001She's she's been burning the midnight oil quite a bit. So, we do say thank you to her. Just thank you board finally for being here. Uh Mr. Jones is uh I think his daughter's getting married soon. Hope I got that right. Uh so he had told us well in advance that he would not be able to come uh to this meeting. With that being said, uh I'd like to get an agenda adopted. You've had a opportunity to see the proposed agenda. We need a motion to approve that or to modify it. Motion by Miss Helms. Is there a second? Second by Mr. Caldwell. Any discussion or questions? If not, all in favor show of hands. Motion carries 6. Thank you very much. Next on our agenda is invocation. Would you join me to God? We're
002thankful that we have such a a great school system and the opportunity to be here today and recognize many of our students and staff and um do the business that we are required to do and that we're privileged to do. We ask for your wisdom uh so that we can make good decisions on anything that is discussed here this evening. Uh we just thank you for the school year that uh we've been blessed with and pray that we'll just close it out successfully with a graduation and in uh just a short not quite two weeks. Thank you again for your goodness. In your name I pray. Amen. Would you join me with the pledge of allegiance, please? Mr. C. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands,
003one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Next on your agenda, board is the approval of minutes for the regular session of May 6th, the open minute open meeting minutes. Is there a motion to approve those as presented? Joe makes a motion. Stephanie has a second. Thanks, u Carol for your putting this together for us and taking notes each month. We appreciate that. Any questions or comments? All in favor of approval. Motion carries. 6. Next, I just want to remind you that we have a date that's pretty important to a lot of seniors in this county, and that's June the 14th, I believe, and would like to know like you to know that you're invited, board. Uh, I would suggest that you get there probably 45 minutes. Would that be
004a good recommendation before schedules start or more? I would say more. More. Get there as early as you can. Hour and a half. It is u there will be a lot of traffic. Uh, and with the extra security that we are putting in place and that will take a little bit longer just for people to get accustomed to it, but shouldn't shouldn't delay it much. But any rate, that's a it's a wonderful day. You'll enjoy it. Uh we hope it's not raining. We know it'll probably be hot, but we can handle that part of it. So, um and then we'll be back here for our regular meeting on uh July 8th, not July 1st. Um and again, that will be a four o'clock meeting that day. This time, I'd like to hear from our superintendent.
005What's going on, Miss Haynes? Thank you, Chairman Pototts and board members. Um, when I started to put together a superintendent report, I thought, well, we're closing. You know, it's the end of the school year. There's not much to say. And then I was like, "Oh my gosh, there's so much to say, so bear with me." Um, May is always an extremely busy month with lots of year-end events. We've had everything from Special Olympics to wrapping up sports seasons um with some significant accomp significant accomplishments. Some of those will be recognized tonight and some amazing performances and and art showcases. We have been celebrating a lot at the end of this year. As you all know, we had a retirement dinner in this room and we celebrated 23 retirees and that was um collectively 557 years
006of service. So that was that was a wonderful evening. We had senior day this past Tuesday. You may have seen some of the photos. Our seniors went back and visited their elementary schools and walk through in their caps and gowns. And that really is an event that's appreciated both by students and staff. It's it's it's heartwarming. Um I do want to say those events don't just happen. It takes a whole lot of coordination, a lot of preparation both at the elementary schools as well as at the high school. even with um some of our administrators driving buses around the county. So, we want to thank everyone who was part of that. Last Thursday, we graduated 181 preschoolers and those little ones are those little eagles, I think as we call them, are heading to kindergarten
007this coming year. Um, McKenzie Ratlage, our prek director, has worked very closely with our elementary principles and with Miss Kuster um and other EC and support staff to make sure that these students have a smooth transition as they go to quote big school next year. Um, just before Memorial Weekend, we graduated 28 early college students, 23 of whom also completed their associate of arts degree from DDCC. Um, so we want to congratulate them and also want to note that our early college enrollment is actually up for our rising class this coming year. So that's exciting and and that's kudos to Mr. Brown and his team. Both of the graduations that we've had thus far, the preschool and the early college have utilized the clear bag policy and open gate weapons detection. That's gone extremely smoothly
008and again that's thanks to the staff as well as the community for being so cooperative with that process. Um, we will continue to use um those safety measures in some of our big awards gatherings that are coming up in in elementary and middle schools as well as our high school graduation coming up. So, I do want to take a moment to recognize some folks tonight. I want to acknowledge Valerie Feeser and Eric Grider. Valerie is a name that you know very well. Um, but Eric Grider works for works for our transportation department. You don't often see him in the room. Um, but Davy County Schools has really been a leader in the state when it comes to piloting this first year transition from power school to infinite campus. and Eric has worked with the state
009transportation leaders to ensure that the TIN system which is what they use for transportation and infinite CA infinite campus is working well together and pulling the correct information to the point that the state came to us came to Eric um because they know our people are strong and our data is good and clean and they could provide guidance that then informed imple that will inform or has informed implementation across the rest of the state. So, I just want to recognize both Eric and Valerie for their work. That's that's a big deal. Um, that said, both fortunately and unfortunately, since our last board meeting, we announced that Miss Valerie Feeser will be transferring from her role as director of accountability and student information to take on the principal ship at William Ellis Middle School. And that
010is as Miss Morrison retires July 1st. As we went through the interview process, Valerie came forward to express her desire to return to a school and to be closer to the students and the action. Um, and we hate to lose we hate to lose her district leadership. Um, but we also appreciate her experience and we look forward we look forward to what she will do at Ellis. So, she builds on what Miss Morrison has already done. I also want to recognize Seventh Dimension. You guys may have seen this social media post. Um, but Seventh Dimension is a business in our community that has shown real commitment in the last few weeks. They have contributed thousands of dollars to assist students and families with lunch debt with some extra help at North Davyy and for seniors
011at Davyy County High School to be able to clear all debt before graduation. So, to Seventh Dimension, we want to say thank you. um your generosity and your investment in the community is remarkable and please acknowledge those folks if you have an opportunity. Um I also want to recognize the Davy County Wind Ensemble. They may not there may be some representatives in the room but are not here necessarily for that purpose tonight. We just learned in the last week or so that they have been invited to perform at the NCMEA, which is the North Carolina Music Educators Association conference in the fall, and that's typically in Winston Salem. It is a big deal to be invited there to perform that. As far as I know, we've never been invited. That's the first time ever. Um,
012so we want to congratulate Mr. Brusso and his students. And I also want to take a moment just to say we are developing a really strong collaborative team among our our band instructors, the three middle school band instructors, as well as Mr. Brousoe and his wife Cara. Dedicated volunteers. I know you've heard the name Edwin Owens. It's a whole village that's supporting that program. So, lots of other recognitions tonight. We appreciate folks being in the room. Again, a very important recognition is Dr. Heath Belchure, our new superintendent who will be sworn in on July 1st. He's been here visiting. Hope you've seen some pictures of him um out in the schools, but he's visited about once a week. And last week he was able to visit North Davyy, Davy High, Shady Grove, CDA, Central Davy
013Academy, Preschool, South Davey, and William R. Davyy. And I did not give him a test to see if he could get back to all those locations. Um, but he did receive a warm welcome everywhere we toured and um and he will continue some visits next week as well as some one-on-one meetings to so that he can learn. He and his wife will be moving in June and um so we look forward to his leadership. A couple of business items to mention tonight. Uh Mr. Harris and I had the opportunity to present at the commissioner's budget work session on May 22nd. I'll talk with you guys a little bit about that more in close session. Um while they have not finalized the local budget yet, we just want to thank them. Um we felt really encouraged
014uh they were engaged in conversation and we had really good dialogue when we were there on the 22nd. So that was encouraging and Dr. Belchure got to go with us to that as well. So um an update on the advanced manufacturing lab. We are planning for the construction project to go out for bids on July 1st and plan to open those on August 17th. so that we can select a contractor by the beginning of September and have a year to prepare that facility as well as organizing and scheduling classes that would start the fall of 2026. Again, that's if everything goes as planned, but that's the that's the tenative timeline. Um, speaking of Davy High, I want folks to know that the practice field at Davy High is undergoing some significant repair, um, including laying
015sod and top dressing. I think sod's going to be arriving in a day or two, Thursday. Okay. Um, we are trying to capitalize on the athletic dead period, but the field needs at least three weeks if we want to make sure this huge investment is really successful. So, Coach Dicks has been working with Coach Ellie to have a contingency plan to start summer workouts. But, um, that field takes a beating and it's going to it's going to require some investment. um board if you will recall last month I could not share an attendance update because of an update that was needed between um or with infinite campus. So our PMR for month seven was 94.7% which is the strongest attendance rate we have seen in month seven since before COVID. So that is to celebrate.
016Um and then our PMR for month 8 just came out and that was at 94.71%. So, anytime we're approaching that 95% again, we're really happy with that. Of course, we monitor student attendance carefully because we know the direct correlation with learning and achievement. Um, we also do know that this last month we will have a little bit of drop in attendance rate simply because students are some students are exempt from exams and so we will see that attendance rate drop at Davy High School. We know that. But we still want to finish strong. So, speaking of EOG's and EOCC's are already upon us. Um, note that different schools have different testing schedules and part of that is because we've given them as much flexibility as we can to test when they want to test within
017the windows and the state requirements, but some started last week, some started today. Um, and then of course Davy Highs will be the last five days of the semester. But this is when students show us how much they've learned and how much they've grown this school year. and we want them to perform their best. That includes preparing. Um, but we also want to remind students and parents that that includes getting good sleep and nutritious food and encouraging words. Um, I've seen some of those messages chalked out on sidewalks as students have come in. Um, but the message that we want all students to hear is you've got this. Just do the best you can. One score doesn't define you and we love you no matter what. And that's what mine heard this morning. So that
018concludes my final report as interim superintendent. Well, thank you very much. I can I can see that you're attesting to when I said that you've been busy. So we thank you so much. Thank you. Any questions for Miss Go right ahead. I'd like to thank you for stepping in. Uh you did you did a great job. That's a big role and you had many other irons in the fire and you kept everything going. So thank you. Really appreciate you. Miss H. You were talking about the EOG this morning at a school where I volunteer every morning. There were nine folks, parents outside high-fiving kids, giving out stickers. uh just made you feel good that that we have such good parent support that people come out and and do the the little things like that that
019means so much. So, okay, next on our agenda is our recognition portion and we have many academics. We have a couple staff opportunities and so we look forward to hearing the good thing that's going on. First, we'll call on Mr. Puit, Michael Puit at Davy County High School for the Caswell Moore State Superintendent Advisory Council. And Caswell, if you want to go ahead and come on up. I saw you over there. So, um, this is this is a first for for me and a first for Davy County, I think. Um, I uh was doing an observation uh in Mr. Mar's classroom back in the fall, and this kid sitting beside me looked over at me. He said, "Hey, can I ask you some questions?" And I said, "Well, this is a little awkward, but okay."
020And before long, I'm being asked questions about everything from my personal opinion on No Child Left Behind to how we get funding to how substitutes work. U and I'm like, "Who in the world is this kid and what is he doing here?" Like, I looked at Mr. Mars. I said, "Is this a joke? Are you punking me right now?" No, it wasn't. And before long, I had emails from this kid and Mr. Wallace had emails from him asking more questions. Uh, but they've all been great questions. And so, um, I'm pleased to announce that Caswell Moore, um, has, uh, out of more than 1,800 applicants been accepted to the state superintendent advisory council. And I can think of no better person to, uh, ask the powers that be how things work and to advocate on
021behalf of other students in North Carolina than Caswell. So, Caswell, congratulations. This is going to be a well-earned honor, and I know you'll make the best of it. casual. Weren't you weren't you here a couple months ago and made a present and talked? We were really impressed. You came up to the podium and no notes, just talking. It was It was impressive. So, I can see why the governor picked you. Yeah. Exceptional young man. Um, next up, uh, Mr. Mars, if you want to go ahead and come on up. Uh, back in the Mar in March of this year, um, there were several of us who were invited to attend, um, the Davy County Chamber of Commerce, um, spring b spring breakfast. And, um, we there were some of us that that knew why we
022were there, some of us did not know why we're there and got a little bit of a surprise that day. Um, but, um, lo and behold, it was to see Mr. Mars rewarded and awarded for all the work that he's done. Um, I like to call it the uh Will Mars U victory tour as he has been part of the the teams going around the state on behalf of being the regional teacher of the year for this past year. So, he has criss-crossed the state speaking up the virtues of CT education. Um, he's he's had multiple groups over to see what we're doing. He's visited other people to see what they're doing. He's advocated very strongly for our manufacturing lab and for all things CTE and student related. and we are so proud of him.
023Um he was recognized that day um in a surprise announcement from the Davy Chamber of Commerce um for the EC Tatum Humanitarian Award which recognizes those who are given to give back to the community and lead for the betterment of the future. So congratulations Mr. Mars. That definitely sums you up. Next we have Corner Elementary School and the uh district elementary battle of the books competition. Guys, this year all six Davy County elementary schools fielded teams with Shady Grove fielding two teams in the elementary battle of the books competition which is designed to encourage reading and comprehension among students in fourth and fifth grades. The North Carolina School Library Media Association curates a list of 16 books in which North Carol um excuse me, in which Davy County media coordinators then reduce that number down
024to 10 books and ask the students to at least read between seven and eight books for the competition. The teams are made up of four to seven members and then compete in a quiz style tournament on April 17th at Davy County High School. Each team then faces off against other teams throughout seven rounds and receive detailed questions about the content of the books. Students then have to respond with the author's name and the full name of the book. Correct. And how do you all respond? What do you have to say? What's the first thing you have to say? Title and author. Okay, there you go. Title and author. The goal of EBOB is to foster a love for reading, enhance teamwork, and improve literacy literacy skills in a fun, competitive environment. This year, the Cornets
025Cougars defeated all six other teams with a total school score of 112. They won by 17 points over all the other teams. This is the largest margin of victory in the last five years. Second place was Shady Grove with 95 and the Moxville Rams who showed the largest improvement over last year came in third. Um Angelina Eder is going to share her thoughts on her team and hand out some awards. All right. So, at the beginning of the year, I had, you know, like 12 to 15 kids. And of course, the year they just started dwindling off. And we got to the point that we had these four, but they hadn't read everything. And was questionable, were we going to have three or were we going to have four? And so, I talked to them
026and I'm like, "Guys, if there's three of us, then we probably need to partner with another school because, you know, there's going to be six or seven of those people on a team and there's only three of us." And they're like, "No, Miss Etder, no, we want to do it ourselves." So, I said, "Okay, then we've got to pick it up. We've got to get these books read." And so that's what they did. So we have one person, Mey Lanefield, that's returning. She was with us last year, so she's a fifth grader. Connor Wooten is also a fifth grader and he has joined the team and done a great job. And I have two fourth graders that are going to be with me next year in fifth grade. I have McKenna Murphy and I have
027Saxon Brooks. And they have worked really hard and shown us that even at the very last minute, you can pull through and and make it happen. So I'm proud of them. [Applause] Okay. Next is an academic recognition by Steve Rarshide for the William Ellis Middle School Math Competition. Thank you. I've got five math competition students. If y'all could come on up. So, this year I took students to two totally separate math competitions. It's been a while since we competed in something called the math one contest, but it's in North Carolina only. It's obviously math one kids, only math one kids. You take a very difficult test. It's timed. You don't get a calculator and you see how you do against other top schools in the region. Uh there were several regions in North Carolina. We
028competed at Appalachin State University and our team, let me introduce them. So, we have actually five students and three competed in both math contests and two uh one was in one, one was in the other and one is not here. So, but the four you're looking at here, Aaron Claudefelter, Nat Patel, Ian Rarishide, and Lily Tronson against the other top schools in the region, we took second place. We were happy with that. We also had two that would be Aaron and Nat qualify for the state level competition with Ian and Lily right behind them. So, let's give them a hand. [Music] and don't go anywhere. So, we also compete in math counts, which is something we've done for many, many years. And this year, the regional competition was held at Wake Forest University. This is
029various middle schools throughout the state. Actually the whole country has all 50 states have teams that particip participate in math counts. Our region's held at Wake Forest University and our team was able to come out on top and we beat for the second year in a row we beat Haynes Magnet Middle School which is our arch rival and so we were thrilled about that. In addition, individually, Aaron took second place, Ian took third, and the rock took fourth. And Braden Fuches is not here. He was on the team as well. And Lily was our first alternate. So, please give them a hand. Okay, thank you. The William Ellis Middle School poetry and Art State competition by Mrs. Watson. Um, Zach and Anna Bale, if y'all can come on up if you want to. Good afternoon,
030everyone. It's a privilege to stand before you today as we celebrate the creativity and the accomplishments of some truly outstanding students. But before we begin, I'd like to sincerely thank the school board for your ongoing support and express heartfelt gratitude to our parents and community members joining us today. Your encouragement and involvement uh make lasting impact on our students growth and success. So, thank you. We're here today to recognize participants in the North Carolina and the National Career Development Association's Art and Poetry Contest. It's part of the NCDA's annual celebration of National Career Development Month, which takes place every November. The initiatives invite students. This initiative invites students from across the country to explore their personal goals and dreams through creative expression using art or andor poetry to reflect on career development. This year's theme
031was creating my career path embracing change in my journey. and it challenged students to express themselves in a way that it inspires others and celebrates personal vision and growth. Entries were judged on their ability to promote career development with a positive and powerful meaning or message and our students delivered in remarkable ways. We're incredibly proud to recognize three exceptional students whose work stood out at the state and national level. Um, Grace Turner, who could not be here, placed second in uh the state for her powerful and impire inspiring poetry submission. And Annabel Georgie um she placed third at the state level for her art submission in the art two category. per um Zach Matthews, he received first place in the state for his impressive artwork in the art 2 category. All three of their work
032submissions were sent on to the national level and Annabelle Georgie went on and placed first place at the national level. A truly outstanding accomplishment. Let's take a moment to applaud these students not only for their awards but for their thought, heart and talent that they poured into it. You have made us all very proud and your ideas are valuable and worth celebrating. Okay. Okay. And our last uh presentation is in area of athletics and we'll call on coach Tim Dicks to recognize some accomplishments that we don't get a chance to see every year. So, this is great. Uh, thanks to the board for allowing us to be here tonight to honor some outstanding individual spring performances. The first athlete that I'd like to recognize is Davy High women's soccer team member Jaden Sink, head coach
033Corbin Capetsky. Jaden led her team to 116 and3 overall record. As the primary center back, she anchored the team's defense the last four years. Jaden was voted as the Central Piedmont Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Jaden will be attending Miami of Ohio in the fall to continue her academic and athletic career. Congratulations to Jaden Sink, the CPC defensive player of the year. The next individual that I would like to recognize is unable to be in attendance today. Ky James, a member of the Davy High baseball team, head coach Joey Anderson. Coy led the team in batting average, home runs, stolen bases, on base percentage, runs, hits, RBI's, slugging percentage, doubles, and triples. I don't know if there's any other stats kept, but I mean, um, pretty much everything. Koi was voted as a Central
034Pedmont Conference Player of the Year. Koi plans to attend the University of Mississippi pending the outcome of the Major League Baseball draft in July. Just announced today, Koi is the North Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year in baseball. Wow. And the state 4A player of the year in baseball. Congratulations to Coy James, the CPC player of the year, the North Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year, and the 4A State Player of the Year. Jack, if you could please go forward. While Jack's coming forward, I won't dis disclose Koi's location, but he's off working on his craft is all I can say right now. Um, working on his craft. Not in the state of North Carolina either. Um, the next individual that I'd like to recognize is Davy High men's lacrosse team member Jack Basha. Head
035coach Ross Nestler. Jack led the team to an 18 and3 overall record, the best in school history. Jack led the team in points, goals, goals per game, assists, shot percentage, and shots on goal. Jack was voted as the Central Pedmont Conference Offensive Player of the Year. Congratulations, Jack, the 2025 CPC Offensive Player of the Year. [Applause] Our next individual to recognize is a member of the Davy High track team, AJ Sweet, head coach Robbeck. AJ competes in the pole vault. He earned all conference honors in the Central Piedmont Conference. At the state tournament this year, AJ hit a mark of 15 ft, earning him the state runnerup. Congratulations to AJ Se AJ Suite, the 2025 state runnerup in [Applause] Pova. Our last individual to recognize is the Davy High track team member Cooper Williams. Head
036coach Rob Razbeck. Cooper Cooper competes in the shot and discus. He earned all conference honors in the Central Pedmont Conference at the state tournament this year. Cooper finished fourth in the discus competition and won the state title in shot put with a throw of 58 feet 11 and 34 in. This is Cooper's third state title while attending Davy High. Cooper will attend UNCC in the fall to further his academic and athletic career. Congratulations to Cooper Williams, the 2025 Shotput state champion. [Applause] Well, again we say congratulations to all of those students who and staff who were recognized for outstanding accomplishments for this past school year. Congratulations to each of you. Next on the uh our agenda board is the consent agenda. Many of the routine items that we see each month and we will need
037a motion to accept that as presented. Mr. Caldwell makes the motion. Is there a second? Stephanie makes a second. Any questions? I know these are things that we routinely and customarily see on a regular basis. It's so nice that we do. Otherwise, we probably could be in the paper like some other counties get in the paper when um you don't keep up with what you're doing. So, we thank Mr. Harris for bringing that to us every month. Um, it's a necessary part of the job. I know it's sometimes mundane. We do it over and over, but thank you for keeping us legal. Did you mention the addendum or did I also in included in our consent on item 5.6 is our personnel recommendations for Mrs. Haynes. You do have at your place and an addendum.
038So, the motion I'm assuming the motion would include the addendum to Yes. Okay. I'm sorry. I should have said that in the beginning, but I forgot to. And your second supports that. Thank you very much. Any questions? If not, all in favor of the consent agenda. Thank you very much. Motion carries 6. Sherry White is next on the agenda to present the 2025 through 28 AIG plan. Thank you, Sherry. So, once again, my name is Sheri White. Um, I am the member a member of the district curriculum team. Um, I also serve as AIG coordinator. So, I'm here to present to you the proposed 2025 2028 AIG plan. I do want to take just a moment to recognize my district AIG team and the AIG advisory. Um, they do a tremendous amount of work and
039they provide a lot of input um for the revisions of this plan and my job would be a lot tougher without them. So, I want to take this opportunity to go through a little bit of legislation to talk about AIG in Davy County. um to go over the program standards and revision process and to highlight the revisions. So when we're looking at legislation around AIG, we look at article 9B. This was passed in 1996. What you see in front of you is a state definition for academically or intellectually gifted students. Article 9B also mandates identification of and services for AIG students. requires districts to develop three-year AIG local plans using North Carolina Board of Education approved AIG program standards that are provided by the Department of Public Instruction. Mrs. White. Yes. Could we just pause
040a second u see if we can get it on the Okay, thank you. We we are not able to see. Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. And it's fabulous. We want to see. It is fabulous reading. That one actually gives me a little bit goosebumps when I read. Okay, so we'll There you go. Thank you. Okay, I'll give you just a second to catch up. So, once again, this this is the state definition for academically or intellectually gifted students. This legislation specifically mandates the identification of and the services for AIG students. requires districts to provide or develop a three-year local AIG plan using the board of education approved AIG program standards provided by DPI. Those plans have to be approved by the local school boards and then they are sent to the state for review and
041comment. So, you should have access to a one-pager um that I created for you that has a summary of the AIG program in Davy County schools on the front and on the back it has a breakdown of the standards. So, I'm not going to read all of that to you, but I did want you to be aware of the services that are offered within the county, but I do want you to see these numbers. So, of our student population, 15.23% 23% are identified for services in the AIG program. That does not include our level five students um who score level five in math and are also served in advanced courses. So that's from the advanced math legislation that was passed in 2019. So we also provide services for those students if they even if they're
042not identified. and we are actually funded at 4% and that is regardless of the number of identified students and the majority of that budget is wrapped up in staffing. So I have four dedicated elementary AIG specialist. I have a lead AIG specialist who serves as the high school liaison and she partners with me for a lot of different things which is great. We make a good team because I have a secondary background and she has an elementary background so we learn a lot from each other. We have three AIG specialists at middle school, but we're starting to see a shift there a little bit. We're looking at um a little bit of a team approach now having a grade level representative um from each grade level to kind of help with the work of the
043AIG specialist. And then the final numbers there are about lure. So, as of just a couple of weeks ago when I pulled this data, um we have 33 licensed staff and that means that they have their gifted education certification added to their state license. So, they either got that certification through completing coursework from a university or a college or they took the practice for gifted education and added that to their license. There's no financial gain for that. So sometimes people have already completed that coursework or completed that certification but never added it to their license. So this is just pulling what is actually on their license. We also have 23 locally endorsed staff. So those staff have completed the AIG local endorsement course. So that was created back in not the last plan but the
044plan before that. We are actually finishing up cohort number five now. So they do 30 coursework hours that's divided between online course modules in Canvas and face-to-face meetings where they actually come in and we we go through the course and we talk about different things. Um I may have some of the AIG specials come in and work with them. And let's see. So, our AIG program standards are revised in the year prior to the submission of a new local AIG plan. And it's not a surprise for us. Um, AIG coordinators across the state are actually involved in the process. We provide input to the office of advanced learning and gifted education. They are presented to the board of education in the summer before. So these were actually approved in July of 2024 and they basically
045provide guidelines but the district still have flexibility. So we are actually still able to develop a plan that matches our needs and fits our resources. So there are six standards and you can see them listed here. They're also on the back of your one pager if you're looking at that. And so basically they define the expectations from the state board and they are related to the categories that are found in 9b. The practices clarify the standard and it's basically this is what has to be in place within the district. And so there's a district response for each of the 43 practices that are found within the six standards. We also have to have ideas to strengthen the standard and evidence of those practices. So the revision process is it starts actually before the year before
046the revision is due. Um we have a lot of things that go into the revision process. We do not rewrite the whole plan. Um this process is actually described in the plan in standard six. So we basically look at areas um that are based on our self assessment. So we complete that using a lot of the input and the data from the meetings that are listed up there. So I participate in a lot of the state and regional AIG meetings. Um there are lots of district meetings that happen. I meet with principles and AIG specialists. Um we have our AIG advisory that meets twice a year. So you can see kind of the roles that are involved with that AIG advisory. So all of the schools are represented and grad spans are represented. Um we
047added students two or three years ago and that's been pretty eye openening. Um it's really interesting to see um their perspective when it comes to AIG services. And then the last piece of data there are surveys. So there's an annual parent um and student survey that goes out each year and we just started a staff survey last year. Um and so we'll be continuing that as well. Okay. So once again on the back of the one pager you'll find some of this information. So standard one is around identification and this is where our biggest change kind of comes in. Now I've been very fortunate and I inherited a very good AIG plan to start with. So we tweak it as we need to. we have to make sure that we are matching the language that's
048provided by the state and then each time they revise there's a focus area that um we need to make sure that we are revising within our plan and this time it was a really big emphasis on 912 making sure that all the processes and procedures um go across the continuum. So in standard one our screening currently we screen students universally meaning that all students in grades three through six not three through six third and sixth grade are screened. So they are assessed using a KOAT which is a cognitive abilities test. So after a lot of discussion and input um we talked through the pros and cons of moving that to second grade. Um there's a lot of testing in third grade as you know and we looked at cost and then the necessity of actually
049universally screening two grade levels. So we are going to move our screening to the end of second grade. They will still students will still be identified the end of third grade. So we still have that year to collect the data that we use because we use multiple points of data not one test. And with that they will be using a form of the Kodak that is picturebased. So it is what they call language neutral um and doesn't require language proficiency to complete that assessment. So along with that we'll look at screening pools for students in grades three through eight. Different pieces of data that would put students in screening pools like for example students that score level five that are not identified. Um, we would also look at students who are moving into the district
050that we don't have any data on um or that are new to the school. We would look at teacher referrals um classroom performance. So even though we look at all kids every year, these screening pools would require kind of collecting more data and looking at those students a little bit deeper. So then also even considering that alternate assessment if needed. Um and then updating our screening processes for grades 9 through 12. So tightening those up, tightening those up a little bit more. Um defining a little bit more what the GST or the gifted services team looks like at the high school um and what data we'll use for identification. And then after this first year, we'll work through um the data, create some thresholds for identification, and we'll move on um into setting those thresholds
051pretty firmly. Um, standard two. So, in standard two, we entered added the honors level coursework at the high school level. So, teachers at the high school are actually completing um an honors level coursework canvas course. Um the state actually provided some guidance around honors level courses and so we are required to make sure that honors level courses are being taught to an honors level. So there are instructional practices and components that should be seen in every honors level course. And so those are contained in those modules that are in Canvas and teachers are working through those and providing artifacts um so that we can review those honor courses and make sure that they're where they need to be. Um including the work done with the district of MTSS and talent development that was also added
052to standard 2. We are doing a lot of work with MTSS. So being able to look at AIG through the MTSS lens and when we're talking about comprehensive services, looking at academics, behavior, and social emotional support and then that talent development piece, we have some things that are in place now that were not in place before. Um but really thinking about how are we frontloading for kids? How are we building background for kids? Um so things like our STEM camps that we're doing during the summer, um kinder camps which have been in place, um the freshman academy at the high school, the steam distin steam distinction pathways. So all of those different things that are being done throughout the district, just putting in this plant um to show that that talent development piece is there.
053Standard three is on differentiated curriculum instruction, the collaboration with ESL and EC with the support of a special populations liaison. And that person is actually our district MTSS coordinator. Um, if you know her, you know she is a data guru. Um, she has EC background and is learning more about ESL. So, really looking forward to some purposeful collaboration um, so that we can work through some data together with ESL and EC. um really looking at characteristics of gifted students and how they're masked by some of those exceptionalities and how best to refer and serve um ESL and EC students when it comes to AIG. Standard four is professional development. So just making sure with a new plan with new revisions in it that we are supporting those changes, making sure that everybody is aware of
054the identification and screening procedures and also there were some requests on the staff survey. So making sure that those resources are provided. Standard five is just updating partnerships. That changes every three years. Making sure that we added some of those CTE pieces in also some of the arts um updates that needed to happen. And then standard six was accountability. So accountability measures are being put into place. Uh we have some grades span checklists that have been developed so that we make sure that we are getting all of the things done when they are supposed to be done. It's also going to help with sustainability and turnover in staff. Um, and the use of RTI stored, which I am still learning about, but it is a data platform and all of the data can feed into
055RTI stored and then we can use that data when we are evaluating the effectiveness of the AIG program. The last thing there is written policies and procedures. just making sure that everything is in black and white. Making sure that everything is updated and that the guidance is there from the plan to make sure that those things are happening the way that they're supposed to. And I talked really fast, but that was over 60 pages in however many minutes that was. So, do you have any questions? Anything I need to answer now? I understand that we currently are funding at 13% for isn't there 4% 4% 4% for AI so it's 13 it's the EC okay all right is there any recommendation for from the state folks for a higher level of funding no I think
056I need to talk to Caswell um when he goes talk [Laughter] That would be great. Yeah, it's been that forever. Yeah, they won't even budging. They won't budge. It's so low in the realm of what they want to deal with. Can I ask a quick question about the moving to second grade to screen? So, that's just really interesting. So, you said you're going to screen everyone in second grade, but it wouldn't start until third grade. So, they will be universally screened in second grade. So, okay. We were actually univers universally screening students before that was even written into okay the standards. Um that's actually the that wording is new this year. So they will be screened at the very end of second grade. Um so they actually have some practice that they will do so
057that they can familiarize themselves with the testing platform so they know how everything works. And we we we just did a pilot to see how everything went. It went fairly well. Um but they will just to kind of ease them into it. So it will inform our nurturing groups for third grade. So we will look at that data to look at the students to create those nurturing groups that we use for third grade. But their identification would still be at the end of third grade as a rising fourth grader. Okay. To provide services in fourth and fifth grade. Okay. That's kind of nice. Then you can track them for a longer period of time too to see how they're progressing I would assume based on those testings. Right. And we use multiple points of data
058when we identify students. even putting them into a nurturing group, we are looking at multiple points of data. And then once you determine that they're AIG status, that's when you reach out to parents and let them know or so they are actually identify that they're a nurturing candidate when they are receiving nurturing services. Okay? And then once they identified AIG, then they are actually um there is a letter that goes home and they actually meet with the parent. There's a D, a differentiated education plan that's completed. There's a lot of paperwork that gets parents are involved. Okay. Excellent. And then just to clarify as their um education moves along they can go in or out of that AIG as their grades go. So they never lose their identification. Okay. Okay. Okay. So once they identified
059AIG that is maintained. Okay. Okay. So sometimes um their needs are best met maybe not in advanced courses or maybe not in receiving AIG services and that becomes a like a decision from the GST team with the parent involved. Okay. Okay. Thank you so much for all the clarification. And then the 15% it was 15% is that 152 23%. Is that generally what we stay around? Is that a number? We are actually up. Um I think when I first started we were at 12 and a half%. Wow. Great. State is actually at 13.05%. Okay. Excellent. Thank you. Great presentation. Thank you for all the detail. Sherry, will this have to have board approval later on? I know it's for information on the I think the way I filled it out is that you guys will
060put it on the consent agenda for the next meeting. Okay. So then you'll approve. Now, if you want to approve it now, I'm all for it. But if you want to wait and do it on consent agenda, that's fine, too. Anytime you have a 61page document, it usually requires reading. You should be able to read it in no time. Okay. You did an excellent job there highlighting that. We appreciate it. Any questions for Sherry? Thank you so much. You're welcome. Now, Miss Social Media will be sharing with us. Kim Jarvis update on the website. Good afternoon. Uh John, you coming up? Okay. All right. It's not just me. Um, we are definitely excited to talk to you today and let you know about u what we've been doing behind the scenes on our website. We
061uh will give you a sneak peek in just a few minutes as well. But what we're calling it is the refresh of our website. It is an important project that we've been working on for the past few months that will enhance the communication and the accessibility of our entire school community. So we right now have partnered with a new vendor and the vendor is uh going to manage our website and the company's name is Aptagy. Not sure if you're familiar with that company or not. And there are a few key reasons why we are doing this and I'm going to tell you about those and at the timing and the timing wise why we're doing it. Um first our four our five-year contract with our current vendor final site ends June 30th. So we've had
062five years with them. And this made the perfect sense to step back, re-evaluate, figure out what do we need to do to enhance and improve what we have currently. And one of the overarching needs and requests has been to make the editing process easier for me for our teammates across the board because that was one of the things that I came here. The editing process for the current vendor um is not as user friendly as what we need. We are not website designers and web masters. I quote web masters. So we needed something a little bit more easy. Um but also uh you know to um manage our needs, excuse me. Um so we want everyone to this will allow everyone to keep the content fresh on a regular basis instead of going in and
063kind of getting frustrated with the back end of things. Um, additionally, we are adding something new that we've had people request. And I'm going to show this to you. Tada. A mobile app for our goavi.org page. These are this is the marketing tools that API has provided us. It's a draft version right now. So, we will be sharing this out and sharing the news and encouraging folks to um sign or download the app. And that is another tool for us to reach our parents, our community, and our students. So, we'll be able to push out, as you can see, you can you'll get a lot on the mobile app as any other app that you have. Um and perhaps the most important uh thing and the timing wise is that we will be meeting federal
064ADA compliance requirements that we are required to meet by 2027. Some counties have 2026 deadline. Ours is 2027. that that means that all state and government entities have to make their websites and their mobile apps um accessible under title two of the ADA. And that means that people with disabilities must be able to navigate the websites and the apps using the screen readers um or keyboards or understand and the content and have it read to them in captions or readable font and um everything that they can see all based on colors. you know, there's colors specific for these ADA requirements. And now, you know, making this change to Apigy right now puts us in a really, really good spot to be well prepared. And API is a great company to help us get there. And
065they're very, very um ADA compliant, diligent, which is great. A lot of what they transferred over from our current site into this new site um didn't transfer over because it wasn't ADA compliant. So, um, every picture, every photo will have captions and everyone will be able to be able to read and see our website. Um, now the good news is that our website godavy.org will not change. So, everything will be seamless. So, no need to change anything. We're not changing that at all. Uh, so it will be a smooth transition for our end users. And when's this going to happen? Well, our date that we have set will be Tuesday, June 24th. And as I said, seamless transition. So there might be, I don't know, an hour where you might still see an old page,
066but everything should be seamless. Um, according to the technology folks, I'm not one of those, but it should work. Yes. Um, so everything right at the end of the school year. So we're just not going to make, you know, any more changes right before the school year ends. So we are working on a lot of finishing touches, but we wanted to give you a sneak peek today. We're working on, as I said, when things transitioned over to the new site. Uh, we're going to be building out a lot of pages with some new content and making sure links work and everything's ADA compliant. So, a lot of work still ahead, but we're we're confident in our teammates at the school site and they're doing a great job. And John is here. We're gonna walk quick
067tour of it and then we'll get you guys, you know, more insight later on it. So, So once this comes up, I'll just give you a second just to kind of take a look at the new site. One of the things we've already done is we have taken some time already to um start transitioning, which means training all of our training our staff at each of our school sites. Uh we're working towards making sure that at least three to five staff members at each of our sites are trained in how to work the site um on the back end. Um and so that's working within the con new contentrich editor which makes it very much easier for them um to manipulate the site to see what you have actually on the site. Um the site
068itself is very fresh and clean. You'll notice right away it's much brighter, uh, more vibrant. Um, the video itself doesn't have the darkness to it that the old site did. Um, so the videos are much cleaner. We want to tell our story, uh, right from the get-go. The only thing they can put in this is a video, so it it's nice and clean and starts that way. Um up at the top, this navigation at the top, uh buttons link right directly to what our community, what our families need most. It is edit editable for each school. Um so it can be changed very quickly, very easily depending on what the school needs. So every school can change for their families um to make that work for them. Um this part here, the site menu, the
069schools and the translate button are going to be there for each school. Each site is going to have all the same there. Um translate button can change for any language um that a family would need. Um site menu is super simple, super clean. Um just kind of like the old site but cleaner and fresher. As you scroll down, buttons are going to be nice, simple, um, icons to help support what's being presented. Um, events. Uh, this is going to actually feed in directly from our calendar. So, if a principal or an AP puts anything on our calendars, it's going to directly feed right directly into um, this events feed. Um, so families again can see exactly what's going on in the school throughout the time. Um, this is actually a feature I like a lot
070better than the old site. The old site for the news feed was what we call a gallery carousel. Um, which was really hard because you had to sit and wait or push buttons for to see the next news feed. Um, here you have four that are going to show up right away. Um, you can always see all news, but at least you've got four. You got a vibrant uh picture that goes right along with the title. Uh, which is really nice. And then our live feed is going to show here. It's also going to be this is things that come from like our in infinite campus. It's going to be things that are pushed out from us in Davy County schools. This also is going to feed that mobile app. Anything that's pushed out is
071going to be there. And then at the bottom, I think this is another favorite feature of ours. Each school is going to be able to kind of set this up for their own. So, if um Miss Stone at South Davey wants to feature her teachers or her students, she's going to be able to do that with this spotlight at the bottom. Um and then as always, you've got your stay connected, your find us. Um those kind of things. I will show you a school just so you can kind of see um this here. Um if I go to Shady Grove, you'll see kind of the exact same setup. You can see that their um navigation at the top is just a little bit different. Uh they have classrooms here. Um they have a video as
072well. Their video is set to what things are going on in their school, their message from their principal and then all based on their branding, their colors. Um and same kind of thing. Um right now obviously it's not all the way up to date. We are still working with um each school to try and get all their information loaded into this. It will be a work in progress, but by June 24th, we hope to have a good bit of the information. Karen and I are still working each day. I think we work on a different page um to try and get a little bit more uploaded and ready to go. Um it is very mobile friendly. That's the one thing I do like. Even if you click on the mobile app, there's a place where
073you can go to the live website. Um there's not a lot of pinching. It automatically adjusts to the live website when you go to the mobile app. That's another piece that is really nice. And the app is you can download the app now if you want to, you know, you'll you'll see some of the things that we're practicing with, but it is in the app store for download. Now, any questions, John? Will this be used for things like uh cancellations for athletic events after school. I saw something was posted three hours ago, so it's obviously uh up to date. Yes, the live feed is can be used and will be used for um when we have weather delays, when we have emergencies that we need to get the word out immediately. So, the live feed
074can connect to multiple um end results. It could social media. It could be actually uh a person's phone. Infinite campus does integrate into the aptagy system. Um we are going to work on whether or not we're going to use that. In Infinite Campus Campus does a great job right now with our communications out. So, currently we're going to stay with that, but this does have the option to go email um someone's phone, you know, as a text, but it does go out to all the social medias up here with an alert bar. We can do that as well. But that is where notifications on the app will pop up as well. We were practicing today just to make sure it all worked. And you can see that whatever we put up there, it did come
075in through the app as a notification. as long as you have it set to receive notifications. That'll be part of the marketing um situation that we get out to parents to make sure that they understand that they have to set the notifications to be able to receive those things. This isn't a question. Karen, I think I speak for a lot of parents in the system. Thank you. Like we we we needed this. Thank you so much for for this. Yes. We just had to wait till the, you know, the contract kind of ended. So, I appreciate it. I think you'll love it. It just takes a little bit of time to get the backend work. And if you see things that are still not, you know, when we go live, obviously, we'll continue through the
076summer to correct things, correct pages and links, we'll try to get as much done as we can prior to that, but if you do see things, feel free to reach out to John or me um and we will get things fixed. So, we'll be ready come August. And already in our early trainings that we've done with staff, they've already given us great feedback about how much easier this is to load content, you know, to to be able to put a news feature up, which I then turns into hopefully it will stay up to date a little bit better. They're not as frustrated and, you know, giving up on trying to put things out there sooner. So hopefully that will follow through and give the community more information. All right. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank
077you. All right. Next on our agenda, um Jill, public address to the board. Ladies and gentlemen, here in the uh early June, we have a person who would like to address you, Mr. Aaron Burus. If you would come forward, uh I'll remind you of the rules. We have um three minutes for public speaking. We have your address so you don't have to state your address at the beginning. Uh and if you'll um obviously respect the privacy of our employees, but we'd love to hear from you and look forward to it. What did you say? I had to state the beginning. I said we already have your address, so you don't have to state your address. I'd like to thank the board for for letting me speak today. And thank you, Miss Haynes. Um, Mr. Belchure,
078I wish you good luck with with coming in. I guess I'm here to talk about the elephant in the room. My youngest daughter is a basketball player for Davy County and um, our coach has not been able to communicate with any of the players for almost three weeks. And it's it's just really it's been really hard. I don't understand why there hasn't been any communication between admin and the girls. They're lost. They don't know what's going on. Um, I understand there's probably way more to this than I know. When Lindsay Adams was hired to be the coach here, she was 21 years old and she's 26 now. I think about my life when I was that age and the mistakes that I made. And it's not the mistakes, but the lessons I learned from those
079mistakes that shaped me to to who I am today. Um, I've seen my daughter turn into an incredible teenager. Um, she is by far the most responsible child I have. I have four. The lessons that she's learned, the responsibility, accountability, learning to set goals, um, learning about leadership. I credit Coach Adams for all those things. Um, she has, my daughter's a multiport athlete. She has a 4.3 GPA. I've literally never helped her with anything in school. She's completely self-sufficient. And it's it's it's crazy to me because that's not been the case with my other kids. Um I know some of the players have been spoken to and interviewed. Not all. My daughter was not interviewed. Um some of the former players are here tonight. I know not everybody agrees with me. Um, but I think
080it would be a huge injustice not to interview some of her former players that are beyond Davy County now and playing in college and can have the wisdom to look back and speak on what their experience with Coach Adams means to them, how it changed them, how it shaped them. She's tough. I get that. Uh, I appreciate that. And she is not perfect. I know she's made mistakes. Like I said, we all have. Um I feel like the the main thing that I've witnessed is that she has not failed Davy County. I feel like Davy County has failed Lindsay Adams. And I don't believe she's had any mentors. And I can't believe that a 21-year-old coach, you know, to think about how young that is. And just tell me if I'm on time because I
081have no idea. Yeah, I was just going to say I can't see the timer, but I understand you are out of time. Oh, there it is. You're three seconds over. If you just I would just like to thank everybody for having me again and and um thank you all for everything you do. Appreciate it. Any others, Miss Wilson? No, I'm sorry. That's all, but I suspect you'll both hear from and shake plenty of hands in uh a couple weeks with your graduation. Okay, that concludes I believe all of our open session items. Uh we would need a motion to go into close session for personnel and get advice from our attorney. Um we will not be coming back out in open session except to adjourn. Uh so that's just an FYI. some PE. Sometimes people
082think we go in there and talk and they come out here when everybody's gone and have a board meeting. We don't do that. So, u it's just a FYI. Is there a motion to go into close session? Michael Hunter makes a motion. Is there a second? Con makes a second. Any questions? Again, thanks everyone for coming here this evening and we're now in close session.