001questions good evening and welcome we'll call this meeting of the Cleveland County Board of Education for Monday December 12th to order first item is we have Dr Eric Davis who's the employee support manager for Cleveland County government for our invocation thank you and let me say that although I'm offering a prayer tonight citizens of Cleveland County appreciate you and I certainly pledge my prayers to you also that God would bless us in this coming year but if you would join me in prayer God our Father and divine instructor we come before you this evening seeking your direction and your will for this board for our school administrators for our teachers for parents and for our children as plans are being made concerning their educational future here in Cleveland County father we trust that you have
002an instructional plan for our lives and that you give us opportunities to reflect our trust in You by the decisions that we make we give you thanks for these men and women who are so willing to serve our community through their leadership for our schools we give you thanks for parents who love and nurture their children and who are willing to teach through their examples we offer our gratitude for teachers and administrators who offer their skills and sincere desires to equip our children for life we also realize that our children are a precious gift to us and that you have entrusted us to their care and we Pro and we pray Lord that you would help us to nurture them to Pilot them while we can we ask for your guidance in these uncertain times
003when things around us seem chaotic we realize that you understand our quandary and Through the Ages you have revealed your peace and your direction to those who have earnestly sought your guidance therefore Lord we pray that your will would be dwelling in this place and in the hearts and minds of those who desire the very best for our children and that the decisions made here would reflect your holy presence help us to live by faith and refuse to submit to fear your holy word reminds us that we have a responsibility to train up our children and understand who you are father we pray that you would allow us to be examples for them so that they would not depart from instruction given to them thank you God for those promises that you give us to
004walk with us in our times of need and in our times of joy we pray Lord that we might seek to walk in Harmony and in the spirit of peace mercy and hope as you lay before us this plan for educating our precious and Priceless children we offer this and all prayer in the name of Jesus Christ Our Savior and our Lord amen amen amen thank you Dr Davis [Applause] thank you salute please one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you the December meeting is the organizational meeting of the Board of Education tonight we'll be swearing in uh returning member Danny Blanton and new members Aaron Bridges and Ronnie Grigg and just as a matter of information Mr Sperling was sworn in last Friday he he is joining us from
005a hospital bed today he had some surgery today so we wish him the best but he has already been sworn in so I'll turn the meeting over to the honorable Judge Brackett for the swearing-in thank you Mr chairman members of the board if I can have just a moment of personal privilege first of all uh congratulations to all of you who have won we are glad to have you serving our County and very thankful for your willingness to take on the service uh elected office is not an easy thing people sometimes think it is and I commend all of you on your willingness to take up these positions and thank you for what you're willing to do like to start out with going over one thing just to kind of talk about Oaths and and
006the the importance thereof the Oxford dictionary describes the o or uh defines an oath as a solemn promise often invoking a Divine witness regarding one's future action or behavior that's what you're doing tonight you're invoking the Lord Your Divine guidance to what your future action will be and your future actions should be in in Conformity with this oath there's a lot of symbolism in How We Do Oaths in this country it's you know take a moment just to think about it first of all think about where you're left and your right hand are whenever you take your oath your left hand's laying on the holy book and your right hand is raised to God so that way you remember to think to follow God's wisdom to ask for God's wisdom to consider those things when
007you're making your decisions in the office that you're taking on the Bible will be supported by your family when nobody else in this County likes you hopefully your family will still like him and that's something to always remember is that they're always there to support you in the hard times and in the good times in serving in elected office uh you'll be saying that you're swearing to uphold the Constitution of the United States not inconsistent with the Constitution the laws of the state of North Carolina that's your job and that's what each of us has held to the standard we're held to is that the laws of the state and the laws of this nation and you're swearing to uphold those remember that as you go through things there are times I say all the
008time in court there are decisions I make that I don't like but if I'm going to be a good judge it's because and follow the law then I'm gonna have to make those decisions sometimes and you guys are going to have to make those decisions sometimes that you don't necessarily like the law demands it and that's what your responsibility is so for each of you in just a moment I'll call you up here we're going to do it alphabetical order um whenever I'll do these to where it's just one question you'll answer at the end and you can either answer I will or I will so help me God so uh Mr Blanton if you're ready come on down sir thank you I'm over here the whole Bible fourth all right all right if you'll
009place your left hand on the bottom raise your right hand to God and answer as follows do you Danny Lee Blanton solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States to help you God and to you daily Blanton further solidly swear and sincerely swear that you will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina and to the Constitutional Powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof and that you will endeavor to support maintain and defend the constitution of said State not inconsistent with the Constitutional United States to the best of your knowledge ability and ability so help you God and to you dangly Blanton swear that you will perform the duties of the office of a member of the Board of Education to
010the best of your knowledge skill and ability to so help you God thanks sir congratulations [Applause] [Music] thank you sir Mr Bridges if you'll come on down foreign raise your right hand of God and answer as follows will you Aaron do you Aaron Daniel Bridges solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States so help you God and to you Aaron Bridges further solemnly and sincerely swear that you will bear Faith be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina and to the Constitutional Powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof and that you and that you will endeavor to support maintain and defend the constitution of said State not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States to the best of your knowledge
011and abilities that will help you God and will you Aaron Daniel Bridges perform the duties of a member of the office of a member of the Board of Education to the best of your knowledge skill and ability so help you God congratulations thank you [Applause] like sir Miss Craig [Applause] foreign Bible raise your right and answer as follows do you Ronnie Everett Griggs I only swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and so help you God and to you Ronnie Everett Greek further solemnly and sincerely swear that you will be faithful and be true allegiance to the state of North Carolina into the Constitutional Powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof and that you will endeavor to support maintain and defend the constitution of said
012State not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States to the best of your knowledge and ability so help you God and will you Ronnie Everett Greg perform the duties of the office of a member of the board of education for the best of your knowledge skill and ability so help you God congratulations sir [Applause] appreciate it thank you sir thank you Mr chairman I'll turn it back over to you thank you judge bracket and uh just in the way of heads up after we have the uh election of officers we will have a short recess if family members would like to take photos and if Dr Scholl needs to get any more photos we'll do that then so I'll turn it over to Dr Fisher for election of the chair thank you Mr Queen
013member chairman members of the board uh just uh per uh Cleveland County Board of Education policy 2200 an organizational meeting for an election of qualification of officer will be held at the first item of business at the regularly scheduled December meeting of the board the officers will be elected in the following order chairman and then Vice chairman if it is necessary at any meeting Hill to elect officers superintendent will serve as chairman of the board for the purpose of conducting the election of chairman and that's what we're doing at this time so a superintendent of Cleveland County Schools I opened the floor for nominations for the office of chairman of Board of Education I make a nomination Ron Humphries no I'm not I'm respected that I'm not interested I make a nomination for Robert Wayne
014for board chair just as a point of order nominations do not need a second have a nomination of Robert Queen by Greg Taylor just in case anybody did not hear Mr Humphrey's declined the nomination I'll make a motion to close nominations I'll give just a second and then any other nominations if not I will go ahead and close nominations at this time all in favor of Robert queen as chairman of the Cleveland County Board of Education please say aye aye all opposed five to four let's do that again all in favor say aye Mr Sperling how do you vote uh is that an eye for Robert Queen yes okay all in favor Are all uh vote no please raise your hand at the eyes have it uh five to four congratulations Mr Queen thank you
015chairman Cleveland County Board of Education foreign thank you sir thank you board for the honor and we'll open the floor for nominations for vice chair nomination George okay I heard Mr Fitch first who Mr Mr Shores Mr Greg ory okay any other nomination hearing none will close nominations first is those for Joel Shores if you'd raise your hand all right that's five those for Danny Blanton if you excuse me uh Mr Sperling how is your vote for Mr Shores aye okay yeah thank you those for Mr Blanton getting two I've got eight votes that I missed one somewhere you can't you you there's you have to place a vote yeah so Mr Shores is advice congratulations seven to two all right we'll call for a five minute recess for folks can have some pictures and
016then we'll see it's 5 17. we'll reconvene at 5 22. [Applause] foreign Mr Sperling do we have you back yes okay all right we'll call the meeting back to order uh I would like to recognize any guess we have if if you are a family member or friend of one of the new folks that that just got sworn in or Mr Blanton if you would raise your hand I'm not gonna make you stand up all right thank you and welcome I see our election director Mr Clifton philbecks with us tonight uh commissioner Doug Bridges do we have any other elected officials that I miss him all right thank you folks for being here all right moving on to the agenda uh you have the agenda before you what's the pleasure of the board most still
017approved motion by Mr Fitch second by Mr bridges any question or discussion those in favor if you raise your hand Mr Sperling aye all right that carries nine zero next time it was public participation do we just have one miss Bridges okay uh we have Robert Williams [Applause] I think most or all of you 've seen some emails between Robert Queen and myself today chairman Robert Queen uh I was falsely accused of Doctrine uh email that I received to add some underlying to that document previously I brought I showed most of you the copy that I received it's clearly shows underlying some underlying referring to Mr Queen most of it is about the driving analysts and and uh problems that at a gang fight at the Kings Mountain excuse me the burns and Crest football
018game at crest [Applause] I wrote a long article about it I've sent all of y'all copies of that and I'm going to send some more copies about this false allegation the allegations Robert Queen moved an ambulance and he's not an authorities not an EMS employee they're representative had no reason to do it Mr chairman he might have thought he had a reason to do it but I want to order what's your point of order what has this got to do with the school board well asked Mr Queen why he sent me a letter under the school boards chairmanship ah all right now you want to talk stop the clock I'm listening to the point of order you can I'll take care of the time you driving an ambulance has nothing to do with school board
019in my opinion the fact that he made a false allegation I'm ruling on the order the point of order is taken you need to find another subject or end your conversation I'm not going to end my conversation you have just you will have gone to hear my conversation thank you absolutely next on the agenda is approval of the minutes of the November 21st 2022 business session what's the pleasure of the board second motion by Mr Humphries second by Mr Taylor any questions or discussion those in favor of the minutes of the November 21st meeting if you would raise your hand Mr Sperling all right that carries non-zero home to committee reports the finance and Personnel committee did not meet since our last board meeting their next meeting is scheduled for January 6th at 10 30.
020we do have the Personnel report is here for board approval what's the pleasure of the board most approved mentioned by Mr Fitch second second by Mr Taylor any questions or discussion now that is the Personnel report so we have to be careful with any questions but all right those in favor of the Personnel report if you'd raise your hand Mr Sperling hi any opposed that carries eight to one there was no educational program committing meetings since our last meeting that next meeting is scheduled for January 6th at 10 30. same thing for the operations committee I've got a question on operations there's no operations committee report the next meeting is scheduled for January 6th at 9 A.M next is the policy committee report Mr Humphries the policy committee met on November 29th board attorney Leah
021sink presented the foreign exchange students policy draft Mr sink highlighted some of the edits made since the last meeting the proposed policy is titled student Foreign Exchange program and is numbered as policy 4140. the committee supported this policy draft and unanimously supported recommending the draft policy to the full board for a first degree to tonight's meeting the committee discussed education funding especially as it relates to students with disabilities this was referred to the financing Personnel committee for additional conversation the committee review policy 4202 service animals and the related regulations District staff provided some insight about the district's policy and practice after discussion the committee recommended leaving the policy as written Dr Whopper presented multiple policies that were related to Children of military families policy 4050 children of military families was the primary focus presented but
022also presented information on 3460 3620 4100 4400 4 700 and they they will all that we discussed all of those the legal reference and definition of children of military families has expanded and those changes are referenced in the proposed policy changes the committee discussed and unanimously supported the recommended changes these policies will be presented to the full board for a first degree to tonight's meeting with no additional business that meeting was adjourned their next meeting will be January the 3rd 2023 at name thank you Mr Humphries uh a state have been the policy committee report there are nine policies that are up for first read you can find those policies on the board docs website and the public area any changes are shown in red and as Mr Humphries described the majority of these deal
023with uh changes in federal law as it relates to military families so make yourself useful of those and read those if you have any questions let us know there was no Safety Committee report since our last excuse me no safety committee meeting since our last board meeting next Safety Committee meets on January 4th at noon then as far as administrative I wanted to announce the committee assignments for the coming year for 2023 on the finance and Personnel committee we'll have Joel shores as chair Rodney Fitch Aaron Bridges and myself on educational programs Mr Humphries will chair that committee and that will consist of Joel Shores Greg Taylor and Ronnie Grigg on the operations committee Mr Taylor will chair that committee and it consists of Mr Blanton Mr Sperling and myself and the policy committee Mr
024Humphries will chair that committee members of Ronnie Grigg Aaron Bridges and Joel Shores and on the Safety Committee Mr Fitch will chair of that committee and it consists of Mr Blanton and Mr Sperling [Applause] so those are our committee assignments for the next year and have some info Mr chair should I ask the attorney a question due to these committees yes sir uh it says on the agenda here operations and committee report well there was no report but could I bring something to the attention of the agenda by being operations and it's on the agenda [Applause] a real brief answer Mr Blaine it's up to the chairman to decide if a board member is recognized or not for comment is there a follow-up or okay well I want to know is that uh in other
025words it's on the agenda operations there was no such report though correct no operations come over reporting yes sir I don't know if there was a heading and then no substantive item but there was no there was no operations report but I had to speak about the operation so we didn't have the meeting I understand that but I'm not your chairman okay all right that's fine thank you thank you Mr Saint I just wanted to clarify that 2022 has been a great year for Cleveland County Schools this year has definitely been busy but has been filled with Excellence at all levels in our school system team CCS continues to flourish our students staff and Community have excelled throughout the school year and we continue to have high expectations for the months and years to come
026with confidence I can say that our team has used our resources to enhance instruction improve facilities and positively impact the education of students in Cleveland County while we all recognize there is more to do the staff and the board should be commended for their dedication to cultivating excellence in every area of our school district tonight I'd like to take a few minutes to highlight some of this year's accomplishments I hope that everyone will continue to support our students staff and school Community as we work to make Cleveland County a better place to live work learn and play so some of the 2022 highlights we continued with a comprehensive Facilities Review and assessment by MacMillan pasden and Smith that includes the Facilities Review maintenance plans and projections population and enrollment study and recommendations for future operational
027and capital projects we secured the remaining funding for the auditoriums at Burns and Crest high schools and approve these projects construction began in the late spring and is ongoing anticipated completion of the auditoriums is fall of 2023. we sold the Surplus house behind Grover Elementary we entered into an agreement to sell Central School in Kings Mountain we approve realignment of the Shelby Zone by closing Marion Elementary and Graham Elementary converting Shelby Intermediate School into an elementary school and moving the sixth grade students in the Shelby attendance Zone to Shelby Middle we approved renaming the repurposed elementary school as Elizabeth Elementary School we configured the district's calendar to best meet the educational needs of our students we completed and named the Burns High School baseball facility we approved state supplement money for the 2122 and 2223
028school years to reward teachers with the most experience we partnered with the Cleveland County hospice Foundation to begin an employee recognition and retainment program we increased the teacher supplement to 7.75 percent we agreed to a memorandum of understanding with Cleveland County government that includes a plan to increase teacher supplements to 10 percent by 25 26. we secured a safe schools grant for over 1.3 million dollars we partnered with the YMCA and the boys boys and girls club on after school programs for students and that program has grown we secured 4.9 million of skiff Grant funds for Athletic Facility improvements and as part of that we replaced the football stadium lights at Shelby and Crest High Schools we selected an architect for design of the press boxes and concession stands at Burns Crest and Kings Mountain
029and we contributed to the Shelby High School field house project from the skiff Grant we restructured salary scales for classified employees and raised the minimum wage to Fifteen dollars for classified employees we completed large capital projects including new batting cages at Shelby Middle School repaving at Washington Elementary a new cooling tower at Burns Middle new windows at Jefferson Elementary and resurfacing of the tennis courts at Burns Middle and burns high schools we began the Cleveland County Pals initiative we approved Whitton wisdom curriculum for our elementary schools and purchased over one and a half million dollars of classroom technology for our schools we worked through the design process and approved the heating and air projects at all four Traditional High Schools and this includes full replacement at Burns and Crest and priority improvements at Kings Mountain
030and Shelby we approved an additional supplement for lead custodians and cafeteria managers under the direction of our new Child Nutrition director we began a redesign of our school lunch options we restructured the master schedules for turning point and Cleveland Early College to meet student needs and we continue to grow opportunities for students through our partnership with Cleveland Community College participation in our career in college promise classes continues to increase and has grown to include internship opportunities for students and we've had numerous Awards and recognitions for CTE athletic performance and excellence in the Arts so again 2022 has been a great year that was a long list and took several minutes but when you think back on it the board has handled a lot this year and the staff and all our administrators as the year
031draws still closed I'm excited about what's in store for Cleveland County Schools for next year and I believe in Cleveland County Schools Dr Fisher if you'd like to provide a superintendent's update [Applause] foreign thank you Mr chairman members of the board I'll be very brief tonight he's got a couple things I want to uh kind of put out there and and put on your radar uh Dr Wampler uh and her team has worked very hard about school calendar uh we have as part of our policy we use different committee so we've used a teacher advisory committee we've used our principal advisor committee we've we've done a couple different things with that to begin to draft some committees or draft some calendars for your policy those calendars are to be out with some feedback so I'm
032just going to quickly highlight that and basically say by the end of December some calendars will be out on our website for public comment public viewing we will be having those discussions in terms of school calendar in our committee meetings in in January and bring those calendars to the board in in January January meeting tonight we just wanted to make you know you aware that those processes and conversations are ongoing and to be able to tell the public there would be uh in December at the end of December there'll be some information on our website people can go just a quick quick highlight of three drafts of the calendar we have a first draft which has a traditional start date of later in in August this calendar has a end of first semester in December
033but it is non-balanced meaning first semester is considerably shorter than second semester there is problems with this calendar we'll get to some of those things at the end but that's a calendar draft one there has a start at the end of August and first semester I believe is only 73 days so that's a non-balanced Calvin we also have caliber draft two which again has a start date there at the end of August this calendar is balanced from the semester Break by the end of first semester is not until mid-January I think there's January 19th would would end that semester again the problem with this calendar is all those first and second semester are balanced uh you don't end the first semester until mid-January obviously that creates challenges for exams also creates I think the biggest
034challenge it creates is alignment with the community college and then draft three is a calendar that's very similar to our calendar this year which has an earlier start date on a Wednesday and then it does balance the first and second semesters better and it ends SEC set first semester uh before Christmas in in December uh the calendar draft three which is does come recommended from teacher advisory principal advisory does mirror this year's calendar very closely it aligns real well with this current Year's calendar some things that we take into consideration total number of student days and this is a pretty neat comparison that Dr Wampler put together you can see the total number of student days again our the law says we have to have either 185 school days or 1025 instructional hours and we
035have 1025 instructional hours so the number of days are not really magical it's about the number of hours all three versions have 11 holidays uh each version has 10 total annual leave days you can see a difference in teacher work days you can say well why does Calendar One have 16 encounter two and three have fifteen we'll go back up student days and we have to get to 215 there somehow you can see that next total account link by law has to be 215. we have both I'll have 10 days of Christmas and now you start to get those are all consistents between the three calendars and now you start to get some some differences which really start to spark conversation uh first semester end date which is a highly debated topic uh calendar one
036encounter three we end first semester in December Before Christmas calendar twos in January a good Friday off which is a a staple in Cleveland County and a couple things that come every time uh Good Friday's off we you know typically get Easter Monday is a holiday in that spring break week but we also like to have good Friday off uh work day after parent conferences and that's extremely important for teachers a calendar version one one of the two parent-teacher conferences we have a teacher work day afterwards version two none of them and in version three we have a teacher work day after parent conferences because parent conferences are on Thursday we have to work day on Friday uh the balance of semester again uh calendar one is not balanced calendar first semester is extremely short
037compared to to semester two and then uh version two and three are balanced and then you see the difference in built-in inclement weather days and you say well how does that work well because we have over a thousand twenty five hours when we have a snow day or intimate weather day we don't have to make that up and once we exceed that number now we have to start making those days up so the question always comes could we have a calendar let's take out those infant leather days and let's lock that down to 175 student days we could do that but we have inclement weather that we're going to have a snow makeup day and when you look at that calendar you know if you start messing with um spring break or you start trying
038to move graduation you get into a lot of issues so that's why we have those days again nothing nothing to do tonight no action tonight uh I think over the next couple weeks you know feel free to to contact me or Dr Wampler if you have questions we'll be discussing this in multiple committees and then we'll bring some recommendations from those committees back to the board in January uh just a few other updates uh kind of tied a calendar most of them uh end of the first semester is coming soon January December 21st just a reminder that school will be dismissed at one o'clock that day High School exams begin this week I think um thursday.com High School exam begin Thursday um so looking forward to that with our eocs and our high schoolers um
039exciting thing about Cleveland County Schools was named and one of the things we just received and actually today I just received the the plaque and the award that Cleveland County Schools was named uh 2022 best place to work in Cleveland County so we're excited about that and that's really about what's happened out in our schools the things that are happening in our 28 school buildings every day so we're excited about that and we from Cleveland County Schools we just wish everyone a Merry Christmas I know we've got still got work to do this semester but as we draw this semester to a close uh I'm excited about Christmas holidays have the opportunity to visit four schools a day two in school visits and then two other schools had the opportunity to read at Boston Elementary
040and those students are excited about the time of year they're excited about Christmas I'm looking forward to that Christmas and New Year break so be glad to try to answer any questions between you and board members my half if not that's update for tonight any questions for Dr Fisher enough easy tonight can he send us a copy of that yes yeah uh last board member comments Mr Fitch Mr blanken yes sir well I had a school visit today at North and it was very it's a very good visit and uh the principal told us that they was having a whole lot of parents that's really got involved with their school system and uh they're starting their PTO or PTA back up they're they are really booming down there with the parents getting involved even parents
041volunteer to help at the lunchrooms and uh on certain days well I have a little something that I'm going to read tonight and uh where I stand and uh I plan to stand and uh for the taxpayers of Cleveland County I would like to point out to all board members that over 19 500 voters elected myself and three new board members over the three incumbent board members that is one third of the voters in Cleveland County I would ask that all board members and administrators remember this over the next few years listen to the people they are speaking but you guys continue to ignore some of the people most parents are dissatisfied with the current direction of our school system it is started with shutting our schools down and mandating Mast for our students we
042should we should always offer mass as option for all the students and employees highest each to listen to those that voted you in to office before you vote after this election cycle I listed I listened to voters my job is to help the staff and the students I will always do what the people request of me and the staff I work for them not for the administration we must start by hiring qualified people we need to stop promoting folks that do not have the degrees or the experience needed to hold a position please these committees need to go the people of Cleveland County deserves to know what's going on in our school system when this board votes on a recommendation of the Committees the people have no clue what was discussed and how we commit
043come to those decisions we need to go back to have to how it used to be the people in Cleveland County are not happy with the school board we need to listen to the people we must get our board meeting and committee meetings available on our website so parents and taxpayers and the School Employees can view the meetings we are not being transparent to let us start 2023 with a great start by being transparent finally stay tuned in January I will be bringing up gym floors and the roofs I want those responsible to answer to the taxpayers on their mistakes thank you for reelecting me and as always I look forward to being your voice for change even though I stand alone with the majority of of the time I am hopefully that the new
044board will listen to those that elected them and be representative of the people that elected them and thank you all and I appreciate appreciate Mr empress [Applause] so we did a school visit this morning at East Elementary uh very impressed with what's going on over there a lot of personalized care with the students I've noticed that with actually all the school elementary school visits we've been on is that there's there's a lot of attention paid to where individual students are and getting them the help they need in particular areas to keep them up to speed that's very impressive very difficult thing to do for the teachers and staff uh anyway my compliments to miss Harvey she's doing an excellent job over there I'll go to Mr Sperling before we go to the other side Walter
045do you have anything uh I'd just like to say uh thanks for letting me serve Cleveland County and uh and I look forward to working with all the other board members to to do what's best for uh everybody in Cleveland County students staff faculty thank you again thank you Mr Mr Gray yeah we had a visit today at north um and it really was a good business you know I I enjoyed knowing one of the things I saw on the wall in first grade class was a notice it said if I keep on trying I can do better and I think that's something that we all should um try to do um I want to thank everybody that came out and voted for me without you I wouldn't be here it's honor and a privilege
046to be sitting in this seat representing you guys as a school board member um of course I'm Ronnie Grigg and you know that's my name but I'm sure I'm going to be called a lot of things over the next four years and it's okay for about us again um I'm not in this to make friends some people got into it they made a lot of friends that's not what I'm here to do I'm here to do what Cleveland County voters ask me to do and that's working for the school system and help get things where they need to be when I started this um a year ago I never thought I'd be subjected to all the things that I was about my own political party and even some of the school board and administration um
047[Applause] during the past year I've received tax calls and emails from the teachers staff and parents statement retaliation was one of the reasons I don't come to these board meetings and I experienced that during my campaign so I know that it happens when I started working on the nutritional program trying to get people involved in it they were a lot of jokes made on this sport as a matter of fact an Administration but I weathered it and I got through it just like I did in the primaries when it was implied that I was not a Christian or a true conservative so look up articles and policies in code 7232 that happens to be about discrimination and harassment happened to me on the books in Clayton County Schools and since you've got to file a
048complaint and send it to the administration a lot of cases send it to the administration is very people that have been accused of harassment and retaliation and we can't do that with people who are voicing their first amendment rights because that's just wrong and it's going to stop I'll put in a call to the state policy committee representative about this policy and I'm asking him to help with updates on him so that schools in the state of North Carolina if they're bound to continue to retaliate against teachers parents and staff that there's going to be some disciplinary action to them the Buck's got to stop you during the 16 days that I was at polls working the main thing I heard from the people was about critical race theory gender studies and dirty books and
049they wanted to know where I stand and I stand the same place I did before I will not put up with an employee account the board's big about communities so I think it's time that we have one that verifies once a month that as you say it's not in Cleveland County that we make sure it's not interested and that we have volunteers and staff members that go to schools and verifies this once a month and then brings the information back to the board if there's any teachers or staff that's talking about this in class and trying to Swift in critical race Theory and gender studies and they need to be discipline this is what the people of Cleveland County asked me to do so this is what I'm asking I got one more thing to
050say I hadn't finished with the nutrition equation you know when I started that it was kind of important with everybody that you know pays we can't do this we don't um you know it's just not possible well that first grade classroom made pretty easy for me if I keep on trying I can do better so I'm going to keep right on trying and I'm going to keep right on pushing the difference now is I have access to the things I need access to so we're going to see whether we can get nutrition upgrades in Cleveland County Schools and get our schools back where they need to be for our kids you know we sometimes just have to do our job and that's what I plan on doing um I'm sure that there wasn't very many
051of these board members that put to here or Administration but the people of Cleveland County put me here because they believed that what I can do or what I plan on and as a school board member I'm going to stand up for the staff the teachers and all employees and I'm going to represent Cleveland County well so I want to thank you for coming out tonight and I want to thank you for all the votes and I hope I do a good job for you Mr Bridges I do want to just say thank you for your support during these elections as a parent that has kids here in Cleveland County Schools my children go to high school and the school system I've got kids in elementary school in Fallston I too as a parent so
052I need to serve on the school board and I hope to be a voice for everybody's child there are a lot of changes that need to be made and I hope through the next four years I can help do so I'll be open here I'm willing to listen to anybody I'm kind of the middle of the road kind of person uh and I've got ideas I hope to bring to the table but I just want to tell you thank you for your support and I look forward to the next four years thank you guys Mr Taylor [Applause] uh good evening I want to I want to First welcome each and Mr Blanton back on the board Mr sperlin Mr Bridges Mr Greg um I I mean I look forward to working with you we uh
053of course you of course you named us some things that um you don't know where I stand on most of those you've yet to ask me where I stand on most of your issues Mr Gray um but going forward I I feel like we can we if we put put silly things aside and work together as a team and do our job as board members then we can make this board this County this school system what it needs to be um I encourage just like anybody else I encourage if you have ideas or suggestions or if those that feel retaliated against if they have issues then please come speak to us but if there's concerns then if there's concerns and if there's things you like to change let's let's have let's have ideas to change
054them let's just not have uh empty empty ideas let's have ideas behind them to to correct those thank you Mr Shores well I would also like to thank or congratulate Mr Blanton Greg and bridges and Sparling uh for them being elected and I like you um if you go back and watch it on video I had a pretty harsh statement that I made when I got elected uh and as I said last week I couldn't find out a lot of it was noise I'd heard some of the same things that y'all talked about but I wouldn't have nobody to come to me and talk to me about it and it kind of threw me off but one thing you're all going to find is that I got very frustrated those who said on the finance
055committee can understand actually I really got mad a lot of times that what we can and can't do we're at the bottom of the pole you got the federal government you got the state government you got your County Commission and us we have no tax and Authority so basically you know when I can't give a bus driver a dollar a raise because the state tells me I can't go no further that's aggravate uh when I rely on the county to you know give teacher supplements I rely on the county to give us teacher supplements uh but I also got to rely on that County budget to give me money to give those who aren't teachers if you understand what I'm saying so you know I understand where you're coming from I just hope that you'll
056learn through the process I'm all about change for the good but you're going to find out that a lot of stuff that we are just kind of we're handicapped or handcuffed to do but you know with these I heard these teachers these teachers in retaliation and all that and I said in my speech you know come forward but I had nobody come forward and I I will say this right now if any teacher comes forward to me and they get terminated for it I will have a come apart I will have a come apart so thank you all right I failed to mention in my 2022 highlights about the Wayne Logan gym at number three school that was dedicated I believe yesterday so I apologize for admitting that Mr Logan very valuable to the number
057three community and did a lot for our kids in Cleveland County Schools so um I read an article last week about the Charlie Brown Christmas special it was first Sean December 9th of 1965 57 years ago and it talked about the commercialization of Christmas and they're practicing for the Christmas play and finally Charlie Brown asked Linus well what is Christmas about anyway now I know there's lots of holidays around this time of year and folks celebrate in different ways but Lana stole Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about he said For unto you is Born This Day in the city of David a savior which is Christ the lord that's what I believe I hope others believe that I wish the students the best this week as they start their exams do good make your
058mamas and daddies proud make the school system proud I wish rest for all our teachers and staff you've deserved it you you need a couple weeks off and come back in January ready to hit the ground running and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone do I have a motion to adjourn those in favor can lead thank you folks