001e e e good evening so nice to see you here this evening um Just for information when we adopted our agenda earlier um we were not intending on going back into close session however we didn't get finished with what we were working on in closed session so at the end of this meeting this board will go back in closed session but not to make any we won't be coming back out to make any um public voting decisions that kind of stuff okay so with that uh we're going to have an invocation okay dear lord it's an exciting yet it's a stressful time to be a public servant and to serve on this board of education we need wisdom to make good decisions and I believe wisdom comes from a higher power so I ask you
002to give us wisdom in our discussions in our deliberations and Even in our decisions we're thankful for our students and staff and I ask for your blessings on each of them thank you for a nation that we live in we ask that you protect and guide our leadership to the answers to many concerns that face them we love this United States of America and we love Davy County and we appreciate the opportunity to be a servant for these students and staff in your name I pray amen okay Mr Joe would you lead us in our Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank sir board you have received uh
003a copy of the minutes from our February 4th meeting so i' ask that since you've received those in advance and you've had a chance to read them if they're a motion to accept them as presented Mr col makes a motion is there a second Stephanie makes a second any questions concerning the minutes thank you again car for your well written notes all in favor thank you very much motion carries 60 Mr superintendent in your board packet you have some important dates and I would encourage you to put those in your calendar along with all those dates that we just finished discussing uh and I would encourage you if you have a chance uh I know some of our schools this week are having read across America I know I've seen some of your replies to
004uh to volunteer at the schools to read it's a wonderful experience if you can work it in your schedule teachers would appreciate it and U you'll enjoy it too I promise you um and just emphasis on the character Ed night um we break that down into two sessions we have an elementary session at 6 o' and then our uh high school middle school high school comes in at uh believe we've been starting about 7:15 Mr superintendent so come to that if you can again it's one of many meetings that I'd like to see you participating in but you can't make them all and I understand that this time Mr superintendant uh we're ready for your report all right thank you Mr chair good evening everyone uh good to see you and congratulations to many of
005you that'll be recognized tonight we will have other recognitions next month as well we've had some coaches of the year here and some other state champions and one I want to particularly mention is our wrestling team as most of you know won the tournament state championship this year so that's two state championships in a row so Mr puit I commend you and and and Coach deicks is here coach dcks I commend you and obviously coach Stanley and his staff but we've said it many times that doesn't just happen and I appreciate all the work and and effort that you put forward to that Mr pot you mentioned it is National read Across America week and again thank you I know Miss Helms was reading today Jenna went out and read today and some others and
006we understand some of you can't and we please don't feel any guilt there it's just I want you to know that we do appreciate you having the uh taken the opportunity to do that and be in our schools uh Jenna got in trouble today when she read to a group of kids and I said stop right there you jacked them all up got them going and sent them off she said that's exactly what I did so none of you should be surprised to know that she got a group of kids riled up so either way it's also National School social worker week and I want to again thank Our Miss kuster and our team our social workers board my staff hears me talk about stepping in if you have a situation step in and our
007social workers step in all the time I mean they are very often the connection or the hope to help a kid and a family get through so I want to I want it's a small group and I don't want to ever take them for granted and the situations and we've had to call on on the most difficult situations and they always rise to the occasion and we've been able to hire a young lady last year that did that worked with us and we were able to hire her a young I me've been out of college for a couple years but has really done phenomenal and we're obviously hoping to keep her but we we do appreciate that we're attracting quality people it's Al also North Carolina severe weather preparedness week uh all schools will participate
008in a tornado drill I think that's been moved from tomorrow to Friday correct Miss Haynes staff did you see that I hope you saw that there's an inside joke when I can I can tell you by looking in her face whether she's paying attention or not and so thank you Mr Harris for bailing out Miss Haynes when she wasn't listening but the preparedness week is this fr the tornado drill will be Friday I have an update on our safety Grant board that we had applied for nearly $500,000 we received just a little over 300,000 now we had hoped that we we you committed and we committed and asked you to commit 350,000 for the open gate we received 175,000 to go toward equipment so of the 350 we have been the grant will cover 175
009the additional 100 is is for particular trainings and they're say you have to it's categorized what you have to apply for the money can be spent for but we're very thankful and I Comm in jenda and Mary Foster who also uh worked on that Grant and um so again it's just a little bit over 300,000 that we've received staying in the safety realm the open gate things are going well uh I was interesting I've been visiting some other schools during conference tournaments and championships and things and and watching them operate in Jeff you at Reagan when that one guy handling it all and he was doing a pretty good job uh that that that to the basketball game at the conference tournament um but either way open gate is going well in our middle and
010high schools elementary principles will meet with District team this tomorrow tomor tomorrow to talk about to get some training and then within the next week or two or three or so we will be rolling out the open gates in the elementary schools so um the rap uh Karen Jarvis has been working with our 911 our Communications team here in Davy County there's been a couple staff changes or some staff that's been out somewhat delayed that process but the app is currently ready to go and can call 911 however there's one more phase to that that should be put in place over the course of the next couple of weeks that when a call is made with using the Rave app it would do the Geo fencing and it will show maps of the school so
011will be much more detailed but that's coming over the course of the next few weeks but we're pleased with where we are with with both with both of those um changing gears uh want to share board one of I may have mentioned this in the past but when we did some staff restructuring a few years ago and I hired we hired Miss Valerie feaser to take over student accountability accountability and student information one of the things I wanted her to do was be able to guide our distri our principles with looking at real-time data with I ready mclass and various things we get that at the end of the Year Stephanie you're very well versed in this we get that at the end of the year but then what do you do kids are gone
012but we we I wanted one of the things I wanted Valerie to be able to do was work with real-time data and meet with principals she has she is now working with Jennifer Jen castri in a in in the curriculum department and they have had one of their first real data Dives M on on our on our midyear data on our where are we middle of the year and then what can we do each of those teams schools have put together plans to where their kids are now based on the data and then what we should do to adjust to better meet their needs therefore our end of grade end of year gr data should be better so it's just the adjustment but we've it's taken us a while to get there Infinite Campus rolled
013out and just absolutely consumed her but she's now moving forward with that and again working closely with with Jen uh Jen Lon and Jen casri to make sure that um that that happens but she again she's been meeting with principls and their teams and teachers so I'm thankful that that that's moving forward now uh board our attendance for this past PMR 5 was 88.3 6% uh that should sound a little bit alarming when I've been sitting here talking about 94% however that is during when we have exams at the high school that the last two three years it's been in around 88 89% same same one and the flu really got after us in certain schools so it's a little bit lower about a half a percent lower than where we were last year this
014time you want to clarify how the exam the the exams there has to be within the last five any system if you're in a block schedule you have to have exams in the last five days of school therefore but we only have teacher made exams and then we have eoc's and of course and some are in middle school but this is primarily high school but you test for biology math one math 3 and English to so if if and CTE yeah the CTE and the teacher made but if Jeff's kids aren't in one of those classes they stay home some of those kids because they have no they don't have to take an exam and so the exams built in Windows of three to four hours at a time so a lot of our kids
015don't come to school during that time which of course they got to be counted absent if they're not on campus so that's why it impacts that impacts the percentage are all school systems as honest with that as we are no thank you but we're honest yeah we are and I want we tell it like it is and I appreciate principal's doing that I wish there was a way around that and but we we we there's not really a way around unless you have sometimes at that High School Michael you might have six or 700 with nothing to do and somebody's got to take care of them and what if a what if a child has perfect attendance all year long but doesn't have an exam on one of those days we've had that to happen
016guess what I'm glad somebody else is dealing with it they show up cuz if you're not there you're counted absent that's tough that's the law unless it's School sponsored event yeah so yeah that's a good question we've we've done that had to do that before um leadership team is working through the budget budget request and preparation for our Capital Mr Harris and his team are are working through that as well uh board just a reminder he's talking about dates that we have our budget work session on Tuesday April ail the 8th you've all been invited to that uh that's that 9 to 12 I think 9 to 11 I believe that's what it is yeah um and that concludes my report Mr chair thank you thank you okay now is the time that we have
017our recognitions uh and before we have our spelling be recognitions is Jen lines in the audience sher's going Sher okay I was just going to say thank you to her for all the extra effort that she goes through during this this period of time I know that's in addition to her other responsibilities but it's it's interesting if you ever get a chance to go to a spelling be you need to go one time more good it's fun and so who's presenting Sherry good evening board members Mr Wallace staff and guests I have the honor of recognizing our District spelling be winners this evening I'm not sure I saw all of them come in um the annual District spelling be was held here in this room on Thursday March 6 not March 6 February 6th um
018a big thank you to our Administrative Assistant Misty Hutchins for setting up all the logistics um to make this event a success also thank you to parents family members and friends who attended and thank you Mr pots um for attending and for your support we can have had the wonderful spelling be we have each year without our local sponsors this year those sponsors were Venezia's Italian Family Restaurant Davey County Enterprise and Skyline National Bank each Elementary and Middle School sent one school spelling be winner to complete to compete in the district level spelling be this year it took 11 rounds to declare our first second and third place winners with the winning first place qu this year being ligament in total Dr Danny Cartner caught out 52 two words for this year's B we'd like
019to congratulate three students tonight who placed as our District spelling be winners third place was Savannah Campbell she's a fifth grader at MOX Elementary School don't think I saw her um second place was Lorenzo and I just asked Mr Burns how to pronounce his last name sakasi um is a fourth grader for Shady Grove Elementary School and our first place was Addison Atkins eighth grader at uh South Davy Middle School sois up congratulations so Addison will compete in the regional spelling B this weekend March 9th at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte so we wish you the best of luck go get picture picture picture picture get your picture here well we have to thank you very much and congratulations again to miss Atkins and they're going already to spend some of that that
020money cuz I got a lot of money that evening oh okay uh next is recognition of the Davy County High School cheer team and Coach deicks if I could have the uh coach stage and the competition cheer make their way forward please as they're making the way I thank the board of education for allowing me to present two cheerleading squads tonight that have made Davy County High School proud this winter with their accomplishments the first team that I'd like to recognize is our competition cheer team coached by Angie stage in December these 19 athletes competed in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association State cheer competition there were 12 teams in their division they won their division making them the 2024 state champions for their division the team had three recognized on the All Region
021team as well Riley Spa malie wall and Ava Williams ladies and gentlemen your 2024 State cheer champions [Applause] is this the event we had 3,000 people is that the event that we had 3,000 people no if I could have the competitive cheer team come forward and Coach Thompson in February coach stage and her staff hosted the North Carolina cheerleading coaches association competition at Davey high school there were 120 teams that entered the competition and Mr pots approximately 10,000 people on campus that day okay I bet you that if you could imagine every piece of grass was covered with a car that's pretty much what it looked like I heard get off the inter we had wrestling going on at North Davy uh yeah good thing you stare clear of that um on that day our
022game day cheer team coached by Karly Thompson competed and finished second in the in their division congratulations to the game day cheer squad [Applause] again congratulations state champions next on our agenda is uh Sam Tharp with the North Carolina School Board Association and of course we have contracted with them to assist us in our superintendent search and for those of you that have met Sam and all you have met him briefly uh it's nice to have somebody who has our interest at heart when they're when they're working for you so thank you very much for setting aside time to be here tonight and we're excited about what you going to share with us thank you chairman PS good evening members of the board uh Mr Wallace uh as you know I'm here to present the
023results of the surveys that you began sharing a few weeks ago um as part of the with your community and staff as part of the public input portion of your superintendent search process uh what I'm going to do is walk through a PowerPoint uh that I've prepared and briefly spend some time giving you a little bit of detailed information about what sorts of things specifically characteristics and types of experience are most important to your community and staff when it comes to selecting a new superintendent uh for the dve county schools at the end of the PowerPoint I will answer any questions that you have I will also invite you uh over the next few days if you haven't done so already and to the extent you're interested to reach out to me by phone or
024email whichever you're most comfortable with um to share any of the characteristics traits experience oh forgive me I apologize okay um I'll invite you to share anything that you would like to see in a leadership profile based on the feedback you've now had a chance to review via the surveys completed by your community and staff I have already just so you know I've already created a rough draft of a leadership profile that include the top 10 characteristics and types of experience top five types of experience forgive me identified by your community and staff as being most important to them in a new superintendent I will update that profile um to include anything your board shares with me and I will share that profile along with all of your application materials uh with your board again
025electronically the assembly just like I did with the survey results I'll share that profile and your application materials with your board um on the 18th as you know your application deadline is the 17th I should have all the application materials to your board uh posted to assembly and available for your review by the end of the day on the 18th um with that introduction out of the way um unless there are any questions now I'll transition to my PowerPoint um you had very very strong participation in both your community and staff surveys specifically you received uh 516 responses to the community survey and 46 responses to the staff survey of those who responded uh 158 community members and 122 staff members also submitted written comments as you know in some cases very lengthy detailed written
026comments discussing issues that are really important to them that they want you the board to take into consideration as you move into over the next several weeks the application review and interview stages of your superintendent search process again these are really really good excellent um response numbers given the size of your school system and your community um so many thanks to your board many thanks to your board clerk um your public information officer everyone on your staff who really got the word out and encourage folks uh to respond to the surveys most importantly and I think you'll agree with me in in saying this many many thanks to the folks in your community and on your staff who took time out of their busy schedules to respond to these surveys to provide you with written
027comments to give your board meaningful feedback to inform your superintendent search process moving forward on behalf of ncsba on behalf of this board many many thanks um to the folks who participated in this public input portion um of the superintendent search process briefly just to give you a little bit of demog graphic information about the survey respondents of those who responded to the community survey the vast majority live within your attendance area Andor have one or more children who are attending school within the district you also had a fairly sizable uh number of alums graduates of your school district who responded to the survey and I think that's always something worth noting um among the staff respondents the vast majority no surprise to you are teachers uh followed roughly uniformly pretty uniformly by school and
028District level uh support staff and administrators um what the survey did first is it asked respondents to rate numerically from one to five with one being not at all important five being extremely important the characteristics that are most important to them um in a new superintendent and within the top five there was actually a pretty high level of agreement between your community and staff specifically four of the top five five are exactly the same they're just in a little bit of a different order and those four overlapping uh characteristics are understands how to provide safe environments for students and staff models high standards of Integrity is willing to listen to input and understands how to effectively advocate for needed resources the only differing characteristic in the top five for the community is knows how to
029encourage staff students parents and community members to work together together um only differing in the top five for the staff is communicates well with people of all Races and socioeconomic status um within the next top five characteristics so characteristics 6 through 10 also pretty high level of agreement uh three are exactly the same just in a little bit of a different order and those three overlapping uh characteristics are is accessible and responds to concerns in a timely fashion is able to develop an effec ly communicate a vision for the school system and has a strong understanding of school Finance budgets and business management only two differing uh characteristics for the community in 6 through1 are communicates well with people of all Races and socioeconomic status and has ideas and approaches to improve graduation rates and
030prevent dropouts uh only two differing in six through 10 from staff are knows how to encourage staff students parents and community members to work together and supports firm discipline in schools uh next survey again Ask respondents to rate numerically from 1 to five the types of experience uh that are most important to them in a new superintendent and within the top five again pretty high level of agreement between your community and staff four are exactly the same just in a little bit of a different order and those four overlapping ones are has experience with building maintaining and managing schools has been a successful principal has been an effective classroom teacher and has worked in North Carolina uh public education only differing one uh in the top five for the community is has experience in curriculum
031development and instruction uh only differing in 1 through five for the staff is has been a successful assistant or associate uh superintendent in addition to those survey responses that we just looked at as I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation you also received written comments in some cases very extensive written comments um from your community and your staff we in csba never ever in any search summarize those comments and that's because we don't in any way want to editorialize misinterpret miscommunicate the very meaningful feedback that your community and staff are sharing with you what we do instead as you know is WE Post PDF copies full unredacted PDF copies of those comments to assembly we give you as much time as possible you've had a couple of weeks to review those comments and I
032know you've reviewed them closely I have also shared just so you know I have shared with your board clerk um as well as your board attorney redacted copies of those comments um without going into too much detail under North Carolina Freedom of Information laws the surveys are a public record um and in to the extent the comments do not include any confidential Personnel information or personal identifying student information that legally only you the board and your board attorney um are are allowed to look at they are a public record and so I've provided those to your board clerk so that you as a board in a school system can respond to any public records requests you get about the surveys but I please let me emphasize and I hope you'll emphasize if anyone asks you
033all of the survey respondents are Anonymous have been are now will forever be anonymous that's really is true no one knows who wrote what um they just the surveys are a public record under our freedom of information laws and I want you all to be able to respond to that accordingly uh that concludes my presentation I'm happy to answer any questions that you have your next communication from me as I said at the beginning will be on the 18th um you'll hear from me first thing on the 18th telling you how many folks have applied um and from how many states sharing with you a draft press release with information we think it's perfectly fine for you to share um with the press and the community um you'll hear from me later in the day
034letting you know that all of the a materials are available on assmbly um for you to review but in the meantime I'm of course available at any point to speak to any of you about the search process fortunate to have a staff and a community that rank these characteristics so equally is that the standard when you see this throughout uh I mean I was just happy as I could be to see that the staff and the community really had so many things eight of the top 10 things were exactly the same and I just couldn't I was really surprised but pleasantly surprised is that what you normally see we've seen less synchronicity and agreement um over the past over the past couple of years oh you're been politically correct now what I think so important
035is that you have an Engaged community and staff I think it's wonderful and as said a a beautiful thing when they when they agree with one another but they're engaged so even if they don't necessarily agree on everything um I just think it's really really important to have community members and staff members who are really invested um in in your school system I think that I think both are true not only do you have a lot of investment you have a lot of agreement and I think that's something to really be proud of because it takes a lot of thoughtful deliberate action on on on the part of a board and on on the part of a staff and a leader to to cultivate that culture do you guys have questions or comments to Sam
036I'll just say thank you Sam since I missed the last board meeting for all you've done and for compiling this and I just want to reiterate to to our staff who was here tonight thank you all so much for taking the time to respond and I hope you let your teams know too because that does mean a lot I know I have personally read through the comment sections multiple times and I'm extremely grateful for that input and I know we'll do everything we can to make sure that you're heard and um we want to do the best that we can for everyone in the county including the teachers and every single child that lives in Davy County so I really appreciate that feedback that we got and I'm glad to hear that it was pretty
037high from what I understand based on some so yes ma'am absolutely okay okay if not thank you so much Sam for driving up here this evening and sharing some information with us and spending some time with us we really appreciate that yes sir thank you okay next on our agenda is the consent agenda uh you've had a copy to see these electronically uh is there motion to accept the consent agenda as presented got a motion from Mr CLE Mr Hunter seconds any questions for staff or comments if not all in favor show hands motion carries 60 next we go into policy updates and these are wow a lot a lot of reading by the time you read all those comments and this I don't know about you guys but I think I probably spent more
038time for this board meeting than any I that I've spent in a long long time but Mr wall I turned it over to you concerning the policy updates yes sir thank you Mr PS board this thank you for walking through and reading the policies uh these were presented to you last month and now I U come before you tonight and ask for recommendation that these policy changes be approved you've heard superintendent's recommendation is there a motion to that effect Jeff Jones makes a motion second Mar HS makes the second okay questions or comments and again most of these are Corrections because of some requirement in the law that we have to be aligned with them and and not necessarily a lot of paragraph changes but a word or two here and there but it sometimes
039makes a whole difference in in the in the the paragraph and the meaning of that particular policy any questions all in favor as presented motion carries 6 z Mr Harris District budget update good evening board on January the 30th Jeff and I were asked to present to the Board of Commissioners uh what we call a budget update but it's really kind of a state of where we are um with hiring and where we are safety and everything else and so I'm going present that what we presented to them on January the 30th I've not changed it with any kind of Staffing updates or anything since that time so you'll see exactly what what we presented to them we started with this first Slide the first slide includes four pictures of kind of what we've done
040this year first one is really about instruction in the classroom the second one is our PTEC signature schools presentation um North Davy they're uh they were doing music man I believe was what they were doing and they came came and presented part of that for that group so they were invited to do that the bottom left corner is mockville Elementary they collected um supplies and all for Ash County Schools after the hurricane and that's those students carrying that and the last one is juliia sudor when we when we dedicated that building and changed the name um so we just wanted to provide that kind of what we were doing where we were kind of how how we' worked out this year the second slide we we talked about funding model and and kind of talked
041about where we were so I talked a little bit about funding in AAR this is the first year we've we've had funding in AAR um if you don't anything about it it can be a difficult funding model for a district that a district that's growing I'm sorry um we are in the minority as a rural District that as we continue to grow and so it has not impacted us as much as it impacts some of the other districts um our ADM forecast was 6,9 19 students um when we looked at the best one of two we actually came in at 62 and so there's no real impact for us from our funding standpoint that also means it will not be an impact for us for next year I mean we we we've been pretty consistent
042now if we were to lose students that means we would our funding would go down the following year if we grow we've got growing pains the current year but we be funded at a higher rate the following year so that's the reason it's a little bit of a barrier when we start working through with that funding looks like we wanted to bring up exceptional children if you don't know we're funded at 13% of our um ADM for exceptional children we currently have 17 and a half% identified so that's 4 and a half% of our students that are identified um that we fund locally or out of another state allotment um academically gifted the other end of the spectrum we're funded at 4% we actually have 15% identified again that 11% um we have to fund
043out of another Federal another um State allotment or we fund it locally which vast majority is kind of where we work through I talked a little bit about Capital outlay um so they understand that when we approve a project it can be up to 10 months before we start that project um and then these projects can span multiple fiscal years depending on kind of what's going on and where we are just to help them understand kind of where we were from a funding model because our Capital comes from sales tax current expense comes from property tax any questions okay um I wanted I wanted to touch on Charter School spending you the last last bullet point in the last three years our Charter School spending has gone up 274 per. driven by several different things
044but one of the key things that drove charter school funding growth is um instead of our virtualems or virtual schools not ours but virtual charter schools are now funded at the full County amount so um currently it's about $2,100 that it's per student that we get for local funding that goes to the virtual school um versus two years ago they got $790 because they're not brick and mortar it's virtual it do cost them as much legisl went through to change that and so now whether it's virtual or brick and mortar they get the exact same amount that's a key Drive ding that 274 per growth in the last three years um this year we're we're on task to actually grow probably another um probably five or six% over the $96,000 we'll probably be right at
045about 105 or 106 this year based on where we are right now um voucher impact that's the DPI puts out what the impact is or with the forecast impact would be about $360,000 for us um in our state our State allotments um and what that voucher impact would be Esra spending that ended on July 29th and so I want to touch a little bit about kind of where we are we were able to redeploy our staff that we we only had seven PE seven people that were paid out of eser dollars much better than a lot of districts a lot of districts had a lot of staff that were paid out of eser dollars we planned we tried to plan make good plans and be proactive and where we were um our biggest impact is
046going to be SU staining um our professional development for our teachers we spent a lot of money there trying to keep them and make their ability to grow and everything else and our summer programs um I know I've had a couple conversations about our summer camps and everything else there were some camps that were specific to Esser that they funded there's some camps that we um supplemented that spending for those camps with our estra dollars that now we've got to go back and reassess where we are they're working on Grant to help us with some of those through the Community Foundation and and looking for other places to help with that but those are things that we've got to look at and make sure that we're only going after the things that we're seeing huge
047benefits from and we continue to grow those those um camps and and support students and staff um for what they need I wanted to touch on this classified salary study um when I originally did it about two about three years ago we were right out a million dollars by going and do it now and take a look at implementing and getting our classified salary to the um salary scales that the state has put out it's about1 A5 million dollars it continues to grow um we what I wanted from them was to understand that but also to talk through if we could get if we could do it in a tiered approach and do just 3% for our classified staff so we can at least remain a little bit competitive and hold on to people that's
048almost $600,000 that would give us a tiered approach and be able to meet some of the needs or some of the the requests and and retain staff um because our staff's not any younger they're very experienced we're going to start losing people in the next few years it will be very very difficult for us to to uh uh replace if we don't start making some modifications in where we are from our classified staff I hear from directors I hear it from staff when they come and talk and everything else as we work through that so we're actively pursuing how do how do we get there and so we've started trying to think of some other ways to not potentially do the whole thing can we do a tiered approach and at least um try to
049be a little more competitive um so that kind of makes sense questions thoughts hey clay can you remind us what our eser money was that was sunset or how much was it the amount that we um the uh Sr 3 was 77.6 Million yeah um Now understand that I mean that's that's three years that that we work through yeah our last our spending last year was probably right at $3 million okay in s dollars okay okay thanks just so we understand the significance of the amount of funds that we lost but but again we we kind of planned for that so that we didn't get you'll hear people talk about the user Cliff I mean it's there it's real as you work through it but we tried to limit that that Cliff falling off the
050cliff as much as we could as we work through that let me make a point right there I want you to understand what you just heard $8 million o over the course of three years now you try to extract that from the budget you see major disruptions and we didn't have that and again I commend that man right there and those principles and those people sitting in this audience that's a really good job a good job and while let me back up just a moment Marie you had had a good question this week and board we we're going to we're going to go into a question about what's summer camps we offer what we had to cut back and some of those things we will have a more detailed explanation in our budget work session
051on April 8th I've asked primarily it' be Jen Lon and Jennifer kuster who somewhat overseas though those camps to give a better explanation of how do we pick and choose did we have to cut back days because of less money which you can figure that part out but this a fair question of prioriti why do we do what we do so but we'll we'll have more detailed information around that in more a different format of discussion on April 8th on the $2100 for virtual if a high school student um he only needs two units to graduate and so he enrolls in a virtual course for two courses is that full amount of 2100 how does that div it up or is that she's only a half day student so two two different situations so what
052you I think what you're describing is um ncvps which is which is not part of this I'm talking about a virtual charter school so um Charter so you talk about North Carolina virtual or um there's a new one that's opened in Raleigh that was brick and mortar they've gone to virtuals I think I believe the name is Pine Springs I believe is the name of that th those are the charter schools I'm talking about ncvps is a is different and it's funded through um State allotments and everything else from that perspective the $2,100 doesn't go to ncvps it would go to the Pond Springs or the North Car virtual that type of thing okay other questions okayer a little refer a little bit more to notes here because this is out of out of my
053realm when we start talking about Staffing um when we took one of the questions that came up um before we got before we joined the Board of Commissioners it was around Staffing and so Jeff and I tried to take a little bit of time to figure out where we were at the beginning of the year with vacancies what how many resignations we had had and again please remember this is the end of January so this this does not include anything that's happened in February or March so from our certified positions we had 35 vacancies that doesn't mean we have 35 open classrooms we had 35 classrooms that had instructors that may not have been fully licensed or we may have had a long-term sub in there um or we we were sharing a teacher between
054a classroom or whatever the case to be able to cover so we paid for a planning period um so it's not 35 open classrooms please please understand that when I say that we just when we report to DPI that's what our vacancy number um because they don't have the specific license that they need um since then we've had 14 resignations and we've been able to hire 12 again January 30th so uh Miss ha has been working on trying to fill positions and when we change the semester we we've gotten some more um from a classified perspective we had 36 positions open we've had 21 resignations we've filled 31 positions back so classified positions are are a real issue for us as we work through trying to figure out what they need to be it goes
055back to my earlier slide about our classified salary study how do we become more competitive and fill those positions building administrators we have 25 building administrators in the county of that we have six brand new assistant principles um and we have three new principles all three of our principles were previous Davy County Employees so we moved them into principal ship roles um of our assistant principles make sure I've got it right um uh two of our assistant principles went through a principal prep program they were DAV County employees and went through principal prep program the other four were new to Davy County um so that speaks a lot that um just like we heard about superintendent search and everything else as we we think we're a good place for people to come we've got building
056administrators and we had we had a lot interested in those roles I and we were able to fill them with quality um in those in those positions so we continue to work through those but nine positions out of 25 is a big impact for one year when you start thinking about um your building and and trying to continuity as you work through that questions about that want to take a little bit of time and talk about safety with them so they kind of understood where we were um so we talked about Open Gate um we have 18 uh weapons detection systems that were you approved in November uh we launched in January um and we have since added the high school that went live on February the 5th and so that we only left with
057elementary schools now um as we work through that we got the update on the Rave panic button we talked a little bit about that and where we were um we hope to have that really um rolling and completed in the next few weeks then I wanted to make sure that I touched on our relationship with the DAV County um First Responders their teams 911 I mean we have a great relationship and and as I talk to other districts when I'm in conferences and that kind of they just don't have the relationship that we have I we have something that's very unique and so we wanted to make sure we took the time to say thank you for that partnership um I'll give you an example we we had an issue today with one of our
058buses I called Justin Stutz our lead SRO he was right on top of he tell me exactly what was going on this is where we are as we work through that so that relationship is very strong and where we work and how we work through that now we'll talk about the things that I know more about um this this is a slide we provide every year um and I'm only going to talk about the top uh left corner we talk about the 10year trend when you look at our ADM our ADM has been down has gone down 6% in the last 10 years our staff is down %. so that says that we have watched staff and made our staff changes as we needed to as our ADM adjusted but I retirement cost has gone
059up 110% in the last 10 years so that what it I I say that to say that we continue to do the right things but we have cost that that we have to we have to cover um as we work through that and want to make sure they understood kind of where we were and how we worked through that piece um so they understand it questions okay what's that health care cost um for us it's $674 a month for every for every employee that's Healthcare eligible next year um it we will probably be it's not come out I'm I'm using $88,500 a year um as as kind of the the thought and so that's what just over $700 7 750 I think is is what we're looking at when you talk about a cost for
060next year and I'm speculating on that given where we are um for the NC treasure and that kind of stuff and what they're talking about how they're trying to make it up I I may be off I mean where we are I mean it will be more expensive for our staff and for our as the employer both I'm sure before it's all said and done when the when the actual budget comes through so um I use this slide to say thank you I wanted to make sure that we showed where we were from uh Davy County appropriation what our trend has been we continue to Trend up and the money that we get from them because of our interlocal agreement that's a very nice thing but I also wanted to make sure I step back
061and talk about of the money that we get how much of that is slated for personnel and utilities those are two things that we have to have there's not anything we can do from that um and so in the 23 24 year it was 82.8 6% of our budget just for those two items last year it was 86.8 n% of our total budget um just in personnel and utility cost as we take a look at that as we continue to grow our cost that we we have to have grows faster than what our what our lotman and what we're getting from them and so I want to make sure that we kind of talk through that and understand what that piece of it is I want to make sure I got that in front of
062them as we talk through where we are and what we're doing and board if you if there are things that we are going over that you want more detail about and again we want many much of what's here can be shared again on the eth if you want to unpack all that we can do that it's man we don't want to spend our time being too granular because our goal is to set the budget for next year but a lot of this feed and helps us prepare for the for the coming year but we'll go into more detail because it's a lot I got it Clay on this slide can you just explain what that what that means Davy County appr appropriation Trend and what that 12,000 13,000 and 14,000 is okay so we're we
063have an interlocal agreement with the with the million yeah that's what I meant sorry we we're on an interlocal agreement with the county so of the money that they collect we get a percentage 41 3% of that and so as property tax grows our allotment grows and I wanted to make sure that I showed that we continue to get more money but we're continuing to grow faster in things we have to pay for than what than what we're growing in in the allotment piece of it so you see it grows $600,000 It Grow another $600,000 It Grow another $500,000 but our expenses because of cost where I talked about retirement when I talked about Healthcare when I talk about utilities they grow faster than we're growing in our in our appropriation that we get from
064the county and so at some point we're going to be at a Tipping Point that I don't have anything else to cut except I mean I mean you're talking about Personnel is 86% 84% of our budget when we take a look at it as we continue to work through that that's not something we want to do but we also have to go back and I mean every director that I talked to I said to understand we're tight this year we're going to have to we're going to have to work through where we need to be they've not heard that from me in the past as we work through I mean we we're all very physically responsible very physically conscious in where we are but they're hearing from me a little bit more that okay we
065really to look at what are we spending what are we where are we going what are we doing as we continue to work through that as we've got so many competing demands to be able to make things happen clay I want to make sure the board understands too most of you are well aware that we went through a reevaluation and most of our property tax went up significantly well this is a year behind exactly this lags so the 41 point you when your number of collection is larger your 41.3% is larger however that we will not see that until 26 June of 26 so they finished their audit that just like our audit is June 30th so they finished on June 30th and then they give me what it's going to be in December starting
066in July of the next year so that's what he means by year behind Okay not in your presentation but again a reminder that William Ellis middle school will be paid off this June June 30 correct June 30 25 yes June 30 which has the county has been withholding $300,000 a year straight off the top for debt Services which that will come back to us now which will help obviously we need the help but that's a positive thing Ellis is capital say it again well it's Capital yeah yes you're yeah you're right it is and and while this may not be the amount that we say we want and need the process is so much better than it was a few years ago when when the County Commissioners and Board of Education finally got together and
067got this interlocal agreement it's been so much better uh so you can plan otherwise in years past you had no idea if you were going to get 14, 78,000 or if you were going to get 12, 700,000 um so I'm very appreciative of those people who came before us5 Finance officers in the state right now that are jealous of where we are absolutely please understand that absolutely and that and every chance I have I say that to them that this is a great thing yes as we as we work through it very seldom will a finance officer know in December or January what their appropriation is going to be for the following year so what's that local that's right um th this was just a slide to help understand kind of where we were this
068is total budget so this is state federal local everything um 84.5 3% of our budget was for personnel that is salaries benefits and so on and so forth um 7% related to supplies um 8% is related to Contracting utilities and then the last 0.26% is is other charter schools and so on and so forth things that don't fall in those other categories I wanted to share that with them so they kind of understand the total budget where we are and then I broke down where we are from a local perspective so locally 73.1 13% of our budget is Personnel another 6% is supplies 20% is around contracts and utilities and the last is is around other which that we pay for charge schools out of our local dollars and that was the presentation we made
069for them any questions or thoughts comments again MOX before they went to Ash County talking about a bunch of happy kids they were they were excited I was there when they they finished loading and everything they were excited all right hearing none thank you very much clay I appreciate that presentation we all do next we'll call on Valerie about our summer programs fidgeting with them good evening uh chairman Potts board members superintendent Wallace and guest before I begin my presentation I appreciate that Mr Wallace gave me so much credit but the middle of the year uh data dive is truly the brainchild of Jennifer casra and the years she has put into dve County and really pushing our schools to look at data um she all I have to do sometimes go have a conversation
070with her and she's already got the idea then we set a calendar date and the next thing you know we're really digging into the data so uh she is definitely a blessing to our County but the real reason I am here tonight is um to present to you a remediate and readminister summer program and I know that's a weird name and I will explain so a little bit of background uh I came on board in this position a year ago January of 2024 and as I went out and met with schools and administrators to see just uh how I could help how I could support what uh questions they may have multiple schools asked me why do we not readminister tests um to students who were not proficient and I was like what are you
071talking about and they explained to me that in other districts that there is a readministration of eogs or eoc's at the end of the year so I took that information and started doing a little research and we came back together this fall and formed a committee uh we had representation from every school we had representation from administrators teachers and a parent uh and we came together multiple times over the fall and winter to study what the state guidelines are for this and to also take that information back to our school leadership teams to tell them what we've learned and also get questions and feedback from them to help us make our decisions as a committee so there is no State Board of Education policy that allows retesting uh so that is why this is called
072readministration this is considered a new testing window um we are allowed to give this opportunity to students who pass the course but are not proficient on the test it it it's another guideline that we studied is it has to happen after the student's Academic Year has ended so we have to wait until after the students last day of school however we can do it on teacher workday uh during the remediation we repeat certain elements of the course or sub subject um and stud students do not earn credit because they've already passed the course so they don't earn credit and their initial grades not replaced so why in the world would we want to do it uh because the higher scho score could be will be counted into our proficiency and into our school accountability model
073also we all know one day in one test does not define a child sometimes I had I had a student a couple years ago after the EOG told me yeah my mom was in the hospital all night I was like why did you take take the test today like I would have let you do a makeup um but she just wanted to to she it's testing day you go to school so this uh recognizes uh our efforts as a school to do something in addition to the regular school year and allows us to readminister the EOG if um with our program we would have to notify the parents of our dates and our times uh the key is the participation is voluntary uh if stud stud choose and parents choose not um to participate you're
074held harmless it is purely we thought of it in our committee as a morale booster sometimes that one test we know that kid had it in them um but that one day that one test just something didn't uh line up but if parents choose not to attend there is no uh repercussions this is just an opportunity to prove what you know um the other thing is is if the students don't come to the day of remediation they are not allowed to retest so it's not that well I'm going to skip the the remediation day I'm going to skip day one and just show up day two we're not allowed to do that you've got to attend one in order to to do the second part so our committee first just kind of dove into those
075guidelines and requirements so we kind of understood our framework that we had to work in um and then we looked at the potential impact so what I did is I reached out and thankfully a fellow uh testing coordinator in another District provided me their data and that I don't their data was was in Reading grades 4 through eight anywhere from 20 to 46% of the students who came to the summer program were proficient and in math grades 3 through eight it was anywhere from 16 to 50% so she broke it down by grade level for me so I just kind of went with a number in the middle of let's say let's say we invited the students who were within five points of being proficient and let's say onethird of them came and passed the
076test the second time um how would that have affected our school grades and on average each school would have increased their school um grade by four points on average it was a range of one to Seven Points uh three of our schools would have increased a whole letter grade meaning one wouldn't have been in in low performing now granted that's potential that's just me running some some arbitrary numbers and you know seeing but I thought oneir was a good cons um conservative kind of Gaz seeing her range of numbers um so seeing this potential and I like how One principal um said it Cindy Stone said we're comparing ourselves to districts who are doing this and I thought well that's that's a good point I didn't think of it like that so then our committee
077really we spent the most of one whole meeting just talking about the pros and the hurdles we'd have to overcome the pros we already talked about provides a second chance um we even said it like it's another day in school so for some of our students that's that's some days with food so it's two more days of uh breakfast and lunch it obviously has a potential to improve our school accountability a hurdle is funding we are not going to take I just I could not have asked for a better setup um we we we don't H we have to do this program within what we already have uh and so can can we make it happen we don't want to ask we don't want to take away from the other summer programs that are longer
078that go a lot deeper um because this is you know can we make it happen and and we decided that we could within the parameters we also we spent most of our second meeting just listening from feedback from school leadership teams and we heard I'll be honest we heard mixed reviews but our team went we went back and forth over the reviews and we came up with that the positives and the positive um what the schools um discussed outweighed what our worries and our concerns were uh I think my best thing that I saw was one school who would have had very little impact on their accountability grade because they're already a b said we'll do it because we know how much this could help the other schools too and the other students so I
079thought that was powerful that they're willing to do this um to help the good of the district um I'm not looking at my notes so after our team look through the guidelines look through the possibilities really listen to feedback from schools we um made a decision as a a committee that we wanted to move forward with this at all elementary and middle schools in our district this summer and that is I'm proposing this to you guys tonight and in our next board meeting I will ask for for your approval so our final session we really just wanted to outline who would we want to invite because we don't want to invite every single student um we really want to narrow down as you just you know as we talked about our middle of the Year
080data dive our schools track students data they have spreadsheets and charts so we want to use that data to go who was on track to pass uh we could use Evas test predictions to see who had a good chance of passing we're also going to look at who was in that fivepoint range of being proficient on the test uh we could only offer this this summer to grades 4 through eight reading grade three reading is take they participate in the r to aieve Camp science is not up there because it is a new test this year we won't even have our science scores back until August hopefully so what would a day look like we wanted to come to some agreements at what the day would look like um at our schools but we also
081want to give each school a little flexibility because we know each school has they want to be unique and meet their kids needs so we agreed that the day would definitely be rotations we do not want this to be 4 hours drilling more the same these are kids who had a really good data throughout the year they were on track they just need probably that boost um in that confidence and those test taking strategies and maybe just a a quick hit on the big standards so we would have rotations we want to focus on skill building test taken we want to incorporate brain breaks and physical activity so this was like the sample that I came up with I put it up and I said okay now y'all share your samples and everyone went and
082that's pretty much what ours looks like so minus they they might have done a 45 minute movement like everybody had something similar to just rotations and um getting students involved in this on day two pretty much um come in breakfast and we would go into testing uh and lunch before we leave in in order to pull this off we would need this is what it was important for them to go their school leadership teams and come back to our big team for us to make this decision because we would need all staff on board on these work days um this can't just be I'm a former math teacher this just can't be the math teacher with her students remediating and then the next day uh retesting because there's a lot that needs to be done
083at the end of the year on those work days so this would be all staff would be included uh in either the remediation or the readministration uh they could I mean anybody could help with test taking strategies anybody can help lead a review activity so all staff would be involved in this our instructional coaches uh one school leadership team said it would be really nice if maybe we had some sample activities and lessons we could pull from because we just finished our year maybe just something different for these kids and so our instructional coaches are going to provide sample activities and lessons and so as I already said I will be back next next month to ask for your approval but I will entertain any questions you may have about this program 16th and 17th
084are work days they are work days Monday and Tuesday and those people that are working in the summer program how does their time and pay how does all that work it's teacher workday so they if they're working it's covered it just it's like it's the it's a regular school year for the teachers so they're being responsible for the work that they normally would have have to do plus yes this yeah and how are those teachers secured that's what I had to trust on our school leadership teams and I they'll tell you I really pressed on that I'm like y'all we we don't need to be like I need you to make sure that they're that they're supportive of this and the payoff for students um and so that's why we're thinking of things like can
085we um provide the resources and materials so that of what the teachers might use how can we break up the days and maybe uh you're rotating between different teachers so the whole um staff is not being used for straight that many hours um I have our instructional coaches we were just in a meeting last week and they said they could come in and help this um CDA I know said that they really didn't they at the very first meeting said we wouldn't be really their accountability model is a different model than the rest of ours but their teachers are willing to come and push into the other schools to help so we really do have a a mentality but I can go back and ask more questions if I need to and transportation I assume
086is on the parent yes because it's voluntary yes um well first thank you for your presentation and all the work and research you have obviously put into this uh and please thank your team and committee um so this is this will be an um an extra cost am I assuming no we're we're make we want to make it happen within the confence of what we already have what you already have so there's this is just an extra program where kids can bump up their scores if they need to their test scores great thank you thank again thank you for all your word thank youy Val I have a couple questions um you said that it would not impact the school the students score from that year so where we would see the impact is the
087following year it wouldn't impact their grade and their class Okay so um at the elementary level eogs do not impact the grade but at Middle School level uh five 10 15 20% sorry I had to think of those numbers um in sixth grade the EOG is 10% of their final grade in seventh grade 15 and then at e8th grade it's 20% of their final grade but because of the state guidelines we cannot allow the readministration to affect their grade so plus that would be a burden on our teachers if we said here's the last op work day on Tuesday and we don't get scores back to the next day which is Wednesday now I need you to update all your report cards that would been a burden so um we're not it doesn't impact the
088grade So when you say that the other districts that you researched when their scores went up by four points was that for like the following school year where they saw those increases I got your question so it does not affect the students grade but it affects the student on their reports it'll show both their scores in their historical test Rec but what counts in the accountability model is the highest of the two scores okay so in the current so this would this would affect when I come back in October so when I come back in October and I present our accountability results it would be counted in there that I can show you the payoff oh good okay okay thank you so that's good clarification because that is why it would be important for those
089schools to get that okay and then is there going to be a cap on the number of students that can be in these prr I hope we are that bless I hope that but with it being voluntary we we had somebody on our committee whose child is in another district and they said they got they were offered to come and do this and and they chose not to for their child because their child had some extenuating circumstances over that school year they just so we understand it's a parents decision and we respect that right and because of the parameters around past the class not proficient but we within five scale score points five scale score that's going to that's going to you're you're dwindling your numbers down because of those parameters okay is is do
090the other districts that you research just do it for two days um they try to do it for as many as they can during their work days we we have three work dayss at the end of the year a Friday a Monday and a Tuesday and we didn't want to we didn't want to start this on a Friday like we want go enjoy one day of summer that gives us time to turn it around and make phone calls um and back on Monday we should make our phone calls like before that Friday because we'll have results already in the reason I asked that is because even with our read to achieve program last year and some of these other intensive programs where kids can go in and do this type of work nonstop they saw
091results that they didn't see the entire year you know it's the same with like some intensive therapies you get so much more out of it when you're working with it so I was just curious about the number of days which in a perfect world we love to do more right right but um but I do think there's going to be a huge benefit well to this if it goes Nothing Stops us from remediating all students to keep them up on their uh standards before this school year ends um you know at sometimes after eogs you have some kind of like a little not too much of a little anymore but this could be a great review session for all students to keep helping them prepare for the next grade level so it's not so you're
092kind of targeting a little bit wider there and one more question for you I'm sorry I really appreciate your time here um the content that is going to be taught is that did you research that type of stuff or you know how do you know what you guys I'm just curious that's more of a curiosity question with where our conversations in they very surface level in that part now with our conversations on that the best thing to at this point would be looking at each grade level at the test and kind of what's the hardest hit standards and how can you just quick and we want to make this fun this really these kids their data is showing KN that they know this stuff so it's really not an intensive retach because we're not pulling
093the students who were you know we're pulling the ones who everything is showing us that they had a good potential of passing in the first place yeah that's great I think communicating that to the parents will be huge in terms of getting people too just my thought as a parent I think that's great and trying to make it fun and food yeah right right thank you I did I did have one one one more thing I'm sorry just clarification make sure I heard you right we're current our scores we're currently being compared to districts that have this that have this in place right now yeah okay I just wanted to make sure I heard you right yeah so I appreciate Cindy stone for pointing that one out to me she has some great insights on
094things that that help help me understand better I will be back next month yeah thank you yes sir Mr P thank you board we we have had some questions around policy 2310 so we have worked through some of that and I'm presenting it to you tonight for consideration it'll sit for a month and we can work through work through that or if there's questions about that tonight uh we can uh Miss uh Wilson has reviewed that and uh but if and then we would ask next month that there be we to approve that policy um next month questions so I have so can I ask a question on that dub um and maybe Miss Wilson you can help me understand so based on the policy here that we're looking to change I'm assuming it's because
095somebody has requested for it to be changed well it's actually correct it's very I I have when I first became your board attorney which was about 2009 I'm trying to remember it's been been a little while um you had um some very uh specific policies um and uh they were not from the School Board Association well then over time you Incorporated your policies with the Schoolboard associations but they did not remove some of the portions that were unique to the Viewpoint of the old Administration the position of the old Administration was that was similar to what was in the policy but that is incorrect it is the whole point of public comment is that they can comment it's a it's a open Forum now it is also not the the reason that many public comment
096spaces in any governmental body say please don't talk about Personnel the reason they say that is because this is not the Forum to fix a Personnel problem if there's a Personnel problem we want to investigate and get to the bottom of it and talking about it in public comment is not the way to do that the way to do that is to work through the superintendent say I've had a problem with with X could you look into it and give the school system an opportunity to resolve the issue so and if what you're saying is incorrect or false it could be slandered there's lots of reasons why you suggest that's not the appropriate place to have those comments but it doesn't prevent someone from doing that it's just inappropriate it's not the place to do
097it and so that language when there send it to me is just wrong and so that's why I proposed fixing it because what you really mean to say is there are better places if you're talking about individuals right to address problems than public comment that's different than saying you can't I think it says they're forbidden or something I mean it's got some really pretty strong language in there um that was sort of the I don't want to throw them under the bus but my predecessor in this position had a very uh black and white approach to many things including things like that and so that was just a gross overstatement I think of what was meant to be said okay thanks Joel and I guess when I see it it says the the part that's
098being taken out no Personnel issues or negative criticism about individual employees I I feel pretty um strongly that I don't want think it's right time for for people to come up and use Personnel names to defame staff students and then we can even get into some civil liability issues and I was able to research some other policies that actually have specifically that in their policies to not name individuals for that reason so actually there's case law though that would say that's inappropriate okay so like nine out of 10 of the counties that I researched have them in there so they're all inappropriate I think they probably say if they're the School Board Association policy they're not that black and white they say Personnel is not appropriate or something like that as opposed to saying you
099are forbidden it it's it's about the language correct and I'm not say yeah they do not say they're pro pro the word wordage you use prohibited prohibited but I just I think it's it's really important that we understand I mean we have a teacher on our board right here who I I you know we have many people on the board who are related to teachers and I there's a lot of things that we hear and there's two sides and we need to make sure that we're addressing all sides and this is not a place to air absolutely and and and um I have not you know I sit with a lot of boards in a lot of meetings and I have not seen this gone Ary um many times in many places but I can
100also tell you that having that policy doesn't necessarily mean someone's not going to do it either absolutely I mean unfortunately the reality is we can say it's inappropriate if someone starts to talk about a Personnel problem we can say we'd like you to speak with the human resources person about your concerns there are ways to handle it right but it's what's not appropriate is to say it's forbidden right and I don't think the word forbidden was in any of the policies but we also do have strong policy that provides details on how to handle those situations outside of a public forum in our board meeting which I think is very important for people so I think maybe just um possibly looking at different wording for it would be great dub if that's possible I think
101the sentence that we removed was actually in the wrong place it was under the report of complaints I believe yes correct rather than the the previous section talked about rules for the open my opportunities right and that's where the majority of those counties did have them was under the public comment section I I think that's appropriate place and not my question is not to oversimplify this but like I said I'm new to this so I'm just trying to say this as simple as I can I think what the way I'm understanding this is we hope we want PE we want folks that have complaints to go through the proper chain of command and try to resolve those complaints in any way possible before coming before the board but still maintain freedom of speech and maintain
102their PE folks constitutional rights to to come before a public board am I correct in that okay and and I think the balance that I struggle with is is the right for somebody to stand at the mic and say things about me or about you or about a teacher but Michael Hunter and dub pots and that teacher can't rebuttal uh that's that's the sadly though that's part of being a public official you can say public officials are rascally rabbits if you want to it is your free speech right to do it and you may not like it but that's the way it is and it's one thing for people to go up and say our names great do you say my name and whatever because I chose to be in this position but when it
103comes to Personnel issues and which can lead to student issues and yes you have a public speech and a first right Amendment but there's also the defamation and the things that can go along with that which can lead to civil lawsuits and violation of people's Hippa rights and fura rights the hard part is that you can't it's you can't preempt someone's rights because they might do that and so that gets very complicated if someone defames someone they are liable for defamation you can't but you can't preempt for example we don't ever say you can't stand up and say boy superintendent Wallace is awesome and we're really lucky to have him and we allow that but if someone said you know when superintendent Wallace cancelled school last week my kid didn't go to school and I
104was really mad about it no you can't say that part you can only say he's wonderful I mean it gets it's a it's difficult we're we're we're the public and and the reason you have public comment once a month is so the public can share their concerns with you and you can't say only the concerns we like okay all heart's clear um thank you clay and Jeff I know y'all work together since the last meeting to try to take care of a Public Relation concern and uh thank you for that I know you spent time on it thank you Mr Harley for coming you've had a long day you were at cornat elementary at 7:30 this morning so thank you for being here thank you Mr Wallace for the calendar update which we didn't even
105mention tonight but it's in our uh folder and uh those tough decisions that you and and Jeremy and others are making at 4:30 in the morning we appreciate that and glad it's you so anybody anything else oh I'm about to close the meeting and we haven't had our opportunity for yes we opportunity for public to address the board misss Wilson uh nobody has signed up to address the board and just so that uh anyone in the audience knows we do not intend to take any further action so other than to adjourn so you won't miss anything exciting if you feel compelled to go home before we come back in this room if that uh so we do we adjourn or go to a recess no we sorney you've heard the recommendations from Miss Wilson is
106there a motion to do such to go into a close session Marie makes a motion second to go in close session to finish our discussion Joe makes a second all in favor thank you audience we appreciate all of you coming yes