001[clears throat] >> The June 15th uh work session of the Harnett County Board of Education is now in order. Uh if everyone will please stand. Ms. Gainey, would you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? >> pledge >> Yes, sir. I pledge >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Mr. Rabatte, would you lead us in prayer, please? >> I will. Our heavenly Father, we just thank you and we praise you for this day that you've given us, God. Thank you for bringing us together to serve the students, families, and staff of the Harnett County Schools. We ask you would be with each and every one of us as we make decisions
002and carry out the business of Harnett County Schools. Uh be with each and every one of us and keep us all safe. For it's in Jesus' name we all pray. Amen. >> Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Are any adjustments needed to the meeting agenda this morning? >> Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the agenda as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Hearing none, Chairman votes aye. >> Abate, aye. >> Ganey, aye. >> Guthrie, aye. >> Aero, aye. >> Hearing no nay votes, the motion is approved and the agenda is approved as published. We're going to begin this morning with a special presentation and we're honored to have with us this morning Mr. Bryce Feidler. Mr. Feidler is the executive director of the Carolinas
003Academic Leadership Network. So, Mr. Feidler, if you'd come forward and we look forward to your presentation. >> Well, thank you so much. Good morning, everyone. My name is Bryce Feidler. I'm the director of Carolinas Academic Leadership Network. It is wonderful to be here in your community this morning. I love that we have a full house here at the dais. This is my first time in Lillington, but I hope it's not my last and I do look forward to speaking with you all this morning. So, my goal for this presentation is just to make a quick introduction, talk a little bit about our organization at Carolinas Academic Leadership Network. Admittedly, we know it's a mouthful, so the CALN is sort of the easier acronym that we often go by. And ultimately, make sure that you are
004aware of the resources that are available to you as school board members. So, give a little bit of background on our organization. So, we were founded in 2023 really on the belief that our school boards are the most important decision makers in all of education and that improving student outcomes through governance, financial oversight, and policy development is a school board's highest priority. And so, ultimately, our goal is to provide our school boards in North and South Carolina with the tools and resources that they need to be successful. We do work with boards in both states from individual board members to full boards ranging at experience levels across the spectrum. So, I'll start with talking a little bit about what we offer under the first pillar, which is training and continuing education. So, primarily, we offer
005a series of in-person events throughout the year ranging from what we call a school board boot camp, and this is effectively a new member orientation. We know that many of our school board members, when they're elected, are first-time office holders, and having important education up front can really set you up to be successful in the long term. So, we typically do these once a year, sort of in that early spring window. We do one in North Carolina and South Carolina. Uh these are provided at absolutely no cost. They are full-day comprehensive, ranging from education in your statutory duties as board members, curriculum development. Uh there's typically a session on parliamentary procedure and meeting procedure, as well as a special dedicated session. Excuse me. [clears throat] on student achievement. Um we also provide on-site training for
006local boards, meaning that we bring that training uh to our school districts. Um so, for example, we offer uh what is a service where we can bring in an outside parliamentarian to give the full board sort of sort of a refresher on motions and amendments and the the the tenets of running an effective meeting. Um and we recently did this for a school board in South Carolina. It's typically about a 2-hour session, and it's highly customizable. And then, as part of that, if members have questions on procedure, they can reach out to the presenter, uh which will be covered by our organization. Uh we also know that people are are busy, and life happens, and that sometimes getting to in-person meetings can sometimes be challenging. So, we also make it an effort to provide a
007number of virtual learning opportunities out here. So, we typically have a webinar once a month. It's called our education and school board law webinar, where we blend uh sort of policy knowledge with local developments in the education world, talking about everything from school finance to public records. Uh most recently, of course, here in North Carolina, uh the state still does not have a new uh state budget. We've heard from many of our schools, this is causing somewhat of a disruption and a and a struggle. And so, the topic of teacher pay has obviously been at the forefront of many of our education discussions, and we brought some contacts to that discussion, talking about teacher pay in terms of full compensation, meaning those benefits as well, which is obviously a very important aspect of compensation, and
008it's also a big portion of districts' budgets. All of this is relevant here in North Carolina, and every state is a little bit different in that the state law requires continuing education hours. Effectively, what that means is every school board member has to get at least 12 clock hours of continuing education every 2 years, and of those 2 hours, uh uh two of them must be in ethics education. Um and in North Carolina, school districts get to select or choose where they get those continuing education hours, and increasingly, uh more school boards are receiving them through CALS. So, I'll talk a little bit about that. That's just the the training uh requirement that I mentioned with some of the highlights from the statute. There's really two ways to do it. One is sort of on
009informal practice. Uh board members will attend our in-person events or webinars, and basically ask for proof of attendance that they could submit to their clerk. Um or secondly, CALS can be adopted to uh districts' local policies, and we often see that something that many of our districts tend to prefer. So, what I've done here is I've included um an example of what is sort of the boilerplate language that we see some of our school districts have. Just has sort of the list of organizations that members can receive those continuing education hours from, and typically, uh boards will just add our organization in there. And this is from the uh Henderson County uh actually, excuse me, the Brunswick County Board of Education. That's where I pulled this policy language from. All right. Second, I'll talk a
010little bit about the tools and resources outside of those events that we offer. So, a big focus of us is on policy assistance. We know that policy approval and review and oversight is obviously a core function of what our school boards do, and we want to be a resource uh in helping you all with that. So, as CALS members, you should be receiving to your emails written summaries of all of the education and school board law webinars that we put on. We understand that being on those calls can sometimes be challenging. We typically have them on Fridays at noon. So, we make sure to send all of our members sort of comprehensive written summaries. We also have direct policy support where uh if a board is just looking for a second opinion on a question
011of policy, uh I'll give you an example. We spoke to or a board member had reached out to us a couple months back and said that their board was looking at updating their policy on curriculum review and development. And basically, they wanted to have the board to have a little bit more of an active role and asked for our input on how we could make that possible. We made some suggested revisions and they took that to their board and ultimately decided what to do with that. But if districts or boards are just looking for outside opinions on on these things, we're certainly not here to be your attorney or anything. We don't offer legal advice in that way. It's really just a matter of of second opinion or outside perspective. Um secondly, on our website,
012we have a number of free tools available uh which I certainly encourage you to visit at schoolboardleader.com/resources. One thing I'll highlight is a superintendent evaluation form. Uh we have a litany of research and articles on everything from the efficacy of cell phone bands to pen and paper instruction to what is this data say about one-to-one Chromebook policies. Obviously, really important and pressing questions of our time as technology has become so integrated into learning into our schools. And finally, uh if you're not signed up already, I highly encourage you to sign up for our weekly newsletter where we talk about upcoming calendar events, new resources that we have, uh and current topics in local education. So, I'll provide an example of one of the um policy areas that we have a bit more in-depth research and
013I earlier did distribute uh what are essentially little guidebooks talking about open enrollment. Is anyone here familiar with the concept of K-12 open enrollment? So, what it effectively is is the ability of parents to choose uh public schools outside of their standard attendance zone. Uh sometimes it's referred to as public school choice and increasingly, we see uh more North Carolina school districts uh adopt this policy. So, to give you a lay of the land, um every state is sort of different. In North Carolina, there's no law requiring open enrollment. There's also no law standing in the way of it. Um and currently, as I'll get to in a slide uh coming up, there's about four school districts in North Carolina that have this. So, I'll tell you the story of one of the districts that
014I talked to. Um their superintendent had identified an issue that I'm sure uh many of our school districts see, which is sort of downward trends in in enrollment, and also that several of the rural schools in his community were under capacity. So, what he did is he used this concept of open enrollment that says, "Well, maybe if we gave a little bit more flexibility in transfers, parents might uh voluntarily transfer some of their students to these schools that have under enrollment, and we can fill some of those seats." So, he met with his policy committee. They devised a policy, ultimately brought it to the board, and now did uh uh Union County Schools has a version of open enrollment. So, uh just to highlight quickly some of the resources that are available to you. There
015you have a a guidebook that I distributed here. Uh we'll have soon have a local model policy that you could take a look at and consider. And I talked about the North Carolina landscape. There's a handful of other districts that I've listed here that have open enrollment, including Granville, uh Pitt County Schools, and Winston-Salem Forsyth County. Uh and then finally, just on the on the benefits of open enrollment, uh public opinion polling shows high support among uh families. This is true across bipartisan lines as an option to fill seats at under-capacity schools, and ultimately can be used to give students um new pathways to different programs and avenues at at uh schools that they might not be zoned for, but are provided for in the district. Okay. Uh also want to talk a little bit
016about the North Carolina History Project. So, obviously, this is really exciting this year as we get ready to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation's founding. This is such an excellent resource that can be used in our public schools as an option to really talk about uh you know, the the values of North Carolina history. So, um Um, it includes is over 90 activity sheets sorted by elementary, middle, and high school students. These are free lesson plans about North Carolina's rich history, its state constitution, its role in the American founding and revolution, and as I said, founding principles. And importantly, this resource can be used to support North Carolina's required high school civic literacy course, and I've listed the code section here. Um, I spoke with the author of the program. I said, "I really
017want to make sure our uh, school leaders know about this resource." And I said, "You should add on the different worksheets whether it aligns with DPI standards and which standard specifically it does." And she recently did that. Uh, so just as information for you all, that information has been added and you can find more. All of these are free on northcarolinahistory.org. CALN membership. So this is exciting because the whole board is currently a CALN member, so I get to talk a little bit about some of the resources that are available to you all. Uh, I printed out a sheet listing all nine of the membership resources that we have, but I'll just highlight a few here for you today. Um, so one that we see often utilized is a curriculum review. So we work with
018an outside specialist who can provide a three to four page evaluation of your district's instructional materials, books, items that are used in learning. This is provided at absolutely no cost, and that can be used as really a jumpstart for conversations of what do we like about the curriculum in the district? Is there anything that could be used it for improvement? Um, sometimes we'll hear that districts have an expert in-house, a curriculum staff member that can do this service. And typically, what we say is we think there's value in having an outside or third-party perspective. So that's something that's available to you. We talked earlier about parliamentary assistance. I just had a board member who's a member reach out to me this morning. We can connect you either individually or as a whole board if you
019have questions on specific matters of parliamentary procedure. I'm thinking about getting something on the agenda or how a motion is made. Or we had a meeting last week and I wasn't sure if this went the exact way. Perhaps you don't want to talk about those things in public, you just want to speak to an expert to make sure that the process is in order. We can connect you with someone if you have questions on matters of parliamentary procedure at no cost to you. We work with a search firm that can help the district fill for executive level positions. We also have a number of model policies that are available to you. And finally, if you're unable to attend any of our events in person, we have many of those recorded and available to you in
020in their entirety on our website. And finally, I'll just end with some upcoming events that we have. Next week, really exciting, we have a big national conference for school board members in Charleston. We hope, if you haven't signed up today, that you can join us. It runs from June 24th to the 26th. We're actually hosting a pre-conference that first day. We'll have our our person that I mentioned assist us with parliamentary procedure will be speaking. We'll also have some sessions on legal topics. And it's really going to be an a wonderful opportunity for learning and also for networking and even a little bit of fun, too. There will be a dinner cruise on the Charleston Harbor that Wednesday night. So, it's something to look forward to. And finally, we are having our annual networking event
021and dinner this fall in North Carolina. We're still ironing out the details, but once those are available, we'll make sure to put those on our website and let everyone know. So, thank you so much for your time this afternoon or this morning. I really appreciate being here with you. If you have any questions about our organization or anything that I have talked through, I'd love to answer them for you. >> Does anyone have a question or comments for Mr. Fiddler? >> Appreciate you being here. Thank you. >> Yeah, thank you all. >> I just want to say that a couple of things. First of all, we greatly appreciate the opportunity to work with you. It's a very fine organization and what little bit we've been able to use resources so far, you have just a
022tremendous amount of good resources that I encourage all of our members to, you know, take advantage of. Would like to mention the North Carolina History Project that we discussed very briefly earlier and I did have the opportunity to correspond with Dr. Troy Kickler when the project first began several years ago. And especially Mr. Pearson, I'd like to encourage if you get the word out to our history teachers and in particular eighth grade history teachers, tremendous resources. You know, just a lot of work. I've seen it grow from a very small project to just a very expansive uh dealing dealing with a lot of our events that happened in North Carolina, a lot of our biographies about our North Carolina historical figures and personalities. It's just a tremendous resource. So, please make sure that we emphasize
023that to our teachers, particularly eighth grade history teachers, but just so many tremendous resources. So, we greatly appreciate you coming to visit with us this morning. >> Thank you. Look forward to continued working with you. >> We appreciate that. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, next on the agenda we have our consent agenda items. I will entertain a motion. >> Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the consent agenda as presented. >> We have a motion and a second. Consent agenda, Chairman Brooks, I. >> Abboud say I. >> Gainey, I. >> Dr. Price, >> I. >> Hearing no nay votes, the motion carries. Moving on now to our action items and our first item today is review and consider approval of a boundary change for the Duncan Creek subdivision. Mr. Pearson. >> Thank you, Chairman
024Powell, members of the board. Transportation Department is at their summer conference this week in Asheville, so they've tasked me with the specifics on this, but I do think you're right. He's provided me the the details. However, if you have deeper level questions, we may have to to reach out to him. Essentially, what we have here is a subdivision that as it continues to develop will be divided by uh two school zones. There are some pictures. Jennifer, if you have those slides and can put those up. Um this Duncan's Creek subdivision, um as it sits currently, uh would have students split between um multiple elementary schools, multiple middle schools, and multiple high schools. And so the uh you can see there Boone Trail, Lillington, Shawtown, Western Harnett, Central, and Western Harnett, Harnett Central High. Um fortunately,
025in this boundary change request, we have no currently impacted students. Uh the pink shaded area on the the right there that you see Lillington, Shawtown, that's kind of what we're talking of uh in encompassing and shifting that boundary line so that this entire neighborhood would be district for Boone Trail, for Western Harnett Middle, and Western Harnett High. Again, there are currently enrolled students at those schools in this neighborhood. There are no currently enrolled students in this neighborhood at Lillington, at Harnett Central Middle, or Harnett Central High. So no no students affected by this shift, but as that uh that stretch of road uh continues to develop, we do believe new houses will be built. And and again, here's kind of a GIS look. That red line is kind of a straightening of that boundary uh
026to catch that last road that you see there, that's Beacon Hill Road. So this subdivision is sits between McDougal Road and Old 421. And straightening this boundary line would make sure that future development and future students that move in there would all be district to the same three schools, uh again being Boone Trail, Western Middle, and Western High as the current students in there are attending. So. Certainly I have if you have any questions, I'll provide those to you, but uh these maps certainly I think are are [clears throat] laid out pretty good. >> Okay. Other questions for Mr. Pearson? >> How are we with capacity as far as future students and where we're moving them or not moving them to, but districting them for? >> Yeah, that's part of the reason I think uh
027that the the request is Boone Trail, Western Middle, Western High. They can absorb that better so then going towards the Harnett Central area. Of course, as we work on the boundary line and the the zoning with Flatwoods Middle and those things, that may evolve, but as it sits currently, those three schools can handle handle that. >> About how many homes is proposed for this subdivision, Craig? >> Um I didn't I don't There's already a good amount in there. I believe there's about 20 to 30 additional lots left on this southern end towards um Old 421. So, it's not a huge subdivision as we see in some of them. Most of what's in there has already been established. >> Mr. Chairman, I'll move that we approve the boundary change as presented. >> Second. >> Have a
028motion and a second. Is there additional discussion? Hearing none, >> Chairman, I'll vote aye. >> I'll vote aye. Aye. >> I'll vote aye. >> [clears throat] >> Hearing an aye vote, the motion carries. Next, we'll have review and consider approval of the parking lot milling and repaving for the Overhills Middle School, Mr. Pearson. >> Thank you again, Chairman Powell. So, we are This is in our capital projects. Overhills Middle School was kind of next on the list. I do appreciate the maintenance department and Mr. McDowell and his team soliciting bids for this. We had about 12 companies show up for the site visit, and then I believe around eight companies actually bid. And so, as you can see in your packet there, we did receive a low bid from Barnhill Contracting. He's a reputable contractor,
029and we recommend them as the one to perform this service. >> Okay. >> I'll entertain a motion. >> Mr. Chairman, I'll move make a motion to approve the recommendation to award this parking lot milling and repaving project to Overhills to Barnhill Contracting Company. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Chairman votes aye. >> Abbate aye. >> Gaines aye. >> Goolsby aye. >> Unanimous votes the motion carries. And once again, it pays to shop around. There's like $100,000 difference in the contracts and that is a good reputable company, so >> [cough] >> good deal. Okay, next we have reviewing and consider approval of purchase of devices and accessories for new teachers, Mr. Pearson. >> And again, you see in your packet, this is a annual purchase we make as we
030have new teachers coming on board. Miss Byrd's team has done a good job trying to have devices in their hands day one as they start at beginning teacher orientation. And so she's worked with her vendors to provide these devices. We are making a shift in teacher devices to a still an Apple product, but they have a new product called a MacBook Neo, which is about half the cost of the old MacBooks. We did some testing with it and feel like it's going to serve the needs that we have as far as classroom instruction. May not have as much, you know, processing capacity for high-level video editing and things like that, but for what a classroom teacher is going to do, this is a good product and it's about half the cost, so excited about this
031and recommend this product. >> Looks good. >> Chairman, I move that we approve the purchase of devices and accessories for new teachers as presented. Second. >> Have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Chairman votes aye. >> Abbate aye. >> Gaines aye. >> Goolsby aye. >> Unanimous votes the motion carries. Okay, next we move to the motion to I'm sorry, review and consider approval of the five-year copier contract, Mr. Cox and Miss Byrd. >> Thank [clears throat] Mr. Chair. >> Uh, this contract being presented is is a little different. Um, we are asking the board to approve it contingent upon final legal approval. Um, Ms. Byrd and myself spent probably 3 hours, um, last week on the phone with the, uh, vendor and legal from Tharrington Smith going through it. We almost have
032everything ironed out. The reason we're bringing it today contingent upon board approval is so they can go ahead and order some of the devices as part of the contract, so we will continue to have copier services in our buildings while they, um, once it is final final approved, they'll order the rest of the devices, um, for the contract. The contract, we did do an RFP. Um, they were selected from the RFP. We've not done business with this this vendor before. However, some of the folks that are now working for this vendor, we have done business with at other companies and feel good about, uh, the level of support that they provide. Um, uh, we're getting more devices for cheaper cost. This vendor also provides tier colored pricing, so if you have, um, just one hyperlink
033on a page, you're not getting charged the full 5 cent, um, for color. It's only like, I don't know the exact numbers, but like 1 and 1/2 cent. Um, so they do tier pricing, so that also lower the overall cost, um, to the schools depending on how they use that. And again, we're bringing it to you contingent upon final legal approval. We did over the weekend get one revision from, um, legal. Nothing changed from what we discussed last week. They're just putting, um, Mr. Duke will appreciate this, legalese into it, uh, to be approved, um, on that. Um, but happy Ms. Byrd can take any questions. I'm happy to take any questions um around it as well. Uh the the vendor is Harold uh I think it's Harold Office Supply out of Dillon, South Carolina.
034They'll actually do the financing for the devices as well. Normally, we have a um contract with a bank who does the the uh device side and the finance side, but Harold themselves are doing both the service and the leasing portion um of the agreement for us with this. >> So, if I understand correctly, it will just be like brand new copiers throughout the county. >> Yes, it will. Through all through all um Right now, we have Sharp devices. It will be going to Kyocera uh Kyocera machines. Everything will function very similarly. We'll have the same scan um to device So, like if I forget to uh print a >> [clears throat] >> a job while I'm over at finance, come over to a board meeting, I can go to the machine back here and print
035it. The follow me, I think is what they call it. Um so, all the functionality will be very similar, just a different different brand and a different company providing those resources to us. Um again, more devices and at a slightly cheaper cost than the the current contract that we have now. >> Okay. Cost effective? >> Yes. >> It's going to be It's going to be a significant savings for us. We're hoping We're hoping a little over 200,000 for the >> Wow. Okay. Cuz I know that those get very expensive, so copy your thing. Further questions for Ms. Byrd or Mr. Cox? >> And you all are satisfied with the um agreement repairs as far as if if machine breaks down at a school, them coming here to repair. >> we are. Yeah, and we we
036even have We had We had a not so uh great experience um with some other machines, and we've learned from that. And so, we put into this contract that if they can't repair within a certain period of time, we will get a loaner machine while they're working to get it repaired. So yeah, we're we're I think we're we're satisfied with what they're proposing in the contract for service repair and maintenance on the machines. And as part of that also, they're working with the vendor to provide us assurance from the vendor that we'll be taken care of should something happen because of the experience that we had in the previous deal. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Chairman. >> Yes, sir. >> Motion to approve the five-year software contract contingent upon final attorney review. >> Second. >>
037We have a motion and a second. Is there additional discussion? Hearing none, the chairman votes aye. >> I vote aye. >> Ganey, aye. >> Goforth, aye. >> Hearn, aye. >> Hearing none, all aye votes, the motion carries. Next, we'll have review and consider approval of Imagine Learning with Edgenuity with Mr. Pearson. >> Thank you, Chairman Powell. We'll take a minute here and just kind of point out I do I know when you see on the on the PO form, some pricing differences here. So this is a platform we use both for credit recovery and as well there's been changes in the state over the last couple years that in order to be eligible for a full credit recovery course, students had to be below a certain threshold on their final grade in the course. That
038has created the need for us to have kind of intermediate recovery opportunities when a student's grade is between a 50 and a 60 in a six weeks. We assign them lessons in a unit to recover those specific lessons and work on a grade adjustment. Again, this is some state policy changes related to credit recovery. It was time to kind of renew our software on that side. This is both something that Mr. White's team is using and the CNI team is using. And as we reviewed both of these softwares and looked into the components, we do feel like this Edgenuity one offered a little I should say a lot more student interaction, some more video-based instruction, has a lot of some language translation and that you can quickly flip to other languages for student support. Also,
039there's a live kind of AI tutoring platform within this. So, whereas our previous use with Edgenuity served the purpose, it was more slides and kind of click through the slides and and students kind of self-guided. This one's a little more interactive again with video lessons and some other things in there. So, part of this first year cost that makes it a little higher is some training just with a new platform move that's around $10,000 of this. But, we do feel like you know, year two where these two would essentially be equitable cost, the student engagement piece is going to be better on the Edgenuity side. And so, we're bringing that to you for recommendation. >> Are there questions for Mr. Pearson? >> [clears throat] >> Which grade levels you may have said this and I
040missed it, but which grade levels does this cover? >> This is mostly used at the high school level. Yeah, yeah, we don't really don't do the credit recovery at the middle school. We can we do have you know, this does have embedded things for some test prep and you know, like for instance, it has a computer science course that's embedded in it. That's a new graduation requirement moving ahead. So, like there might be nuances of eighth graders using it, but this is pretty heavily high school. >> Okay. And also, is this something that will be done at school perhaps after school or Saturdays or is this something that students can use at home? >> Yeah, they can access it at home. Again, very similar structure to what we have currently. Once a student, you know,
041that six weeks grade comes out and they did not pass the course, that teacher can of those units for kind of some grade recovery. That can be done in in a lot of settings. We do see, you know, all of our high schools have an intervention period, and so there's a place that they're using some of it at school. And then the actual credit recovery, they have a class period set aside for that to work on it in the building, but also can access it um remotely. So. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Very similar uh structures to the student, but feel like the instructional delivery was a little better on this side. >> Okay. I'll entertain >> I'll serve a motion to approve the '26-'27 exceptional children related contracts as presented. >> Second. >> That's
042the next. Um Oh, okay. I guess Mr. Godfrey, could you please restate that for uh number five, the Imagine Learning? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Motion to approve the purchase of Imagine Learning as presented, Mr. Chairman. >> Yes, sir. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. Is there any additional discussion? Chairman votes aye. >> Mr. Abonce, aye. >> Mr. Danny, aye. >> Dr. Orr, >> The motion and hearing no nay votes, the motion carries. Okay, next we'll move along to review and consider approval of the 2026-2027 exceptional children related contracts, Mr. Pearson. >> Um similar to our meeting at the beginning of month, these are service providers that help us with a variety of um needs within our exceptional department, things like speech pathology, occupational therapy. Uh so these are contractors we have
043worked with in the past, and Ms. Hood feels very good about. Uh this is kind of setting them for the '26-'27 school year to continue providing services to our students. >> I'll will entertain a motion. >> I move to approve the 2020 2026 2027 exceptional children related contracts as presented. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Hearing none, the chairman votes aye. >> I vote aye. >> Gainey, aye. >> Goforth, aye. >> Herring, aye. >> Hearing no nay votes, the motion carries. And next we have review and consider approval of Harnett County Schools protocol for external applied behavior analysis, mental health counseling and related services. Mr. Pearson. >> Thank you again, Mr. Powell. And again, certainly Mr. White is is instrumental in this as well. You do may recall
044probably a couple months back we started kind of having conversations around ABA therapists and outside providers in our schools. This is kind of a been a rapidly growing service that has presented our principals with some unique challenges. We then we also had decided and then we had a lot of families who were having this support that felt strongly. We had some come to the board meeting that you know that their students were benefiting from this. So we've kind of regrouped, considered legal counsel, talked with principals, had several meetings of Mr. White's team, the exceptional exceptional children's team to kind of come with this protocol. The heart of the protocol here is grandfathering in students who are currently receiving these services. And so they already have to apply each year to continue. And so it's it's
045not an additional burden on our staff to track this. But it's the idea that if you're currently receiving this, we will allow it to continue. We've laid out I think a little more clearly the expectations on these providers as they come into our buildings. And then certainly working with principals to help them monitor it in in a little bit better way. And so we would not bring on any new students with these through this provision, but this is to grandfather in on the exceptional children side. I'll let Mr. White speak to the mental health and counseling side. >> So on the mental health counseling side, similar to kind of what we're looking at on the ABA side is that what we want to determine this to to be more operational than not [clears throat] based
046on a student's diagnosis simply because of the fact that in the attorney's conversation she was very clear about wanting to ensure that if we offered services on one side, we had the opportunity to offer it on the other. And so currently our mental health structure allows us to be able to provide services to students in a controlled way during the week. No more than 60 to 90 minutes during the week outside of class, but sometimes there may be some opportunities for students to be pulled out of class, but we've been very structured with that. And so we went back and kind of revamped what we looked at because what we didn't really know until we went through this process was that the ABA piece and the mental health piece were being lumped into one agreement.
047And sometimes in parents interpretation of what ABA therapy is, ABA therapy can sometimes be considered mental health. Even though it's not considered mental health counseling, ABA parents sometimes interpret it that way. And so what we wanted to make sure we did cross-departmentally is ensure that there was some fairness there in that space. I mean I think from an operational perspective on the EC side and Mr. Pearson can speak to to this a bit clearer. On the EC side the the disruption in the classroom and these ABA therapists being in the classroom all day with students and then kind of in there with the teachers and that sort of thing became a major distraction. And so I think that this agreement allows us an opportunity to be able to get away from that and be more
048consistent in how we execute uh moving forward. >> Are there any questions for Mr. White or Mr. Pearson? If not, I will entertain a motion. >> Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the HCS protocol for external applied and behavioral analysis, mental health counseling, and uh related services as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Chairman votes aye. >> Abante, aye. >> Daniell, aye. >> Godfrey, aye. >> [clears throat] >> Hearing no votes, the motion carries. And thank you, Mr. Pearson, Mr. White, and your staff for your hard work on developing this policy. I will entertain a motion. >> Mr. Chairman, I move that we go into closed session pursuant to General Statute 143-318-11A1, A3, and A6 to prevent the disclosure of confidential personnel files under GS
049115C-321 to consult matters relating to initial employment of an individual employee, and to consult with the board's attorney in order to preserve the attorney-client privilege. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Uh any additional discussion? Chairman votes aye. >> Abante, aye. >> Daniell, aye. >> Godfrey, aye. >> Hearing no votes, the motion carries. We are now in closed session. >> Yes. >> Mhm. >> [clears throat] >> Following a motion in a second, we have returned to uh open session. Uh Mr. Matthews, you have some personnel action for us. >> Yes, Mr. Chairman. Thank you so much. Uh members of the board, it I would like to request approval of the teacher and assistant principal contracts as discussed and recommended in closed session. >> Mr. Chairman, pursuant to the recommendation in closed session,
050I move that we approve teacher contracts as presented. >> Have a motion and a second. Personnel matter. Chairman votes aye. >> I vote aye. >> Ganey, aye. >> Crowe, aye. >> Herron, aye. >> Unanimous votes, the motion carries. Do you have anything else for us? >> No, sir, Mr. Chairman. That'll do. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Matthews. Anything else from the board? If not, I'll entertain a motion. >> Motion to adjourn, Mr. Chairman. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye, please. >> Aye. >> Thank you. We're now