Harnett County Board of Education Meeting May 05, 2025

001[Music] Well, good evening. The main meeting of the Haret County Board of Education is now in order. Uh if everyone will please stand. We're going to have our invocation and our pledge of allegiance. And so I'd like to ask Mr. Don Godfrey to feed lead us in prayer, please. Father, join me in prayer if you will. Our kind, gracious heavenly father, we thank you Lord for the privilege of being here this afternoon to handle the business of Hornik County Schools. We pray Lord that you would be with each and every one of us, Lord. That we would do the best that we can for our students and our stakeholders. That we would put them first, dear Lord, and that we would just do everything we can to give our students the best education that North

002Carolina can possibly give. Lord, thank you for the rain. Thank you for all your blessings of life. Thank you most of all for your son Jesus who died on that cross for our sins. Lord, we give you the honor, the glory, and the praise for everything. For it's in his name we pray. Amen. Amen. If you would please remain standing. And I'd like to ask Lieutenant Colonel Maurice McDougall of the Hornet Central ROC uh if he'd have one of his cadets lead us in the pledge of allegiance. stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Take seats. Thank you. You may be seated. I will entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I

003move that we approve the agenda as presented. Second. Have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Hearing none. The chairman votes I. Abate I. Gainy I. Godfrey I. Hearing. No. Nay votes. The agenda is approved. We'll move along now to special presentations and we have quite a few of those tonight. We greatly appreciate everybody coming out and uh being with us tonight. Our first is the Hornet Central High uh high school junior ROC color guard and I'll call him Mr. Germaine White to lead us in this presentation. Thank you, Chairman Powell and members of the board. As mentioned at the February board meeting, NCDPI selected the Hornet Central High School Gerotc color guard from several eligible school districts around the state to present the colors at the 2025 NC Purple Star ceremony this

004Friday, May the 9th, 2025. At this time, I will ask Lieutenant Colonel Maurice McDougall to come forward to recognize the cadetses that are present this evening and then I'll talk on the end of pres on the end of Lieutenant Colonel's presentation. I'll talk about how much of a distinction this really is. Great. We're very honored to be here uh and to recognize these outstanding cadets. I'm going to ask them to please come forward and ask them to state their name for you all and then I'm going to say some brief comments and I'll turn it right back over to assistant superintendent. Cadets, please come forward. That's okay. Face face these guys. All right. Please, please state your name whenever you are. Cadet Parker. All right, you guys please stand east. I know we got a

005lot of cadets in here. I want to briefly say we're very honored to be doing this on Friday. This is uh a real distinction buzz, but it's really to us indicative of what Har County Schools is doing in regards to purple star military connected students. We all very aware that every school has received the uh military connected purple star since 2019, which is a great honor. Not only from the superintendent level all the way down through Mr. Germaine White and his team, but even at our school, the principal, the counselor, the whole school's administration is really on board with what we're trying to do there. So, we're honored to go up there Friday. We know we're going to be representing the school and and also the county and I guarantee these cadets will definitely make

006you proud. Uh, a few of the cadetses will be sitting on the panel. Uh, which cadets will be on the panel? Please raise your hands. Okay. And one or two cadetses are not here tonight, but they'll be representing you guys on the panel. Well, actually, it's changed. It's going to be an essay they're going to be preparing, and you all will see that essay on Wednesday before we get up there. So, you'll see exactly what they're going to be saying. and the other cadetses are gonna be reading the uh reading the um uh one cadet will be doing the color guard and we'll have one cadet cadet Reese Horley he'll be actually reading a biography of the guest speaker it will be a national guard general there all right cadets please take seats thank you

007so much Lieutenant Colonel Maurice McDougall um as the board knows Hornet County Schools is the only school system in the state of North Carolina to receive the state superintendence award for purple star since its inception um And this year on Friday, we will travel to Raleigh to receive the very first legacy award for the North Carolina Purple Star. And so we're very excited about this opportunity. Grateful to all of our principles and staff members who have assisted with making us a military friendly district. I'm Lieutenant Colonel McDougall. We do have certificates for each one of your cadets. I'll present those to you, sir, and you can distribute those at your time. Okay. Thank you so much. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. White, and thank you to Lieutenant Colonel McDougall and this fine looking group of uh

008young men. We very proud of you and greatly appreciate the way you not only represent Hornet Central High School, but also Hornet County. So, thank you very much. Next, we'll have a rec recognition of Advanced Leadership Institute participants, and that would be Miss Thompson. Good evening. It's my pleasure tonight to introduce the first class of Haretick County's Advanced Leadership Institute. Uh, this idea was first given to us as a task last summer by Dr. Fleming, and once Mr. Matthews was named superintendent, he continued to support these efforts. I want to say that this institute is really focused on parts of being a leader that stand out um aside from everything else but makes a strong leader. So Virginia Taylor, HR director, and Courtney Blackburn, Title N and employees relation director really deserve all the credit

009for creating this model leadership program. um they took on the task of building and creating this incredible leadership academy and they in turn asked retired principal Miss Jennifer Smith to assist them. I cannot really express enough that their dedication to this task and to this group of leaders. They have devoted countless hours developing the program and then implementing the program. And I know that this group that they worked with is will be forever thankful for the work they gave them. And so I would like to along with the advanced leadership group and this group give this um give Courtney and Virginia and Jennifer a round of applause for all their hard [Applause] work. We thank you for the tremendous impact that you're making on the future leadership of Hernick County Schools. And at this time,

010I will turn it over to Virginia and Courtney to explain the program and honor our participants of future leaders, Chairman Powell, and members of the board, cabinet, and guests. It's a true honor to present information tonight about a year-long cohort that's been a great blessing. Last summer, as Miss Thompson mentioned, Dr. Fleming thought that we needed a way to further target and develop future Hornet County leaders. And so fast forward a few weeks and the advanced leadership institute was well underway. Courtney Blackburn and I worked with these 11 assistant principles who participated because they were recommended either by their principal or um a member of the superintendent's team. And we enlisted the help of Jennifer Smith as mentioned earlier to assist with most of the meetings. and we met each month and the APS had

011many tasks to complete during our time together and to prepare for future meetings. They did things like shadow other school leaders. Um they listed what grade levels they would like to know more about and some details about things they'd like to experience and we assigned them to other school sites and they reported back to us. They shadowed one another to showcase strengths at sites and gain a better understanding of leadership needs and opportunities in the county. And we looked at data, especially teacher working conditions in order to retain highquality staff. Many meetings included a time that uh a principal discussion panel would um be available so they could hear directly from our principles um about topics we study that day. And we're so grateful to the principles who helped us. We only had one no

012all year and that was a just a conflict of time. So we provided unique opportunities for them to solve problems and to collaborate and they truly became a team of leaders. Each session there was also a timebased assignment for public speaking. We emphasized the need to be concise and specific while presenting to peers and others. and we took the feedback each session to craft the next and we really enjoyed our time with the APS very much. Um, as often as we can, Miss Blackburn and I brag on this group of 11. There's such hope here and we want to convey that to you. There is so much hope in the future of Hornet County based a lot on these 11 folks that we'll honor tonight. And as we said, um, the promise of leadership in

013Hornet County Schools, our district is great based on their expertise, their passion for education, contributions already made, the passion they have for educating the students of our district, a willingness to serve them, and a natural drive to make a difference. And so, we'll honor each one of them tonight, and they'll come and get their plaque. And afterward, we um would like to take a picture in the back. and many of their principles are here. And I do want to take a minute. It's the busiest time of year is um for you all to be here. And so I'll say thank you to principles who made an effort to be here to support your principal all year, your assistant principal all year and of course tonight. So thank you so much. So, first from Over Hills

014Elementary School, we have Casey Avent. All right. And after Casey, we have Robert TJ Carver from How to No. from Lafayette Elementary School. Christina [Applause] Clara from Western Hornet High School. Mel Cox [Applause] [Music] [Applause] from Over Hills High School. Timothy Justice [Applause] from Ben Haven Elementary School, Emily [Applause] McNeel. We're so proud of Emily. She's gonna take her own school in July. Awesome. Okay. Um, not present tonight because of test training is Ashley Parker from Johnsonville Elementary School. So, we do appreciate that. And also Wes Seals from Hornet Central Middle School was unable to attend. And we have Lucas Smith from Triton High School, also unable to be here. But here is Michael Se from Hard High School. Thank you. Thank you so much. And our final um candidate or participant is Jamie West

015who has taken a principal position at Coats ear coats elementary while we had our cohort. [Music] [Applause] So, we really kind of became a family learning and growing together and just um experiencing them collaborating and talking with one another has been a true joy. I'll speak for Miss Blackburn and Miss Smith. Um they want to continue meeting quarterly next year and I think there's a lot of promise in that. our most valuable resources, time, and they want to give that to one another. And I think that's just a testament to the leaders that they are. And we have the potential looking forward to adding a new cohort for next year. So hopefully um we'll do this again with some other shining faces next spring. Thank you for your support. Thank you, Miss Taylor. And thanks

016to all you administrators for all your hard work in completing this program. Next we have school communicators day recognition and that is Mr. Matthews. Thank you Chairman Jaggers. Uh Chairman Terry Chairman Pal, members of the board I was did that for years. So boy, Chairman Pal, members of the board, uh staff and guests, it's good to have you here tonight. It is uh my honor in recognition of school communicators day uh to represent the board of education in extending sincere appreciation to our district's communication professionals for their vital role in keeping families, staff, and the community informed, engaged, and connected. Their work strengthens transparency, builds trust, and celebrates the success of schools. And at this time I would ask Miss Natalie Frell to come forward. Miss Frell is our district's communication [Applause] commander. I have

017a certificate of appreciation. The following award is given to Natalie Frell in recognition of your outstanding dedication, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to effective communication. Your voice brings clarity, builds trust, and fosters collaboration across our district. Sign W. Brooks Matthews, Superintendent Joseph F. Powell, Chairman. [Applause] [Music] And this uh is going to recognize a couple of other folks from our schools. Yes. Yes. Chairman Powell, members of the board, May 9th is school communicators day, honoring the incredible um valuable work of school communications and school public relations professionals. This year under Superintendent Matthews leadership, we are acknowledging school communicators in our schools who assist our principles. Um, a school communicator is anyone in the district who plays a role in shaping managing school districts messages in their schools. So whether through media design, websites, photography, um just

018communication to our families, we are appreciative and tonight we would like to recognize the following ladies um with the help of their principles with helping managing school communications. And first we have Miss Candace Hoover, teacher at Triton High School. [Applause] Your principal submitted your name and was Thank you. And last but not least, we have Miss Shelby Tart at Coats Irwin Middle School. [Applause] Thank you all for your hard work. Again, a big thank you to Miss Frell and also to Miss Tart and Miss Hoover for all of your hard work. We greatly appreciate it. Okay. Next, we'll move along to a special award presentation and I'll recognize Mr. White. Thank you, Chairman Powell and members of the board. At this time, I'd like to ask Mr. Brian McIll to come to the podium for

019a very special presentation. testing. Oh, there we go. Yes. My name is Brian McIll. I'm your uh uh territory manager for Cloud2 Services. Uh this year um uh the the ownership of our company has uh released a uh innovate education innovation awards and we've uh collected about 100 uh folks uh that have been recognized by their peers uh across the state of North Carolina. uh for these awards. Um today it is my great privilege on behalf of cloud 12 to present one of our highest honors the innovation award for collaboration to a leader whose name name is synonymous with service integrity and unity Mr. Brooks [Music] [Applause] Matthews. I'm told Mr. Matthews is a leader who shows us that true innovation in education doesn't always look flashy. Sometimes it looks steadiness. Sometimes it looks like

020empathy. Sometimes it looks like someone who listens before he leads and who never forgets the community that shaped him. For over 40 years, Mr. Matthews has dedicated himself to the students and families of Hornet County. From teacher to principal, from athletic director to assistant superintendent and to now superintendent, he has worn nearly every hat in this district. And in every role, he's built bridges, not walls. He believes in people. He brings them together. Whether you're in operations or academics, athletics or administration, he reminds you why you're here and who you're here for. the kids. One of his colleagues mentioned to me, "He's someone you'd run through a brick wall for, not out of fear, but out of respect." Brooks doesn't demand the spotlight. His quiet confidence and steady presence and deep roots in in the

021county speak louder than any words ever could. It is with great admiration and gratitude that we present to you this cloud 12 innovation award for collaboration. Thank you for showing what us what's possible when leadership is grounded in community. Thank you, sir. [Applause] Um uh in addition to this award, uh we also have a uh $200 Amazon gift card uh and to to use in the district, however you please, sir. Uh we also have some goodies behind the scenes. So, thanks for everything. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. No problem. Thanks for inviting us to be part of the your community. Appreciate [Applause] it. Thank you, Mr. McIll. And congratulations, Superintendent Matthews. a welldeserved honor and we greatly appreciate your outstanding leadership for our district. Thank you. Next on the agenda is public comment and

022each month a part of at least one regularly scheduled board meeting will be set aside for citizens to address the board through public comment. A signup sheet will be available for any individual or group to indicate their desire to address the board. The chairman will decide the amount of time. Each speaker must complete each section of the signup sheet. Each speaker may only speak for three minutes. No balance of time may be yielded to another speaker. A maximum of 30 minutes is allotted for public comments. This allows for approximately 10 speakers at three minutes per speaker. The speaker signup sheet is removed at the beginning of the board meeting. And on the sheet, we have one speaker tonight and that's Mr. for Tony Spears. Mr. Spears, if you would come forward and uh How you

023doing, Tony Spears? I signed up and all I put on there was questions because I have several questions that I seem never get answered. One of the main things I want to know is when we come and make public comments to y'all, when do they get addressed? And how is it we're able to know if they got addressed? One of the things that still stick with me right now is not too long ago a gentleman came in and proclaimed he was not here as so and so and so and so. But what triggered me was the first thing after saying who he was not here for stating his positions in life. Then he decided to quote MLK and that bothered me and I was wanting to know did y'all ever get with him and find

024out what happened to his kid that played baseball at Triton? What was going on with that incident? Or do y'all just listen to it and hope things just go away? I have a lot of issues that when I come and sit and hear people addressing it, I just never hear any feedback from it. Um, and people are notifying me all the time about something and I told them I can't get up. Well, the basic way I do it is say I'm aware of what's going on, but then I don't know whether to go to each person individually or come here and seem like a tattletail and don't get anything done. My main thing is just knowing the process and if you're not going to engage with the group, when do you do it or is

025it all in closed session and things never come out? Because like I said, I've been here as Tony Spears, a servant of Hornet County all my life. All my life. And now with the NAACP, I don't like to come and be under that umbrella as much because I'm limited on some of the things I can say if I hadn't addressed it to the NAACP. So most of the time I'm here as Tony Spears himself concerned for the people and I just tonight I felt so good with Mr. Goffrey prayer. Just his prayer alone changed the way I really felt in here tonight because other places normally do the pledge of allegiance then they do prayer. But you started with prayer which makes a difference because I was able to feel him and his soul on

026what he feel even down to the rain. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Spears. Okay, moving along. Uh next up on our agenda is our superintendence update and that will be Mr. Matthews. Thank you, Chairman Powell. Members of the board, uh since our last regular board meeting, we have been involved with preparing for end of year activities uh including of course testing, which is uh the paramount u paramount uh thing going on that the last few weeks of school for us. meetings uh have been held and are being held for our principles who are on expiring contracts to complete their end ofear evaluations. Uh, additionally, as you know, we presented our budget request to the county commissioners at our joint meeting on April the 29th and discussions are now taking place among the commissioners regarding the

027county's budget for next year. So, we're waiting to hear back from that. Uh we've also celebrated with our folks some of the traditional celebrations which accompany this time of year. Uh these include our educator of the year banquet, our final student advisory council meeting at the Pizza Hut which our students enjoy tremendously. I will tell you that. And our retirement banquet which was hosted by our Hick County principles and assistant principles association. Uh we're looking forward to celebrating in the coming weeks our folks who are completing 25 years of service in our public schools and our school advisory council banquet to recognize our community volunteers who serve in that capacity and have served in that capacity this year. We've also been busy planning for the upcoming 2526 school year. On Wednesday through Friday of the

028week of spring break, I attended the district administration leadership institute in Asheville. I believe this was probably one of the best conferences I've attended in a good while and came back with a new sense of what research is saying is working to improve student achievement and the increasing and perhaps limitless role AI is playing in the world of instruction. I also had a very productive meeting with County Manager Brent Trout and County Commissioner Chair Matt Nickel regarding some available capital funds that could be used for some school initiatives. Uh upon conferring with the county's finance officer, Miss Kimberly Honeyut, Mr. Trout and the commissioners approved the funding to fully implement the Yonder cell phone pouch pouches for next year. And Mr. White will have more to share about that in his report. A commitment commitment

029was also given uh to provide funding for the school system to replace the bus camera system that had been provided to us by bus control bus patrol. As you know, our bus patrol contract ended last year and we've been operated on a month-to-month agreement while negotiations were being held for a new contract. Unfortunately, we've not been able to get to a point that we felt comfortable entering into another three-year contract with bus patrol. So, this will allow us options going forward from a district perspective. Mr. Pearson will also have more to share on this topic in his update. On another initiative, Miss Tara Fish, executive director of the Haret County Partnership for Children and I have been coordinating on a proposal to provide an employee child care pilot for next year. While we are a

030long way from securing funding and finalizing this, we have been encouraged by the reception we have received as we've shared this idea with potential partners. It is hoped that this uh should this idea come to fruition that it will provide a muchneeded benefit for our school employees and assist with staff retention. I also met last week with uh along with county manager Trout Commissioner Chair Nickel, the garrison commander of Fort Bragg, concerned the possibility of a high school on base or a partnership in another area. These talks were very preliminary, but the conversations were good and I believe both sides left with a better better understanding of each other's needs concerning the military connected high school students at Bragg and the surrounding area. Uh also want to uh say uh for for the public that

031is here tonight and listening at our regular meeting that Mr. Mahan Kick uh who was with us at our work session uh did say that with the mobilization should be starting if if not this week certainly very shortly uh for the groundbreaking at Flatwoods Middle School hopefully to be held in a few weeks uh and I will be in touch with you on that. Finally, I met with a number of county government leaders and directors to discuss the extension of Highland School Road to Tingen Road in preparation for the new Highland High School. As you know, this is the next school on your list for construction as funds become available. In preparation for the opening of this school, this road extension will need to be completed so that traffic issues surrounding the Highland schools can

032be mitigated as much as possible. Mr. Mr. Chairman, that concludes my report unless you or other members have some questions. And I do realize it's a little longer than usual. However, since I've been so busy and not sent y'all an updated the last few weeks, I had quite a bit I wanted to update you on tonight. So, thank you. Thank you. Other questions for Mr. Matthews? Yes, Mr. only road and other road combin dot ever came out with anything certain on those two roads connecting uh FAPO has secured grant funding for for the completion of the road um and of course we've been in conversation with DOT for years uh actually we were somewhat under the impression that the county was going to have to oversee the uh completed construction. But one thing I did

033learn at this meeting is that DOT had offered to manage the project for them. So that will be a good thing. Uh right now we are working with the architect to determine uh or not with the architect, we're working with the planners to determine uh where that road would need to go so as not to uh so as to leave plenty of room for the school construction. But the DOT would like for it to tie into the road that uh branches off Tangent on the other side, Dobbins Road, JT Dobbins, I think. So anyway, so that's what is being looked at right now. But at that meeting were the parks and recreation folks, the uh planning folks, uh assistant county manager, county manager, um uh u our regional water folks. So had most everybody at

034the table. Uh it was a good meeting and u there's also some talk about whether or not the county will use some of that land that will be on the other side of the extension for park. Maybe we'll have a a partnership like we have at Central Middle where we share athletic fields between recreation and school with the school having first choice on use. So, um, a lot of lot of thought going into it, a lot of, uh, uh, options being discussed, and a lot of plans being made going forward. Hope that helps. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Matthews. Sir, next we have auxiliary services update, Mr. Pearson. Chairman, follow members of the board. Thank you. Um, most of my departments with maintenance, uh, child nutrition, custodial are all beginning, uh, to ramp up for summer

035planning where they try to get a lot of productive things done while students are out of the school. So, um, a lot of those folks are, uh, gearing up and waiting for students to leave so that they can do a lot of projects that, um, wouldn't be able to happen while the students were in school. A couple of those actually you will see, uh, later on in your agenda this evening. So, appreciate their planning on on that end. Uh spring sports are wrapping up with state playoffs beginning tomorrow uh for baseball, softball, and then soccer next week. Um we do have multiple teams uh baseball and softball teams that have made the state playoffs. Do want to give special recognition to Over Hills High School baseball team. They won the conference tournament, which is the

036first time in their school history that they have won the the baseball conference tournament. So great for them, very exciting, and they beat a perennial power in order to win that championship. So, it was an exciting night for them uh last week. Um as Mr. Matthews mentioned, we have moved to cancel the bus patrol contract. Um certainly anytime you cancel that type of contract, the company reaches out and wants to know why. Um and so I I shared with them three kind of main points. I want to share those with you as well. Um over the three years, really now almost four years, we've um you know, generated over $3 million in um what they call technology fee, which is kind of their off-the-top uh take from the uh the ticketing. And yet we still

037do not have ownership of the cameras. And that was one of our questions to them is at what point do we transition from paying for the cameras to owning the cameras? Um also, we had a lot of concerns with the ease of access of video. A lot of our assistant principles when they're having to pull bus video were having to leave their campus, go to another campus where the bus was parked, literally get down on the floor of the bus to download video, then go back to their campus. So, we really were pushing for something where those assistant principles could access that video from their offices, from their laptops, and we believe we have done that. And then finally, they also uh originally in the first two years of our contract, they covered the cost

038of GPS and routing software. These come roughly to around a $300,000 cost. they informed us they would not be covering those any longer and so they uh kind of passed the $300,000 cost on to us. So that kind of was creating this need to look into additional options. We think we have a good one. Um and as we get to that agenda item later in the evening, I'll share that with you in regards to both um ease of access for our staff but also the the the ticketing options that we uh that we do have. So um also on on the topic of buses I do have this uh sheet I want to share with you. We have had initial conversations um in trying to standardize our start times across the district. Um there's multiple

039benefits and impact of this. Currently across the district we have uh instructional days that range from 6 hours and 45 minutes at some of our schools up to 7 hours and 15 minutes at other schools. And so pretty, you know, a 30 minute difference there over 180day school year. That's 90 hours of instructional difference amongst our least houred school and and greatest hour school. We'd like to see this be a standard across the district of a 7-hour instructional day, which is what we base a lot of our calendars and uh hours of instruction and things like that. Uh in order to do that, we would we would al we would like to propose bringing high school start times to the same uh across the district. All middle school start times the same and all elementary

040school start times the same. And you can see those proposed times there uh for each grade level. The fringe benefit of this is that we would also uh generate a reduction in need for buses. um the studies that the bus garage has done, this would eliminate approximately 44 bus routes across the district by using these times in this spacing. Um we have done a great job of getting folks uh licensed on buses. However, as Miss Thompson shares frequently, um the the completion rate of a new driver and the attrition rate of a resigning driver are almost identical throughout the year. So, we have not been able to build a substitute pool and that is probably the number one thing that um principles and assistant principles have shared is their frustrations remain when a driver has

041to be out for whatever reason. It creates a ripple effect where we still do have a handful of students arriving at school an hour or more late when there's a double route uh needing to be run. So this uh this you know the benefit of this standardized start time would create about 44 substitute drivers uh that we would spread across the district strate strategically to try to ensure that that is there. Um it would also buy us some time to relieve the pressure of the CDL component in that we know and have frequently discussed here the DMV backlog and the the uh impact of us through that backlog. And also another benefit is simplified um early release times, two-hour delay times. You know, we just know across the district, all of our high schools are

042getting out at this time. All of our elementary schools are starting at this time. On the right hand side there, you can see the impact on the schools. That obviously is the greatest uh component that people will be concerned about. Outside of two schools, um no school would be asked to start more than 10 to 15 minutes earlier or 10 to 15 minutes later than they currently are. So, we have some high schools that would back up about 10 minutes their start time. We have a couple of elementary schools that would back their start time that would come in about 10 to 15 minutes later. There are two elementary schools right now starting at 8:05. They would be a little larger impact than the rest of our elementary schools, but they are a little bit

043out of alignment right now with our other schools. Anyway, um so basically as we presented this to principles, we said, "Hey, are you willing to trade a 10 to 15 minute change in your start time for a pool of substitute drivers?" And overwhelmingly the principal said, "Can we just do this?" Um the the bus garage has had meetings with them over the last few weeks and they have all pretty much said, "We'll do what we need to do to get some substitutes in in the mix." So, I present this to you tonight just as an opportunity to get feedback from constituents to kind of spend some time digesting it and then the plan is to come in the May work session um and and bring it to an action item for you all. So, happy

044to answer questions you have about it. Um but you know, we wanted to give you some time to think through it and and getting feedback from folks that you felt like you needed to. So, and then the last thing for me, I do want to share um Sarah Brown and her team um as I shared with you a couple months back, their audit was very good, very clean from the state and they have studied uh their finances and they believe that next year we could move all of our schools to C schools, meaning all schools in the district, all students would eat free breakfast and lunch. Um so, we feel very good about that. again want to present it to you tonight time to uh get feedback and then plan to bring it as an

045action item for your approval at the work session if you're in favor of that. So I'll happy to answer any questions you have about any of those topics. Are there questions for Mr. Pearson with regards to the standardization of the start times? What will that do for the traffic problems at overs? So it should alleviate it because we are putting additional space between these schools taking in. So right now there's where there's only about 10 minutes of time between the high school and middle school start time. We're putting now 25 minutes in there. And then we're also pushing the elementary school an additional 20 minutes or so from that. So we're building in more time. Um we certainly know that there's going to be some parents that get in that carpool line an hour before

046it starts. Um, but we do think that a little more spacing is is going to be of benefit. How does how does this proposal compare to the previous proposal that your eyes brought to us? Yes. So, a couple years ago, we had this proposal and um high school start times were a little bit earlier than this. Okay. And the gap between the times was more 45 minutes. So, we were 45 minutes then 45 minutes again. So, we've been able to condense that through studying the routes. So, a 720 start time. Again, most of our high schools are taking in at 7:30. So, it's only a 10-minute change for them. I believe the previous proposal was maybe like a 710 start time, a 20 a 20 minute change. Um, and then elementary schools were not taking

047until closer to 9:00, whereas this is an 8:30. So we we by studying route times we were able to condense the spacing which like I think it would alleviate a lot of congestion at Western Hornet Middle and Western Hornet High School also. Yes sir. That's another area where folks coming out of Western Hornet Middle School often have concerns about traffic they're pulling out on 27. Are there other questions? Um just a a request. Um, as you said, you were getting ready for summer projects and such. Um, I do my annual, uh, request for power washing at schools. So, if we could handle that, please. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Pearson. Next, we have curriculum and instruction. Miss Ferguson. Good evening, Chairman Pal and members of the board. Build Hornet was held on April the 14th

048through the 17th. Teams from all four traditional high schools participated. It was a great event organized by Lindseay Hardy in our CTE department as well as teachers collaborating with our business and community partners and Central Carolina Community College. Build Hornet is an event that highlights our students talents in trades and the trade skills. Congratulations to Over Hills High School. Um they were the winners this year. The elementary honors course was held on April the 8th at Triton High School. On April 30th and May 2nd, we participated in our tier 2 interviews for the Golden Leaf grants. As I shared with you at the previous board meeting, we applied for two grants. Um, not all the schools who applied made it to tier 2. So, we were very excited to make it to tier 2. Our

049principles, Jen Black, and her instructional coach, Katherine Swayel, and principal Megan West, and her instructional coach, um, Francis McNeel, did phenomenal jobs with their presentation. I wish you could have heard those principles and coaches talking about the great things going on at their schools. It was perfect. Um, we're very excited for these two schools and we hope to hear in June that they are winners of the Golden Leaf Grant. We won't know until June. The focus on high quality instruction and teacher feedback continues. Um, we continued our focus on walkthroughs. We don't want to let up between now and the end of the year. And we want to recognize our top five schools for completion of walkthroughs. Johnsonville Elementary School, Triton High School, Haret Central Middle School, Highland Middle School, and Dun Elementary School. We've

050had great conversations this year with our principles in the summitives as we talk about instruction and teacher feedback. and one principal uh we did the numbers and found that they had a 293% increase in their number of walkthroughs and the conversations we could have about what's going on in their classrooms in that school night and day. So just very proud of the work our principles are doing. Students from across Hornet County Schools proudly represented their schools on April the 30th at the annual Special Olympics, showcasing showcasing their talents, determination, and sportsmanship in an inspiring day of competition. It was held at Campbell University. The event brought together athletes from various schools across the districts with exceptional needs. Students participated in a wide range of events including track and field, wheelchair races, throwing competitions, and other

051adaptive sports. They were cheered on by peers, teachers, family members, and volunteers. The day was filled with moments of triumph and celebration. Smiles were in abundance as each athlete um gave their all and proudly represented their school. And if you ever need a pickme up, please join us at the Special Olympics. It is heartwarming. Um and we're always so fortunate because dozens of staff and students from across our district volunteered. Um I think Mr. Matthews was there as part of the opening ceremonies. And most importantly, the Special Olympics not only celebrates athletic ability, but also fosters community and acceptance, key values embraced by Hornet County Schools. Our EC students also held a um magical Aloha night prom in Irwin at the Gentry Educators Center on April the 12th. The spirit of Aloha was alive and

052well at Gentry. Um this year's theme of Aloha Nights transformed the venue into a tropical paradise filled with flowers, palm trees, and the warm glow of tiki torches. And our students had a large tide. Um I thank Miss April Hood and her team and all of our community partners who helped put this on. It's a very special event. We're proud to celebrate 28 Hornet County Schools educators who were the inaugural cohort of the Hornet County Schools AIG local endorsement program in partnership with Dr. Chris Godwin. These teachers completed the program as part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen gifted education in Haret County. So congratulations to those 28 teachers. Western Hornet School High School Battle of the Books team, as you know, earned first place in our district. They went on to the regional competition

053and earned second place. Our team continues to work with schools to prepare for the end of the year testing that will begin May 12th, that is Monday. Um, we want to give a shout out to our student information and assessment team and to our school testing coordinators for the great work they do. We are also working to plan our summer programs, summer professional development, and our curriculum resources for the 2526 school year. We have worked with our high schools to complete scheduling for the 25 26 school years school year. Two um high schools are completely finished with their scheduling and the other two are right behind them. And we will now begin working with our middle schools to complete the master schedule for 2526. And that concludes my updates unless you have questions. Are there

054questions from Miss Ferguson? Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have our human resources update with Miss Thompson. Good evening, Chairman Pal, members of the board. Um, in that same vein, as Miss Ferguson uh just mentioned, the importance of giving timely feedback to teachers, I want to share with you some pretty phenomenal um statistics this evening from our observations. The following sites have completed all observations and are working on summitives. And that's pretty significant as you well know if you spend any time in schools. Um these have these schools have completed all of them. Ben Haven, Coats Elementary, Dun Middle, Hornet Early College, Highland Elementary, Johnsonville Elementary, Lafayette Elementary, North Hornet Primary, Over Hills Elementary, Over Hills Middle, and Western Middle. We have some sites that are just missing one or two and that may not

055be their fault. It may be someone on maternity leave or somebody's battling extended illness. Those schools are Anderson Creek Primary, Andrew Elementary, Coast Coach Irwin Middle, Dun Elementary, Haret Central Middle, Highland Middle, Linton Shaw Town, and Northwest Hornet. You can that's almost everybody, well over half. So I think those sites are definitely to be commended. I want to share with you the next big mountain that principles have to overcome are summitative evaluations. Those come at the end and we have several sites that have completed more than half of their summitives. Haret Central Middle, Lafayette Elementary, Highland Middle, Triton, Johnsonville Elementary, Coast Irwin Middle, Haret County Early College, Dun Middle, Over Hills Elementary, and Western have completed well over half. So that is to be commended at this time of year because we know it's a

056busy time for them and we appreciate the efforts to prioritize time in classrooms, give feedback to teachers, finalize thoughts around teaching performances, and the this is just good time spent with teachers. So we're very proud of that. Just as a reminder, every year this comes up and I've mentioned it before and I do want to take time and mention it one other time this this year, but as you're aware many times in the this is the time we have to offer contracts to teachers um to continue to work for us and many of our folks are completing lure requirements for the upcoming year and many of them um are in classes and don't always get their coursework back in a timely fashion from the universities. all these timelines don't really align with universities and what

057the state requires and what we need in order to be able to offer contracts. And so we offer them an agreement to sign that they'll get that turned in to us. Um it is not because we don't want them to be our teachers. We definitely want them to come back here and teach with us, but we do have to structure our offer based on what they qualify for. If they are not eligible for a license, then we can't offer them a contract until they become eligible. and we're working with them and I'll have our RNRs this is one of their main jobs and so uh they've talked with those individual teachers and they know what the requirements are really from the very first day we speak with them and so just to know we are

058working toward that and our lure work the recruitment and retention team is scheduled to present Hick County Schools renewal plan to the North Carolina teaching fellows commission on May 16th In the previous year, the district was re uh awarded 55,000 through a state initiative aimed at recruiting aspiring educators from local um communities and schools with the goal of encouraging them to return to Har County to teach. We continue to participate in job fairs uh all across the region and we update a spreadsheet with that information for principles on a continual basis and we try to highlight all those folks that want to come back home to teach here in Hernick County. We hosted our spring district job fair on April the 8th and we did have to reschedule if you remember because of weather. Our

059attendance remained strong. we had 62 um prospective candidates and um that's a real increase over any previous job fair in the last few years. So, a lot of hard work went into that and we're very proud of that. We completed our national board support session for this year's candidates on May the 1st. The folks are on track to submit their portfolios on May 17th and we'll begin a new national board cohort in July. An information session will be held on June 3 if anyone is interested. In celebration of teacher appreciation week, the human resource uh department is hosting daily giveaways to recognize our incredible educators. Each day this week, we will randomly select and announce a new group of teacher winners on our social media page. Prices have prizes have been generously donated by local

060businesses who share their appreciation of the hardworking staff in our schools. It's just a way of spreading a little extra joy and gratitude throughout this week. members of the HR department. Several members attended the paint conference this month. It is the personnel association um conference and it was in Wilmington and we always look forward to that and learn a lot while we're there. Last year we offered an aspiring aspiring teacher leader half-day conference and it was a hit. So, it'll be backed by popular demand. Uh on May 29th at Gentry and on Thursday, May 15th, we will host our annual signing day for growing greatness participants in this boardroom. And we have seven students this year and 21 returning students. And we're excited that three of our students will be teaching for Harnet County Schools

061in the fall. and our dates for PD this summer will be June 9th through the 12th and June 16th through the 19th. So, we're very excited about that. We've also been invited to participate on a national advisory um board for teachers of tomorrow and that first meeting will be in June. And I would just ask that you all join us in um wishing all of our educators a happy teacher appreciation week. Um, we want our teachers to know that they are true difference makers in the lives of our students and that they are m leaving a lasting impact on the future. So, we want to thank our teachers tonight. That's all I have unless you have any questions for me. Other questions for Miss Thompson? More so a comment than uh than question. Uh, number

062one, thank you for the hard work you do in human resources. I think as of right now, we're we're at one of the lowest levels of certified staff vacancies I've seen in a long time. And you know, that's thanks to you and your department's hard work, and we really appreciate that. Thank you. Um, we've got some community members that to me don't know the difference in a carpenter and a classroom teacher and they go on to the website to see the number of vacancies we have, then go out in public forums and make comments how we have 150 vacancies or uh vacant teacher positions in Hornet County. And that's really frustrating um being a member of this school board, you know, to hear ill-informed community members making comments like that. But from what I just

063counted, I believe we're at 42 teaching openings according to our fa um our website. And you know, that's far less from what I've seen it since I've been on this board. And we really appreciate your hard work. Well, and I'll add to that if I may, that um you know, I stopped giving the vacancy updates this time of the year because this list is not very uh it's nothing and I know Virginia is probably in here. It's just not and that's her wheelhouse to keep that list up. So it not only includes so we have people that are going to resign and maybe they're leaving or retiring and so they're actually still employed and we are posting their jobs for principles to look for uh you know because now is the best time to um

064secure someone to fill a vacancy and so we so we have job people are actually in jobs right now that are actually posted on our web page which is why I stopped giving that because the information is no longer really accurate an accurate reflection of what's really going on in our classrooms but do agree with you. We're at an all-time low for that. And I do think um the RNRs really have um I think a hand on the heartbeat of hiring. Greg has been is one of our greatest recruiters. Greg Griffin works really hard along with all his colleagues. We all feel a little lift that there may be some um relief in hiring that you know the job fair is another indication of that. So I agree with you that looking at the web

065page is not an accurate reflection of where we are right now. I feel like our principles have worked uh diligently in hiring their vacancies. So, they also are a big part of that. And, you know, I'm planning on recruiting on everything, including, you know, in the future. We've talked about, you know, there's even some um if you come to work for us and you have student loan debt that there's avenues that we work through to even um work for forgiveness through that. So, there's extra incentive now, I feel like, to come and work for the school system that maybe people traditionally haven't considered when they consider working for school. So we will you utilize all those platforms as we continue to recruit this summer. So I am very pleased and I think our recruitment and

066retention numbers that the uh RNRs are going to present on at the work session this month will um also show where we are really as far as that goes. So thank you for pointing that out. I appreciate that Mr. Thank you. Thank you Miss Thompson. Next we have our student services update with Mr. White. Chairman Powell, members of the board, inside of your board packet, you will find the Star Academy report and the district release reassignment report through April the 2nd, 2025. I'm sorry, through May the 2nd, 2025. Just a few quick updates from student services. A reminder, the Hazel Health press conference. May is mental health month and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services in partnership with Hornet County Schools will be holding a press conference at Lilton Shawtown Elementary May

067the 7th, 2025 to formally announce the district's partnership with Hazel Health Mental Telealth Services. This event will include media members and key stakeholders from across the state as well as United Healthc Care to discuss the launch of this partnership and the positive impact it will have on students and families within our community. We actually met today about 12:00 to finalize those preparations. And so we're looking forward to members from around the state as well as other stakeholders from other districts that'll be here with us on Wednesday. Um, the Hornet Virtual Academy updates. On Wednesday, April the 30th, 2025, a parent meeting was held for families interested in the Hornet Virtual Academy for the 2025 2026 school year. The virtual academy will be open to all interested K12 families who qualify. The application date for the

068Hornet Virtual Academy opens on May the 14th, 2025, and will remain open through July the 16th, 2025. Three additional parent information sessions will be held on the following dates: May the 14th, June the 11th, and July the 16th, 2025. As an additional note, beginning next school year, the HBA will have a 10 member parent advisory group established. To date, we have eight parents who have committed to being a part of this group as a result of the meeting last Wednesday. As far as student services celebrations are concerned, the district will be celebrating National School Nurse Week May the 6th through the 12th, 2025. We are so proud of our school nurses, LPNs, and school health technicians for the work that they do. At this time, I did want to give a special shout out. I

069want to take the time to say a special thank you to Don Long and Lannne Jones who will be retiring this year. Both of these counselors did an amazing job during their time in student services, and we are so sad to see them leave, but I told them both in six months, they're welcome to come on back, and we'll find something for them to do. This concludes my student support services report this evening, unless there are any questions. Further questions for Mr. White? Thank you. Moving along to financial services report and Mr. Cox. Thank you, Chairman Powell and members of the board. Uh last month I shared with you the PRCO71 lowwealth teacher supplement amount. It was paid in April on April payroll on April 25th. I had shared that amount was uh 1,900 or

070roughly n $1,945. After final calculations, that amount ended up being $1,925. So if you hear anything, just want to make sure you knew what the amount was. um since I shared 1945 uh last month. Um as we're approaching year end, we're working to get summer job assignments set up for summer work as well as close out any open and outstanding purchase orders to help facilitate a smooth year- end closing. Um flexible benefit open enrollment is currently ongoing through this Friday, May 9th. If you or any employee still need to meet with the benefits counselor, please contact Milva Clark on my team. Counselors will be at the finance building tomorrow through Friday to meet with any board member or district employee that were not able to see a counselor um at their primary site during uh

071their meetings there held at their primary site. And I want to add a little humor to my report as we're in budget season. My finance team is out busy harvesting for our money trees. We've strategically placed around the county. We're also nurturing a few newly planted trees, but unfortunately I can't share their locations with you. But please pray for a good harvest. So that concludes my report unless you have any questions for me. Can you confirm that you do have money trees? Yes, we can confirm we have money trees. Are there questions for Mr. um Cotch? Thank you, Mr. Cox. And we're definitely praying for a good harvest. Thank you. Now we have our public information office update. Miss Frell, Chairman Powell, members of the board, and community members, good evening. This past month has

072been filled with achievements and stories, and so it's time to celebrate success with HCS. In April, we acknowledge autism awareness month. This month is an opportunity to celebrate differences throughout April and beyond, emphasizing understanding, inclusion, and support. It is important to understand that autism is more than just a diagnosis. It is identity, community, and lived experiences. And speaking of community and lived experiences, Hornet County Schools proudly presents the Aloha Nights prom exclusively for our students in our specialized program. The spirit of the Aloha was alive and well at the Gentry Educator Development Center as Haret County Schools hosted its annual prom. Our students had a great time, as you can see, with music and fun. Special Olympics students from across Hornet County Schools proudly represented their schools on April 30th at the annual Special Olympics,

073showcasing their talents, determination, and sportsmanship held at Campbell University. This event together um brought together athletes from various schools from across the district and our specialized programs. Look at those smiles. Look at that love. Um, and that is what Miss Ferguson was speaking about. School Library Month is the American Association of School Librarians. Um, they're celebrating school librarians and um, school libraries. So, in April, school librarians are encouraged to host activities in their schools that showcase the importance of their role in transforming learning. Our human resources team was busy this past month with professional development programs recruiting our HCS family and celebrating our educators. The 2025 spring career fair was a great success with HCS held on April 8th at the Hornet County Library and Resource Center. Community members inquired about job opportunities and learn

074more about employment opportunities through our schools and departments that were on site. Please note we are still seeking interested candidates for all positions. Come join us and tell them I sent you. Okay. Celebrating excellence in education with our educator of the year banquet. We proudly honored our incredible educators during our 2025 educator of the year celebration. Congratulations to Mr. Michael Reamer of Over Hills High School and our beginning teacher of the year, Miss Tasha McDow of Coats Irwin Middle School. Um, this event also recognized teacher of the year nominees from each school and honored recipients from the 202526 outstanding service awards. Congratulations. Our CNI team continues to keep their boots on the ground in our schools. So, for our CTE highlight, the Build program, hands-on learning, realworld impact. Congratulations once again to Over Hills High

075School for winning first place in this year's build competition. These events showcase student talents in trade and link students with local employers. The competition is evaluated based on technical skills um and they also have a resume um portion. So, first place was Over Hills High School, second place Hornet Central High School, and third place was Western Hornet High School. The inaugural cohort for the Hornet County Schools AIG local endorsement program celebrated 28 educators last month who made up the cohort. Um, in this partnership with Dr. Chris Godwin from Campbell University. These dedicated teachers compete completed the program as a part of ongoing efforts to strengthen gifted education across the district. As we look ahead to this month, it's a lot going on. We have some more exciting news. So, National Teachers Appreciation Week is this

076week. As Miss Thompson stated, beginning today, May 5th through May 9th, we acknowledge our teachers and we ask the community to join us in celebrating these incredible teachers and educators in our schools who go above and beyond every day. A little smile, a little special note. You know, we love a gift card even though Mr. Cox doesn't want um gift cards, but you can provide a gift card to your teachers. Next, we have our Hornet County Schools will host a press conference with Hazel Health and NCDHHS on Wednesday, as Mr. White stated, at Lillington Shawtown Elementary School. Please join us to learn more about this new initiative um to provide K12 students throughout North Carolina access to virtual mental health services in Hornet County Schools will be a part of that and we're excited. Best

077wishes to our spell and be champion, Antella Guzman. At the end of this month, Antella will represent Hornet County Schools as the national spell and be participant in Washington DC. So, we send our best wishes to her and her family. They will be there and we look forward to her bringing back the championship home to Hornet. All right. So, keep her in your thoughts. So, success with HCS ends this school year with our graduation ceremonies. We kick off on May 27th at Triton High School at 10:00 a.m. for our alternative program graduations and at Campbell University's John W. Pope Convocation Center from May 28th through May 29th for our traditional programs. Community, I look forward to seeing you all at our graduation ceremonies. Chairman Powell and members of the board, this concludes my update. Thank

078you. Thank you. Other questions from Miss Frell? Okay. Thank you. Okay, I'll now entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the consent agenda. Have a motion and a second. Is there additional discussion? Hearing none. The chairman votes I. Abate I. Gainy. I. Hearing no nay votes. The motion carries. Okay, we're moving along now to our action items. And our first item under action items is review and consider approval of the 2024 2025 amended budget resolution for the third quarter. Mr. Cox. Thank you, Chairman Powell. Uh uh the amended budget resolution for the third quarter on state public school fund is 159,344,283 which is an increase of $1,258,93. Our local current expense fund remains unchanged at $33,297,23. Our federal programs fund is 28,22,225, which is an increase of $396,12. Our capital outlay fund

079is $2,547,288, an increase of $125,760. Our school nutrition fund remains unchanged at 12,93,500. Our DUN special district fund is $482,443 444, an increase of $22,575. And our local restricted expense fund is $14,641,438, which is an increase of $1,247,157. You have a change any changes by program report code included in your packet that detail this uh more specifically a total amended budget of $250,68,381 which is an increase of $2,924,737. Happy to take any questions around that. Okay, I entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I like to move that we Approve the amended budget resolution for the third quarter as presented by Mr. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Hearing none. Chairman votes I. Abate I. Gainy I. God I. Hearing. No. Nay votes. The motion is approved. Thank you Mr. Cox.

080Next, we have review and consider approval of the 2025 2026 bids and renewals for the school and nutrition program. Mr. Pearson, chairman pal, members of the board, in your packet, you'll see a number of items that have been gone out have gone out for bid and have been returned and the school nutrition department has evaluated those obviously with the um strict parameters on the school nutrition food sources. These are all fall in line with the requirements and these are the recommendations of Miss Brown and her department in renewing suppliers for one year to three years based on the items listed in your packet. Okay, Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the bid renewals as presented. Second. Have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Chairman votes I. Abate I D I John

081F I. Hearing no nay votes. The motion is approved. Next we have review and consider approval of the purchase of bus cameras. And back to Mr. Pearson. Yeah, I've got several items here coming up with you guys. Um as I mentioned earlier in my updates, this is our uh transition to a new camera system. uh thankful to the county commissioners and um their fiscal responsibility and managing some some various monies to help us support this. So, this would be coming out of capital funds that they have allowed allocated to us, not out of our funds. Um you see approximately $935,000. This will give us ownership and installation of the cameras. Um so, we feel like we'll be good for years to come. Uh I do want to indicate that this system does have a driver

082initiated recording uh marker for lack of a better word. So if there is an illegal pass or if there is a an incident discipline incident on a bus, the driver can push a button and it will mark that video to be reviewed. Um, and so while we are still kind of navigating the ticketing process, we will still have an opportunity to secure video of illegal passes and then take action with those as we kind of um navigate the process. Bus patrol took some of the um logistical components of that um ticketing off of us. But we want to continue to explore options for us to do that because we do believe that it's a important community safety aspect. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion to approve this request by Mr. Pearson for the

083purchase of bus cameras. Second, have a motion and a second. Is there additional discussion or questions for Mr. Pearson? Couple questions or one maybe in particular. Um, with regarding the bus cameras, um, are we still going to do the citations like we have been? So that that's what we have to continue to explore is we will have marked video which it will be human initiated marked video versus AI initiated video that we will either can share with the highway patrol like we did uh you know back in days past or um there is a third party vendor that uh safety vision works with that will also help with processing of that. So absolutely we want to continue to issue citations uh it may take us a couple of months to get that off the ground.

084So the sheriff's department won't be involved in this anymore. Correct. Uh they still would likely have to approve the citation. Yes, we would provide the video and they would have to, you know, approve it. But what we have seen in citations that have been disapproved. Uh some aspects of it is that it was computer flagged versus a human saying that was a violation and marking it. pretty much stay the same again as far as reviewing and issuing citations. Yes, sir. That's what we want to get to. Would we have to do it through a third party or could we review it and then kick the the civil citation out based on the um the local statute that we have. So, that's how we'd like to do it or we're we're having to explore the legal

085aspect of that, but that is how we would like to do it. even if it meant um you know our staff taking on some additional time, it's probably an offset with the citation aspect. Um so that is a conversation Matthew's been having with county attorneys and others. So we are uh absolutely want to go down that road, but I would be remiss to tell you today that we are we know the path right now. We just want to get there. So that's the uh that's the end goal ultimately. Absolutely. This is just step one. That's right. Yeah. If I could just interject there, there is there there are ongoing discussions with regard to that, but we knew if we were going to have a switch with our cameras now is the window to get that

086done before the next year. So, that's kind of where we are with Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Chairman vote. Abate. I gain I Godfrey I hearing no votes. The motion is approved. Next, we have a review and consider approval for Patterson Paving Company Incorporated for the Lafayette yearround school parking lot. Mr. Pearson. So, next several items on your agenda are capital improvement projects uh that we have designated as priority out of our capital fund. Uh this is for as you see Lafayette year round. This would be new pavement of all of their parking areas and restriping. Um we we've identified this school in South Hornet coming up next as of the most uh immediate needs based on condition and so uh bids were requested and this was the recommendation. Okay. I would entertain a motion. Mr.

087Chairman, I'd like to move that we do approve Patterson Paving Incorporated contract for Lafayette parking lot and also for South Hornets. Can we do that? for two. You can break out. We do it separately. The question is made motion to do both and do it together. Do it. You could do it together. Okay. I think maybe if we just want to restate it, I think the property clean separate like it's written. Okay. So, one Yeah. So, we'll just if we can do it separately, it would be best. Okay. Mr. Mr. Godfrey on advice of our attorney, Mr. Duke, he says he recommends that we do these separately instead of single motion. Yes, sir. Sing. No, sir. Do two separate motion. That's not wrong. I think it would just be cleaner. That's all. You good enough

088for me? I'll revise my motion. One motion, Mr. Chairman, to approve Patterson Paving Incorporated for Lafayette around school parking lot as presented. Second. Have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Mr. Pearson, is there is there any reason to expedite this tonight or can we put it off till the work session? Uh, yeah. I mean, the work is slated to to be after the students go at home for the summer or on the year- round break. So, we have some time. Mr. Chairman, I move to table this uh to look into it further prior to voting on it. Best number five is what order? Yeah. Whenever it gets to it. Okay. What else? move to table if he's willing to withdraw. That's certainly one way to handle it or we can we can

089go forward with table. Mr. Goff, we have a uh suggestion to table this into the work session. Would you withdraw your motion consider withdrawing? Uh yeah, I do have an objection to it. What's wrong with taking care of something today rather than putting it off till tomorrow if we know we're going to do it? some apparently some questions have arisen about that we probably need to discuss a little further. So yes, sir, just just to be clear, there's nothing that says you have to withdraw your motion, Mr. Godfrey, and that was not not the suggestion. So it doesn't need to be an objection. You just don't nothing compels you to withdraw your motion. Um but there has been a statement to table and so we take that up next. Okay. So, if we have a

090withdrawn motion and did he withdraw? I think we got the table. My motion to table. So, either needs a second or it dies. Okay. Have a motion. Is there a second? A second. Motion to table. for a motion to table. We need a second for the motion to table. Okay. Is there a second for the motion to table? I'll second that motion. Okay. So, I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Okay. This is for the motion to table. Chairman votes I. Abate. I. Gainy. No. Godfrey. No. No. Okay. And the motion fails. Okay. By vote of two to three. Okay. So now we'll take up on the Mr. Goffy's motion to uh the approve Patterson Paving Company for the Lafayette round parking lot. Okay. Okay. Chairman votes no. Abate no. Gana yes.

091Godfrey yes. Yes. Okay. By vote of 3 to2 the motion is approved. Okay. And next we have review and consider approval of Patterson Paving Company for South Hornet parking lot project. Again, Mr. Pearson. Sir, it's similar to the previous uh bids were received from all of these companies and Patterson Pavings came in the lowest for the for the work and we are recommending them as the contract. Okay. I will entertain a motion. Mr. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we approve Patterson Paving Company for the parking lot implementation at South Hornet Elementary School. Second. Have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Hearing none. The chairman votes no. Abate no. Gy yes. Johnford. Yes. Okay. By motion of 3 to2. The motion carries. The motion is approved. Okay. Next we have review

092and consider approval of Escola Roofing uh LLC contract for removal and replacement of Western Hornet High Gym Roof Removal and Repair Project. Mr. Pearson. So Chairman Palmer, these next two projects are linked together. One being the provider of the labor, the other the provider of the materials. Um unfortunately we did have some storm damage to the gym roof at Western Hornet High School. It's a flat rubber roof and it separated and was kind of flapping around. Uh we have worked with our insurance company. Insurance is going to provide a percentage but they have depreciated the roof based on its age. And so uh this is the cost for both the labor and the material replacement. Um again with some of this offset by insurance and the other part offset by capital funds that the county

093has provided. Okay. I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve Escola roofing as presented. Second. Have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion hearing? None. The chairman votes I. Abate I. Gay I. I. The motion is approved. Next, we have review and consider approval of the Garland Company incorporated as the supplies and material supplier for the Western Hornet High Gym roof repair project. Back to Mr. Pearson. And again, this is the materials. Uh by using this material provider, we get warranty work with the roof company that is uh doing the installation. Okay. Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion that we approve the borrowing company as the supplies of material supplier for the Western Heart High School gym and repair project as presented. Second. Have a motion and a second. Is

094there additional discussion? Hearing none. The chairman votes I. Abate I. Gy I. Godfrey I. Motion is approved. Next we have a review and consider approval of the purchase of yonder pouches. Mr. White. Chairman Powell, members of the board, inside your packet this evening is a quote for additional yonder pouches to be utilized across the district. Our goal has been to place yonder pouches in all of our middle and high schools starting with the 2526 school year. As Mr. Matthew stated earlier, Hornet County Schools will be able to make this purchase due to the graciousness of our county commissioners and county manager. Through the summer, we'll have four beyond the classroom sessions for the community to discuss yonder pouches in the district. There'll be two virtual sessions and two in-person sessions. Those sessions will begin on

095May the 30th. The second one will be June the 18th. There'll be a third session July the 9th. Uh and the fourth session on July the 23rd. Our current Yonder pilot school principles have recently stated that the implementation of Yonder pouches for example at Western Hornet has been a positive step for our school. There are less distractions within the classroom and students are more engaged throughout the school day. I believe Yonder as a resource has helped in allowing us the ability to enforce our cell phone policy with fidelity. And at Highland Middle School, since implementing the Yonder pouches at Highland Middle, our staff has had significantly fewer incidents regarding and involving cell phones. Students know exactly what our expectations are. Having a no cell phone policy has allowed our focus to be on student learning

096and instruction. We have not had any incidents of students meeting up for playing fights or videos of fights posted from inside of our school. The impact of social media is lessened when they are inside of the building. As a district, we are very grateful for the availability of funds for this purpose and excited to provide this opportunity to the remaining middle and high schools across the district with your permission. I will entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the purchase of yonder pouches as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there further discussion? Just want to say thank you to the commissioners for providing the funding to do this. Yes, definitely. Thank you. Chairman votes I. Abate I. Gandandy I. Godfrey I hearing no nay votes. The motion is

097approved. Next we have review and consider approval of the Boone Trail Fair for 2025. Mr. Matthews. Uh yes chairman. Uh pal members of the board. This is uh uh the request that uh comes along each year from the uh Ruron Club and the B Boone Trail Community. Uh they've been having this uh community fair since 1950. The money they raise supports school and community projects. Uh they have a field day, spelling bee, little league probes, and other community based needs that they they uh use these funds to help with. Uh it's a opportunity for the community to show their spirit and support the school and their teamwork and help uh to uh motivate our children. Uh usually the request is that they allow they they're allowed to uh uh have an early dismissal on this

098Friday at September 19th, 2025 is the projected date. Uh they would like to dismiss at 11:45 a.m. uh for the students to be able to look at the various exhibits displays in the gym and throughout the campus. uh teachers and teachers assistants will be on the grounds until uh and in the gym to supervise until 3:15 which would be the normal close of school uh normal time the school would end. So I would recommend approval of this request. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Chairman, I can't imagine Boone Trail without the the fair in September. Motion to approve as presented. Have a motion and a second. Is there additional discussion? Hearing none. The chairman votes I. Abate I gay I hear no nay votes the motion is approved and once again Boom Trails had a strong tradition

099there for what 75 years now so uh thank you Miss Matt for your hard work and hope to continue this another successful Boom Trail fair. Next we have review and consider approval with the purchase of a supplemental instructional materials uh for Hick County Schools summer reading camp. Miss Ferguson Mrs. Leslie Tyson K5 director and she is here to present this request. Um Chairman Powell and the board, thank you for listening to the request. It is for summer reading camp instructional materials. We have four sites that serve all the schools and it's a huge program every summer and these are turnkey materials that are wonderful for the students and federally funded I believe. Correct. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I move to approve the purchase of supplemental in instructional materials for Honey County

100Schools summer reading camp as presented. Second. Have a motion and a second. Is there additional discussion or questions? Chairman votes I. Abato say I. Gainy I hearing no nay votes. The motion is approved. Thank you, Miss Tyson. Thank you, 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 GS115C 321 to consider matters relating to initial employment of an individual employee and consult with the board's attorney in order to preserve the attorney client privilege second have a motion and a second is there additional discussion chairman votes I abate Gia. The motion is approved. We're now in close session. After a motion and second, we are now back into open session. Uh, Mr. Matthews, chairman, chairman Powell,

101members of the board, I'd just like to recommend the personnel report is presented in close session. Mr. Chairman, I move to approve the personnel report as presented in close session to include administrator contracts as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Personnel matter. Chairman votes I. Abate I. Gay I. Hearing no votes. The motion is approved. Is there anything else? Mr. Chairman. No, sir. Mr. Mr. Superintendent. Sorry. Thank you, Mr. Jagger. You're welcome. You're welcome. when you called me Mr. Jaggers earlier so forth I thought this been several times as meetings start I'm sitting here waiting for chairman Jaggers convene it then I realize I have to do it so I will entertain a motion Mr. Chairman, make a motion with you. Second. A motion and a second. All in favor say I.

102I. We're adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.