001Hi, I'm Kaylee Stewart. I'm currently a start cafeteria. Thank you. will be recognized during public comment or during discussion because they both signed up. Okay. They don't need to be called on for public comment. I'm just for discussion. I just turn to you and you want to take Yes, I can take that. Oh, okay. Okay. Well, thank you. Our meeting is now in order. Good morning. It's good to see everybody this morning and we've got a lot on our agenda. So, let's go ahead and get to work. Okay. If everyone will please stand and I'd like to uh ask Mr. Godfrey if he would to lead us in our invocation. All pray with me at will. Our kind gracious heavenly father. Lord, we thank you for the privilege of being here this morning. Lord, we
002thank you for safe travel down here, Lord, or wherever we came from. And we pray, Lord, that we would have a constructive meeting today, Lord. That your will will be done, Lord. That we will abide by what you would have us to do. Father, we just thank you so much for everything that you do for us each and every day. Guide us and direct us, Lord, as we try to do the right things for Hornet County Schools. Dear Lord, Father, these things we ask in your precious son, Jesus's name, and for his sake. Amen. Amen. If you'd remain standing, I'd like to ask Mr. hair if you'd lead us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one
003nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. And you may be seated. Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the agenda as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Chairman votes I. Abate I. Gayy I. Godfer I hearing no nay votes. The motion is approved and the agenda is approved as presented. We'll begin this morning with special presentations and our first presentation uh was our teaching fellows grant and that would be Miss Michelle Vancan. Good morning, Chairman Powell and members of the board. Thank you so much for having me this morning. Um, we wanted to take a brief moment to u catch you up on the uh Hornet County Schools uh district recruitment pilot initiative. This is through the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program. Um
004Shelby is handing out a copy of the presentation that you see viewed on the screens. Just a little bit of history of of our short timeline with this um recruitment initiative. Uh in late winter, early spring of 2024, teaching fellows selected Hornet County Schools as a pilot district um to increase recruitment because we are a region with higher attrition rates and teacher and some teacher recruitment challenges and they recognized that. So they selected us to be a member of this pilot program. Um, the original teaching fellows district scholarship plan was submitted to the state to to North Carolina teaching fellows uh in April of 2024 and was approved. Um, we then received the monies which was $55,000 um to create a local teacher recruitment program here in Hick County. We received that around the in
005the fall of 2024. Now, we already had a local teacher recruitment program, Growing Greatness, already going. So, we didn't have to start from scratch like some of our neighboring districts did. We were able to just um create a stronger growing greatness program, which is what we did. And we did um add some things to that which I'll share with you, but but really it was about enriching the growing greatness program that we already had. Okay. So, just as an overview of the original plan that was submitted last year, um our overarching mission is to create a teacher pipeline from our local high schools. So, throughout the year, we the recruitment and retention team go into our local high schools and we talk about the growing greatness program. We talk about teaching fellows which was also
006part of this agreement was that we would create this pipeline but also we would recruit for the teaching fellows program make sure our high school students were aware of this program. So we have been very purposeful in doing that. Um the first goal was to expand support for growing greatness. Um and uh so this program offers specialized professional development tailored for future teachers and the the bulk of it happens during the summertime. As a matter of fact, we just finished it up uh the week before last with this particular cohort. Um the Growing Greatness participants, uh keep in mind these are all college students who are enrolled at local EPS and plan on returning to Hick County schools to be teachers. um they are able to receive professional development from our school district. They tour
007auxiliary services. They tour schools. Uh and then we also do team building activities which I'll show you more about here in just a moment. Um now our participants receive a stipend of $150 a day. That is that we increased that last year actually from $100 a day to $150 a day. So it's a nice little summer job for our um future teachers. And then goal two was for to um growth. We wanted more participants in this program. Of course, we want to increase that pipeline, but we also as like a subplot, if you will, we wanted to provide our master teachers in Hornet County Schools opportunities for leadership. And so, we've been able to strengthen that as well. So, you may know this already, but we have a growing greatness signing. I don't know why
008signing event got deleted. my apologies, but it's a growing greatness signing event in the spring of every year. And we do like to make it a an official ceremony. We invite their parents, we invite their families because we want them to know this is a big deal to us and we want it to be a big deal to them, too. Because we're depending on them to educate our students one day. So, we, you know, all there's the rest of it. I don't know why. Um, so a little bit more about our summer professional development. Um we provide engaging professional development for the kids. Um school facilities and tours and fun and community building uh you know with the growing greatness participants. Um we I just have to say the recruitment and retention team. We look
009forward to this every year. We love working with these young adults. Um they kind of fill our cup, if you will. They renew our spirit um because they're young and they're eager and they just are just sponges and eager to learn everything. Okay, here it comes. Just a few images from our summer professional development. We are um purposeful to not only it's it's not just sit and listen to people talk all day. We are very intentional in making sure that we incorporate team building events because we are not naive in knowing that this cohort that they've created are going to be their teammates one day. They could very well be teaching together in the same schools. And if they have those bonds already built because they played a game of of putt together or they
010ate a meal together and had an opportunity to fellowship, that is going to provide support for them in the future. and we hope that that will provide a retention um opportunity as well. Now, one of the parts of this growing greatness program that we find very valuable and our students, excuse me, growing greatness participants have told us they find valuable as well is they are able um during the spring when they have their spring break, they are able to come and observe our master teachers for a week. Okay? And um the feedback we've gotten from the growing greatness participants is that they love it because our master teachers don't just sit them in the corner and say, "Watch and take notes." They let the kids, as you can I call them kids, y'all. They're not
011kids. They're young adults. They let the young adults um actually work with the students. So you can see here that um uh that's actually my daughter in the lower right hand corner. She is leading uh reading to a group of kids. And then you can see Ashley in the upper right hand corning corner working with a student. Um, so they like the fact that they're not just sat in a corner. They actually get to get in the trenches with the students, which is what they love. Hi, I'm Kaylee Stewart. I'm currently a student at North Carolina State University studying elementary education with a STEM concentration. I am a proud graduate of Hornet County Schools and a current participant in the Growing Greatness program. So, Growing Greatness is a pre-ervice teacher initiative um that gives students
012in Har County the opportunity to have early hands-on experience um in the field of education. And when I joined last year, I got the chance to step inside real classrooms and work with mentor teachers um and begin to really understand what it took to be an educator. So along with all the classroom observations that I was able to do, I also got to participate in meaningful professional development. And these experiences have truly transformed my time and ability in my education program at NC State. So in my education courses now, we cover a lot of foundational concepts such as lesson design, um, student engagement, instructional technology, and culturally responsive teaching. And because of growing greatness, I had already seen so many of these things put into practice and I wasn't starting from from scratch um when
013I went in my second year at NC State. And I was able to really dive deeper into the instructional time and um classroom observation time that I was allotted. And um this was all thanks to my previous year with Growing Greatness. That early foundation also helped me stand out and stay focused. and I'm a part of um transformational scholars and North Carolina teaching fellows, two programs that support my commitment as an educator to return to communities like Carnick County. And both of these programs emphasize educational equity, strong pres-ervice teacher training, and long-term impact. Uh all of which Growing Greatness continues to foster and enrich for me. And if you're a student in Hornet County or even a little bit interested in um being a teacher, I really encourage you to explore what Growing Greatness has
014to offer. And it's not just about deciding if you want to be a teacher. It's about building the skills and the mindset you'll need to be successful in college level classes for education. And growing greatness for me personally has been a way for me to stay actively engaged in my education even when I'm off of school um for long periods of time. And it allows me to build a community that I can come back to um with teach with uh pre-ervice teachers I was trained with uh when I step into a classroom in Hornet County. So that's Kaylee Stewart. She is um she just finished her second year in the growing greatness program and she kind of checks all the boxes guys because she is a Hornet uh central high school graduate. She was born
015and raised in Hornet County. She is now at NC State a rising junior uh in elementary education STEM concentration. She is a teaching fellow. She also um is a transformational scholar. That's another conversation. But um she is definitely planning on returning to Har County Schools. Um, and because she is participating in the growing greatness program, she is going to be that much more. She's going to have roots established here be above and beyond those who did not participate in growing greatness. And there are others, but we wanted you to hear some feedback from one of our actual participants. Okay. So, a little bit of data outcomes of this. Um so when we re when our grant was accepted last year by the teaching fellows program and before they handed over this grant these grant funds
016their challenge to us or their goal for us was to produce a minimum of eight applicants to the North Carolina teaching fellows program and they wanted five of those to be selected annually. Okay. So again I told you we were very purposeful in getting into the schools and advertising teaching fellows. Um, we were very happy that we had 10 applicants to teaching fellows this year and eight of those were recipients. So, we surpassed what our goal was for that. We hope to increase that even more this year. Um, each we have gotten our numbers up to 30 Growing Greatness participants over the summer, which we're very excited about. And we have been able to hire 13 since Growing Greatness began in 2021. We've been able to hire 13 um of our growing greatness alumni. So,
017we're very excited about that and they're scattered all throughout the district working and educating our kids. All right. So, just a real quick budget overview. This is how we h So, this table was created as a um proposal of how we intended on spending our monies. Um we didn't spend all of this money. We had some um we just we just didn't spend it all. We're not used to having much money. So, we we're conservative by nature and we were like, "Oh, wow. We we got extra money." So, um fortunately, this money has already been encumbered from the state and we are allowed to roll it over into the next um growing greatness program and that is our intention. So, we already have plans to make it even stronger for next year. Um and uh
018one thing we were able to add with the teaching fellow scholarship was we we've been able to pay our Growing Greatness participants and we're very happy about that. But now we're able to pay those host teachers a stipen that we talked about. Um during the summer if we have um one of our master teachers come and present, we're able to pay them if they're 10 monthth employees. So we're able to provide a stipen for anybody who comes and helps with these growing greatness participants. Again, we want to grow leadership in our existing teachers as well. Our goals for this coming up year. All right. So, we want to we want to improve retention from our growing greatness program. Um, we have seen a couple of growing greatness participants leave us and go to neighboring districts.
019I'm not very happy about that. So, we're working on tools to to make our um our to improve retention. Okay. Um, and so one way we have done that is um prior to this year the agreement for growing greatness has been non-binding, but this year we did make it a No, I'm not done yet. And well, you've got it printed, but anyway, um it is to make it a binding. Anthony, can you put Thank you. He reads my mind. Um is to make it binding. Okay. So, we were able to do that this year. All right. Um also, we want to enhance the master observation experience for teach for our grown greatness participants. Um, we do we have done a Christmas social to check in with the kids every year, but we want to do
020even more outreach during the year. Okay? So, we want to do something on their first day back to college. We want to do something in the fall. We want to, you know, make our so Christmas social even stronger. So, we want them to know that we have their back while they're at college, too, in their EP doing their coursework. We want them to know that that they are ours and we support them year round. And then we are very proud that we have always responded to our participant feedback. Um, every year our program looks different and that's because of what the the young adults tell us. Okay, we very responsive. We're going to continue to do that. So those are our goals for 2025. Um, good news is the culmination of all of this is
021that we had to um re we had to present this to teaching fellows to be renewed for another year. that was approved. We will receive grant funds again this year um to continue to strengthen that growing greatness uh and district initiative. Okay, questions. Are the questions from Miss Vonan for comments? Yeah, we're talking about the high rate over four years. You know, we said there's 13 remember most these kids started their freshman year. So we, you know, so we didn't start with 30 in the beginning. We probably had I don't know that first year we probably intended. That's right. So, you know, these kids are just now finishing their four year like we're beginning to hire that first this our first fouryear cohort. You know, they started as freshman. They graduated this summer and and
022they started and I will say, you know, when we first started, it wasn't a binding agreement that they return and stay here and give us a year for a year. Um, and that's what it is now. You know, an effort to get our program kind of off the ground. people understand what the parameters were. Um that was not something that you know we did in the very beginning but we changed that now where there is a year for a year and that binding agreement. So everyone that participated this summer signed a binding agreement um for that. So I feel like you know we have a bigger pool than um we have in previous years those first years we have a much larger pool now. So we are picking up speed here so to speak. All
023right. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Vancana. I think this is a great program and we're really excited about it and about developing a pipeline to uh bring our Mong students back into uh Hornet County Schools. So, thank you very much and for your staff for your hard work on this. Okay, we didn't have anyone sign up for public comment today, so we'll move along to our superintendent update. Mr. Matthews, thank you, Chairman Pal, members of the board. As you uh as you are well aware, I'm sure um following our work session on June 16th, excuse me, the board of commissioners um had their regular meeting and adopted the county budget for the 2526 school year and in that budget fully funded the uh board of educ education's uh budget request for the year. I just
024wanted to express my appreciation to the commissioners and to county manager Brent Trout and county county finance officer Kimberly Honeyut for their hard work and helping that become a reality. Uh to my knowledge I I certainly cannot ever remember when the board of education's uh full funding request has ever been funded. So very very grateful for that and very excited that we'll be able to um the goal I know your number one goal was that 12% uh get our supplement for our teachers up to 12%. And so very excited to have that possibility for the upcoming 2526 school year. Several members of the cabinet uh and senior leadership team took a tour last week uh to Hope County to see a new high school that's being constructed there. and to Robinson County to see a
025new CT high school that's being constructed there in preparation and planning for the upcoming uh move to uh approve and build a Highland High School and hopefully depending on um possible grant funding a CT high school in partnership with Central Carolina Community College. Uh it was a good um it was a good day. uh got a little hot toward the end, but u in all all in all it was a good day. Uh I think it really helped us to put eyes on it even though uh it well the Hog County site was was not even dried in yet and the uh while the uh Robson County site was somewhat dried in at least from the roof uh structure still had plenty of open areas. So, uh, couldn't really get that, uh, finished product in
026our mind, but it was good to to have that experience. And I think, uh, I think they're going to be some efforts to set up another date, uh, because I know it conflicted. There was a conflict for for most of you folks that you were unable to attend. So, it's going to, um, try to be another date set up so that y'all will have an opportunity to uh, view that as well. Of course, we had the uh, groundbreaking for Flatwoods Middle School. I want to thank all of you for attending. It was great to see all of our board members there. Again, I appreciate the support from the commissioners uh for approving that and providing the funding for that. I appreciate uh Commissioner Barbara McCoy for attending and and and making some comments um as
027she is the longest serving member that we have on the county commissioners. And so she's uh she's seen a lot of uh a lot of growth uh in the county and has been a part of the preparation and the good uh uh finance practices that have been put in to allow us to be in a position to be able to fun have the funding to uh kick that project off. Uh also county manager Brent Trout of course and his leadership with the county. I spent most of last week, certainly the end of last week at a superintendent conference in Asheville and which concluded on Friday uh with a quarterly meeting with state superintendent Mo Green Mo Green and his team. Uh it was a very informative time. Uh good opportunity to uh uh look at
028and and hear uh the draft plan of his strategic plan for the state. Uh, I will share that and I'm sure Miss Ferguson will share this when when her time comes, but u uh the Sand Hill superintendent had lobbyed uh um state superintendent Green to allow growth scores for retest to count in the uh model for this year. and he announced at our meeting that that would be allowed for this year and some changes going forward for next year. So, uh I I I'm excited for that and and especially proud that uh that initiative was kicked off through our local superintendent group and uh and that uh the state folks were listening. So app we we do appreciate that and think it will be good for children and that's of course the bottom line. As
029of today uh we will be closing out officially our 2425 school year. Uh we are working hard to move into and plan for uh the 2526 school year uh with a lot of anticipation and appreciation for the hard work that all of our folks put into making 2425 a good year. I personally uh want to give a special thanks to you and all of our stakeholders for the efforts that you put in and for your leadership and service uh for our school system and all of our stakeholders. U Mr. Chair, that concludes my report unless there's some specific questions for me. Thank you. Are there questions for Mr. Matthews? I'd also Mr. Matthews like to thank the uh board of commissioners uh county manager Trout and Miss Honeyut for their hard work. Uh as you
030mentioned, this is a historic moment. You know, it really is. And also like to thank our board for their leadership and for pushing for this because as I mentioned earlier, this is a historic event and uh I think our teachers going to be very happy hopefully so anyway with what should be significant increases in their supplements. So thank you. Thank you. Next, we have our auxiliary services update and Mr. Pearson. Thank you, Chairman Pal, members of the board. Um, just some brief updates from each of my departments from school nutrition. The summer feeding program is is ongoing. It's going very well. Um, I was able to go out to a couple of sites last week and kind of see how that works. And they are not feeding this week with the holiday, but um, they
031are they are typically between 30 and 40 meals served at each site that they're doing. Um, so, uh, just a neat program and we hope to to continue to grow that. As we wrap up the year, we do have, uh, the say something anonymous reporting system. This is the system we use to allow uh, both students and staff as well as parents to report any concerns, safety, other tips that they have. Um, throughout this school year, we had 181 tips that came in. Um, I think the important thing to note there is that, you know, this is monitored 24/7. um if it is a life safety tip, something that of concern that that um could be maybe a suicide concern or other issue, they will call us um in the middle of the night so
032that we can deal with it right then. Um and then others times it's just aformational thing that the school can follow up on the next morning. But again, 181 tips means that that system is getting used across all of our schools um and has helped us to certainly ward off um you know, some small issues of concerns to also some larger issues obviously with some safety things. So, we'll continue to implement that as we move into next school year. Um we did receive a school safety grant back in uh February and we've wrapped up the spending on that. Um our vape detector install project is just about complete. We I think we have one more school to wire. So, all of our middle schools and high schools will have those vape detectors in every uh
033restroom next school year. Um we also purchased an additional 10 AED units. Place these at high um high frequency events, I guess. So, middle school and high school. Uh some of our field houses and those things are quite a long way away from the school building. So, we wanted to get an AD AED out there at those sites um for emergency situations. So, we've been able to do that. And as well this school safety grant, we um had a number of elementary schools in that we were able to add what we call a buzz out from the main office. So in order to leave the main office and go into the hallway, um the receptionist has to actually let you out of that door. Some of our newer schools have that. Um our older schools
034weren't necessarily retrofitted with that. So we used some of this money to do that. So now all of our elementary schools have that kind of secure office where you cannot get into the main hallways without being buzzed out by the receptionist. So, we were happy to be able to do that. If you have ridden by Haret Central Middle School in the last few days, you know that the uh summer bus maintenance is ongoing. Uh so, they've staged all the buses there so they can shuttle them back and forth to the garage in order to do the maintenance. Uh part of this summer's maintenance plan also is the camera installation of the new camera systems. So, that is all ongoing uh and should be on track um as we start the new school year. So, we're
035excited about that. From an athletics perspective, this is a dead week. There are two dead weeks in July where no activities are allowed. This is one of those. Um July 30th is the first official day of um fall sports for the high schools. Uh and certainly throughout this time in the summer um our athletic trainers become very key in monitoring heat procedures and monitoring practices and being present at events. And so we we certainly appreciate our athletic trainers and are continue to kind of do some things to try to shore up their positions. We do have one high school still with an opening there that uh we're we're continuing to look for. It's a very competitive field to find those folks. So, but happy to report we three of our four do have full-time certified
036athletic trainers as we're going through this summer. So, unless you have questions for me, that concludes my report. Okay. Other questions for Mr. Pearson? Mr. Pearson, I'm assuming the new conference realignments, uh has that been finalized? is over hills remaining in that conference with Richmond County and Scotland County and yes it does not include Scotland so there were some adjustments um but yes their conference is um Jack Britt Pinerest Richmond County um Hoke County so not Scotland but they do have I think their furthest travel is about an hour and five minutes when I had mapped that out um and so I've been part of a few of those conference planning meetings trying to just have conversations of you It's unique because it it involves four uh counties um or maybe five counties and two
037of them, Richmond and Hoke, only have one high school in their county. So, um it's a little different dynamic, but they are getting that off the ground and seem to have productive conversations. Great. But Triton, uh Western and Central, they're all in the same conference. That's correct. It's Johnson, Hornet, Lee County, and then more Union Pines is part of that. Um and so they are all together in a 6A conference. Okay. So, his travel time shouldn't be too bad. No, it's not too bad. Yep. Okay. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. Okay. Okay. Moving along to curriculum and instruction and Miss Furbish. Good morning, Chairman Pal and members of the board. Uh this is the busy season, but the part that we really love in CNI. We are doing our PD and our planning sessions
038getting ready for the next school year, including um working with teachers, coaches, and principles. We're ordering our resources and materials. We've had our reading research to classroom policy for regular ed and EC teachers PD. We had dual language for our elementary and middle school principles that have dual language programs at their schools on June the 17th and 18th. That was very wellreceived and we're going to provide additional resources and follow up for our principles to continue to grow those programs. Our K5, 68, and 912 instructional coaches have been meeting, working, and planning for next year along with our classroom teachers based on feedback. They're working on the pacing guides, the classroom resources, and progress checks for K through 12 content. We finished up our traditional summer school at all sites with the end of the
039year retesting and summer school. If you remember when we had the retesting at the end of the school year, I said we were a little bit over 600 more proficient scores. When we finished our traditional summer school, we're over um we're at 740 additional proficient scores. And I was going to let Mr. um Matthew share the good news, but for them to count that not only in proficiency and growth is going to be a huge um positive for our schools and for our students. Great. This month we will have worthwhile Wednesdays uh for our principles beginning July 9th. We're excited about this opportunity to support our principles with PD on topics that they have asked for. And we also have some guest pres um presenters coming in. So we know um July will be a
040good month for our administrators. We will begin our reading camp this month. Remember that's for grades first, second, and third. This camp is over a four-week period. It's a total of 12 days and a total of 72 hours. It begins July 9th and ends July 29th. And during reading camp, we will hold at every site our um transitional camp for kindergarten incoming kindergarten students. And that's called um kindergarten splash. That is July 21st through the 24th. And that is always a very positive among our parents and community and teachers as well. We will host our summer trek for AIG students in grades four through 8th the week of July 14th and 17th. And uh this past week I realized that we've been doing this over 30 years in Hornet County and it's still one of
041our most popular summer events. We have a great turnout. Um it's many opportunities and topics for our AIG students. Our team including um some principles and the district team, we have met with Bullseye. continue to work with Bullseye for our walkthrough platform and the reason we enjoy that so much is because it allows us to continue to customize it and principles like to be able to customize the feedback. Um, and the platform allows us to do that and we'll roll out training and resources for all sites on our walkthrough platform. We are also working to update a parents guide to student achievement. As you know, this is a legislative requirement and each year I have to complete a survey, but we have to make sure that they're updated and everything in our parent guide is
042current. So, we will work on that and have that on our website ready to go. We com we are completing middle school planning. Middle schools are now working, Miss Gordon, to put it into the infinite campus. Um, and again, that was a good meeting of our middle school principles and their coaches to do what works best for their sites. And also we want to extend that student opportunity because you know um our CTE opportunities now are backed up to middle school actually to fifth grade. So um we've got some additional career ready labs that we can add. And selected staff from our Golden Leaf Grant um schools will attend the kickoff convening ceremony um conference in Greensboro this month, July 16th and 17th. And that's staff members from Dun Middle and Hornet Central Middle. We're
043very excited over that opportunity. And then after your approval last month, we submitted our AIG plan to the state. And so we are good with that for another three years. And those are my updates unless you have some questions this morning. Any questions for Miss Ferguson. Thank you, Miss Ferguson. Next, we have our human resources update with Miss Thompson. Good morning, Chairman Powell and members of the board. Uh, I bring some good news this morning. I'm very excited about our hiring numbers. This is the first time in a very long time that we have had these numbers. So, last year on June 26, 20 um 24, we had 42 classroom openings. Today, we have 12. Wow. That is wow. Quite the difference um in hiring. Now, as I say, that is subject to change when
044we get things posted again, but that is significant. No, we only have one school that has multiple regular classroom vacancies. So, there's other vacancies, but regular classrooms, only one school has multiple vacancies. So, I'm very proud of the hard work that principles um the RNRs, the work with the international staff, how hard we've worked to hire out of that group. That's just a significant accomplishment I feel like. and our enhancement counselor CTE vacancies. Last year we had 23 vacancies on that day. Today we have 10. That also is in line with that as well. And our EC, last year we had 19. This year we have 16. Not exactly where I would want to be, but better than we were last year. And uh same with our classified vacancies. We had 46 last year and
045we have 36 today. So, I do feel like that a lot of hard work has gone into those hiring numbers and I hope that the new um information that we can share once we get the final numbers on hiring and what the supplement will be will only help us in that final push to close that gap between now and the beginning of school. I do feel like too one thing that helped us hang on till the end. You know, some of you might not remember that we changed the supplement this year and you couldn't get your supplement unless you worked until the end of the year. And I do think that was helpful as well. We did several things um that Mr. Cox helped with that as well. Uh bus driver training is continuing through
046the summer with two drivers trained per week, just to let you know. And we have 18 classified employees who are scheduled to go through the driver training and 21 from and 21 employees from the May class who are working through their DOT physicals and permits. And one thing we haven't really talked about that um Kelly and I spoke about last week, another place that we're losing drivers from, we're hiring TAs to be teachers. So that also is another hole in our process. So just so you know, that's another place. We will work with transportation in the coming weeks to review updated bus routes under the new tiered bus schedule and assign the fixed or permanent drivers to routes. And in the new um bail schedule, we anticipate having a good pool of flex drivers. changing
047that terminology around on the driver end. So, we want to work on that. We are super excited about the renewal of our um teaching fellows grant that helps us um push forward our growing greatness program. We're also excited to welcome 53 new international teachers to Har County at the end of July. A welcome event and full day orientation will be held to prepare them for a successful start start at their school sites. Throughout the summer, we've maintained communication with both EPI and participate teachers to offer guidance and support. Each new teacher has also been paired with uh teacher ambassador. That's a returning international teacher uh that will be assigned at their school that kind of helps bridge the gap who helped mentor them through their first year. And so we look forward to helping them
048transition smoothly and thrive here in Hornet County. And Shelby Kanye has done an outstanding job. Our international teachers rave about that and how much and our principles have talked about the needed support that she offered for those international folks. Remember last time we did talk about that we were implementing a new classified tool that kind of lines up with the way the the language and the uh teacher and the principal evaluation tool. We did train on that at summer leadership. So we're working on um that renewed focus for staff this coming year. A part of that we will do a initial hire. After we hire somebody, they'll work through a hire period and then we'll review them on that document. That's always been something that we could do in the past that we've not really
049taken full advantage of that we plan on using this instrument to do to give people good feedback on where they are when they um after they finish their first I think I think we said 90 days. Did we say 90 days or 60 days? I can't remember. But I'll I'll get back to you on that for sure. We're also redesigning and up updating the employee handbook and this will be ready for BTO and all the new hires for 2526. Our compliance training is also being updated to um reflect changes that are are part of the updated pertinent board of education policies and this is delivered through the safe schools platform and must be completed by all employees. I mean it's not a most people don't enjoy it but it is necessary and that is what
050I have for you unless you have any questions for me this morning. Are there questions for Miss Thompson? Don't have a question Mr. Chairman but I have a comment. I'd like to congratulate you and your team for your recruitment and your hard work bringing those numbers down like you have. It goes to them. So thank you very much Mr. God. Okay. Are there others? Thank you, Miss Thompson. Moving along now to student services update with Mr. White. Chairman Powell and members of the board, good morning. Inside of your board packet, you will find the district release reassignment report through June the 25th, 2025. Here are a few quick updates from student services. The incountry reassignment period for the district reopens on July the 1st, 2025. As a reminder, incount families who were approved for reassignment
051in previous years do not need to reapply again. That reassignment is good through the highest grade at the school. And so, uh, the general period will open tomorrow for families who missed the first round of reassignments, uh, and will be open to all grades K through 12. The application process for the Hornet Virtual Academy will close on July the 16th, 2025. After the window closes, our acceptance week activities will be triggered for families. I'm very excited about this school year for the virtual academy as we will also be integrating some of our own Hornet County Schools teachers into the school to provide some instruction for students and the three programs that we've created. And so, as discussed in previous board meeting, our K5 virtual program is called the Young Achievers. The our 68 program is
052called the Inspired Learners. And our 912 program is called the Future Ready Now Leadership Program. And so we're excited for all three of those and excited to be able to integrate that into the virtual academy for the 2526 school year. We recently reopened enrollment for the fall at the Hornet County Early College. This was done to help boost student enrollment numbers for the program and give families who are just moving into the area an opportunity to formally enroll as well. Dr. Nixon and I met with CCCCC this past Thursday to discuss future plans for the school and feel as if that meeting was a positive step to ensuring that the early college continues to thrive. In a previous board meeting, I mentioned that the district will be moving towards developing a comprehensive school counseling program
053in all schools. The first step was removing school counselors from the classroom teaching rotations at our elementary schools for the 202526 school years. Thank you for the principal. Thank you to the principles for cooperating with that. Step two will include more support for our students. To continue providing the highest level of support for students across all grade levels, Hornet County Schools will conduct a district-wide review of our school counseling programs during the 2526 school year. This initiative, similar to the Cognia model of continuous improvement that's used to accredit our schools, is designed to evaluate and strengthen the delivery of academic, career, and services in alignment with national and state standards. So, our review this school year will focus on three main goals. identifying exemplary practices that can be scaled districtwide, ensuring alignment with the American
054School Counselor Association framework and all North Carolina requirements, and providing actionable recommendations for improvement at the school and district levels. A review team consisting of the director of counseling services, a peer counselor, a school social worker, and potentially another district official will visit each school in the district between September and February. During these visits, the team will gather data through document reviews, staff and student interviews, observations, and stakeholder surveys. Each school level, elementary, middle, and high, will be evaluated according to its unique responsibilities, especially considering that school counselors are not a part of the enhancement rotation now. And so, principles were a bit concerned about what would counselors be doing during this stretch now that they're not in the rotation, they'll be a part of this evaluation process. um as well as the other counselors
055in the district. At the conclusion of each visit, a strength-based report will be generated for school leadership. These reports will include a summary of findings, opportunities for growth, and a recommended action plan with follow-up support from the district. This report can also be used by leadership in their own evaluations as artifacts and so continuing to strengthen what they present to us as senior leadership. This review will not only ensure compliance with best practices, but also elevate our counseling programs as a key driver for student success in the district. And so, we're excited about this process moving forward to make sure um that we do provide a comprehensive school counseling program uh in our district and and become a model for the state of North Carolina. In the fall, Hornet County Schools will be hosting a
056few firsts around the district. We'll be hosting a consolidated daytime, nighttime, district-wide college fair through the Carolina's Association of Collegiate Registars and Admissions Officers at the Hornet County Early College in Dun. There'll be more than 60 colleges on site to receive students that day. Um, and so we're excited about that. Uh, in October um is when that will occur. We'll also be hosting our very first AVID conference for students that are involved in the program. For those that are familiar, AVID stands for advancement via individual determination and currently operates at MS OS. The Hornet Virtual Academy will be added this year, the Hornet County Early College, and Highland Middle School. And so we'll have more information about what that conference will look like and certainly provide you invitations um once that actually occurs. This concludes
057my student support services report for this morning unless there are any questions. Other questions for Mr. White? Mr. White, good morning. Do we have any feedback on the Hazel Health Partnership at this time? Yes, sir. Um and so the Hazel Health Partnership is is working um splendidly. Um we have um over 60 plus referrals in the short time that we've actually implemented the program. Um our big key measure measurement tool is going to be during the summer now that we're out of school. And so we'll have a good update for you um when we come back in August to kind of have um to kind of see exactly how many families are actually utili utilizing that platform. Um and so it'll be um again fully integrated uh in our schools for 25 26 and Hazel
058is also looking at providing um some physical health teleaalth services for us um in the future. And so we're kind of in preliminary discussions about what that may look like in some pilot schools, maybe not for 2526, but for 2627. Um, and your question um, also kind of transitioned me a bit into to Yonder, which I did not mention during my report. Um, but Yonder will be implementing all of our middle and high schools for the 2526 school year. We did meet with Yonder um, last week to be able to discuss some logistics. It's my understanding they'll be shipping those out to our schools within the next two well shipping them to our purchasing department for distribution to our schools um within the next two weeks. Um and we've told our principles under no uncertain
059terms that this must be successful. Um and that they uh need to make sure that they're all coordinated with their efforts so that it doesn't look different at Hornet Central Middle versus Coats Irwin Middle versus Dun Middle and so on and so forth at our high school level. So, um, again, we're excited about that as well. Say 60 referrals in two months is pretty strong. Yes, sir. Absolutely. I mean, so again, the opportunity to be able to do that um from home takes away the negative connotation for a lot of families about therapy and mental health and that sort of thing. And so, I think that's been a game changer for us. Are there others? Thank you, Mr. White. Thank you. Now we'll have our financial services report and Mr. Cox. Thank you, Chairman Pal,
060members of the board. As a followup to Mr. Matthews report, I also want to publicly thank the commissioners for their support of Hornet County Schools and fully funding our request. It was not a small request and they more than stepped up to the plate and I know I speak for each one of you when I say we greatly appreciate uh the commissioner support. We look forward to continued partnership with the commissioners along with county manager Trout, Miss Honeyut, Miss McFad, and Mr. coats on finance side and the rest of the county staff over there. In addition to next year's budget, the commissioners also provided the funding um left by the low shortfall this month. So, another big thank you for them uh filling that gap as well. Our auditors were here last week began their
061compliance work for audit for the year ending June 30th, 2025 today. Um with that said, we are closing out today on the financial side. Well, sort of. Um, our initial year and files are due to DPI by midnight tonight. Um, and then they do give us a small window for corrections um, if needed, depending on how those files post. The last file um, submission to them to truly close out the year on the finance side is July 3rd. It's been difficult year with all the changes to the DPI financial systems and the trickle down effect and changes um that they've made and how we report and submit data. Sometimes what we report does not post exactly how we expect it to and that's been a bit challenging for us. I look forward to having this
062year behind us and hope for a much smoother year next year um with reporting and how things uh post on the DPI side. And that concludes my report unless you have any questions for me. Are there questions for Mr. Cox? Thank you, Mr. Cox. Little technical difficulties here. Okay. Okay. Next, we have our public information office update, and that'd be Miss Frell. Good morning, Chairman Powell, members of the board and community. Welcome. This month has been filled with leadership that showcases success with HCS. School is out, but guess what? District leadership is still on the move um this month. And so on June 11th, summer leadership 2025 took place. Two full days with ideas, collaboration, and forward momentum. This year's theme was inspire, empire, empower, and excel. And that is our goal moving forward to
063the 2025 2026 school year. And thank you all for coming. It was fun. You saw the video. Um, Flatwood Middle School groundbreaking took place. It's been a long time coming, stated Commissioner Barbara McCoy. On Monday, June 23rd, we officially broke ground on our newest school, Flatwood Middle. Um, this exciting project is a multi-million dollar investment in our community, made possible through our partnerships with SLNA, Architects, and Metcon Construction. We want to thank our board of education members, our county commissioners, um, district leadership and community leaders for joining us to celebrate this important milestone. Community, help us pack the bus. So, we are proud to announce our 8th annual pack the bus school supply drive in partnership with First Bank and Trust Company of Virginia in Lillington. We are accepting 12 through kindergarten. Let me say
064kindergarten through 12th grade school supply donations until August 1st. So, help us ensure our students have what they need and they are ready for a successful school year. Every contribution, no matter how big or small, we'll take a pack of pencils um or erasers um makes a difference. And so, the drop off location, if you've seen the yellow bus in Lillington, is at First Bank and Trust Company of Virginia, that is across the street from Wendy's in Lilington. So, please help us spread the word and consider donating. All right, as always, we're hiring. Our numbers are down, but we still need people. So, join us at the Hornet County Schools Career Fair on July 7th from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at 455 McKini Parkway in Lillington. Guess what? We're hiring classified and certified positions
065including teachers, bus drivers, child nutrition, custodians, and teacher assistants. If you have a degree but not licensed, don't worry. Come out and learn about the alternative pathways into teaching. Our free summer meals um program for kids will be closed this week um June 30th through July 3rd, and we will open next week. So, come on out to the select locations there and grab your meal. Well, well, well. Not only are we providing free summer meals, we are proud to announce that all schools in our district are now C schools for the 2025 2026 school year. This means every student will receive free breakfast and lunch. So, parents, no need to worry about if there's money on that lunch account or if you had time to pack a meal or lunch that morning. We've got you
066covered. send your child to school for a healthy meal that they are ready to be fueled with a great year of learning. Chairman Powell and members of the board, this concludes my report. Other questions from Miss Frell? Thank you very much, Miss Frell. Okay, next on the agenda, we have discussion items. And our first item on our agenda is pack the bus. And the chair recognized Miss Sharon Gayy along with Miss Marlene Gonzalez from the uh First Bank of Trust of Virginia. Miss Gayy, thank you. Miss Frell did it so well. I hate to come behind her, but chairman of the board and members of the board, um, Hornet County Schools has been invited to participate in Pack the Buzz with First Bank and Trust of Virginia um, in Lilington, North Carolina. We have here
067today Miss Marleene and Miss Lindsay to talk with us and share a little bit of information about the Pack Bus event. So, we're going to give them a few minutes to talk to us. And I'd like to say Lindsay, some of you probably know her. She's a Hornet County Schools graduate, 2019 graduate of Western Hornet High School. So, she is giving back to the community. So, ladies, take it away. Good morning, everyone. I hope you're all doing well. Um, don't mind me. I when I get nervous, I start talking really fast. So, if so, if you if you see me, just just wink at me. Um, my name is Marlene, like Miss Gayy said, and this is Lindsay. I am the branch manager here at the location in Lillington as well as the location in
068Red Oak that's about an hour and a half away. And Lindsay is one of our relationship bankers at the bank. So when you walk in, I might not be there, but she will be the face that you see almost every time. Um, we are here to discuss a little bit of Pack the Bus. Like Miss Natalie said, she kind of did a great job summarizing it, but it initially started, we're a small bank that started in Virginia. We have about 36 locations and four loan production offices. So, we um are slowly expanding a little bit into now North Carolina and into Virginia and Tennessee. And as we're growing into the community, one of the things that um was brought to our CEO's attention was pack the bus. And that was started in Virginia and recently
069this year it was expanded out to us if we wanted to uh to do it. And of course we did. It's a way to give back to the community that has so graciously given to us. And so we reached out to Miss Gayy um to see we are kind of the third the middle man I would say the middle person in between it. So in the QR code that's listed in the flyers that we're giving out as well as the um banner that's posted out on the bus. It gives a list of all the supplies and donations that we want would like for us as a community to come together. And we know that we've we've done a little bit of community work with some of the schools here. Uh Lillington Shawtown is one of
070the ones that we recently did a community event with. And we noticed how how much the community comes together when it comes to students and and parents and teachers and we just want a little bit of that coming back. And what we're planning on doing is getting as many donations as possible. And one thing that we talked about was not just so much as school supplies, but as well as non-p perishable items. Um, we've it's come to our attention that as grateful as we are to have a plate and a meal every day, not everyone is as fortunate to have that. And so we want to extend that out to everybody, too. the not just school supplies but as well as non-p perishable items. And the way we're handling it is like I mentioned before,
071we're the middle person. So, we're taking it all in from the community and we're giving it all back to you guys. You you know the best way to handle that. Uh what the need is in our county. And so that's where Miss Gamy comes to play. That's why I reached out to her. And like me and her have had several conversations. We feel like the best approach is trying to get it out there the best as possible. Um churches, I've done a little bit of um community engagement with different locations including banks and just trying to spread the word as much as possible. We want to give back to the community in any sort of way possible. Thank you. Do you have any questions for me? Should anyone have a question? Arlene, thank you and
072your staff for being here today and we really appreciate the support that you've given us as well as other um you know groups in the community. You know, First Bank and Trust of Virginia has really been a an excellent community partner and you know, you're one of our community partners with the Coats Fire Department um in Coat. So, we really appreciate you and u thank you for being here. Thank you all for your time. Okay. Thank you very much. Miss Gayy, anything else? We could Okay. Thank you very much. Next, we have consent agenda items. And I'll entertain a motion. Hang on. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Thank you. Uh overlooked that. My apologies, Mr. White. Okay. Next, we have service learning option on diplomas. And that will be Mr. White. Thank you, Chairman Powell.
073Um, and so this morning, what I wanted to present to the board is a proposal that recommends that Hornet County Schools formally adopt a service learning program starting in the 2526 academic year. Uh, modeled after some successful initiatives in larger districts in this state and around the country, the service learning program for Hornet County Schools would connect instruction with meaningful community service to develop future rate graduates who are engaged um, skilled and compassionate. And so what this looks like is um the service learning would be two recognition tiers. Um students would receive a service learning diploma um who if they complete a minimum of 200 hours of approved service learning over four years. Students would earn the distinction of wearing a service learning honor at graduation and receive a sticker on their diploma as we
074do um with other types of certifications and different achievements that our students uh receive. The hours must align with meaningful service learning principles and be submitted by semester deadlines. Um, and then students would also be eligible if they did not meet the requirement to receive the honor to graduation or the sticker. They would receive the service learning distinguish award which would be granted to students who complete 100 to 199 hours of approved service learning. They'd be recognized of course during senior award ceremonies. Um, and then they may be encouraged to start the pathway a little bit later in high school. And so some of the key benefits of that is that we look to boost student engagement and achievement. Our students are doing outstanding things in the community already. Um and so they're they're working
075with initiatives like stuff in the bus. They're working with other initiatives like Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, those sorts of things. And so what this does is kind of formalize that process, allow them to log those hours, and then receive recognition from their school district for the outstanding work that they're doing in the community. Um, it does certainly strengthen leadership skills. It supports career and college readiness. Um, and it also increases community partnerships. And one of the unique things that we may be able to do with this um is strengthen our ties with uh the businesses that are moving to the area, the churches that are already here and the civic organizations that already contribute to what we do um as a school district here. And so again, we're excited about the possibility of doing this
076should you approve. And what implementation looks like is that we use the 2526 school year as a launch year um and pilot it in some select high schools with potential countywide expansion during the second semester or the first semester of 2627. Um I've already spoken with um a few school districts that are already utilizing this type of platform in their diploma services um and they have a different platform that logs hours and and allows students to be able to provide reflections. Um and so we've investigated that over the last two months and are comfortable with the possibility of moving forward with that as well. Um as far as staffing is concerned, we could potentially designate service learning coaches um at each one of the schools, high schools that participate um in this initiative. That may
077be a current staff member. it wouldn't cause us to hire an additional person or anything along those lines, but again, it just kind of supports somebody in the building to be able to help encourage these students to move forward. Um, and then from a community awareness perspective, we begin um outreach and on boarding with local partners and families um this summer and going into the fall of 2025. Um and so again, it definitely supports our mission of preparing responsible contributing citizens and is aligned to our strategic goals and it's just one additional piece to help us move towards being that worldclass excellent school system that Mr. Matthews has charged us with doing um as a school district. And so I wanted to present this for consideration uh to the board this morning. Okay. Are there
078questions for Mr. White? Mr. wide. I think this is a incredible uh opportunity for us and thank you for presenting it to us and considering this is a discussion item I would ask that it be placed on the consent agenda for August 4th. Okay. Thank you. Any other discussion? Thank you, Mr. White. Thank you. Now we'll move along to the consent agenda items and I will entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. Have a motion and a second. Is there additional discussion? Hearing none. The chairman votes I. Abate I. Gainy Ira. Hearing no nay votes. The motion carries. Next we have action items and our first one on the agenda is review and consider approval of budget amendments. Mr. Cox. Thank you, Chair Pal. Uh as
079you have in your packet, you have the amended budget resolution for the fourth quarter as well as changes by program report card. Um, just a summary here, our state public school fund uh is 159,661,894, which is an increase of $317,611. Our local current expense fund is $39,12,23, an increase of $5,715,000. The majority of that is coming from that low wealth hold that we had that the commissioners provided to us. Our federal programs fund is 28,439,43, an increase of $236,918. Our capital outlay fund remains unchanged at 2,547,288. Our child nutrition fund remains unchanged at $12,93,500. Our DI done DUN special district fund remains unchanged at $482,444 and our local restricted expense fund is $18,742,18 an increase of $4,100,580. Total amended budget $260,978,490 which is an increase of 10,370,00 $109 from our third quarter uh budget resolution.
080Happy to take any questions um around that. Any questions for Mr. Cox? If not, I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion to accept the interim budget resolution for school year 2526 as presented by Mr. Cox. That's the We're on item one. Action item one. Review and consider approval of budget amendments. Make a motion to approve these, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. I'll second. Have a motion and a second. Is there additional discussion? Hearing none. The chairman votes I. Abate I. Gany I. God for I. Hearing no nay votes. The motion is approved. Next we have review and consider approval of the interim budget resolution for the fiscal year 2025 2026. Mr. Cox. Thank you. Uh, Chair, Chairman Powell, um, as you know, the state budget hasn't been passed. So, without that,
081which is a majority of our funds, we bring to you the interim budget resolution for fiscal year 202526. Um, that interim resolution states Hart County Board of Education does hereby adopt an interim budget resolution in accordance with North Carolina General Statute 115C-434. This interim resolution authorizes appropriation for usual and customary expenditures not exceed 80% of the school year appropriation. Salary payments are hereby authorized at 2024 2025 levels and may be incremented for all employees in accordance with any state or local approved salary increases. The interim resolution shall become effective July 1, 2025 and remain in effect until formal adoption of a budget resolution for the 20 2025 2026 school year. Mr. Chairman, pursuant to the recommendation of Mr. Cox, I move that we approve the interim budget resolution for FY 2526 as presented. Second. Have
082a motion and we have a second. Is there additional discussion? Chairman votes I. Abate I. Gain I go for I hearing no nay votes. The motion carries. Next we have review and cons consider approval of the 2025 2026 EC related service contracts. Miss Ferguson. Chairman Pal members of the board. Um these are contracts for our related services for our exceptional students. These include things such as hard to fill positions such as um speech therapists, deaf and heart of hearing teachers, OT's and language facilitators. And these are contracts in place for the 2526 school year. I'll entertain a motion. I'll make a motion that we approve the 202526 EC related service contracts as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there additional discussion? Hearing none, the chairman votes I. Abote I. Gainy I.
083I. Hearing. No. Nay votes. The motion is approved. Thank you. Thank you. And we'll be going back to Miss Ferguson now for review and consider approval of the purchase of science instructional materials. Um Chairman Pal, members of the board, these are science textbooks for grades 6 through 8. This is a fiveyear um cost. The total cost reflects about $2548 per student when you break it up. Um, teachers and parent input was included in this adoption process and this is the book that has been selected for 68 science. I will entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to move that we approve the purchase of science instructional materials as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there additional discussion? Chairman votes I. Abate I. Gainy I hearing no nay votes. A motion is
084approved. Thank you. Thank you. The next consideration is for the purchase of Benchmark Express. This will um be used for our EL students and our goal is to align our EL classroom, our English language learner classrooms with our um materials that we're using in the core classrooms K through five. And this is supplemental. It will be purchased through title one. Um, and as you know, that has been a population that has grown in the past couple of years tremendously. And our teachers um would benefit from the use of these materials as well as our students. I will entertain a motion. Motion to approve the purchase of Benchmark Express post access to English as presented. Mr. Chairman, second. We have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Hearing none. The chairman votes I. Abate
085I. Gainy I. I. Hearing. No. Nay votes. The motion carries. Thank you. Thank you Miss Ferguson. Thank you. Now we'll move on to Mr. Pearson and uh for the first one will be review and consider approval of bus planner software agreement. Thank you chairman Pal. Um, you may remember a couple of months back we had to uh approve bus planner for the uh 2425 school year. Um, this is our routing software that we used that had previously been covered by bus patrol. They ceased covering that in July of 2024. So, uh, we approved uh the 2425 school year a few months back and now this is for moving forward with our routing software for the 2526 school year. Mr. Chairman, I'd move that we approve the uh bus planner software agreement as presented. Second. We
086have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Chairman votes I about I gain I hearing no votes. The motion is approved. And next we have review and consider approval of Sovia solutions agreement. Mr. Pearson and again this is a second component of our bus needs. This is our GPS software for our buses. Uh this includes um monitoring of the bus's location, speed, uh stops that were conducted, lights that were turned on as well as um employee clocking in and clocking out. U and so this is a very valuable tool. Also our uh parent app that they can use, you know, here comes the bus or chipmunk as it has been the last few years. This is also our parent communication tool for your bus is uh you know, this many minutes away. Um,
087and that would happen through Sovia. We did put out an RFP for this uh to to try to get the best bid um for the very specific services we need. And Senovia was the one that met the most needs. Okay, Mr. Chairman, I like to move that we approve the uh solutions agreement as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Question for Mr. Pearson. Um, with this software, will parents have to download a new app or will it be will it communicate with Chipmunk or Here comes the bus? Here comes the bus is through Sovia. Okay. So, we had used Sovia in the past. When we went to bus patrol, their GPS was chipmunk. This puts us back on here comes the bus, which I think overall the parent
088interaction was better with. Sure. Yep. And if we can just make sure that gets broadcast sooner rather than later. Yes, that's our goal is day one that we know we're going to post uh post a few how-tos and all that because I think that's a critical tool on a cold morning, a rainy morning, things like that. Absolutely. Thank you. Yep. Are there other questions? Chairman votes I. Abate I. Gay Ira. Hearing no nay votes. The motion is approved. Next, we have review and cons consider approval of the purchase of Bosch three-phase water source heat pumps for the Lafayette year-round school. Mr. Pearson, uh, we bring this project to you. This is a capital project that we're using county capital funds. It does, however, cross the threshold that needs you all's approval. Um, the room layout
089at Lafayette is that each unit controls about three to four classrooms. We have uh nursed it along as best we can and uh kind of robbed parts from unused rooms to keep other rooms going, but it is time to get uh get that full building operational where it needs to be. And so uh this is the recommendation of the maintenance department again because of the threshold and the cost. Uh we need your approval, but this is coming from county capital funds. Mr. Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the purchase of the excuse me of the B three-phase water source heat pumps for Lafayette yearround school as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Hearing none. The chairman votes I. Abate I. Gy I hearing no votes. The motion
090carries. And next we have review and consider approval of the contract for upgrading the building automation system at Over Hills High School. Mr. Pearson. Thank you, Chairman Pal, members of the board. Again, this is coming from county capital funds. Believe it or not, even though Over Hills is our newest high school, uh the building automation controls, so this controls the heat in the air. um you know allows us to monitor the heat in the air from the office as well as you know essentially all the thermostats in the classroom are out of date even though that building is only about 20 years old. Uh and they no longer make the parts and the components for um for the system that is there. And so this has been a project that's been on our CIP plan
091for a number of years. Uh again RFP was put out. We had a couple of bids, couple of companies that did a walkthrough and then only one that came back after that walkthrough. And so this is our recommendation for this needed upgrade. Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the uh contract for upgrading the building automation system at Over Hills High School as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there additional discussion? Hearing none. Chairman votes I. Abate I. Ky I hearing no votes. The motion is approved. Thank you Mr. Pearson. Next, we have review and consider approval of board members pay increase to align with the approved board of commissioners pay increase. Mr. Matthews. Uh, Chairman Pal, members of the board, I I ask uh, Miss Johnson to put this on
092the agenda for your consideration in that one of the other things that uh, was approved in the county's adopted budget uh, was the uh, increase in the maximum compensation levels allowed for your service on the Hornet County Board of Education. And uh, so that's what this is about. I know some of you had some questions about that and I'm going to punt that over to Mr. Cox to explain in any further detail or answer any questions you may have. I don't have much other information to share other than as Mr. Matthews mentioned each year as part of the county budget. They do list out uh the um maximum comp compensation levels for the board of education. It is up to you to to set that to determine if you want to change what your compensation
093is. They do have the maximum levels and with the board uh with the commissioners just approving their budget. Those new amounts are out there in their budget and uh so now it's uh open for your discussion if you want to go up to those levels, change compensation. Happy to answer any questions around that from the board. I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Chair, make a motion to approve board members pay increase to align with the approval of the board of commissioners. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion or questions for Mr. Cox? Let's say in in my conversations with um I believe she's assistant county manager for budgets now, Miss Lisa McFaden. In talking to her about the budget as a whole, she had indicated that the uh salaries that were
094being increased with the commissioners also applied for the board of education. Um and while well none of us up here asked for it, will graciously accept it. Are there other questions or comments? I don't have a question, but I'll just interject that uh any kind of increase on the minimum amount that you receive for your service uh is going to be minimal, but I know it is appreciated. So, any others? Chairman votes I I gain I for I hear no votes. The motion is approved. I will entertain a motion. Mr. Mr. Chairman, I move that we go into close session pursuant to general statute 143, 318,11, A1, A3, and A6 to pre prevent the disclosure of confidential personnel files under GS115C 321 to consider matters relating to initial employment of an individual employee and to
095consult with the board's attorney in order to preserve the attorney client privilege. We have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Chairman votes I. Abato say I. hearing. No nay votes. The motion is approved. We're now in close session. Following a motion and a second, we're now back in open session and we'll move now to action from close session and uh Mr. Matthews. Thank you, Chairman Pal. Members of the board, uh I would recommend approval of the personnel actions as presented in close session to include teacher contracts and director contracts. Do we need to name those directors individually? I can do that if you'd like. Can we do the teachers maybe separate because two different parts? Okay. Uh let me uh amend that to recommend a motion to uh for personnel actions as
096presented in close session to include teacher contracts. Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve teacher contracts as presented in close session. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Hearing none. Chairman votes I. Abate I. Gay I. I. Hearing none. Nay votes. The motion is approved. And then Mr. Chair, I would um recommend approval of personal personnel actions as presented in close session uh regarding director contracts. High school director Mr. Ryan McNeel, middle school director, Mr. Steven Murphy, federal programs director Mr. Ashley Porter. Mr. Chairman, pursuant to the recommendation of Mr. Matthews, I move to approve the director contracts as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Hearing none, the chairman votes I. Abate I. Gaining. No. Mr. Ger I. The motion is approved by
097vote of 4 to one. Anything else, Mr. Matthews? That's it, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Okay. Anything else from the board? If not, I'll entertain a motion. Make a motion to adjourn, Mr. Chair. Second. Have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. Please. I. We are ajourned. Thank you.