001[Music] The June meeting of the Haret County Board of Education is now in order. Good evening. So good to see each of you tonight. Thank you so much for coming to be with us this evening. Uh if everyone would please stand for our invocation and our pledge. And I'd like to ask uh Mr. Don Goffrey if he'd lead us in prayer please. You will join me in prayer. Our gracious God and heavenly father, we thank you Lord for the privilege of being here tonight. Lord, we pray that we would do your business, Lord, for the best part of Hornet County Schools, staff and students. Lord, we thank you for all of them being here with us tonight, Lord, for the awards, Father. We thank you for the dedication and the service that they give to
002our children in Hornet County, Lord. And we pray the things that the board would do would be for the best, Lord. We just thank you for a beautiful day today, Lord. just be with us, guide us and direct us and keep us safe, carry us home safely tonight. Bless everyone that's here. Father, for the such things we ask in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Mr. God. Friend. Now, I'd like to ask Mr. John Hair if he'd lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Pledge algiance 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. Mr. Chairman, I move that we uh amend the published agenda by removing item seven,
003which is school board policy update from the consent agenda. Okay. Second. Have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Chairman votes I. Abate I. Gainy I. Josh. Hearing no votes. The motion is approved. Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the agenda as amended. like have a motion and I have a second. Is there further discussion? Hearing none, the chairman votes I. Abantate. I gain I hearing a votes. The motion is approved and the agenda is approved as amended. Right. We have several special presentations tonight. Our first one is the Hornet County Purple Star District Award. And this will be our assistant superintendent, Mr. Germaine White, and Mr. Howard Latimore. the uh Department of Public Construction military consultant. Mr. White, Chairman Powell, members of the board, thank you so much. Uh we are
004honored this evening to have Mr. Howard Latimore, who is our North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Military Consultant with us this evening to do a special presentation to the district. Good evening. Good evening. All right. Thank you for having me here this evening. I am uh Mr. How a lot more. I'm the state military consultant out of Raleigh and I bring greetings from state superintendent Mo Green. In 2019, during the 2019 2020 school year, the Department of Public Instruction launched the Purple Star designation. That year, we awarded 132 schools. This past month, we awarded 453 schools. I think that that's a round of applause for North Carolina. Okay. During that time frame, during the 2019 2020 school year, Hunter County Schools were the only school district where all of their schools were awarded. And six
005years later, six years later, all six consecutive years, Hornet County schools have still had all of their schools each year become purple star designated schools. With the hard work of Mr. Mr. White and his design and the and you your superintendents here in Het County. Honet County is now considered a legacy a legacy the first legacy school district for the purple star award. Okay. And I would like to bring the board chair, superintendent Matthews, Mr. White, and Nat. Is Natley here? My clerky Natalie. Is she here? Yeah. Yeah. Y'all coach. All right. And to accept this award. And I Let's give them a round of applause of the hard work they've been doing. And and this is taking care of our military connected students and everything like that. This this taking care of our military
006connected students. And all school districts are not doing the great work that they're doing here in Hanet County Schools. And we have to come down here. I have to come down here and say thank you. And Superintendent Matthews, welcome. And I know we have a great relationship and we're going to continue to do the great work. come in front. Sorry. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Latimore. We greatly appreciate you coming to be with us tonight. And that is something we're proud of, that legacy. Okay. It's a great legacy for us to be proud of and just hope that'll encourage other systems in the state to uh try to copy us on that. So, thank you very much. Next, we have our 25-year service resolution and that would be Miss Thompson, Chairman Pal, and members of the
007board. Um, many of you attended our May 12th 25 year celebration over at Gentry where we honored our 25year recipients. But tonight, it's my honor to be able to read the resolution of commendation for those 25-y year recipients into the official minutes of the June meeting. We typically do that at the school board meetings, but we had so many this year that we would not fit in this room in this facility to be able to honor them. So, we had a se separate um reception for them. Whereas the Hick County Board of Education takes pride in the achievements of its staff members. And whereas the Harnet County Board of Education believes that it is significant and noteworthy when members of staff serve in the noble task of education for a substantial portion of their professional
008life. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Hornet County Board of Education does herein pay honor and tribute to all of the 25-year recipients upon completion of 25 years of service in the education of our youth. And be it further resolved that the record of this commendation by the Hornet County Board of Education be permanently recorded in the official minutes of the board. This is the second day of June 2025. Lillington, North Carolina, Haretick County Board of Education. Joseph W. Powell, Chairman W. Brooks Matthews, Secretary. Thank you, Miss Thompson. And a special thank you to each of the persons that are being recognized 25 years. That is a great accomplishment and particularly in this day and age when we have a more transit society and people don't like during our time and some of us
009older than me you know pretty much stuck with one job or one or two and just having somebody say was 25 years that's just a great distinction and a great honor so we thank you for your service we're going back to Miss Thompson now for our bus driver perfect attendance recognition chair pals and members of the board this is a significant honor because these drivers have driven every day this year and they've been there during tough weather, feeling bad, difficult circumstances. They've been a constant in the lives of our boys and girls in this district. And for that, I am truly grateful because here, as you well know, bus drivers are not in abundance. Uh because we have a difficult time getting our bus drivers trained, not because we don't have enough drivers, but because
010we have a difficult time getting them trained. And so I am eternally thankful for the hard work they do each and every day to get the students here safely and home each day safely. And they take care of our most trusted possessions. And at this time I want to call up the director of transportation, Mr. Uriah Parker and Kelly Fry. And I was trying to think of a word for Kelly because her job is very encompassing, but she does a lot of coordinating and work with the drivers as far as scheduling and and that kind of stuff. So Kelly will assist him in calling the name. So they can come forward at this time. [Music] Okay. You can call you the name. Um first we have Miss Tracy O'Quinn. She drives for Anderson Creek and
011South Hornet Primary. [Applause] We should have pressed them, I guess. Next, we have Miss Tamara Cell. She also drives for Anderson Creek and South Hornet [Applause] Elementary. Next we have Saran Price. She drives for Andrew Elementary and North Hornet Primary. Uh, next we have um Tanisha Holmes. She drives for Coat Irwin Elementary, but I'm not sure that she is here tonight. And then we have Miss Mary Smith from uh she drives her Dun Elementary and I'm not sure if she's here. Yeah. Yay for both. Next we have Mr. Paul Starling. He drives for Dun Elementary. [Applause] Next we have Mr. Benjamin Ronza. He drives for Irwin [Applause] Elementary. Next we have Miss Kesha Campbell. She drives for Haret Central Middle. Next we have Miss Mon'nique Warren Kle. She also drives for Hornet Central [Applause] Middle.
012Next we have Miss Melinda Vandergriff. She also drives for Hornet Central Middle. We have Amy Herp. She Oh, she drives for the early college, but I'm not sure that she's here. Yeah. And we have Miss Rebecca Adams. She also drives for the early college. [Applause] Next we have Olivia Otto Marino. She drops for Lilington Shawtown, but I don't think she is here tonight. Next we have Mr. Leonzo Edwards. He drives for Lilington Shawtown Elementary. Next we have Miss Judith Krueger. She drives for Northwest Hornet [Applause] Elementary. Next we have Miss Sheree Hernandez. She drives for Over Hills Elementary. [Applause] Next we have Miss Desiree McCormack. She also drives for Over Hills Elementary. [Music] Next we have Miss Elizabeth Layman. She drives for Over Hills High School. [Music] [Applause] Next we have Mr. James Mlan. He
013drives for Triton High School. And last but not least, we have Miss Melissa Parton. She drives for Western Hornet High School. That's the end of our recognition tonight. We can all gather outside. Take a picture here. And again, thank you very much. [Music] See, memory seat. Right. Next, we have the pacing guide development staff. That will be Miss Ferguson and assist assisted by Miss Tyson, Mr. Mace and Miss Church. So, Miss Ferguson. Uh, good evening, Chairman Powell, members of the board. Tonight, we are proud to recognize a dedicated group of Hornet County educators who have spent the past year developing high quality pacing guides, common formative assessments, and instructional resources. Their commitment to collaboration and and excellence has resulted in tools that support effective teaching and promote student success across our district. We thank them
014for their hard work and lasting contributions to our schools. I have asked the district leadership to call out their names and Mr. Matthews, if you'll join us and shake their hands and take their pictures. Um, you're looking at the best of the best. Uh, they have worked very hard this year. The entire group is not here, but um, we sincerely thank you for everything you have done for our students. We'll start with the K5 group. Amber [Applause] Anderson, Dusty Bingham, [Applause] Anna [Applause] Coats, Tanya Davenport, [Applause] Susan [Applause] Sorlles, Caroline Wilson, [Applause] Thank you for being an extraordinary group of ladies. You do a wonderful job. Good evening. And now for the middle school teachers that helped us this year and drove our pacing guides. Uh first is Miss Andrea [Applause] Abbate. Mrs. Ker Edwards.
015[Applause] Okay. All right. Some of these are not here. I'll go ahead and read these in order. Um, Miss Ashley Arnold, Mr. Billy Booth, Mr. Rodrik Boat Knight, Miss Megan Floyd, Elizabeth Graine, Kirsty Harkham, Rachel Henosa, Mr. Justin [Applause] Josie, Mrs. Kimberly [Applause] Josie, Mrs. Melissa Lacader, Miss Morgan Ludiger, Miss Jennifer [Applause] Mayor, Miss Brittany McNamera, Miss Francis McNeel, Miss Margaret McNeel, Miss Maria [Applause] Pakiag, Miss Karen Peterson, Miss Karen Rhodess, Katherine Schwayel, Miss Dana [Applause] Sherman, Miss Laura Spielman, Miss Danielle Stury, [Applause] And then the remainder, Heather Taylor, Lisa Ton, Cameron Turlington, Megan Walton, and Wendy White. Let's give these a round of applause. Thank [Applause] you. My shoulder. Okay, I'm going to read the 912 teachers that helped with pacing guides this year. Jaclyn Alfen, [Applause] Jose Eric Bong, thank you. Heather [Applause]
016Barker. We have quite a few who couldn't be here tonight, but we'll make sure they get their plaques. Jessica Betts, Colton Copelan, Joe Easley, Tony Frinsky, Jennifer Fuller, Shannon Godfrey, Samantha Grimes, Anthony Harrant, Traven Hazelig, Carrie Johnson, Stephanie Jordan, [Applause] Megan [Applause] Kelly, Brena Kudson, [Applause] Elizabeth Lewis. We We have hers. We have hers. Ashley Moore, Norma O'Quinn, [Applause] Ellen Rose, [Applause] Patricia Schaefer. I think she's here. Sandra Skipper, and Daikica Watson. Thank you. and Chairman Pal, I'd just like to also thank uh Mr. Mace and Miss Tyson and Mrs. Church for leading this group. And several couldn't make it tonight because of ball games and family engagements, but again, thank you so much for the work. Thank you, Miss Ferguson. Thank you for all your hard work for this very important project. Thank you.
017Next on the agenda is public comment, but we didn't have anyone to sign up, so we will not have that tonight. So, moving along, our next item on the agenda is our superintendent update, and that is Mr. Matthews. Thank you, Chairman Powell. Members of the board, I do want to begin by thanking those of you who were able to attend some of the uh many year end events that we had for the last uh six weeks or so. Uh we typically uh enjoyed celebrating it end of the school year. Uh last the last week of school for students was week before last. Uh we were had a full last day of school which is a little bit unusual. Uh but since we were testing throughout the day uh we did uh did not have an
018early release and of course uh was a little bit uh curious to see how the bus return was going to go that day. But uh thanks to Mr. Pearson, Mr. Parker and and and all the transportation folks uh everything went really well. The buses got back uh uh really early, I thought, and everything was fine. And so uh I really appreciate all their efforts to make all that come to fruition in a in a very positive manner. Uh the last week of school for our teachers and 10-month employees was last week. Uh Friday was an optional uh work day and of course we uh celebrated graduations last week with our uh graduating seniors. We kick the uh graduation events off on Tuesday morning with our early college uh followed by star and virtual academy after
019that. On Wednesday, we celebrated with over hillsills and western haret high school and on Thursday with Haret Central High School in Triton and uh enjoyed all of those festivities and all the excitement that uh went along with that with uh parents and families and friends uh celebrating with their graduates. Today we uh began our summer school and our summer working hours. Uh during the summer we will work for 10-hour days Monday through Friday until the week of August 4th when we'll go back to a regular 5day 8 hour a day schedule. Uh would also like to uh uh celebrate with you Miss Don Young who has been accepted to participate in the North Carolina Principal and Assistant Principles Association Early Career Principlesa Academy which will go on throughout uh the next begin this summer and
020go on throughout the next school year. Um basically u one meeting every month or two. Um, and I would just close by uh uh congratulating Mr. Abate who'll be celebrating a birthday I believe this month uh this week I guess the 6th of June which would uh will be a birthday for him. So happy birthday to you and uh unless uh y'all have some specific questions for me uh that concludes my report Mr. Chair. Are there questions for Mr. Matthews? Thank you. Next we'll have our auxiliary services update and that is Mr. Pearson. Thank you Chairman Pal, members of the board. Um biggest update I want to provide to you is that uh beginning today we began our summer uh meal program. So we are offering free meals to any student age any child age
0211 through 18. They do not have to be a Hornet County School student. Offering that at four local community centers um Boone Trail Community Center, Anderson Creek Community Park, Jack Marley Park, and Irwin Park. And that runs each day from approximately 11:15 u for about an hour or so. Um we have the details of that on our website, but certainly want to get get the word out there into the community and so we'll be doing some of that. Have already done some Facebook post and whatnot. Um but really proud to be able to provide that for the community throughout the summer. Um and I think uh participation continues to increase. This is about our third year in doing that. So excited about that and thank Miss Brown and her staff for putting that together. Um,
022believe it or not, the preparations for open house next school year have already begun and that is the summer cleaning plan that custodians have been given. Uh, floors and uh, other projects that are happening. So, that is off to a start, a great start. There was a head custodian meeting today to make sure they're lined up and ready for that as we we you know, these seven, eight weeks we have until kids are back in the building um, are very valuable to that team and they're looking forward to uh, making our school shine again. So, we thank them for that hard work. Um, you'll receive an invite on this from Miss Pharaoh shortly, but we do have groundbreaking ceremony for Flatwood scheduled for June 23rd. Um, so watch your inbox for that invite. I believe
023it's a 9:00 a.m. Um, and so we'll set up a formal groundbreaking out there at the site. Dirt is being moved out there. Um, and so we'll get uh we'll get out there and get a groundbreaking before they start putting up foundations and those kind of things. Prep work's happening now. Construction continuing at Lillington Shawtown. They are still on target for their completion day of December 2nd. Um Mr. Johnson is meeting with them every couple of weeks to try to keep them on track for that. So, we're still looking good there. Um athletics wrapped up uh the end of the year pretty much coincided the week right before school got out. A lot of success from various teams. Um Triton and Over Hills girls soccer both made the playoffs. Haret Central Over Hills and Triton
024baseball made the playoffs with Triton advancing to the third round. Um, we had a ver a variety of regional qualifiers and state qualifiers for track at different schools. And certainly congratulations again to Kevin Spearies. You may recognized him for the indoor triple jump state championship. He repeated as the outdoor triple jump state champion um for the 3A division. So, congratulations to Kevin as a two-time state champion this year. That's a great accomplishment for him. He graduated from Haret Central last Thursday. Uh, lastly for me, kind of a unique component of the update. You will see in the uh consent agenda approval of a field trip for Over Hills JOTC and their military summer camp. Want to bring this to your attention because we are still not 100% sure on the charter bus company because that
025is provided by cadet command and they are still letting them know who that's going to be. We have provided the charter but bus list to cadet command. We will make sure we have uh insurance verification, do the bus inspection as we normally would, but just want to uh kind of be upfront with you all that we don't 100% know that charter bus company yet. And when you guys are approving that field trip, just want you to know that. Unless you have questions for me, that concludes my update. Are there questions for Mr. Pearson? Thank you, Mr. Pearson. Moving along, we have curriculum and instruction, and that is Miss Ferguson. Chairman Pal, members of the board, we have wrapped up our endofear testing in grades 3 through 12. Our end of year testing includes EOGs in
026grades 3 through 8, EOCC's in grades 912, and CTE in grades 912. The preliminary data is looking positive and we're very optimistic. Um, I want to give a shout out to our school testing coordinators and our district testing team. These groups did a phenomenal job during testing. We had a very smooth testing season because of their hard work. As you know, this year the state allowed us to remediate and retest students during the school year. Our schools did a fabulous job with this quick turnaround. And in our retesting, an additional 631 proficiency scores were made. That is huge. So, we're very um thankful for the schools for their work on that. Lafayette year round is remediating and retesting this week. because you know they're a little bit behind in their schedule compared to the traditional.
027The reporting of test scores will be somewhat delayed this year. Um August 7th, the state board of education, they approved the science assessment standard setting. As you know, we have new standards. August 12th is when we should expect our science test scores. And then it'll be August the 27th before they provide preliminary embargoed audit files to us. as far as school performance grades and schools school designations. So, um just to let you know, it'll be a little bit later this year. And earlier in the year, we talked about our concerns with the science test and uh shared the information about the standard setting and the new test. So, we'll keep you updated on that. Our focus on walkthroughs and feedback, they continue right up to the end of the school year. The top five administrators
028for walkth through completion this year are Johnson Ele Johnsonville Elementary School, Triton High School, Hornet Central Middle School, Highland Middle School, and Dun Elementary School. I also want to give a shout out to our instructional coaches this year who have done a great job of completing walkthroughs. Their purpose is different than the principal. The principal's there, you know, think about evaluative, sharing concerns, expectations. the instructional coach's job is there providing support and feedback. And our coaches did a great job this year. And I wanted to shout out our top finishers there. Uh Mrs. Anne Fenel at Triton High School, Mrs. Alena Willilifford at Coach Irwin Middle School, and Miss Alicia Ferguson, no relation, at Western Hornet High School. Miss Ferguson completed 601 walkthroughs this year, which is amazing. PD continued this month. we had those
029um extra days at the end of their year this year and we took advantage of those. On May the 28th there was a math PD for our sixth grade teachers and the feedback was very good. Uh the May on May 29th we had dyslexia training. May 30th another middle school math PD and today reading research began um PD began. We also have several opportunities throughout the summer for PD. As you know, traditional summer school started today and runs through June the 6th. Traditional summer school at Lafayette year round will be June 16th through the 20th. Reading camp for our primary one, grades 1 through 3 will be July 9th through the 29th. That's Monday through Thursday from 8 to 3. Summer Trek for our grades four through 8 will be July 14th from 8 until
0301 at Western Hornet Middle School. And then of course we have our incoming kindergarten students, our summer splash July the 21st through the 24th at all sites with kindergarten. And that's from 8 to 12 each day. We received great news this morning that on on Friday between 1:15 and 1:45, Book Harvest is delivering 1,000 free books that we can distribute to our students in our summer program. So we want to thank them for that. And those are the updates that I have for you tonight, unless you have questions. Are the questions for Miss Ferguson? Okay. Thank you, Miss Ferguson. Next on our agenda is the human resources update and that is Miss Thompson. Good evening, Chairman Powell and me members of the board. Uh I bring some good news tonight. I'm excited. I'm going to
031start back with my monthly uh updates on hiring here in the district. And we are in a significantly better place than we were last year at this time as far as classroom hires go. Last year on June the 4th, 2024, we had 41 vacancies. And today, and I think we have a few lists, Miss Taylor, I just remembered one, so I marked one more off the list. We only have 19 classroom vacancies. So for me, that is very significant. and the hard work of the schools and principles and the RNRs is really paying off. So, we're really proud of those numbers. Uh that is the same for enhancement teachers. Last year we were at 21. Today we're at 14. And our EC and our um we have 21 there and 40 classified. And that's kind
032of in line with where we've been in the past. So, um we still are we're working on that as we go. So, there's some good news there certainly. her. The RNRs hosted a uh TA to teacher information session on May 27th. We had multiple EPS or or colleges there and some there are some other folks that provide teacher um leadership instruction that were in attendance and so we had 29 registered folks to attend that and the feedback was very positive. We also use that as an opportunity to talk about our TA to uh teacher program that's involving with that's capitalizing on EC position. So we worked um with folks there that day as well. On June 5th, the RNR's hosted an aspiring teacher leaders u mini conference at Gentry and the key role here is
033that we hope to have some um skill learning that helps teachers that want to transition into leadership roles in the future. We're excited to share that we have 44 international candidates that have been hired in place for the upcoming school year. 37 of those were personally screened by the RNR staff. So many of these folks have been double screened. So we have great hopes for them. We are uh committed to providing the best support for them in the upcoming year. Each first new international teacher will be paired with a designated teacher ambassador at their school who will serve as a mentor and provide ongoing training and support for them throughout the year. Tonight, we did honor our bus drivers with perfect attendance and we're so proud and thankful for them. Bus driver training will continue
034through the summer. And remember, it's a kind of a slow process because we train two people a week. So, it's a steady but sure process that we're going through. We have 21 employees here waiting to go through driver training. We had a we had a bus class last week and the number has changed from 17 and I didn't write the new number down but I'll tell you but uh so employees are working to pass their DOT fiscals and get their permits over the summer. We're going to hold a national board certification interest meeting on June 3rd for interesting interested um educators who want to pursue their certification during the upcoming school year. They get detailed information, calls, clarifications about the process. We're holding it virtually to accommodate schedules, one at nine and one three. Both
035will cover the same information and already 60 educators have signed up. So, we're excited about that. Our growing greatness program will kick off on Monday, June 9th, and we look forward to working with these future teachers this summer. So, if you want to stop by and see them, let me know and I'll try to arrange that. We're especially excited about this. On May the 8th, eight faculty members from North Carolina State University School of Education toured four of our school sites to host six transformational scholars for their student teaching next year. We are one of the counties that can participate in this program. They have to teach in a in a district such as ours to complete the program. So potentially these students can be placed at Andrew Northwest Hornet, Haret Central Middle, or Hornet
036Central High School. they were able to look at several classrooms and we're um very excited about hosting these students because they have to work here as I said for their new teacher pipeline program. So, we're very excited. We've also processed nearly 500 one-year contracts and 756 two-year contracts for the next school year based on approvals at the last board meeting. And we are busy onboarding for the 2526 school year. As you know, we worked really hard on our nieces evaluations to make that process better and it was so it was very much improved this year. We were most folks were current with timelines and provided meaningful feedback early and often which is our was our goal. So, we're super appreciative of the efforts of all of our principles and all the directors that help with
037this and we're looking for forward to continuing to streamline this process for the 2526 school year. We are implementing a new classified um evaluation tool. We've had the old one for quite some time. This one is in line with the other um some of the same guidelines and expectations that are involved with the other except this um language on this tool aligns with the NIC's language. So it's the same language that classified and certified will be using and so we're hope we are working on that for the summer. As you know that there is a plan for summer leadership for our principles to work on the niec's evaluation instrument. So they'll have training on that and training on this at the summer at summer leadership. And that's all I have unless you have any questions
038for me. Other questions for Miss Thompson? Thank you. Next we have our student services update with Mr. White. Thank you, Chairman Powell and members of the board. Inside of your board packet, you will find the Star Academy report and the district release reassignment report through May the 27th, 2025. Mr. Matthews mentioned earlier, last week's graduations were very successful. I'd like to recognize the coordinators who made that happen. Mrs. Jasmine Hill at the Hornet County Early College, Mrs. Betty Strickland at Star and Hornet Virtual Academy, Mrs. Corey Morris at OS, Mrs. Cassidy Haver at WHHHS, Mrs. Angela Buouie at Hornet Central High School and the dean of that group, Mrs. Anne Fenel at Triton High School. They all do an amazing job to coordinate graduations across the district and we appreciate their service. Here are a
039few quick updates from student services. I'd like to first publicly congratulate um Mrs. Teacher O'Neal who's our high school counselor of the year, Mrs. Lannne Jones, who was our middle school counselor of the year, and Mrs. Caitlyn Peterson, who's our elementary school counselor of the year. Our school social worker of the year was Mrs. is Wendy Whittington and our school nurse of the year was Mrs. Geneive Finn. All these professionals did an outstanding job for our school district this past year. Uh and excited to be able to honor them on this evening. In May, student services named our first honorary school social worker. Mr. Raymond Murphy, who serves as a custodian here at Central Services, was named our first honorary school social worker. He's done a lot of work behind the scenes for students at
040Star Academy in collaboration with the staff there and we rewarded his efforts with this special designation last month. And so um if he whenever he's on the break, whenever he's around, he's down there kind of helping lift things, do things, and really after hours um at the um services that they had for our McKenna Vento homeless students, foster students or whatever, he was there serving meals and greeting parents. And so we honored him with that designation last month. The incountry reassignment period for the district reopens on July the 1st, 2025. As a reminder, incounty families who were approved for reassignment in previous years do not need to reapply again. That reassignment is good through the highest grade at their child's school. And so again, July 1st is that date and we'll get those approved at
041the school level as quickly as we can for our parents in the community. Finally, the Hornet Virtual Academy uh application remains open through July the 16th, 2025. We have two more parent sessions to go before our big acceptance week. Those dates are June the 11th, 2025 and June July the 16th, 2025. And we'll have those virtual meetings with parents. Once again, this concludes my student support services report for this evening unless there are any questions. Other questions for Mr. White? Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have our financial services report with Mr. Cox. Thank you, Chair Pal, members of the board and finance. We continue to work on summer setup for those employees who are working to approve summer programs that have not started yet. June is also the second uh installment of our teacher
042supplements and payroll is working on getting those ready to process for June payroll. Continuing, we're also continuing with our year-end cleanup and close out. working to get our outstanding purchase order closed to help facilitate that close out process as well as other payroll related items uh getting ready for year-end processing. Although our auditors are not currently on site, technically our audit for the year ending June 30th, 2025 has begun as our auditors have already started requesting data and documents to begin their work. Um we're also working on next year's budget and as you know we lost a portion of our lowwealth funding this year although there's no state budget um in place at this time. Both the Senate and the House have released their respective chamber budgets. The Senate budget directs DPI to propose a
043new low formula but does not change the formula itself. um that they're asking DPI to change the formula prevent prevent the large swings, the unexpected highs and unexpected lows of the formula. Um and then in the House budget, they direct DPI to fund districts at the 2425 level. Um we would stay at the $5.7 million in the hole that we are for the next two years while allowing those districts that had unexpected huge increases to keep those large increases uh for the next two years. Um, as you know, the Senate and House now have to conference to come up with a state budget. So, there's still time to reach out to our legislators to work on a fix for 2526 if you uh feel led to do so. And I'm happy to have conversations um
044with you on my recommendation, what we would like um if if you're interested in that. Um that concludes my report unless you have any questions for me. Other questions for Mr. Cox? I don't have a question, but I have a comment. Uh, based on the commissioner's meeting this morning. Um, it's it was a very encouraging meeting and um kind of hard for me to do this right now, but I'm going to have to give Commissioner Jaggers uh a uh a pat on the back because he's really uh going to bat for Hornet County Schools and it's looking like um you know, I don't want to say it's going to happen. Obviously, we don't know, but it's very encouraging that we're going to get our funding that we requested to increase our supplements. So, I'm looking
045forward to that. Thank you. Are there any others? Thank you, Mr. Cox. Moving along now to our public information office update and that is Miss Frell. Chairman Powell, members of the board and community, good evening. Um, this school year has been filled with achievements and success with HCS. In May, we acknowledge Mental Health Awareness Month as Hornet County Schools expands mental health services for all students. Hornet County Schools kicked off mental health awareness month with a bang. We are proud to announce a new partnership with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and Hazel Health that provides free virtual mental health care services to all of our students during this school year and beyond. Um, Hornet County Schools is among the first districts in North Carolina to launch this service as part of
046a broader initiative supported by an investment from the United Healthcare. This new support gives students access to licensed therapists at school and at home, ensuring every child has the opportunity to thrive emotionally and academically. School nurse day is ma was May 7th and we are grateful for the compassionate care, calm reassurance and unwavering dedication of our student of our school nurses and that what they provide to our students. Our health heroes are ready to help every child every day. Thank you for being the heart, skill, and care that you bring to our students. Welcome to Hornet County Schools. Hornet County Schools had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Elena Ashburn, who serves as the senior advisor for education policy to our governor, Josh Stein, on a school tour at Northwest Hornet Elementary School. Dr. Ashburn's visit
047is a part of her visiting school districts in North Carolina, meeting our hardworking educators and listening to their success and challenges in the field of education. Of course, our superintendent shared his concerns and um great successes as well and hopefully his feedback will make a difference in our great state. And there's no stopping us now. Hornet County Schools is on a move. We are proud to be recognized with the Purple Star Legacy Award. Hornet County Schools is proud to be the only school district in North Carolina to receive the state superintendence district purple star award for six consecutive years and the first to receive the legacy award. Special thanks to the Hornet Central High School JOTC for presenting the colors and the student speakers for sharing their experiences during the ceremony. Happy school lunch hero
048day. We celebrated on May 2nd um the incredible team behind every tray, every smile and nourishing meal served in our cafeteria. Our food service staff does more than prepare foods. They create warm, welcoming environments where every student feels seen and supported. And speaking of our heroes, free summer meals for kids this summer. School's out, but healthy meals are still in. We are serving free meals to all children and teens. No registration, no ID, just show up and eat. Children ages 1 through 18 must be present to receive a meal. And meals do not have to be consumed on the site this summer. You can find the locations on the screen here, as well as our website and social media pages. Happy retirement as we honor and celebrate our incredible retirees for their years of dedicated
049service to Hornet County Schools. Their commitment has shaped countless lives and left lasting legacies in our classroom hallways and in the hearts of all that they have touched and graduation. Last week we proudly celebrated the achievements of the class of 2025 across our high schools. From tassel turns to proud cheers, it was a week to remember and our students are leaving their mark. Major shout out to our graduation coordinators and Mr. Germaine White for coordinating our graduation ceremonies. Hornet County Schools had a total of 1,596 graduates who collectively earned $24.7 million in scholarships this year. 184 more students graduated in 2025 versus 2024. $8.8 million increase in scholarships for 2024 and 2025 school year. We have doubled the amount of scholarships awarded since 2023. We are proud of their hard work, dedication, and bright futures.
050And that's a wrap for the 2024 2025 school year. What a year this has been. From welcoming our new superintendent, our academic achievements and athletic wins to lasting memories, our students, staff, and families have made this year one to remember. Thank you to our incredible teachers, staff, and administrators for your dedication and to our families for your continued support. I pray everyone has a safe and fun, restful summer. We'll see you in August. Chairman Powell, this completes my report. Thank you, Miss Frell. There are questions for Miss Frell. Okay. Thank you. I will entertain a motion. Motion to approve consent agenda. Mr. Chairman. Have a motion and a second. Consent agenda. Chairman votes I. Abate. I. Gainy. I hearing no votes. The motion is approved. Next, we have action items. And our first one this
051evening is review and consider school nutrition bid renewals for the 2025 2026 school year. Mr. Pearson chair and pal. Members of the board, you may remember at last month's meeting we approved uh several bids for child nutrition um suppliers. Uh this is two additional lots, groceries and beverages. You do only see two numbers here because Cisco was the only ones that um did bid on this. a slight uh c per case increase from last year, but on the recommendation of Miss Brown, she does believe that these are the best options to go with. Mr. Chairman, pursuant to the recommendations from child nutrition and assistant superintendent. I move that we approve the new bid pricing as presented. Second. Have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Hearing none. Chairman votes I. Abate I. Gania
052hearing no nay votes the motion is approved. Next we have review and consider approval of the 2025 2026 alternative schools modified accountability system. Miss Ferguson. Uh yes chairman Pal. members of the board. The state allows our alternative schools to follow a different accountability model and each year STAR does participate in that model and this way the scores stay at STAR. Um their school performance is determined on a different model than what our traditional schools are and we have completed the um form for participation. We'd like to submit it for the 2526 school year. Okay, Mr. Chairman, I move we approve the 2025 2026 alternative schools modified accountability system as presented. We have a motion and a second. Is there additional discussion? Hearing none, the chairman votes I. Abate I. Gay I. Hearing no votes. The
053motion carries. Thank you. 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. We have a motion and a second. Is there additional discussion? Chairman votes I. Abate I. [Music] hearing no may votes. The motion is approved. We are now in close session. Following a motion and a second, we're now back in open session. Uh, Mr. Matthews, do you have anything for us? Yes, Chairman Powell, I would like to recommend approval of the list of recommended teacher contracts as discussed in closed session. I'll
054entertain a motion. That's a motion to approve this, Mr. Chairman. Second. Have a motion and a second. This is a personnel matter. Chairman votes I. Abate I. Gay I. I. Hearing no votes. The motion carries. Is there anything else? Hearing none. I will entertain. Yes, sir. Mr. Abate. Uh, pursuant to the close session minutes as presented in close session, I move that we approve those. Second. Have a motion and a second. Is there additional discussion? Chairman votes I. Abate I. Gay I. I. Hearing no nay votes. The motion carries. Anything else? I will entertain a motion. Make a motion to adjourn. Mr. Chairman. Second. Have a motion, a second. All in favor say I. Please. I. I. We. We. We. We. We. We. We. We. We. We. We are adjourned.