001Good evening and welcome to the regular board of education meeting for August of 2025. We appreciate you taking your time to come and support uh this board of education and support the ones who are going to be receiving some recognition this afternoon. um just by giving up your time to come here tells us that you care about what's going on and so we do appreciate that. Uh we will have one more board member here shortly has just text and said he's on his way so um we will have a full board but in the meantime we're continuing on. Uh so board welcome to all of you. Welcome back Mr. Jones. Feel like you've been away for a long time. That's all right. That's good. uh board would need to u adopt an agenda. You've been
002given a a proposed agenda and I would ask for a motion to adopt or modify the agenda. >> Joe makes a motion to to approve it. Uh is there a second? Stephanie seconds. Any questions or concerns? All in favor? Show of hands. Motion carries 6. Thank you. Next uh on our agenda is an invocation. But before we have that, I'd like to uh ask Dr. Belchure for an opportunity to share. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. On behalf of Davy County Schools, I would like to take a moment and offer condolences to Wendy Piery. Wendy worked at Dave Davidson Davy Community College for nearly 20 years in a variety of roles. Her positive presence was a lasting impact to her work family and the students that she served. And then I also would like
003to offer condolences to the family of Austin Obhan. He was the superintendent for Dup Dupin County Schools and served North Carolina students in a variety of roles ranging from teacher assistant to principal and to superintendent. So again, we would like to offer condolences to those families. >> Okay. Thank you, Dr. Belure. Would you join me for the invocation? Dear God, thank you for allowing this board of education to serve the students and the staff of this great county as we enter this new year of public education. And I pray for the safety of our students and our staff and everyone that's involved in the education of our students this year. Pray that you might bless the staff for their willingness to serve students. and we thank you for this staff. And now I ask for
004wisdom for this board as we conduct our business today. I say thank you again for the students who will be honoring and for the the kind and loving parents that have supported him as these children have moved through Davy County schools. I ask these blessings in your name. Amen. >> Next would be our pledge of allegiance. I'd ask former Marine Joe to lead us >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all >> I don't know if you could hear Joe say this but he said not former once a marine always a marine Welcome, Mr. Shelton. Uh, next on our agenda is uh the approval of minutes. You were sent a copy for your approval. Uh, is there a
005motion to accept the minutes as presented? Mr. makes a motion. Is there a second? Mr. Jones makes second. Any questions or concerns? Thank you, Carol, for putting those together so well for us. We appreciate that. All in favor? Motion carries 70. Uh, next is are some important dates that we're we're like to remind you of. And um, believe it or not, we have teachers already back in session with the early college. And so, it's hard to believe that that time of year is upon us, but it is. Um you have other major uh important dates in your packet. Uh I would remind you of one other date and that's our convocation. I think we have uh almost all of you that are going to be in attendance that can be in attendance and we appreciate
006that. Um, one other area that I want to share with you, our policy calls for when a when a board member goes to a workshop and that is paid by the by the school board that we're to come back and highlight what we learned and and what what the meeting was about. And so I had the privilege of going to the schoolboard association for their uh annual board of education training program on the 21st of July. And I'll just share with you five major areas that they emphasize for all board members. The first part was about uh two hours of ethics training which all of us have had and we're required to get every every so often. Our attorney usually tells us when that's due and we appreciate her keeping us in line. Uh and
007then there was a session on how to be a good board member in relating to your representative. And of course the emphasis there was was being positive and not writing emails after you've heard some discussion and have them constantly mad at you rather than trying to understand that like us they're elected officials and and you know they do have hearts and have feelings. Um and then they the next session was about the big three responsibilities that we have which is um revenue oversight, policym and hiring of the superintendent and I think we've had plenty of opportunities for that uh on an ongoing basis. Um next session was about the open meeting law and what you cannot cover in the close session. And then finally a conflict of interest uh session when board members have reason
008to recuse recuse themselves from uh the business that's taking place. So that's just sort of some highlights. Uh and second thing I want to share with you that during the past how many weeks? Six or so. >> Yes. >> We we've been on traveling Wednesday mornings trying to introduce Dr. Belure to um people who are in leadership positions and particularly nonprofit and and business leaders. Um it's been a a welcome um feeling of how we were received and how excited they are to to meet a new superintendent and learn a little bit about his personal life and so forth. And we've got some more scheduled believe in fact tomorrow. Believe we have some. So, uh, he's getting out and getting a chance to know the public and which I know all of you would say,
009well, he's supposed to, and we do expect that, but when you're coming from out of town, you need to know who who are some people that that are involved with the board of education in different kinds of ways. So, it's been a good it's been a good opportunity to learn from myself and I hope for you, too. Okay. And from that, we'll turn now to Dr. Belture for his monthly serendence report. >> Thank you, Chairman Pototts. I appreciate the uh the opportunity to get out in the community and I'm certainly um there's a there's a lot to be proud of in Davy County and um I'm learning that every day. So, I appreciate again the opportunity to get out and meet people and to be part of the community. Um board, I appreciate all that
010you've done to um make my family and myself feel welcome as well. So, it's been a it's been a good six weeks. I do have a couple of things just to to share with you as we um kind of look forward to starting school in just a a few weeks. Um we did get our advanced placement scores back and advanced placement is a national program sponsored by the college board. And so, our high school students are able to participate in the advanced placement program. And if they score a three, four or five on the advanced placement exam, they can get university credit ac at really um almost any university across the nation for participation in that. So we had 345 students participate in the AP program with 81% of students scoring a three-year higher. So
011that is a a fantastic result and a great opportunity for those students. I want to particularly note that this is the fifth consecutive year that there has been improved performance on the AP exam and we're certainly proud of that. In fact, we have um 25% of graduating seniors that score a three or higher on at least one AP exam at some point during their their um time as a high school student. So, a lot to be proud of with our AP scores and a lot of work that has went in from our AP teachers, from preparing those students for those AP exams. You don't know, I mean, they take that exam over two weeks in May. And so, even if they have the course all the way in the in the fall semester, they'd have
012to wait till May to take that exam. So, there's a lot of work and preparation on the part of the student and the teacher to to be successful in those advanced placement courses. Um, I would like to also express our appreciation to McKenzie Rattlage and the prek staff this summer. They continue to provide services um throughout the summer to 36 students um that that were able to participate in the prek program and already for the upcoming school year we are at 95% enrollment serving over 238 children for prek. So, they have done a really a good job in in promoting the pre-K program and getting students enrolled in that program and children enrolled all across the county. As as uh Chairman Pots mentioned, we do have convocation coming up on August 22nd. We're excited about
013that. And then, of course, the early college uh school will start for them and um really pretty soon um at August 18th and then the first day for students on August 25th. So, right around the corner. We're excited to have students back in the classroom and get back to a routine. And I know parents are excited also to get them back in school as well. And on that note, there's also a um if you haven't or don't know, there's a full slate of act of athletic activities going on all across the county and middle school and high school. And um those events, you can go to the the district or the school website and see when those competitions are taking place. I think volleyball, if I remember correctly, might be one of the first ones
014that's coming up. in just a week or so. But you can get all that information about tickets, any kind of required forms that are necessary, clear bag policy for all of our events as well. And then we also have band camp and lots of other um arts activities that are kicking off as well. And I just want to take a moment and give a special congratulations to the Davy Wind Ensemble. They were recently selected to perform at the North Carolina Music Education Conference in November. So, we'll have time to recognize them, but that is certainly um something to an honor to a noteworthy honor for them. And of course, human resources is always at this time of year busy um filling positions and Miss Haynes has been and her staff have been working, it seems
015like around the clock, filling positions and screening applicants and all the stuff that goes in um opening up for another school year. One thing that um was new to me and maybe to some of our other school administrators, we were able to participate in the administrators retreat at the truest leadership academy in July as part of the um Davy community foundation. It was a grant that they provided and we went participated in the strengths deployment inventory and learned a lot about how we function as a team, what our strengths are. So, it was a great opportunity for me to kind of get to know the principles and the assistant principles and the district staff a little bit better on a more personal level. So, I certainly appreciate the community foundation for supporting that work and
016providing some funding so that we could do that um a couple of weeks ago. We have beginning teacher academy coming up on August 11th. So, all of our teachers that are new to the to the profession, we have 19 of them. Um, and that number is changing probably um, daily right now, maybe even, but they'll be here on August the 11th to kick off our new teacher academy. That's always exciting. I can remember when I did that 23 years ago, and it's a lot, but it is a fantastic opportunity to get started and acclimated to Davy County schools. Jeremy Mueller in the transportation department. I mean, I think everybody knows this, but their work in the summer is so essential and non-stop. You might not realize this, but um they have a fleet of 80
017buses um total and they've serve as 62 to kind of get us started for the school year. We expect that we'll have 59 yellow buses running on that first day of school. But they have an average daily ridership of over 2600 students and they drive um 3,870 miles every day to serve our students. So certainly we appreciate the hard work of all of our transport transportation staff. You can see there's a picture up there. Um, everything from power washing buses to just routine maintenance and service and everything that goes into getting those buses up and running. So, we certainly appreciate them. Maintenance. They've continued to make steady progress on getting the buildings um ready and some of the the um repairs and and things that have to go on to to get make sure that
018they're ready for students. Making good progress on that. Our custodians, our floor crews, and our painters have had a really busy summer. There's 1.1 million square footage of building property across the district that they're responsible for. And so they've done a really good job getting that prepared. We mentioned athletics earlier and of course as you know there's a lot of work that goes into getting those athletic fields. We have over 25 athletic fields across the district that are also part of our summer kind of routine and it was hot for a few days. So we certainly appreciate all the work that has went into getting those fields prepared and ready for um athletic events. I'll conclude with just a couple of other important notes. Our our school social workers oftentimes behind the scenes, they do
019a lot that that um that go unnoticed, but they they had over 1,200 direct student contacts during the 2425 school year and 1,800 direct parent contacts. And of course that just means that they're helping meet the needs of our families across the county and and in some cases helping meet their basic needs, food, shelter, clothing, some of those essential things. One of the things that I think is really important because we've had a lot of conversation about attendance and how important it is to to be at school and the impact that that has on learning. And so they play a critical role. the majority, like 17% of all of those contacts that they have made oftentimes revolve around attendance and making sure that the parents and their families know what's going on at school and
020and can continue to be engaged with the schools that that they're serving. So, we appreciate all of our school social workers and the work that they've done. I'll conclude with just a couple of um housekeeping items. As you know, the general assembly, um, as you may know, they reconvened on July 19th for some veto override votes. And so, we have several bills that we'll be unpacking as the administrative team at the district office just to see what policy implications may come out of those. And then, for those of you that um that this might impact, US 58 is going to be closed for 5 days beginning on August 11th, US 158 um at Gaither Street right in town. So there will be a detour around that if you're coming to the county office um early
021college some of that some of them might be impacted by that. We wanted to make sure that our families were aware aware that that the DOT is closing 158 for 5 days beginning August 11th. >> Mr. Chairman I think that's all I have. >> Well thank you very much. And I believe Pine Brook Drive is closed is it not? Yeah, Pine Book School Road, the bridge is out there and it's closed for the for the year. >> Yes, sir. >> And that's important for our parents to to know that they're gonna have to detour to get there that first well every day, not just the first day. >> So, um, and the new teacher academy, did you say what time it starts? >> 8 a.m., I believe. Okay. Yes. So, board, any of you that
022can possibly drop by and just wave and say hello, I'm sure they would uh the leadership would always be glad to to know that you know you care enough to come and say hello, but busy schedules don't always allow that. But if you can drop by. Next on our agenda, we usually don't have an opportunity in the summer to do a whole lot of recognition of students, but this year we have a special opportunity to to recognize the two highest acade academicians at Davy County High School. And we have a brand new principal who's going to get to do that honor. There's Mrs. Stone. So, thank you, Mrs. Stone. Congratulations for for your new position. And we'll turn it over to you. >> Thank you, Chamber Pots, board members, Dr. Belchure. Um, this afternoon I
023come before you getting to celebrate some of our finest students. I did not get to hand the diplomas over to John Hawlam and Wade Bulmer, but I am grateful for Mr. Puit and his staff that led them um to that celebration. One thing I'd like to share is that um out of our 172 graduates last year, our Davy County High School students um earned 5.6 million dollars in scholarships. >> Wow. So, that is something to be celebrated and I'm very um excited about those students as they move into college in the next phases coming up. If you'll join me, Mr. Haw. I am giving Mr. Haw and a certificate this evening for a 4.75 GPA in our validictorian at Davy County High School. We're proud of you. He is getting ready in just the August
024the 16th, right? Is moving into Chapel Hill and will be studying some business and possibly even neuroscience. Is that correct? >> All right. We're excited for you and to see what happens and bring that talent back to Davy County when you graduate. >> Thank you. >> And we also want to say we also want to say congratulations to our saludiatoran. John was obviously our valadictorian, Mr. Weey Balmer. And he was funny. he could not be in attendance. He said, "Please give my certificate to John. He'll hand it to me. It's fine." But he graduated as validatoran with a 4.738 um GPA. So, we're very proud of these young men and all of our um students that are being recognized for Davy County High School this evening. >> Thank you. And the next presentation will be
025by uh coach Joy Anderson be recognizing Corey James. >> Good evening everyone. It is my absolute honor to stand before you today to celebrate one of Davy County's finest, Koi James. Koi is a name we've said proudly in these parts for years. Whether it was being cheered from the stands at Davy High or heard across the state in headlines. This past year alone, Ky was named North Carolina Max Prep's All-American and Player of the Year, North Carolina 4A Player of the Year, ABCA Rawlings First Team All-American and Prep Baseball North Carolina Player of the Year, plus even the ones that we've already acknowledged and celebrated. That's not just impressive, it it's extraordinary. And now with the 142nd pick in the fifth round, Coy James is officially a Washington National, a Major League Baseball player from
026right here in Davy County. But what makes Koi truly special isn't just his stats or his swing. It's his character. Despite the spotlight, Koi has remained grounded and loyal to his roots. After signing his professional contract, which was very exciting and stressful and a dream come true, he came right back here to Davy High to help the kids at the Davy baseball summer camp. That's the heart of who Koi is. A humble leader, a giver, and someone who hasn't forgotten where he came from. He's shown that being great isn't just about talent. It's about integrity, hard work, and pride in your community. So, Coy, from all of us, your teachers, your coaches, your teammates, your neighbors, we are so proud of you. Thank you for representing Davy County with excellence both on and off the
027field. We can't wait to cheer you on in the big leagues, and I'm sure kids all over this county will be wearing national hats around town from here on out. Congratulations, Washington. You got a good one. Congratulations, Koi. battle and soar. And Matt's gonna accept this because KO's in uh where? Palm Beach. >> Yeah, West Palm Beach at this moment. [Applause] Heather, would you like to join him? >> Thank you. and Kim. Okay. Okay. And their third uh presentation this evening will be by Will Mars. The Skills USA manufacturing competition. >> I apologize for that. I thought I was in the on deck circle, but I was actually in the hole. So, all right. Um, good evening board members, Chairman Pototts, Dr. Belchure, staff, family, and friends. I'm Will Mars, drafting engineering teacher at David
028County High School and Skills USA adviser. Um, with me this evening, I also have Mrs. Angela Reeves, health sciences teacher and skills US skills USA adviser as well. It's an honor to stand here to be able to recognize these individuals behind me who have had the privilege or I have had the privilege to have in my classroom as well as advised within our Skills USA chapter and most importantly watch them grow into the high caliber young men that they are today. Mr. Jaden Leonard and Mr. Ben Stanley. For those of you who are new new to Skills USA, Skills USA is a national organization that helps students develop leadership and professional skills through programming dedicated to the advocacy of skilled trade fields. Students are chapter members at Davy High School and also compete in their
029chosen career field in one of over 150 competitions. This year, Davy County High School had 35 student members. This year, our students competed incredibly well at our state competition in April in Greensboro, North Carolina. We had students earn first place in both additive manufacturing and robotics urban search and rescue which allowed them to compete at the Skills USA nationals event in Atlanta, Georgia in June. Today we are recognizing our students who competed in additive manufacturing, more commonly known as 3D printing. The competition that these young men here behind me competed in span the course of three days amongst um almost 40 other states and US territories. These students developed the assembly of a derby car um around the specs of a given RC motor like you would find in a remote control car. Over these
030days, the students sketched, 3D modeled, prototypes, printed, tested, printed again, and finally competed their car that they had designed. These 3D printed car prototypes were printed on a $100,000 PolyJet 3D printer, which is the equivalent of a fullcolor inkjet printer, not 2D, but producing a 3D object. Um, and the competition was hosted by the world leader in polyjet printing technology. The team behind me was one of three teams to produce a working vehicle that moved an extremely hard set of parameters and adapting to a technology they had never used before. On Friday evening of our trip, our team from Davy County, North Carolina was announced as a bronze medal finisher, which placed them on the stage at Skills USA Nationals. Students received medals in a national medallion that will stay in our trophy cases at
031DCHS. Each competitor on the podium was also awarded a $1,000 academic scholarship and a Prussa 3D printer of the same value. The skill set that these students have attained over these past three years in 3D printing is going to take them places in their careers that they do not know of at this time and is because of their drive to achieve in our classrooms. Also, on this trip, we had a lot of firsts. um students traveling to their first national competition, first student or team to ever place at the national competition for Davy County. And we have been there five times I believe. So that's very very big for us. And uh this last one I want to note because to me this is kind of the power of education and the opportunity we get
032to give these students. But one of our students who is 18 years old, he's graduated, took his first trip outside the state of North Carolina. So that was a big deal for us. So, we are so proud of these young men who will now take um the next steps in their professional careers past Davy County High School. Mr. Ben Stanley is pursuing an associates degree in computer integrated machining at DDCC and Mr. Jaden Leonard will be attending NC State in the fall to pursue a bachelor's of science in mechanical engineering. I also want to extend a recognition and a thank you to the PIT crew of Davy County High School staff and skills USA adviserss, Miss Angela Reeves, Mr. Seth James, Mr. Will Miner, and Mr. Mike Meeks. These people spend countless unpaid hours outside
033their normal roles in the classroom to provide these students with opportunities to compete and to develop their professional skills. David County Schools has a quickly growing Skills USA chapter and is because of these staff members who wholeheartedly believe in the power and the transformative power of career and technical education. Um they care about the relationships that we build with these students in our classrooms and they empower them when they enter our classrooms. Nothing is possible without that support system. Secondly, nothing happens without a school administration and thank you to Mr. Michael Puit who sits over there. Um, an administration that believes in what we do and knows what we do in our classrooms matter. They are the support that asks, "What do you need from us and how can we help?" So, humongous thank you
034to you guys as well. And finally, board members today and in the beginning of our new school year that we have ahead of us, um, I just want to personally extend an invitation to you guys to be able to visit and see some of the amazing things that these students do in our classroom. So, um, we are super proud of our CTE program here in Davy County and, um, please do not hesitate to send me an email and let's make that happen. So, thank you. And at this time, we'd like to recognate recognize Mr. Jaden Leonard and Mr. Ben Stanley for their third place finish in the additive manufacturing competition at Skills USA Nationals. Thank you. >> You're welcome. And again, we say congratulations to all those that are being recognized today. And I especially
035want to to say thank you for the parents coming today, but more importantly what you've done for the past 18 years almost or maybe a little more a little not quite that much and depending on the the situation. U school system recognizes that when we have successful students most of the time they got successful parents who are there with them. And so we really do appreciate you parents. You're welcome to stay with us as long as you want. If you feel like there's a better place to spend your time than listening to a business session, you feel free to leave. >> Dub, can I say something real quick before they leave? Jaden, just congratulations. I think you have been the most recognized person in my tenure on the board of education up here and I
036think that's really special. So, good luck and congratulations to all you've accomplished. And to John, congratulations to you as well. I know you weren't maybe recognized in the community as what I feel you should have been as a validictorian and we're just so proud of you. Um your hard work and dedication are not we don't take it lightly and um we're excited to see where you go in the future. We're going to be watching you and we're proud of you and what you've done in Davy County and same with Koi and his family too. I don't want to leave Koi out. He's um so exciting to watch and everyone's jealous. We want to be Koi, right? He's awesome. So, thanks you guys and congratulations to everyone. >> And I could go back if your grandfather
037was still living, he would be awfully proud of you, too. I knew him well. So, thank you again. Next on the agenda, guys, is our consent agenda. And I would uh call on Mrs. Haynes before we get a motion on the floor. >> Just want to remind board members that I did place an addendum to the personnel list on your desk. So, that is included within the consent agenda tonight. These are in addition. Okay, now I understand why Dr. Beltra said been a busy month because this is about double what we had to start with. Okay, with that comment, is there a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented? Mr. Hunter makes a motion. Second, Mr. Shel trying to figure out which one to call on Mr. Sh makes this second. Are there any
038questions or comments regarding the consent agenda? >> If not, all in favor of approving. Show of hands, please. Thank you. Motion carries 70. >> Chairman Pototts and board. Now, I'm sorry to interrupt again. >> No problem. >> Um, but I do need to make a quick introduction. >> It is my pleasure to introduce to you Miss Rachel Lackey. If I'll ask her to stand in the audience. Um, Miss Lackey is going to be our new assistant principal at KMY Elementary School and her son is with her, Elisha. He can stand as well. Um, Rachel comes to us with almost 20 years of experience in education. After learning after earning her bachelor of science degree from Pennsylvania State, she taught elementary school from kindergarten to third grade. and she is she has been most recently serving
039as the MTSS coordinator in Idol County schools. Um she's taken on lots of leadership roles. When you take a look at her resume, she's done lots of problem solving, test coordination, um all kinds of leadership aspects within her administrative support. And as she's finished her masters in administration in 2024, she is eager to move into a a formal assistant principal role at Kulmy. I will say from interviewing her u multiple rounds, she is passionate about putting students first, but supporting both students and staff. And one thing that that really came through in her interviews is the importance of building relationships and helping a student help helping a school grow by building those relationships first. So she is looking forward to starting that process at Kulie and we are very pleased to welcome her. She is
040taking the assistant principal position that was vacated by Emily Moore as she moved into the principal ship. So Angie Burgess is excited to have a new teammate. >> Welcome to Davy County Schools. Okay. Next is a business item and I'll call on Miss Kuster, Jennifer Kuster for that presentation. Good afternoon, um, Chairman Pototts, board members, Dr. Belchure, and guest, my peers and friends who hear about this all the time from me. So, I'm going to try to stay focused and not go on my rambling mode like I do with admin. I'm very thankful to have Jennifer Caster presenting with me this afternoon. um she is our MTSS coordinator and wears lots of different hats as well from the curriculum office and we she has assisted me since we started this plan. So um thankful to
041have her with me this evening. So when I'm I'm here and it's really strange that I stood before you with a little bit of a different group five years ago. Um so going to give you a little bit of a timeline, a little bit of history. So five years ago, we stood before you um talking about some of these session laws that you'll see on the board there. So it goes back to session law 2019 245 that started in November of 2019 and that was what is called the mandatory 2hour training on sex trafficking that is done every even year. So this is considered an odd year 25 26 but every two years we are required to um report out and train all staff that's everybody from custodians to teachers to all staff um around
042sex trafficking and abuse. Um then that led to in June of 2020 and we all know what happened in March of 2020. Um that led to the release of the school-based mental health plan which is what I'm here to talk to you about. that built within a program of a five-year plan that we were to build around all things mental health and support for all students and staff. Then that led to another release of the initiatives. We began training and planning together as a large team in the old Cdeck boardroom for many days between February to May. And then in July of that summer, we came to present to you our five-year plan. Keep going. And now we are at 2025 and in the last year we have House Bill 605 which was passed and
043what that is um requirements have led to is the development of our suicide screeners and threat assessment protocols. So that became that started coming out and I am proud of our district for what we chose to do which we went on and tackled that very quickly that summer. We did not have to mandate until a year later, but we went on and gotten things in place and began that process and training all staff for that. Then as we continue to look at more more needs, we have our CISP staff, which is our specialized instruction support personnel, counselor, social workers, nurse, school counselors, um, school psychologist. We also have mandated reporting that we're required to do within that part. So that's been something that's been added and changed within the student services world. And to come
044within Infinite Campus will be modules where we would begin to put all of those reports. But for right now, the CISP staff is doing those reportings on um Google forms that I accumulate, put all the information together, and then I put that into our our um our report that we send back in September. um that where all that goes back to the state but it will be an infinite campus eventually they're working on those modules within that and within that tracking that the CISP staff is required to do they do everything from again from documentation similar to what Dr. Belchure shared shared before with you, but they're even tracking the lack of housing for parents and families that they're working with. They're tracking food needs. They're retracting um interventions, counseling sessions, parent contracts, small groupoup
045counseling sessions. It's a variety of things that they're tracking and then we put that into a resource that goes then to the state. And the main goal, my understanding from that resource and tracking is again to help our legislators understand the needs behind our students as well as the support staff that are needed. And so here we are developing the next five-year plan. Okay. So this was a collaborative team that had started working together um consistently on the next five-year plan, but these folks meet pretty consistently year round. So that's the support staff that I greatly appreciate their time and you can tell it's a real diverse group trying to all different types of leaders as well as all levels across the district. When we're looking at the school-based mental health plan, one of the
046things that you'll see and Dr. Belchure is going to share the the plan with y'all in just a little bit. Um we try to look at what are the strengths and needs of our district. There is a variety of things as we look at this around the social emotional needs of children. We review all of our suicide risk protocols and threat assessment pro protocols. We're aligning all of our school-based mental health, our social emotional learning activities, focusing on those academic objectives. Another thing that's new in the plan this year is specifically it does address increasing the physical activity and what I call brain breaks for our students within the classroom. So that is a component that we have to begin addressing, supporting, and building upon over the next five years for how do we make
047sure that's happening in the classrooms. I joke and say it does not count the three flights of stairs at Davy High School. The intentions behind it is truly what is happening in the classroom for our teachers to truly understand more about the emotional needs of our students. And of course, focusing on those early interventions are always key. And then always reviewing and reooking at our mental health efforts for treatment, referral, and of course when our students reenter to help us guide um the creation of this new plan. We did have lots of different data sources that we've been able to pull from. Um and each of these data sources we've been able to use over the course of time um to really monitor the past plan as well. So um we pull a lot from
048our FAMS s that is the facilitated assessment of MTSS and we have a school level one that each of our schools participate in um each year as well as a district level um assessment. This is an assessment that looks at the systems and structures within MTSS, our multi-tered systems of support, which is the academics, social, emotional, behavior, and attendance um systems, structures, and supports that are within our schools that support school improvement. Um so it is a needs assessment that aligns with NC Star that our schools do use to build out their school improvement plans. And then as a district, we have our own assessment that we then participate in. um that that just gives us those strengths, needs of our overall structures that support school improvement. To then help us dig a little bit
049deeper into the mental health component. Um beyond what the FAM um assessments do, we do have the shape assessment. Um this really looks at the resources, the personnel and systems just around mental health and social emotional support. So, it's looking at what type of personnel, how many personnel that we have compared to our student numbers. Um, what type of problem solving is occurring around mental health supports and then what type of curriculum resources and other resources do we have available in including community supports within our county to support our students. Um, so we have over the last five years established a team that participates in that assessment each year and then we do review that um over the course of the year as well. Um, new to this year, transitioning out of a previous system,
050we have RTI stored. This is a one-stop platform for all of our student outcome data. Um, as well as documentation of our different tiers of support. So, what type of support is provided for our interventions and then as well as some core planning. So, this lets us look at all the outcome data around academics, attendance, and behavior all in one spot. So, we can see what our student needs are. And then um as Miss Kuster discussed, we do have ongoing student services meetings um both at the school level and the district level. So we're able to gather and use the notes from those meetings to also identify our strengths and needs to develop um this plan. So as we think about the different initiatives around our social, emotional, and mental health, you can see just
051a few things here that I've listed. We're very fortunate of our community partners that we have. So as we think about things related to safe and secure environments which all is embedded under the MTSS which is strategic planning that we do and all things school um we are thankful that we have Contegra which continues to support us push in to our schools. We have a memorandum of agreement with them. So they provide extra mental health support for our students. Of course, partners is our LME and then the Dragonfly House is a huge support and gives us lots of update and current information along the way, especially when we're doing our even year of the sex trafficking training. They help us with that. And of course, we're very thankful as always for DHHS is they are
052a strong supporter as well. So, as we look at these different initiatives and we think about the infrastructure we wanted to continue. So you can see here we had we've already adopted some um and implementing our SEAL learning and mental health trainings that we're doing. We're continuing to build. Um we're always looking at those staffing needs and those processes. And so for the past two years again, we've been able to have DHS support us as well with a grant that provides us with a um part-time 20hour week social worker. So that can help us as we want to continue to look at our ratios and numbers to improve that. and we're always looking to increase um relevant stakeholders for different support that they can continue to support our students as well as our staff with.
053This is just a quick reminder for those of you who aren't aware. The six-hour training is for any new staff member. So, generally what we do is we try to follow up with new to us, but they've started somewhere else to make sure they've had that beginning six-hour training. And then the two hours hereafter we track within within our buildings as well. What we developed when we started this plan five years ago was a very tailored process of the training for the six hours. We we implemented it into canvas and those courses are there for our staff. We have support staff that tracks that within the building to make sure they're getting the training. They hone in again to tailor their needs and discussions with them while continuing the other training as well. and Canvas
054is our way of tracking it and you will see there the various topics that are mandated by the state that we cover. Um, what we generally do is when we meet as a team, we reflect on conversations I have with principles in meetings. Some of the data from what Jen just reviewed with you, like what area do we need to focus on? This year, we will continue to look at um our D data and documentation for threat assessments and those kinds of things for suicide prevention embedded within that. And then we're also going to continue as we think about our youth mental health. We're going to focus some trainings on um and some support within that two-hour training for our staff around the effects of cell phones. So we're going to talk about some of
055those things that increase the anxiety and anxiousness of our children with all things related to cell phones and we're going to be using some variety of resources for that as well. So, those are the topics. Making sure I hit all I needed to there, Jen. Okay, the next big component of the plan is how are we connecting the social emotional learning and mental health within academics because that is where our learning takes place. So within the last five years, we really spent the time building capacity of our staff of just understanding what is social emotional learning, what is mental health, how does that impact our students, and then building in um support for them in really leading lessons, but separate from really what's happening in math class or ELA class. So most of our schools
056had a separate time where they were able to then put front some of these lessons. Um, so at our elementary schools, they had morning meetings where you're doing little mini lessons on taking personal responsibility or how you identify emotions or manage your emotions. But the next step going to this next five years is now taking what was separate and integrating that and giving our teachers strategies and support to make sure we're creating proactive lessons that support the whole child. Um, so part of that does include what we already talked about with the um movement activities. So, a big piece of this next plan is making sure we equip our teachers with the strategies of how do we engage students and create engaging lessons that support students well-being and then how do we incorporate meaningful um
057movement to allow for those mental health breaks. In addition, we'll be continuing to revise and work on our standard treatment protocol that just lists what strategies and what supports and resources we have within the curriculum, instruction, and environment from core, which is for everybody, into our supplemental and then our intensive support if students do need that. And then making sure our staff understand how to identify the needs of our students um during our academic um classes to make sure they can identify any students that might require some crisis intervention. Um continuing to review our discipline policies, making sure we responding um appropriately to students with behaviors and then just continuing to support um the capacity building of our staff with that. Um, a big piece is looking at how we intervene for students who do
058need extra um, support with mental health or with social emotional learning. The last five years we spent a lot of time building out um, protocols, making sure we had resources that teachers can use across K um, through 12 and then building out um, some decision roles, how you identify that, what um, tools do we have to help you understand what is needed and then what are some strategies you can put in place. So, the next five years really just taking that protocol, taking what we already have in place and those resources, um just refining those, making sure we're collecting data to make sure it's working for our staff and for our students, um and continuing just to build on that, especially connecting um with our community partners as well. So again, as we uh continue
059to improvement and where we're going and I do we as I think about this and I'm standing here thinking we have built a solid bottom, a solid framework, a solid plan at the bottom to continue to grow and improve and I'm very excited about that when I reflect on the past five years. When we're in it sometimes we don't realize where we're really where we started from and we have grown tremendously with our needs of our students in this area. So, we will continue to meet consistently. I do a various meetings, but definitely we'll pull this group back at the end of every year from our team members and review those plans, all that data that we've talked about to see um what we need next. And someone else will be presenting to you in
060another five years. I promise. So, >> I know I said that last time and here I am. So, um you know, it it is a team effort and I really I I hope our admin can share with you that they really have grown especially within our our screeners. Um I can share with you today because I was working on a lot of data with our leads that came in to help me this morning and we completed 91 screeners last year in our school district. Um out of those 28 did turn into a formal um threat assessment that was completed. So when we think about that and I think about the screeners and that's double from what we had the year before. It truly is our staff building a better understanding of what's happening with the
061child and what do we need to do next. And thankfully most of those screeners are screened out which leads to good conversation with um our parents then in turn how to help them as well as looking and engaging with those other community supports that we can put in place. Um we this will be back to you in um September for a vote because it will have to be approved in the September board meeting. We wanted you to be more aware of what the plan looks like. You will receive a copy of that. Feel free to um ask Dr. Belchure questions or myself. I'm happy to help you to understand a little bit more. Anything else? >> Yes. Question. >> Yes. >> You're talking about the six-hour training. >> I believe you used the term instructional
062staff. Does that include teacher assistants? >> All staff. Instructional assistants are included as well as our teachers. Yes. >> And is that a onetime training or >> six hours is one time and then after that the twohour training is mandatory beyond that. But that six is that initial base that gives them the groundwork to understanding what we do in Davy County schools and then that leads to the other things and then we tailor them each year for the two-hour training more consistently. And so as we transition to new employees down the road, is that going to be for all teachers who come in? They're going to have to have the six hours. >> So that list that y'all just approved for the beginning teachers for that for 19 of them, they will all have to
063take that six-hour Canvas course during this school year. And my last question, >> yeah, >> I understand you just say there at the end that this is presented for our understanding and not as a business item as it's listed on the agenda >> and next month after y'all had time to preview it and ask questions, it does have to be approved by the board. So, and we then we submit that to the state. >> Okay. So, we'll carry this one forward. Yes. 6.1 to October or September. I'm sorry. >> Carol's already got that on next month's list. We added it last the other week, didn't we, Carol? >> We're so excited to hear you tell all this stuff. You know, we appreciate your enthusiasm. >> It it it is it is exciting. We do get
064a little passionate about this um because we are seeing a lot of different mental health needs amongst all age groups. Um I think the youngest screener that we did this past year was a first grader. Do we do we need to do anything different since it's not a business item? >> Consider it again next month. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I just I just want to say thanks for all the work you guys do on that because there's a need and I know there's a need and I know how hard y'all worked on it and to your point um you know through COVID it got worse and you're seeing a lot of that now. So thanks for all the preemptive work that and the continuing work you're doing. >> Thank you. Thanks. >> Thank you.
065All right. Thank you'all. >> Anybody else? Okay. Thank you. >> And now we'll turn to Dr. Belchure to continue on with staff and committee reports. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We do have um some policy updates that um are before you for first reading um this evening. They'll be back again in September for action. But I did want to just take a moment um to highlight just a couple of of the policies that have some pertinent information that I want to point out. A lot of these are just routine updates to legal references, cross references, and some of that, but some of them do have some substantive changes that I just want to call your attention to. 1310 parental invol involvement. Um there are some notifications that are required by law and that the school
066system has to provide to the to the public if a school is identified as low performing. So there's a um an update with print on in that that particular policy to reflect that requirement. 1510. This is a school safe the school safety policy and there was a provision that was added to section D3 and that is um regarding training and recog on recognizing and reporting threats that might take place. So you heard a little bit about mental health training. There's also training that's required for recognizing um threats that's included in that school safety update. It does also um add um if you if you have reviewed that or when you do go in and dig into that a little more, you'll see section E was added to address the statutory requirement for threat assessment teams.
067So there's some significant additions in section E that relate to those um those threat assessment teams that have to be in place in our schools. So you'll see that referenced in that particular policy um remote participation in board meetings and 2342 voting methods. These clarify that votes um in a remote meeting during a state declared emergency um are required to to take um by roll call. And so it's just um some some language that was added to those two policies in the event that we ever had to shift to a remote board meeting would be um by roll call for any kind of votes. Then um I want to jump down to 3400 the evaluation of student progress. This um is is important for high schools and this particular policy update. It includes the grading
068scales for high schools and middle schools and elementary school or adds information about the grading scales. And then it references um a policy FF which is a failure due to attendance if you don't know what that code particular mean particularly means. That is a a code that that we've used for years in the student information system. And so I uh there's some language in there about 10% of the course if they're absent from from 10% of the course and receive a passing grade, they could still a student could still fail that course due to their um attendance or lack of attendance in that case. Um FF is not new. Um but that is some some different kind of language into how that is um from the state board that's come down from the state board
069through their policy. So naturally we have to update ours to reflect that as well. >> Dr. Belt, can I ask a question about that? Yes, ma'am. That is um cuz I looked at that too and it says and also has been absent for 10%. So it's not only because they've been absent for 10%. Is that correct? Great. Am I reading that right? So it has to be both. Okay. >> 3420. And this kind of goes along with that with student promotion and accountability in section H. And this this is revolving around credit recovery and how it's graded to comply um with state board of education requirements. And of course, part of that there there has to be a a a grade that's awarded and that has to be on the stu on the student transcript.
070Used to be there could be P's and Fs and some of those kinds of things. This particular policy requires a grade now for credit recovery um instead of just a a P or an F. So, you might want to take a look at that one. 3620 Extracurricular activities and student organizations. this um it's hard to believe but we are now in the era of name image and likeness in high school athletics as well. So there's some language around NIL particularly um relating to if a student uses a an agent um in athletics. And so when you look at that um there's some some requirements and some language that gives some some protections to the district related to when a student may use an agent for any kind of um NIL issues. And so that's referenced
071in there. And then it also um we we did add a local statement um just to clarify that homeschool students are not eligible for extracurricular activities in middle school. There was some confusion I think pre um previously related to that. So we wanted to make sure that we made that clear in that particular policy. And the last one I think I want to spend any time right now talking about is 7130 lure. Um, and you'll see here it um there was an there was if you look closely and chairman Pototts caught this in in section B1C there was a redundant sentence between A and C. And so statement C should really read um that the employee has witnessed behavior by another employee that has the appearance of impropriy whether or not the behavior may have
072a valid purpose. And so this is related to reporting if there's um any kind of misconduct that relates to impropriety or an inappropriate relationship that that that has to be reported to lensure by human resources and in this case you know and then if there's there's a that part C says if an employee has witnessed it or has knowledge of that then they should report that as well. So that was just a correction that we'll make that we'll make sure that we send out as well so that you can see that. Other than that, the rest of the policies, unless you have any specific questions on those or some of these others, um, are just updates to cross references, legal references, and some of those items. Any questions for Dr. Belchure? Again, that's presented for
073our information to come forward in the September 2nd meeting. Uh, next on the agenda is the public address of to the board. Miss Wilson, is there anyone? >> Board members, you've heard so many positive things from your community already. There's nothing more to say. >> Okay. Then the next item on the agenda is a motion to go into close session to discuss personnel matters protected by state law and discuss student matters made confidential by FURPA and general statutes 143 31811 and to preserve the attorney client privilege of general statute 143 31811. Is there a motion to go into close session? >> Motion on Mr. Call. Is there a second? >> Mr. Pots, can I ask a question before we do that? Are we too late? We're too late. Okay, >> you can ask before you
074vote, but you need a second. >> Yeah, let's look. Okay. Is there a second? Michael Hunter has the second. Now, are there questions or comments? >> This is not about going into close session. I just had another question about the board meeting >> about tonight's board meeting. >> So we don't have to do it then. That's fine. Sorry. >> Speak now forever. Hold your peace. You sure? Okay. Okay. We have a motion and a second to go into close session. All in favor, please show a raise of hand. Thank you very much. Thank you again for staff. Looks like all the staff that's left. Thank you for being here. We're considered in close session. [Music]