001Get ready. The February meeting of the Hornet County uh Board of Education is now in order. We'll begin with our invocation and then uh followed by the pledge of allegiance. So if everyone will please stand. >> And Miss Sharon Gayy, would you lead us in prayer, please? >> Yes, sir. Dear heavenly father, we thank you for this [music] day. Thank you for another opportunity to serve the students, the faculty, staff, and community of Hornet County Schools. We ask that the decisions that we make be decisions that will be a blessing and fair and equitable to every student in Hornet County. We also ask that you bless our our other member, Mr. Don Godfrey, as he is um healing. We thank you for this day. Thank you for this opportunity to serve in Jesus name. Amen.
002>> Amen. Thank you, Miss Gay. And now, if Mr. John here would lead us in the pledge of [clears throat] allegiance, >> sir. 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. And you may be seated. >> I will entertain a motion. >> Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the agenda as presented. >> We have a motion and a second. Is there additional discussion hearing? None. The chairman votes I. >> Abate I. gain. I >> hear no nay votes. The motion is approved and the agenda is adopted as presented. Okay. Moving along out our public comment and each month a part of at least one regularly scheduled meeting will be
003set aside for citizens to address the board through >> do we have any special? >> No special pres will be set aside for citizens to address the board through public comment. A signup sheet will be available for any individual or group to indicate their desire to address the board. The chairman will decide the amount of time. Each speaker must complete each section of the signup sheet. Each speaker may only speak for three minutes. No balance of time may be yielded to another speaker. A maximum of 30 minutes is allowed for public comments. This allows for approximately 10 speakers at three minutes per speaker. The speaker signup sheet is removed at the beginning of the board meeting and we have two uh speakers tonight and we'll begin with Mr. John Long. >> Thank you. >> My
004name is John Long. Uh thank you for everything you do for this county. Um I'm here with several friends from Haret County to uh talk about inappropriate books in our public schools. Inappropriate books are those that contain explicit sexual content, pornographic content, obscene content, sexual assault, and more. This is the kind of content you wouldn't want to read aloud in public. Minors should not be exposed to this content because they're unable to appropriately process and discern at this point in their lives. Physically, the brains of minors have not matured enough to be able to fully discern whether the information they get through these books is helpful or harmful. This ability improves as they grow, but it is not fully functional until their mid20s. Research has shown that early exposure to this kind of content can
005lead to adverse psychological effects, disruption of the natural progression of sexual development, early sexualization, normalization of risky behaviors, and sexual aggression. In addition, most parents simply don't want their children exposed to such content. I'd like to assume that you agree with the that these kind of books should not be in your schools. These do not have a legitimate educational purpose. However, I began looking through your high school libraries and so far I found 19 such books. I've got a handout that I will leave with you uh that lists the books uh that I found and indicates which books which schools they can be found in. Each book listed also has a link to a review detailing the objectionable content. I'm not going to read any of that tonight. Um, I have two samples of these
006reviews with me, but you can get to them from that handout. Uh, each book is rated according to a rating scheme from one to five, and five is the worst. Here's what a four rating means. Graphic or gratuitous violence, extreme profanity, explicit sexual nudity, descriptions, or depictions of sexual activities, and other things I won't mention here. A five rating is even worse. Of these 19 books, 14 are rated four and five are rated five, the worst. Um, I hope that all of you agree with me that this needs to be resolved and I ask that you remove them from your school libraries. I'll continue to look and uncover more and we'll bring them to your attention. Again, thank you for your time and consideration. I hope we'll be allies in this effort and if I
007can help in this work, please feel free to contact me. Uh, so I'd like to give this to somebody. >> Sir, you may approach. Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. Long. And uh Mr. Matthews, if we get that, if we could have someone take a look at that, we definitely need to look into that if we'll take care of it. Thank you, Mr. Long. >> Okay. And next we have Mr. Eric Stevenson. >> Come on down. You're the next contestant on The Price is Right. One of my favorite shows growing up. Um my name is Eric Stevenson. um live at 100 Valley Stream Road here in Spring Lake and I want to thank you all for the work that you've been doing. Um I I go and watch all the meetings
008online and I pretty much uh I'm a cheer dad so I'm not able to make it here every Thursday, but I'm I'm paying attention to what's going on and I I really appreciate what you guys are doing and I believe that God doesn't make any mistakes because literally one of the things that I want to talk about this fine gentleman here spoke about it. So, it's definitely divine order for me to say what I want to say. But before I get to that, I just want to talk about the basics. I I talked to a lot of neighbors and friends that aren't able to get out and go to county commissioner meetings or meetings like this, and I just say, "Hey, I'll carry what whatever that is forward." And a lot of them are voicing
009that our schools just get back to the basics, you know, just reading, writing, and arithmetic. I know that sounds very simple, but apparently some of the parents that I've spoken with and not a specific school per se, but just it seems to be a common theme that they're learning so many things outside of the norm that they feel like their kids are falling behind. So, whatever you guys can do to take a look at our schools to make sure that those basics are being covered. Um, I believe those parents would be greatly appreciated. And it's a it's a bipartisan group of parents, whether Republicans, Democrats. I mean, I don't see any letters on four years when I talk to people. I had to see neighbors, family, friends, church members. Um, but to the uh inappropriate
010books. Um, I've been advocating for about three years now with the pavement education project. Um, and that's their website. You can you can go to it and those ratings that this gentleman spoke about. They're on that website. And I have uh probably 10 of those books um in my car. And I'm not going to read any of those books tonight. I didn't bring them inside. I feel like we should be able to have this conversation. But I do believe that if our children can read those books, that us adults should be able to read the same books that our children are reading. Right? Any book that a child should read, us adults should be able to read those same books. And I've been going to the legislature with a bipartisan group talking to Democrats and
011Republicans. And a lot of those legislators, you know what they do when we go in with the books? They do this. But you know what our kids do that read those books? They read them. And some of them get exposed to things, sexually explicit things that they should not ever view. And you're never the same after you're exposed to sexually explicit content. And if there's anything we can do to remove it, you know, make it at a different uh grade level, we should do that. and and the bipartisan group pavement education project the they have you know educators that have already looked at these lawyers that have already looked at these books and they've given them a rating this is a very professional group of individuals bipartisan I want to make sure that's clear it's
012bipartisan and I would love for you to just take a look at that website you guys have a blessed evening okay thank you >> thank you Mr. Stevenson. Moving along now to our superintendent update. Mr. Matthews. Thank you, uh, Chairman Pal, members of the board. Just a couple of updates since our last meeting. Uh, we held our winter graduation on January 18th at the convocation center at Campbell University. And I know uh, Mr. Pal, Miss Ganny were able to attend. We appreciate y'all's attendance at that event. Uh even though it was a very wet and cold day, we had a great uh deal of excitement uh great participation for our graduates, their families and friends. And we were honored to have uh Campbell University President Dr. William DS as our graduation speaker. Uh and appreciate
013him taking the time to spend with us and thank Mr. uh Germaine White for his leadership in putting all that together and having such a fine day for for our winter graduates. Uh, and of course the other big thing for us recently, it's been the winter weather. Uh, seems to have been all consuming the last last couple of weeks, and it was certainly nice to be able to have a Monday where we could have a regular schedule this week. Uh, so hopefully our temperatures will moderate a little uh in the coming days. uh we really uh fared fairly well uh when compared to some of our neighboring districts and that uh we do still have one remote day of our five left. Um uh there are not very many that can say that and uh
014it has really been a challenge for for our folks, but I really have to commend our uh auxiliary services folks for the good job they have done and getting our campuses ready so that when we did feel like the roads were uh safe enough to get our high school drivers and our buses uh to get our our students to campus that they were uh safe for their return. So I do appreciate that and Mr. Pearson's leadership on that as well. Um maybe any uh I do think temperature is supposed to moderate a little bit uh this week. So maybe any participation we precipitation we get will be of the liquid variety. Uh finally, as we get closer to the beginning of this year's legislative session, I'd like to ask you if you to uh begin
015thinking about any priorities, legislative priorities you would like for us to advocate for in this session uh next at our next meeting. I'd like for us maybe to have that uh on the an item on the agenda where we can have that discussion and in the meantime uh we'll share any ideas that we may have uh going forward with that. Uh Mr. chairman list. There's some specific questions for me that will conclude my report for this evening. >> Does anyone have a question for Mr. Matthews? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Matthews. Next, we'll have our auxiliary services update with Mr. Pearson. >> Thank you, Chairman Pal, members of the board. Uh just a few quick updates for you on the auxiliary services side. Um from the athletics perspective, our winter sports are beginning to uh wrap
016up. Uh, believe it or not, spring sports official first day is February 16th, so Monday, even though it's not quite spring, we are starting those up. We do have 10 swimmers in the district who have qualified for the state meet. Uh, the regional meets were canceled due to snow, so their times had to then hit a higher qualifying mark to make the state meet. So, we have a few folks preparing for that. And basketball and wrestling enter their home stretches with conference tournaments and those types of things starting next week. Uh on the transportation side, I do want to share with you that we are uh in the midst of a project working on upper updating our numbers. Uh we discovered that the students in infinite campus who are marked to have a bus and
017the students who are daily riding a bus, there was a pretty big discrepancy there. And so through cleaning that up, we feel like we can uh eliminate a handful of bus routes, which will then cycle that pool of drivers uh you know, a little bit bigger. Um, so while we still face um plenty of driver issues and we appreciate y'all's advocacy on the legislative side, uh we are doing everything we can to make sure we are as efficient as possible with our drivers uh to make sure that whenever we uh have the need, we can meet the need, but we we continue to uh kind of be on the treadmill about that. I won't say we're going backwards at all, but we definitely are on a treadmill at this point. A construction side, I will
018share Linton Shawtown has run behind schedule due to a couple of issues with some gas lines and some glass. They've given us a February 23rd date that they believe they'll give that to us. Um we have communicated uh to the contractor um that we are within our contractual rights on any damages. Um but they are around 10% under budget on that project. So it's a balance. Uh happy that they're under budget, but certainly not happy that they are behind schedule. So we're pushing them hard there. Flatwoods continues to make progress. The weather obviously uh cost us a few days out there on that site because it's still pretty pretty muddy and it's a true construction site. Uh and then you will see some action items tonight related to Highland High School as that continues to
019progress. Um one note on the consent agenda, you will see a field trip that you've already approved that is coming back to you again. That's due to a transportation change for the close-up field trip to Washington DC. They found some uh more affordable transportation. And so when you see a field trip on there twice, just want to call that to your attention as why that's there. And then finally, as Mr. Matthew said, um, I shout out and kind of recognize the crews on the custodial side, maintenance side for the extra efforts on the, you know, while everyone else was remote, they were on our campuses shoveling and spreading salt and doing a lot of things to make sure that, uh, whenever the the roads allowed us to get back that we had safe campuses. So,
020I I greatly appreciate those teams and as I was out and about, saw many of them out working. So, uh, thank you for that cuz they certainly didn't get a remote day that day and they made sure they were serving our students well and I appreciate it. Unless you have any questions for me, that is my report. >> Especially a big thank you to all our custodial staff, transportation folks, and everyone involved to make sure that our schools were safe for our students and staff to return. >> Yes, sir. >> Further questions or comments for Mr. Pearson? Thank you, Mr. Pearson. Moving along now to curriculum and instruction, Miss Ferguson. Uh, >> good evening, Chairman Pal, members of the board. Schools and the district CNI team continue to focus to keep the focus on instruction.
021Our team held individual mid-year meetings with principles to discuss next steps for the second semester and we have a plan with each school. This month we have provided PD. We um have helped led teacher PLC's, IC and AP meetings. This month, the focus for our K5 principal meeting was small group in reading was small group instruction, including reading. Principles learned how to use current data and current resources to address student needs during small group time. Middle and high school principles participate in PD that was based on feedback from the principles as well as data on effective questioning, distributive summarizing, and depth of knowledge questions. An example, uh we offer many PD opportunities each month and I want to share one that we offered this month. It's been draw it to know it. It's making sense
022of word problems with tape diagrams for our uh three through five classroom teachers. This PD is held virtually. It's over the course of four one-hour sessions, three of these being on Saturdays. And we have great participation and positive feedback. We did one we did three Saturday mornings and one um snow day. The responses were very positive. It reflected the strong engagement and meaningful takeaways from from our teachers. They can learn it on Saturday and use it the next week in the classroom. And I just wanted to share that because that's one example of our customized PD that our district people are able to provide to our teachers in our schools. Walkthroughs continue at all sites. Principal walkthroughs also continue. Our top five uh this month are Johnsonville, Western Hornet Middle, Western Hornet High School, Triton
023High School, and Over Hills Middle School. Rounding out the top 10, Over Hills Elementary, Coats Elementary School, Boone Trail, Ben Haven, and Lilington Shawtown Elementary. Our year round school application period ended last week and we will begin working on enrollment for the next year. The response for our year round has been very positive and there's continued growth. So that's still a positive option for our parents and our families. This month we started kindergarten registration and we'll hold Kinder Palooa at Gentry on Saturday, February the 28th. We always have a great turnout and we invite you to drop by. It's a very positive experience. High schools will soon be busy with course registration for the 26 27 school year. We have guides printed and also online. We held our science fair on January the 29th. It
024was a great success. A big thank you to Mrs. Wendy Nash, Mrs. Martha Chandler, school science fair coordinators, and all the members of the CNI team that helped out. Our schools and the science lead teachers at each site did a great job this year in spite of snow days. We were able to host our event on our original date. We also hosted the middle school first Lego League at Gentry on February the 5th and the elementary first Lego League on February the 6th. Both events were great. Again, thank you to Mrs. Wendy Nash and Mrs. Martha Chandler for planning this event and they had a plan in place for the inclement weather. And so again, we didn't skip a beat. We came back to school and bam, we ready to go. The school coordinators and
025the teams at each school site did an excellent job. Our winners for the middle school robot rally, first place Highland Middle, second place Dun Middle, third place Hornet Central Middle School. The core values award went to Dun Middle School. For our elementary robot rally, the winners were first place Northwest Hornet Elementary, second place Dun Elementary, third place South Hornet Elementary. Core values award went to Boone Trail Elementary School. Our district spelling be will held will be held at um Irwin Elementary on February the 20th. It starts at 9:00 in the morning. We're excited to share that the Hornet County Schools has been awarded $393,000 through the Golden Leaf Foundation to expand high um demand career technical education opportunities for our students. This funding will support equipment, construction, and professional development, personnel, transportation, and technology to
026strengthen pathways such as dual enrollment, internships, and industry recognized credentials, preparing students for college careers, and the workforce. We're grateful for this investment in our students, our staff, and our community, and our for our partnerships that continue to move Hornet County Schools forward. Um, DPI also celebrated and announced historic gains in career and technical education during a statewide press conference this past Wednesday. They were highlighting record credential attainment and strong ali alignment with the workforce needs. Hornet County ranked seventh out of the state with 11,121 credentials earned. The state attainment rate was 59%. Hornet County Schools attainment rate was 79.9%. So I feel following these two updates, it's the perfect time to share that it is CTE month. We value the strong CTE program that we have at Hornet County Schools. We're grateful Miss for
027Mrs. Lindseay Hardy's leadership and her team as well as well as all of our CTE teachers. We're also excited to announce that we are applying for the Golden Leaf School's personalized competencybased education cohort number two for Over Hills Middle School. This is the same grant that was awarded to Dun Middle School earlier this year and the state has given us the opportunity to apply for another one of our middle schools and we're in the process of applying for that grant now. Those are my updates unless you have any questions. Are there questions or comments for Miss Ferguson? >> Okay. Well, thank you, Miss Ferguson. >> Thank you. >> Moving along to human resources update. Miss Thompson. >> Good evening, Chairman Pal and members of the board. A quick update on our vacancies. We have 14
028um what we consider base vacancies, but I want to note six of those are support type positions and only eight of those are classroom positions. And that's a big celebration. Over last year, this state we had 25 vacancies and the year before we had 40. So we've made a lot of progress there. We had six EC vacancies and 29 um classified vacancies that to date and we are um well below our EC vacancies. Last time this year we had 20 and we're holding steady. We had 30 EC vac I mean well EC there a lot of those are ECTA vacancies in the classified area. So we are holding strong there. Because of the weather events in January last week, we extended the timeline for the observation completion and PDPs were complete in January. And those
029percentages are as follows. These are pretty record for us. I'm going to go very quickly. Anderson Creek, Andrew, Boon Trail, Boost Creek, Coats, Coach Irwin, Dun Elementary, Dun Middle, Irwin, Hornet, Central High, Haret Central Middle, Hornet County Early College, Highland Elementary, Highland Middle, Johnsonville, Lilington Shawtown, North Hornet, North West, Hornet, Over Hills Elementary, Over Hills Middle, South Hornet Elementary, Triton, Western High, and Western Middle all had a 100% completion rate, which is phenomenal considering the weather. and Ben Haven brought in a strong um in the 90 to 99% rate. We had a few more that were not in that list, but for the most part, our schools did a phenomenal job on that. Next month, we'll report the rates for observation observations completed in both January and February. We've talked about safe training, safe schools
030training a lot this year. We've got an 85% completion rate. That is really great. We track that monthly with principles so they know who they need to check on to complete that. And for the first time, we have a 100 center. Western Hornet High School has completed theirs at 100%. So, it is possible. The recent winter weather has also affected our bus driver training schedule and uh and the class that was scheduled for the 26th through the 30th, but we were able to reschedu that last wind Wednesday and we have um started testing this week and we've got some good passing rates. So, that was great news. Today, I heard from Miss Fry. We are um starting our international hiring process with EPI and participate learning for the 2627 school year. RNRs are currently screening
031candidates for district office offers and qualified candidates will be shared to principles through our international uh staff hiring Google site where principles can review and hire based on school needs and vacancies. To date, this is good news too. All the candidates we interviewed have have at least 11 years teaching experience and include licensed educators in EC, elementary, math, science, and ELA. We also attended the North Carolina State Education Job Fair last Thursday and spoke with 15 in interested um candidates. This is um significant because they're in a scholarship program called transformational scholars. Those um student teachers have to come back to teach in a district uh like Har County. So they are uh really most of them are student teaching or doing some of their internship here now and they're very interested in returning here
032to teach those 15. So we sent those out to principles and said grab these folks up and I believe there's some math teachers in there as well. So we're very excited about that. We're also in talks with Campbell University about a potential teacher assistant or studenttoteer program um modeled after one we saw similar in a in a neighboring county. We're in potential talks with that as we speak. We have processed 77 new substitute teachers since the beginning of the school year. We have 23 applications in progress and 13 that are enrolled in the training right now and four applicants who have completed the training course and are ready for the in-person session. We bring those folks in so we can talk to everybody in person at least once. We also are continuing to offer PD.
033Uh we have uh PD for our international teachers. We have our national board cohort coming up. And on the risk management side, we had a claims review with EMC for our annual claims review. We had site inspections um on January 20th for Maintenance Star, Johnsonville, Boyce Creek, and Western Hearn High School. Uh those those went well. There'll be more over the 2026 school year. And we also completed our OSHA reporting uh our yearly reporting process. And I did highlight on the loop just so you could see some of our success stories. I think maybe maybe out front, but we um a lot of our growing greatness teachers are now showing up as beginning teachers of the year. So we're having success there with those folks as well. So you can see some of their smiling
034faces. If you don't have any questions, that concludes my report. >> Any questions for Mr. Thompson? >> What is the reasoning that our folks haven't completed their safe schools training that's required? Well, it's a rotating thing because we have people that come in and leave and go out. So, I am um I'm just impressed that one place could get it done because it is a rev, you know, as people come and leave and if a few are not up to date, then it causes it to be like in the 80s and the 90s if you got a couple people that hadn't finished. But, we're working on it. I I will say this just so you know. Um you know, this is a free service. Well, it has been a free service. It's a partially free
035service now through our insurance provider and we have one of the highest completion rates in the state um for safe schools. It's it's a system called Vector and we comparatively speaking we have a pretty high uh a pretty high completion rate because we do monitor [clears throat] it all the time and send stuff out to the principles to help us do that. It's just good training for our folks and it's a way for us to maximize everybody hearing the same information about expectations in the district. So, but we're working on getting to the 100%. We may make it before the end of the year. I'm hopeful. >> Are there other questions? Thank you, Miss Thompson. Next, we'll have our student services update. Mr. White, >> chairman Powell, members of the board, good evening. Inside of
036your board packet, you will find the district release reassignment report for the district as well as the star academy reports. I did want to provide an update regarding our Hazel Health Heart program that we implemented uh piloted during the spring of last year, worked through the summer into the fall and now to date. And so when we talk about that program, we're talking about how we as a district are responding to our students emotionally, mentally, and at home, and how that is directly affecting their ability to learn and thrive in our schools. To date, we've had over a few hundred students who have been referred to the Hazel Health program across Hornet County Schools. Two things that we've learned through the implementation of this process is that first the need is real and widespread and
037second schools and families now have a clear trusted pathway to get students help. When we look at why students are being referred, the picture becomes even clearer. The top reasons include anxiety, family concerns, difficulty expressing emotions, followed closely by anger, sadness, and behavior challenges. These aren't just discipline issues or isolated classroom challenges. They're signs of emotional stress that if we leave them unchecked, they can quickly impact academics, attendance, as well as behavior. What matters here is that Hazel Health has helped us respond early instead of waiting for these situations to fester in spaces. 81% of the referrals have come from school staff, which tells us teachers, counselors, and administrators are actively using the platform as part of their everyday student support toolkit. Families are also engaging, accounting for nearly one in five referrals, which shows
038growing awareness and trust in the program. Once a referral is made, the follow-through is strong. 97% of referrals resulted in communication with families. More than half led to scheduled intake appointments and over 154 stu 150 students completed intake visits with more currently scheduled. In other words, students aren't just being identified, they're being connected to care. So far, 1,153 completed visits have been completed for students receiving direct services. What's especially important is how those services are being delivered. About 65% of visits are happening in students homes and 35% at school, which helps remove the barriers like transportation, scheduling, and access. And this isn't just happening in a few of our buildings. 97% of our eligible schools who have the platform have referred at least one student which shows district-wide engagement across the board. Our top five
039schools for referrals, Hornet Central Middle School, Hornet Central High School, Lillington Shawtown Elementary, South Hornet Elementary, and Ben Haven Elementary. And so with Hornet Central Middle, Hornet Central High, and Loomington Shawtown kind of being in the same attendance area, you can see the uh the the pattern there with families being able to support this particular program since we've implemented it. We are very excited about what we've been able to do through the implementation of Hazel Health, and we hope that we are creating conditions for learning, stability, and long-term success for students across our entire district. So, this concludes my student services report for the evening unless there are any questions. >> Are there questions for Mr. White? >> Thank you, Mr. White. >> Thank you. >> We'll now have our financial services report with Mr.
040Cox. >> Thank you, Chairman Pal, members of the board. Um, we've had a few additional de delays in finalizing our fiscal year 25 audit, but that has been completed and submitted to the local government commission for approval slashacceptance. And we'll bring this back to you at your March board meeting um after the LGC has approved um the audit. Uh W2s and 1099s were sent out around January 23rd. And as a reminder, we moved to an all electronic format for current employees. Um former employees who resigned or retired were mailed theirs as well as temporary staff. Um for example, [clears throat] substitutes. Um these are can be accessed in timekeeper within link. If you have any issues accessing your forms or hear of someone having an issue accessing accessing their forms, please let us know and
041we'll get that taken care of. Um we're in budget season now and begun working on some costing calculations for the superintendent's recommended budget. [snorts] Um we're set to have an official budget discussion during our March 16th uh board work session. However, if you have not already done so, if you have any specific priorities that you would like for us to consider and cost out, please let Mr. Matthews uh know as soon as possible so we can again work on that and have some of that information um ready for our March 16th uh discussion if possible. And that concludes my report unless you have any questions for me. >> Other questions for Mr. Cox. I >> have one question not about your report though. Um can you give us an update maybe next month on the
042pack the bus um the remaining funds for pack the bus if anything has been done? >> Sure. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Cotch. We'll now have our public information office update with Miss Frell, >> Chairman Powell, members of the board, and community members. Good evening. [clears throat] Our school growth awards. During our January principal meeting, Superintendent Matthews presented our school principles with certificates from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. These certificates were presented to those schools who met and exceeded growth and met outstanding graduation rates in the 2425 academic year. Winter graduation. Winter graduation was a powerful celebration of perseverance and possibility across Hornet County Schools. Nearly 300 students from schools across the county cross the stage. Each one representing determination, resilience, and a unique path to success. This marked Carnick County
043School's second winter graduation and we are excited about the momentum it is building as we look ahead in to growing this celebration even more in 2027. This ceremony was held at the John W. Pope Convocation Center Gore Arena on the beautiful campus of Campbell University providing a memorable setting for an unforgettable milestone. We are honored to welcome Dr. William DS, president of Campbell University, as our guest speaker, who inspired graduates to embrace opportunity, lead with purpose, and believe in their potential. This moment represents more than a diploma. It is the launch of new journeys into college, careers, military service, and beyond. And we just want to congratulate all of our students, our winter graduates, their families, educators, and staff who made this achievement possible. February is Black History Month, Career and Technical Education Month, and
044Love the Bus Month. Hornet County Schools is celebrating Black History. This month, we celebrate the history, the heritage, and lasting impact of trailblazing black Americans. We also want to recognize the count countless black educators, students, families, and community leaders who continue to shape and strengthen our district every day. I think we're having a little issue with our play there. Um, love the bus month. This week and all month long, we celebrate the dedicated school bus drivers who safely transport our students each day, rain or shine, sle or snow. Every early morning long route, our drivers show up with patience, care, and commitment to our students and families. School Counselors Week. National School Counselors Week was last week, February 2nd through the 6th. This special week is sponsored by the American School Counselor Association, which celebrates
045the unique contributions to of school counselors in the US school system. In the photo, you will see that all of our school counselors were gifted a nice gift bag with stationery as well as a district name tag. Golden Lee Foundation. We're excited to share that Hornet County Schools has been awarded 393,000 through the Golden Leaf Foundation to expand high demand career and technical education opportunities for our students. So families, this funding will support equipment, construction, professional development, personnel, transportation, and technology to strengthen pathways such as dual enrollment, internships, and industry recognized credentials, preparing students for college, careers, and the work force of tomorrow. Kinder Palooa will take place Saturday, February 28th from 900 a.m. to 12:00 noon at the Gentry Educator Development Center. This was previously known as the Old Gentry Primary for those who
046may be wondering in Irwin. This free event was designed to welcome all of it's designed to welcome all of our incoming kindergarteners by providing families with fun activities, information, and resources about our schools and communities. So families, bring your three-year-olds, four year olds, and let's get them excited for kindergarten and especially our upcoming kindergarteners. School resource officer appreciation day is coming up, so if you would please mark your calendars for February 15th. You should thank your school resource officers every day, but make sure on the 15th is extra special. Our SRO serve in our schools, and our district and school events and athletics. We appreciate them for keeping our schools, our staff, and our community safe. Chairman Powell, this concludes the public information report. And I know you missed me last month, but thank you
047for your time. [laughter] >> Yes, we did miss you. We're glad you're back. Are there questions for Miss Frell? >> Thank you, Miss Farrell. Next on our agenda, we have discussion items and uh North Carolina School Board Association Legislative Committee, Mr. Matthews. >> Thank you, Chairman Pal. um received a an email from Bruce Mildorf with the uh North Carolina uh school boards association basically asking if you as our uh board for Hornet County School Board for Hornet County would like to nominate one of one of you to serve as an atlarge member on the legislative committee at the school boards association. Um I wanted to share that with you. I believe Miss uh Johnson sent the email out. If not, we'll we'll certainly get it out to you. But uh so you can look over
048the uh commitment that would be uh asked u the details contained in that email. And uh just wanted to put that out on on for discussion and maybe March [clears throat] in the March 2nd meeting uh we can nominate one of you to serve on that if you would so desire. And uh we just have to have our nomination in by the end of March, 27th of March, I believe, if if one of you would like to serve. So uh just wanted to have that discussion, see what your pleasure would be there. [clears throat] >> Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. Matthews. Next, we have our consent agenda. I'll entertain a motion. >> We approve we get consent agenda as presented. >> Second. We have a motion and a second consent agenda. Chairman votes I. >>
049Abate I. >> Gain I >> hearing no nay votes. The motion is approved. Next we have our action items. And our first item is review and consider approval of budget amendments. And that would be Mr. Cox. >> Uh thank you chairman Pal. Board members. This is the uh FY2526 amended budget resolution for the second quarter. Um you have there in your packet the actual budget amendment and you actually have the uh changes by program report code there. A summary of the uh second quarter amended budget resolution state public school fund is 158,487,640 which is an increase of 1,12,541. Our local current expense fund remains unchanged at $42,28,241. Our federal programs fund is $18,673,988, an increase of $3,452,212. Our capital outlay fund is $2,521,266, which is an increase of $99,738. Our school nutrition fund remains unchanged
050at 12,838,000. Our DUN special district fund remains unchanged at $855,080. And our local restricted expense fund is $13,587,112 for an increase of $1,321,756. Total amended budget 248,991,327 which is a total increase of 5,886,000 to86,42 $247. Sorry increase of 5,886247. Sorry for that. Happy to answer any questions around the uh amended budget resolution for second quarter. >> Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the amended bud budget resolution as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Are there questions for Mr. Cox or any further discussion? >> Just a quick question. So, that was revenues that increased. >> Yes. Um, let me get that up just to um so yes, we had revenue increase. The majority of it was um through federal allocations, federal monies coming in and then some revenues through special
051uh the restricted fund. Um additional Medicaid reimbursement, ROC reimbursements coming in, impact aid money coming in, things like that. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Hearing none, the chairman votes I. >> Abate I. >> Gainy I >> hearing no votes. The motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Cox. Next, we have review and consider approval of site assessment services for the Highland High School project. Mr. Pearson, >> thank you, Chairman Pal. Um, you will see in your packet the rubric of the submissions we received for site assessment services. This is uh the land surveying soil science related to Highland High School's build. Uh Timman's group was uh recommended by all that reviewed it and we've had good experience with them in the past. So I recommend them as our site assessment service for Highland High School.
052>> Chairman, I move that we approve the Timmans Group assessment services for school nutrition freezer project as presented >> and that was written wrong on there. So it's Highland High School. Oh, >> so that's why he read it like that. So it's the Timman's group assessment services for the Highland High School. >> Highland High School. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you, >> Mr. Chairman. Pursuant to the recommendations, I move that we approve the Timmans Group for Highland High School as presented. >> We had a motion on the floor. Would you like to second it? >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. [clears throat] Is there further discussion or questions for Mr. Pearson? Hearing none. Chairman votes I. >> I say I. >> Gay. I >> hearing no votes. The motion carries. >>
053And we'll return to Mr. Pearson for the review and consider the approval of the 2027 calendar change. >> Thank you, Chairman Pal. Um, several weeks back, we were informed that uh with the primary election coming up on March 3rd, uh that the board of elections would like to use a number of our schools for this primary election. Um and so we had a mandatory work day scheduled for March 13th. So we are proposing that we just flip those dates that we make March 3rd that mandatory work day and make March 13th a regular student day. So it'll be no impact into our instructional hours, just a change in the date for the families. But again, this is due to school sites being used as a primary voting location. >> Thank you. >> I will entertain
054a motion. Chairman, I move that we approve the 2026 27 calendar change as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Is there additional discussion? >> Chairman votes I. >> I gain I >> hearing no nay votes. The motion carries. We'll now have a review and consider approval of the uh 2026 27 yearround academic calendar. Mr. Pearson. And thank you again. Um the year- round calendar has been compiled kind of based on the traditional calendar that was adopted a few months back. Uh thank you to Miss Ferguson and her team for kind of reviewing that. They've traditionally handled a lot of the year- round calendar scheduling and so meeting all the various requirements. You see a proposed calendar for the year round school and we present that to you for your approval.
055Mr. Mr. Chairman, I move we approve the 2026 27 year round calendar as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? >> Chairman votes I. >> Abate. I >> gain I >> hear no votes. The motion carries. I will entertain a motion. >> Mr. Chairman, I move that we go into close session pursuant to general statute 143 31811 A1 A3 and and A6 to prevent the disclosure of confidential personnel files under GS15C 321 to consider matters relating to initial employment of an individual employee and consult with the board's attorney in order to preserve the attorney client privilege. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Hearing none. The chairman votes I. >> Avante I. >> Gay. >> I hear no votes. The
056motion carries. We are now in closed session. after a motion and a second. We're back in open session. Mr. Matthews, >> Chairman Pal, thank you. I I just wanted to uh mention two things before we close tonight. Uh one, Mr. pal I believe has a birthday on the 28th this month. So we wish you a happy birthday. >> Thank you. >> And uh finally, but uh we just wanted to recognize Miss Ferguson who unless something happens that I'm not aware of, this will be your last board meeting uh with us. And uh we just want to thank you for your many years of service to the children and the uh school system and the county of Hornet. and we uh wish you well in your new endeavors and uh know that your daddy is going
057to be very excited to uh have you to spend some time with him and we just thank you for everything you have done and wish you well. Uh if there's anything we can do to help you in the future, please don't hesitate to let us know. >> Thank you. It's been an honor and a privilege. I love Hornet County Schools. Some people bleed blue for Carolina, red for state. I bleed Hornet County Schools. So, >> [laughter] >> Thank you. >> Well, thank you, Miss Ferguson. We greatly appreciate your many years of dedication and service for Hornet County Schools, and we'll miss you. We greatly appreciate you. >> Thank you. >> Daddy does have some plans. [laughter] I want to say not only thank you, but thank Buddy and your family um for lending you to
058Har County for so long, as well as for the countless nights you've stayed up working, the countless nights you've been at meetings, at science fairs, ball games, sporting events, everything that that you've done. Thank you so much. >> I'll definitely share that and I appreciate that. But I just want to say again, it has been an honor and a privilege. And I um it's going to be it's happy time, but it's a sad time. I love Hornet County Schools and my schools and my teachers and my principles. Um so I just think it's been a privilege to serve. >> We thank you. >> Anything else before we dismiss tonight? If not, I'll entertain a motion. >> Motion to adjurnn, Mr. Chairman. >> Second. I have a motion and a second.