001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> The regular board meeting of the Harnett County Board of Education for March is now in order. If everyone will please stand. I'd like to ask uh Vice Chairman Brad Abate if he would lead us in prayer. If you'll join me in prayer, please. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this day and thank you for all your many blessings. Thank you for the time together where we can come together as Board of Education to do the work of Harnett County Schools. Lord, we ask that you would be with each and every one of us as we make the decisions for Harnett County Schools. We've asked that it would be uh thoughtful, mindful, and that you would help each and every one of us. We ask you uh bless our time together.
002In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Ms. Sharon Gainey, would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please? Sure. 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. Thank you. You may be seated. I will entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the agenda as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there additional discussion? Hearing none, Chairman votes I. Abbate, I. Gainey, I. Mims, I. Hearing none, eight votes, the motion carries, and the agenda is approved as presented. First on our agenda tonight, we have a special presentation, and this is the 2024-2025 financial and compliance audit report. And that would be Mr. Andrew Cox
003and Mr. Josh Perdue. Thank you, Chair Powell. Um for your reading pleasure, um we have distributed a copy of the uh uh annual comprehensive financial report and financial audit for the year ending June 30th, 2025. Um Mr. Josh Perdue, who's the assurance director for Forbes Mazars, is here to go over um that report [clears throat] with you and talk about the audit. I owe Mr. Perdue an apology. I failed to provide the correct title for the agenda for him, so think he'll accept my apology on that. And I'll make note or ask [clears throat] you to make sure you pay close attention to this, cuz I'm going to quiz you next month on it. All right? So, I'll turn it over to Mr. Perdue. Appreciate the introduction, Andrew. As As he mentioned, my name is
004Josh Perrier. I'm an assurance director with Forbes & Associates. Here to present the results of the financial statement and compliance audit as of June 30th, 2025. Um it should be noted that we're presenting audit results a little bit later this year than when we would in a typical year. Um that was caused by delays at the Office of Management and Budget at the federal government level. Um so, the the federal government issues what's called a compliance supplement that's required to be all used by auditors in auditing federal grants. Typically, that supplement is issued sometime in the summer months. This past year, it was issued in November of 2025. So, a little bit of a delay in our in our typical audit process. Um the financial statements and the audit report have been approved by the
005state and accepted by the federal audit clearinghouse. Here's a quick overview of our agenda. Um and we'll start with a review of the audit opinion. So, the purpose of an audit and substantially all of the work that contributes to it is to enable us as auditors to issue an opinion on the financial statements. We've included an excerpt of our our audit opinion here. And in effectively, this is considered an unmodified or a clean opinion. This is the opinion that a financial statement user would want to see and gives the financial statement users reasonable assurance that the financial information is materially accurate. Our entire audit report is found on page one of the ACFR document. Next, we'll move to our required communications report. So, at the conclusion of an audit, there are certain matters that we're
006required to communicate. Andrew and I handed out two packets. There's a really big ACFR document. There's also a smaller bound report that represents our required communications to the board. Um that report includes a lot of standard communications about our responsibilities as auditors, managers' responsibilities for the financial statements, and what not. So, I'm not going to go through that report in detail, but we have kind of pulled out a few of the key elements of that report and presented them here. Um the first of which is new accounting policies. Um as Andrew I'm sure loved, uh a new accounting standard was added to governmental accounting standards this year, which was GASB 101. That deals with compensated absences for amounts earned and due to employees. I could bore you guys with all the details of the standard,
007but in a really short snip, um the standard required an adjustment for how existing annual leave was accrued for in the financial statements and also required an adjustment to for the district to record a liability for sick leave, um making an estimation of how much sick leave will be used by employees. Uh key element to note this adjustment in compensated absences as a whole, which which is your annual leave and sick leave, which has been recorded for many years, doesn't affect fund balance. It's all on the full accrual financial statements. The next item is significant accounting estimates, um which we have listed here. No changes to these estimates in the current period, um and they're consistent with other LEAs that we audit across the state. Um next, we're required to disclose any material correcting entries
008we made during the audit, of which we had none to report. We did have some typical audit adjustments made in connection with our assistance in preparing the financial statements, which is is typical and recurring for a normal year. Lastly, we're required to disclose any uncorrected misstatements that were deemed immaterial. We also had none to report for this year. Next, we'll flip over to internal controls. So, in connection with our audit, we're required to consider internal controls over financial reporting and compliance with laws and regulations in accordance with government auditing standards. If we identified a significant deficiency or material weakness during that assessment, it would be included in the financial statements. As seen here, we We no findings of significant deficiency or material weakness to report. Next to the compliance audit piece. So, in addition to
009the financial statement audit, um we also conduct a compliance audit over federal and state programs which are deemed to be major. Uh programs selected to be audited in vary vary year to year depending on spending levels and how recently the program was audited in addition to some other factors. Um we audited three federal programs in the current year and had no findings from our testing in those programs. We also selected two state programs required to be audited this year. That was the state public school fund, which is audited every year because of its size relative to the district. Um also CTE program support funds and had no finding from our testing in those programs as well. All right. We will flip to the financial highlights into a comment I made earlier. This is sort of
010your cliff note highlights of the full ACFR document. So, I don't think anyone wants to spend time going through 100 pages of this ACFR document, but if any board members has specific questions that they want to ask, feel free. Also, if after you have time to consume the document, if you have questions after this meeting, I'm sure Andrew and I can can connect and and and get on the horn to talk through this. But, this is just kind of a quick high-level summary of a couple aspects to look at. Um these metrics here are presented 2025 as of June 30th for both years. Um we'll start with revenues where you can see state revenues make up 66% of total revenues for the board. Um state revenues decreased slightly in the current period. On the federal
011side, you're seeing a large decrease, which is all ESSER program monies. Um ESSER expenditures in 2024 were 26.5 million. In 2025, they were 8.4 million. So, something that every district across the state is seeing with that program sunsetting. Um County operating funding increased by 8.2 million whereas county capital funding decreased by 5.9 million due to timing of completion of certain capital projects. Next we'll move to fund balance. So we're showing total fund balance in the general fund breaking up by the various classes of fund balance. Unassigned fund balance in the general fund increased by 349,000 landing at 1.9 million. Um Total general fund fund balance remain essentially flat, right? Going from 7.8 million to 7.5 million. Um worth noting cuz this is inconsistent with what we're seeing at a lot of districts where a lot
012of districts are losing fund balance right now. >> [snorts] >> Um with SR funding coming off we're seeing a stark decrease in fund balance. So probably a testament to the board and a testament to Andrew's Andrew's work on the finance team that you guys have been able to keep fund balance relatively flat despite losing a significant amount of federal revenues. Um and then in terms of cash, cash position is 36.4 million combined across all funds. That includes governmental funds and it also includes your business type activities for the school food service fund. Obviously a quick high-level overview there but like to pause here and open it up to any questions from the board. Does anyone have a question for Mr. Perrier so far? That's all I got for you guys. So like I mentioned obviously
013a lot of information to take in the ACFR document. If any member would like to set up a time for us to go through it more detail or answer any questions we'd be happy to do that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Perrier. Thanks, Josh. Mr. Cox, do you have anything to add to that? Just appreciate their work and their their support of us um uh as well. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Perrier and thank you for tell us what we already knew that Mr. Cox and his staff doing a fine job looking after us. So, thank you. >> And And as you mentioned staff, it's it's the staff, not me. So, I I'm just the figurehead. They do most of the work. Not that I don't do any work, but >>
014[laughter] >> I appreciate the work they do in support of me. Yeah, so. I tell them I work for them. They don't work for me. So. Thank you. Right now is where we have public comment. Each month a part of at least one regularly scheduled board meeting is set aside for citizens to address the board through public comment. A sign-up sheet is available for any group or individual to indicate their desire to address the board. The chairman will decide the amount of time. Each speaker must complete each section of the sign-up sheet. Each speaker may only speak for 3 minutes. No balance of time may be yielded to another speaker. A maximum of 30 minutes is allotted for public comments. This allows for approximately 10 speakers at 3 minutes per speaker. The speaker sign-up sheet
015is removed at the beginning of the board meeting. And tonight we have one speaker who has signed up, and that is Mr. John Long. Thank you. Hello again. My name is John Long. I'm with the North Carolina Parents Education Project. Last month I submitted to you a list of 19 obscene books that I asked you to remove from our high schools. I understand that you have removed many of these. Thank you for doing this. I'd like to Well, I'll go on from there. I'm now submitting 75 additional obscene books for you to consider for removal from your high schools. These are four and five rated books. Four rated books are those that have explicit sexual nudity, descriptions of or depictions of sexual activities, and references to kinky stuff. I won't detail that what those are.
016Five-rated books are worse. They have obscene profanity, explicit descriptions of or of or depictions of aberrant sexual activities, excessive graphic detailed descriptions of sex acts, and descriptions or depictions of kinky stuff. Um I trust you'll find these uh objectionable as well and will remove them. I'm submitting their locations in your high school libraries. I've spent the time to look for where they are. Um I've received a I I uh submitted that that by email this weekend and got a reply today, and I understand that you want me to fill out a form for every single book. Um I'd ask that you not do that. Uh that seems like a stall tactic. Um imagine if you were a a parent and you said, "Um you know, because of my uh religious deeply held religious beliefs, I
017don't want my child to be uh exposed to this." They would have to spend the time finding all of these books, which takes a lot of time for a busy parent. Um I've done this research. I'll work with you. Um you've already said that you've removed many without having to do these forms. I'd ask you to please waive that and just look at look at these. I've I've got in this list a a link to where you can see what is the objectionable content. Uh I think it's pretty reasonable. Um in the Supreme Court uh in Matalin versus Taylor uh said that uh parents in Maryland if they just simply didn't want their children uh to be exposed to LGBT content, then they could ask that. And the and all schools had to um comply
018with that. And this was uh a decision that applies to all schools. I'm not asking for that. I am asking look ahead. There probably parents who wouldn't like their kids to to see this because of their deeply held religious beliefs. Get ahead of that curve, remove it. I think if you'll look you'll see most most or all of these books are things you would not like to hear yourself. So I'm coming here. I'd like to be allies, like to keep working with you. And please remove that constraint that seemed that did not seem to be like you were trying to work with me. I hope you will. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Long. Okay, now we'll have our superintendent update, Mr. Matthews. Thank you, Chairman Powell, members of the board. >> [clears throat] >> Just
019uh a quick update. As you know, our assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, Ms. Brookie Ferguson, retired. Her last day was Friday, the 27th of February. And we the district had a nice celebration event for her on Thursday afternoon from 3:00 to 5:00 over at the professional development building. And it was very well attended. And I think everybody had a good time. I think she was really appreciative of the outpouring that of those who came to wish her well going forward. Um and we certainly wish her well in the future, but I wanted to give you just a little bit of an update of our plans going forward with regard to some reorganization of duties and responsibilities for the remainder of this school year. Anyway, it is uh uh my desire that we probably open
020up this position for uh applicants toward the end of the school year. And so, in that light, uh I have asked Mr. Chris Pearson if he will take on uh the leadership duties for the remainder of this year, the last 4 months of this fiscal year uh with C&I. Uh that would leave a large portion of his auxiliary services uh duties left, and we will uh plan to shift those over to Ms. Thompson in addition to her HR duties. I've asked Mr. Ron Avery, who is here tonight, to uh step up from his director's position and help Mr. Jamie Johnson and his folks, especially in the field uh duties and responsibilities, overseeing facilities and our new construction that we have going on. I've also asked uh Mr. Jeffrey Booker to assist Mr. Garland McDowell in
021an interim role of assistant director of custodial services based on his custodial services background. And Mr. Fred Clardy has agreed to serve as interim principal at Overhills High School for the remainder of this year uh while Mr. Booker serves in in this new role. Uh so, at this point, as I said, I would anticipate us opening uh the uh superintendent's position for C&I toward the end of the school year, and then we'll see what transpires as those dumb those fall with those duties, and uh we proceed to open up the vacancies if and when they occur. Uh also wanted to let you know that I talked with uh Mr. Don Godfrey today. He sounded much better, voice was much stronger. He said he was getting his strength back, and he his plans were to be
022here at our work session on the 16th. Uh he asked me to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers as he's dealt with this uh this uh medical issue that he's faced uh and we will wish him a happy birthday tonight since it's March the 15th and hopefully I'll remember to wish him a belated birthday in his presence uh when we meet again on the 16th. Uh Mr. Chairman, that's uh all I have unless you have some specific questions for me. Are there any questions for Mr. Matthews? Okay, thank you, sir. Next, we'll have our auxiliary services update with Mr. Pearson. Thank you, Chairman pro tem members of the board. Uh on the [clears throat] athletic side, we have uh concluded our winter sports season basketball playoffs uh for all of our teams
023that have wrapped up. We did have a few uh quite a few teams make it on to second and third round, so congratulations to them. And again, spring sports are underway with official games uh beginning. Um on the transportation side, uh February 9th through 13th was Love the Bus Week. And thank you to the schools who did a lot of work on uh you know, just celebrating our bus drivers and those kind of things. Um we certainly want to say thank you to the drivers who have consistently uh been there for us. Um and interestingly enough, I had I had some of the um transportation folks kind of pull for us uh drivers who have 20 or more years of experience. And in our district, we have 20 drivers who have driven a bus for
024more than 20 school years. Um and the the the top 10, I I just want to note here uh these folks specifically. Um with 23 years experience, there's Fetina McDow at Erwin Elementary. 24 years of experience, Ms. Mary Blue at Western Middle. Ms. Nicole Smith at North Harnett Primary. Jill Lupton at Lafayette. Anita McCoy at Dunn Elementary. And Sharon Elliott at Dunn Middle. With 25 years experience, Ms. Veronica McNeal Hardt at Overhills Middle. With 26 years of experience, Mr. Paul Starling at Dunn Elementary. With 30 years of experience driving a bus, Ms. Mary Smith at Dunn Elementary, and leading the group with Ms. Stephanie Elliott with 36 years of bus driving experience for Buies Creek Elementary School. And so again, uh 10 of those drivers there were 23 plus years of experience. Um when I
025looked at that with Ms. Elliott and realized she's been driving a bus since 1990 for us. Uh that's quite impressive and and I wanted to just take a minute during this kind of conclusion of Love the Bus to say thank you to those folks and so many of our dedicated drivers that are out there um and appreciate the whole team that that does support On the school nutrition side, I want to give you an update. It was about a year ago or so we decided to go to all CEP schools. We made that commitment for this school year. So we now have about 6 months worth of data on that. Um to date this year we have served 1,325,287 school lunches. Um and so when you you hear that number, you realize the volume that's
026going out of our cafeterias. That is a 13% increase in participation. So uh very positive results there. Um this works out to approximately 2,600 students per day who are being served that wouldn't were not being served last year. So 2,600 student increase I think is a great thing. Um we did note as we kind of went into this, we we knew that it may cause us to uh go a little into the red from year to year, but we we felt good about our savings there. Right now we are projected to have about a $600,000 shortfall in our child nutrition uh income versus expenses. However, based on the savings and the fiscal managers been there, we could sustain this program for 20 years with with that type of of a loss. So again, we feel
027very good about the move uh and confident that it was the right thing for our students when we see that many more students uh that are eating. Want to let you know Lillington Shawtown has received their certificate of occupancy for the gym. Uh they are super excited. If you haven't had a chance to walk through there, it's it's a really nice space and will be a nice community space as well. Uh did a good job there overall. Um you know, with weather and other things, we were you know, around um 30 to 45 days behind, but overall was a pretty smooth project. And then I want to let you know we uh certainly as we approach Flatwoods Middle School's opening, uh not too far off, it is time to start having conversations about um which
028students will go to that school. And so over the next uh few months, we'll be talking with some groups in regards to some projections of enrollment, uh some scenarios for attendance lines, and all those kind of things. And we'll be working with you guys uh over the next 12 months to really finalize that with the goal of uh around February of 2027 notifying families that in the fall of 2027, they would attend Flatwoods Middle School. While we're doing the work, it makes sense to go ahead and start the work on Highland High School's attendance lines as well. So that process will get started here uh in the next little while. Our last projection numbers for enrollment were were done in 2022. So we feel like it's definitely time to update those projections as we drive
029around and see the changes in in our communities over the last 4 years. So that information will be coming to you all to start that process very soon. Unless you have any questions for me, that is my updates for this evening. Are there questions for Mr. Pearson? Is it ORID that still does the projections? >> So we got a couple of different uh companies to quote that out for us. We do feel like right now their package is um is the one that we're leaning towards. Okay. Yep. Okay. Any others? Thank you, Mr. Pearson. >> Yep. And we'll return to Mr. Pearson for a curriculum and instruction update. Thank you, Mr. Powell. Um and so certainly looking forward to the opportunity to kind of help with uh C&I over the next few months uh and
030certainly help helping them finish important work as we get to the end of the school year and and testing. Uh there's a lot of good things that have happened that we want to maintain. Um as today was kind of my first day in that role and spending some time talking to some folks, whatever, I have asked Ms. Leslie Tyson uh if she would join us tonight to kind of provide the C&I updates. Um I will be leaning hard on Ms. Tyson over the next few months, so I figured it's a good opportunity to to start that now and she has agreed to to help out. So, I'll turn it over to her. Thank you. Good evening. Um so, first of all, K-12 updates. Um in February, the schools celebrated Black History Month with various activities.
031They've shared with the district such as classroom lessons, projects, and research. And they also had school-wide events such as historical facts shared over announcements, um concerts, bulletin boards, and special recognitions. Um the EC department is gearing up for the April 1 headcount. That's always a big undertaking, and so they're going to do that this this month. Spelling Bee was held February 20th, and a big congratulations to our Harnett County winner, David Groomes from Lafayette year-round school. Um Dr. Murphy shared from Title III. We are pleased to share that ACCESS testing is wrapping up, and our ESL staff did an excellent job working as a unified team to get that done. Um there will not be traditional summer school for 3-8 schools this year or for the high schools because we're doing the retesting, and the
032state um allows us to count the growth and proficiency with the new retesting rules, so we don't need the traditional summer school. Uh a cohort of our K-12 teachers, district office staff, and school administrators participated in professional development provided by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction focused on implementation of the new science standards. The training emphasized instructional strategies that promote deeper student understanding of content, and a key takeaway from the session was the importance of designing lessons with an exploration before explanation approach, ensuring that students engage in inquiry and discovery before direct instruction. In the K-5 world, we had Kinder-Palooza this past Saturday and it was wonderful. We had about 90 rising kindergarten students and their families attend. It was a great day. All departments and K-5 schools helped make this day a success.
033The feedback was very positive and this continues to be a great community outreach that engages our students and promotes registration and what parents can do to help their students prepare for kindergarten. Um also in K-5, we've had math Saturday PDs that Dr. Coates and Ms. Seprivet have been had going on these past few Saturdays and they have had great participation and engagement and the feedback has been so positive that they um are doing additional sessions that are requested that the teachers then can you do one on this? So, that's a great uh positive PD that's moving forward. Summer reading camp will be offered um to eligible second and third grade students June 8th through the 25th and we are currently in the process of hiring staff for the camp. In 6-8 world, um both Harnett
034Central Middle and Dunn Middle are continuing to work through year one implementation of the Golden Leaf Grant. Both teams recently returned from a successful trip to the Marzano Summit where they have been able to implement learn strategies. They are excited to host the state superintendent and members of his team on April 22nd when they visit both Harnett Central Middle School and Dunn Middle to see some of the grant related work that is taking place at both sites. 9-12, um I got updates from um Mr. McNeill. He said that high schools are currently conducting individual meetings with students for registration purposes. The student services department does an excellent job of helping students prepare for schedules. This month, the high schools will be completing the ACT testing for all juniors and ACT WorkKeys for the CTE students
035that this applies to. Ms. Hardy said that Build Harnett and Lee will be held March 23rd through the 25th at CCCC Harnett Main Campus. Students will compete in carpentry, electrical, and plumbing events. She also wanted it to me to share the DECA State Conference results. Carissa Collazo placed fifth overall out of 1,500 competitors in the quick serve restaurant restaurant category and will go on to compete at the International Career Development Conference competition in Atlanta. The SkillsUSA Regional Conference results she also wanted me to share. The Harnett Central High School fire tech students competed at the SkillsUSA Regional firefighting competition on February 20th at Fayetteville Technical Community College. In the firefighting national competition, Vance Mitchell placed first, Cayden Sorrell placed third in the intermediate firefighting competition, Donald Knight placed first, Kobe Parrish placed second, Jessie Arnold
036third, and Dylan Parrish fourth. In the basic firefighting competition, Caleb Flowers from Triton High School took first place. Congratulations to these students and we wish them luck as they head to the state competition in Greensboro. Um Harnett County Schools CTE was recognized at the winter conference the NCACTE conference for being the first in the state for JROTC credentials earned in fall 2025. Harnett County Schools had 260 cadets earn the NOCTI leadership credential, the first time the state offered it. Our attainment rate was 91%. The state began recognizing JROTC as a CTE pathway in the fall of 2025. Lots of things going on in curriculum world. So, any questions for me? Are there any questions for Ms. Tyson? I've had two different people reach out today. Um dual immersion. Is there an update on dual immersion?
037Yeah, I can speak to that. Based on staffing and a variety of kind of evolution of that program over the last few years, right now the plan is to continue dual immersion at Dunn Elementary School and Highland Elementary School. At multiple other of our campuses, we will have already be phasing those programs out. The original thought there on dual immersion was some language acquisition for English speakers has heavily towards native speakers being in that program. And in reality, we're not preparing them for you know, developing the second language as they need to if they're a native speaker in that program. Also class size components have really become a little bit of hindrance if they don't continue through that program through third, fourth, fifth grade. We end up with a fourth grade class that is whittled
038down to 12 or 13 students and down the hall is a regular fourth grade class with 31 students. And so as we weighed that out, we felt like that was the transition need to be made. We have notified parents that those programs would continue at those two schools if they wanted to kind of seek to continue. How about middle schools? Middle schools, we do not plan on continuing to have that is offered through like the elective kind of pathway. And Ms. Thompson may can speak to the staffing side of a little more cuz that has also been a unique challenge that we've been facing. I think to Ms. Ferguson's last plans on that were to offer some virtual possible virtual options with that for middle school. And um we we can check into that and
039get the further plans on that but offer some offerings if if folks were interested at the middle school level. I think that is how she's offered that in the past. Are there any other questions for Ms. Tyson or Mr. Pearson? Okay. Thank you, Ms. Tyson. Am I Am I on the just went blank, so Okay. Got you. Next, we'll move along to our human resources update with Ms. Thompson. Good evening, Chairman Powell, members of the board. I want to give some good news start out with from HR, but we are closing that gap. We have 10 classroom openings. I'm very excited about that, and some of those are one of those is a school counselor, one is a STEM lab, and one is an instructional facilitator. So, we don't have a lot of classroom regular
040classroom vacancies. That's in the single digits. It's seven. And we have six EC vacancies. That is a tremendous accomplishment. And finally, for the first time in a minute, we have broke 30 on the classified vacancies, and we are at 25. So, I'm thrilled about that. We're closing that gap a little bit. So, I'm know the principals have worked really hard on getting folks hired for those. And I appreciate their hard work. Some updates on Nisa's completion. This is very important. Hard work goes into this and keeping this at 100%. Schools deserve a real pat on the back. Our 100% completers are Anderson Creek, Benhaven, Boone Trail, Coats Elementary, Dunn Elementary, Dunn Middle, Harnett Central Middle, Harnett County Early College, North Harnett Primary, Northwest Harnett Elementary, Overhills Elementary, and Overhills Middle, and Western Harnett High. Our
04190 to 99%ers are Anderson Elementary, Coats Erwin, Erwin, Harnett Central High, Highland Elementary, Highland Middle, Johnsonville, Lillington Shawtown Elementary, Lafayette, South Harnett Elementary, Triton, and Western Middle. I'm so proud of those schools for that hard work to keep that up. And really, in the what that means long term for teachers is that means teachers are getting feedback on their instruction in a timely manner, and so that's a big deal. Next, I want to talk about Mr. Pearson and Ms. Virginia Tyler traveled to 15 sites that were identified as discrepant on their teacher equity plan and and and to discuss teachers who did not meet expected growth last year according to EVAAS. And those conversations provided opportunities for principals share ways they are visiting classrooms, providing feedback, utilizing data, and prioritizing instruction in individual schools. And
042this is a requirement of the consolidated grant with the Title 1, 2, and 3 grant. We are beginning our HR annual spring meetings with principals. And this is a great time for us to It's hard to believe we're preparing for next year, but this is the time we start preparing for next school year. We're discussing current concerns and try to receive really authentic feedback on the HR processes and support. And for me, it means a good time for principals to be able to come in and tell us what's working and what's not working, and we try to adjust around what the principals needs are. So, through the years, I feel like it's one of the best things that we do is having a chance just to sit down, listen, and talk to principals of what
043about what their needs are as it surrounds our department. Whether it's us or our practice or whatever, we try to be prepared to hear that authentic feedback. If you remember, we've done a lot of work on our nieces instrument this year back in the summer. You know, we trained our principals, we trained our APs, then we trained our teachers. And it's just about time to start doing end of the year evaluations, and we want to make sure we're on point for that. And so, Ms. Sheryl Fuller is returning tomorrow to train our principals on this end of the year process. Just another point of support, so we just can really I do think our we had a lot of positive feedback from teachers about that training, and we want to be sure that we continue
044and we are consistent going into our end of the year processes. Over the last 2 weeks, HR staff has visited schools to present customized national board certification plaques that go across the district. And I meant to bring one tonight to show you, but they're little cutouts of North Harnett County. Um and they were made by the prisons. And And so, that they can put them outside their doors for um recognition for their national board certification. So, we not only gave those new folks that have their national boards, we also gave them to people who maybe had earned it in the past. And I'm proud to say we're back on track with our bus driver training after the winter weather postponed us for several weeks. And employees had to reschedule to complete their driver training. So,
045that's always a big deal and we've been working on that. But, I'm also very excited to tell you that the bus class was held in February and 30 out of 35 employees in that class passed. That's pretty significant. And now this group will have to work to complete their DOT physicals and obtain their permits over the next 90 days. And then bus driver training will begin for them in late April. You can see it's a all it's a month-long months-long process. HR and transportation are meeting with schools now for transportation meetings and they kind of take a turn. So, some of the schools in the fall they meet with them in person and then they switch those around. So, they are meeting with seven schools in person and then they meet some of the schools
046virtually and they discuss any transportation concerns that are coming up and that we need to know about. And since December we have presented and we had those pictures up at the beginning. We presented highway hero awards to 24 bus drivers across the district. And these drivers were nominated by their school administration for going above and beyond as a school bus driver. And we want to continue to recognize and highlight bus drivers that impact our district in a positive way. To me they are some of the hardest working people in the district. They work the longest hours and they are committed and like I say without them none of the rest of us will have need of a job if we cannot get the children here. Um that is very important. Again, we're continuing that international
047hiring process with EPI and Participate for the 26-27 school year. We screen applicants at the district level and then put a site up so as principals can choose from that. And folks are already hiring up. Many people have hired multiple teachers for the upcoming year. Some of our schools are heavily dependent on international teachers, and so they they tend to like work in cycles almost, so there'll be big groups coming and leaving, and this year we do have several schools losing um a few, and those are those many of those schools have already replaced their positions. Uh and I want to take a minute just to say this to you, cuz this always comes up in the spring. So, licensure requirements for teachers. We have spent the last few weeks here in January and February
048meeting one-on-one with teachers who have outstanding licensure requirements to ensure they understand next steps and our spring timeline. But, I want you to know that, cuz many times people forget that we meet in January and February and remind them of what their requirements are, and then when it comes time for them to have to take action because they didn't meet their requirements, they're upset. But, we have been meeting with them one-on-one, so they would know that. So, it's just important to remember that we try to do that for all of our employees. We have a lot of upcoming job fairs that we plan to attend. Fayetteville State, Campbell, Appalachian, UNC Wilmington, East Carolina, and Pembroke. So, those are upcoming in this month. I'm going to briefly tell you about something we've been working on with
049Campbell, CCCC, and the CTE program, but we're working on coming up with a teacher assistant apprentice program that can be a pathway through CTE. And so, at the next work session, I plan to have our folks and maybe uh CTE the CTE folks to come over and present that to you in more detail, but it's just another way we're trying to figure out how to grow our own here in the district. So, I'm very excited about the work that we have uh been able to do on that. I learned about this program at the fall law conference that I attended, and so we've been able to try to work with some folks to make our own program around what we have I able to do here. Just to note, we have 258 active substitutes and
050we've added 11 in February. And finally, I'm very excited to let you know that we are currently hosting 20 student teachers this semester. And we hope to hire them for the 26-27 school year. There also 80 students from local universities here completing short fields in our classrooms. And this these numbers are higher than what has been um we've experienced over the last few years. And so, we're encouraged by this growing pipeline for the future. And we've also had a growing number of placements for school counseling and school social work. So, I'm excited about the work that we are doing to promote our profession. I think the work that the board and the count county county commissioners has done has helped us to retain staff members here with uh salaries and supplement that equals those around
051us. I'm very appreciative and hopeful for the future of education after seeing these numbers. That concludes my report. If you have any questions for me, I'm happy to answer them. Are there questions for Ms. Thompson? That definitely does sound like this trending up after pretty sharp decline for several years. So, that is good news. Thank you, Ms. Thompson. Next, we'll have our student services update with Mr. White. Good evening, Chairman Powell and members of the board. Inside of your board packet, you'll find the district release reassignment reports and the Star Academy reports. Um for school social work appreciation week, which is March the 1st through the 7th, I would like to take intentional time to recognize and celebrate the outstanding work of our school social workers across the district. Their dedication and commitment to supporting
052students, families, and staff make a meaningful impact in our school communities each day. This week, we've asked our schools to support us to show appreciation. I appreciate Mrs. Jesselyn Padon, student support services coordinator, for her leadership and oversight over our school social work team. And again, happy School Social Worker Appreciation Week to all of our school social workers. Last week we received notification for the seventh that for the seventh consecutive year, we've been named the NC Purple Star Military Family Military Friendly District with 100% of our schools meeting the criteria to earn the prestigious Purple Star designation. A huge thank you goes out to Mrs. Natalie McCurley, Student Support Services Coordinator, Mr. Khalil Shakil, District Military Liaison, our principals and the staff at each school for their efforts in this process. Harnett County Schools has
053been named a District of Distinction by Yonder for leading the way in creating consistent bell-to-bell phone-free learning environments and setting the standard for what strong implementation and culture shift truly look like. We're so grateful to our school administrators and families across our middle and high schools for embracing the concept of phone-free environments to support quality teaching and learning. Yonder plans to highlight this recognition before this board during a future meet meeting date prior to the expiration of the school year. I'd like to provide a brief Harnett County Early College update. Interviews for the Harnett County Early College took place over the last two weeks with a few more interviews to come. I'm pleased to announce that we anticipate our largest ninth grade class to date enrolling at both our Benhaven and Dunn Campuses in the
054fall. The goal is 100 freshmen calling the Early College home in the fall. A big shout-out to Dr. Jasmine Nixon Evans, Mrs. Tiffany McQueen, and Ms. Emmy Ann Thompson for their recruiting efforts in making the dream of increased Early College enrollment in Harnett County come true. Student Support Services Leadership Team has completed audits of the school counseling programs at each of our schools. A ton of work and effort has gone into completing these reports, and it's my hope to have them ready for your review by our work session or April's board meeting. Thank you to Mrs. Allison Castle, Mrs. Amy Crockett, Mrs. Natalie McCurley, Mrs. Jessica Padgett, and the many counselors and other student support staff who participated in this process that began in September. During tomorrow's principals meeting, Mrs. Ainsley Johnson, Harnett County Health
055Department director, will provide a brief overview of Harnett County's approach to measles preparedness and response, including school guidance, communication expectations, and available resources. And so, uh she has a presentation that's ready for our principals, and we look forward to getting that information so we can be proactive as a district with those efforts. And finally, since March is Women's History Month, I want to give a personal shout-out to one of my sheroes, Mrs. Janet Johnson. Mrs. Johnson, our lead nurse, recently returned to work after being away for a couple of months, and she is truly an example of strength personified. Happy Women's Month to all of our school district staff and community members, past and present, who make a difference in the lives of our children every day. Chairman Powell, this concludes my Student Support Services
056report for this evening, sir, unless there are any questions. Are there any questions for Mr. White? Okay. Thank you, Mr. White. Moving along now to our Public Information Office update, and that is Ms. Farrell. Financial Services. Oh, I missed one. My apologies. My apologies. Got too far ahead on the agenda. We'll come back to Ms. Farrell. We now have Mr. Andrew Cox for our Financial Services report. Thank you, Chairman Powell, members of the board. It would have been okay for Ms. Farrell to to go. You know, I joked in cabinet meeting today I was going to try to beat Mr. White on my report and shorten some of my report, so yeah, well, I would have beat him, but he just skipped right on over me, so yeah. >> [laughter] >> Um thank you, Chairman
057Powell, members of the board. You know, there's a saying in finance we often work in 3-year at one time. That'll be the prior year, closing out the prior year operations in the current year, and planning for the next school year. As you heard tonight, we finally wrapped up our 24-25 audit, so then can now focus on 25, 26, and looking forward to 26, 27. So, I'm happy to be working in 2 years now. So, that's a good thing. Um with that said, you have heard me mention this previously, but we're in budget season and we're going working on the superintendent's recommended budget. Um we'll have our official budget discussions there in our March 16th board work session. Mr. Matthew and myself are meeting again um later this week. If you hadn't already done so, if
058you have any specific priorities you'd like for us to cost out or look at, please let him know so we can begin uh looking at those uh costings. That concludes my report unless you have any questions with Okay. Any [clears throat] questions for Mr. Cox? Just additional supplement request again from the county. 3% sounds good. 3% Sounds good to me, too. Any others? Thank you, Mr. Cox. Now we'll go to our public information officer update, Ms. Ferrell. Chairman Powell, members of the board, and community members, good evening. I know you all were excited to hear from me this evening. Um love the bus month. I would like to take a moment to spotlight our six road mechanics and our three fuel truck drivers. Our road mechanics oversee the daily operations and monthly inspections of their
059assigned buses, ensuring each one is safe, compliant, and ready to take our precious cargo on the road. They respond to early morning and late afternoon road calls, ensuring drivers and students are supported wherever unexpected issues arise. They share among 29 schools and maintain a fleet of buses. Again, we have six. And I want to shout them out. That is Mr. James Cross, Mr. Keith Baker, Mr. Justin Lucas, Mr. Tim Neighbors, Mr. Billy Huey, and Mr. Chris Kendrick. And our three fuel truck drivers, Mr. Joey Knight, Mr. Jermaine Hyman, and Mr. Andrew Kolinski. So, thank you all because if it's not for them, the buses would not be on the roads. Black History Month highlight at Dunn Elementary School. Dunn Elementary's fourth-grade students recited the book, Hey Black Child, a book that celebrates the power and
060potential of black children. In the video, students are reminded of the importance of the contributions of black students and the adults that they grow up to be. Black History Month spotlight at Highland Middle School. Two of our very own, Dr. Jasmine Nixon Evans and Mr. Jermaine White, were guest speakers during the Highland Middle School's Black History program, representing their respective Divine Nine organizations. And our leaders spoke on the organizations' history. Also, the Highland Middle School's choir and step team performed, and various students presented a live wax museum to their classmates about prominent black Americans who have made contributions and left a legacy in history. This month, March, we're celebrating American Red Cross Month, um National Nutrition Month, Social Work Month, Women's History Month, Music in Our Schools, and Youth Art Month. And speaking of Music
061in Our Schools and Youth Art Month, hey, it's showtime. Not at the Apollo, but in our schools. So, Harnett Off Broadway kicks off 2026 at Overhills High School starting on Thursday, March 5th, with the Overhills attendance area schools, and March 6th with the Western Harnett attendance area schools. Next week, we will be at Triton High School on Wednesday, March 11th, with the Triton attendance area, and concluding on Thursday, March 12th, with Harnett Central attendance area schools. Tickets can be purchased on SchoolCashOnline. The art exhibit is free, and it starts at 6:00 p.m., and showtime begins at 7:00. And of course, all of our board members and their guests are our VIPs. Congratulations to David Groomes. Please join us in congratulating a proud student of LaFayette Year-Round School, David Groomes, on being named our district spelling
062bee champion. David will also represent Harnett County Schools at the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., as a participant. Go, David. Kinderpalooza 2026 was a success. What an incredible morning we had this past Saturday welcoming our future kindergarteners and their families at Gentry Educator Development Center. From fun activities Oh, look at Buster. And smiling faces to helpful resources and community connections, the energy was absolutely unmatched. If you were unable to attend, families, you can still register your child for kindergarten. Families can complete registration directly at their schools, their child's assigned school site. And our school teams are excited and ready to assist you. HCS reminders, families, tomorrow, Tuesday, March 3rd, is a mandatory teacher workday. This means no school for students, traditional school, and remind you all to spring forward. Daylight Saving Time starts Sunday,
063March 8th, at 2:00 a.m., so set your clocks ahead 1 hour. And Chairman Powell, this concludes the public information report. Thank you all for your time. Are there questions from Ms. Ferrell? Okay, thank you, Ms. Farrell. And again, a big shout out to our bus mechanics and fuel truck drivers. They have a very important job and we greatly appreciate it. Moving along out to discussion items and we have one discussion item that is a board policy update and for this we'll go to Ms. Thompson. Chairman Powell and members of the board, I present this just to lay on the table for 30 days and for your review. Okay. Thank you. Are there any questions or discussion regarding this? Okay, thank you, Ms. Thompson and we'll pick that up in 30 days. Next on the agenda,
064we have our consent agenda items. I will entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I move we approve the consent agenda as read. Second. We have a motion and a second. Consent agenda, Chairman votes I. Abate, I. Kennedy, I. Ferraro, I. Hearing no nay votes, the motion is approved. Moving along out to uh M, action items. And this is review and consider approval of a board member on the uh North Carolina School Boards Association Legislative Committee. Mr. Matthews. Thank you, Chairman Powell. Uh members of the board, if you remember at our last meeting I had uh shared with you the uh desire of the North Carolina School Boards Association uh for you to select one of uh our members to serve on the NCSBA Legislative Committee uh as an at large representative. And uh so I just
065present that back to you at this time. If any of you uh would desire to serve on that board or would like to nominate one of your uh colleagues to serve on that board, now would be the time to uh to make that decision. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Matthews. I will open the floor for nominations. Mr. Chairman, I would like to nominate our Vice Chairman Abate to serve as our at-large member to the NCSBA I guess we have Vice Chairman Abate. Are there other nominations? Okay, hearing none. All in favor of Vice Chairman Abate for this position, let it known by known by saying I, please. I. I. Any opposed? Thank you, Mr. Abate. You are appointed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Matthews. Next, we have review and consider approval of schedule
066adjustments for the May regular and work sessions. And back to Mr. Matthews. Thank you, Chairman Powell. Members of board, as you may remember, I think I had mentioned a little while back when we were talking about budget that we might try to find a date where we could have our joint meeting with the county commissioners without creating a an additional meeting for folks to to attend. So, after talking with Chairman Powell, I would like to suggest that we take our regularly scheduled May 4th board meeting and change the time from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 a.m. and have that as the joint meeting with the county commissioners. That would follow their regular meeting that they would have at the beginning of May, which would be a 9:00 a.m. meeting for them. And also then have the
067public comment shift from that first meeting in May to the third meeting in May, which would be the or second meeting in May, which would be the third week of May, that May 18th work session at 9:00 a.m. to satisfy the requirement for an opportunity for public comments at at least one monthly meeting. That would be my recommendation to you if that would work with with your schedules. Will will we host or will we have that at the RCL? >> That has not been decided. We could do either one. If you'd like to host, we can offer that. E- Either way. Let me talk with County Manager Traill and we'll we'll decide uh what we think would work best for both boards and go from there. Okay. Mr. Chairman, pursuant to the recommendation, I move
068that we approve the proposed May 4th meeting time change and joint meeting designation as well as the relocation of public comment to the May 18th work session. We have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? And I'd like to add with location to be determined for the May 4th meeting. Any further discussion? Hearing none, Chairman votes aye. I vote aye. Aye. Aye. Hearing no nay votes, the motion carries. We now have a review and consider the approval of a memorandum of understanding between Leadership Harnett Incorporated and Harnett County Schools. Mr. Matthews. Chairman Powell, members of the board, undoubtedly all of you are familiar with the Leadership Harnett Incorporated opportunity that is provided to our citizens. We had the opportunity to to meet with their leadership board and they have asked if we would
069be willing to make available to students to be nominated to participate in that. We are We are supportive of that effort, obviously, but felt like we needed to uh make sure that we had a distinction between this being an event and an opportunity that was sponsored by Leadership Harnett Incorporated and not Harnett County Schools. So, we ask we ask our attorneys to draw up a MOU for us, which you have here, and I would recommend approval of that MOU with Leadership Harnett. I think that's a fantastic opportunity for some of our student reps, but at same time felt like this would serve us well from any liability questions that may arise. I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the memorandum of understanding between Leadership Harnett Incorporated and Harnett County Schools as
070presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Mr. Chairman, because I do serve on the Leadership Harnett Board of Directors, I would like to abstain from this vote just because I am on that Board of Directors. Yes, sir. Okay. Chairman votes aye. Ganey, aye. Herring, aye. Unanimous vote, the motion is approved. 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 115C-321-2 to consider 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. Is there any discussion? Chairman votes aye. Hobbs, aye. Ganey, aye. Herring, aye. Unanimous
071vote, the motion is approved. We are now in closed session. >> Mhm. >> You ready? You ready? I'm ready. Okay. Following a motion and a second, we have returned to open session. Okay, and move along now to our action from closed session, personnel items, Mr. Matthews. Chairman Powell, members of the board, I would like to recommend the appointment of Mr. Fred Clarida to serve the remainder of the 25-26 school year as the interim principal of Overhills High School. Mr. Chairman, pursuant to the recommendation of Mr. Matthews, I move that we appoint Mr. Clarida as the interim principal of Overhills High School for the remainder of this school year. >> Second. We have a motion and a second. Personnel item. Chairman votes aye. Abate aye. >> Gania Era Hearing no nay votes, the motion is approved.
072Is there anything else, Mr. Matthews? That'll do it, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. >> Okay, thank you. Is there any other action from the board? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion. >> Mr. Chairman, I move that we adjourn. Second. Have a motion and a