001Thank you. Uh Mr. Jones had a a commitment for today and that was before we changed the date from July 1st to July the 8th. So, uh he will not be with us. Mr. Hunter is with us. Thank you for being here. Um, thank you staff members. I don't see anyone that's not a staff member, so thank you for being here and gracing us with your pres presence. Um, need to ask for a a motion to adopt the agenda as presented to you in your proposed agenda. Mr. Joe makes the motion. Is there a second? Stephanie makes a second. Any question or discussion about the agenda? All in favor? Show of hands. Motion carries 6. So, next on our agenda is an invocation. So, would you bow with me? Lord, it's a privilege to come
002before uh this group today and and discuss the business of staff and students for Davy County Schools. We do ask for wisdom to um help us discern and make the right decisions. We uh thank you for the commitment of this board and the staff members that are here. Pray your blessings upon them in Jesus name. Amen. Okay. Next, Mr. Cer, will you lead us in their pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Next on our agenda is the approval of minutes. you do have um a multiple set of uh amendments uh excuse me, amendments. Uh June the 3 when we had our regular board meeting and then
003we had the special call meeting one week from today. And so those notes are also included in your agenda. Any questions about those? If not, is there a motion to accept the minutes as presented? Stephanie makes a motion. Con makes a second. Any questions about the amen minutes? All in favor? Motion carries 6. Um just want to share a couple of things on the dates. Um we will be meeting again uh in August at our 4:00 time rather than our standard 6. And believe it or not, by the time this board gets back together, we will have early college back in school. seems almost impossible, but that's what's going to happen. Um, and finally, I do want to say there is a training on the 21st of July that's sponsored by the schoolboard association. It
004is in Raleigh. It is uh intended for board members and or superintendent. Um, if you would like to go, if you'll hang around afterwards, we'll talk about uh arranging transportation to ride together and that kind of stuff. Okay. Anybody need to add anything to important dates? If not, we'll move right along with welcoming officially your first regular board of education meeting. And I trust that first seven days have been great and uh we welcome you here and look forward to uh you're smiling as if they are. They have been. Yes. Look forward to hearing your report. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair, madam vice chair, board. I appreciate the opportunity to bring to you an update. really um kind of everything that's been going on since you last met and it has been a um pretty
005busy seven days uh for me um since um since last week. So, a couple of things um that I'd like to just highlight. Obviously, with the end of the school year, we had a fantastic end of the school year and recognized over 470 graduates um that were part of um Davy County High School and the early college. And of course that includes early grads, um, junior grads, all of those different graduates. But certainly a job well done with this year's graduation and all of the accomp accomplishments of that senior class. Looking way ahead to 2038. That's our kindergarteners. So we're already starting to think about um, kindergarteners and we have approximately at this point 332 kindergarteners that have registered. We appreciate all of our principles for their work and getting them registered and getting them
006uh reaching out to parents. And of course, parents, if you have not registered your kindergarten, it's a great time to do that to go ahead and get a start on that. So, we're looking forward to all of those new faces in our buildings coming up in August. Um, as always, we report out our attendance rate and I'm pleased to say that we did maintain a steady 93.25% which is consistent with last year. So we are still continuing to monitor that. Um the principal is reporting um each month that that attendance rate that is still a little bit down from precoid but we are working to make sure that we are encouraging that that good attendance and appreciate all of the work that our families do to make sure that their students are present. I will
007say the spring was very consistent um and was was solid. So, I appreciate um all of that work that that went on across our schools and getting students um valuing being in school and engaged during the spring, which sometimes you see a dip there. Now, while students aren't in session, there's a lot going on this summer all across our campuses. Um and you can probably see on one of the images up here, that's our Kinder camp. Um so, our kinders that are coming in um participating in that at all of our campuses across the the county. Um we appreciate um the work that goes into that. We do anticipate around 150 students or future kindergarteners will be part of our kinder camp. That's made possible through um a support and grant from the Meban Foundation.
008So we certainly appreciate all that they do um to support that program. And there's so many others that that all take part or that are possible because of the community support, community partners that we have. And so we've got exceptional children's camp, camp discovery, steam camps, read to achieve camp, I mentioned our kindergarten camp, and then of course our YMCA camp. So there's a lot of activities that take place across our community and appreciate all the community support and our partners that make that possible. Not only are we providing some summer programming for our students and our children, but we also have um summer programming for our administrators and our instructional support staff have put together um a robust and quality professional learning opportunity throughout the summer for our administrators. Over 30 professional learning opportunities
009that they can participate in. Anything from data analysis to how to use Google and artificial intelligence. So, a lot of opportunities for them um to get a break from all the things that they're working on over the summer to participate in some learning for them. Then, of course, on July 22nd and 23rd, our district district staff and our school administrators will be participating in the administrators uh retreat. That'll be that'll be part of the truest leadership institute and they'll be participating in the team optimization program. So, we're looking forward to that opportunity. Now, human resources in the summer, um, always very busy and active. Um, you can see, um, that middle picture there, lots of recruiting going on from our human resources staff, and we appreciate Miss Haynes for coordinating and and, um, a lot
010of effort to make sure that we, um, have hiring a priority. They, Miss Haynes and her staff has done a fantastic job. They've already processed um, over 41 new hires for the upcoming school year, and that's only going to continue to grow. there'll be a lot more hires coming on board and a lot of onboarding activities taking place and we've got a lot of priority positions that we're working on. So, if you are interested in working for Davy County Schools, um we think we probably can find a position for you. You can reach out to human resources and we'll make sure that we can find a place for you. Um particularly some of those classified and hard to staff positions. find find uh Miss Haynes at one of those recruitment opportunities across the county and
011she'll be happy um to connect you to the right place and the right people. Operations has been active. Um and I know that oftentimes this is there's a lot of routine maintenance that takes place during the summer, painting, floor uh a floor refresh, all of those different things, but there are several um significant projects that I just want to highlight. Um, and some of these are have been completed already. There's a wall petition in the cafeteria and auditorium at Central Davy Academy that has been installed. Um, our uh maintenance staff has been um completed a lot of HVAC upgrades at several of our schools. They've also completed some uh gym floor refinishing at the high school. Um, so the nice nice good nice clean uh gym floors have been updated and refreshed and are still
012currently working on some LED lighting in some of our schools. Some of our schools are also updating the carpet to luxury vinyl tile in some certain sections. So um that's in progress. And then also um athletic the athletic practice field at the high school that's still in progress. Still continuing to upkeep that and get some upgrades there. um the gym floor at Cornasser that was one of the the projects that is um on the radar that's been delayed just to the volume of work that they were doing. So um hopefully we'll get that started in the coming months. But just wanted to note that our technology staff um likewise has been very active and busy. They've done a lot of Chromebook refresh um rotating those that are at the end of their life pulling in
013new ones um from based on that uh that Chromebook order. And then security cameras, they have completed all of the um server upgrades with the with the security cameras. So, they have completed that. Um they're still doing a lot of work related to um inventorying some equipment in some of our departments, making sure that those are all updated as well. And then a lot of server, working on some network servers and some upgrades there. So, our technology team has been very active and we certainly appreciate all of their effort and work. Summer feeding is a highlight during the summer and I just want to express a lot of appreciation to our school nutrition staff for all of their work. You can see a picture of them as well. Um we have 16 um school nutrition
014staff that have been continuing to pro provide services all across the county. And and I know the the general public might not realize this, but we actually have a total of 38 sites across the county during the summer that um are responsible for providing some summer feeding. 29 of those sites are accessible by the public. And then of course we have two of our schools um Colami and Moxville that have actually full service breakfast and lunch. Um overall so far they have on average feed around 13 uh 1,350 meals per day or 6,500 meals per week. So they're very active, very busy during the summer. We appreciate all of their work and what they do during the summer as well. If you've noticed Pine Brook School Road, there's a bridge out there um if you've
015been that way lately. So, um, DOT has been very, um, responsive and very good with communicating with our transportation staff. And so, they are working, um, with DOT and with the school administration in making sure that there's a plan for what that looks like at the start of the school year because that will be out for some time. So, I just wanted to make sure that everybody recognizes and realizes that. We will have some conversation and some more information forthcoming about any changes in traffic patterns or anything like that, but just wanted to make sure that the public and everyone was aware of of what that looks like for us. Now, also, not only has it been busy for us here in Davy County over the last month, but of course, NCDPI and the legislators
016have also been somewhat active. Um there's been a series of bills that have come um to that have gotten out of the general assembly and have made it to the um governor's desk. Some of those have been vetoed. Some of those are still pending, but some action has been taken on those. We are carefully monitoring those. Probably the most notable is um is a a policy around wireless communication or cell phones um in the classrooms during instructional time. So there will be a lot of conversation, a lot of work around a policy that relates to that. So, we just want to make sure that um our our community and our our families are aware that um there is some general assembly or some legislative action around cell phones in the classroom. So, just stay tuned
017for some more information on that. And then finally, from um NCDPI, the end of grade and end of course retesting. Um they have now approved retests that were originally just used for as part of the proficiency in the accountability model. they have now approved that to be used for growth as well based on this previous year. So that may be some we test we retested a lot of students. Um in fact around um 1,955 um tests were retests were administered across the district. So we're hoping that that will provide some um good results whenever we get our results back later in the fall. And finally, as a point of personal privilege, I would just like to express my appreciation to the school administrators that have been the principles that have been meeting with me oneon-one,
018a lot of community members, Mr. Chair, that have uh called and emailed and I I can't go through and and name them all. There's been so many, but um it has been a wonderful warm welcome for myself and my family in Davy County and just so many so many wonderful people to appreciate. And so I hopefully if I get to see them out and about in person, I'll be have a able to have the opportunity to say thank you in person. But publicly, I would just like to express my appreciation once again. And and FYI, uh Carol has been setting up some meetings for uh Dr. Belchure with key leaders in our county uh governmental level and not governmental level, business level, all kinds of folks. So, we appreciate Carol doing that and I know
019it just adds a lot to your busy schedule, but it's important that uh you're making yourself known out in the community and letting people uh put a face and a name together and that's very important. Yes, sir. Um you mentioned your administrative retreat. Where is that going to be held? So, that is in Greensboro at the Truist Leadership Academy. Okay. So, it's um and it's part of the team optimization program that they provide. Okay. And I didn't know there were so many feeding sites. I don't maybe all of you guys knew, but I didn't realize there so many feeding sites. Not that I would expect you to know, but maybe since Georgia. What's some examples of places that uh we're providing the feeding services? Well, so we have we have them um drop and go
020or grab and go meals at um at different distribution points all across the county and um where parents can come um even um even if their child's not with them, they can come and pick up meals to go and then um we have the two full service feeding sites where they can sit down and get a meal as well. And um George, I don't know if you want to highlight any other specific sites. Most of the mobile routes are consider bus stops or apartment complexes. U some of the other ones that aren't listed like Baptist preced majority of our feeding is going to those sites it's Monday through Thursday we provide meals Friday very good and Mr. Chair, I will say we have had um some feedback from those in the community that have participated
021in that and have commented on the quality of the food and um have really been appreciative of that. So um I think it's important that we recognize that this is that it's a good meal as well. Right. Questions to uh Dr. Belchure for Dr. Belchure. All right. Well, again, we are very appreciative of you hitting the ground running and u as as we've all said before, welcome and we won't get you won't get to hear that too many more times. So, enjoy it while you can. Right. Okay. Um board, our next item is consent agenda. And there are a lot of items on this consent agenda and many of them have to do with things that Mr. uh Harris, Clay Harris has operations control over. So I just wanted him to make a comment before
022we get a motion on the consent agenda. Vast majority of items you see are the budget amendments for year end. It's something we do every year. It has to do with balancing our budgets. Um, maximizing our local dollars. And so you'll see a lot of a lot of movement from local to state or local to federal to use dollars we had for that because any state dollars we don't use, we have to revert. So we spend a lot of time making sure that we can take the expense to that cost and then we move that cost over there with whatever's left. So that's the reason that you'll see 12 items on there. there's two for each one of the funds with with the funds that we have. So, that's the biggest bulk that of what's
023on there as we take a look at it. Um, there was a question about the SMO contract as well. Um, I had that put on the agenda just because of the dollar amount. It's a three-year agreement we have with them. There's a there's an increase built in based on cost of living. That's all that was increased in there, but just for the sheer volume or the sheer amount of money that's associated with that, I wanted to make sure that was in front of y'all so that you could see it. Um, and where it is. Did J say? Oh, I thought Jill said something. Um, so that that's what's that's what's on the consent agenda. The big pieces that are on there. Um, I think there's travel CCT contract is on there. Same thing with that.
024It's it's a contract that we do annually with them. So, other questions or things that y'all ran into that I'm not going to answer? Mr. Chairman, I will say that and commend Mr. Harris and his team. I know that um there's a lot of hours that go into endofear financials and oftent times while um the lights were out in all across the the building up here, there were a few lights that were still on late hours and so certainly commend him and his team for all of their work and effort in putting this together and closing out the year successfully. Thank you. Chairman Pototts, one other reminder before you all vote on the consent agenda. Um, each board member should have a paper copy of the addendum to the personnel list. So, as you vote
025on the personnel packet, it will include this addendum. Okay. Okay. With those comments, uh, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as proposed? Michael makes a motion. Is there a second? Joe makes a second. Now, questions or discussions regarding consent hearing none. All in favor? Motion carry. 6. Next is Mr. Pots. Sorry to interrupt again. Go right ahead, Miss Things. I'm sorry. If technology will please advance the slide. Thank you. Um, you hear the announcement there. Yeah. So, it is an honor to announce Emily Moore as the next principal of South Davy Middle School. She is replacing Cindy Stone who has moved to the high school. Um, unfortunately, Emily cannot be here today because she is chaperoning a church youth group on their camp this week. So, she literally is driving a bus.
026Not at this very moment. She actually said she was going to be streaming in. So, I hope Emily is is watching out there. Um, Emily is no stranger to Davy County. She is a product of Davy County Schools. She and her family. And she's worked in Davy County schools um as an elementary teacher starting in 2005 after she earned her bachelor's degree from Appalachin. She went on to earn her mers in elementary ed from Winston Salem State. She's nationally board certified. She served as principal intern at Davy County High School in 2020 um during those fun COVID times and that was after she had earned her masters or while she was earning her masters in education educational leadership from High Point University. She's been assistant principal at Koulam. So Miss Burgess is a little bit
027sad. She's been AP at Kulamy since 2020. Um she's been assistant principal of the year. She's completed the aspiring principles program, lots and lots of accolades. She has proven herself in so many ways. And what I will say about Emily is that she truly has a ser servant's heart and really wants to make a difference here in the community that she lives in the community that that helped make her and continues to contribute to her to her family. Um she, her husband and her two daughters live here in Davy County and both of her girls will be at Davy High next year with Miss Stone, one as a senior and one as a freshman. So we are really excited for Emily to take on this principal ship and we want to wish her well. We'll
028be here to support her. Congratulations, Mrs. Moore. Okay. Committee and staff reports. Dr. Blackner, would you come forward, please? Thank you. Um, today I was uh want to give you kind of an update of one of the major changes we're making for next school year. Uh, we're changing the company which we provides the student safety we'll say on the computer side. Talking about web filtering. Uh, we're talking about u several different things I'll go through with this. We're changing to what's called Aristotle K12. And one reason that change is I always want tools that keep our students safe and if we can provide more productivity for our teachers, more tools for our teachers. And I think this one will do that. Like I said, it goes web filtering, email, and drive safety. It's the one
029that scans, make sure that there's anything um worrisome in emails or in their drives that we get alerts for that. and also has a classroom management tool for when uh they the teachers can see the screens and do some controlling of what's going on in the classroom uh for there. This one will allow it since we went onetoone uh second grade through 5th this last year. They haven't had this tool. This will bring that tool to the elementary school teachers as well. They've been asking for that. So in the web filtering, one thing that's different with this tool, it is specifically designed from K12. A lot of the other ones are are business tools that have been put into education. This is an education tool and built ground up from there. It also the exciting
030part I think it allows the teacher to have more control in the classroom. If there is a certain YouTube video that they want to have, they can release it for their class for that time at that time without having to involve technology or anything like that. So they will have more uh ability to control what's in their classroom with that. And there'll be more on that when I get to the classroom management tools. It also allows some more targeted filtering. They allow some more areas that we can filter and be more strategic and making sure we're getting what's appropriate for the kids in front of the kids. For the email, uh it is AIdriven and this is not large language model AI that this is AI that's been for a long time. Our previous tool
031even used this. Um, but it it it helps scan what's going on back and forth and then uh gets potential concerns back to principles. It depends what it is. If it's a safety concern, it goes SRO. We have these categories and it sends it to each one of them. If it is dealing with um like social emotional type things, then it'll go to the counselor and the principal and all these categories do it. One thing that's nice about this before it was all just kind of email. They got an email here, email there. this for those that might be of higher concern. It'll send texts. It'll do different things. So, we have more avenues of contact that um our staff can have when there's something that needs to be looked at. Sometimes they're nothing because
032it is AI and it's not going to be perfect, but that gives them a chance to look at it and see is this something we need to follow up on with the student or the family. Um, and it invol it allows that multi-layered response like I was saying that it has the principal, the counselor, the SRO depending on what it it sees in there that gets notified uh on any concerns that might come up. And then the classroom tools I'm really excited about because it allows um then have a little more control over what students are using to try to get around them in there. Like some teachers talk about how they'll open up a 100 tabs on the screen. Uh well, this can say you can say you can only have three tabs open.
033It'll only allow them to do three tabs. There's there's lots of tools in this that allow them I don't want teachers behind the a computer monitoring kids that way. That's not what we have them for. I want them interacting with kids that so allows them to set up an a culture and a climate that they can set it up and then be out with the kids. It also allows that if there's u espn.com and Johnny's on ESPN.com all the time, they can block that for that student at that time during the classroom and move on. There's ways that they can do things that gives them some control over what's going on there. But the goal is not to have them be internet police. The goal is to have them have tools which they can uh
034free themselves up to be with the kids and give them more control of their classroom. to pro when we went through to choose this we went through a review process at first we looked at it technically will it work with everything we have we had some teachers review it we provided opportunities for school administration and student support services all these different groups have looked at this before we made the decision to make the move to Aristotle K12 and uh our next steps is to now put out we're this month is when we can do the switch over from our old company to this and then we'll start the training for teachers support staff and school administrators on how that tool works and goes on in there. Do you have any questions? Thank you very much.
035We do not have anyone signed up. They're all on vacation and good for them. Thank you. Next on the agenda is the uh approval to go into close session to preserve the attorney client privilege of North Carolina general statutes 143 and to discuss personnel matters protected by state law and furpa. Is there a motion to go into close session? Joe makes a motion to go into close session and second. Stephanie makes a second. Any questions? All in favor? Consider yourself close session.