe it away and it's optional people do have a choice my whole concern is I want to make sure these students are in class court and I don't want to be quarantined like the young lady was up here talking about her kids they they missed a lot of days of school instructional hours that they cannot get back because of being quarantined and that's concerning that we're we're losing that and uh I would like to see it extended just a little bit not being so quick on it just to see at least give it to the end of the semester and switch at the end of the semester to do that any further comments Mr Glover look anyone else um yeah I'd like to make a comment I
113was the one that made the motion to uh require them and I stated that at that time the reason I did that was I wanted kids in school we had like there's something we can't control that's the health department and their quarantine guidelines do I like them no but I made that motion and I think I said once the numbers got down I'm for in favor of of making it option and a couple things that I think is saying that then now and a couple other things is I don't know if y'all seen the email today about the nasty mass that some kids are wearing but I just want to read something I got from a teacher and it's probably more in elementary schools they don't really wear them anyway when they eat they use
114them like to wipe their mouths and get ketchup and taco sauce all over me which is all really nasty they're really not wearing so I don't know if they're wearing them in class anyway and I don't know if we're making matters worse because when we first started this I did some research about some tests that were done on masks and all the germs and diseases and stuff that were in The Mask that would cause and now that our numbers are down we're I always hear the number five percent I think that's the number that the County's at is when but if we are going to keep masking kids until covet goes away we're going to keep them on kids forever it's not going away so we you know the vaccines there yeah they may be
115a surge if we get a surge we have to we have to revisit this thing every month and I'm willing to revisit it but right now with the numbers the way they are and and the message I'm getting from the teachers is becoming a distraction kids aren't learning they're they tell every time they turn around the mask is off come we we got to do what's best for the kids and they're learning and I think the mask is really causing more problems than it really is is doing good right now I think everyone's had a chance to come Mr Hunt it's just one thing in rebuttal uh when I was at springmore today I didn't see any of that all the kids had their mask on teacher didn't have any problem with kids she didn't
116have to correct any of them that were wearing masks and I was in several classrooms and I didn't see any of that just if I would just I was in the school system in four years and when the school board was coming it got cleaned everything was in order so what you saw today ain't always necessarily what's going to be there every day all right I've got it I've got a question now hold on I've got a question all right you allowed to others uh I know what school they prepared for two weeks that we have to come in today they thought we was coming last week that's not a question that has nothing to do well but the comment is sort of joined up with Mr Shores the most you didn't shut him up
117so why are you shutting me you're talking about us did he did he could stop any of them attorneys please there's a motion on the floor to go mask optional on November 15th it's been moved and seconded any further questions or discussion on the topic at hand all right I'm calling for a vote those in favor of the motion as presented if you'd raise your hand that's five those opposed motion carries five to four see next I believe we have student transfer requests Dr Fisher I think you can sit sit down if you like you've got the student transfer request in your packet recommended by the administration do we have a motion to approve is there a second motion by Mr Hunt second by Mr Taylor those in favor of the student transfer request is
118presented if you raise your hand that carries 9-0 board member comments Mr Mr Shore Mr blank all right I'll let it by right Miss Green Taylor all right do we have a I changed my mind I decided I wanted to say something I think we need to go back to two meetings a month for the public because this is getting ridiculous of all we have to do in one meeting and uh and we need to be transparent to our people that's all I got to say I'd like to thank the folks at springmore that had us in for a visit today I did enjoy that uh Mr Hunt Mr Glover and I we we did get to see a lot of good things going on I appreciate their hospitality and having us and look forward
119to when we pick those back up we have three items for closed session Mr Shores Do you have a motion for closure closed session pursuit to General statute 143-313.11 subsections A3 and A6 to discuss confidential Personnel matters and also please section 81 today a one to consult with the attorney for legal opinion on options with property and we've got a motion to go into closed session is there a second second those in favor if you raise your hand and that carries all right foreign on the Surplus properties to discussed a few items on the Personnel report so moving on to the next item on the agenda we have our Surplus properties we'll do the grover property first first make a motion that we uh go ahead with it yes any further questions on the grover
120property just to clarify we're accepting bid I think the bid was at 40 49 000 even so we're accepting a bit of 49 000 even should it be approved that'll start in the upset bed process that goes in 10 days any further questions or discussion the favor of accepting the bid for the grover property second property is the only old school and Kings Mountain it's a pleasure to board Mr chair I make a motion that we table the proposal for the central the old Central School in Kings Mountain second do you have a date we table that until the first meeting in January to 10 January 10th okay I thought I heard a second I didn't Mr Blanton's second any questions or discussion on that so the motion is to table acceptance of that bid
121until well it's just tabling a bid we may or may not accept in January so any questions on that those in favor if you raise your hand and that carries 9-0 final item is the Personnel report what's the pleasure of the board I need to excuse myself okay Mr bland is recused the motion we accept the Personnel report motion by Mr Hunt second second by Miss Green who's in favor of the Personnel report if you'd raise your hand and that carries eight zero motion to adjourn do we have one all right