NHCS Board of Ed. Agenda Review Meeting | Nov. 24, 2025

001I'm going to call the um agenda review meeting to Order. >> Miss Buoie, will you call the role? Good afternoon. Melissa Mason, >> here. >> Josie Barnhard, >> here. >> Pat Bradford, >> I am here. >> Judy Justice >> here. >> Dr. Tim Merrick >> here. >> David Perry >> here. >> And Pete Wbour, >> I am present. >> All right. Um, we will have the invocation followed by the pledge that Miss Barnhart will lead. Yeah. >> Hi, my name is Matt Morhead and I'm one of the pastors of Crossway Chapel of Wilmington and just wanted to thank you all for the way you serve our county and our area. Grateful for each one of you and privilege to be able to pray for your your meeting today. Uh God, I do want to thank

002you uh for each person represented in this uh in this meeting, in this leadership team, uh for the board of education. I'm thankful for the role that they play in serving the students and families and individuals in our county. And uh God, I ask for your your blessing on this time today and their meeting. I thank you for uh the ways in which you have guided and strengthened them uh during this complicated and difficult season. And I pray that you continue to grant wisdom where they lack it. Uh your word says uh that it's good to give thanks to you uh for all the good things you have done. And your word also says that that where we lack wisdom that we should come to the one who provides the wisdom that we just simply

003do not have on our own. Um the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Uh and so we we uh we ask on their behalf that you grant them wisdom where they lack it, that you grant them unity uh where they need it, where they um need vision for the future. even if that future is just a couple of steps in front of them, they should grant them the the vision to see what needs to be done and how to lead well, how to serve well, and I pray that you'd strengthen them for that task. Uh but thank you for the teachers, uh for the administrators, and uh for the the board as well and just the the way in which they serve and lead um the education system in our county. and I ask that

004you go before them and in this time that you truly superintend their time that there be a humility and graciousness in the way that they're able to operate with one another that would would help them to effectively serve um our county. Uh thank you for your kindness. I thank you that you put you put people in positions of leadership and service in order uh to benefit um our city and our county. And I pray that that their leadership would do just that. Uh thank you for your kindness to us. Grateful that you are ultimately the one that we trust in and pray that we would do that more and more each moment and each day in Jesus name. Amen. >> To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which

005it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right. The next item is the approval of the agenda. >> Second, >> uh, Miss Bradford. >> Um, I would like to take off our agenda review agenda. Um, old business A. I believe we voted on that in just two months ago. And in order to bring that back around, it's going to take a supermajority of the board to resend that motion that we made two months ago to bring that around today. So I think procedures not been followed. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> Sure. >> Okay. >> Do you need me to repeat? >> Okay. Yeah. Um, the bonus ad hoc committee review, we voted on that to move that until January of 2026 about two months ago. Miss Mason

006tells me it was in October. So, in order to review that uh to to do it again today, we would have to rescend what we did previously in order to hear it again today. So, the procedures is not being followed. It shouldn't be on our agenda today. >> Hearing her more clearly, I don't think He was so I believe he withdrew his second on that. Is there another individual who'd like to second that? Okay. Hearing none. Um there is a motion to approve the agenda. >> Mr. Perry, >> I'd like to um make a motion to amend the agenda to add an item for uh to give Dr. Barnes the uh the time to uh coordinate with Angelo Williams of 100 Black Men. Since our last meeting when we approved our with 100 Black Men,

007I I got to meet with Mr. Williams and he assured me that um while their focus is certainly black and minority students, they do not turn away any any student based off color or their skin. And uh this isn't well reflected in the MOU and Mr. Williams was more than willing to amend uh the language there to state that and uh that we wouldn't be turning they wouldn't be turning any student away. Um Mr. Dr. Barnes says that he needs a a vote of his authority to enter those kind of negotiations with him. I don't think he thought it would take very long. Um, and I'm asking that this be uh that we vote on that we add this to the agenda just before uh number two the agenda just because if he is if

008we do vote to allow him to do this, I'd like to bring one I'd like to to be able to add that to our agenda for our next meeting so that we could vote to approve whatever language Dr. Barnes comes up with. >> So, can you make that motion a little more concise because that was very lengthy. I'd like to put um the topic of uh amending uh our with 100 black men on the agenda just before the approval of the agenda section of our agenda. >> So right now, >> well after we're done approving the agenda. So after review of proposed agenda items >> and before the review of pro proposed agenda items. Correct? Is that what I'm understanding? >> Okay. Is there a second? Hearing none. There is a motion to approve the

009agenda. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? Okay, that passes uh 5 to two. Um, continuing to the next item. Uh, Miss Barnhart, can you keep the time? >> Yes, ma'am. >> All right. So, looking at our December regular meeting agenda, we have um call to order, roll call, invocation, presentation of colors, national anthem, and pledge of allegiance on Oh, it kicked me out. Um, do we know who is on there for it? Just kicked me out for the pledge. And do we have anybody that would like to do the pledge? >> Oh. All right. Um, I heard Miss Bradford first, so uh, we'll have Miss Bradford do the pledge. Um, yeah, Dr. Merrick, you could sing the national anthem for us. Um, no. So, next is on there is

010the approval of the agenda, the approval of the minutes. Recognitions. >> 15 minutes. Classified employee recognition. How much time? >> Five minutes. Okay. Oh, I want to pause before we get too far into this. Um, on our regular meeting agenda on this the agenda review agenda, we have an NCDIT update. And I think I told some of you when I talked to you, but I didn't I don't think I told everybody. Um, they will be on the phone at 4:30. So, I'm hoping that we can have some flexibility and if we need to pause what we're doing um to hear from them at 4:30, um I hope that we can we can do that somewhere along the lines. But back to what we were doing uh teacher voice 10 minutes and I believe there was

011a request because we do have um the rise program as one of our information items. We wanted to make sure that the staff that are coming to speak at teacher voice uh that our rise teachers don't have to stay an inordinate amount of time. So, um I would move that we uh bump the RISE program up to um right after teacher voice. >> I'll second that. >> Okay. >> Point of inquiry, Madam Chair. >> Yes. >> I I haven't seen um student voice on our agendas for quite some time. Is there a reason. Is there someone that's in charge of that that I don't know of or >> Go ahead, Miss Martin. >> Um I've been working with the um the teacher lead for student voice and because so many of our students graduated and

012moved on uh we're undergoing a recruiting effort to um re-engage students in that process. Right. So there's a motion to move the rise program from where it is which is under information to after teacher voice and we have a second. Uh Mr. Wmore >> and I know this is probably not exactly with what Dr. Merrick said. Is there an opportunity that we may be able to invite maybe the uh student body chair or someone like that one from each of the high schools in the interim? Is that possible? Yeah, probably not for next week, but I mean maybe you know months, >> you know, have started with Ashley and you know something like that. >> No, I think that's a great idea. >> I'd love to hear the kids. >> Yeah, >> for sure. Miss

013Bradford, >> looking at the agenda, is that the best place to put it? Would it not maybe make sense to have it after the superintendent's report and after your report, but before things get, you know, bogged down? I'm just I'm just throwing that out there as a possible amendment. Um because now we're dividing we're having an information session before we do y'all's reports. Um I believe Dr. Hamilton was that the request of Rise. >> So I think that is for your discussion. The second part it's not going to actually be information. So I think the thought was that if they discuss if you all had your discussion while they are still here um so maybe call to the audience I don't know what gets moved but um I was thinking move that the teacher voice

014and the rise be coupled together but then maybe move them down to just after the board chair report. >> Would that not make better flow? So right before call to the audience then >> right before the election of board chair and vice chair. >> All right. Well I will >> our goal is to try to get them together. It doesn't really matter when together is. >> Okay. So I will I will pull back my motion and I will move that we add the rise program moving teacher voice until after the board chair report. >> Second that. >> Okay. Any other discussion? Just about time for that >> for the rise program. >> It's probably going to need to be longer. >> We didn't have any time frame on that. I would say it at least

01515. >> I agree. >> Yeah. All right. Uh all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? That passes seven to zero. Um okay. So superintendent report, board chair report. uh election uh then the teacher voice and rise uh then the election of the board chair and vice chair call to audience and we are on to information um and the only thing we have on that is language translation services. Did anybody have any um pressing questions for staff on that? And um Dr. Merrick, this was something you had brought forward. Um, is there an amount of time that you had >> I don't think this is a lengthy conversation. It's a bit of an update with maybe some uh inquiry from the board. Um both in terms of the interpreters that

016we have and also um the number of uh Spanish speaking mentors or you know I know that we've had um UNCW has offered to bring uh Spanish majors into our schools to help for with students who are English learners. And so some inquiry about how that's going and if there's any obstacles to that and and any ways that we can get around it to give those kids as much support as we can. >> So I mean you've got us down here for Oh, you don't have time at all. >> We don't have time. >> I think seven minutes. >> What is goodness? >> Let's round up to 10. >> Okay. >> Just for we can always take some away. All right. Uh consensus items. Now is when we ask our questions. So 2026 2027 non-traditional

017school calendars. Anybody have any questions, comments about that? Miss Bradford, >> I would just love a little quick spin through just because I can look at them, but I can't really, you know, I can't really look at them. So can you explain how it differs from the traditional calendar? Is there anything just that really stands out? >> Nothing really stands out. Of course, these five different calendars that we have um they're on different restart year round um early college, high schools, those things. So, they have taken the traditional calendar that was approved by the board last month and then aligned theirs as closely as they could with that. So, the restart, which would be um Snipes and Freeman, they have 174 days in their um proposed calendar. The um prek calendar also have 174 days

018in their proposed calendar. The year round 181 um in their proposal and then WEX and CEK um 175 and then Isaac Bears is different as well which would be um well let's see the sheet that I had with his number on there is not on there anyway. he has 1050 instructional hours, but um um so but anyway um the Isaac Bear calendar of course goes more in line with the university calendar um because they have that flexibility um that our traditional schools do not have. same with CEK and WEX that would align more with the community college calendar because of their unique situation. >> So this is on for next week. Um would you be willing to address then the seven more hours for year round versus say Freeman and Snipes in terms of just

019explaining why there's seven more hours in year round versus other schools. Um, seven more hours in the school year, you mean? >> Well, you said Snipes and Freeman were 174. >> Those are days. >> Days. That's what I meant. Sorry, I said hours. I meant days. >> Yeah, those are Well, um, year round starts earlier and has more flexibility to start earlier than the restart schools. And then they have the inter sessions. So, um, that and but their days are a tad bit shorter. So, we have two year- round schools. So, one has half the county, the other has the other half. So, transportation wise, they get out a little earlier than the other elementary schools so that transportation can run those routes and get back for the middle and high schools. So, as a

020result, they they build in a few extra days to meet that instructional hour. >> Thank you. Very important. >> You're welcome. Next is theou with um New Hover County Schools and Blue Ribbon Commission on Prevention of Youth Violence. Um which is a renewal. Was there Miss Bradford? I know. And oh, I'm sorry. >> I looked at this hard last year. I was hoping that we had some data this year that will tell us, you know, how many students, how it how, you know, what the progress is and that sort of thing for next week when we talk about it. >> I will certainly work on collecting that. Um, so I think because we are just partial way through the school year, it will be incomplete data, but I can certainly work on that for you.

021>> Yeah. And I can I can share my concern is even though it's a small program and I've been on site, you know, and and I I appreciate what they do, it reaches such a small number of students in my impression that um and they do compete with us for dollars, you know, when when a grant is being given out and it doesn't come to the schools, then it's competing with us. And so that would be my concern as we go forward. I'm going to look at all those things. >> Mr. gotcha. All right. Anybody else? Okay. Starbase Wilmingtonou Miss Barnhart. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I have had the fortunate opportunity to go and see this program in action. Um, and so I'm very grateful that we have this in our backyard. I if

022I recall correctly and I just want verification of this. I believe the board last year approved this as a board approved field trip. So every single one of our fifth grade schools has the opportunity to partake in this. >> Um there a few years ago there was a concern with the length of time that students um were going to be taken out of school to participate in this program. And so, uh, there was limit to certain times of year, um, they were not granted by New Hburg County School System to partake in this. Um, I know that the content and the curriculum that they have is very math and science related. It has standards associated with what they're learning and what they're doing. So, I'd just like for somebody to speak to that to see

023if that is accurate information. Thank you. So, this is still a field trip that schools can determine whether or not they're going to do or not. That is still their choice. Okay. Um, in 2023 24 we had seven schools participate. 24 25 11 and this year we have 10. Um, those are not necessarily the very same schools, right? So, different ones from different times. Um what we discovered recently was that they had been engaging with individualus with the schools and we did not know they had been doing that until a very astute treasurer at one of the schools said wait I don't think we're supposed to be doing that. So that's when we said oh we need to take this to the board um since they need that um the starbase people need that. So

024we decided we needed to bring that to you all. This is why it's going to be just like for the rest of this year and then each year we will renew that if that's your desire um to do that. But it is still is the school's choice as to whether or not um they want to participate in that or not as one of the board choices. >> Go for Thank you. I have a followup with that because my understanding was that the board approved it as a board approved field trip. So it even though I I hear what you're saying it's the school's choice to participate or not, it would not come at a cost to the students. Can we clarify that? Is that >> Oh no, >> it is not a cost to the

025students. >> Okay, thank you. That's that's what >> the only cost is the transportation cost. Correct. Starbase does not charge Okay, I can't answer. >> Dr. Bar, go ahead. I guess >> and we were just trying to streamline so that each individual school didn't have to do their own. >> Oops. Okay. Next is theou between New Hover County Schools and pause for people. got two over there. I'm gonna go um Mr. Perry and then Dr. Merrick. Give her a second. >> Yes, we do have insurance now that cover those types of events under our student insurance policy. >> Awesome. >> All right, Dr. Merrick, >> I just want to say I'm delighted that this is taking place. We've talked about it many times about, you know, about about whether or not we could do it

026and what would what's stopping us? And I assume that it was the insurance that got it. And I'm I'm tickled. Is there anything I know that's not a great number, but there are some children who I even though these are great trained uh animals, some kids are terrified of dogs. Do we have a way to help them not be terrorized? I mean, how do we do that? We're going to work individually with the schools. The schools will choose when and how the dogs will come in and so they'll schedule time so they'll be able to help kids avoid that if that's an issue. >> Was that what you were going to say? >> Yeah. And we also will have parent permission. Uh and so parents will let us know about those situations because we generally

027don't ask about those in our paperwork. >> Right. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Will. >> And I just want to re agree with my colleagues that I think it is, you know, about time is great. I think you know uh as I left my puppy today you know uh you know I think it is really really important that children have that opportunity especially well-trained dogs not like my puppy um working we're working but I again I just want to thank everybody for for working hard to put this together >> and understand these are secondary behind academics they will will start probably slower and build up as we go >> record asking um especially to um comfort my board member across the way. Could we not have a live demonstration here at Board Meeting and have

028the don coming? >> Sure. Make my day. >> I would not be opposed to anything like that. >> Second of the board. >> All right. Well, I make it in the form of a motion. Second, so >> is that an actual motion or >> Yes, ma'am. Okay, >> I'll second the motion. >> Mr. We both seconded it. >> Okay, >> I'll third it then. >> All right. >> Sing the national anthem all the more. >> All right. So, there's a motion to bring pause for people to the board. >> Could I make a suggestion? >> Sure. Thanks, sir. >> Not this month, but next month. Why don't you just make it the uh January animal voice? We'll do that in lie of teacher voice that day. they can come and do a presentation for us

029and get to see it. >> Um, >> yep. Second on that, too. >> I'll amend that motion to >> to uh >> add it to the agenda for January. >> To the agenda as instead of teacher boards for that one. >> Yeah. For January. >> Love it. >> Okay. Is there a second to the amendment? Okay. >> So, the motion, the amendment is to add pause for people to uh the January agenda. Um, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Any opposed? That passes. >> Seven to zero. >> Thank you. >> Sorry, Dr. >> We need whoever contacts teacher voice. Would you let that >> uh Miss Bar Thank you. Um, thank you. If is thisou in response to the whole county or will there be isolated schools that I just if

030if it's in here I just like to be >> open the whole county >> open thank you for that clarity >> work individually with schools and principles for what times work best and and whether or not the school's ready for it whether or not there's a good time for it things like that >> right because I could see this as just being an addition I know a lot of schools have positive behavior supports and so if to get to read to a dog or like I mean these are these were really fun and I mean they have it all over the library. It's a great activity. I've I've been many times. Um and so I think in addition to just being a support I think it could be a really positive benefit and we could

031do it to help echo and encourage different academic goals for our students um that are very excited to work with animals. Well, >> Miss Bradford >> and um on a second note for that to also assure my fellow board member across the way, we could actually invite parents whose children might have some fear to come to that meeting and either uh relieve their fear or and in hopes that would relieve their fear. I don't know how we invite parents to bring children to that, but if whatever means we could do that would be a good idea. Just let just let schools know that we're going to do that in case parents want to come out and see see in first person for themselves. >> Mr. Perry, >> they also Yeah, I think this we might

032have a lot more people coming to our genuine meeting is staying longer because everybody loves to see the dogs. So, um, you know, uh, just we might want to prepare for that is all I'm saying is we might get some bigger turnout underneath that. All right. Next item is uh contracts extending into fiscal year 2027. Miss Bradford, >> I just want to know the last item on there. It's under maintenance. It's NC sound and I can't something access control renewal. It's $11,000. So I kind of want to know what that is. >> Does anybody know? >> Those have to do with our parks access. Ah, okay. Thank you, Mr. Perry. >> Yeah, I had three things on this. Uh, one was the NC sound. So, is that a subscription thing? Is that yearly? Is it

033$11,000 a year for the swipe door software or I'm personally kind of the person who likes to just buy my software and not rent it. >> Seems like it would be >> Is it a multi-year contract? >> It is. That's one. It's each year. Okay. >> Okay. And then the second thing I on this um on the uh on these uh actually on that one. Yeah. On E. That's all. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Um next is the Oh, Miss Barnhard, did you have one about the previous? >> No. >> Okay. Is student enrollment and assignment handbook? Um Miss Barnhard, >> thank you. My first question deals along with the changes. I think there's a lot of similarities from last year to this year. Um, one thing that I did notice is that

034the added uh rubric is in there for the specialty high school program that we have to approve. Are there any other really substantial changes? >> Um, thank you. The only substantial change um most of it is boilerplate from um past that we of course update the timeline to make sure it fits the calendar and um most of it is is right from policy. And so you'll see on page nine um the lottery process um priority rankings has been changed um based on policy changes from 4150 policy 4150. So um it now um identifies that the only priority consideration will be sibling privilege and all other students will be counted equally in a random lottery process. So it removes the weighted lottery. Dr. Mayor >> and then the other addition is that um that rubric in

035the back. Thank you, Dr. Mayor. >> Help someone like me who already struggle sometimes from time to time with reading to know exactly rather than having to put the two of them side by side to see what changes have been made to if we can have them in red, any changes in red, it would really help us. >> You know what I'm saying? cuz I I I look through this and I go, "Well, I hold on let me get the other one. It's it's it's a lot." >> Yes. So, generally I'll put a redline version in the um board updates. Um and so I will make sure so that this one can be the the published version. >> Yes. >> Very good. Thank you. >> So, I think you sent that October in first week

036in October. >> October 7th. It was included. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> So, if you look at your updates that I send weekly, if you go into Julie's, you can see the red line version. Good. >> And if that isn't the one, I'm going to make sure it is. >> It is in October 7th. I want to make sure that I have it redlinined. >> Yeah, you've got whatever time it takes them to find it to to check that. Change that. >> You got a few minutes. >> Go, Julie. Go. All right. Uh, any other questions on that. Okay. Contracts and purchase orders. Okay. >> Mr. Perry. >> Thank you. I was here. Want to get the exact figure. There is a line item in here for applied gear technology for 144,000. I just wonder

037is that for servers? What is that? >> That's actually for desktops. That was a capital request, one of the capital items that we received funding from the county for and it was to replace desktops that can no longer be upgraded to Windows 11. So, we had to replace some desktops. So, that's what that was. >> How many desktops does that come out to? >> That is 150 desktops. >> Mr. the motherboard. >> Uh just a question on that last one Petemont truck center buying a box truck how big is it F150 or F450 or you know >> so I can have Kevin Lee come up and give you the particulars. I do not know the model and yes sir um related to that truck if you can give a little bit more information about what

038you're going to purchase. >> That truck is a 43 Our existing trucks are the average age is 20 years. Uh newest truck is 157,000 miles and in spite of all the effort transportation the cab and all the beds leave on those trucks. So my guys can't load on Friday night. truck. Um, this truck is 20 ft. Our existing truck is 16 ft. So, we can we can will be able to carry a lot more I think last year 30,000 packages delivered to school. It doesn't that doesn't include the circle. So, um, and moving furniture. So, no longer moves furniture. Uh, they're doing their best to maintain. And so, that's kind of helps that we tried to contract that out, but pretty high. Um I don't have a large staff that can do that, but we

039do large. Um, I think I covered everything. And that is no high. So the severe leaks are not I was assuming that would meant the motor was leaking. Motor's not leaking. It's the the cab or the the >> That's right. Motor and transmission, tires, all that stuff. Transportation does an outstanding job. It's a cab and it's a design feature. There's a box and the cab are connected and the twisting of the cab this truck is separate and separate and we have some trucks like that and they do not. >> Okay. Well, thank you. Appreciate all your hard work. Miss Bradford. >> Um the first one, communities and schools of Capefar, we know who they are. Um specialists working one on-one with the group in a group setting with population who have been identified as at

040risk, dropping off or falling behind in schools. Do we have data on how that's working? Is this a renewal? Is this the first time? What's the deal with this? >> You want to get that? Do you do you have that in your head or should we bring it back or >> I don't have that because this is um identified in the contract so it's not um a renewal. Um but we do have reports of their impact that I can um put in the board updates. >> I'd be curious as to how many students they're working with. >> We do have that information. Again, I am really interested in seeing a list of every adult that comes into our schools that works with our students so that we see it all in one one one spreadsheet,

041one whatever so that we as board members can be more informed. >> Yeah, I'm working on trying to compile that for you guys. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Merrick. >> Is this uh I I know the program that we just got completed last year at Freeman for the after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Is this is that that that's different contract. >> It is this is a contract specific um around um dropout prevention efforts. The um full service community school model that is implemented at Rachel Freeman is um funded by the endowment. >> Okay, Miss Justice actually used to work with communities and schools now seeing action at this program and it's extremely effective. they're on campus and the kids facing possible dropout have a personal connection with honestly and it's amazing how

042positive it is. I would like to hear the numbers but I just want to speak that it's a great program and we really benefit from it. >> All right. Next is bus planner transportation software contract. Uh Mr. Perry >> um this is $1500. >> Sorry. Can you speak into your microphone, sir? >> I'm sorry. >> We have to share. Uh, this is a 100 almost $170,000 contract. I have a few questions going presumably manage our buses uh routes better, but is that a year? How long does that last? Can can you explain to us what the benefits in a summary fashion? I know we go through there's a presentation that's attached to the document, but if you could briefly summarize what the benefit is. that this is going to bring us that's a lot of

043money and second there see these seems to be some I just want to know what PII is collected and will this be on you know on the cloud uh again we have to always wonder because I see there's some waiverss of being allow this company is allowed to share some of uh some of the data that it has with its you know contractors third party contractors so I'm a little worried that you know PII could get around So, if you could address those things, I'd appreciate it. >> Sure. And I brought Miss Tra in here. She's our director of transportation, as you know, if you have additional questions, but I think I can start um that that total 469,000 for three years broken up annually. It's 45,000, 61,000, and 63,000 and change. Um so, what

044does it do? Right now we use um what's called transportation information management system or TIMS. Um DPI also partners with a company called Edgilog to provide routing and scheduling integration and they provide um an app to communicate with parents. Costs roughly 75 to 85,000 per year. Um this bus planner will combine the services of those two different companies into one service for us. Um, and we believe it'll be better. It'll be more efficient. It will be more accurate. The edgelog system is not evolving there. We've had some issues with it in the last year where for literally months at a time it was down or it was inaccurate. Um, so in addition to providing a combination of those services, it will also annually save us about $20,000 for what we've been say what we've been

045paying. Um, and again, I think the the goal is to have a system that does more for us more accurately and on a more consistent basis. Um, Miss Trafton, would you like to add anything to this? >> Okay. It's already been embedded by our technology department and it already integrates with um Infinite Campus and Sam Sarah, our other two big users of information per student. Um and having it not be part of the server allows us, you know, we start at 5:00 a.m., we end at 6 PM, but not everybody else is working those hours. So having it um not be contingent on someone helping us with the server. things go down for inclement weather or school closures or early release. Um that is a big motivator for us to improve our services to kids.

046>> Okay. >> Can follow. >> Um go ahead and >> I didn't get an answer to whether this PII is any PII stored on the cloud. >> We can't hear you. >> Is there any private student information stored on the cloud with this system? I didn't really get an answer to that. >> Yes. So, it it it does need to work um with our student information system. It is already compatible. It has already been vetted by our technology department. Um and we do have an agreement in place that meets all the measures and the requirements that we have for our students secure information. >> Um Dr. Dr. Merrick had his hand up next. >> Of course, I love it when I hear we're going to save $20,000, >> but it is just cutting in and

047out. >> Okay, I'll speak loudly. Um, we've heard a lot about uh different bus routes and how long it might take. And our kids are on buses a long time. It's not through any fault of your own. We're doing everything we can not to have multiple bus routes. And the money that we invest in a system that will make this more efficient has my vote because of all these kids on those buses for so darn long. So, thank you for doing it. >> Yeah, you're welcome. >> Miss Justice. >> Uh, yeah. Just to clarify, I think what you just what you what you had just explained before, Dr. very useful statements um is that it is the information that it's going to be using in the cloud's already there anyway. >> Correct. >> That's basically

048what you said. So it's not anything new being added to the cloud. It's just already information like with infinite campus and all that that's already >> correct whatever. Okay. >> Yes. Mr. Mr. World, >> how many uh other I know it's been vetted by our um you know technology department, but how many other counties use or school systems use this this uh >> in North Carolina? Gaston, Guilford, um Haret and Nash and Asheville City Schools are using it. >> Okay. And you've talked to them and they've >> they all gave it ra. >> Okay, great. Thank you, >> Miss Bradford. I just want to say thank you for your diligence in bringing the cost down and making it more efficient. We appreciate everything that you do. >> Thank you so much. Thank you for the

049opportunity. >> Okay, the next one is memorandum of understanding between New Hampshire County Schools and Capefir Community College for occupational therapy assistant interns and it's a renewal. Does anybody have any questions on that? >> You good? just grateful to have it. >> Okay. >> Thank you, >> Miss Bradford. >> I would comment. I really like that little word renewal there. So, it makes it more easy for us to understand what we're doing. Thank you. >> The renewal. Um, next up is policy consensus. We have a lot of policies, Mr. Wore. >> Yeah, we have 27. Most of them came from NCSBA. Um, a lot a couple others we have cleaned up things. um committees for instance being one of them. Um we do have one that we may want to hold off. I'm looking at

050you. Do we want to uh 7910? We may want to hold that or what do you think there? >> The retirement policy. >> Okay. >> The language in that policy connects to the general statute. However, it doesn't explain it terribly well. And so I reached out to NCSBA. I'd like to add in just a little more language that's in the general statute to the policy which is going to make it cleaner and easier for our employees. >> Okay. >> So, if you can pull that one back to policy for a month, >> I'll turn it we'll turn it right back around. >> Yeah. What I'll do is I'll make a motion on Tuesday to uh >> send that back >> to move 7910 back into but the others shouldn't take all that long unless there's

051questions. I >> think they're pretty straightforward. >> So, how much time do you think? Let's say 15 just it says 10, but um >> honestly I because of the sheer number I would probably lean toward 20. >> Okay. >> Just to make sure. >> Do I hear 20? 25. 25. You get 25. >> Uh Dr. Mayor and then >> first of all, uh thank you to my colleague across the way for putting through so many. I don't know where you find the time to do it. So thank you for doing it. Um the same way we've talked about having a renewal uh posting next to uh our consensus items, it I think it would be helpful for the rest of the board to know which of these are just this is you know boilerplate being

052passed down by the Ncsba >> and I and I say it to you now knowing that you might not be on this chairing this policy uh committee next time but if we had it you know sort of codified here to ask the next policy chair right >> to do that I think that would be very helpful. >> Very wise. Thank you. I will, >> Miss Bradford. It might be to follow up on that because I've got my cheat sheet and at least six of them are just legal references changed. So maybe a grouping significant change um just >> statewide change, local change, >> and just legal reference so that we don't that somebody who didn't attend the policy committee meeting doesn't have to go through and open every one of these because there was a

053lot. >> Yeah. Miss Barnhart. I completely missed Miss Barnhart. So, >> thank you. And NCSPA does do a little >> um chart about it and then it'll say mandatory by law required or recommended. So, um but I I did have two two uh questions or clarifying. So, one with the public participation at board meetings, I just want to make sure that our call to audience when people are signing up, it's reflective um all the language and the changes that are have been made. policy 2310. It's not necessarily a change. I'm not advocating for a change in policy. I just want to make sure that our call to audience, the little type up that our um individuals are seeing are consistent with our policy. >> And then the second one uh is just it's and it

054is unsafe school choice transfers. I just want to openly I don't believe that any of our schools qualify this and I just want to openly ask that question. Do we have any schools that would be by this policy deemed unsafe? These are very intense things that are listed. So >> that was a legal reference only. Well, I think the question is generally unsafe school chance unschool unsafe school choice transfers, violent crimes including homicide, assault resulting in serious bodily injury, assault involving a weapon, rape, sexual offense, sexual assault, kidnapping, robbery with a dangerous weapon, taking in decent liberties with a minor. These are very serious things. And so I didn't know if any of our schools are deemed that and thus would qualify students to have an unsafe school transfer. And as a parent, how would

055you even know that? >> So um we do have those discussions in the event that a student experiences like not not to this degree, but if a student um experiences bullying and that's been substantiated, then that is a part of that process. So it through the process. We do not have any schools identified as an unsafe school. That would be based on the number of reportable offenses. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> But good to know about the bullying. I didn't realize that. So >> yeah, because we can take steps to address individual issues that may happen with students. But >> in regards to telling the whole school system, hey, this is a persistently dangerous school. We don't have any. >> Agreed. I love to hear that. So >> yeah, I love saying it.

056>> Yeah. >> Um Mr. Perry and then Miss Justice. >> Okay. Hopefully these are just too cl hopefully just a few quick clarifications on 2125-7315. Um is this confidential information is the section C is that just a capitalization change or is there is the text there being added or removed under C. Which number are you >> that was brought in from NCSDA? >> It's not just the capital. Is that mean added language? >> Yes sir. >> Gracious. >> You're fine. >> Um okay. Um so I'll have more a little bit more concern about that. Um but uh my other question was is uh >> 32 >> your mic >> his mic's not >> they're having they're having trouble here. >> Oh sorry 3220. >> So so what you said on uh that C C for

057the first one is is actually new new additional language. Okay. And then the other one um is 3220 um technology in the educational thing. is this uh last sentence of the first paragraph. Uh that's that's new additional language as well. >> Okay. Sometimes I don't know what's being what's what's new, what's being deleted. Uh I wish we had different colors, you know. >> My button too so you can hear me. Uh yeah, the the red section is added there in 3220. That's additional. >> Is that is that again an NCSBA? >> Yes, sir. Miss Justice, did you have your hand? >> Yeah. Two things. First of all, I think it's a great idea the way we're having discussion about bringing more information when we were presenting to the board as opposed to just throwing these

058these different policies out here. And I've thought this for years since I first came on the board in 2018. You guys were articulating it and planning to do it. Thank you. Um, another thing also I wanted to ask um about the designation of I guess it's a dangerous school, whatever that one was. >> Unsafe school. Uh, could you Julie, could you explain a little more exactly how this is it the state that determines that how >> it's working? Okay, I'll use this one. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I just want >> um it is determined um by the state but it would be based on the data that we submit about incidents that occur on campuses. >> Correct. And so they look at all that data and then they >> So it's a school by

059school determination. >> Yes. >> But I can look up the policy and answer more specific questions. I didn't have it pulled back up. >> Okay. >> But it is a school by school determination >> across the state. All schools. >> Yes. But they look at the data specific from that particular school to make the decision about that particular school. >> And the schools are self-reporting also. >> I'm sorry. >> The schools are self-reporting also. >> So they are, but it's based on the discipline data and the um reportable offenses that occur on those campuses. So it would have to be Yes. But that data has to be verified um at the central office level. >> Thank you. >> Yes, Miss Bart. >> Sorry, I just want to clarify how you said it. The schools are

060required to submit that data. They can't choose whether or not they're going to submit it. How you said it kind of >> twe tweeze that line. The schools are required to submit the data and the state >> deems it state analyzes the data. So we go through a um discipline data verification process. So there's an entire manual dedicated to how we um identify and calculate um all of our discipline data including um dropout data. It's all in the same manual. But that manual details out how um incidents are coded. And then the data verification process goes through multiple layers and includes um um the review from our student uh our director for student safety and me before submission. Well, and along with student information systems team >> and general statute lists out about 16 or

06117 >> 16 >> reportable offenses. We're required to report those regardless. Miss Bradford, >> and I just wanted to go back to I fellow board members question over there. Um, saying I was going to bring this back up next week. 2125 to 7315 confidential information. That change is simply following state statute. We can't monkey with state statute. We just have to adopt it and move on. >> Okay. >> 2125. >> Yep. >> It was amended, but it's it's amended by the >> CSBA. >> Yeah. and CSBA >> those letters. Mr. Perry. >> Yeah, I basically I I I'd like to get our attorneys who can give the exact uh new law on this because I mean basically, correct me if I'm wrong. What this is stating is is that we work within nonprofit and we're

062not able to disclose per perhaps to the public to be transparent who this nonprofit getting donations from. um if there are political, you know, interest going on with the nonprofits that are kind of swaying our decisions on which nonprofits for us to work in, we don't get to disclose that to the public. That's basically what this is saying. Am I correct in this? >> Is that something that you can kind of look through and come back with us next week to to answer? I I I think as a as a general ide privacy protection change. >> Mhm. >> Um is my and I'm going by memory of the statute here, but it was designed >> so that people wouldn't be officially doxed or whatever you want to call it. They wouldn't ask for membership. Um

063>> it's also just a great way to, you know, uh have dark money in politics. So sometimes, so which is what they do with this sort of thing. Uh, Miss Barnhart, >> thank you. Even with this change, and just I'm asking for clarity again on this. Um, any of the nonprofits that are working with our schools, they still have to follow our guidelines that we set, meaning they're going to go through background checks. They have to do our volunteer trainings. And I think that's might be part of what my colleague is getting at. This is not free range of anybody is allowed in to do whatever they want in our schools. We still have policies in place that they must follow and guidelines. I just want that clarity. Sir, >> correct. And all of ourus

064will contain the information that says that when someone is in our buildings, they follow the rules that we have in our policy manual. >> Dr. Merrick. >> Yeah, I'm just really inquiring on on the policy 2335. I don't see anything in red. I I don't know what the proposed changes are. Is this an entirely new policy? 23. >> No. >> 2335. >> There is >> Yeah, there isn't anything on there. >> It's not It's not on the list. >> Advanced delivery of meeting materials. The very first one. >> Yeah, I'm not seeing any changes either. >> I think we decided as a policy committee to keep it as it was. There was some discussion on maybe changing but we wanted to put it in front of the whole board for uh additional discussion. >> Thank

065you. >> I would like to have some additional discussion. >> I believe Dr. wanted to discuss it. So >> perfect. >> He said I just need we could have just left it there and we said let's bring in front of the whole board so we can discuss it as a board. >> I appreciate that. Excellent. So, will that be brought up next week or is that for another time? >> That is next week. >> On Tuesday. >> All right. >> Okay. So, maybe 22 minutes. Let's round it up. >> I would lean toward even more. But next, we have we have no old business, new business. We have the special education legal services contract. Is there any questions about that? >> Miss Bradford. >> Um, I believe that we I am uncomfortable with voting on

066this having not known anything about it up until this point. Um, I'm not faulting staff in any way, but I have been asking where do we stand on the legal service contract at least three times and until right before the meeting started, had no knowledge that we had gone through what I had been asking. Did we do the rubric? How did it turn out? How many people applied to the RFP? And just kept in the dark about it. And um so I was thinking that you know um you know it's really hard to not have that information and then be expected to vote on something even though it's next week but I didn't find out anything and have been asking questions about it. Why didn't we know sooner about this as a board or was

067I just the only person left out of the information process? So, I can speak for my part of it. Um, I received an email from staff on the 10th of October that I had completely forgotten that I had received, but I had responded to that indicated that two board members would be part of the um process. It is I will take responsibility for my part of not sharing that with um the rest of the board. Uh I that is that is a failure on my part. So, >> Miss Mason, I'll take if I could add to that. I'll take responsibility that I did not see the email that had asked me to be part of it, but I was actually out of town in either case um on the 18th. So, I was not able

068to be at the be part of that team to go through that. So, >> so the individuals that had been requested, just for clarity, um were Mr. Wore and Dr. Merrick. Um so, Dr. Mr. Merrick, I saw you had your hand up and I know you, Miss Bart had >> um Yes, I was there and um I I think that this is exactly the right time that we would find out, right? I mean, so I was there. We we went through the process. Um uh we spent, you know, diligent amount of time working on it and would it be up to me then to come back and alert the board? But I don't I I think this is probably now to discuss it if we need to ask any questions, >> Mr. Wilfork. >> And

069and I am going to as as much I will take full credit or or or not credit, but I should have seen it, didn't see it, but I think it probably would have been behooved us to if if I wasn't available or they couldn't get in contact with me to call and say, "Well, there's six other people that could have been there, you know, or possibly could have been there." I think it would have been well I can't >> I'm running out of fingers here. I'm sorry. Well, I mean somebody else could have filled in at that point. My fault for not seeing it. I should have been on top of that, but um I mean I think it probably would have been nice to have two board members, you know, and you I'm sure

070you did a great job. I think it probably would have been better to have two board members in in attendance. >> U Miss Barnhart. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I was just curious um if the defining process said two board members and only one was present, does that not invalidate? I'm not saying that we can't eventually move into contract with these individuals, but I do agree that if it was supposed to be two and it was not indeed not two, um then it changes the terms of what the expectation of. So, >> we don't have anything in policy that says two board members have to be on that committee. We were originally going to just have one board member um and but then we said, "Well, let's reach out." Um I think it was Tim

071Mayor, we were going to ask Pete to be part of the committee, but then we decided it would make sense, and Julie can help me out. Um Dr. Merritt is on the EC. I forget what he's on where we said that would make sense for him to be on the committee. >> Um, and so originally we were gonna just have one board member. Um, and so I guess that's why we didn't think that we needed to identify a second board member. So I will take some responsibility for that as well. Not going back to Miss Mason about that. >> Um, can he >> Okay, Dr. >> I'll jump in too. Um, you know, there's a lot of information that goes around. um try my best to get all the information out to everybody. However, normally

072RFPs kind of follow their own process. This one's a little bit different because it is legal services which are a little different than just some of our normal RFPs. So, we were talking about does this go to the whole board? Do they do a presentation? So, if I miscommunicated or didn't get that out there, that's may a culpa is me. >> Uh Miss Bradford, >> um two things. Um, you said they were requested. So, it was fin the finance department that requested board members. Is that a part of the process? I've been on that committee and I've been chosen to do that in the past. I don't know how I got there, but I know there were multiple board members. There was more than there was more than two at that point that did the

073rubric. Um, and I'm not I'm not questioning the outcome. I'm just I have asked at least three times where are we? How many attorneys responded? Where are we in the process? Did we do a rubric? And I've got I didn't know to ask you. So next time I would, but I've been in the dark and I don't appreciate being in the dark. It's I'm not complaining against you. I just felt like when I asked our leadership and I didn't get an answer, they didn't know or they didn't share it with me. One of the two. And I don't want that to happen. Again, nothing against Dr. Merrick. I'm sure you did a great job. I don't mind the outcome, but if somebody asked me, hey, how come you only have one attorney and how'd you

074get to that point? I would not be able to ask them. I would not be able to answer them. And I don't like being uncomfortable like that. >> True. >> Dr. Mayor, >> just in in response, I I understand your frustration. Um I don't think we can have an answer until the until the committee meets to to take a look at it, which we just did. I mean, was that two days ago, Miss Farnum? I believe >> it was November 18th. >> Um and so now that it's been done and it has been reviewed uh with you say like at least with the one board member as you had originally planned, now is the time to ask those questions and now is the time to go through it. And I really do believe uh that

075any one of my colleagues on this board would have come up with the same the same decision. In fact, um like you said, you're not upset with the outcome. >> Yeah. >> Mr. Work. >> Well, and to answer and I already know the answer, Steve, but would you share with us, you know, how many without names of course, but how many entities did apply? >> Oh, absolutely. Are we allowed to to discuss I mean that without naming names we had only two uh legal services uh that and are we allowed to to name them here? >> Okay. It was Theington Smith and I can't say pointer spru. That's a real mouthful. Okay. So um you know they they were both highly qualified uh with with with different histories with the with the with our district

076staff and with our board. Mr. Burnhart, >> thank you. My um my question I I'll shift it to the contract itself of seeing the 310 per hour for partners, 275 for associates and so forth. Um is that kind of in line with where we have been paying for legal services? Is it substantially more around the same? >> It's pretty it's a little more but fairly in line with our current services. just a little more. >> Okay, >> Mr. Wilborn. >> Um, I was just going to say thank you. >> Uh, I was just going to say again, I do apologize for not being there for that that thing, but I think I'm sure Dr. Mary did a a great job in doing that. And seeing as we only had two apply, which is a little

077disappointing, but uh it is what it is. And I think just if you will help me remember I think that printer pointer pointer spru um working with us in that capacity within the like that's last year or two. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Thank you >> Mr. Bradford. So my question follows up on that. Is this a higher rate than we paid him last played them last year? Orange school. >> It is >> Dr. Merrick. >> Yeah. and the two that did apply had almost identical uh fee structures. So it wasn't a choice that we made around cost. So >> So um how much time do we need for that since we've had a good discussion? I think probably looking through I'm going to say 10. You probably say 55, but we could

078use the extra times. I did reference I think you and I talked about this. We put that contract out for June of 2027. >> That's correct. >> To try to get everything back in the same cycle alignment together. >> And if I could, I would also like to add that we did add some additional wording. And I just wanted to draw um this to the board's attention. Um, we added wording that said, um, through June 30th, 2027 with a right to extend an additional three years in one-year increments based on performance and funding. So, that is different than what we've had in our contracts in the past. So, I wanted to make sure I brought that to your attention. Right, >> Miss Bradford? And then, Miss Burnhart. >> And I saw that when I read

079my packet and you put it right there under it and I really appreciate that. Thank you, >> Miss Barnhart. Just for um added clarity with this, it would still come back before the board for approval after June of 2027 with the option we could renew at a three-year rate in one-year increments. >> That's correct. It would come back to the board. It wouldn't go out for the board to um direct us that way. Yeah. >> All right. Next we have uh available savings reallocation of funds. That's always exciting. Uh Miss Sutton, can you give us a little more details on that? >> Yes, I'd love to. So, we had in a couple of projects you'll see here that we actually um ended up coming in under budget. >> So, our replacement of switch gear at

080CBRC came in about 68,000 under. Um softball field at Hogard 151,000 under. Um New Hover High School softball field 124,000 under. And then the artificial turf and I meant to ask you about that, Rob. Um I think that was the design, not actually putting down the Okay, >> correct. >> Came in $8500 under budget. And then also uh child nutrition freezer was a little over $1,000 under budget. So um that total is $353,849 of savings that we've identified through those projects. And um Dr. Morgan and his team has identified some additional projects we'd like to fund with those replacements. And these, you've probably seen some of these before um on capital project request that we didn't make it far, we didn't have funding to make it far enough down the list. So, you can see

081those there. I will um share with you the total. There was a keen error on that total. So, the total, if you add up those new projects, um does not equal the 335,000 you see there, it actually equals 355,272. Um that's a difference of and we'll get that correction made um before the actual board meeting. We just noticed that keen error this afternoon. Um that difference of a little over $1,400 um will hold the replacement of the curtains at Mosley until we have enough funding to be able to fund that whole project. So I just want and Dr. Morgan, if you have anything else, >> just a couple of things. the the a couple of the items on there are projects that are underway or have been waiting just for some additional funds to wrap.

082So the um lift station at Winter Park, for example, that is a project that we frankly needed some additional funds to be able to complete. So that's why that's at the top of the list. Um >> what is that? >> I'm sorry. >> Uh the list station is it's a sewage management. system. >> So, it's kind of critical. >> I thought so. >> Um the Myrtle Grove Middle School sidewalk that was originally um bumped to the end of the year because frankly we didn't know how quickly the Department of Transportation would get that new signal in >> really quickly. It's moving. >> So, it's in and so we'd like to go ahead and finish that entire project by adding the sidewalk on the campus. Um the alderman fence is a safety concern that has been

083raised I think over the last couple of years. It will go but it'll basically section off that campus from Independence Boulevard. >> Um the curtains that are listed were items that have been deferred again as Miss Sutton said based just on capital project funding. Um, and then the freezers, uh, likewise, those were just they are they are past their age of usefulness and we need to be able to replace those and so we've just been waiting for the opportunity to squeeze them into our budget. >> Okay, so there were lots of hands. I'm going to go in the order that I saw. Miss Barnhart, >> thank you. So I just want to highlight the softball fields. This came out of a Title N audit and so making sure that we have the facilities for female

084athletes. So now that's completely done. It's good to go. Beautiful. I know the one thing that they always ask, Miss Barnhart, can you give us more parking? I'm like, no, I cannot. Um, but that's completely done and good to go. Awesome. Um, the other thing that this this has come up. I'm just going to give a kudos shout out of savings on time, under budget. That's like our we like to chant that motto of saying that. So to see over $300,000 for other projects be allocated is awesome. to continue to go down that list. One of the questions, and I'm not going to put this in form of in the form of a motion, but we've talked about our fund balance not being where you personally, Miss Sutton, do not like it. I know you

085say that this um we definitely have less in our fund balance than what you feel comfortable with as our chief finance officer. And so I would like for us to consider potentially as we are able to have savings to say maybe 10% of that we can put into fund balance to until we get to a point I know policy had played with saying do we need to have a policy that states it or whatever it is but um I don't want to just a huge lump sum go into um our fund balance but as we come across things that we're able to recoup keep a couple hundred thousand here and a couple hundred thousand there. I think it's we could slowly build up where we needed to be. We came into a couple situations this

086year operationally that um we did not have to let our people go because we were able to float their salaries until we've until the government opened back. And so I want to make sure that we continue to put ourselves in a good fiscally responsible situation. Thank you for keeping us there. I just want to throw it out there um for something to consider if it needs to be in a motion. I'm happy to make that motion for discussion. I'd like for it to be considered. Thank you. >> I would second that. >> And and I love I love that. Can I speak real quick? >> Um so this funding is actually held by the county. So if we didn't spend it, it would go into the county's fund balance, not ours because they don't up

087they don't give us the money until we actually have the expense. >> Never mind. and the and I think I long for the day as well when we get to the place where we're not so racing down deferred maintenance that we are in a place where we can do things like that. >> Miss Bradford, you were next. >> Yeah, and I have a question specific, but um to tee off that week, could we do it on you know the others because that is a good way if you just take 10% off anything and you stick it in account over time it really adds up. So, if it's not something that's county's money, it's something we could actually do it with. I would be in favor of us putting that on an agenda to to discuss

088it. It'd be a good way to just inch up our fund balance without us paying a whole lot of attention. Um, I just wanted to ask Dr. Morgan, those are very expensive freezers. $70,000 for a freezer. It's a bank of freezers, right? Or is it a a a walk-in freezer? It >> It's like one you would have in your kitchen. No, I'm just kidding. It's a hu it's a huge commercial walk-in. Okay. Thank you. >> He's got a different kitchen than I do. >> Dr. Merrick, >> I I want to work off uh quickly what my colleague has said here. I do agree that we need to take every opportunity to uh you know claw back savings and put it into our fund balance. Um I don't want to just do an arbitrary number though.

089One question I have about these um suggested spending uh options here. During the budget process, you gave us a list of of improvements and I think you you know rated them number one, number two, and number three, right? Of these that you put on this list, how much of those are ones, and how much of them are twos? >> I mean, I know I hope that didn't catch you off guard, but you know what I'm saying? >> Well, a little bit just because I haven't looked at it recently. Part of the part of what we run into though is from the last time we prioritized that we've re rep prioritized a dozen times or more. Um I think a couple of the items that we're looking at they were on the priority they were priority

090ones and they're underway and so we're trying to wrap that up. The other ones were the curtains for example are ones that have come up in recent conversations and because they are more manageable expenses and we need to make sure that we're replacing them they felt like the right time to take care of it. I will say we have to another point. I mean to your question but to something we can't bring forward just yet. We are expecting additional savings to report on I'd love to say January and maybe February before we can do that. Um but one of the one of the top items on our priority list we will ask to reallocate for that specifically. Um, I can't really cite you a number yet because I don't want to be wrong. Uh, and

091and I'd hate for it to come in lower, but um, the the I think for us, one of the key things to keep in mind, too, is as we're because we have to present this to the county commissioners to ensure that they approve of us reallocating these funds. And it's really something that I think has been discussed in multiple meetings. the idea that if we are able to, you know, be fiscally responsible, good stewards of these funds, we don't always have to go back to them for additional money. This is money that we currently have because it is coming under budget and either it goes back to them and we ask them for it at a later date or we ask them for permission to use it for other things that are currently waiting in

092the wings. I guess what I'm saying is just uh to respond to my colleague around, you know, making a motion or or talking about this in the future that we keep in mind our priority list before we decide to arbitrarily put something in fund balance or give it back to the county that we need to despite how much we go to the county, we don't always get our priority ones taken care of and that's what we really have to push off for. Okay, >> Mr. the board. >> I was going to ask Dr. Morgan if you would just speak a little bit to there's a lot of people who look at you know curtains. We really need curtains. >> I remember as a principal you know the fire marsh come and say yes >> you

093got you got two weeks or we're off our finance. So um can you speak to you know the fire marshall and the >> Yes sir. So the what we've got to make sure that our they're inspected regularly and we have to make sure that they remain fire retardant and that they're certified as such. um at some point they exceed their life, you know, their life capacity and it becomes more of a fire hazard than certification can can prevent. And so we've got at this point I think we've got some that are they have been on the on the block to be uh replaced and again we've just had to kind of kick kick the can down the road for a little bit. But hopefully we can start checking things like that off if we continue

094to see savings. >> Thank you. >> Uh Miss Justice. >> Yeah. Uh two things. First of all, um I was at school last week as meeting Shack meeting and one of the things that they brought up was how wonderful the sidewalks would be if they could expand them because the kids that's a really bad spot for kids crossing roads and getting to the schools and the kids want to walk. they have to they they can live across the street and can't even get across to they have to ride the bus to get to the school. That's how wonderful it is now that we're adding sidewalks and allowing them more ability to be safe and get to the school. So, that's a great thing. Um, but uh I wanted to also talk about the situation with

095the fund balance. We used to have an extremely healthy fund balance years ago and that's one of the reasons we were able to literally survive hurricanes when the counties around us fell in a big hole. Uh we were later reimbursed with our fund balance from our insurance, but that always takes time. So that was a really good thing. Couple years ago, we were literally forced to spend down our fund balance. That wasn't our decision. So at this point, we're trying to build it back up. Um it sounds like what you were saying is if I'm wrong about this that if the county has given us certain monies then when the monies are re reallocated we have to get their permission to do that. That's what we're talking about now. Correct. >> So for capital that's

096true for our general fund or local funding appropriation we receive from them. They give us >> a certain amount every month. So they don't wait for invoices to be sent to them to reimburse us. So we could do that with the local current expense. >> Okay. So now and it's about a third of our funding comes from the county commissioners. Correct. Most the rest of it comes from the state or a little from the federal. Is that >> I think it's around 33% if I remember correctly. >> So we don't have to worry about that if it's coming from the state. Correct. Right. So, what it sounds like we need to do, and I need to look in policy to see if there's anything in there now, but it would be a good idea to

097set a certain percentage aside of any funding that we have overdose um till we can start to rebuild that fund balance because it it was decimated and I I worry about what could happen if we have another hurricane or something like that. So, whatever it takes, we need to start addressing that issue and I believe it would be through policy. Would uh Um, we do have I know Miss Bradford had her hand up. I know Dr. Barnes wanted to. Um, so I'm going to go Miss Bradford and then Dr. Barnes. >> I'm just looking for clarification. I thought maybe I'm sorry. >> Okay, Dr. Burns >> just for all of this conversation. I think this is a good conversation to make as a part of our budget talks in the spring. >> If the board

098wants to make that a priority to say we want to make sure we're earmarking 1% 2% 10%. >> That'll be something that we'll have to build into our operating expense to plan for. >> Um I think that would be the best place for that conversation to have as a part of our budget talks >> when we come to you guys and say what are our priorities to look for? You know, that can obviously be one of them, but we also do have a new cooperative agreement with the county where they will be covering up to $10 million of any disaster that happens due to weather related events. >> As long as 500,000 >> as long as we pay the first 500,000. Yeah. >> And I just wanted to clarify also for Dr. Merrick, um, regarding

099the priorities, this particular request would not cover the very next item that we would have as the most important, which is why that is being pushed back. another month or so. Um, but I did want to identify that several of the things that um, we identified this year, both from county appropriations and for lottery, um, all of those items except for that one are either underway uh, or done or we're waiting on lottery funds to be released. So, of the items that we had on our priority list for the year, those things are moving forward in one way or another. Um, and the other items that we ended up including in here, to be very honest, some of those are lowhanging fruit, but we need them. But because they're affordable, it seemed like the right

100time. >> What What's the one uh item that we don't have the money to cover? That's still our high priority list. >> The uh underground storage tanks at the bus lot. >> It's a big one. >> Fuel. >> Okay. >> Thank you. So, I'm going to allocate 10 minutes for that conversation. I think that should be good. Um, next is the resolution for exceptional children funding. I know this was um something that uh Miss Barnhart brought forward. How much time do you think you need for that, Miss Barnhart? >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I I would be amenable to 10 minutes. Um, I had sent this forward to the chair and the superintendent for us to potentially consider. I do not have um, this resolution I saw come out of Lee County and I like

101the verbiage and I know that in our conversations with our county commissioners this year specifically in discussing funding, we discussed how we have a few exceptional education students who cost us a lot of a lot of money to be able to be responsive to their needs. some upwards of over $100,000. Um, and so this would allow us to kind of put some data and share with the general assembly where we are and what that looks like and how that would affect us and in I think a positive way to be able to be more responsive to our student needs. I believe that this is reflective of our legislative agenda. We have on there that we are in support of the state passing the tiered EC funding model. I believe that this will just help with

102data. So, because the percentages are not in there um at this time, what I would be what I would be moving to do next week is to say to direct the superintendent to fill this in so that we can officially approve it after that is the case. >> Refresh your email. >> Julie got it done today. >> Really? >> Okay. >> So then if we're looking at >> I just forwarded to you um at >> 3:26, >> but it's not is it the one in >> No. So that will have to be refreshed >> with the numbers put in it. >> No, I I just hit send about 3 minutes ago. >> And I believe that there are some other counties also interested in reflecting their own numbers and data to submit this as well.

103I think anytime that we do um a large statewide campaign, but also be reflective of our needs, it resonates more with our general assembly members who are there representing the state. So, um, that is the reason behind this and I don't think it will take very much long, but if anybody has any questions for me, I'm happy to address them. >> Um, Dr. Merrick and then Mr. Perry. >> Yes. I I think this is a great idea. I want to support what uh has been done in Lee County. I'm curious about what the um advisory council for uh exceptional students felt about this. >> I I don't have any feedback of that. >> Have they been contacted? No, I don't have a >> Well, we we do. >> Go ahead, Miss >> Um the funding

104cap and um the tiered funding has consistently been a discussion that I have had with the advisory council for exceptional students over the past several years. So, the ones that have been on that um have heard me stand on my soap box about um the cap in funding and um the need for legislative change. >> I appreciate that. I do believe that if we're going to bring something to the board, uh it would be it would be a little funny not to include our advisory council. >> Mr. Okay. >> Um I think this is a change that's very well warranted. Um my only question is where in our legislative priorities, the budget priorities for the state are we placing this request at there. We don't want them. We don't want to lose our other funding

105because we're because we care about exceptional children. We just want more funding. I mean, we don't want to um Okay. Well, we we'll cut teacher salaries, but we we'll give you more EC money. I mean, this is not not what we want. So, I just want to know like where do we kind of plan in in our general where do we place this request in our general request of the legislature for, you know, budgetary change. >> If you could respond to that, Mr. Barnhart, and then I'll happy to respond to it. I also agree with you um in saying if you look at the now therefore be it resolved it talks about formally urging the general assembly to revise the funding to reflect actual EC enrollment. So this um this resolution is specifically addressing the

106cap. So it's not advocating for um like I said in our legislative agenda that New Henburg County passed earlier. We are supportive of the EC tiered funding. That's a different that's a different model to begin with. This is addressing specifically the cap. So there are multip when you're discussing um the different entities of what funding looks like. This would be a way to support in a different format but still be responsive to student needs. And I hope that it so it's not saying hey take the money from here and give it to EC. It's not saying that. It's saying specifically to reevaluate that cap because right now the state has it capped at 13%. they will uh reimburse you for exceptional education funding. And since we are over that cap, we are having to utilize

107more localized funding for that in order to be responsive to the needs. >> All right. Next, I I've gotten every everybody's hand so far that I've seen. Um next is Miss Bradford. >> I'm totally in support of this. It falls completely in line with not only our legislative, you know, priorities, but also what we've been going to Raleigh and asking for. and it's fallen on deaf ears because we really didn't have a piece of paper or talking points. Um, and this tells us, you know, that, you know, the cap is excluding 101 of our EC students in Anna County. It's not defunding by the state because they have a cap on it at 13% and we have way more students. Um, you know, a shortfall of more than a half a million dollars is a

108big deal in our funding. So, I'm totally in support of it. And you know, with a resolution like this, then we can contact individual legislators offices and say, "Hey, did you see this? Hey, can you look at this? Can you get this on your priorities for this next year so that we can move this fall?" um from what I understand from staff until Julie you can correct me if I've misunderstood people actually enroll their students in our school district because they're EC and we do such a darn good job of it but we're not getting any extra money once we hit that 13% gap and that's putting a strain on the entire school district. This is one of my passions here to get this one done and I'm thrilled that we finally got a resolution

109in that direction. Uh, real quick, Miss Martin, >> just want a piece of clarity. Anytime a resolution is adopted by this board, we send it to every single representative for New Hipper County. So, this is it's not just one person gets it. We don't hold on to it. Everybody who represents us gets a copy of this in support of it. And and again, we have it as we continue our advocacy conversations. >> Um, next in line was Miss Justice. Let us not forget that we're 49th in the nation in per pupil expenditure. That is coming from the legislature. They're setting over last I heard something about 11 billion in excess funding. Um so yes, we need to do a as much lobbying of our legislature representatives as possible because the problem is coming from their

110decisions. It's not like we don't have the money and it's really not fair to the kids here in the state of North Carolina. Somebody just brought up the fact that if you have a child that's EC. I know a lot of people whose kids go to private schools except for their kids that are designated as EC and they come to our school. Same with charter schools. This is really unbalanced, really unfair. Contact the legislators, be adamant about what's going on. run resolution is powerful, but the reality is overall we really need to push these legislators in general to give our kids what they deserve. This is a fact. >> Uh Mr. Wibbore, >> and I would just like to say that uh I I'm also in favor of this. Um and I and then just

111from personal um times uh as when I was an administrator, we had you know one student that I still very well remember uh had uh you know needed because they needed it uh their own teacher their own teacher assistant um you know so that that one child by him by theirel uh you know you know cost the county uh about $100,000. So you can just imagine how much of the EC funding would be you know eaten up by that child but the child needed it. So, I mean, that's the thing. Sorry. >> Can we ask um Julie, we had the number one $700,000? >> So, I I don't have that um with me right now, but um I know just think about our contract for one-on-one nurses when we need 15 to 18 one-on-one RNs

112and our contract for nurses exceeds a million dollars a year. that lets you know about the you know indeed that cost. >> Dr. Barnes, >> one of the other angles that we've been working, Miss Barnhard and I have been with the public school forum gez for more than a year now looking at multi- tiered funding formulas specifically for special ed. And both Miss Sutton, Miss Varnum, and I have all advocated for our district to pilot that >> if we're able to because we do know that kids come in different sizes >> or different needs. You know what I mean? >> Their needs come in different sizes. >> Yeah. >> But I mean, they come in different sizes, too. But >> that too, but you're fine. >> All right. >> Financial. >> All right. Um, so

11310 minutes for that session. Um, after that we have a close session. Whether we need it or not, we'll leave it there. Personnel report, correspondence, announcements, and adjournment. Miss Barnhart, >> we are under the 4-hour limit. >> Not not by very much. I I did include a five minute break. My apologies. I did include a fivem minute break. So 225 225 minutes and four hours be 240. So, um, hopefully some of these things I think we would be a little bit under time, but that's where we stand. >> Okay. >> I sense a trend. >> I mean, don't jinx it. >> Yes, M. Dr. Barnes did a presentation. We helped them with it. We made comments all the way through it. And when we told the assembled board members and superintendents that our board meetings

114went four hours, they were a gasast. Their board meetings take an hour, an hour and a half. So, and we did ask how many we have two meetings a month. Majority of them did, but we can shorten that time without touching whole audience. Although we did get a lot of feedback on that, but we can to show. >> Well, I do have to make a slight correction because I know that many of them said it was way more than four hours. There were some that said that some of their committees met for much longer amounts of time. And I had chairs come up to me and ask me how do how do you modify that? And h so we shared policy with other Anyways, >> could you clarify that though? Some boards have all of

115their committee meetings right before their regular board meeting. you log on and you're there for like hours. Thankfully, we don't do it that way. >> All right. So, the next item is the 2025 audit presentation. >> So, I'll ask um Adam Spur um Spuric, sorry, to come to the podium for us. >> You should have your binders at your seat. I'm sorry. >> Is it a point of order or is a point of inquiry? >> Point of order. on screen too. >> Yeah, it is. >> Need to vote to approve the agenda. >> We already did >> that. We just adopted for the main meeting. >> We have never done that. >> Go ahead. >> Good afternoon. Um, you guys started talking about fund balance. I thought you were going to go over the audit

116without me. Um, I will say I'm about to go over your audit report. Luckily has no findings. Um, I I heard a lot of discussion about uh writing policy regarding hold back or set aides and fund balance. I will say that the districts that I've worked with that have tried to write policy to make you fiscally responsible oftent times um uh tie their own hands. When you write a policy that you have the ability to uh break, it all of a sudden becomes an audit finding. Uh because we look, you know, looking at your revenue, the $100 million that you get from the county, you can't just say we're going to take 10% of that and set it aside for fund balance because that's what you really need to do to build fund balance. Other

117funding sources will only be a fraction of like the money that you really need. So it's it is very difficult and very specific to write a policy again that you don't violate in the future, thus creating an audit finding. So just tread carefully if you're looking to write policy related to funding and fund balance because I have seen it uh backfire on districts. I've seen it backfire on districts when they've had plenty of fund balance in the years when they have little fund balance. So, that being said, again, in front of you, you should have a um an audit report as well as a three-page letter to the board. The three-page letter is just to let you know that the audit went fine. We didn't have any difficulties, any disagreements with management. We did implement

118Gazsby 101, a governmental accounting standards boards. They issue requirements. Gazsby 101 basically required us to put in liability on the financial statements for sick leave. This does not affect your fund balance. This is in regards to net position. So throughout these statements, your uh funds carry your fund balance, the money that you have available to appropriate. You then take those funds and add things like pension liability, acrudeed leave, sick leave, now the value of your buildings and gives you like the value of your public company if you were one, your net position. So the the gazsby related to sick leave really just affects net position and not the money that you have available to appropriate. Sick leave is paid as it's used. We just created an estimate for the potential sick leave on hand if

119it were all used um and and and again in accordance with Gazsby 101. So that is detailed in that three-page letter. Um you will also noticed there is draft stamped on every single one of these pages. We uh conduct our audit of the financial statements as well as an audit of compliance. The compliance audits uh we use compliance supplements written by the office of management and budget, the federal OM. They issue compliance supplements telling us what steps to test on title one for compliance, EC, child nutrition. These programs have been around for a long time. The requirements for those programs have not changed, but OM has not finalized their 2025 audit supplements. They normally come out in April or May, and I know everybody's shocked. They come out in April or May. As of September,

120they still had not been issued. The government shutdown didn't help things. In fact, um because those supplements uh have not been written. Anybody that receives federal dollars, the AICPA has recommended you cannot finalize an audit of compliance until those supplements are finalized. We we have drafts. We know the steps. We know the funding. I really anticipate the only thing that will change from the draft we look at today to the draft when it's issued will be the date, the date of when I can finalize the audit. So, until then, it's held open. if there's a subsequent event that happens, we'll we'll we put that footnote there. You know, a December hurricane. Um but any barring anything of that nature, really the only thing that will be changing is the date. Um the LGC is not

121is also not accepting audits at this point. So again, can't finalize, can't submit it. Their deadline was December 31. It's now been pushed back to February 16th. This is a statewide nationwide problem. big in the accounting world, maybe not to you guys, but that's why we're looking at a draft here versus a final report. If you would turn to page one of that draft report, that's our opinion letter. And again, clean audit report, clean audit opinion. First section of this report basically says that we believe these financial statements accurately reflect the net position and the fund balance for New Hover County Schools as of June 30, 2025 and the activity for the year then ended. So again, a clean unmodified opinion and our opinion basically states that the financial statements are accurate, not whether you

122had a good year or a bad year. We have talked the last few years about how much fund balance you've used. That's really a side note, just giving you the information that comes to us. But at the end of the day, the opinion is really that the financial statements are accurate. If you would turn to page 14, exhibit three. So again, the first two exhibits, those are at the net position level, a balance sheet and income statement that takes again all this fund balance and adds assets and liabilities that are essentially non-cash to give you what would be like a fair market value for New Hover County Schools. But what's important is really the fund balance. So uh there's 70ome pages here. Exhibit 3, exhibit 4, exhibit seven, and exhibit 8. the four most important

123pages in this document. Those are the where your numbers are. That is where your fund balance is. So, anything you take away from this report is exhibit 3, 4, 7, and 8. Exhibit three is a balance sheet for all of your governmental funds. You have your assets, your liabilities, and fund balance. Your fund balance is primarily housed in two funds. the general fund, which is where your county money comes in, and the other restricted revenue fund, fund eight, where basically everything else comes in. You have some state and federal grants that come in there. Some unrestricted dollars come in there like interest, indirect cost, your Medicaid comes in there. Um, those two again house primarily your fund balance. And if you look at the bottom of column one and column four, you can see that

124your general fund balance in the first column was $3,892,000. That's a decrease of $30,000, essentially break even. I will say of that $3.8 million, $1.8 million is of non-cash assets. You have inventory on hand, that is money you have already spent. you have a prepaid of $875,000. That is money already out the door. So, while they are assets, they are not available to appropriate. They are in this the fund balance section called non-spendable because they have been spent. You have $122,000 of receivables. You cannot spend receivables until you receive it and it's in the bank until the next year. So we have a restricted for stabilization by state statute which is made up of money that you had not collected as of June 30. And so what you have available to appropriate is 1 million

125uh $874,000. You've committed $500,000 to disaster recovery and your unassigned is 1,374. That's a very low number for fund balance. But luckily you do have other special revenue fund your fund 8. There is $23 million of fund balance in that fund of yeah the fourth column the other restricted fund. >> It houses your other fund balance $23 million and that's an increase of $6.8 million from last year. So between those two funds you added $6.8 million of fund balance. When you compare last year, fund two, you used 8.6 and added 5.6 in fund 8 for a uh a net decrease of $3 million. So, you went between those two funds from a usage of $3 million to an addage of 6.8, a $9.8 million swing. >> Miss Barber. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd just

126like to know how we got that money coming in. However, there federal programs that we administer that we most of the ended talked I can bring it right up. >> Still at the end of the day, going from using $3 million between those two funds to adding 6.8, a significant swing tapering off that usage of fund balance that you had to do because you ran out of fund balance and fund two. Um I think it changes the tone of the last two meetings of just how much fund balance you were using to all right we this is now sustainable um adding again fund balance all of it in the restricted uh fund but there is some non unrestricted sources um I would recommend looking at utilizing those unrestricted funds in the other restricted fund balance

127to build up the general fund balance a little higher than the 1.8 million that you have available appropriate. It's easier to spend that fund two money when it something pops up, an emergency happens. So, uh, the ratio here is a little skewed with the most of your money being in the other restricted fund, but there is means of moving expenditures or spending those funds to help put those back in an equilibrium where you have half of your fund balance in each if that's, you know, what it ends up falling into. But again, can't write that into a policy. But there is uh a a large amount of fund balance in fund eight and very little in fund two. And that's that ratio that difference uh is it is a little odd. Um but the main

128takeaway you're not spending fund balance like you were the last two years. >> Mr. Bradford, >> you just said you can do it, but you didn't tell us how >> moving moving expenditures that uh meet restricted requirements or expenditures that uh can be spent on the nonrestricted sources. So, interest income comes into the other restricted fund. Indirect cost uh currently child nutrition pays very little indirect cost. If you chose to pay indirect cost from child nutrition, that revenue would go into the other restricted fund, a lot of that uh indirect cost would be used to cover utilities that the kitchens use electricity. You could essentially pay uh charge child nutrition an indirect cost 800,000 at most. I think there's a there's a calculation. it's 8% of their expenditures and and utilize those indirect costs to

129pay electric uh costs that are currently being paid out of fund two. So that and that's where your finance department will determine the best way to utilize fund 8 and fund two in conjoinment to maybe correct that best difference in fund two to fund 8 fund balance that end of the fiscal year. So, um, as you may recall, we'll come back to you in July and we'll have an a budget amendment. And normally that's where we're trying to do some of these shifts, um, to be able to have those funds in the right place. Um, so they're more flexible in the future. So, we we will continue doing that. >> Dr. Mayor >> B Sutton, uh, when we just looked at an audit a few months ago and they looked at how you were, uh,

130managing the books and they gave you, you know, glowing, uh, recommendations and I did see that you were trying, they they said you were doing a great job of moving things from one account to the next in any way that you could, playing Tetris with our money to to to most benefit us. So, I think that's what we're talking about here. So, what he's saying to you doesn't sound strange, right? Thank you very much. Yeah. >> If it doesn't sound strange to you guys, but >> yeah, it >> it does. Let's talk later. >> It it it's not an accident that you receive $100 million from the county and you're changing fund balance as $30,000. I mean, that's that doesn't just happen. You were at a point where you really could not use any more

131of your local fund balance and that's what you did. 30,000 again to me is break even when you're talking $100 million. anything that could be moved uh and to to not spend any more fund balance was moved over to fund 8. It would just be now uh uh recommended to try to keep doing that a little bit more to get from just $1.8 million uh of of usable fund balance in fund two. >> I'm sorry, Adam. I just want to share one more thing. Um I just lost it. Um handage Sorry, it'll come back to me. Miss >> Bradford. Um, if I understand it, you're saying we used $30,000 out of our fund balance this year >> In fund two. Got that written down? >> The general fund. >> And what did we spend that

132on? So remember, we actually allocated a million dollars for EC those extra um ecta positions and we only ended up spending 30 because we had enough vacancy savings lap salaries where we didn't end up spending everything that we had appropriated because we knew we knew that carryover was going to come over from the previous year. So we talked about that. I think it was around this same time last year. I think it was last October. Any other questions? Uh, you do have fund balance in capital outlay. It's $122,000, a decrease of 130,000. Again, capital outlay is on a reimbursement basis from the county. You have very little fund balance there to carry over to spend on projects. You spend it as you receive it from the county. And then you across your uh schools, you

133have $2.3 million on hand for the athletics, the booster clubs, the um the fundraisers that come through your individual schools. And that was an increase of $74,000 uh from last year. If you turn two more pages, this is the income statement. It's a little smaller, a little harder to read, but it is the income statement that gives us those changes in fund balances that we talked about while looking at your fund balance. And so you can see there across the top the revenues, $101 million in the general fund. 99 of that comes from the county. That was an increase of $5.5 million. Uh when you look at that $9.8 8 million swing in your loss to profit. Part of it is increasing uh appropriations from the county of $5.5 million. You get $188 million from

134the state public school fund, $15 million in federal grants. That $15 million is really almost back to prepandemic levels. There was $1.5 million of COVID money left over that expired in December of 2024. If you look back at last year's audit, you spent almost $47 million of federal funds. A lot of COVID 19 education stabilization funds. So, this federal grants fund number of 15.6 million, that's really back in line uh pre- pandemic before those uh those ESSER funds, those CO 19 funds. The other restricted revenue fund collected $18 million. That was $1.2 million less. A lot of the programs funded in this fund, they swing. Medicaid, uh, donations, private grants, you'll have revenue swings uh, in this fund because they're non they're not annual appropriations like the state public school fund and the federal grants

135funds. So, uh, $18.2 million received in other restricted funds. And then the $14 million received from the county, again, mostly on a reimbursement basis. Um there's also some state money that comes in through the county lottery funds. Uh the DPI provides buses for you. Uh so those that $14 million of revenue was again met with $14 million of expenses. And then the individual schools collect $3.2 million uh for the year across again all those schools. then your expenditures. But if you look towards the bottom of the page, you can see that net change in fund balance, $37,000 decrease in the general fund, 6,788 in the other restricted fund, a decrease of $130,000 in capital outlay, and $74,000 increase in the individual school fund. Again, those were the same numbers we talked about when we were

136looking at the balance sheet, but that's where those numbers that we just talked about came from. This this income statement here. >> Miss Bradford, could you give us an example of private funds? Would that be something like uh the tobacco fund or something like that? >> Yeah. Yeah. Uh donations uh there CTE grants. There's a there's a lot of uh grants that come through that restricted grants fund or restricted revenue fund. All right. So, aside from your governmental funds, you have one business type fund. So, if you would turn to page 22, this is exhibit 7. Again, exhibit 3, 4, 7, and 8. You can't really look at fund balance in a business type fund because net position and fund balance are the same number. We we have to record business type funds on the

137full acrruel method. So when you buy a new new pieces of equipment, you capitalize it and depreciate it. They have to record sick leave and annual leave as a liability within this fund. Even though we know annual leave isn't going to be paid out all at once or sick leave isn't going to be paid out all at once, the pension plan liability is included in these liabilities. So instead of looking at your net position of $440,000, which is again almost zero, you look at the cash on hand, that first number. So exhibit seven, most important number on this page, top of the page, $9,234,000. That is a lot of cash on hand in child nutrition. It was a decrease of $41,000 from last year. Last year's increase in cash was an increase of $870,000. So

138this fund with $9 million in the bank is fiscally sound. You cannot get to that money because it is child nutrition money has to be spent on child nutrition. The only way you can um get to this money is through charging indirect cost. They again they they utilize free electricity, they utilize free departments, and you're allowed to charge them at basically an overhead rate. And so that indirect cost uh this year was only $96,000. The recommended num amount of cash on hand or uh net working capital is anywhere from 1 to three months. If you have if you have less than two months of cash on hand, you're not able to charge indirect cost. If you have three months on hand, you have to write a spendown plan of how are we going to get

139to spend some of this down. So that one to three month is uh DPI is recommended. You're you're sitting more at like six months with $9 million of cash on hand and anywhere like $15 million of annual expenses. You make money serving food uh to in New Hover County. Now, that doesn't mean you will always make food or make money serving food. Costs go up, but the reimbursement rates have been slow to increase over time since uh since the CO 19 feeding program ended where everybody ate for free. Uh luckily for 2526, reimbursement rates are going up. So, there will be a shot of revenue uh additional revenue if even if you serve uh the same number of meals. I will say that your revenue in this fund went down, but so did your expenses

140proportionately. So, uh, maintaining high participation and managing costs are key to making money here. And a lot of districts across the state can't do it. If you have a too many small schools, um if you don't have that participation, kid, uh school systems that run out of cash in this child nutrition fund have to be funded locally basically from fund two because every kid has to eat. So financially stable with $9 million in the bank um and the ability to actually generate a profit serving food. And I'll also add if that's okay, um there is a form in order to charge the child nutrition program indirect costs. There's a form that you have to complete and submit to DPI and then they um return an approval for that. Uh we did submit that last year

141and before that we didn't charge indirect costs but with um the changes in the pay for our child nutrition employees. We didn't charge them certainly as much as what we could have but we are f going to file that same form again this year asking permission to charge indirect cost. But it is a fine line because because we are doing so well on child nutrition. we didn't have those worries that maybe other people had as far as not knowing when that reimbursement was going to come because we knew that they had the funding within their program to be able to do that. And so um I just wanted to let the board know that we are filing the form. So if we are able to child child charge child nutrition indirect cost this year we

142we are planning to do that. >> Miss Barhart. >> Thank you Madam Chair. I honestly don't love the idea of charging child nutrition um and overhead. Um my head kind of went, can we re-evaluate how much we're charging for lunches to potentially look at the opportunity? We could see an increase of more participation, which we've already seen obviously a great participation rate, but there's there's an opportunity to kind of reeval in my head to reevaluate this and potentially gain traction. My my other qu >> I could answer that if you want or I can let you answer ask the second one. >> Well, I I this my second one is I know that in the past we've had a um a debt owed and we have we have said we're not going to have debt

143collectors for um child lunch and breakfast balance at the end of the year. So I don't know if any of that if we have the potential of using those funding funds to cover any overage. I don't know what that amount is this year. Um but those were my two off the hand questions off my mind. >> So for um the bulk of your revenue and if you actually would turn to exhib uh page 23 exhibit 8. Your revenue comes from two sources. 2.3 million of actual food sales. A lot of that is supplemental sales and then some actual paid lunches and breakfast. Then you have your nonoperating revenues in the middle of the page. 10,335. That is your federal reimbursements. That decre that declined $800,000 from last year in order to qualify for these federal

144funds. Again, pre- pandemic and there's been a waiverss since the pandemic ended on what you have to charge for lunch prices. Um, if your charged price does not cover the cost of a meal, then local has to write fund five a check because you've made a decision to underutilize paying for meals and overutilizing federal reimbursement. So, your your price that you charge for meals is pretty much set. And back before the pre- pandem before the pandemic, every year you did this price equity tool where you calculated how much we need to increase the price to cover the cost of a meal. And as long as you were going up in increments of 10 cents, you never had to write that check from local to child nutrition to pay for the fact that you weren't charging

145what it cost to make a meal. And it's diff it's difficult to charge that because um kids don't eat it at 350. They're certainly not going to eat it at 550. And so it pricing lunches um you get very little room is to drastically decrease the price and that's not going to drive participation. The participation that needs to happen is in the federal reimbursement where the bulk of your kids get free and reduced lunches. you even get some re federal reimbursement on those paid meals. Um, but participation in the form of getting more kids through the line, whether they're paying for it or not paying for it, uh, is the key driver to the revenue, especially on the federal reimbursement side. Um, the other part what you're talking about is the charges. If a kid

146goes through a line and doesn't have the funds to pay, they charge a negative balance to that kid and then if you don't collect it from that uh child local has to fund that charged meal. Again, because it's the deemed that as the board, you're writing the policies. You're making the decisions regarding how you collect those funds, whether you send duct collectors or principles or just how it's collected. And so any charges at the end of the year are paid for out of local uh into child nutrition. And so um and and those are paid by September of the next year. So that that is a continuous ongoing charge that local pays for kids who don't qualify for free and reduced or maybe do qualify for free and reduced but didn't do applications or if

147they're not a part of a C school. um basically the the the schools that all kids eat for free. Um but again, the the real driver in participation is is getting kids through the line. Uh especially in schools where all those kids eat for free anyway. >> Miss Bradford, following up on that, you said we had a decrease in our revenue. Was it because of the 120 students less we have um in the schools or because students aren't eating or something else? >> Some of both. uh the 120 kids is not enough to make the 800,000. When you look at that ratio, 120 kids to your 12,000, 800,000 versus 10.3, those those aren't it wasn't just the 120,000. It is just uh participation in general. Again, kids going through the line. >> Mr. Perry, >>

148it's great that our excuse me, keep forgetting share with Mr. Um the I have a question. It's great that our program in general, our nutrition program is making money. Um but on a school by school this are we losing money at our community eligibility provision schools where and just making it up for with and making up profit from the other schools that don't qualify for that because it seems like we're only getting reimbured a certain amount or that that we would inevitably lose money at these schools. >> It's a it's a a larger equation than that. Um, so with if you have a large C school, that is going to be your biggest money maker. Uh, a large C school that is highly free and reduced percentage-wise. So, uh, what happens in if if you

149were just looking at C districtwide, if you had 60% of your kids that qualify for free meals, those 60% would go through the line and they would get 100% of the federal reimbursement for those 60% kids. The other 40% would pay. When you go to C, you basically say instead of taking 100% of 60, we're going to take 60% of 100. every kid eats for free, but the reimbursement rate might go down because we know there are some kids that don't qualify eating for free. So when with that equation, you try to uh increase participation so that you're taking 60% of a bigger number. And you also look at it now school by school. So you can do this school qualifies at this percent, this school. So it's it's much more uh school by school

150basis. It's not just a one school is funding the other. If anything, you could say your large schools, more kids are are funding your smaller schools. There's an economy of scale when it comes to salaries. Whether you're serving 300 meals, 400 meals at a small school versus 800 meals at a large school. You don't need twice as much staff as a at a large school as you do at a small school. there's a certain number that just to get into the the kitchen and start cooking, you need a certain staffing level. So there there really isn't a a a connection between C and non C schools. It's more between large schools and small schools. But just as a general comment, our C schools do well as far as participation and we can most certainly get

151with Amy Stanley and provide the participation levels at each school. Um, if that would be helpful or interesting if you guys are interested in having that information >> there there are some schools. So you when you look at the list of the schools and like their basically their percentage of free and reduced at some point you just say if we can't keep going down this list because it might be in a district where only 20% qualify and to say all those kids eat for free and get very little federal reimbursement on all kids eating for free and again it's it's just based on the economic demographics of that school. Um, so when you when you have all of your schools versus C, you look at it district-wide, but when you kind of when you have

152a clear cut off of we have lower lower wealth schools and higher wealth schools, um, and and determining a line of these are the schools that are going to be C C and these are not. Uh, at some point it it just doesn't make sense to to go lower than a certain percentage. Again, Amy would be able to identify kind of where that cut off is. we had to stop here because if we go to this next school on this list, uh the reimbursement rate percentage-wise is not going to be as good as what we're getting by selling the meals and having kids do applications that qualify individually. So, um and again, which is a whole another issue getting kids to fill out or parents to fill out applications. There might be a lot of

153kids that qualify for free meals. They just don't do the application. And annually we do review um the schools and the percentages to try to determine where the balance is as far as the reimbursement. You know, how how many schools should we select um to be on C based on what the potential um expense might be to us locally because the federal reimbursement wouldn't cover all of that. So that is an annual thing that we review. Stanley actually does the work on that and then shares that with Dr. Morgan and myself for review. >> And she tries to look for different ways to collect schools together to increase the ability for C, but we have some schools that are just so low on that list that they just can't figure out a way to put

154them in. >> And I'm I'm going to pause just for a second. Um, we do have that uh NCDIT update at 4:30. Um, and so we do need to get through this. Um, I saw Mr. Wvore and I saw Dr. Merrick, I want to make sure that we get through all of it um as quickly as possible. If you could, Mr. Wor. >> Uh and I don't know this question really should be directed to you or to M Sutton, but uh when we were at Greensboro, we did see we did hear from a lot of folks about like Armark and these other companies. I know other counties have done that. Um, I think our child nutrition folks are doing an awesome job for us and they are doing a, you know, putting forth a great

155meal, but I I I wonder where that comes into play, whether it's better to outsource something like that or to do it ourselves. >> I the only districts that I work with that outsource are smaller. I have not seen um a large district outsourcing but um you know it is becoming a a topic discussed more and more and just because the cost of benefits is so high. Um again I don't know if Amy's looked into what the cost structure would look like on um source outsourcing it. Um, again, that's audit. >> Yeah, normally you see that in school districts who are not able to be profitable, but um, Amy Stanley and her group have been able to put a really good plan in place. So, that's the reason we really haven't looked at doing that.

156I don't know that we would save any money going that route in my opinion because we do have some efficiency things in place. Um, how she's handling and Dr. Morgan, please feel free to jump in if you like. Um, I I think she's doing a great job and I think we might be moving backwards if we were to try to outsource it. In my opinion, >> I don't really have anything to add, but I was I will say I feel like I feel like the the tradeoff would be more expensive given the number of schools that we're serving and the number of people that we're working with. and she's got she she does have a system in place and it's ever evolving and she's doing the best she can to you know help our managers

157increase participation um on a regular basis. Um, I would say if if anything, it's probably more about just continuing to help support her to increase the efficiency of what they're doing. And then also to try and help help educate people who don't realize that participation is about the number of students who go through the line, not about the number of students enrolled in a school. Because so many things that we deal with in child nutrition, I mean, so many things we deal with in schools are based on enrollment. But in the child nutrition department or school nutrition department, it's really based on participation. >> Um, just so we're aware, board members, we have 15 minutes and we have a pretty a substantial amount of things and a close session to go through. So, as quickly

158as possible, Dr. Mayor, >> first of all, economies of scale. Um, I think we also have to remember that we have are employing people who do this work. >> Yes. >> And we want to support the people that we employ. So, that's one. and also to remind us of the audit that we went through that said that Miss Sutton, your department is doing a phenomenal job of determining which schools should be where and how to do it. So, I want to remind us about that audit. >> I'm in closing page 65 starts the last of three letters internal controls, compliance over federal requirements and compliance over state requirements. no findings of internal control material weaknesses or significant deficiencies. We found no federal or state misspent monies, question cost. Those three letters are essentially what's holding

159up the audit. Those opinion letters are based on those federal compliance supplements. Uh so, but again, uh I anticipate no additional steps being added to any of our test work. It is just a matter of the federal government finalizing All right. >> Thank you so much. >> Yep. Certainly. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Well, we have about 13 minutes until NCDIT is going to join us. Um, how long is the public records request update going to take? >> We can do my part in three minutes. >> Go for it. Thank you. All right. for three minutes. All right. Um, so we currently have 17 public records open at this time. Five, the oldest five are for our board member emails, and those have just been sent to our attorney this week for review

160and redaction. Other than that, we have um, we had four in November, 10 in October, five in September, four in August for a total of 75 this year, 169 last year, and we will have all of these completed within two weeks. and Anita and I have talked about sort of putting three steps in place over the course of a year where at winter break, at spring break, and at the close of the school year, we're going to try to hit zero in each of those times. So, it gives us just a chance to refresh. Please understand some of these are very some of them are very complex, but some of them also will come back and ask again for just one additional piece of information. And this doesn't include all the requests that we respond

161to by email with the news media and things like this. So, we're working to try to put in a space where we'll hit zero by Christmas, zero by spring break, and then again zero again at the end of the school year. >> It's less than half than last year. >> And how many of those are not overdue yet? >> Um, five. >> Okay. And by overdue, he means we have an internal uh timeline of 30 days of what we're trying to accomplish. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes we have to contact the requesttor again because some of the requests will come up with 20 or 30,000 emails. So, we have to kind of refine some of those requests and get things down a little bit. >> Okay. Um, do our attorneys have any any

162updates on where they're at as far as public records requests? >> Okay. >> This week, you have >> this week. >> Yes. Yes. >> All right. So, um, NCDIT will be joining us hopefully. Are they on already? Oh, Mr. Perry, go ahead. >> We got a few minutes before they're on. Uh I would just request five minute. >> Okay. Um >> okay we can we can have a I I would say there being no objections five minute recess. to your seats. >> What? We are still waiting on our NCDIT to join us. I'm hesitant to >> I'm hesitant to um start a new discussion because of yeah um the length of some of the discussions that I think we're going to have for these topics. I did want to um it was Miss Barnhart brought

163to my attention um the uh low performing school improvement plans um and so I asked Dr. Barnes, if you could kind of update everybody about what >> Yeah, thank you. And I'm glad Thank you, Josie, for the reminder, too. So, about a month and a half ago or so, Jared came up and shared with you guys how to look at the school improvement plans for our schools. You don't have to review or approve the school improvement plans for most of our schools, but the low performing ones need to come back and have you guys approve them. So, you've had the opportunity to look at them over the past several uh weeks or so. Um I did not get it onto the um agenda uh consensus items, but it will have to go on for next

164week's consensus because we will need to stipulate to DPI that we've approved their plans before the 6th of December. So basically, I just wanted you guys to know that you'll see something new in in agenda >> agenda >> in consensus agenda for next week. >> So >> that'll be the I mean it was already supposed to be in there. It was the Yeah. So you'll just vote on it next week when you approve consensus. >> We just didn't get to go through and review. Miss Barnhart, >> thank you. And I already expressed this to Mr. Worthington whenever he was there, but I just I'm going to ask the question because these are coming back uh before us again. I know other schools are every two years, but specifically since these are low performing schools to

165highlight where the changes are um because we don't want to see a continual trend of low performing. We want to see the intentionality so that hopefully they're not going to be low performing next year. So just to highlight those changes that are being made to the school improvement plan. >> Now I am correct that you guys have had access to look at them. Correct. Yes. Okay. All right. >> I'll see if I can't ask him to highlight the things that are newer or updated or changed. >> Well, Miss Yes, Miss Frederick. >> Can I ask a question about what we just heard? Um, I wrote down two questions in terms about um, nutrition and how do we get more kids through the line and if we have this extra money, can we not use that

166to improve selection of what the kids eat so that our Hogard student doing his reviews can get us up to more tens. I'll let you take this one if you want, but I know that there are pretty strict guidelines and what we are are not allowed to give students, how we're allowed to prepare it, and what we're allowed to add to it. >> That's true. Um, there are other things I am Amy's trying on a regular basis to kind of figure out ways to help improve participation. One of the things that she's done recently is add vending machines at the high schools which will take um debit cards, credit cards, and so um I think and because of that that means it'll also students can use their smartphones, but they're using um the foods that

167are going in there are are in line with those um specifications for smart snacks. So it would be just like if they were selling them in the cafeteria line, but they're selling them in their vending machine. And so little things like that, I think, I mean, I know that's not a little thing, but it's one of those things where it's just little things like changing the way that they accept payment from students, right? >> I think because they are already accustomed to using digital payment methods as opposed to cash and change, I think that can help um boost participation. One of the reasons we're only doing at the high school right now is so that we can see we can sort of test that theory. >> Um I'm gonna put a pin in this conversation

168because because we do have our NCDIT um representative on and so um I wanted to ask uh Miss Bernice from NCDIT to uh share with us any and all updates you have for us. Welcome to our meeting. >> Yes. Good afternoon everyone. Um yeah, I wanted to provide you an update uh disregard uh regarding third-party I would say um due diligence that we are now doing at um DIT on a more consistent basis. I'll say that um one is that um we are doing additional monitoring um of our third party vendors and that's at point in times and uh periodically I should say uh one we uh are using additional tools one tool called bitsite which gives you a continuous rating on a vendor uh telling us about their cyber hygiene um to ensure they

169have appropriate controls in place to um mitigate risk of externally internet exposed uh information technology assets. So systems uh devices things of that nature. Uh we also are um getting independent reporting um regarding our vendors either a sock type two um type two type two report which basically tells you the controls a vendor has in place and if they are actually working as intended. And so we're getting these reports from our vendors or potential vendors actually. So when we're in negotiation, we get them initially before we approve anything. Um and then on a going forward basis, we're getting those annually. Um if a vendor does not have one in place, we're actually um obtaining what we call a bridge letter. And that bridge letter basically will be the um external firm's attestation that between the

170period of time of their last report and their current report that controls are still working as designed. So again giving us some uh status of that company cyber hygiene. Um the other thing I would say we are doing too is uh we have a couple of other assessments when they don't have a third-party report in place and that's a security assessment which we have some questions and we also have a privacy threshold to understand the data in place but depending on the sensitivity of data in place we um will require additional controls and lastly what I would say that uh we are actually um deploying now um and hope to be fully deployed um probably by the um end of March, early April is transitioning North Carolina into a Gov Grant state. Gov ramp is

171a uh platform the company where um they do continuous monitoring of vendors and there's different levels of verification that they have to go through this talk about their cyber hygiene. We're looking to transition that any vendor who does um provide services does work for the state have to be ramp certified. Again, this is uh really um giving us a core level of hybrid cyber hygiene that we have an expectation for all our vendors. As the sensitivity level of data that may be in scope goes up, they'll have to have additional certification levels. And so I think there's like four levels and um that will give us constant views into their cyber hygiene and and will give us um I should say I'll call it discussion points um as we have periodic meetings with our vendors.

172if something seems as though their cyber hygiene is going down, one will be immediately alerted and can then have um additional conversations with them about remediation or mitigating controls. So again, the you know, as you bundle all these items together, it's all about ensuring that our third parties who are either processing or storing our data have a foundational level of cyber hygiene. And we're making sure that these are um communicated to our vendors and our contracts with our expectations of reporting um and performance to make sure that uh data is secure in the systems that that store or process our data is secure. So I'll stop there to see if there's any questions or or or comments. >> Mr. Perry. >> Hi Ste. Um you mentioned monude um essentially trying to literally hack into their

173systems in order to determine if they actually are secure and and not vulnerable to cyber attacks. >> Sorry, I didn't hear the first part of that question. I just heard the NW were kind of breaking up a little bit. >> Oh, I apologize. Um, my mic's been a little fishy all day. Um, so basically I'm just saying the as part of your monitoring, do you have uh either automated or through AI or whatever or some manual testers um you know basically trying to hack into their systems and see if there are vulnerabilities. Is that part of the monitoring that you are doing? Well, it's called pen what we what we do do is we're expecting to have third-party providers a part of their testing and continuous monitoring part of that is called penetration testing. What

174penetration testing does or some people call it red team testing depending on the level that it's done. That is where you are actually seeing if you can get into if you can um what I'll call it if you can can um get into a a a vendors or a company's network because of exposed vulnerabilities. And so what you do and this is part of penetration testing and again there's certain levels of it but you'll say here here are these vulnerabilities that you noted from scanning it and you're seeing if the controls that they say haven't they have in place will alert that company internally that someone is trying to um get into their network or if you can get into their network and if you do then there's a report saying this is what we

175were able to do this is how far we can get and these are the controls that we recommend you put into place to prevent us from doing that in the future. You'll see that a lot of times in your sock testing. You'll see that in your ISO testing. Your ISO 27,0001 is a certification, one of the certifications and that's calls for your penetration testing. And for some vendors, some vendors, uh, again, depending on what they do, may have to, um, adhere to NIST, uh, which is a a cyber standard to NIS SP800-53. Penetration testing is required to have done on an annual basis. So, those are some of the things that we are looking for and we're getting from them on an annual basis and initially when we go into the contract. The other part

176that we do periodically is anyone can can scan a vendor from an external perspective. You can do an unauthenticated scan and that un unauthenticated scan will let you know to see if you can get into anything um from ex internet exposable vulnerabilities. So anybody could do that at any point in time. Those are some of the things that we're doing periodically especially for more some of more of our strategic vendors. So I know long answer but yes we are doing that either ourselves or that will be communicated in some of the uh external certification reports that we are requiring. >> Is this new or is this been going on all along? >> Uh some parts of it we have been doing uh but it hasn't been on a continuous basis. some parts it was done

177when a um contract may have first come into place but it wasn't you know monitored continuously before renewals or things of that nature. Um but again the threat landscape has changed and so with the changing of a threat landscape we need to be more proactive to get in front of any vulnerabilities to get in front of potentials for you know um data exposure unauthorized data exposure. So some of these controls we're definitely maturing uh to be a little bit more aggressive as third parties are one of the biggest risks that we face. Thank you, >> Miss Barnhart. >> Thank you for being here. Good to see you again. Um, I would love for you to expand a little bit on the government grant state. You said that North Carolina is transitioning to that. Um, you

178know, we are at the will of NCDPI when we have to utilize power well school and now infinite campus. And so how quickly are we going to see a transition to a government grant state um with these vendors having to go through these four vet levels if you will? >> Yeah. So it's called Gov Ramp. Um and Gov Ramp is um we're looking to have that in place um like I said um in the first quarter calendar year, next calendar year, end of March, early April. And we're going to give um vendors uh six to 12 months to become Gov Ramp compliant depending on what they're doing um for this for the uh for the state. Um there's a whole program that comes with this. So it's not going to like hey you have to

179do this and no guidance um assistance. Uh it it we are starting communication of this actually in um January January 15th to be exact with uh webinars that's going to be available for vendors telling them the process the program the expectations and um again assistance to get them there. And so specifically, you know, you talk, you mentioned uh uh Power School and quite frankly any other um vendor that the state used. We have language in every contract which has been updated. So it was language before, but I've I've had it updated uh so that we we actually have the right to audit a vendor annually. We either can audit them ourselves, have a third party do it or again get an indep third party report. And so for example, we actually did have an assessment

180of power school done. And this is something that we'll probably get done or I forget that the the name for the other part that we're doing now is not necessarily power school anymore, but we'll probably get that done for the next foreseeable future um until they are completely on gov ramp and we have that continuous monitoring to ensure that uh some good cyber hygiene practices are in place where we see that there are opportunities we are actually um in communication with them to talk about their remediation and to make sure that remediation is happening in the time frame that they say it's going to happen. >> Did that answer your question? >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much. >> Any other questions? >> Well, thank you so much for that update. Thank you for taking

181time out of your day to to join us. Um, we truly appreciate it and hopefully we won't have any more any more needs to be concerned as far as breaches and such. Um, but we appreciate all that you're doing and uh, thanks for for taking time to talk to us. >> Absolutely. Thank you. Anytime. >> Okay. Have a good one. >> You too. >> Okay. Bye. Bye. >> Bye. >> All right. uh in looking at the time and knowing that we um have a closed session that will likely be roughly 45 minutes. Um I have kind of broken down the next three items on the agenda. Uh with some times there's a little bit of give but not a lot. Um so I have for the next one 10 minutes for old business five and

182for new business 10. Um, so that's the time I'm allotting as of right now just so that we can ensure that we have enough time for close session and then afterwards the personnel report and um the closing up stuff so that we don't have to extend. Um so with that being said um I wanted to continue to the next item which is staff social media and that is um Dr. Barnes. So question came up to me about what is my expectation for employees and social media. So I wanted to provide you a little bit just a brief glance at what our policy says. You can see it there. I'm sure you've already read it. It is appropriate and it is lawful for an employee to speak to issues of public concern and that impacts a

183lot within public schools. My general rule of thumb is I do not restrict what you want to say, but this policy does have some influence in how you say it. Specifically, if your social media indicates or infers that you are also an employee, just for an example, I hate asparagus. >> Okay. Yeah. I just can't stand it. And so, If I start posting anti-asparagus messages on my social media and the and PETA gets involved, people for the ethical treatment of asparagus and they want to take issue with what I have said, it is really impossible for me as the superintendent to completely disassociate myself from the job I do. Even if I say I'm speaking as a private citizen about how awful asparagus is, people will say my my influence is higher than it normally

184would be. So, which is why I don't have social media because I I'm aware of that fact. As employees, I'm not going to restrict what you say, but there is influence on how you say it. And so, if you look down this, if you look at the very bottom, if you look at B, go back up to B, please. First things first, there's a non-negotiable that employees are going to maintain professional relationship with students. Electronic media and communication with students is contraindicated. And we've talked about that with our staff quite a bit. However, I do want to make sure you know that if you look at uh C, employee use of social media, it does say obviously you have the right to self-expression. Again, you have the right to issue things of public concern. However,

185you cannot completely disassociate yourself from being a role model. And if we have concerns of that nature, we usually sit down. HR usually talks with those persons responsibly about where they are and what they think is appropriate and we resolve those issues as they come up. So that gives you just kind of a brief overview. Again, the accountability portion comes in if it impacts on your ability to discharge the essential duties of your job, which is instructing and and educating children. Miss Bradford, >> I asked for this update um because social media posting by schoolboard members is creating a double standard between what the employer holds his people responsible for, what we hold him responsible for, and what we hold ourselves responsible for. And you know the number one job satisfaction killer in the workplace

186is when leadership says do what I say but not what I do. And so we have as a board continued to post things that are inflammatory um that endanger public safety. Um, free speech, as he said, free speech is, you know, responsible fe speech by elected officials because we are held to a higher standard for the things that we say and do. And we are headed into an election cycle where um well, at this point there's seven of us. One's already declared for another position on another board. Three of us have declared for this board. One is undecided. Two are undecided. And to be honest, one of us is still campaigning in the last election and it's ending up on social media. It's harming our relationship with the staff because the double standard is in

187play here and we have been asked to reach a definitive solution on this double standard and we as a governing body need to do that. We're either accountable or we're not. The super shouldn't be in a position of having to tell his staff to ignore what the board says and that we are above being accountable. he should not have to tell his staff that. So, and we we have been putting that this is an informationononly item. So, we can't vote on anything today, but I have asked before and I'm asking again that this board have a sitdown session where we hash this out and we either agree a we're going to abide by the policies that we've set that we have in play or we're not. And of course, if it's not, then the wild

188west does ensue. But right now, we have a portion of our board acting against our policies and the rest of the board's not holding them accountable. The the chair has said she can't do it. It's up to the board to define how that's going to be done and when it's going to be done. So, with that, Madam Chair, I conclude my remarks. >> Miss Barnhart. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I know that we had a really successful joint meeting recently with our county commissioners. Um, the conversation of passing a schoolwide bond uh that is the largest that this county has ever seen going into this was there's a lot of conversation about that, the fact that it was more close to double uh what we had in the past. And so I think I

189I want to say I respect and I I liked how Dr. Burns said it earlier, respect the fact that you have the opportunity for freedom of speech, but it's about how you say it. And so looking at some of these things, taking a step back and saying this is the first time in 10 years that we have the potential to affect $300 million for much needed infrastructure needs for our students. And I think that alone um should allow us to think twice. I'm so proud of the fact this last year we had a lower turnover rate than the state did. I think it was 8% the first time in 10 years that it was under a twodigit turnover. Um, these are things to be proud of and as we continue to move forward, um, there

190will be things that we're passionate about. I'm not going to deny that, myself included. Um, but as we think about what does it mean to be successful, we're talking about being able to impact generations to come. And so I just want to remind us all of that, myself included. >> In um policy I'm I'm going to go now. Um in policy committee, we had one policy come forward that was um policy 2127 and I believe we kept it in policy because of some questions and concerns we had. But I would recommend board members kind of go look through that. um it gives a lot of details and some of the some of the changes it's minimal changes but it's a a big change. It's a small section but it says a lot. Um I would

191I would recommend board members kind of go and look there as well. You know when we're considering what are we posting, what are we saying online in addition to the fact that um we are we the buck stops here. Let's be honest, the buck stops here and we all have to be um we all have to be responsible for what we say on the dis. We all have to be responsible for what we say online. Um I don't think that there is an individual sitting up here that has not has not violated policy whether inadvertently or intentionally. Um, and so just being aware of what we're doing and being willing to listen to each other, um, I think is going to get us much further this year. This is going to be a challenging year.

192I agree with my colleague that this is going to be a challenging year. Um, this is this is a big election for this particular body. And so, um, just being aware of what we say and how it impacts our students and our staff, I think is going to be, um, super important. Miss Justice. >> Oh, yeah. I just want to point out something that I have learned. Be aware of the fact that we are public figures whether we like it or not. I made the mistake of defending somebody without even thinking about the school board. I was thinking about my friend who was under attack online and it turned into a big brewhaha because they went after me, discovered I was on the school board. So, I'm definitely stepping back and not getting involved in

193these things because we are public figures. We have lost a lot of anim that fancy word peace and quiet. Um so just just be aware that no matter how much somebody attacks friends of yours >> ridiculously just stay back, stay out of it because it's not worth it to the board and the in the schools. I'm just that's my two cents. I've learned that lesson. Thank you. >> Um and just so we're aware, we only have like maybe two more minutes. Uh Mr. Wabort and then Mr. I would just like to concur with what everybody said and I think we all would agree that that bond is the number one thing we you know best thing for kids is best thing for so you know if we have to bite our lip for the year

194until we get that get across that cross you know that that finish line >> that's what we need to do because I mean obviously we need it you know I had my my speaking chiropractors my chiropractor today was saying explain it to me so I I did actually well yeah if the enrollments gone down I said yeah but you look at our school building. We need need it's got to happen. Got to happen. But I mean that's what we got to be saying, not other things. So anyway, thank you all. >> And Dr. M or Dr. I'm sorry, Mr. Perry. >> Dr. Get it right. I swear. >> Um I just want to say one thing which is is that our um I understand the need to be civil in our postings when we can.

195Even when we disagree, we should be civil. That's how we should conduct ourselves. And uh but I will say that you know and I try to be but sometimes I'm human and I make mistakes too when I'm posting and what you intend you can't help how other pe people perceive necessarily what you say. You can take all cares but there's always going to be somebody in the background who's offended of what you say and we can't control that. All we can do is our best effort to try to remain civil, but you can't help if somebody's going to get take it the wrong way that you never intended. I mean, you can unless you want to write a legal document before you you say something, you know. I I would just encourage everybody to take

196care and to to think through it twice. I get all that and uh before they they hit the hit the post button, but at certain point, you know, this should not come down to a well too many people are complaining type of things because there's always going to be somebody who complains. >> Super fast. Dr. Merrick, >> it's not what you say, it's how you say it sometimes, right? And if we all remember when we're speaking in public, when we are posting online, we're not always subject m matter experts. We don't we're not always right. We have opinions. We have beliefs. We care about kids. And so I think if we just consider that whatever we say, it's like, hey, this is my opinion. Uh I might be wrong, right? bring a little bit more

197curiosity and a little little less know-it-all. And hey, I've been I've been guilty of that myself, right? We I think we all have. So, more curiosity, more interest in connecting with the public and showing the public that we care. We don't always have to be right. >> All right. Thank you, board members. Um, the next item is the employee bonus ad hoc committee review. Um, I put this on here because at the time of our decision in July, um, we had unresolved budget concerns and my own caution about the launching of the committee that led me to support the postponement. In hindsight, I recognize my caution may have contributed to possibly an unnecessary delay. And now that we're a little more stable, I believe that the conditions have changed enough to warrant revisiting the committee's

198timeline. And in that light, I move to amend the previously adopted motion that set the committee's start date for the 2026-27 school year to strike 2026 27 and to replace with November 24th, 2025 through the 2026 school year. >> Point of order, ma'am. >> We adopted something. So in order to change that since it's already been adopted, we are going to have to go in and resend what we did and and start over. >> I have I have checked with my sources and this is the appropriate >> motion. May we get our legal >> I am parliamentary individual on the board. >> Do I have a second for my motion? >> Second. >> Thank you. >> Now we can discuss that. Would you please repeat? >> Uh, I move to amend the previously adopted motion

199that set the committee's start date for the 2026 2027 school year to strike 2026 2027 and replace with November 24th, 2025 through the 2026 school year. >> Yes. Is it a point of order or a point of inquiry? >> Uh, yes, a point of inquiry. Thank you for the for the correction. Um, will this require a uh super majority or a simple majority? >> This requires a two-thirds vote, supermajority. Yes. >> Thank you, >> Miss Justice. >> We're open to discussion. >> This is discussion. Yes. >> Um, the 2627 school year was a clean break in the sense that we're going to be doing the budget at the during the 27, spring of 27. If we make decisions in 26 and we're still not sure what's going on in the budget, all this has to

200do with money. I mean, we're so broke. Not in a bad way, just in a realistic way. And so, the idea of using funding for this at the moment is just doesn't seem as practical as it might be if we move into better times in 2027. But we won't know until the spring. I mean, uh, Dr. Barnes, isn't that correct? would you say >> there are probably there well first off I wish I had a crystal ball. >> Um I do think there have been enough reverberations. We did a great job. This board obviously the team here putting a budget in front of the commissioners three months earlier and after that we had to change it to the tune of $5 million. >> Yes. So, do I know is that an aberration or is that

201an indication of the way life is going to be from now on? It's >> it's hard to tell. >> I wish I knew if that answers that qu if I answered the question by not answering the question. >> We don't know. >> The money. >> Miss Barnhart. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um my mine comes with clarity. I have said before that I think this is a good idea. Um the previous board has got us we have one of the top supplements in the state. Uh do we know just off top of hand of how many how much money we go just how many millions go to supplements here in New Hover County like additional >> it's been I would say it's between 20 and $22 million a year. So, so like easy number, easy

202number around 20 million that we invest in supplements for our staff. So, this idea in concept is saying rather than just say, hey, if you live in if you teach in New Hmer County, you're going to get X amount of dollars. This is saying if you are an effective teacher and the results to see that potentially you could earn a lot more money for yourself. So my question with that with this idea, if we're going to say implement a plan that potentially looking at this next budget cycle, we just discussed that we're having a bond on the ballot. Now with with the finance individuals from the county, they have said really this kind of maxes us out of what we can borrow money from. And so what has what has been one of the things

203that has said in the finance committee meeting is we have the opportunity to re-evaluate how we do operational spending. So, I'm just concerned if this is if this is saying, are we re-evaluating this roughly $20 million that we're getting from the county currently to implement this infrastructure or is this going to be an additional ask knowing that we are discussing that we've we have already agreed to bond a $320.5 million bond to go on the ballot because that's probably going to affect where I land. I just need clarity on that. >> Um, well, I'm going to go in order, uh, Dr. Merrick and then, >> u to quickly respond to my colleague to the left. I I don't I don't think either of those are necessarily the right answer. Um, here is I I don't

204I have not ever heard that this committee would dip into supplement money or even touch it or even have the ability. and even if it did, it would have to come back to the full board for some sort of approval. I see this committee as a way of investigating what more could be done. One of the things I'm actually most excited about uh this this committee that my colleague to the right has suggested is that it's going to take creative work in partnership with our community uh with nonprofits with business community. How can we bring in and how can we start to imagine bringing new funds in for our teachers? So, I don't think I I think there's so much work for this committee, I don't see how it's possibly going to be able to

205affect next year's budget in time. There's a lot of work to be done. This is not a this is not a small thing and it's not a slow. It's not a fast thing. I'm in I'm in favor of allowing the exploration. whatever this committee comes up with is going to have to come back to the board. I don't think we have to be afraid of what this committee does. The only thing we would lose is time and energy. And so I think maybe you know uh whoever appoints members to this board uh you know if if you don't want to serve on the board just say so. I'm excited that we we start to think outside the box and it's for the benefit of our teachers which even with the supplements have a very low

206salary. So, I'm going to support it. >> Mr. Perry. >> Um, when originally this was approved, I believe back in April, the committee was approved. Um, the, uh, I think the goal was to possibly, you know, do all of our research and, uh, have a a plan and then possibly implement it for 26 27. But at this late date that's not possible. I mean we are looking at the if we get going now I'm hoping that maybe over the next um before next November and that we will have all of our research on how to how to how to actually uh evaluate performance not just for our teachers but for all of our employees. That's the great thing about this employee performance post that the teachers get stuff. What about our bus drivers we're trying

207to retain? What about our cafeteria workers or our teacher aids or all these other people that are so essential to to to our school district? We want to help retain them, too. So, I think it's going to be a lot of work involved. If if we start today, perhaps we'll have an organizational meeting before Christmas, but and then we'll get some new people in that represent of our different kinds of employees. it. I don't think that that you know it's going to probably take several several months just to come up with a plan, never mind a funding model. I mean, we're I think at any possibility, the earliest possibility that this is going to affect the budget is 278. >> Miss Bradick, a couple of points. I agree um with some of the remarks we

208heard first. I disagree with some that we've heard uh just here a few minutes regarding time and energy. The thing that you're overlooking is every time we have a committee meeting all these people are there. When do they get to do their jobs? Because they're at committee meetings every you know every day. Sometimes we have to cancel a committee meeting like we had to cancel curriculum because we already had other committee meetings that day. So, it's it's to me it's you're you're looking at the wrong things. The staff have to attend and support. Now, let me ask a show of hands. How many of our board members have actually been an employer that had to be responsible on payday for paying their employees? Show of hands. Dr. Barnes, you don't count because we know that

209this is your job and this is what we've charged you to do. >> I was just put my glasses on. >> I know. Don't do that. >> I agree with Miss Justice as a board right now. We need to be looking at taking care of the positions that we have and making sure that this time next year we have not cut one single position or marble depending on how you want to say it. We have four months to get the budget to the point where we present it to the county. Four months and we have two national holidays you know in between that. Um, we know from indications there's going to be a lot less money in flow for us for next year. Dr. Barnes spoke on this last week at a public meeting saying

210that he had concerns about where we're going to be in the budget process. It's very concerning to me that we are not focusing on that and retention of all of our staff. Now, one of the nicest thing that you can do for staff members is to give them more time. More time to do their job, less time in meetings, less time. So, you know, there's always a trade-off when you add something like bonuses to a budget that's constricted that maybe is declining and all indications are that it might decline. We got a hundred and what $10 million from the county this year, more than ever before. We're we're we're we're talking about a $320.5 million bond. I believe that the staff's focus this next year should be on that and getting us through a good

211budget process so that we don't lose a single person that is currently employed with New Hover County Schools. So, I can't support this. I'm not saying I I would give every employee a bonus as I could, but as an employer, you know, when you're responsible for payroll on Friday, you can't give a bonus when there may not be any money in that account to pay the employees. You you can't do it. So, I I I I was good with handling this next year, but I would I would move that we put this off until after the bond has has gone out to vote and then ramp this up because then the staff will be free. >> I'll second that. the budget will be either done or not done depending, you know, we're still waiting for

212the state to give us their budget which could dramatically affect us with that 5% raise for teachers, you know. Um, so I I just um I'm I'm really I don't want to say that this is a little tonedeaf, but I feel like it is a little tonedeaf. We're not looking at the big picture here. We're not looking at the big picture here. We've got grave concerns. we need to hold on to everyone we have. We need to hold on to everything we have till we get through this big deal that we've got on our plate right now. >> So, that would be a secondary amendment. Um, and just for the board's reference, um, a simpler thing to do rather than amending an amendment is to vote, if you disagree, to vote down the pending amendment

213and then offer a different version. um which wouldn't necessarily be required if this does not get a supermajority. If this doesn't get a supermajority, it goes back to the original decision which was the 2026 2027 school year. So, I would recommend not having the amendment because the failure of this would um revert us back to that original. But I will leave it at >> Did we get a decision on do we need to undo what we did from our attorneys? >> I I determined >> it is a motion to amend something previously. >> So don't have to resend. Okay. coming the whole thing out to to to it. But if you're changing like a line out of it and you look at it as motion to adopt the same rules >> with different exceptions, the

214motion to resend has to occur the same day and be by somebody who was on the prevailing side >> from the original. The original motion was back in July. Um, I went and watched it. It was that there was a motion to postpone. It was made by Miss Justice until 2026 27. I believe it was seconded by Miss Bradford. Um, there was also an um an amendment that was made by Dr. Merik to make that less of a time delay. um that that amendment failed. This amendment changes just the time frame in the original um amendment or original motion. So >> point clarification >> being said >> you're saying vote on the time change. >> Yes. >> That's my recommendation as amendment to what was done back in July. >> Yes. And if that fails

215then we can go forward with what >> with the original motion. If it fails then this >> it would go back to it would revert back to the 2026. >> Make another motion to >> or another motion could be made. >> All right. So >> then >> I know we also need to get >> I will withdraw. >> Thank you. >> For momentarily u my motion >> okay >> to put it off until after the bond and I'll make that again in a minute. >> Okay. Um, Mr. Wavore, if you could close us off. >> Yeah. Um, real quickly, I you know, I I would to see if it makes it more a little more palatable to everyone. Maybe we should put some guard rails in because I really don't I do I do agree

216with everybody so far. And I can't that's impossible. But, um, I I do agree with every, you know, I think we should I mean, anytime I was a teacher, you know, and and if we can tell a teacher, hey, here's a $25 bonus. here's a $50 bonus. We can't go to the same well and say, "Well, hey, we want $320 million from you, but we also want this." You know, that's we can't do that. So, you know, maybe we can put guard rails in place to say, you know, that this committee can't go to the endowment and or to the county commissioners for this funding that it's their job to find out outside funding besides those two sources. Because I agree. I mean, we go back to those county commissioners who were saying, "Please, please,

217please help us with this bond." And then we say, "But we also want another million dollars to to do this thing." You know, that would be the the job of the committee to find other places and other, you know, whether it be >> Is that a motion? >> I Please, you can. >> I think I'm at >> You could amend just the line item to say it's not going to the county. >> Okay. We are way past the time frame that I have allotted for this um and we still have uh one more item and close session to go through. So I am going to move forward with the vote. The motion is um I move to amend the previously adopted motion that set the committee start date for the ad hoc committee start date

218for the 2026 2027 school year to strike 2026 2027 and replace with November 24th 2025 through the 2026 school year. Miss Buoie, will you call the role on that? Just point me if we again need a super majority. >> Needs a super majority. There she is. >> Miss Mason. >> Yes. >> Miss Barnhart. >> No. >> Dr. Merrick. >> Yes. >> Mr. Perry. >> Yes. >> Miss Justice? >> No. >> Miss Bradford? >> No. >> Mr. Wilder? >> Yes. That motion fails, which would put us back to the original um date of 2026 2027 being the start date for that. Miss Bradford, >> I move that we postpone this from that date or amend that to go to after the bond has uh the the the the November vote on the bond. after >> I

219mean, excuse me, November 26 on. >> So that would move it one one entire year. Is there a second to that? >> Okay. Hearing none, I'm going to continue on to the next uh item. Um agenda submission transparency. Um this was brought forward by Dr. Merrick. Um just for the public's information, when board members want to um submit a topic for um the agenda, there is now a form. Um our wonderful superintendent created a form because it was very confusing to do um to get multiple emails and I think things got lost in the mix. So, we have a form that is filled out that is then reviewed by both the superintendent and the chair. Um, and those individuals are the only individuals that typically see this particular document. Um, what Dr. Merrick is asking

220for is that all board members have access to that document. So, I wanted to kind of give um Dr. Barnes a real quick opportunity to let us know where we're at on that, but have possible conversation, brief conversation with the board about where our head is at with that. >> Okay, >> I'm going to sound a lot like Dawn when I talk. >> He fored that me. I did make a change the test app for me. That was a test. >> No. Okay, >> you did. I know Barnes did. Okay, then I will No, it was a It was last week. So, that one today. >> Yes, I got that. >> You got that? Okay. Anybody else get it? >> Don't remember. >> Let me do another one today right now and then you guys

221let me know if you don't get it. Okay. Okay. >> And what would that be? >> It'll be an email coming for me that will basically it'll it typically it has the agenda item. So, let's say that Miss Mason put something in there for an agenda item. In the past, she would get that email as well as whoever seconded it. So now the whole board will get it. So you'll get an email every time somebody submits an agenda item. >> Okay. Um and Dr. Merrick, I I wanted to give you like a minute or two to kind of explain your rationale for that. And >> yeah, thank you very much, Madam Chair. We've said again and again that we need to work as a board and not um in silos. Uh that transparency is big.

222I think all of us when we were running for this board mentioned that word at least once. Um it's all going to come out in the end anyway when when something shows up on the agenda or it doesn't. um we can start to work together better if we know uh what other folks are are submitting. It also helps us to know um you know as an accountability factor. I put in something for um uh I'm supposed to show up in within two months, right? Or or now be sent to a subcommittee. So, it's just about accountability and transparency and I think it's good governance. >> Miss Burnernhard, >> thank you. Um, I think also too that can be done with talking to each other too. I'm just going to point that out. I mean, I

223I think it's the chair's job to make the agenda. It says so in policy and I don't see I see that the system is getting better with what's happening. But um I don't think there's problem with it and I don't think we need to find a solution to something that I don't think is broken. >> Miss Justice >> the theory is that will make it more efficient because that way other board members can see what the other members are doing and not probably re replicate other requests. I mean that's in theory. I I personally think it just more less confusion and more knowledge is a good thing. But that's >> and I and from a chair standpoint I know sometimes I don't get it right in how I interpret what people have put and so

224I've been corrected by board members when I have tried explaining it to um other individuals and I've gotten it slightly off. So I think having I do have some concerns and I've expressed some of those concerns to Dr. America in our conversations, but um having everybody having access to that might eliminate some of that confusion as well. Um and some of the questions I know phone calls from the chair sometimes they last a long time. Um I've had some very lengthy conversations with people over the past few months and so um it might also pair that down as well um to bring that communication in. My only hesitation is um just I have read all of the submissions and I know that um we have some very passionate board members and sometimes our passion comes

225out onto um our requests and it isn't always um phrasing how we say things um isn't always done in a manner that everybody is going to see the same. Um it's that whole perspective like somebody's going to read it differently. So I that would be my hesitation it but as long as the board is on board with it I will of the board for me. >> Mr. Wilmore >> I'd like to make a motion. I'm hearing this and I really like to think about it. Can we think about it for a week? So could we add this to our next week's agenda and that way there you know because I'd really like to digest. Well, it makes sense to me right off, but I'd like to think about it >> under new business. >> I'll

226make a motion that we uh take this up for next week at our regular meeting. The agenda submission transparenc is it just a submission that >> um it's everybody getting access to the And is there a second for that? >> I'll second it. um is it it to my understanding what it is is it provides and Miss Princon you can correct me if I'm wrong. It provides all of the board what Dr. Barnes and I see that whole chart. Yes. >> No, it's not access to the chart. It is an email. So every time somebody like I just did one and basically says, "Hi Melissa Mason, a new item added 11:24 25 by Don Brinsson agenda item. This is a test agenda item." So everybody would get that. >> So they would see everybody's submission.

227They wouldn't get the document, but they would get the submit like what everybody submitted the >> Yeah. >> So, I kind of does that make more sense. >> Hopefully, you all got that email. >> Okay. >> My receipt said Okay. >> So, that's what you're saying. >> There's that would go to everybody. Everybody would receive Miss Barnhart sent in an agenda request for such and such and it would give the explanation. Um, I think that's, you know, a viable thing. We did have a motion to put this on the agenda for next week and there was a second. Um, Miss Bradford, super fast because >> I was going to make a motion to postpone it myself because I'm just trying to think about unintended consequences. So, I'm not comfortable doing it today. So, um Okay.

228I um I just So, if it So, Don's email would come to us, but then it would also go to the media. and this is gonna radically increase our immediate request if it doesn't. >> So, you know, I'm just thinking of unintended consequences because that's the way I'm wired. >> Um, and I need some time to think about it. >> Okay. So, there is a motion and a second to put this on next week's agenda. I'm assuming under new business. >> Um, it would be old by next week. >> By next week, >> it's new business. We'll keep it under new. All right. >> It's fine. It's fine. Um, I'm I'm going to end the conversation because we do have a close session. We do have stuff we have to get through. So, um, all

229those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? That passes seven to zero. >> Let me write that down. And I'm going to say that that's going to be roughly a 10-minute conversation. >> That was what was left. >> And that is right on the cusp of um everything. All right. Um, I will entertain a motion to go into close session pursuant to >> Nobody made the motion. pursuant to general statute 143-318.11c for the following purposes to prevent the disclosure of information as privileged or confidential pursuant to general statute 115 C-402 and not considered a public record within the meaning of chapter 132 of the general statutes to prevent the disclosure of student records rendered confidential under the family educational rights to consult with an attorney in order to preserve the attorney client privilege

230between the attorney and the board and to consider the qualifications competence performance character fitness conditions of appointment or conditions of initi employment of an individual employed or considered for employment with this school system to or to hear or investigate a complaint, charge or grievance by or against any individual employee. Do I hear such a motion? >> Is there a second? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? >> We are enclosed. Uh I will entertain a motion to approve the personnel report. >> Second. >> All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? That passes five to zero. Uh committee reports. >> All right. I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> All right. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? >>

231No. >> That passes >> four to one. >> I like hanging out with you guys. >> We are ajourned. Yeah, exactly.