001It's beginning to look a The December 8th regular board meeting of the Hornet County Board of Education is now in order. We'll begin tonight with uh prayer and followed by the pledge of allegiance. So, if everyone will please stand. Mr. Don Godfrey, would you present our invocation, please? >> Yes, sir. I'll bow your heads right. Our kind, gracious heavenly father, we thank you, Lord, for the privilege of being here tonight to go about the business of Hornet County Schools. Lord, we thank you for every family that's represented here tonight. We thank you for safe passage for them down here. Father, we pray that you would be with them as they go back home and keep them safe. And Lord, I pray that we would recognize this season for what it really means for the birthday
002of your son Jesus, Lord, who came down here and lived a while and then went to that cross and died for everybody's sins. And Lord, we pray that if no one knows you tonight, that tonight would be the night that they would come to know you in a personal relationship. Lord, bless us, guide us, and direct us in our business. For it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. Mr. John Hair, would you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? >> Sure. Pledge 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'll consider a motion. >> Mr. Chair, >> I'll make a motion we approve the
003agenda as written. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Chairman votes I >> Abate I >> Gy I Godfrey I >> hearing no nay votes the agenda is the motion carries and the agenda is approved as presented we're going to begin tonight's proceedings with our special presentations and tonight we have a recognition for exceptional student safety response that will be Mr. Chris Pearson assisted by our transportation director Mr. Riah Parker and Lilington Shawtown principal, Miss Tiffany Artist. >> Thank you, Chairman Pal, members of the board. Um, you know, we we often use the phrase that our staff uh and and teachers have the students lives in their hands every day and that they are responsible for many, many things. Uh, tonight we have an example where that is
004literally proves true. And so I will uh turn this over to Mr. Parker to share with you um the information about this incident that we want to recognize as well as the video uh and for the folks that we want to give a special shout out to here for this. This is a bus video from the incident. And so Jennifer, if you want to play that while Mr. Parker's getting in place, um it will you'll pretty quickly be able to see uh what we were dealing with here. which this is a EC bus as well and so they're helping the kids get get out of their seat. So it takes a takes a minute. Oh my god. >> And the wheel windshield camera you will see, which I not sharing all footage cuz it'll take
005too long. They were right there at the edge of the bus getting ready to walk across and that guy kept going. Um, Miss Anderson, she soon as she saw in her mirror, she immediately started laying on her horn to notify the kids and that's what alerted them to stopping their location. So, that's why we want to recognize Miss Anderson for her swift response and for helping Keeping that kid safe. It's only right. >> Y'all smile in the back, too. If you listen to the interior cameras, you can hear them. Oh, they're going to contact um what do we do? Contact the bus garage. And that's what they did. And um pulled the video and um I know Hannah at the bus garage, she contacted highway patrol. I think Tommy contacted our highway patrol and um
006trooper high here. He he didn't stop until he found who did it cuz that person didn't stop. That video we actually couldn't get a good visual of the license plate. But that truck was so beat up it was very, you know, easy to spot. And um he didn't he didn't stop until he he found it. I I went searching and in the dark for that truck cuz this happened on my road, Ross of Pitman Road. Um talked with Trooper High a few times and I think he was said he was headed to the Circle K look at their video. Well, on the way there he stopped. It's a concrete place now, but the guy was doing body work in there. They had a garage door open and they told him exactly whose truck it was.
007that he went to many houses knocking on doors and questioning people. So for that we want to recognize trooper high for his swift response. Thank y'all. >> Thank you. >> Well, thank you, Mr. Parker and uh Ms. Anderson, our thanks. Our thanks you, ma'am. You are a hero and your actions undoubtedly saved some lives that day. So, just thank you for protecting our children and our parents. We we greatly appreciate you. And Trooper High, we appreciate your pursuit as well. And we thank you And we have two other uh presentations we were planning to give, but because of the weather conditions today and because of the cancellation of today's afterchool programs and tonight's programs, uh we're removing the following two presentations. the cross country state champion uh Ethan Rich from Western Hornet High School and
008also to Western Hornet High School uh FFA uh had a presentation. And uh weather permitting, we're going to recognize these students at our January 12th regular board meeting. So, we're just delaying that a month because of the uh weather for that. And this is for the uh Ethan I think won consecutive state championships in cross country which is a great honor. And then at Western Hornet we had what three to compete the American FFA degree. Is that correct Mr. Abate? We had two students, Landon Davis who received uh his American degree and Paceholder who received their American FFA degree as well as a student Addison Thomas who competed in the National Aggra Science Fair. So, uh just huge accolades for these three. So, >> great. Well, we'll look forward to recognizing them in January. Okay.
009>> All right. Public comment and no one signed up tonight. So, we will move along to our superintendent update and Mr. Matthews. >> Uh, thank you, Chairman Pal, members of the board. It is, uh, difficult for me to believe that we're approaching the end of our first semester for this school year. Uh, but high school exams will begin next week and then we will have our Christmas break. Uh, teachers will be returning for second semester January 5th and 6th and students will be returning on January the 7th. As I'm certain you are aware, uh we were not selected for the needsbased school capital fund grant which we had applied for to help fund a new career and technical high school for our students. Uh however, I'm happy to report that our county commissioners have expressed
010a desire for us to move forward with the discussions and planning for that project and uh Mr. Pearson and his folks are beginning those conversations and of course we'll hear more about that in the near future. And last of all, I just want to say how incredibly excited I am that uh all of our schools uh that our schools faculty and staff included uh will be uh were to hear about the Campbell University's uh tuitionfree guarantee for Har County citizens that was announced uh today by the university. Uh I believe this opportunity will provide our students and parents uh with a truly uh great opportunity and as uh Mr. Germaine White put it so well will be a gamecher for our students and our community. I look forward to working with the university to make
011sure both our students and parents are aware of this uh remarkable opportunity that they have. And uh Mr. Chairman, that concludes my updates unless there are any other uh any questions from the board. >> And that is great news. We're greatly appreciative to uh President DS and Campbell University for agreeing to work with us. This could be a game changer. >> Yes, sir. Very much. >> We're grateful for this. >> Thank you. >> Other questions for our superintendent. >> Thank you, Mr. Matthews. Yes, sir. >> Next, we have our auxiliary services update and Mr. Pearson. >> Thank you, Chair Pal, members of the board. Um, just take a moment in in our recognition of Miss Anderson and I think it's um appropriate to also uh recognize as often as we talk about our challenges with
012busing and our challenges with um routes and all those things, we have a ton of bus drivers every day who do hard work, who do good work, who do long work. Um now when many of them on the road when it's dark in the morning, when it's dark in the afternoon and so do want to take a minute and just thank our bus drivers publicly for for what they do. um try to remember that you know the the issues we deal with really come from a small percentage and that a great percentage of our folks are really doing a good job. So I do appreciate them and and Uriah and his team and their work there. Um construction updates for you Lton Shawtown gym is on track. There is one um unexpected thing they discovered
013with a gas line that they have to run a gas line about 400 ft but they still are on track for that to be done so the school can use that after Christmas break. We're working through the punch list right now on the construction side. So, the gas line is really the only thing. It should be pretty straightforward. Um, we have chosen our construction manager for Highland High School and we'll be convening a meeting on December 17th to start talking about the design of that school, the needs of that school, and those types of things. So, we'll start getting uh plans built kind of from the ground up uh for that. Athletics, uh, winter season is in full swing. Uh, basketball, wrestling, indoor track, those types of things. Uh and also we want to take
014a moment to recognize our our ads, our athletic trainers and our coaches who not just in this winter season but uh in many seasons they spend a lot of late nights at places and a lot of a lot of time putting in uh for our kids and it's really just for the students. It's not for the financial rewards they gain. Um basketball season always reminds me as my time as administrator that sometimes there's three nights a week that you uh you have a game that goes till almost 10 o'clock at night. So, a lot of folks putting in a lot of extra time uh for our kids and and we really appreciate that. Want to mention two um of our SRO's, our longtime SRO who will be retiring at the end of December. Walter Een
015and Betty Ellis have both served uh for more than 15 years as SRO's mostly at the middle school level, which takes a unique calling as well. And both have been beloved by the the students and the staff they've been with. And so, uh we will certainly miss them and wish them well in their retirement that is coming up here in January. And then finally, uh we will be speaking with principles and staff to secure our buildings over the Christmas break while we're out for a couple of weeks. Uh but we do have some key staff both in maintenance and transportation, others that are still working over the break to keep an eye on things and keep things accomplished. So um we will have a good plan in place for uh for this break for our
016buildings. Unless you have any questions, that concludes my updates. >> Are there questions for Mr. Pearson? There's two for me, one or two comments of happy to hear that Highland's moving along. That is good news. And uh congratulations also to our resource officers. Many may not know Mr. Walder E was also in addition to being a a solid resource officer uh one of the greatest football players not just in Har County, but also in North Carolina history when he graduated led Irwin High former Irwin High School to the state championship finals in 1976. And when he graduated, he was the second leading rusher in the state of North Carolina. That's since been surpassed, but he was second leading rusher in North Carolina. So, he was really good player. >> Yeah. Yeah. He's done a lot
017for Hornet County. Appreciate >> understand he's a very good resource officer as well as well as Mr. Eller. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Pearson. Next, we have our curriculum and instruction updates with Miss Ferguson. >> Good evening, Chairman Pal, members of the board. It's been a busy month as far as academic events go. We've had our all county chorus. We've had our robotic rumble. We've had all county band. And we've had math counts. In the January board meeting, we will update you with our winners and names and um schools. But all the students and teachers have done a phenomenal job with these events. We explored the year- round option for Dun Middle School and Dun Elementary School. Both schools communicated with parents via Infinite Campus and Facebook. A parent survey was shared and there were 69
018responses. Of these responses, 55.1% were opposed, 31.9% were in favor, and 13% were unsure. Mrs. West and Dr. Beard also held a meeting for parents in person to answer questions. After the survey and the meeting, both Mrs. West and Dr. Beard and uh several of the parents and I agree with them feel that next step would be to put this on hold for the 26 27 school year but to form some committees in January that includes parents and teachers and begin looking at it and exploring options for the 2728 school year. Just want to make sure everything's lined up as far as community resources when the children are tracked out things such as that. Now the enrollment lottery for Lafayette year round is open for grades K through 7. It's going well and it will
019remain open until January the 9th. Um we continue walkthroughs continue to be a focus at the district and the school level. Our top five schools this month are Johnsonville Elementary, Western Haret High School, Western Hornet Middle School, Triton High School, and Coats Elementary. We also want to recognize schools who increase theirs by 10 or more walkthroughs this month. That's Ben Haven Elementary, Boone Trail Elementary, Coats Elementary, Johnsonville Elementary, North Hornet Primary School, Over Hills Elementary, Over Hills Middle School, Triton High School, Western Hornet High School, and Western Hornet Middle School. Uh, the high school guidance counselors have been working hard on updating our course guides. They have been submitted to Mr. McNeel. They will go to the printer this week and we'll have guides available online and in print and registration for high school courses
020for the next school year will begin the first week of February after allowing the opportunity for feedback from the community. School improvement plans are in in thear to be sub or and to be submitted. Um I'm pleased to share that we held our place as six in the state for CTE credentials earned by students for a third year in a row and we go against really big districts. Our total number was 11,347 credentials. If you remember last year, we were a little bit over nine. So, continue to improve. Mrs. Hardy and her team and our CTE teachers do a phenomenal job every day. The December headcount was completed with a total of 3,247 students, up from 3,61 last December. This is a 6.1% increase, and this is 16.5% of our student population. We also submitted
021our English learners multi-learners headcount with a total of 2319. This is a little bit up from last year and this is 11.8% of our student population. And then in closing, I just want to say that Mrs. Becky Wade will retire this month after 30 years of service. Mrs. Wade is the administrative assistant in the EC department and she will be missed tremendously. Um, if you know Miss Weey, we all depend on her for a lot of things and um, we're happy that she's going to be able to enjoy her retirement. And those are my updates for tonight unless you have some questions. >> Other questions for Miss Ferguson? >> The only questions I have u concern Dun Middle and Dun Elementary. What what's the basis for exploring um, year round calendars for just those two
022schools? So, the interest the interest came from the principles. We're interested in exploring it, exploring the year- round calendars. Um, so we're going to look at the community resources, the athletics, um, talk to parents some more and get what the feel is for the community. There, as I shared with the other updates when we do year round, there's no hard evidence one way or the other, right? >> But there are advantages to it. Some people like the year- round schedule because of their work schedule, um, family commitments, things like that. Some people do say that it helps with the summer slide and and the kids forgetting things. Um, I can give you no research that supports that 100%. They also feel like it gives um, students a break that's needed. Teachers like it for the
023planning of it. Um, they feel like it gives them some opportunities to regroup and plan midstream, so to speak. So they would just like to explore it and see what the parents of the community feel like. Give them more time. That was the ones who were unsure. Um a lot of the feedback was based on they just didn't have enough information. They weren't sure how it would impact their family schedule. >> I know I received a number of phone calls really concerned because they were adamantly against >> Yes, I Yes, sir. I received those as well. >> Changing this up. And on top of that, it's it just it feels like when we opened Highland Highland Middle several years ago and I was on the redistricting committee >> and a group decided it was a
024good idea to bring forth a sixth grade center >> um idea as far as um on the on the east side of the county and then have a seventh and eighth grade school. You know, it just it it doesn't seem right or or sit right. So, I'm I'm very happy that we are >> at least kicking the can for at least a year. >> And yes, sir. And there and there's no push one way or the other from our seats. We want to get the feedback from the parents and the communities and the teachers and the leaders of that school what best serves those schools and that community. So, >> thank you. >> Mr. So, >> when you start getting in year round school >> Yes, sir. >> it goes with a lot of other
025way a lot of other stuff. It's right for some communities. It's not right for other communities. >> Yes, sir. You're exactly right. >> Thank you, Mr. >> And I might add, Mr. Bate, Mr. uh uh Mr. Godfrey, that this was a request that came from the principles of both of those schools. Uh it was not anything that originated from central office or CNI, but a request from both of the principles that they wanted to explore that. So, uh that's what we do. We we honor that and uh so that's that's why the discussion came about. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Ferguson. Next, we have our human resources update with Miss Thompson. >> Good evening, Chairman Powell and members of the board. Um an update on hiring. Um right now we have 16 classroom vacancies.
026That's not mean that they're all vacant, just that they are posted. Some are still have folks in those positions. We have two enhancement counselor CTE positions. We have six EC and 33 classified. I will say this, that number is trending down. Uh two years ago we were at 43. Last year we were at 36 and now we're at 33. So at least we are trending down in that direction. Um, I'm not going to say a lot about the buses tonight other than I just want to keep it on the forefront of everyone's um, mind that we have 140 people that need to be trained to be bus drivers right now in Hick County. If we could train those 1440 folks, we would no longer have a bus issue in Hornet County. We do not have
027a driver shortage. We have a training issue. I just always want to keep that at the forefront of everybody's mind. That is our issue. We cannot train the drivers that we have on hand and that is always a concern because like Mr. Pearson said we have a that's this a burdened group and we would like to see them unburdened if we could. Also want to mention tonight about our teacher evaluation work and mention those schools. They work very hard to be on these list and many sites have a 90% completion rate and others have a 90 to a 99% completion rate and some have a 100%. So I want to 100% first Anderson Creek Primary, Andrew Elementary, Dun Elementary, Dun Middle, Hornet County Early College, Highland Elementary, Lafayette yearround, Over Hills Elementary, South Hornet Elementary,
028and Western Hornet High. 90 to 99% completion rate, Cotus Elementary, Haret Central Middle, Johnsonville Elementary, Lington Shawtown Elementary, North Hornet Primary, Over Hills Middle, Triton High, and Western Haret Middle School. Also, finally, I just want to make you aware that we are planning a district-wide um job fair for the month of January. We are hopeful this will give us a good opportunity to pro promote the good news of our recently increased supplement and there'll be more information to come on that in the coming days. So, that is my report. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them. >> Questions for Miss Thompson? >> I'll just go a comment I'd like to say is something we talked about before I think a little bit. I think we still have 140. We had 140
029the last time. I think it's time for a letter to our legislature to see if they can't give us some assistance in training our bus drivers. >> So, Mr. Godfrey, a conversation I had three weeks ago today, uh, November the 17th, I spoke with Senator Bergen for almost 20 minutes. Um and he uh we we had a conversation concerning um his office reaching out to DMV getting a group of firemen uh licensed. I think he touted in excess of 60 firemen they got their um license to drive fire trucks. and I shared with him what we had going on and he assured me that I would get a call from someone in DMV and today is the 17th I mean I'm sorry today is the 8th of December 3 weeks later and I have not
030gotten that phone call yet. >> Thank you Tom for the letter signed by everyone. >> Okay, anything else for Miss Thompson? Thank you Mr. Moving along now to our student services update and Mr. White. >> Chairman Powell and members of the board, inside of your board packet, you'll find the district release reassignment report through late November 2025. If you don't have any questions specifically about student services this evening, that concludes my report. >> Okay, short and sweet and always a good report. Any questions for Mr. White? Thank you, Mr. White. Now we'll have our financial services report with Mr. Cox. >> I don't think I'll be able to top Mr. White tonight. Uh thank thank you chair pal. Members of the board. >> Um as you know we paid 12% supplement. You guys approved that
031the county funded um a couple weeks ago. Many of our employees have expressed their thanks for the increased supplement. So thank you guys for your work and and pushing that. We also implemented the new classified scale and director scales that you approved um in the November paycheck and are working on the associated uh retro payments um for that back to the beginning of uh this school year. And our audit normally we completed by now but uh with the federal government shutdown that delayed their federal compliance supplement going out to auditors. Um, so auditors have since received the compliance supplement to guide the requirements of auditing those federal funds and we now have until February 12th, uh, 2026 to complete that audit. It's normally brought to you in January. Our auditors have said they believe they'll
032have it done before February, but just wanted to put that out there in case you're wondering, hey, why thought it hasn't come um, uh, up yet. Um, and that concludes my report unless you have any questions for >> questions for Mr. Watt. Uh, Cox, I'm sorry. Thank you, sir. Okay. >> Just like to say uh it's an honor for us as a board of able to uh lobby for these increased supplements for our hardworking faculty and staff. And again, a big thank you to our board of commissioners for providing these ne necessary funds. We're greatly appreciative of their consideration. Next, we have our public information update. Miss Frell. >> Well, Chairman Powell, members of the board and community, good evening. This past month, Hornet County Schools proudly joined our comm community community in honoring the
033brave men and women who have served our country during the county's Veterans Day ceremony at Veterans Park. Our very own Hornet Central High School, JROTC, represented the district with excellence, presenting the colors, leading the service flag presentation, and taking part in the laying of the wreath in tribute to our heroes. We are deeply grateful for all who served and sacrificed to protect our freedoms. December, it is the most wonderful time of the year as our community and families celebrate the holiday season. Toys for Tots and to make a child smile. Student services is moving forward with our annual toys for tots efforts. Donation boxes have been delivered to all schools and toys will be picked up throughout the season as collection grows. We are also excited to share that to make a smile child smile
034is co-founded by Gary and Barbara Hughes officially returned this year after a pause during the pandemic as a long history of serving students in Hornet County through holiday shopping experiences gifts, meals, and more. No school for students. It is indeed the most wonderful time of year. And for our students and staff, especially our 12-mon staff members, um that saying takes on a different meaning. Um winter break begins December 22nd through January 6th and classes will resume on Wednesday, January 7th. Winter graduation. We are proud to announce we will have our winter graduation ceremony for all high schools graduates on January 18th, 2026 at Campbell University in the Gore Arena. Doors open at 300 pm and the ceremony begins promptly at 4 pm. The guest speaker for the evening is Dr. William DS, president of Campbell
035University. So that's special. A special announcement for tonight. Do the due to weather conditions. All Hornet County schools will operate on a 2hour delay tomorrow, Tuesday, December 9th. Thank you all for your patience and flexibility as we ensure the safety of our students and staff. Chairman Powell, this concludes the public information report. Thank you for your time. >> Other questions for Miss Frell. >> Thank you, Miss Frell. >> Miss Frell, one question. You said January the 18th. >> Yes. 4 p.m. >> A Sunday. >> So, fun conversation around that. >> Okay. >> Looking at my calendar. >> Yes, it is. It is a Sunday. Um we because of the number of graduates we have for the winter, we could not hold it at Triton as we originally thought we could. Um and so kind of
036going through with with Campbell and them being searching the schedule high and low, that was the first date we could probably get closest to without going into February was that Sunday afternoon date once they check with the athletics. And so it is a Sunday afternoon. We promise to have everybody in there at 4 and out by 5. Um that's the game plan as far as the planning is concerned. Um and so we're just grateful that Campbell was at least allowing us an opportunity to get the convocation center which was our biggest piece there. So um hopefully as we go into next year um we'll have a little bit of a bit more flexibility with that date for winter graduation. Hopefully we have the number of students again um to be able to hold at the
037convocation center. >> Thank you. >> Block off four to six. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. Next, we have our consent agenda items. I will entertain a motion. >> Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Consent agenda. Chairman votes I. >> Abate I. >> Ky I. >> For I. >> Hearing nay votes. The motion carries and the consent agenda is approved. Moving along now to our action items. And our first action item tonight is to review and consider approval of the 2025 2026 school calendar. Mr. Pearson, >> thank you chair and pal, members of the board. As you recall, uh last month we put out a couple of options for survey. Uh had good response, had over 3,500
038responses on our survey. Uh 2,200 or so of those folks uh roughly 62% preferred option one uh to 37% preferring option two. So out of 3,500 mix of families and staff uh pretty heavily lean toward option one. So I present that uh to you all tonight for approval. >> Okay. A question prior to a motion. Um do you have the percentages broken down for faculty and staff? >> Yes sir. Uh we had uh well we have the number of votes. We had 1,127 votes from staff and 24,431 votes from um families. I do not have the separation of >> that's what I was wondering the separation. >> I'm sure Jennifer has this through survey monkey so I'm sure we can get it pretty quickly. >> So >> I will entertain a motion. >> Motion to
039approve the calendar one option as presented. Mr. Chairman second. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion hearing? None. Chairman votes I. >> Abate I. >> Gay I. >> I. >> Hearing. No. Nay votes. The motion carries. Thank you Mr. Pearson. Next we have review and consider approval of international teacher services services through EPI 2025 2026 administrative fees. Miss. Thompson. >> Chairman Pal. I recommend the approval of the international teacher fees through EPI for the 2526 school year. >> Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the international teacher services through EPI 2025-2026 administrative fees as presented. >> Sir, >> we have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? >> I have discussion. >> Yes, sir. Um, as far as this goes, when I saw the actual number that
040we were paying to EPI, I I got considerable amount of heartburn because I believe the total that we are play paying to EPI for this contract is about $2 million. >> Um, I would, Mr. Cox and I probably could do a better job of answering that together. Uh >> well, my my thoughts before I mean it it is what it is and and I don't have any issue with that. My issue is I think we could do a lot with $2 million to recruit and retain from surrounding school districts. And you know, I think in the future we really need to look at maybe allocating funding for recruitment and retention um from right here locally. >> I understand. And I will Mr. Cot, you want to kind of elaborate on how this funding is? It's
041not exactly money that we're that we're >> Yes, ma'am. So Mr. Bate. So the money that we have or the money that we use to pay these fees is a process that DPI allows us to convert positions to cover the cost of the teachers. So we don't have $2 million to allocate towards recruitment and retention. the DIS the DPI gives us position teacher positions for the district for all our teachers and they allow us to convert those positions to dollars to cover the cost of those teachers. So for this year, not just with EPI when you include participate. Right now we have 224 on the roster, but it's only costing the district 205 teachers. So we're gaining an additional 19 teachers um by doing this conversion process. So uh it is a benefit to us
042from the financial side. If we didn't do that conversion, we wouldn't have those $2 million uh to be able to do that recruitment and retention or those other things. So, and I and and I do think that we probably uh could have done a little bit better job of um outlining this topic on the agenda, but uh basically it's not like $2 million out of our uh discretionary funds to hire teachers. Basically, it's what we've been allotted from the state. And the way the conversion works out, it actually allows us additional positions that this year were used to lower class size numbers in our middle school. So those 19 positions basically went to our middle schools to lower class size projection >> and they won't allow us to do a conversion for anything else. It
043has to be for teacher positions. So if we did the conversions, we got to pay for a teacher. We can't put it towards like said recruitment, retention or what of the programs to get teachers. it's got to go to cover the cost of a teacher uh directly and then and that the the clause for the internationals allows that conversion to cover the cost of those fees in addition to the cost of the teacher as well is the way the policy is written through DPI. >> All right, any further discussion or questions? >> Okay, we did the motion right. It's been a while. Just want to make sure this time. Okay. Chairman votes I. >> Abate I. >> Gy I >> hear no nay votes. The motion carries. >> And we'll return to Miss Thompson for
044review and consider approval of international teacher services through EPI 2025 2026 relocation loans. >> Chairman Pal, I'm recommending the approval approval of the International Teacher Services through EPI 2526 relocation loans. >> Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve as presented. >> Second, >> we have a motion and a second. Is there additional discussion? Chairman votes I. >> Abate I. >> Gain I >> hear no votes. The motion carries. Next we have review and consider Hornet County Schools normal procedure of retroactive pay. Mr. Cox. >> Thank you. Uh, Chairman Pal, last month I brought to you the classified salary scales as well as the director scales. There's been some questions that have been brought up around who qualifies for retroactive pay and who does not. U, consistent with our procedures, how we have implemented for supplements.
045If an individual is not currently employed at the time um, that that supplement is paid, they don't qualify for any of the supplement. It was we brought that to you guys last year as part of the I believe it was last year as part of the the supplement scale as a way to encourage folks to stay with us instead of leave uh to go seek other employment and consistent with that uh procedure. That's the same thing that we do for retroactive pay. Um and so we wanted to bring that to you guys just for for clarification um to make sure the board understood that that's what the procedure we had implemented is. um see if there were any questions around that and also uh to see um or not to see uh again just to
046make sure you understood what the procedure was, you knew about the procedure because some questions have come up. Well, does the board know you know about the procedure? So, we're bringing it to you to clarify that and make sure you're aware of it. And then also um if you want to do like you did for the supplements, you can acknowledge that you understand that's what it is or we recommend that you approve that we've implemented this procedure for retroactive pay um in these cases where it's applicable um to be paid or not to be paid. >> Mr. Chairman, pursuant to the recommendation of the finance director, I move to approve the Haret County Schools normal procedure of retroactive pay as presented. Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? >>
047Hearing none. Chairman votes I. >> Abate I. >> Gay. I >> God for >> hearing. Nay votes. The motion is approved. I will entertain a motion. >> Mr. Chairman, I move that we go into close session pursuant to general statute 143, 31811, A1, A3, 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 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 further discussion? Chairman votes I. >> Abate I >> hearing no votes. The motion carries. We are now in close session. Good. They did better. So, Mr. White No, just sit here. Good. Thank y'all. Sorry. Following a motion and a second, we
048have returned to open session. Uh, Mr. Matthews, do you have anything else for us tonight? >> No, sir. >> Is there anything else from the board? >> Just like to say merry Christmas to everybody. >> Okay. >> Merry Christmas. >> And a merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone. Hope you have a very restful and joyful holiday season. I will entertain a motion. Journ Mr. Chairman. Merry Christmas and happy new year. >> We have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. Please. >> I. >> We are adjourned. >> Thank you.