001Good evening. >> It's so wonderful to look out and see so many students and parents and other relatives. our principles that care enough to come out on this dreary evening to the regularly scheduled meeting of the Davy County Board of Education. Thank you for coming. Welcome. We've already uh opened and approved an agenda and so the first thing on this or the next thing on the agenda is the invocation. Dear God, we thank you for the privilege of coming here this evening and being able to uh discuss the business of Davy County Schools with our colleagues and uh recognize uh staff and students. Uh we just ask that you help us to make the best decisions this evening and we thank you for again for these uh students who are here and uh just give
002us a reason to continue serving on this board. So be with us this evening and help us to do the right things. I pray in your name. Amen. Next thing would be to uh honor America through the pledge of allegiance. Would you stand with me, please? >> Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation, indivisibley andice for all. Thank you board. The next item is to approve the minutes of our regular session from November. Uh you've received those in advance, had a chance to uh look those over and thanks for well-written minutes. We appreciate that. Is there a motion to accept the minutes as presented? >> So moved by Joe. Is there a second? Stephanie seconds. Any questions regarding the amendments or comments? If
003not, all in favor? Motion carries unanimously. Next, I will turn this portion of our board meeting over to our council, our school board attorney, Jill Wilson, for reorganization of our board of education. >> This is my favorite time of year. board members. It's wonderful and amazing to think it's been a full year since we were seated in the seats we're in and the positions we're in and that we find ourselves once again in an organizational meeting as is every December. And at this point, I would like to open the floor for nomination to the position of chair. I'll nominate Mr. Dub Pototts for chair. Mr. Dub Pots has been nominated. Is there another nomination? >> Well, if there is no other nomination, then all those in favor of Dub Pots as chair, please say I.
004>> And I have completed my very difficult assignment, and I turn the remainder of the organizational meeting over to Mr. Pototts. Thank you very much. >> Well, thank you very much, Miss Wilson. Thank you, board. Uh it's an honor to serve with you and uh the only reason I'm really willing to do this is because of you. The way you work together. Uh you just you can't express how important that is when a group of seven people care about the ideas of each other and most importantly want to make good decisions for staff and students. So thank you and I'll do my very best to be the chair that you need. So the next thing would be to elect a vice chair and I will open up the floor for the selection of a vice
005chair. >> Mr. Chair, I would like to nominate Marie Pototts as vice chair. >> Say that again. >> Marie Hams. Excuse me. >> Thank you very much. Hey, I get a high five. All right. Thank you. Okay, Marie Helms is a nominee. Do I need to offer another one or get a second on that? >> Well, there might be another one you know. >> Okay, but I need to get a second before I ask. >> No, no second requirement for nomination. >> Okay, thank you very much. Okay, is there another nomination? Hearing none, I ask that we vote to approve Marie Helms as the vice chair. All in favor? Show of hands. Thank you very much. Congratulations, Miss Helms. We don't get many things to laugh about, guys. So, okay. Uh, next is a board
006chair's report. I just want to say a couple of things. One is uh congratulations to Marie, not just for being the vice chair, but she was recently at our state conference for schoolboard association. She was selected to serve as a two-year term on the board of directors. So, thank you very much. I think they meet about four times a year plus a state conference of three days and um it's it's a good organization. We subscribe to it for policy reasons primarily, but uh they have some good folks here and I you'll make a great fit with that group. >> Uh I would like to remind board members that um we're all invited to the Pemont Triad Education Consortium breakfast where we where the 17 school districts um honor a school or a couple of larger
007districts get to honor two schools. It's called a signature school event. Uh it's held at UNCCG December the >> 11th. December the 11th. Um if you would like to ride with me, be at Food Lion parking lot at 7:10 a.m. on that morning. Uh there's no reason for all of us to drive and I'm a careful driver. So, so seriously, I hope I hope if you haven't signed up, please consider doing that. It's a great thing and it's always with good anticipation do we learn who our signature school is and see them honored. Uh there's all kinds of activities this month. Um gosh, our principles, assistant principles, and staff are going to be really busy uh because it's December and it's just a a celebratory month and we we know that a lot of good
008things will be happening. We'll see some of that uh celebration here this evening. like to remind those of you that are uh finishing up your four-year term that the opportunity for signing up for uh uh to run for the 26 through 30. Yeah, 26 through 30. Um that opportunity is open. So, um I hope you have u consulted with your spouse and have made the best decisions and ready to go. Um, I want to say at your place we put this brochure. Is there high school band folks? Any of them here? Yeah. Some students there. Are you in the wind ensemble? >> No. I went to the Benton Convention Center on Veterans Day for a program for the North Carolina uh music educators. Davy County was one of two bands in the whole state that
009were invited to participate uh in that conference. And I sat there and smiled so big and I know that I look probably I probably look silly, but that wind ensemble made me so proud of Davy County Schools. And it wasn't it was a high school performance, but the super part in addition to the staff's uh students performance was the fact that our middle school band directors participated. They each led one of the the songs. It was just wonderful. So, congratulations to them. I don't think they're on the list anywhere to be given anything tonight. Okay. But it it was wonderful. So, thank you. Many of you were stopping out there to see the art uh competition. Dr. Belture will share more of that in just a few minutes. And the last thing I want to
010say is at the state's uh convention for schoolboard association talked about being uh a pleasure to serve with you guys. One of the sessions that I went to was about board superintendent relations. And again, it was one of those things that's I'm just so thankful we don't have the problems that some folks have. And one of the parts of the presentation made by school boards was this one school was talking school district was talking about how happy they were with this new superintendent because he had gotten uh approval to stop the meeting at 10 o'clock in the evening and stop all discussion. And I asked the lady next to, "Do you do y'all have something like it?" Oh, yeah. We've just recently passed that because we were going to midnight every night, every board meeting.
011I don't know what they could talk about for that many hours, but and I won't call the names of the school districts, but sometimes when you talk to other folks, it makes you even more proud of what we have here in Davy County. So, enough of that, but it's great to serve with you guys. And I'll now turn it over to the superintendent for his comments for the evening. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair, madam vice chair, board members, and I am very happy that we don't have board meetings till midnight. So, of course, families, administrators, I appreciate you being here. Just a couple of things that I would like to share. U Mr. Potch, you're exactly right. It's that time of year. The countdown to Christmas is on and um our curriculum team has been
012very busy still um doing everything that they can do to support our schools and our administrators and teachers are doing a great job making sure that we continue to meet the needs of our students and their families and providing a quality education even um whenever things get really exciting in our schools. I'd like to especially take a moment and just say thank you to our instructional coaches and our instructional specialists and our instructional support staff because this time of year um they really do a lot of support in our schools and that some of the things that happened um in December could not happen without them. I especially would like to recognize Mr. John Marshall and Sherry and Miss Sherry White. They traveled across the state recently and presented some of the work that the
013district is doing related to the high reliability schools model um to some other administrators, district administrators and to NCDPI staff had a really some really good feedback that um they that was much appreciated and just shows that in so many ways Davy County is leading um the the state in some of this work and I'm very proud of them and what they do every day to make that happen. A lot of things happen behind the scenes um supporting families with um Thanksgiving meals and just being out in the community. A lot of student groups and organizations that participate with that. So certainly want to say thank you to them as well. And of course um as we are looking ahead to just a few weeks with our first ever Rise reindeer games coming up at
014the end of the month, I'm looking forward to that activity to help um be out there in the community as we get near um the Christmas celebration. We've had a lot of you heard a little bit about some of the fine arts programming that's going on across the district. I also want to take a moment and just recognize that um we had the Davy Players had the honor of competing at the NCTC State High School Play Festival. They were one of 16 participants invited out of over 120 across the state. We're proud of Mr. Chad Edwards and the Davy Players. You see a picture of them up there and some of that work. Uh so great job there. We also want to take a moment and just give a a recognition to um the Davy
015High choirs program. Obviously, this time of year there's a lot of chorus concerts and um dance concerts and different things going on, but um some a group of of students as part of the the Davy Choirs program will be um going to New York City in June to sing Danforest Reququum for the Living at Carnegie Hall. Um so, it's a great honor. They've recently hosted a dinner theater to help fund raise and just a lot of fun and and good things going on. So, if you want to get out and see see the Christmas program um that the chorus is putting on, that'll be December 9th at the auditorium. Recommend that you come out and check that out. They'll help you get in the holiday spirit. Uh we also um I want to recognize the
016early college. Um they brought their skills to the annual bed races in downtown Moxville. um that's new to me and so it was exciting to see some of that. But the flying Phoenix went on to finish in third place. So congratulations to the early college. A lot of exciting and a lot of fun um just a couple of weeks ago. It's that time of year. Winter sports are underway. We're going to recognize a lot of our fall sports and athletics programs. And you know, it's always um bittersweet, especially for our seniors as you wrap up one season that are finishing up some competitions. And um I know that that's bittersweet, but look forward to some of those recognitions. The time that our coaches put in is is just amazing. And then if we gear up
017for winter sports, you're going to see lights on in the gymnasiums and lots of cheering and and everything happening all across the county and middle school and high school with our winter sports. You heard a little bit about the signature school. I again want to just uh say congratulations. We look forward to that coming up on December 11th. And it's that time of year where we're monitoring attendance. I know that there can sometimes be illness and different things going around this time of year. I'm pleased to say that we have been able to maintain um a 94% attendance rate. Um that's not 96 where we were at in September at the start of the year. So it does start to trickle off a little bit, but I'm pleased that we're still monitoring and doing well
018with our attendance. Also want to take a moment and just say thank you to our calendar committee and especially to Miss Jinder Haynes for all of the time that's invested in looking at the school calendar. I know that parents rely on that so that they can plan vacations and you'll hear a little bit about that later, but that's always a heavy lift, but um certainly Miss Hayne's steady hand in guiding and facilitating that tedious process is much appreciated. And then also just a couple of um individual teachers that I want to make sure that I take a moment and say thank you to and recognize. Miss Annette Jenkins was recognized as the district's 2025 EC educator of excellence by NCDPI and Miss Jenkins teaches at Davy High and then Miss Don Lowry who was recognized
019at the state math conference for being an outstanding secondary math teacher and Miss Lowry is a teacher at North Davy Middle. So congratulations to them. It's that time of year um where we're monitoring the weather pretty frequently um and um sometimes in real time, but certainly want to thank our snow team, our local snow team, Jeremy Miller, Clay Harris. um they recently facilitated some conversations with the Department of Transportation and it's really amazing when you think about all of and I know sometimes I don't even understand this myself and I know a lot of times the community and parents don't but when you see a map with all the primary secondary roads and the DOT teams that are divided up and assigned those different routes to start cleaning whenever we have a weather related um
020issue that we got to look at. There's a lot of work that goes into that and a lot of conversations that go into making those decisions. So, I appreciate our snow team and being ahead of the game with that, looking at those nine contractors with NC DOT and and having that conversation in advance so that we can be prepared for that. From a school system perspective, we have five blades that we use and primarily that's for cleaning um parking lots and driveways. So sometimes um when you're out and you might see a primary road clear or even some secondary roads clear, sometimes we're still trying to clear parking lots and the the driveways of our schools. So certainly appreciate everybody's patience and understanding as we prepare for winter weather. Um Dr. Blatner and his team,
021they have been participating in se several trainings primarily focused on cyber security. I wanted to make sure that we noted that. and they've been fine-tuning tuning some of our software programs like our technology work system across the district. So they are continuing process improvements and looking at how we can maximize our resources and our technology for our district. And finally, I'll say that transportation has had a bus class this week and so always if you are interested in being a bus driver for Davy County, we can always use bus drivers. Um we can help you get your CDL and get that started um as well. With that said, um Mr. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate Oh, I will say one other thing, a celebration. We have been approved for a cops grant, a community oriented policing
022grant in the amount of $97,749 that is used for um safety initiatives primarily for communication during a crisis. So, Miss Mary Foster was instrumental in writing that grant. So, thank you for um authoring that grant and getting us some additional funding to support school safety across the district. So with that said, that's all I have. >> Questions for superintendent comments. Okay. Thank you very much, sir. Okay. Next is our recognition period. And I just uh as I said earlier, we got a lot of folks here. Uh we'll be recognizing from second grade on up. And parents, would you just do me a favor and stay until the recognition part's over? I know dinner's waiting for some of you, bedtime is waiting for all of you, homework is looming, but uh just so that the next
023group will not be u overshadowed, if you'll just wait and then I'll take a pause and we'll all get out that can get out. Thank you. The first one is uh National FFA organization by Mr. Liberty. Uh FFA uh's mission is premier leadership, personal growth, and career success. It's good to be back here. It means our students are doing excellent work. And this October, we traveled to the national FFA convention where there were over 70,000 FFA members to compete at uh the dairy evaluation contest. This year uh we placed 19th. It's the only year that we've ever been to the national convention. So that's that was a big stepping stone for us. And placing 19th is quite an accomplishment. And we are very proud of this group and we look forward to their future success.
024Uh hopefully next week at the livestock uh competition. >> This week. >> Oh, this week. Yeah, this week. Not next week. >> Don't miss it. >> Uh Caitlyn Nicholson, she's not here with us. She's at NC State. She's here with us in spirit. and Lyla Sap Aubry Barnhart and Michaela Van. All right. David County uh FFA also had was invited to Louisville, Kentucky to the North American International Livestock Exposition there to participate in their dairy uh judging contest. And uh so we took another different group of girls, a lot of girls here uh showing showing some smartness. And so we took that group and uh they placed uh 13th at that national competition um and did very well represented. uh they learn a lot of there's a lot of critical thinking skills and decision- making
025skills and communication public speaking skills that they learn in addition to the technical skills of dairy dairy judging and cattle judging. So, uh we're proud of them and what they the work they've put in morning practices, weekend practices. And so, we'll recognize them. Key Carter, Delaney Warner, Emma TR, Cali Colbert, and Kelsey Nicholson, who couldn't be with us tonight. We thank you all for taking the time to recognize uh these these guys, and hope to see you back soon uh in the next couple months. Davy County High School athletic director Ben Batty and some recognitions of fall athletics. >> Uh good evening Dr. Belchure, Chairman Pots and rest members of the board. Uh thank you for allowing me to come up here tonight and uh recognize some of our fall athletes and coaches uh and
026their accomplishments from this fall season. Uh, the first team I'm going to recognize is the women's tennis team. And as while they come up, I'll go ahead and speak about them. The women's tennis team uh went undefeated with a 15-0 record during the regular season, winning the North Pedmont Conference regular season and tournament championships. This is the second consecutive year that they have gone undefeated during the regular season and in conference play and also the fifth year in a row that they have been the conference champions. They are tied for first um with a regular season win streak of 35 matches and tied for second overall for the longest win streak in school history with 15 matches. And the team's um individual match record for the entire season was 129 wins and 21 losses. So
027very very impressive season for our women women's tennis team. Can we get the coach to name each player, please? We have Sarah Parsley, Lenaley, Corbin Drum, Kate Haven, Sydney, Hello Tool, Casey Ko, uh, Ada Wallace, and Evie Conland are here with us tonight. We also have a couple others that are representing Davy High in winter sports and are at um, their competitions in track and basketball. We also have a couple others who are coaching rec teams, so they couldn't be with us tonight, but we are proud of all of them. And uh I also want to take this time while he's standing up here to recognize uh coach Colin Farby. Um Coach Farabby was voted as the North Pedmont Conference Women's Tennis Coach of the Year. The next teams that we want to recognize are
028our men's and women's cross country teams. And I'm going to let coach uh Rob Raybeck um speak up on those teams and highlight a few of their highlights and accomplishments from this season. Thank you, Mr. Spy. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for the opportunity to be here this evening. Um, we are competing tonight in Win in Winston. So, the vast majority of our team is there competing. And if you saw me looking at my phone a minute ago, I wasn't being rude. I'm actually following live results of our team as they're competing this evening. Um, we had a historic uh cross country season this fall. I think many of you followed our exploits in the in the newspaper. Um, both of our teams, men's and women's, finished second at the MPC meet. Uh, we went
029on to the regional meet. Uh, 20 teams competing. Our men finished fourth. Our, um, women finished fifth. Uh, that qualified us for the state championships. U for the first time since 1997, our full men's team qualified for the state championship meet. Uh, which was, uh, quite exciting. Um, Coach Jones, uh, Jeff Jones has been my assistant coach for the last 10 years. And even though we've had individuals make it to the state meet every year, again, the first time our full men's team, uh, advanced in almost 30 years. Our women's team also likewise um, advanced to the state championship meet. First time since 2010 that our full women's team advanced. Um, this was the first time in Davy County High School history that both men's and women's teams advanced to the state championship in the
030same season. So, it was a really historic season for us. We had uh four all-conference performers. Uh, Kristen uh Starky was a um allconerence performer, finished in the top 25 of the state meet. Kristen had the 12th fastest time in the state among all freshmen. This is for all classifications, 400 plus schools, however many there are. Uh she had the 12th fastest freshman time in the state. Um for our men, we had three all-conference performers, uh Ethan Lakey, um uh Jacob Steelman, and Jackson Gay, and they're competing this evening. Um, Jackson Gay was uh his uh 5K time was the second fastest freshman in all of the state of North Carolina. So, he had a tremendous year for us. Um, our women's team at the state championship meet, you run seven athletes. We had five
031freshman and one sophomore in our seven uh individual lineup. Um, so really excited about the future of our women's program. So again, we only have a few of our folks here that we'll mention him uh briefly. For our men, Avery Vanente, he was one of our scorers, top five runner, he's a sophomore. Um Rachel Starky and Berkeley Brown and Kristen Starky and Daniela George Perez. So again, most of our folks are competing tonight, but we u some of them we pulled out of out of the track and told them to come this evening to represent us. So thank you all. I just wanted to take a second. A lot of people don't know this about Coach Raybeck, but I help him with cross country, but he also coaches winter track and spring track. In the
032summertime, we have three day a week workouts for cross country for the fall. So he commits year- round time to all the running program in David County. So we we appreciate you. And and while he's up here, I do want to recognize Coach Raybeck. He was also voted the men's uh cross country coach of the year for the North Pedmont Conference as well. Uh, the next team we want to recognize is the Davy High cheerleading team. Uh this team who is coached by Angie Stage is the UCA regional division winner. Uh in winning the regional division, this team has qualified for the national competition in 2026. Um they also will compete at the state championship uh which was actually supposed to be held this weekend in Raleigh at the Raleigh Convention Center. Uh unfortunately it
033caught fire last night and so that has been postponed uh until a later date. But we wanted to go ahead and recognize them for their regional winning um and say congratulations to them. And the uh final recognition for tonight is uh head football coach Brian Henson. Um, Coach Henson was voted as the North Pedmont Conference Football Coach of the Year. Um, the football team finished the year with an overall record of seven and five with a a three-2 record in conference play. Uh, they qualified for the state playoffs and advanced to the second round uh for the first time since the 2019 season. Um, so we want to say congratulations to Coach Henson. Personally, I want to add about Coach Henson. I think he's doing a fantastic job running our football program. I think the
034energy um in the the school building is on a positive note. Um the guys are uh they've bought in the coaching staff. There's a lot of excitement around there. So, I'm really looking forward to seeing what the future holds with our football program over the next several years. Thank you. >> Thank you, coach. And congratulations to all the coaches and athletes. Very proud of you. Next, Dr. Belchure will share with us about the holiday Christmas card contest. Thank you, Mr. chair. So, we um this is always an exciting time of year where we get to recognize students who submit their artwork for consideration as part of our annual holiday Christmas card. Every school selects one standout piece to represent their campus and submits that to the district office. And then up here, staff members vote
035for their favorite entries from the elementary, middle, and high school levels. The winning designs are proudly featured on the front of our official holiday card, which is then shared with our neighboring school districts, our community partners um and different folks around the county to recognize um and celebrate their creativity. And so whenever I say I'm going to go through and just kind of um give each student's name, you can come up and get your certificate and then we'll stand back here and we'll get a a group picture of all the students and then we'll recognize each winner from the elementary, middle, and high school and get another picture with them as well. Gracie Freeman. Gracie is a fifth grader at Pulam Elementary School. Congratulations, Gracie. Journey Taylor. Journey is in second grade at Corner Elementary
036School. Willow Ward, fifth grader, Moxville Elementary School. Amy Chula Aila, fifth grader, Pine Brook Elementary School. Logan Barnes, second grader at Shady Grove Elementary School. Joshelyn Chow, fifth grader, William R. Davyy, Elementary School. Samuel Chula Aila, seventh grader, North Davy Middle School. Bailey Dunn, seventh grader at South Davyy Middle School. Quinn Hayes, sixth grader, William Ellis Middle School. Zusanna Guerrero Hortado, ninth grader at the Early College High School. Sophia Crim, ninth grader from Central Davy Academy. and Brandon Hass, 12th grader, Davy County High School. All right, we're going to get a picture with the whole group. And um while we get that picture, when you saw that artwork, you see how hard it is to make a decision on some of the best artwork. And um this will be on on the holiday cards going
037going out. So, we want to recognize all of them for a job well done. very hard decision, great artwork, and I have the the actual privilege of seeing a lot of cards that come from other school systems, and this is pretty common where they have a a holiday card contest. And y'all, by far, Davy County has the best artists that I've seen. Um, so all of them, great job. So, our elementary winner, Joselyn Chow, fifth grade, William R. Davy Elementary in middle school. Bailey Dunn, seventh grader from South Davy Middle. And our high school winner, Brandon Hass, 12th grader from Davy County High School. parents and teachers, I just want to say thank you for allowing me to be able to present these recognitions. It's always um certainly an honor and a privilege and I'm
038very proud of them and I know that you are and um principles, I know that you're proud of of the talented students that are in your building as well. So, thank you very much. board. We're going to take uh about two minutes and allow those who need to leave an opportunity to to exit. Okay, thank you board. And we'll continue on now with the next item on our agenda is our consent agenda. You've received a copy of all the information on the consent agenda. Asking for a motion to approve the cons consent agenda as presented. >> Thank you. I'll make a motion. Marie made the motion. Is there a second? >> Jeff makes a second. Questions to any of the staff members regarding the consent agenda? If not, all in favor? Motion carries unanimously. Thank
039you very much. Next, we will hear from uh Dr. Belchure regarding graduation >> board. We do have a recommendation from Davy County High School um for a graduation date on Saturday, June 6, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. at War Eagle Stadium. So, that is a recommendation that we approve that date so we can start letting everybody know. >> Lay my pen down. >> Say that date one more time, please. >> June 6th, >> 8:30. Okay, you have the recommendation uh coming from uh Dr. Belchure regarding the graduation date being established rain or shine. Correct. >> Well, it's not going to rain, Mr. Chairman. >> I'm sorry. >> It's not going to rain. Okay. I've I've got reliable sources say it never rains on graduation. >> We would have to evaluate that depending on the weather forecast.
040>> Okay. >> We were rolling last year off the field. >> Yeah. All right. Assuming inclement weather is not preventing it. We have a recommendation. And I'm sorry. Did we get a second? >> Yes. motion to approve the recommendation for us. Uh, Mr. Hunter makes the motion and I heard a second over here. >> Okay, Joe seconds. Now, questions regarding uh, and I want us Well, go ahead. Any questions regarding graduation date? I was going to say I want to encourage us all to go ahead and put that on our calendar. It's a long morning. Um, but it's a an opportunity that we don't get a whole lot as board members to actually shake somebody's hand and say congratulations for 13 years of a job well done. So, any questions? Hearing none. If you're approved,
041show hands. Motion carries unanimously and established. Next we have a committee report from uh Dr. Beltry is the first one. >> Yes. So um thank you Mr. Chair. Board members as you'll recall we've been um shared with you I think in October our achievement data and then looked at the my future NC from the department of commerce um in November and December is when we start to submit our headcounts and um for our our student population and some of our demographic data. And I wanted to just take a moment and share that data with you. Um, some of this we're still finalizing, but I think it's important and it's really critically important that we recognize in public education that we educate all students. And so when we're talking about a variety of subgroups and demographic
042groups, um, we do our very best to make sure that we provide a quality education. So I've just dropped into your packet for you to review some information about those subgroups. Um I I am very proud of the achievement data that our subgroups have demonstrated last year. And when you look at that, you'll see all of our subgroups um that we have identified in our school system met growth. And so when we talk a lot about proficiency and where we're at and and student achievement, um we don't want to certainly want to make sure that we don't neglect to recognize those subgroup students and their academic progress that they have made. And you'll see all of those have met growth. Now, we certainly strive to exceed growth and will always strive for improvement and to
043get better, but I wanted to just to point that out when we look at our um subgroups and of course a lot of that um there's some some funding ramifications and challenges that we have to sometimes overcome with alternative funding sources and local funding. Um but just starting when we look at our English language students, you can see um that we have really nine staff members that serve that population of students. um 6% of our students that are identified as that. And so um always continuing to work with that population are academically gifted students. Um you can see there they're only funded at 4%. And so um when you think about okay, how far can you stretch 4% um it's a challenge. Um but our our teachers do a really good job with that. And
044one thing that I want to commend our curriculum department and human resources and just everybody across the district and coming up with a model where we have a local endorsement. So, even teachers that um are teaching um you know, regular ed classrooms and they're a teacher of record, they can go through and get a local endorsement that's specific to Davy County that then gives them some extra skills that they're able to then um serve some of those academically gifted students just to make sure that they're providing a rigorous curriculum and high expectations and have some differentiate differentiation that they can use to better serve that population of students. We do have 29 um um teachers across our district that are certified that have an AIG certification. So that's important to note. That means that they've
045went on and got that certification or that that endorsement so to speak so that they can serve those students. We're talking about um looking at students with disabilities and a and that is a wide variety of students and you can see just the number of different kinds of categories that are available. And and I really want to pause here just a moment and point out and and I think probably um we've had some conversations and some trying to make sure that there's some awareness around students that are identified with with autism. And you can see that that um that graph down at the bottom over time how that has increased at a at a really drastic rate. We recognize that there are going to be some some things we're going to need to address when
046we're serving that population of students. That's a challenge for our classrooms. is that's a challenge for our administrators. Um that's a challenge for our prek programming. And so we're having those conversations and I just wanted to make sure that I emphasize that with the board. And when you look at only being funded at 13% um ac from the state um for our our students with disabilities, that makes it even more challen challenging to make sure that those 47 teachers and our instructional assistants that are in our um system are able to um get the the professional development that they need. um that we're able to make sure that we're stu serving those students in the the very best that we can. So, when you look at that list, I mean, you see that we have
047students that um have autism spectrum disorder. We have students that are um identified as as with developmental developmentally delayed. Um we have students that have emotional disabilities. Um there there's some that are identified as intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, and some have multiple um disabilities across different re across different areas or categories. Other health impaired and in speech impairment as well. That's just a few of those. You'll see that breakdown. So there's a variety of expertise and I commend our our EC teachers. I commend our um instructional support staff, everybody that that serves those students. As you can see, there's a lot that goes on with that. our economically disadvantaged students. Um right now we've identified 52.7% of the student population is qualifying for free and reduced lunch. We really appreciate um our our child nutrition
048and school nutrition staff and for making sure that they get those um applications out so that we can identify as many students that need that. You see that that drops off dramatically as students progress from elementary to middle school to high school. That doesn't mean that suddenly they are financially like able to um afford or have no longer be um identified as economically disadvantaged once they get in high school. It's probably more of a factor of of just some of the stigma and things that's connected with that for a high school student are not submitting that application. So we we try to always um make sure that we have updated applications so that that data is correct. Then I'll I'll just close with some of our demographic data. And you can see what that um
049what that means with those four demographic groups. Um our white population, two or more races, Hispanic and black population continuing to serve those students as well. I will say this this these are the subgroups that um are primarily represented all across Davy County across the state. There are other demographic subgroups obviously, American Indian, Asian, some of those other types of subgroups um that that we just don't have. You have to have 30 that qualify based on the um the accountability model and so they're not included in this, but we of course serve those students as well. So certainly we'll entertain any questions. Again, December headcount um we do submit that to the state. The state then does do a report to the general assembly. Um, so again, that's a one of those legislative requirements that
050we gather each year. >> And when you say u 30 for subgroup, is that systemwide or per school? How how does that shape? >> That is that is per school. >> Okay. >> That's a bigger number than it used to be. >> Michael, are you in here? And and you might double check my memory on that. Is it 30 per school for a subgroup? >> Okay. That's why some of those obviously we don't have 30 students within that demographic that would to qualify for a >> better than the 10 we used to have to have. >> Right. Y >> questions. Okay. Hearing none, we'll go to Mrs. Haynes for her school calendar report. And before and while you're getting started, say thank you to Joe and Michael who represented us uh attended all the meetings
051and we appreciate uh you know you being there and giving input. Thank you very much. >> Thank you Chairman Pototts and board members. Um I think they're going to pull up some slides here to get me started. Here we go. All right. Um, as you all know, I shared some calendar development or a timeline with you back in October that looked like this. And tonight, I am back on behalf of the calendar committee um to give you an update. At this point, the calendar committee has met three times. You see the dates listed up there. Um, and we've used that time to work through developing calendar options for the school year. Typically after this presentation and discussion, we share those options with staff the following day. Um, and I I take those to staff for
052them to vote and then I bring that vote back to you in January u for final approval. So you can see we are here um and hopefully after our discussion tonight we'll be ready to get input from all of staff and and move forward. to give you a little bit of overview. Um, as you can recall, we invite the teacher of the year, the principal or the assistant principal, and a parent repres representative from each of our schools to be on the calendar committee. Um, we also invite anyone who has questions or concerns or complaints to join the calendar committee and learn some of the details of that because it it there's there's a lot to it as you all know. Um, we do have a few district leaders that are part of the calendar
053committee. Um, and of course we have board representatives as Mr. Pot said. So we want to thank Joe and Michael for being on the committee and suffering through this year. Um, ultimately we ended up with 34 committee members who who showed up for our meetings. Um, and we had three district representatives plus three that helped with with the facilitation of that. So I want to say special thanks to John Marshall and Kelly Klutz for running our laptops. Um and also to Michael Puit for constantly monitoring our our instructional hours as we made adjustments. Um the committee a committee of 34 is quite challenging I will say. Um and it's it's challenging to manage just simply because of size and the number of voices at the table. But I will I will also say this year's
054committee was more engaged and more collaborative than I think we've ever seen in in many many years. So I do appreciate everyone's involvement. When we started meeting on that first date in October, we went back and revisited considerations and I talked with you about these before in October, but this was really about educating the committee and making sure they were informed before we we were diving in to get started. So, we did look at the current calendar legislation as well as the proposed legislation that I shared with you in October that may um cause some penalties for districts that are not following the law. Um, we talked about we went back and reviewed the survey results from the community and the staff. We looked at what's best for instruction, what's best for teachers, alignment with
055DDCC for those students who were taking CCP courses and of course considering athletics. So, we did all of that frontloading um, of information before we got started. So with that, um, the committee began by looking at calendar options that would align with Senate Bill 754 that's been proposed. And you'll remember that this is the one that we have referred to as the burger bill. This bill allows an alternative earlier start on the Monday closest to August 19th. And as I shared back in October, our survey results from staff and the community support an earlier start. So this was our first focus. It's where we began. And when we did this, we looked at two calendar options that were aligned with Senate Bill 754. One, and first and foremost, trying to get our exams at the
056high school before the holiday break. Um, that would be ideal. And one, looking at exams after the holiday break. So, this slide in particular shows where we started mapping out um exams squeezed in before the holidays. I know you might not can see the details, so I'm going to hit some highlights with that. So, with this first option, trying to squeeze exams before the winter holiday break, we start on August 17th. Um, we had to cut the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Um, we did reduce the number of days from 90 days in a semester to 88 days in a semester. And you will see that um what is my shape there? It's a hot pink on December 23rd. Um, that is where our last day fell before Christmas break for students taking their last final exam.
057And so that was too tight of a squeeze and the calendar committee pretty quickly said, "No, that's ugly. We don't want to do that." So then we went to the second option with Senate Bill 754 and that one was um extending exams after Christmas. That one did allow us, we still started with August 17th. That allowed us to put a break day back in the day before Thanksgiving, which we hear from families they need for traveling for those who have family out of um out of town. But with that, you will see that students return from the winter holiday break on January 4th and they immediately walk into exams. There is no opportunity for review. Um, so what that means is either our students are studying over Christmas break knowing that they're walking right back
058into exams or they're not studying over Christmas break and they are walking in cold and unprepared. Um, either way, the committee did not see this as a good option and it did not help us align with the community college calendar and the semester changes with them. And so once again, the committee said we don't want to pursue this. So, we took Senate Bill 754 off the table and we went back to current legislation. So, with that, we spent most of our time developing two traditional options. Um, as I've shared several times, and I included in the in the visual here, this current calendar law provides the provides the bookends for us. The Monday closest to August 26th and the Friday closest to June 11th. Um, it does require 1,025 hours. We don't use 185 days.
059We can get that within 180 and still have cushion um for you guys to wave two days of inclement weather and and us not have to even micromanage the late starts or the early dismissals because of weather. Um but we do have to monitor our instructional hours pretty carefully particularly because of sharing buses between some of our schools and so that's why Mr. Puit really had to monitor monitor our calendar development as we went. Before we get into the details of the two options, I do want to share the similarities. Um, a lot of this was based on feedback that we've heard not only this year but throughout the years. And so both calendars, we put in a workday on the DDCC fall break. For families who have kids in traditional schools, but also have
060students who are taking CCP courses at DDCC. We hear it's really hard when spring breaks don't align and other things don't align. So, we put a work day in the fall break of DDCC to at least give a little bit of opportunity there for families to have travel and time together. We put a work day at the end of first quarter for parent teacher conferences. We put a workday in the semester change, which is really necessary at the middle school and high school level. We put in a workday on President's Day when many families do have a day off. Um, and then one the last week of April. So, those were work days that were consistent um across the two options. We also consistently hear we want two weeks off for winter holiday break. Um
061a full week Monday through Friday for spring break and in both cases this is immediately following Easter. And then both calendars have early releases in September, October and May for professional development and three work days at the end of the year. So those are the commonalities. But just to highlight the things that are different for option one. Option one begins on Wednesday, August 26th. That's an important piece for many of our educators. Um, and lots of folks that you will talk to will say, "We really like a Wednesday start. It's great for kindergarteners um that we do staggered start with, but it's great for lots of adults and students for that matter." So, that's that's really a big ticket item with option number one. You'll see that November 25th, we did work in a break
062day so that both students and staff have three days away for um the Thanksgiving break. This calendar did maintain 180 student days with balance semesters, 90 and 90 and 45 in each quarter and 14 teacher work days with six at the beginning of the of the school year and five optional total. This one included five early release days, so more than option two. Four of those are usable and the last one you'll see on the last day of school. And then June 10th was the end um the last student day with a projected graduation of June 12th. That would be approved by you. That is only projected. But that's option one. Option two, you will see that we are starting like this school year as early as possible under the current calendar law which is
063starting on a Monday. Um, November 25th is an optional day instead of a break day. One thing that's nice about this calendar is that it aligns the semester change with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. We did reduce the number of days and the number of instructional hours in option two. So you'll see we went from 180 days to 177 days. That means that we have 100 no 140 instructional hours as our minimum. So that gives us a 15-hour cushion that you could still wave two days for inclement weather, but we might have to monitor early releases or delayed starts for ice or that kind of thing a little bit more carefully. Um, this one does include more teacher work days. You'll see um but fewer early release days. And the last student day would
064be June 3rd with a projected graduation of June 5th, which does give us that earlier graduation. that's important for particularly families of seniors. Um so at the end of the final meeting um I surveyed the calendar committee and wanted to see really what they recommended and the results might surprise you just a little bit. Um, of the 34 people on the committee, 26 completed a survey at the end of that third meeting. And so, seven or 27% said that they would recommend option one. 18 or 69% said they would recommend option two. And one from the calendar committee or 4% said that they would recommend an early calendar and change to option two if the penalties are passed this spring. I will say with that though, we we have heard from some of our parents
065that they do appreciate being able to depend on our calendar and that we're not switching back and forth um the way that some districts have. So, even though we would like to pursue an early calendar, they like some stability and some some caution as we do that. Some other comments that I heard from the survey as well as in some cases verbally. quote, "It's a bad example for our students to pick and choose which laws to follow." Another person said, and I believe this was a parent, said, "I hope that one day we can match our schedule to DDCC." Another one said, "An earlier graduation is important for seniors, especially with college freshman orientations beginning in June, and that was really out of support for option two with an earlier graduation date. I will say
066there is still a good bit of support for an early start if it is legal and if it can be justified to students and if we're not risking financial penalties for the school district. So at this time the calendar committee brings to you a couple of recommendations. First of all two options for um calendars for next year options one and two um to be considered and voted upon. But there was also additional discussion that that we really need help. And when I say we, that is collective. We need help. You all, we have surveyed our community, but we need our community's help. As educational leaders, we've advocated for calendar flexibility. However, our senators and our representatives need to hear from more constituents than the tourism lobbyist. This committee recommended that we have to better educate
067people and that means not only parents but also staff and the community at large because folks really need to understand why calendar flexibility matters and the importance of advocating for change so that we can do what is best or what we believe is best for our students. Um and that is moving forward with an early calendar without the financial risk that come with that at this time. So, with those two recommendations, I will open the floor up for questions or discussion. As always, it's been fun to lead the calendar committee. >> Hey, Jinda. So, for the second option, you said there's 177 days. >> So, is it it's unequal then? >> It is unequal. >> So, how does that look? >> So, when you look at that one, there's 177 student days. it had to
068be unbalanced in that situation. So we have 88 in the fall and 89 in the spring. We try to keep that as balanced as we can really out of equity at the high school level when you have students that are competing um to a certain extent for GPA and rank and all of those things. Um, however, if it w if if it had to be unequal, we felt like it was best to have 88 in the fall and 89 in the spring because if we are going to wave days for inclement weather, it's probably more likely in spring semester. It's usually after that semester change. So, it might end up being balanced and that was really the thinking behind that. >> Yeah, that's nice. Um, and then there were more teacher work days in Cal
069option two, >> right? Right? >> Because the teacher contract still has to be 215 days regardless. So with 215 days, if we decrease the number of instructional days, then we have to increase the number of teacher work days. >> Um that's that's where the balance because the number of holidays stays at 11, the number of forced annual leave days stays at 10. >> And so that's where the flux happens. >> Um we do still have to have at least two that are optional, but in both of these calendars, we have more than two. that are optional. >> Oh, good. That seems like a positive. I know we're always looking for more teacher work days. >> Yes. >> So, thank you for your work. >> You're welcome. >> And this >> thing you'd like to share?
070I don't have a question but I just want to say when I first got elected to the board I did not see the big deal over the calendar but last three years I have been educated on this and just watching Jenda the last two years I've served on this committee um Lee like she said there was 34 people on this committee no easy task she handles it like a rock star um and like many people in this room I look forward to the day that the local school board has the autonomy to set the calendar that makes sense for our students and our staff and our our parents. Um so advocating our elected representatives in the legislature very important. So that's why Thank you, Jim. >> Thank you. No, I just basically agree with everything
071Joe said. Um, it was an experience. Um, I wasn't sure what I was walking into. Um, honestly, I was having a hard time at first just keeping up with the symbols when you had your thing up there. I'm like, "Wait a minute. What's that symbol mean?" But, um, no, it was an experience and you you do a great job, Jinda. And just like Joe said, um voters need to be educated. We need I mean the only thing that can change this is the voters. So thank you. Question for clarification. You were talking about the uh 100 uh excuse me, 140 hours and then you said something about delays. Are the if we had 10 school days where we were delayed by an hour or two hours some or a combination of that does that figure
072into >> we have to we have to keep up with all of that. Yes. So anytime anytime we do have inclement weather and we have to adjust the calendar, we have to keep up with that. um with option one where we have 180 days that with that calendar our minimum the minimum number of instructional hours at um really at central Davyy is 151 hours so that one gives us much more cushion than option two which g which gives us 140 hours the 140 hours only gives us 15 hours to play with so we can still wave two days but we'll we will have to watch for early you know early dismissals or late starts. So, it might mean that we would have to cancel a early release that's planned for professional development to make up
073for that, but we we do have to monitor that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I'm sure we've been doing it. It's just one of those kind of things that doesn't dawn on you unless you're actually involved in it like you and superintendent and others. Okay. So, you're going to uh leave us with two options and we're going to we're going to vote on that. Or do you intend on coming back with a recommendation? I'm not trying to put you on the spot, but you I know you've got a bigger plan. >> If you all do not have any other questions or concerns about the two options that we have brought you, the option one and option two, we will go ahead and send those out to staff for a vote as early as tomorrow. um
074and give them between now and holiday break to vote and then I will bring back the that the chosen one to you all at the January meeting for your final approval. >> Jill, can we take a straw vote? Well, I think what I don't want to I don't want to put words where there were a jump over of words by our friend Jinda, but I think what she is trying to suggest to you is that you may want to hear from staff before you make your choice. So that if you did a straw vote, you would potentially be ignoring the effort to hear from staff. Am I capturing your unsaid words? Well, So, I get my straw boats, not how they feel about this, but whether whether we want them to bring us one recommendation
075or not. >> Okay. Normally, traditionally, we would take these two options to the staff. They would vote and I would bring back the one that was the winner for you to approve in January. If you want to handle that differently, then I will need that guidance. >> I'm okay. Are you guys okay with that? >> Yeah, I think it's really important to hear from the staff. >> I'm more concerned what the staff would want to do than what we would want to do right now. So, I think it's great to get their input. >> That's how we've done it in the past, right, Jinda? Yeah. >> Yeah. We we usually get a recommendation. >> Okay. >> And that's what I was searching for. >> Go back. >> Here. So typically we would um survey the
076staff December 3rd through 19th and then January 6th I would bring you either option one or option two whichever one had the most votes. >> Now you've eliminated to down to one and that's what I was getting at. >> Yes. >> Okay. Any other questions, comments? Thank you so much for all your hard work and I appreciate these guys expressing that earlier too. Miss Wilson, public address to the board. Are there any >> We do not have anyone signed up to address you. Uh and so the next words you will hear will be the staff's preference for calendar, it sounds like. Yes. >> So, I wish you a merry Christmas and uh I hope you have a some wonderful time with your family and involved in whatever activities that you may choose to get involved
077in. Um thanks for all you do. Any further comments or questions or anything needs to be said? Not make. May I hear a motion to adjurnn? Joe makes a motion. Is there a second? Stephanie makes a second. All in favor, please stand. Thank you. Thanks for attending. Hey, hey, hey.