001I got one. Come on. I thought we were closer than that. 24 and the board of education has been start by reading the mission statement that will be up on the board. We've been reading unison. The mission of Well City School District is to create and maintain a highly effective educational system in which every student the highest quality education. School employees and parents work together to prepare students to become caring, competent, and responsible citizens who value education process. Thank you. Next item is the agenda review and approval. I get a motion to approve tonight's agenda. H I need to add something. um paperless transition for the board. Okay, we can add that under 10 A transition. Anything else for discussion? I mean to add to agenda. Motion to approve. Is that a motion to approve
002tonight's agenda? Yeah. I make a motion to approve tonight's agenda with the addition of 10A. Second. Okay. It's been motioned properly second to approve tonight's agenda. Tonight's agenda um with the addition of 10A. Are there any questions? All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Eyes have it. And the agenda has been approved. Now, can I get a motion to approve the open session minutes? I'll make a motion that we approve the open session minutes. Okay, it's been motion and properly second to approve the open session minutes. Are there any questions? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Eyes have it. And so next item is going to be recognition and upcoming school events new hires. Mr. Good evening everyone. Good evening. to board chair vice board and board members and to everyone
003here today virtually and face to face. We welcome you to another opportunity to hear about the great things that are going on here at school. I'll start off with our student of the month well academy. This is third grade is such a delight to his class to have in class. He is a student who wastes no time. He come into come into class gets busy with his work and his assignment and participates in class and follow instruction. I have no doubt that he will be a remarkable have a remarkable and successful teacher. Congratul Get mom and dad over here. He's still smiling after taking all his test a little bit. That's all right. Congratulations again. [Music] Tan Branch, sixth grade. I'm pleased to recommend Tan Branch, a student of over the course of the school.
004This school year, Tan remarkable growth in both behavior and academics. While he faced some challenges early in the year, he committed to including himself and become and that has become evident and Congratulations. And next we will have welding high career academyy's AI majal was chosen as well career academy student of the month due to her hard work outstanding character willingness to assist her classmates and teachers. She is an honored student that always poured um her all into her class. We are extremely proud of Aaliyah and appalled of her accomplishment as a ninth grader. We are looking forward to seeing what her bright future is. That's I love we got family. Make her have a wide angle lens for her. Perfect. Ronald Early Holler and this is Mia Barber 11 grades. Mia is an extremely focused
005and determined student who understands the necessity of hard work and accomplish work to accomplish her goals. Due to her tenacity and leadership abilities, Mia has been chosen to serve as a governor's tent. Miss Barbara is the epitome of a Ron Valley Early College student. We are proud to acknowledge her as Ron Valley Early College student of the month. Let's give her a hand. Now we will have our employee of the month. Our employee of the month is Mr. Jacqueline Smith, first grade teacher at Welen Elementary Global Academy and bus driver. Miss Smith has been and Weldon employee for over 20 years, has been proven tried and true as she put students first. She was always prepared for every task no matter how big or small. We are truly grateful that she she's a part of
006our small family. She contributes greatly. Exactly. coming on up. Yes, ma'am. All right, let's do that. You get over there. Awesome. All right. We have a parent of the month, which is Mrs. Rosalyn Clemens. Rosalyn Clemens. Miss Roslin Clemens is a parent of Wells Middle School. Well, elementary school. So, we need Miss Lee back in here. U Mrs. Clemens, we chose this parent because she's consistently supportive to the school as she volunteers for events, proactively checking in to offer assistance with school initiatives and advocating for all students. She shares concerns thoughtfully and always offers solutions for a from a parent perspective. Congratulations Serious talking. Awesome. Congratulations. So at this time, so at this time um just want to share the end of year celebrations and recognitions that have happened here has happened in May. There
007has been many amazing highlights um that have been displayed on our social media and our website and we definitely would encourage you to go and see all the things that well students do. We had the Rome Valley early college senior banquet. We had wellness film high school career academy senior banquet. We also had the job fair and career extravaganza at the center for energy which our students attended. Welen City Schools job fair and career day at Welen Middle School weather high school. We also had the board of education and Dr. Shotwell visit each school presenting gift cards to our all employees for teacher appreciation. We had the athletic banquet at World Stem High School Career Academy in Wy Middle School. Um Halifax Community College early college graduation. We had that as well and decisions that
008district decision day and much more. So for the end of the year um that's on that's upcoming the events that's upcoming. And I want you to jot it down, remember it, or get with me and I can share that information with you. But there are some things that are going on briefly share those. Presently, we have the spring band concert in full effect right now at HCC. Uh start at 6:00 p.m. Unfortunately, they could not get another date. So, this is the date that they had to uh utilize for that. Well, the preschool moving up ceremony is going to be tomorrow at 8:40 a.m. Ronald Valley Early College field day uh will be tomorrow at 1:00. Bush Gardens field um field trip will be f will be May 19th well middle school awards day for
009well done elementary global academy will be on the 20th 8:40 for 1 and 2 grade 9:50 for third and fourth grade 8th grade um promotion ceremonies will be the 21st at 1:00 kindergarten moving up will be the 21st at 8:40 a.m. Fifth grade moving up 21st at 9:50. Welden Welen STEM Academy will have it academic awards day on the 27th at 6:00 p.m. Graduation practice for Ron Valley Early College and Welen Stem High School Careermies will be at 8:00 a.m. to 100 p.m. at Griffin Center. And then we will have the grand finale which is the graduation. Ron Valley Early College graduation will be at uh 10 p 10:00 a.m. and Welen STEM High School Career Academy will be at 1 pm on the 28th of May. This concludes all our recognition and acknowledgement. Enjoy
010the rest of your Next item on agenda is public forum. Dr. Shawwell, do we have anyone for public forum? Yes, ma'am. We have one person. Okay. Um this is Miss Cynthia Bird. Yes, ma'am. All right. Good evening. Um, what? You you do have three minutes and I need someone to take the corner of the table once you start. Let me know. Let her know. I'd like to ask you a question. I understand that I have three minutes. Is there a warning as the three minutes I want to ask? I can put my hand up when there's a minute left if you like. How whatever make sure you Yes, sir. I'll put my hand up when there's a minute left. Okay. All right. I won't start until you start. Okay. You got it. I got it.
011Okay. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Cynthia Bird and I come before you asking for your help. I come to you after 350 days of addressing the concerns that are still weighing heavily on my heart that are still existing right now and I'm bringing them to the board after having first addressed them in my home. Then addressed them at the school level with the teachers, with the school counselor, with the principal. I've also met with the superintendent and now I'm meeting with the board to bring to your knowledge these concerns and my main question is what is it costing our children? I do have a child who is a Welen City Schools student. I am a Halifax County Welen City Schools native and product of the school system. I love it dearly and I
012love the county. My child's name will not be called in this meeting because of the forum and because we are live and being recorded. However, I will say just for the record that my child is a student at Ronald Valley Early College and my concern is what is education now the way it's being presented costing our children? The first thing that I'd like to talk about are instructional practices and leadership. when instructional practices are at the forefront then it is student centered and that has not been the case for the last 350 days and when I say 350 days I'm talking about school calendar days 180 and this is the second year and I rounded it to 350 because we have about 10 left when I'm asking the board when when the grades are computed
013this year I want to see the evidence because I have yet to see the evidence of why the grades that are being recorded are being reported. When I ask for information, when I ask for meetings and promises are made to me and I still have not seen it and I want to know not just when grades are calculated, but I want to know in a timely manner because after the fact help is not really help. Because of the interest of time, I will move to my second concern which is individual student learning and support. 504s exist for a reason. When a 504 is presented to a school with physicians documentation, my question is why isn't it put in place? And when the school says we don't need that because we have structures and requests are
014made, inform the children of the structures, inform the parents of the structures, let us see the structures in writing and still I have not seen them. That is not acceptable. And then my third concern is a hostile environment and parent exclusion. As a parent, I expect to know what my child is being taught, when my child is being taught. I expect to see a calendar, a schedule, what's the testing schedule, when is the information being covered, how is it being covered. I don't mean as an educator, I mean as a parent. And that is something that I should have full access to. Where's the school improvement plan? Where's the PTA? Where is the parent advisory committee that I've heard about? How do parents, which I am one, get access to it? At this time, I
015request the extended time that is available if you will grant it for me tonight. What is the pleasure of the board? Yes. Okay. That really quick. I don't know if there is extended time. I received a yes. Do I continue or am I waiting now? Council is checking. Okay. your board members, your board policy allows for three minutes to present comments. If there's more uh if there's more folks signed up to fit within the 30 minute overall window, you have the authority to reduce the time for each individual. And then if a speaker is unable to present all of his or her information within the specified time limit, the speaker may provide the board with the additional information in written form. So there's not an option in your policy for extending the public comment period
016other than to accept uh written information. Miss Bur, would you be willing to um send us the information written? Uh my answer to that question um madam chairperson or vice chair vice madam chairperson is yes that I will submit my information in writing and because there was a discrepancy where I was given a yes then we found there wasn't time may I please make one closing statement yes okay then I do want to share that my child is a member of the national beta club in good academic scanding and my child is a member of fivetheta kappa at the community college in good academic standing just so that there won't be a concern that I I want that known about my child as well. Thank you for your time. Thank you so much. Thank you.
017Thank you so much. Okay, next item is reports and we'll start off with a and it's edgescentric, Miss Deborah Jones, DJ and this is Deborah Jones right here, Dr. Deborah Jones. and she's here to talk about the educent program. We had talked about it before. Questions were asked about their different districts using it in North Carolina. There are some now. The other reason that we're bringing her back is is that if if you all uh agree to go with this, she would be our uh our coach for our school. and she has extensive work with welding even though she is a friend of mine through uh Guilford County Schools. You know, an outstanding principal in her own right. Not you want me chair ma'am. You want me to just explain the process? Yes ma'am. See
018how we feel. All right. Good evening everybody. Feel like I'm coming back home today. My name is De Deborah Boom. They called me BJ. I am a retired principal from the Guilford County Schools, which was I retired 20 years ago. Uh I started my own business, Educational Leadership Consulting. I'm an independent contractor. And with this company, Edit Centric, I'm subcontracting to do work with them as a navigator coach, meaning I work directly at school level with principles in in this school and the teachers. Tonight is like a sales pitch. That is not my thing. But because a friend of mine asked me to come here, um, that's why I'm here. You owe me one. I had the fortune of um meeting uh Miss Hell before and going through this. I'mma quickly explain to you what
019the process is. Edric Centric is a company and it's designed to work with schools in the area in school improvement and what we have here is a little bit unique which is why I came on board with this company. It's a framework. It's not a curriculum. It's not just bringing in a bunch of new stuff for you to do. It's how you do things. And it's a four-step process here. And what you have on this one page are the four phases that you go through if you contract with this company. And phase one is what we call onboarding. Once a contract is signed with the school district, I'm not involved with that. We will have people who will come in work with the central office level. One of the key components of phase one is
020we will survey teachers and parents to get their input on the schools that are assigned. The schools that are assigned are decided by superintendent and his end not us. It will take about six to eight weeks to collect a lot of data. So we will have a report to guide the next phase. So know that phase one takes some time and it's important that we get this information because it's the foundation of how we plan to work with the school. Now phase two is where I step in. I'm called a navigator slashcoach. You will see with this framework, it's very heavy in the business world. It uses the same language and vocabulary as you would find in a business, but it's the same some of the same things we've been doing in education. So, it's
021not typically new, but it surely is different. Okay. Phase two, we come in and do two days of training with the principal and the team that's been designated at the school. Usually five people are on this team. And hopefully, in my experiences so far, five of your best people in that they see this school in a positive light and will see this school and willing to do the work to make it even better. You need to have the right people on the team with the principle that is key to key. People who are open for change. If you're not open for change, this will not work. You have to want something different. Um there's a quote in a video called 212 and I advise people to look at it. Simple truth put it out. 212
022degrees. To get what we never had, we must do what we've never done. We can't keep doing the same thing over and over again, maybe making one or two points of improvement. That is not enough when your school has been struggling for years. So, with this framework, we're saying we're making what's called transformational change. Change that will move you to bigger leaps and bounds, not incremental change. one baby step after another. So with the launch training is two days of working with this team, teaching the team members on day one a lot about what change is and so forth. Day two is when we get down to the work. We actually create a new flight plan or what we would call a school improvement plan. It's usually two pages and we limit it to two
023to three priority objectives. We have a method for determining priority objectives. We will ask your school to give us six things you think that will make a difference. That's six things too many. As we take you through the steps, we're going to we're going to whittle that down to the most impactful two that will move this school in a faster and a greater amount of improvement. That's two days. That's one of the differences in this model over some other school improvement things. Phase three and I'm start the navigator coach starts at phase two. Phase three is now that the plan is in place, you get 25 what we call huddle sessions. They are virtual where my job is to work closely with the team and the principal. If we put it in the plan, you
024have to do it. If you're not doing it, you're going to have to tell me why. If you still don't want to do it, then you're going to have to tell your superintendent why. There's a lot of accountability with this as well as support. Now, I have agreed and I have permission from the owner that with one of my uh because of my connection here, and I don't mind doing this, I will come once a month in person to meet with the team versus doing everything online. I sometimes I have to just see it. I have to feel it in the building. And um so I would be for instance one virtual meeting with the administration team and then one month or once a month I would come for a two to three hour visit
025at the school level. That is typically not in this model. I'm working in Hope County now. That's what we've been doing there since January. And by the way, the districts that have done this, Herford County has a educent framework. Alamance, Burlington, county, and they all started at odd times of the year. No one started in August, but this is a 12 month commitment. It's 12 months. So for instance for whole county I will finish January 2026. So starting in the middle of the year is a little awkward but we got ourselves going. You have your sessions in phase three and then we come back to phase four we call the landing where we come back and we look at all the information we collected in first one about the needs assessment the customer survey that
026we compare before and after. We're looking at test scores. The thing about this framework is this. It's a lot of accountability and things have to be measurable. We do qualitative. We want to hear comments. We want to hear people's opinions. That's part of collecting information, but we also have to be honest and look at the reality of the day. It's all about test scores. That is important too. So, we do a lot of data collecting throughout the process. The key result indicator for North Carolina would be the end of grade test or end of course test. But before you get to that point, what are you doing along the way? And we have checkpoints built in. And that is decided by the team at the two-day launch. Now, once we have that flight plan, we
027can still go back and make adjustments. But once that plan is in place, the coaching starts and we take off and we take off quickly. Anything I missed that? That was basically everything you went over. Any questions from anyone? Yes, Miss DJ. Um, so you say you started in Kirkley County. Um, how long ago was that when you started? They started I think back the same time back in December, January, right? Or may have been November. They didn't start at the beginning of the year. Okay. So, one of the advantages the commitment is now we try to get going because remember it takes a while to collect this other data so we can start closer to the beginning of the school year. And depending on the principal, for instance, if you have beginning principles, the
028way you work with a beginning principal is not the same way you work with a veteran principal. It isn't in my book. I I do think a little different. I make sure a lot more a lot more things are in place for a beginning principal because they're still lacking some of the experience of knowing what happens on the job. So, the sooner you can get in um at the beginning of the year, you can really set the focus and direction. And that's what this does because we will ask, we will determine what's called a northstar metric. that will be our guiding star through the whole process. And an example of some of the northstar metrics that schools are working with, moving from a F to a C. That's a big lump. Big big jump. F
029to a D is not a big jump. F to a C is a big jump. That's their metric. So everything in our plan is geared towards meeting that metric and looking at we what we call the value proposition is what's so unique about the school. Why would why would somebody want to go to global academy because you're competing for students in this district and I remember when I was working here before you were still competing with was it Kip Academy? Yeah, Kip Academy was still in the best elementary right before testing from the elementary school. So, what's unique about the your global academy align with your Northstar metric making those things work together to have improved student academic achievement and also an overall school environment where parents want to come to your school. They want
030to stay in your school and they want to stay in your district. So um so you so what school districts have you worked with or you completed the program and kind of what have been those results? Not in North Carolina. We are in 21 different states. Okay. And most of them are in Texas because uh my former superintendent and founder that's where his last job was. Okay. And so and a lot of them were special programs. So, for one, I think Baylor Baylor is one that stands out as a high school and they were like um school within the school program and their their northstar metric was to increase the number of kids who be prepared to go into from a middle school to Baylor Elementary and high school in a a u health field
031curriculum. So what they had to do is create the environment and the framework to prepare kids to get accepted into this special program at the high school and they were able to do that. North Carolina is still new. What's the cost? it it normally it's 60,000 per school, but because we're going to try to do two it would be 45 for each and and a lot of that deals with bringing in the training for the two days, also bringing in people to do the uh the assessment with surveys, existing information that we have. But really, we're really where the proofs in the pudding is when we come out of the two-day training and and the school has a a a a plan, their northstar. This is what we want to do. And what it does
032is when you go back and you start asking questions because, you know, there have been boards that have done this, you know, who will have things up on their wall and say, "This is what we believe." And then when somebody on the board brings up something that doesn't have anything to do with their mission, other board members kind of keep it in check. And so this is really what we're doing right here. When somebody brings something up, how is this going to how how is this going to help us hit our core mission? Because one of them might be we'd like to make sure that all of our kids are reading on grade level before they leave the third grade. And we have to think of ways to measure that along the way. So we
033might say every month we're going to create our own assessment. We're going to build in interventions along the way. We're going to do more professional development for teachers. Now I will be the first one to tell you who's going to complain the most. You know who's going to complain the most? The teachers. The teachers. They'll be running to you. They're making us do some stuff we don't want to do. That's typical. That's what I've learned in my experiences since I've been doing this. Uh I started doing this at uh through DPI where I got my training for school improvement. Uh my first assignment was Winston Sing for Site County. My second assignment was welding elementary school. So I was here for about a school year working with the elementary school. The adults are the ones
034who will make the difference. It's not the child. It's the grown-ups in the building who will make the difference and their commitment to doing things. If you have a school that has a lot of new teachers, especially teachers who are not trained in education, this is teaching is their second career. They need a lot of professional development and learning. They need a lot of support from that end to help them learn how to become teachers quickly quickly. And so for instance, at my current school, we built in a professional development priority object. And from the moment we started the end of January, they've been doing many sessions from February, March, April. We don't do stuff like that testing month. May is off limits. But we know that over the summer, we're planning a more detailed
035professional development plan for the next year. Now, and connecting that, if we know we're going to teach you a skill, then the principal has to walk around and document evidence of you using it, give teachers feedback. So, it's really a lot of buy in, but it's also a lot of collaboration and support, especially at the school level because I feel like part of the secret sauce is really the coaching of the principal and leadership team and holding them accountable because it's so easy to say, "Okay, well, I've got I got pictures this week. I really can't do the meeting or I've got this coming up. I really can't do the meeting." There there's a commitment in this that they've got to meet this. The other reason that I like having uh Dr. Jones here is
036one that she has she's familiar with welding. So, she knows what she's uh walked into when she's coming over here to work with the elementary school and middle school. And the other piece is is that she was uh you know, her school was one of the most uh uh highest impacted schools in Guilford County and they were title one school of the year for the for the nation. No, no, I was not that one. Oh. Oh, come on now. That was not me. You sure? Yeah. just know that that that that Hampton was a a school that made a huge turnaround under your leadership. Did a lot of work, but we had a lot of school and community support that made a difference. Yeah, that school no longer exists. It got destroyed by the tornado.
037So it was all. So, but thank you for this opportunity to come and share this with me and I'll be glad to come back and work with you in the future. Just uh hopefully make a decision quick because they're trying to assign me to some other places. And I told them I'm I'm not doing a lot of work the next couple of years. This is year 50 for me in education. So, I'm about ready to start slowing down. Thank you. I believe that when I see it. Thank you so much, Dr. Jones. The next item on the agenda is superintendent reports. Dr. Rodney Johnson. Thank you, Miss H. You're welcome. uh you know uh first of all there's just so many things going on uh at the end of the school year that uh I
038I get the most excited because we're recognizing academic achievement this especially this next week and I'm looking forward to going out to uh the banquet the the recognitions at the various schools and uh just just really excited because it's a culmination of hard work and when I think about hard work I think about our teachers the core we've got supporting staff we've got teacher assistant But we but getting those teachers in our classroom to to give our kids the very best is is is job number one. And one of the things that I feel like that we can do with that is uh bringing a teaching supplement into an existence for Wel City Schools. As I've said in the past uh a couple meetings, you know, we have uh the funds that are coming in
039through uh the supplemental tax that will pay for this not just this next year but subsequent years. It is a sustainable form of revenue that we can rely on for our teachers. And when I gave you the different scenarios, uh I gave you the scenario A, B, and C. I know y'all seen this probably a thousand times. And then I gave you on the back side what it would cost. And in the green there's still uh even with the money that we've got budgeted in the upcoming budget in our local in we have money in there that if if you approve this for the teachers, we'll bring back a scale for our classified employees as well. But right now I mean I we don't have school without students and teachers. if we have to have
040teachers to teach and we want the very best teachers to teach our kids here in Weldon and I feel like this is a wonderful step because now you're talking about when say okay so outside of the state salary what do what what do I get if I decide to come to Well City schools okay we do get a low wealth teacher supplement and this year it's a little over $3,700 per teacher and they're going to get that paid to them first week in June. So there's no tax implications for their last paycheck in December. Thinking about our employees. But now you can say to somebody who's got 21 years experience or more, not only are you going to get that, but you're going to get $5,000. On top of that, in Eastern North Carolina, you've
041got to start somewhere. And I think that is a huge impact. When you start looking at what some of the other districts offer, it makes Welton City Schools near the top to be in competitive. And again, I've given youall three different scenarios. The recommendation uh that I'm bringing to you is option A where a beginning teacher would make 2500. A teacher with 21 years or more would make $5,000. And I, you know, and all the numbers that you saw on this are all based on what if we gave the supplement this year, how much would it cost? One of the folks that are working for us right here. I feel like that this is probably the one of the most important things that you can look at and do. If you approve this, you can
042add things down the road like I had mentioned that if a teacher shows growth for two years in a row, they can bump up another step from where they are. Or if a teacher's not performing, you can take them down a step. I mean, there are different things that you could do to it, but for right now, I just think it's really just important for us to send a a clear message that we really want the very best teachers coming to Wil City Schools. Dr. Shotwell, I do agree with you and I'm not opposed to the um supplement um for teachers. Actually, I think it's a great idea. Um but we have three three options to choose from and um I would like to know the pleasure of the board. Which option are we choosing
043to go with at this time? A, B, or C? Question. Yes, ma'am. So, as I've said before, I certainly appreciate this. This is something I have been asking for the last 14 years. So, I'm glad to see this being put in place. Um, in addition to getting something for our teachers because they definitely deserve it. Um, but our classified staff as well deserve something. So, what you have presented to us, if I look at the second sheet, um, this is just for teachers. You're going to bring back something to us for classify. Yes, ma'am. Right. In addition to So, if we the number that you're thinking about, if we go with just say we went for the high the one that gives the the most money, are we still going to have enough money to
044give something to our classified? Yes. Like if you went with a based on the budget amount that we have in the in the proposed 2526 budget, you would still have $151,96 that could be utilized to come up with some type of uh classified classified. Okay. The sheet that you gave us the last time with the amount of Yes, ma'am. Um, I know you don't have it right there. Let me see your sheets. Let me see what's going on. I know. All right. So, what is the um A, B, or C? Um, AB, please. Or is there a motion? Anyone want to give a motion as to which one they want to choose? and they could be voted up or down. You can certainly have board discussion prior to a motion being made. If you want
045to um proceed in that manner otherwise, if there's an option that a board member wants to support, uh you should certainly make a motion, then there may need for a second and any discussion from there. It really depends on how you want to proceed. the second page you're going to see on sheet two. Dan, if you'll hit the bottom tab on the bottom. What is the pleasure for? Do you all want any more discussion? One additional question. Dr. Shotwell. Yes, ma'am. Question. I just want to be clear. This is in addition to the low wealth. Yes. Supplement. Yes, ma'am. And as I tried to give an exhaustive list of the people that would be uh receiving this, anybody who is an assistant principal on up works at the central office are not getting the teach
046supplement. Dr. Shaw, I apologize for not asking this earlier, but just a clarifying question on that. So, so this supplement would apply to any staff member who meets the statutory definition of a teacher. Is that right? Not just your literal classroom. That is correct. But anyone within that definition of teacher who who has that certification that's working with children on a daily basic work day. So your school nurses are going to be involved in this instructional support instructional support staff because that's part of an aotment that comes to us as professional staff. So your counselors um yes curriculum people right just because that's been there have been other districts that have approved supplements without being very clear on who it applies to. So this would be anyone who meets that statutory definition which again it's
047not just your classroom teachers that's instructional support staff your counselors your nurses there's a whole bucket of positions that BPI considers to be within that and this amount covers that entire do we have applause because you said something dependent on performance or something like that is there that's something that you all could add down the road I think this is a great beginning and and as you know some of you have mentioned you don't want to reward everybody the same thing if they're not doing a great job. So this is another way that you can deviate and reward folks that are going above and beyond. Do we need to um have more discussion on this before we vote on a test ready? You explain to [Music] us you want info now. Um first of all,
048we have to choose which option we're going to go with. Okay. I would I would recommend B. I mean, it's the the lower the options, but it does give us an opportunity if we do come into a lean year, we could still have money available to pay it versus, you know, giving something and taking it back. Um, so I would prefer to start lower. I mean, while I do agree that the the teachers and staff, they do deserve something and I want to give them something, but I don't want to bite off more than we can chew in the very beginning. you know, start and take take baby steps versus Yeah. I just say this, they're getting zero right now, right? So, I mean, whatever you do is going to be a welcome. Uh, absolutely.
049Yeah. It gives us some flexibility to move to a higher level if and that's still a wide and that's still a really good supplement for folks. We could go down just a little bit. Well, so do you make a motion? Somebody I make I make a motion that we approve um option B for our teacher supplement. Okay, it's been a motion properly second to approve option B as our teacher supplement. Um any questions? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? I have it and we have chosen option B. On behalf of your staff, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. go into effect. This will go into effect 256. So now we can start recruiting. Okay. Um, next item on the agenda is finished. Yes, ma'am. Board chair report. And um I'd like to
050start off by saying as we approach the end of another successful school year, on behalf of the board, I want to take a moment to extend my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to everyone who played a part in making this year a positive and productive one. To our dedicated educators, support staff, administrators, and volunteers, thank you for your hard work and commitment, especially during testing sess season. We are grateful to those that helped facilitate the end of grade testing this past week and we hope our students perform their very best. We also praying for strong outcomes as our high school students prepare to take the end of course test next week and those that have makeup test next week as well. A special thank you to everyone who helped organize and support both our senior banquetss
051and the athletic banquet. These events for a beautiful celebration of our students achievements and a testament to the teamwork and charge of spirit that defines our district. I actually hate that we missed the band spring concert tonight uh because the support because supporting our students is definitely something that our board takes great pride in every in every possible way. As we look ahead, we're excited about the upcoming transitional programs and graduation ceremonies. These milestones are incredibly important to our students and our families and we look forward to celebrating together as a community. We are reminded that the end of this school year is not just a closing is also a beginning. And speaking of new beginnings, I want to share some things especially meaningful. I want to take a moment to address something significant for
052our district's future. For more than two years, Welder City Schools has been without a permanent superintendent. We have been incred incredibly fortunate to have Dr. Shotwell serve as interim capacity and provide steady experienced leadership. He stepped in with steady hands and a servant's heart in April of last year and his impact on our district will be felt for years to come. His guidance has been a true blessing to our district and we thank him for his time, dedication, and his heart for welding. There we go. That said, we all know he can't stay forever, right? The Well City Schools Board of Education has made a confident and unified decision to move forward and we are proud to announce that we have named our next superintendent, Dr. the Tammy B. Is one of our own, having
053joined us earlier this year. She currently serves as our executive director of curriculum and instruction and brings with her extensive experience in education and leadership. Her passion, professionalism, and commitment to student achievement have already made a meaningful impact, and we are excited about her continued leadership in this new road. Since joining us, she has already become a trusted leader, a visible presence, a true advocate for academic excellence, committed to the same vision we all share, that every child in Welding deserves the very best. Dr. Boom will officially begin her duties on July 1st and we are planning a swearing in ceremony and a community meet and greets in January where all are welcome to attend and show your support. At this time I'd like to ask Dr. Boon if she would like to offer a
054few words. There you go. I would first of all like to say good evening everyone and I would especially like to say that I am deeply grateful for the opportunity. I'm very um excited, little nervous, but excited to get started and to do the very best that I can to help move well the city schools forward, not backwards. Um I believe we are on the cusp of doing some wonderful things and I am thankful to be a part of those wonderful things that are going to happen. So, I thank the board for your um confidence and your selection of yours truly as your next leader to take on. And I will do the very best that I have inside of me to try to make Welcome City Schools the best place that it can be
055for our students and to put education at the forefront and to make sure that we are doing things. I know we're not supposed to use the word equity, but I'm going to say we are going to do the best that we can to make decisions in an equitable manner so that it will we want all of our children to u be represented, to be educated, and to be taken care of. So again, I say thank you once again. And that is it. And if there's thank you and I just send an email to all staff. Okay. Hey man, I'm trying to get on this one. Okay. At this time, I'm going to ask that there's a motion to appoint and approve Dr. Boon's contract to become Wellness City School Superintendent for missing July 1st, 2025
056and ending on June 30th, 2029. I move that the Welen City School Board of Education appoint Dr. Tammy Boone as its next superintendent with a start date of July 1st, 2025 and further that the board approve the terms of the superintendent contract with Dr. Boone as discussed in closed session. Second. It's been motioned and properly second to approve Dr. Boone appoint and approve Dr. Boon um contract to become well city school's superintendent. Are there any questions? If not, all those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Eyes have it. And congratulations, Dr. Boon. You are now part of where you are. We welcome Dr. Boom into this role with open arms and open heart. Her journey is now Weldon's journey and we look forward to walking this path together. In closing, because I've talked too
057much already, let's stay focused and energized as we finish the year strong with Charge of Pride leading the way. Thanks again everyone for all that you do. That concludes my comments. Next item on the agenda is going to be our financial report, Miss Kathy Kid. So, Miss Tiffany H, board chair, board members, Dr. Shotwell and all others in attendance. Good evening. Good evening. I stand for to present the following budget amendments for approval. I have current expense amendments number one and number two and local amendments number eight, number 10, and number 11. You have any questions? I have a question. The CL Kelly Educational Trust. Yes. It what increased? Yes. So, we've received a check for $5,439. That's the only check we have received thus far this year. We have been in contact with a
058gentleman with Co America where the checks come from. And that there were three checks that were mailed out that have not been received and were lost. So, he's having to do a stop payment on those checks and it will be issued. Um, I spoke with him this morning and he said possibly this week or early next week. Okay. And they will be awarded two to both schools. Is that correct? Since it'll be four checks in total. Well, I'm not sure how many recipients we have, but yes, each school get two checks. Yes. Okay. and we are in the process of making sure we have a process in place to award the fellowships. So after um making contact with the young man at Co America, then we went back and we're revising the application process. As
059a matter of fact, it went out to students on yesterday and applications I know it's a short turnaround period, but it went out and those applications are due back tomorrow. Um actually, it may have gone out Tuesday. we don't have much time to, you know, a lot for the application period because we're almost at the end of the school year and we want to make sure that students are awarded the um applications. So, I know ARVC has released their application. They released it on Tuesday and so did the high school. So, we're planning to have interviews with those students who have submitted applications. Yes, it will be a quick turnaround period because those interviews will take place next week and we're hopeful to announce those uh awards at graduation. Two for ARVC at least and
060two at least for the high school. I say at least because we are planning to meet with the principles and counselors and based on the exact amount it could be that more than two students are awarded but we do know at least two per school but it's 5,000 for the whole district for the whole 500 school. Yes. And actually the checks that were never cash asked um the young man at Co America to reissue those checks. So right now we're sitting at once we receive the money we're sitting at at least 10,000 per school. So that's why I say at least two. Now um I have no idea where the checks are. I mean don't know but all I know is they weren't. Okay. Um when she first said that I was thinking you said
061they got lost in the mail, right? We don't know. He said possibly because they were mailed out, but those checks I was thinking that this was for this school year. So I was thinking that it was going to be 5,000. I mean 5,000 for each check, right? Yes. But those are from previous years. Three of them are. Yes. We've only received one this year and that was for our vet. And then when we were question, we called him about the check for the high school. Um then he looked it up and he stated that that check has never been cashed. So then we went proceeded to ask him about okay check last year. So he checked last year and there were two checks. They never were cashed either. Right. So he's going to stop on
062as soon as they is returned to them. He'll be issued on chance. So, normally it would have just been just the 5,000,000 per school. Yes. Yes. Per school. Per school. Normally 5,000 per but it's three checks. Okay. The good thing is he was willing to reissu. So, um, we did, as kid and I, we did have some conversation about, I know we might be opening up Pandora's box, but just doing a deeper study to find out exactly what we need to know moving forward as far as that's concerned to make sure that it doesn't happen again. And we do know that some of the addresses were off that he called out. We need to figure out where those addresses even exist. But again, the good thing is at least we will get it. So, and
063the students will be able to get it. Okay. Any other questions? I get a motion to approve the amendments. So um can you state? I make a motion that we approve um local amendment 11. [Music] All right. local amendments 8, 10, and 11 and current expense amendments one and two. Is there a second? Second. Okay, it's been moved to properly motion and seconded to um approve the budget amendments that were presented to us. Are there any questions? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Eyes have it. Um, thank you. Next item. Does anybody have any questions? statements are reviews on those and then the budget and they voted on that. Thank you for looking at me like that. Thank you. Yeah, we're we're just we're you know uh last week we gave you
064the draft uh state federal and um child nutrition budget and we we do needed approval for that. We've already submitted the the current expense budget and capital budget because you approved that on April the 20th which is required by state by general statute. And and again this is just an estimate. It's a draft budget but we haven't even gotten uh our a lotment for federal for this next year. We're just kind of basing it on what we've done this year and what we anticipate for next year. It just gives us a good way to start and plan. I'm requesting approval for the proposed budgets for the 2526 school year for the state budget, federal, local, and child nutrition budgets. Local restricted. I make a motion that we approve the um budget for local, state, child
065nutrition, and federal. Second. Okay. a motion part of the session to um approve the budget for state federal child nutrition and local budget for 2526 2526 school year. Are there any questions? All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Eyes have it and the vote has been next item is federal programs. Miss I'm sorry. Thank you so much, Miss Ke. Thank you. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is federal programs and student services. Miss Janique Rick Fton. board chair H vice chair David board members Dr. J. Um, I want to be very quick. Most of the things I have for you, um, to view, you can look at them and if you have additional questions, I'd be happy to dive in for you. Um, the first page has the current grants awarded. Um, since
066April board meeting, we didn't have any grants that came in after that. Um, we had the 81 homeless and foster transportation grant. I don't like calling out those numbers in order. You can see them on the page. Um the the purpose of that grant is to offset the and be a reimbursement process the extraordinary costs incurred due to students identified as hawk can be homeless. We have a large percent of our students who are homeless who we have to transport from a great distance and this uh funds is based on how much how many homeless students we have identified and how much funds that we expend in our transportation. We've done a much better job this year of um properly coding those funds as to not um create a deficit for the state transportation budget.
067Um and this will help offset those costs that we've incurred. We are still awaiting on the 145 the NC Stronger Connections Grant. Um there's been some confusion because that is a flow through grant basically from the federal level. Um, and some of the parts of that stronger connections grant, the federal government has decided they're not going to fund, but the state has not finished going through all of our grant applications and deciding what we um would receive if they award anything. So, right now, we're still in the process with the state department. Um, and the most that we could receive is $200,000. Um, we have since this was submitted, we have received notifications of some federal budgets, some federal grants, excuse me, that are are out there for us to seek funds related to safe
068schools. So, we are working on that process to try to see how we can um apply for those grants. We started that process, but what we want to apply for. So, what we've only started so far is the shale, putting in our district information, making sure we have access to the federal grants.gov website. Um, but we will meet and we're required to include stakeholders such as the sheriff's department, um, mental health providers, parents, um, our community stakeholders just to review as we do with all federal grants. So right now um Sergeant Vaughn is in on our kind of circle um Mr. Hunter because a lot of the things that could happen could be a physical plant your physical structure safety for student services. May is mental health awareness month. I just put some brief information
069that was shared via our um all call system, the text alerts, emails for anyone who has an email address in our system, but at the back you have the full copy of that flyer. You just can't interact with the videos. Videos has been the most hits on our student services um posters and flyers. We can see how many clicks people have. So the more videos we include, the more connection we have and to get the information out. But there's information in there for students and parents that could be helpful when a person is in crisis. Um, probably should have been out in the other order, but the safety grant that we received, the big grant that we did receive last, I just did a little highlight into what we have done so far with that
070grant. Um, we have left $100,000 left to spend. So, we've spent we're only waiting on a few um quotes. So, most of the things you can either see when you visit the school. They can do the video chat, the back and forth conversation, not just buzzing everyone in. Um and the um new weapons detection system. They're going to try that out on the first day of summer school to see how that runs. You're dealing with a smaller group of students. Um give them a chance to see if they've got everything calibrated properly. um chronic absenteeism. I continue to talk about that at each one of our board meetings because it is a it is one of the topics that's being discussed as included in the um school letter grade configuration um absenteeism. So we want
071to keep our eye on including that process and the way to do that is to know always know where you are. A lot of people when they think about data they think about test scores but the attendance of our students when you see how many students are missing um a large percentage of their school year is really hard to teach them if we can't get them here. Um and many of them have various reasons but our social worker and our school staff are calling and visiting and trying to get those parents to see that they need the children need to be in school. Um, it might be harder to see this on the screen here, but you can see it on your assembly on the file. You can click on that. That gives it by
072grade level. We're tracking it every last day of the the school month. Um, so that we can see for one, how do we prepare when we have dips in our attendance? How can we be proactive the next school year if we notice that even a certain grade level is having an issue? Do we need to do something to incentivize attendance? the students are we've done a deeper dive now not just about the month but even the day of the week where our students we're having the most attendance um issues if you go two pages over you can see the absences by weekday Thursday is an eventual absence um for our district that's the largest one you might think it would be Monday or Friday but Thursday outweighs both of those Wednesday is a much better
073day So, the teachers are going to try to do something to really hold those students um and to get maybe get a a test to determine who knows if you're doing it on Thursday, you're missing a whole lot of your kids. Um and parties as well. Um as with attendance, parties Thursday, Monday, and Thursday are almost neck and neck. So that's data that schools can use to try to prepare um in their attendance committees to try to help determine what's happening on those days. Um we have 70 McKenna Vento students currently identified. 65 that number change is is portrayed here on the slide because I was able to change the slide but on your printed document where it was 47 now it's 70. 65 of those are um students that are in school. Five of
074those are from 0 to 5 or 18 to 21. Um we can count those and serve those in our homeless. So it's only five of those. Um that's listed there. 65 are students that are actually in our classrooms. I'll be happy to answer any questions. I have a question. Yes, ma'am. um that the information that you gave about the absences um attendance, has that been um shared with the principles at the different schools so that they could deliver the information to the um to their teacher so that they would know, you know, because it helps to prepare for the lessons, you know, that week. And we see the graph here, but we also print it out. And this um graph is a part of a shared spreadsheet. that's shared with our counselor, social worker, principles,
075assistant principal, um, curriculum department, but I also shared and printed out a copy because I didn't want to put that in a Google drive. But each principal received a list of who is actually considered chronically absent, how many absences those individual students have had, so they can see the students behind the numbers. Um, but each principal received that in inter departmental mail this week. Um, and so we'll do that every month moving forward too. Although they could pull that report in process of what principles have to do on a daily basis and some of the things that our counselor facilities work are trying to deal with just to get students physically through the day. Um, if that's something that I could provide for them to take that burden off of them having to go in
076and print that report, then that's not a problem. I have to print it and see it for myself. So to print a copy and put it in a folder is getting that information to them in a faster manner and it's attendance done around the same time for all the schools because I know that kids send I mean we have a lot of tardens too but a lot of kids come to school late and they may not even be once that person who whomever is checking them in whether they're there or not. I mean if they're not there they're going to check them absent. there's anybody going back and changing it saying that this this child has come in late or I know it may be the case with some of them but you may have
077some that you've missed but they're there and I can say that because that has happened to me and they called me and tell me my son was not in school today but he was there to make you feel any better I get called when Josh too a little bit later. Yeah. So that that could be counted in here as an absence when actually the child is really there. But are we taking attendance high school? It should be every period. It's every same thing in middle school too, right? And so when kids So when kids sign in, they sign in and that they're supposed to uh uh rec reconcile the check in with uh with the data. And then if they can't get in, that's when they can talk to Miss Robinson over here and get
078that fixed if they need to. That system is connects to the um Infinite Campus. So if the students actually go into the office and sign in there, it reconciles that information, but we didn't start Infinite Campus at the beginning of the year, but we that is actually working now. They do have a new systems, new computers, updated everything. Um, Miss Aquila is the attendance. Um, I know the story, but I do I do look at the data because that is a part of the student services. But she's doing a a good job of trying to figure out if parents call and say my child was there, then they go and talk to the teachers to try to figure out and we're trying to figure out how our students getting by the office, you know, and
079not signing in or how is it not connecting. Um it's a lot easier now at the elementary school because they can't go through that other door until they're buzzed in. So there's a little buffer or barrier there for them than it was before and so kids could kind of slip through. Um but whatever we can do to improve, I'm sure that um the team is opening to looking at what's going on. Well, I will say that ever since that new system has been set up though, I will say that I haven't received I don't think I have received any calls that told me that he was absent and he was actually there. So, that may have helped a lot. Hopefully, we're in a better place. Yeah. Yes. All right. Any other questions? Not a question,
080but just a um comment. I think I know that Miss um Miss Whitaker Whitaker has utilized um the funding that my family and I birds and Robinson's um where we can support students with shelter and food. I know that she has we've done some things with shelter. We've done some things with those funds are there. Okay. There's not a whole lot but some of us have come together and put some things. So if you need something like immediate, let me know and we can and sometimes we get a parent who calls at 3:00 and said they they went home for work and their things are on the front. Right. So um again I'm thankful for Miss Whitaker. Sometimes she's out, you know, 7 8:00 trying to find somewhere for the the kids to lay their
081head at night outside of a car. Um and sometimes they don't even have a car, right? So, um I know she's aware of those resources and we actually was talking today about things worried about the food pantry. Okay. And whether we would have those funds next year for students um because they use they utilize I got a huge pantry of air at the elementary school. That's nice. Got clothes and those kinds of things in there too. Right. Any other questions? Thank you so much, Miss Paul. Next item is Dr. Green. Good evening. So I would just like to say before I start with curriculum, just to piggyback off of what Mrs. Rick Faulner said, "I think it will be quite important in the days ahead that we keep a handle on what's going on with
082our children, especially not knowing what's going to go on with budgets and child nutrition programs and different things of that nature. So, it probably will be a good idea for us to get out and form even more community partners so that we can make sure that we have adequate resources for our children because we all know that sometimes with child nutrition especially that's the only meal that some students get in the course of an entire day. So, um I think that's something for us to keep a watchful eye on as things begin to come down from different places letting us know about. Absolutely. That was all I wanted to say about that part. As far as curriculum and instruction, the first few slides here, the first couple of slides are just a recap of dates
083and maybe things that will be going on this summer that we've titled it summer ventures 2025 with our different forms of summer remediations and summer camps and different things going on. So that is just a recap of what I've given to you all for probably the last couple of board me just to make sure that everyone was aware. Go on to the next slide. I will just say that our AIG testing has taken place and is completed and we hope to have new students AIP identifications prior to the end of the school year and also to make parents aware of the new identifications so that by the time students come back in August we would have used the time in the summer to meet with parents make sure DPS are done make sure those students
084are prepared and ready and their services are set up so that they will be ready to go when the school year starts. So that is the plan. Our AIG plan, the new plan will be coming to you next month for approval. It has it is due July 1 to DPI. So that will be coming to you next month for approval. I put remediation block up here because this year in I want to say April March March May to April we implemented or we asked principles to implement a remediation block at their schools um for the remainder of school year where it was a drop down power hour that they were to use that time to remediate the students to work on those skills that students needed a boost in as far as those areas were
085concerned. I think the remediation block for the most part just going out and observing has been pretty helpful in most cases. So that is something that of course we plan to move into the 25 26 school year and make sure that that remediation block is implemented from day one that we start with that block of time from day one so the kids have a drop down time that they can receive remediation as well. So we are working on summer plans. So, I've listed up here summer PD because we are putting together some different forms of PD for our staff in the summer uh to partake in things such as um unpacking the standards, going back and unpacking ELA, unpacking math. um ELA will I think it's mass one of them will be like over just
086to go over and go back over it once again because those standards are changing anyway but we want to make sure that our teachers have the opportunity to go through that unpacking once again as a refresher for what they've already done before. Um so we we will be setting that up this summer. We will be doing something with a PBIS reboot this summer that will also tap into MTSS. Um we will have many things going on this summer. Uh we are also going to call our principles in for a dayong. They don't know this yet, so they're hearing it tonight. But we will be calling them in for a dayong um training where they will be here all day in the form of some PLC, some just uh mentorship and coaching, just some different things
087going on uh to also prepare them because just as our teachers need trainings and preparation, so do our principles. Sometimes we put them on the back burner and we just feel like they ought to know what to do. But in some cases, it's always nice to collaborate with someone else and see what others are doing in order to make um ourselves better at what we're doing. So, we do plan to have something in place for them this summer as well. Um the next bullet here was college students on staff for summer 2025. We did interview and we had we had several um students to apply. Um, some students were no-shows when it came time for the interviews. Some showed up and did very well. Um, out of the ones that we had, we do have
088three that we're recommending to the board. So, at whatever point the summer staff may be approved, those students are listed on um that document as well. We also um well summer staff meeting, we will kind of put that on the back burner for right now, but that is a staff meeting that we will need to have with all summer staff prior to to the start of June 1, uh June 2nd when they begin working. So again, that will be contingent on whenever we receive an approval for summer. our absences for our summer reading camp. Of course, through legislation, our third grade students are have to be invited to attend a summer reading camp and they have to go through 72 hours of intense instruction during the summer. So we have decided or better yet I
089propose the ideal that we implement an absentee policy for summer reading camp because if it is 72 hours we really need the students in the seats for 72 hours as best as we can unless there's an emergency that comes up. So, we are going to send out verbiage that says students will not be allowed to miss any more than three unexcused absences for the summer program. Uh, it is not required through DPI, but it is strongly suggested. So, we will have second grade students on campus as well for that particular time and they will be bound to the same absentee policy because if the students are not here, there's not much we can do with them if they don't show up. So um that is information that will go home to parents. Um just a
090couple of things for you to I have written draft on these items just so you can see just a few things that we're working on. So these are just a couple of documents that will become a reality very soon. But the first one that we're working on, this is our tenative, the one that has Miss Jenkins, I have some extras here if you need them. But this is a tentative professional development listing of what will be taking place on August the 5th when this when our teachers return back to school. Our teachers and all of our staff for the most part which this will be a full out professional development day where they will have um different forms of PD as listed here that the staff can pick from and they must attend. It's not
091it's not negotiable. It's non-negotiable. They have to attend. They have to complete their registration once we send the link out and they have to be present. Um this will go on I think until about 1:00 or 1:30 and they will have lunch and then they will also have staff meetings in the afternoon. So it will be a full um day for us there. And as you can see they have presenters listed up here. our very own persons from the district will be presenting all of these sessions. So that is one item that we're working on. Of course, we're having convocation on that Monday, August the 4th, and then our professional development day on that Tuesday. And then the second document that you may take a look at is our PD calendar for the year. Not
092sure where mine, but I think. So this is um this is this one right here just the listing of what we are proposing. This may change some which is part of your need and draft is up here but this is what will take place for the entire school year for the most part. Now like I said this could change based on the need. We have done survey with our teachers to see what they wanted and what they thought would be of interest to them. So, we've included most of what they had up here of what we have listed up here along with some other things that we thought were important. Again, we will have the conversations and define this a little bit more with principles to make it a reality, but for the most part,
093this is what our our year will look like PD throughout the entire year because our our teachers and instructional staff need it. Not only that, we'll be doing some things at the central office level as well. And as I said before, we will have complication on August the 4th. We're working on that. At this time, we will have our administrative retreat on July 28th through the 30th. That's it. Any questions? Um July 28th through the 30th. It's retreat. So, is it in here? Yeah, it's going to be in there. It looks like it will be at Wel and Mills. Oh, it's not in there. Oh, I mean, you all can always opt to, you know, let us go somewhere else, but at this moment, it looks like it will be at Well, okay. And we'll
094prepare what that looks like for you as well so that you can see that. Okay. Any additional questions? This slide here is just all incompetent of our testing. You know that we're in this is testing season. Um we've already began testing. We go and middle school have been testing. So the data is coming in. Of course, it's not ready to be given out at this point. We're just seeing highs and lows right now like a roller coaster. Uh we do have uh at least one area that has done extremely well, but because Miss Davis told me I could not give you all any numbers and I'm going to be obedient and not do so. And I understand because it's not, you know, it's not final yet. It doesn't actually become final until DPI certifies it.
095Um but that doesn't mean I can't whisper and tell you later. So we are seeing some some good things. We are not seeing in some other areas where we would like to be, but um we are still hopeful, not giving up just yet. And we are hoping that our remediation time um those eight days that students can get after the school year ends, we're hoping that we will use that as a time for intensive instruction, intensive everything, drop everything, uninterrupted instruction, no phone calls to the classroom, none of that. We need to make sure that we protect the time having a class with with the students, but we know that we don't get growth during um the retesting period, but we do get proficiency and that's important because we still have some school grades out
096there that we want to capitalize on. So, any questions? Yes. Yes, ma'am. So, summer remediation starts on June 2nd. when that is prior to a board meeting. When will we get the staff list? So, we actually have we're going to get it tonight. Yes. Any other questions? I'm sorry. Yeah. I thought you had it. So, that's why I hesitated. I thought had it. All right. Thank you so much, Dr. Thank you. Good evening. I stand before you to give you your May report. Um you have your packets the compliance. You're at 94%. Fantastic. We're excited about that. Um, you also have in your packets the disability categories. The numbers have not changed much. We have 105 identified students at this time. Next, I have completed the draft of our IDEA grant. Yay. I'm sorry we
097didn't see the applause sign. Yeah. Um and I have given I have um three individuals who have agreed to work with me and read over it for me. Dr. Shotwell, Dr. Boing, and Miss B Robinson have agreed to read over what I have just to make sure it's aligning with what we want to do with welding and aligning with the budget that we will be submitting. It's due May 31st, which is a Saturday. They said that was intentional in case some directors need that Saturday, but I'm hoping we don't that we can go ahead on and submit ours as soon as we get the green light to go. PreK updates. Tomorrow at 8:40 we will be having our moving up ceremony for our um prek babies at WEDA. So if you have an extra 45
098minutes to an hour in your schedule tomorrow, you would drop by and join us. It's not we're just going to present them with the certificates and you know they'll summer packs and then they stay. They also perform, don't they? Don't they do like a song as a part of? They gonna do a song. I like that last year. That's nice. Um, the applications for the upcoming year, we have seven that Smart Start has already. We're waiting for them to send back to us with the approval. We have eight applications that were missing pieces of information that we have to have to submit to Smart Start. We have two applications that have just been completed that we would take over to Smart Start tomorrow. So, right now we have 17 potential preK students next year. How
099many do you have this year? 32. We're expecting a push in July. They said normally in July is when parents start. They're not thinking about the next school year right now. But as the summer goes on, all of a sudden everybody's thinking about the next school year and then they then they come over. So we are still um making sure is you should be hearing about it in the churches up here. Um Miss Easter is giving it to pastors of the churches. It should be in food line, you know, the big stores, Roses, Walmart. You should see it posted all around. post offices. What about [Music] Okay. office tomorrow. Yes. Um and the last thing we have is on May 29th, which is an optional work day for um welding, we would do a traumainduced
100workshop. Um this is in collaboration with our regional behavior consultant, Miss Lisa Taylor. It's going to be held at Halifax Community College at room 108. It's from 9 to 4. There were only 50 seats available. It's it was open to the entire northeast region. And as of right before the board meeting, we had 41. And out of those 41, 24 were welding employees. So hopefully we'll take over over half of the seats. Any questions for me? the contracts support our reviews and we're approve consent agenda. I think I'm saying we haven't read them, but Jason has a suggestion for that when we do get to it. Okay. Thank you so much, M. Okay. The next item on the agenda, moving right along, is Mr. Mom on [Music] her chill. Got to break it down now,
101man. It's already been an hour and a half. I'm just going to tell you that right now. Don't worry about it. It's going to be quick. Going to be quick. Good evening. just want to give you some updates on the uh new uh 612 high school middle school and I'll show you some photos of um the excellent work that's going on over the at the site. So, as you can see, we have the have the uh the interior CM MU low burn wall coming up which is the that's concrete masonry units. Uh so, concrete walls are coming up. That's the interior and the top picture that the um bottom picture shows the exterior walls that are coming up. So that's what you're seeing now as you come down county road or come across the railroad
102track. Um so it's all the ground work has been pretty much done. Yeah. Putting the walls up. We're starting to see starting it's starting to take shape physically. It is. Yeah. I go next. Looking good. Yeah. And so uh here you see um this is in area B because they have it sectioned out into four different categories. We got A, B, C, D, and E. Um couple of I think about three of those sections were concrete sections. So all that has been done. The other ones are um they didn't have piping in. They they u they're completing that work. So you see here we have the the the subbase or the stone subbase here whether that section had um um piping under whether it was gas piping or um drainage. So they complete the oil
103out and um so steel is starting to come in as you see in the bottom picture in section B we have steel that's being put in place uh below there um and we just had a meeting yesterday. So they're talking about more you starting to see more steel to be coming in. Uh once they get finished with blocking, you're starting to see more steel being added to them to the structure. They're bringing some additional crews in this this weekend and next week to make up for um for some of the lost time with weather, right? And the wing that you see that's almost that's complete is the high school wing. So the middle school wing is the next one that they're working on. So, and actually you can't you can see a little bit of
104it, but you got to catch the angle just right. So, you can actually see the middle school walls coming up as well too, but you got to catch it just right. If you're going too fast, you miss it, but but you can start to see the the shape of uh as well. Um, so that's some more plumbing that's coming out of the ground. Um, electrical piping is being done. here in the top you see the uh this is your future football and track field the top picture. So um it's almost was almost here. They we talked about yesterday looking at you uh being seated and sided. So uh we we'll start seeing some grass coming out of there before long. So get ready. Yeah. At the bottom this this is the entrance to the middle
105school house. This is the bus lot. So this is where our buses will be parked as well as where students will be dropped off and picked up. Now this is um what we're doing here in the central office here in the warehouse. Uh at the top you see we have the that's the hallway that leads you out into the warehouse. Um at the bottom is the conference room. My picture got super over in size when I uploaded. So, you can't really see all the detail, but it's a um it's a nice conference room as well as the workspace room that we we're having installed up there. Um and that top picture, you can starting to see where the office spaces are. So, we still we're waiting for the doors to come in. Paper's on the
106floor because they put the the veneer hardwood floors already installed. And so we're just waiting for the doors paint and put the code base and go to the next we see plumbing. So we had these are two bathrooms. Um we're waiting for the the plumber to get hooked up by the plumber as well as the pictures put in and um and have the HVAC unit put in and it'll be pretty much complete. Sounds good. Any question? No question. And then we're working on a third uh quote on the roof. Okay. What we're doing is uh there's over the last seven years, there's a new product that's out that's a roll-on vinyl with a rubberized texture to it that comes with a 10 15 year warranty and we're going to seal up everything across the way.
107So it it will I'm I'm tired of this. I had a ceiling file fall in my place. Miss Jenkins thought it was a cab or something coming through there since she wouldn't open up the door to see what it was. I want to bring you into this bait there, Miss Jen. I ran and left him right in there. I'm sorry. Where we with the situation? So, I have the uh spoke with the contractor um earlier this week. Um, so we're looking for him to come in any day now to start coming in quickly, turning out what it needs to be torn out and start working on getting everything that needs to go back in getting that piece. The room's all cleared out. We're waited everything out. And the insurance is covered. Mr. Hunter, do you
108have any information on the gate at the Welling Elementary? I know they took the tie off and all of that. Have they got that done yet? Not yet. We we've taken the um so truck backed over the um picture that holds the wheel and so we went and had that taken to the refabricated place. Yeah. Refabricated and um but they had an incident from that weather we had the the other day. Oh, really? Where? Yes, ma'am. Where the um that panel box exploded and um so the guys they were working on it. So, if you've been by um Welding's the W the welding shop right here on 125, I mean get on 301, that's where we that's where we took it at. And uh so they're doing their roof because it impacted their roof and
109some other things in there. So that kind of put us uh behind a little bit. Okay. So what about the the brick wall where the cafeteria and the dumpster? Yeah, that the one by the cafeteria had been down a year almost two years. No, it never been. It happened in November. It It has like it. Yeah, it seems like it. Yeah, cuz that's a as sore that need to go in and get fixed. So, um we had some miscommunication about that incident. So, I just got back in contact with Cisco so that we can get um back on on the right track and get that information to their insurance or however they're going to pay for it. So, we're going to that should be cleared up here. So, we've gotten quotes on it, but um
110the miscommunication was how it got to Cisco. They were the company that that backed in. Yeah. Um one more thing, I know I have a lot of horse stud that sidewalk right there by the cafeteria going up the steps where the uh the car riders get on. Can't something be done about that? The cement is all messed up really surface. Yeah, it's not smooth. There's a whole lot of rocks and everything. I think it got to work doing the ice. Uhhuh. At the elementary between the caf and the media side. Yeah. Something need to be done about that. That's terrible. Yeah. Okay. And and one last thing was um there's a a glass I guess in the library that's shattered. I mean, so you know that's we got NC glass that um come in to
111look at that so we can get that replaced. Okay. Okay. And one more thing, Mr. H. Yes, ma'am. Any other questions? No, I'm right. Thank I was just joking. Got to be around her. She joking. Any other questions? Thank you so much. Thank you so much. All right, moving right along. Consent agenda. Um, and Miss Brett Robinson, you had mentioned something. Oh, you're good. And board members, with each of these contracts, two are essentially renewals with um vision and uh one of the others, I'm blanking on the name right now. The other two would be new. And uh I would just ask if you are going to approve them tonight that you approve them subject to further attorney review. We can put them on the district standard contract form. Uh it wouldn't change the pricing
112or anything like with the two that are essentially renewal. They just need to put back on the correct form. The other two will do the same. So that was my question is little peanuts. That's new, correct? Okay. I think I had never heard that. Okay. I make a motion. Oh, never mind. Because we need to do it as consent agenda. But do we need to do those separately, Attorney Weber, since they have to be put on since you're saying we need to do it contingent upon paying put on? You can do them all the same because even the renewals just need to be put back on the correct form. Okay. We ready? I am. Okay. I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda. There's Okay. My motion motion and prop second to um
113approve the consent agenda. Any questions? With the understanding attorney attorney. Yep. that Miss Jenkins. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? I have it. And the next item on the agenda is um break. I recommend that we could take you break for 10. I move that we continue and not take a break. All right. Appreciate that. I was wondering about that. All right. Next item is discussion. A paperless transition for the board. We have talked um about moving totally online for our meetings and not um going paperless. So I just want to know where we are with that. I know Dr. Charlie will be setting up some training. Where are we? We have talked about that and we have um older board members up here that are not comfortable with the computer. Um
114so we've been doing paper for so long. I feel like we can continue on especially we have I can call her. We're not we open session but it's not a personnel item. Miss Jenkins um I don't see a problem with us continuing to print out for her because she's not comfortable with the computer. I understand we did set up a training and everything but she's she's not comfortable and she's expressed that stuff. I think that there's just something that's minor and we can move on with you know so we're going to continue with well I said that with Miss Jenkins we can continue printing hers and I need mine print I mean I can still work on the computer too but I still need something to write with um but as far as you all
115are concerned you all do you want it printed or or not I'm good with the computer me too and I my only thing with that and I'm okay I want everybody to feel comfortable but if we're asking our teachers and our students to do things that are the board. We got to we're we're the head. We got to do what we got to do. But whatever the is the consensus of the board, I mean I So how does how does the board feel? I guess I'm going along with how the board feels, not just my personal fail for um us to continue for Miss Jenin to give her the printed copies. She's not comfortable with the stated that to me as well. No problem. Just select him that want to and I just get m
116there. That's what I'm saying. That's what we saying. Okay. We'll do I can do the computer. Okay. Mine is Jamie. All right. Um is there anything else? Was that all Miss B? Yeah, that was it. Okay. Cuz I know we had been talking about it. Yeah, we have not. We actually set up training for last month. This month, last week. Last week. Okay. But anyway, save it for future. Okay. All right. Any other questions at this time? Um, we are going to go back into close session. But before we go back because some of you are may or may not be here when we get back. Um for the sake of uh you know you're you're present now um just we'll go around and see if anyone has anything to say on we go back
117into Thank you all for all that you do. All your hard work does not go unnoticed. Um, we appreciate you and staying on top of things and making sure that we're moving forward um, as district leadership um, make making sure that you're modeling for our schools. I certainly appreciate it. Okay. Anybody else? All right. Can I get a motion to return back to close session? Make a motion that we return to close session. Is there a second? There's been a motion properly second to return back to close session. Are there any questions? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? And we are now going back into close session. Thank you all again for coming out. Stay if you want to. It shouldn't be too much longer,