NHCS Board of Ed. Regular Meeting | April 1, 2025

001call the April regular meeting to order Miss buoy will you call the role good afternoon Melissa Mason here Josie Barnhart here Pat Bradford I am here Judy Justice here Dr Tim Merrick here David Perry and Pete wior pres all right I will entertain a motion to approve the agenda so moved do I hear I is there a second Madam chair discussion I'll second it okay uh Miss Bradford I would like to add to the agenda a discussion of the new information that we have discovered since last meeting on the AI pilot Grant second okay any discussion Dr Merrick um it is my understanding that while we will get $3.2 million uh given to us that there's still going to be uh additional costs from us be IT cameras be it uh training Etc and if

002if we're going to have budgetary implications then we are not allowed to vote on this tonight based on policy 2330 which says and I will quote uh any new policy or budgetary items presented as an addendum to the published agenda are not subject to action at the same meeting so I would move to amend uh the motion to push it to information Miss Justice um thank you Dr Meritt but on top of that the new information that has been sent point of order I have an amendment is there a second oh a second amendment okay okay we can all right yeah um we've already seen the new information which really isn't new and I think that all of us up here made our decision on a lot of factors besides that very small part that

003really didn't even I'm not even sure except that they want us to revisit the issue we voted we made a decision uh Dr Merrick's point was very useful but we've got an awful lot of things going on in this District in our classrooms and our schools safety is our priority those of us that voted against it I'm gonna be straight about what I did it I did it because it was not the best company the money was a huge question and I I know that there's better ways to use that kind of money it wasn't just given to us plus that company could have just Fallen apart the way it was running being run so there's many other reasons besides this new information why we voted the way we did can we please focus on

004what's important to the classrooms safety is a huge issue if we want to focus on safety then focus on what we've got going here and need to look at there's resources in this community the county commissioner gave a lot of money gave lots of money for safety issues D about well concerning the shooting at New Hanover then they took the money away it's a different County Commissioners now we need to be approaching them but you know stop waste and I'm gonna say this straight this is political okay okay please um I will rule that as well received so let's keep it to the okay we'll keep it to the fact facts uh the facts are the facts and we made a decision and and if we're going to keep going around and around with this

005then we're wasting our time we need to focus on our what's going on in the classroom and we need to focus on safety here in this County fellow board members I must share that I'm amazed truly amazed we received two emails from our newer board members condemning the possibility of revisiting this topic and vote even though further information has come to light one of these members recently sent an email stating and I will quote that he was pissed because excuse my language for those in the room because we are not moving to revisit a policy quick enough we had discussed that policy at length and voted on it less than a year ago we re we both recently voted against the motion not to allow revisiting of a suspension policy and now again quoting we

006are getting we are setting a dangerous precedent of Rel litigating a vote which is it is or is it simply a double standard can we revisit and discuss certain votes like a policy the one board member doesn't agree with but become dangerous if we revisit a vote that he agrees with what is the will of this board oh and by the way Robert's Rules of Order clearly allows reconsideration of a vote M Bradford well obviously there's a lot of new information it's been told To Us by email it's been told To Us by text it's been told To Us by the news it's been told To Us by bloggers it's been told To Us by repost of Facebook and other social media I want us to have a discussion of all seven of us in

007front of the public of the new information we've heard which includes two members have said in emails that they've had offline conversations with the board attorney about the legality of some of these pieces but I haven't been privy to those conversations I would like to ask the board attorneys what information that they have shared with two board board members who have referenced it in emails that I haven't been privileged to in addition while I was sitting in the meeting last Tuesday I got an email and a phone call from one of the executives for that company trying to explain some of the reasons some of the the answers to our questions because I had sent emails all throughout the week I don't normally check my phone during meetings but from now on I probably will

008because that information that he had was pertinent to our vote and we didn't get to share it in addition I had ask our Safety and Security Officer Chuck Silverstein I'd ask him would he please speak to us during the meeting and share his opinion about this pilot and we ran out of time there's been a point of order and I will rule that what's the point of order ma'am go ahead point of order is that we are discussing an amendment to the original motion and not the original motion and I'm Germaine to the topic okay I will rule that well received okay there is a lot of new information um and we've had limited debate we closed our meeting rather quickly on that it was the last thing our agenda we had had exhaustive debate

009on everything else but it went rather quickly we did not get to have have our say and give all of our reasons and some of the reasons people gave for the reason they were voting no those things have been refuted with factual information needs to be brought out it needs to be brought out in a public setting missord thank you Miss Barnhart 30 is there was there a ruling on the point of order that my colag just there was no int what was the point of order the point of order the second point of order was the same as the first we are discussing an amendment and not discussing the original motion M it was Germaine because I would like a vote I will rule that not well re received Miss Barnhart thank you um

010in regards to the amendment I do believe that to reconsider this vote is something that is in the best interest of taxpayer dollars since the vote last week more information has come out including the fact oh I will say that for the original motion my apologies sir the AI pilot would allow us to redistribute funds we are currently in our budget tonight we are asked to approve the following $275,000 to monitor security cameras $685,000 to upgrade new camera systems we were told this afternoon one of the budgetary items if we had funding for was to purchase Raptor for the entire District those three amounts add up to more than a million dollars that we are turning around asking the county for when one week ago we discussed and dismissed 3.2 from the state so I

011think that as far as reconsideration my other points I'll wait till the topic at hand but I think it's a good investment for taxpayer dollars to understand that we rejected 3.2 million from the state a week ago and are turning around asking you as taxpayers for $1 million of funding that we could have allocated and received elsewhere thank you Mr Perry I apologize for arriving late um I appreciate the new information that came after our previous vote that Miss barnhard has provided to us um some of it regarding cameras uh I think we need to look into but that doesn't mean that uh it would change my vote in the least and the fact of the matter is if you're going to make a motion to reconsider it should be coming from one of the

012four people who voted against it uh and I don't see any of them on board um this would not change my vote my main concern was over not having guard rails in state law regarding uh some of the more intrusive features of the system the worries about eanon as a company were Sub in my mind you know a little bit disturbing but not the whole thing related to the amendment please I the amendment was to put this discussion under information that was the yes so I would vote against putting it on the agenda point of order uh Mr rore can we uh ask our palarian if Mr Perry's point is correct that one of the four people that voted against it must must be bring forward the uh motion to reconsider uh attorneys would you

013advise on that please yeah um this is a separate session from the last meeting so actually this is not a motion to reconsider it would be a renewed motion and anybody can bring that a motion to reconsider has to be in the same session which generally for us a meeting is a session each you know monthly meeting is its own s session but miss Bradford actually asked me to look at that issue under Robert's rules um shortly after last Tuesday I think so yes any member can bring this up since it wasn't in the same meeting last week since it was in one meeting it would have had to be somebody on the on the winning side of the vote to to reconsider in that meeting okay I hope that answers the question thank sir

014all right so right now there is a motion on the table and amendment to move to put this discussion under information Miss buoy will you please call the role Miss Bradford no Dr mck Dr Mar Mr wildor no Mr Perry point of clarity what this is to put this on under information a discussion of this under information so but just just to be clear if I vote Yes I'm voting to put it on the agenda yes you're voting for the amendment to put it on the agenda under information motion I guess we would then have to vote on the amended motion no they need a we need an answer for from you TR this I no okay Miss Justice yes Miss Barnhart no and Miss Mason no all right um back to the original motion

015to put this on the agenda I assume under old business um Miss Barnhart thank you madam chair I would like for the board to reconsider this vote and I believe it's in the best interest of taxpayers and the direction of this District since the vote last week more information has come to light including the fact that our current cameras that we have just recently purchased in the last year already have artificial intelligence installed all to them on them and we are actually utilizing some of the formats of artificial intelligence acknowledging that facial recognitions is one of the components that we have turned off currently this company is a global company that also stores data on the cloud which was another concern I think this pilot should be Revisited because if we would be able to

016allocate funding from the state level to help the goals of the district to accommodate one the monitoring security camera asks that we have in the budget currently for our County Commissioners two the upgraded camera systems that we have in the budget for the County Commissioners three the Raptor systems that we've been actively seeking to pursue for years that we were just informed of this afternoon by the superintendent that is over $1 million that we are asking for the county for when we were discussing the topic at hand the concerns absolutely warranted were guard rails in place we need to discuss this we need to continue to seek every source of funding we can for our public schools and this is worthy a discussion for that thank you ma'am um I would like to speak since

017I have not said anything at this point so as I've shared with board members uh I'm deeply concerned about the safety of our staff and students and while I'm grateful for the funding offered to us and appreciative of the advocacy from our state level Senators my primary concern Remains the well-being of our community and its needs having been a mom for the amount of time that I've been having been a teacher for the amount of time that I've been a teacher I've learned that there are three sides to every story there is one side the other side and the truth lies somewhere in the middle so my decision to decline the participation in the AI pilot program wasn't made lightly and it was based off of information that I'd gathered from various sources prior to

018the meeting primarily with the other County following the vote I received an email from Evan that suggested there was more to the story and then later had a conversation with leadership from the company while all of the things that have been told to me may have been a difference of perspective um it does not change my decision to decline the offer the conversations I had with multiple individuals alongside my own personal research raised more questions than answers and while I believe that there is potential for AI to benefit us in the future I feel it's crucial that we maintain the autonomy to choose both the company and the process through which it is implemented and I don't know whose hand was up first Miss Justice will go with you all right one of the problems

019with doing this this way is because there's it's like throw as much stuff as you can get in here and get confused I just heard information from one of my fellow board members that I haven't had a chance to look at um in fact some things were thrown at us this afternoon like an last ditch effort which is what we all do when we're trying to get something through but you know to do it to try to make a decision now with this last ditch effort and information thrown out without real confidence that these facts are true for example Raptor that that is only one part of this situation there's also evident and you know I don't want to go through that now because it take forever to try to put the two together and

020why this is a good thing but to just pop it up like this now we made a decision I have investigated like um Miss Mason has and I do not feel comfortable with this company for a lot of reasons we can go on and on and on about um I'm going to go this side and do uh Mr w war I just want to remind everybody that we did sit down with every single principal in new han County um my group um my colle to my left and I were with one group we were divided up so that we were not breaking any rules uh but our group 100% of the folks were asked and 100% of the folks said that they 100% wanted this uh I in Father you know additional discussions with the

021other groups uh the board members from other you know that were in charge or with the other group not in charge but um it sounds to me like 100% of our uh folks that are in the classrooms in the schools think that this is a good way to keep our students safe um none of us well there may be one of us that is a uh expert in in web design web Etc uh I I could say you know I'm a former principal I'm not a uh person that is a 100% U have all the knowledge about this but our our teachers our our our principles who were the leaders of our schools all felt like this is something that they wanted to do to keep our kids safe so um you know we heard

022the the um uh summertime um um what's the thing yeah anyway our our summertime um uh survey there we go big word I couldn't come up with and in one of the biggest things we heard was that we don't listen to people in the schools we don't listen to the teachers we don't listen to the principles well the principles are united in wanting this at least in my opinion and um I think at some point we need to listen to them thank you uh I'm going to go over here and then come back over there uh Mr Perry yes I I don't want to repeat my previous comment uh that is the main reason I was Voting uh no on this continue I guess I voted yes on the amendment but I'm voting no on

023this is but I did want to address one issue that Miss barnhard brought up uh I certainly so just so you know we do not mention names we mention the colleague to our left just so you know was that your that was it thank you um in regards to the idea that somehow we could have diverted you know1 or2 million of the 3.2 million Grant uh towards use of cameras and that somehow we are cheating the taxpayers of new handle account County we simply are not this the state statute explicitly says that the sum of money is supposed to be used for the implementation of an AI system that works into existing cameras in inter this sounds like a discussion for the agenda item at hand so I just want to get that out of

024my out out on that CH I guess we have that is well received so if you could keep it Germaine to the adding of adding this topic to the agenda so I don't believe this we would I think we would have been going down an IL legal path had we tried to do that thank you okay um I believe Dr mer and then miss Bradford I believe strongly that all seven of us want to keep our kids safe I really do not believe that any of us have any other alterior motives sometimes we differ on technique I also believe that all of our principles want to keep our our our children safe um from my discussions with different principles they would be happy for anything that would make their life easier and let's face it

025they've got a lot to do and so if there's a possibility that someone they didn't have to watch those cameras themselves they're like oh yeah heck yes in fact that's even what they told us but $3.2 million is enough to put a teacher's aid in every single School in our district and what we need is people and not machines to help keep our schools safe all right Miss Bradford if you could close us out please Madam chair I would make the clarification of the fact that the $3. million was offered to us as a grant pilot program to enhance one aspect of our security it is not available for anything else not we will have to go next week and ask the county to give us about a million dollars to do some of the

026stuff that this program would have funded you have to understand that so when the County Commission probably will say no to that request that it was because we refused State money to implement something that we are going to the county to ask them for local tax dollars to implement that's a pretty big fact it wasn't brought out in the discussion last week there's a lot of fact s out here that weren't brought out in our discussion which is why I feel that we should have it on the agenda and have a robust discussion either this week or another week I had asked our head of security and safety we would think that that one expert in the entire School District his opinion would have been brought to our board as a full board we're not

027allowed to meet in groups of more than three and have any discussion so we haven't had a group discussion we're supposed to have it here in front of you so that you're right along with with us in every decision we make that hasn't happened Mr Silverstein has not spoken to us I don't know exactly what he's going to say but I want to hear his opinion I've talked to teachers I've talked to lots of people but I haven't shared that with the whole board because I can't I'm not on social media and I'm not get involved in these tit fortat emails back and forth I want to share it publicly so that you know the decision I make is an informed decision that is putting our children's safety and our staff members safety first we

028constantly have heard from staff that we do not value their opinion and yet here we are seven people saying I don't care what the staff says I know more than they do and this is what I want now you should know that we have a 344 page report from the North Carolina generative AI implementation recommendations and considerations for prek through 13 from public schools from our state superintendent Mo green this came out in January we have ai in our schools now they're wanting to add generative AI you should be wanting us to meet about that rather than talk to us about a system that's just using the same AI That's in your car and and and and and it's it's not it's not the Fearsome thing that you're thinking but we haven't had that discussion

029we've gotten a lot more facts from the company since then and I want to have that discussion so that you know at least if we do turn down $3.2 million and the county says no no more money for cameras now our prin our superintendent arranged for all board members to go out to two schools and see their camera system I was the only board member who took opportunity to do that little field trip and I went to a school that had a good camera system and I went to a field trip that they they they did it at one school and the the school new Handover they remoted in so there is a what's that word discrimination going on between the safety that we offer in our schools and yeah we have five schools with

030newer systems that means 40 of our schools don't how do we say this school doesn't get a good camera system but this one's already got it how do we deal with that discrimination how do we keep our kids safe under those terms I just want to have a full board discussion whatever the board decides I will go along with but we have not had this discussion all right Miss buoy will you call the role Mr Perry sorry the motion is to add AI discussion to the AI pilot discussion to the agenda no M Justice no Miss Bradford yes Dr Merrick no Mr wildor I think any as I said when I was a chair I think every topic should be discussed so I say yes Miss Barnhart yes and Miss Mason no that does not

031pass I will entertain a motion to approve the agenda sh move second all right all those in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed no that passes 6 to one um I'm sorry no oh 5-2 um next we will have the invocation given by Reverend Jamie Thompson of anchor church of Wilmington followed by the presentation of Colors by the Ashley High School NJ RC um under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Raider and master chief Matthew damp and principal Michael Perez and the national anthem um by Jonathan King and Miranda polii band students at Laney High um under the direction of Bob Pearson with Danny little as principal and uh Dr Merck will do the pledge so all of that we'll start with the invocation it is it's a lot pray gracious and

032loving God we need your presence now we come before you today asking for hearts that that might be open to wisdom Justice and compassion you have called us to be stewards of the gifts entrusted to us and among the greatest of these are the children in our schools Center us on that in this moment oh God guide our deliberations tonight that we might seek the common good of all students those who Excel and those who struggle those who are seen and those who are often overlooked may we remember the vulnerable and especially those who face obstacles beyond the classroom that defy our comprehension give us courage to make decisions that uphold fairness and dignity for all children that the sacred worth of every child might be centered in every moment grant us patience and disagreement

033Clarity and vision and a shared commitment to Justice let our work be a reflection of Your Love so that our schools may be places of Hope opportunity and belonging for all in your holy name we pray amen freeze and others [Music] [Applause] e e [Music] [Applause] oh wow woohoo [Applause] I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right oh hey if I could have all of the students that were just up here come back and introduce yourselves that would be awesome so my musicians and the ROC I don't know if they could hear me they did hear me I'm holding it close I need all the students that were just out here

034do I have to chase them you want to go get them do I have to go get them they're coming awesome here they are just going to have all of you introduce yourselves real quick my name is s Ingram I'm a junior my name is Reese Ingram I'm a sophomore I'm a Macintosh sophomore my name is Thomas Durant I'm a sophomore too my name is Mitchell Ray and I'm a junior col de Bravo Jr my name is Miguel Damian Garcia a freshman my name is Miranda py I'm a senior and my name is Jonathan King I'm a Jr thank you guys so much all right I will entertain a motion to approve the minutes is there a second second any discussion these are februaries these are februaries yes all right all those in favor signify

035by saying I I any opposed that passes 7 to Zer continuing on to recognitions good evening as always this is my favorite part of the evening um let me start with our first recognition this evening please join us in celebrating a remarkable achievement that speaks to skill and strategy but also to dedication perseverance and Leadership it is with great pride that we recognize coach Adrien Gail Varsity women's basketball coach at Ashley high school for achieving her three 50th career win this February come on down coach Gail has been with the Screaming Eagles since the school opened in 2001 creating victories and memories that last a lifetime this Milestone is more than a number but represents the countless hours of hard work work planning and unwavering commitment it is a testament to her Relentless pursuit of

036excellence and ability to lift others up along the way coach Gail is best known for her ability to lead teams who grow not only as competitors but as individuals who understand the values of teamwork discipline and resilience coach Gail we honor and admire all of your wins with your greatest win being building such a memorable Legacy that has inspired your players in countless ways throughout the years thank you very much and board members please come on down [Applause] all right another round of applause woohoo thank you all right yep you know the drill don't go anywhere all right next we would like to celebrate a parent of a ninth grade student at at hogri high school for her outstanding dedication to gifted education please welcome Cara Johnson for achieving the 2025 ncagt James J Gallagher

037advocacy award Miss Johnson was recognized at the state level for this award for not only supporting her own child but tirelessly working to support gifted education so that it receives the attention resources and recognition that it deserves as the gifted advisory Council chairperson Miss Johnson helped to shape policy raise awareness of unique needs of gifted students and to ensure that they are not overlooked her commitment demonstrates the importance of collaboration between Educators families and students congratulations on this incredible recognition we're so thankful that you have done for all the things you've done for our school and community [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right let us now celebrate the remarkable achievement of a senior at hogri high school who has gone above and beyond in shaping the lives of others the North Carolina Association for the gifted

038and talented recognized Houston Sutton for the 2025 leadership through service award for his incredible efforts in building the AIG mentorship program this program is a student-led initiative that pairs High achieving high school students with elementary and middle school students to help offer them guidance and support Houston shared about this mentorship program with the gifted advisor Council which secured a donation to provide games and activities to promote critical thinking skills Houston is committed to Growing the IG mentorship ship program and we are excited to see all of the ways it helps students both inside and outside the classroom thank you for empowering your peers to be leaders and for setting up the Next Generation for Success Houston Sutton [Applause] [Laughter] thank you w all right next we're going to recognize the outstanding leadership of new hanor

039High School junior Corina Basta for being named the 2026 NC Youth and government lieutenant governor so she was awarded in the YMCA Youth and government it's a Civics program and It prepares high school students for future leadership so Karina created a successful campaign and speeches to achieve the role of lieutenant governor in this position she's going to be able to collaborate with other student leaders from across the state to learn about legislative and judicial processes as well as further develop her leadership skills Karina has demonstrated incredible academic success as a student in life CM program also she's the captain of the tennis team she's vice president of the new han High School Beta Club and a youth and government delegation leader her experience in these leadership roles and her volunteer work she exemplifies her commitment

040to serving others we are thrilled to see all the ways she uplifts our community and state as lieutenant governor [Applause] [Music] all right we've got a lot to all right so while she's grabbing those I'm going to start all right so we want to share about one of the highest Honors that our student singers can achieve with great pride and excitement we want to celebrate the students who have been selected to be a part of the NC honors chorus so it's for elementary middle and high school being chosen for this honor is a recognition of their vocal Talent their commitment to their craft and their ability to rise to the challenge please welcome the following students and teachers to the stage from cottington elementary Gabriella DeMarco Elise OA and Sutton paig [Music] Whitlock yep not

041with us tonight is their teacher Dr Amanda H and another student Casey Garris come on up [Laughter] yeah all right from Holly Tree Elementary music teacher Susan Gardner her student Allison Ripley was not able to join us this evening however we're going to move on to Bellamy all right just want to make sure before we move on all right so miss Emily dugin Mia masera palao and Amelia Sanchez and Mr Drew Wright and students tal Yin and Tien Lucas Todd were not able to join us this evening so come on down Bellamy Elementary they're not here but that's okay that's okay we have a lot all right so for our Middle School honors chorus see I think we knew in advance how this was going to play out all right so for our Middle School

042honors course we have Miss Jamie wood and her students Elijah grion Isaiah McDow Mia Gonzalez and Lyla Campbell from Myrtle Grove Middle [Applause] thank [Applause] you perfect not able to join us this evening are Miss Hannah James and her student Jose shos manalan from new hanor high school but they were also honored this evening unfortunately unable to attend all right next but not least we have our State Employee Credit Union scholarship recipients tonight we want to spend a little bit of time celebrating students in our district who have earned the prestigious State Employees Credit Union Foundation people helping people scholarship this scholarship focuses on academic achievement but also recognizes leadership integrity and Community involvement each senior is eligible for $10,000 payable at $1,250 per semester for up to eight consecutive semesters to one of 16

043constituent campuses of the University of North Carolina system please welcome Ella inin from Laney High School Anna King from Southeast Technical High [Applause] School lla Ferman from hogard high [Applause] school Sierra Roseboro from Isaac [Applause] Bayer and unfortunately we have a couple of recipients unable to join us Owen Alfred from New Hanover High Jada dorsy from wex and Jayden leardo from Ashley high school I'd also like to give our great appreciation to Mr Dustin Adams senior VP of NC State Employees Credit Union please please [Applause] [Music] W thank you very much all right so in new han County Schools we celebrate the student staff and volunteers who demonstrate the character that makes our schools positive safe and respectful for this month's character and action award we celebrate the life-saving action of first grade teacher Christian

044Hope from Sunset Park Elementary School Mrs hope received CPR training as a former physical education teacher and was able to use this training to respond to a family member in crisis until medical help was able to arrive in the moment when seconds mattered Mrs hope stayed focused putting her training and instincts to use to use in order to protect someone that she cared deeply about she shows us that she is the best possible role model because she is someone who always steps up to do what is right we're so thankful that she used her knowledge quick thinking and compassion to jump into necessary action we honor her courage and care to Save a Life she is truly a hero as an educator she makes more than a living she makes a difference and we'd love

045to show her video while she receives her award how many you guys f do well I know she because a couple of weeks ago she had someone get really really sick and she helps save their life until the doctor can get there I've been trying to recognize folks who show good care because being a good person is as important as being a good and the fact that there's someone in the world who is still in this world because of you said a lot I'm so pleased people there I'm so pleased that you have the training you have to step in St in and saving people what you do every day and so I just want to tell you how impressed we were and thank you for what you did we appreciate this having all she

046do for our children for our school Community also [Applause] Community get a picture [Applause] all right am I missing Miss Allen where'd she go I knew you were here somewhere come on up oh please [Applause] wo and this concludes recognitions for the evening thank you all right moving on um we're going to go to student voice good afternoon everyone and thank you for your time today my name is is Maya rosbo I'm currently a senior at Isaac bear Early College I am hoping to go to either the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or John's Hopkins for my undergrad but thank you I'm happy to be here today I can't beat that one but my name is Lillian rle and I am a senior at new Hiner high school and I will be attending Chapel Hill next

047[Applause] year hello my name is Jack Sher I am a senior at hogard high school and I will be attending Chapel Hill for a joint degree program with humble University in Berlin hello my name is Diane Perez perala and I'm a junior at Isaac bear thank hey my name is Abby mccumby and I'm a junior at Ashley High School we're happy to be here today and today we wanted to acknowledge the incredibly beneficial and often overlooked staff in our County I'm recognizing Miss Johnson an outstanding custodian at Isaac bear words alone can't do her justice for how amazing she is but I'll do my best every time I return to the Isaac bear building she greets me with a smile and takes the time to ask about my latest updates and accomplishments and I can

048tell she genuinely cares about how my day is going her kindness and presence makes an AB abute difference in our Isaac bear Community we also want to take a moment to recognize the Fantastic efforts of our AIG counselors when we spoke with studa Ambassador team about what our county has been doing well both myself and others consistently highlighted the exceptional work of the AIG office they have been instrumental in ensuring that seniors have access to all available resources to help pay for college the AIG counselors do this by regularly updating students through email about local scholarships and their deadlines as well as assisting seniors with the application process to help them access funding within our community the AG counselors have also been played a key role in connecting students with valuable opportunities in our community

049for instance programs such as auxiliary girls state district attorney Leadership Academy and rotary youth leadership academy have been supported and promoted by the AIG office office I personally participated in all of these programs and they have provided me with valuable life experiences and Lasting connections these opportunities not not only help students grow but they give them a Competitive Edge when applying to colleges Joseph an ambassador that unfortunately couldn't make it today wanted to shout out his AIG counselor Miss crudeli he says she's helpful to students that are striving towards Challen them challenging themselves with ap and honors classes she's very knowledgeable and will always keep you on the right track for Success she also sends out a weekly email to AIG students about service and scholarship opportunities which are immensely invaluable to students who are

050seeking to better themselves even more Miss crudeli really helps eliminate a lot of stress when it comes to choosing what classes to take and because of this she is always available to guide him on his right path thank you Joseph thank you for taking the time to celebrate the accomplishments of our schools this past month over the last month the student ambassador team has been hard at work developing the collective a series of videos designed to wear use awareness about the various resources available to students within new han County these videos can be found on YouTube and the new han count County and Instagram page where they highlight the unique aspects of our schools as we continue to reimagine the collective we've made some adjustments to our process such as having ambassadors record and edit

051their videos independently this change has helped speed up the delivery of information allowing us to share important content with students more effectively we are producing and editing our first video to add to the collective this video features advice on transitioning to high school how to choose between specialty programs and how to balance additional activities such as Sports and extracurriculars in high school thank you for your time today we are super excited to present our accomplishments and recent updates for the student ambassador team thank [Applause] you missner I just want to say congratulations and I know the second um one who talked you said it's not as good it is as good so you should be proud of yourself for getting in and what your future holds so good job Mr wior I do want to

052congratulate everyone that is moving on to a college that's awesome those that are uh Juniors looking forward to hearing about you guys next year you did mention a video is there possibility we could get a a chance to see that video okay we'd love to do that okay can you step back up to the mic and say that so that everybody can hear everybody can hear it because I'm strug I don't know about you but I'm struggling to hear that well folks at home hear yeah well exactly that's yeah so last year when we filmed these videos we filmed them in the filming office office right over here but we kind of wanted to get our um videos out as quickly as possible so we're having ambassadors fill them themselves and we will share it

053to the communications team which will'll post it on the new Hover County Instagram page as well as the YouTube page and and and if you wouldn't mind we'd love to show it here so that we can kind of showcase it you to everybody and let every I'll let you know when it gets released I'm working on eding it tonight so thank you thank you so much thank you thank you student [Applause] all right do we have a teacher here for Teacher voice we do good evening members of the school board my name is Taylor Henderson and I'm a science and math teacher at new Handover High School where I had the honor of serving as the 2023 teacher of the year I'd like to thank you all for this platform and the opportunity to share

054about a hidden gym right here in our district called the Rise program rise which stands for relationships Inspire student empowerment is an Intervention Program serving students with intense academic and behavior needs in a small and separate setting this Innovative program was born out of a need for Change and is based on current research such as trauma informed restorative practices and Crisis Prevention designed to support EC Future Ready students the program has successfully addressed issues like chronic absenteeism low academic performance student safety family involvement and Community Partnerships with experience spanning public private and alternative schools I have always asked how do we Propel our most disenfranchised Learners to success and can we teach them in a way that restores their dignity and enables them to feel like assets to their school community and the world my

055work in alternative education showed the impact of a model that truly engages students the need for this approach was evident at new Handover where EC intense Behavior Support students were dis engaged and underserved academically I was told that I would have my slides available so I'm not sure if we have those um but data shows that in the old model only 36% of IBS students passed math 1 only 46% of IBS students passed English one and students were suspended 153 days of the school year there was a clear need for change in The Rise program on average 87% of our students pass math 1 75% of students pass English one and the day suspended drops to 78 days after only one year in the program thank you our mission is to empower students to know

056that they are seen and have Advocates that fight for their personal and academic growth we team teach so that students receive a robust cross-curricular education with rigor and high levels of support and we push into the local community to increase their social skills enhance student engagement and provide opportunities for students to see their future selves we are providing EC students with opportunities that they weren't getting in other settings we believe that student empowerment comes from fostering relationships understanding stories and inspiring hope there are currently 52 students in The Rise program at new Handover High School the rise team consists of two EC teachers ecta and a Content teacher we work together to deliver Future Ready course of study math science and social skills curriculum with targeted emot social and academic learning activities embedded that are

057aimed at developing the skills necessary to build healthy relationships deal with adversity and allow for increased focus and academic success we do so in smaller class sizes that are providing EC Services as well as co-taught year-long courses one of the biggest benefits is that Weekly students in The Rise program have the opportunity to work with Community Partners where they are truly building relationships that Inspire and Empower them for example our sro's admin team te school counselors social workers the what clinic and school-based support all contribute to building positive relationships we also partner with organizations outside our school like Channel by live o Bank UNCW Men's Basketball our local fire department the aquarium preets vocational rehab kids making it just cut it Habitat for Humanity and the other organizations that were listed on my slide in

058fact this Friday our rise students will visit the offices of the architectural team working on new Handover High School to present their portrait of a graduate projects for this project students identified a need within their school or Community such as community park or an updated lunchroom space then researched collaborated and designed a space that meets those needs using mathematical functions it's an incredible opportunity for our students to contribute their ideas and be a part of the legacy of redesigning new Handover High School in Rise we follow a growth model helping students build school and organizational skills in nth grade career Readiness in 10th life skills in 11th and mentorship in 12th in order to understand the impact that this program is having on students we chose to study two strands of data first comparing data

059such as suspensions attendance and graduation rates from IBS students in the previous model to students in rise and second looking at where students were before rise versus during rise in terms of math 1 EOC scores grades Behavior incidents attendance and graduation rates for example after one year in Rise we see a 46% decrease in Behavior incidents an additional 35% decrease in Rise year two an additional 50% in Rise 11 and I'm so happy to report students in Rise 12 have had zero Behavior incidents thank you thank you in the interest of time I've summarized some more of the data rise students on average average score 6.4 points higher on their math 1 EOC oh we're on slide 11 thank you um uh 6.4 points higher on their math 1 EOC than their project the ne

060next slide 11 thank you um with some students earning as much as 25 to 35 points of growth so 87% of our students show growth on the math 1 EOC while the data shows a 37% increase in absences we noticed a really interesting Trend um many students were attending their rise classes but skipping their other classes so I hope to explore this further and uncover the root cause of that Trend students increase their English class grades by eight points and sustain that growth throughout high school next slide please not only have we partnered with other IBS programs here in our district but my team and I have had the opportunity to present rise at the national dropout prevention conference as well as the North Carolina DPI 72nd conference for exceptional children UNCW openway learning pit

061County District leaders and moresville graded school district and others as a champion for experiential education and Student Success regardless of their background or experience I wanted to Showcase to you how my colleagues and I have worked tirelessly to create a program that is growing students and demonstrating the idea that all Learners have the potential to succeed next slide I'd like to leave you with some quotes from my students in The Rise program you feel powerful like you're wanted or needed or something that's how the Rise program makes you feel I haven't got in trouble as much because I have settled down being in the Rise program I realize I am becoming a better person and I am successful before I was in The Rise program I would just suffer in silence but the Rise program

062has taught me how to speak up next slide please as you can see there is great evidence of its success and I'd be delighted to talk talk with anyone who is interested about using rise or the principles and pillars of rise to meet some of the needs that we are facing in education in addition I'd like to personally invite any District leaders and members of the board to come spend a day with us hang out with the kids and meet with me and the rise team to learn more in a recent email Dr Barnes mentioned that as Educators we seek Justice love mercy and walk humbly I'm honored to do just that every day through the Rise program thank you board members oh miss barnhard sorry I want to say thank you um I know

063myself and Miss Mason we have come in all day and spirit with you to be able to talk about the unique needs and be responsive in a different format is something that is so Innovative and we're so grateful for you and your team of people because um sometimes it's a tough day uh but sometimes it's really rewarding and I've I will happily come and look at their uh projects again I loved being a part of that and just encouragement and walking through the process so we're here to support you and we appreciate what you're doing thank you thank you so much for your support thank you Mr wior all I can say is wow wow wow you are exactly what we need as a teacher as a teacher leader so thank you for what you

064do you know your students 0% discipline problems in wow that's all I can say awesome awesome uh Dr Merck than you so much thank you I appreciate that thank you you know a lot of times we um we think about what do we want to celebrate in our school system and when we hear you speak to us these are the programs that just give us hope and and we we recognize how much we can do thank you so much for what you're doing we know that a lot of the behavior issues come about because of Aces and I heard you say the word relationship about a hundred times in there and we know that Paces which is the sort of the trying to get around Aces is all based on relationships and I I just

065love what you're doing thank you so much thank you thank you I appreciate that thank you m Bradford I just want to add my congratulations and my thanks for what you're doing to what the other board members have said we are just so proud of what you're doing keep it up much thank you I appreciate that thank you Miss Justice this is wonderful I I love seeing programs like this and apparently all of us do this is what this is what schools are about uh can I ask you is this only a new Handover High School currently yes yes ma'am it's and where where did it originate new new Handover High School you got you guys came up with the program yourselves and and put it in place and and yes ma'am so I I

066taught previously at alternative schools and when I got to new Handover there were a lot of staff that were kind of asking that same question and so we sort of just put our strengths together and ask Mr Sutton and our EC department chair who here with EV and we were like hey this sounds crazy but can we try it and they said yes and um we're just excited that it's been successful so well thank you and everybody involved in it and the students especially because they're definitely doing the work good right exactly Mr Perry and just thank you for everything that you've done and great Innovation is what I like to see and um I'm guessing that probably some of the other high schools are going to be giving you a call here soon thank

067you so much I appreciate it and I'll close this out but thank you so much for letting um Miss Barnhart and I come in last year and and getting to see the start of the projects that they had and the ideas that these students had were phenomenal and Innovative and creative and then to finally go to watch them present at Portrait of a graduate to see start to finish it was really fantastic so they're doing some great work so if any board member has not been there definitely go but thank you so much so much I appreciate it thank you [Applause] all right continuing on to the superintendence report Taylor do you want to read this you'd do a better job than me all right good evening everyone I want to take a brief moment

068to recognize and express my deepest gratitude to uh Miss Sutton and the finance department to the board and everyone for their tireless dedication and hard work on finalizing this next school Year's budget it's not an easy process but thanks to everyone's efforts we are well ahead of schedule we are going to be delivering our budget to our County Commissioners with our ask and requests almost two months earlier than it was done last year so thank you again miss suton thanks to everybody we've tried to do a job making this complex budget process more transparent and understandable for all ensuring that our districts continues to effectively allocate resources to meet our needs in addition myself some board members some teachers and some students are going back to Raleigh for another visit next week to advocate for

069adjustments to the allotment schedule and formula to address critical Personnel needs in our district so we remain committed to addressing any questions or concerns regarding the budget that you have with feedback from our family staff board members and Community stakeholders we've identified key areas of need and Incorporated possible solutions into our financial planning for next year V uh our budget super our superintendent budget priorities our goal is to strengthen our district and enhance the educational experience for every student yesterday and I see some people in the crowd we had the pleasure of welcoming Mo green North Carolina State superintendent to our district his visit showed great collaboration allowing us not only to identify common challenges faced by districts across the state but also help develop Solutions we also discussed our legislative priorities which we hope

070will serve as a road map for future improvements and effective Implement implementation across the region and state all right now the fun stuff a huge shout out to new Handover high schools men's varsity basketball team and the go ahead get out of your system and the hogard women's varsity basketball team for making it to the final for making it to the final four in the nchsaa for a Regional Championship your hard workor and dedication makes us proud we also want to congratulate Trey Moore our 2025 NC nhcs ncat CTE teacher of the year thank you for your dedication to career in technical education and for inspiring students every day and I want to also recognize that we had a rookie teacher of the year finalist a teacher of the year finalist and now a CP

071of the Year Award winner so congratulations to everyone if you are out there and would like to be more like Taylor for any aspiring Educators the board of education's student scholarships for future teacher application deadline is April 22nd this scholarship will award four recipients up to $28,000 each toward their education at a North Carolina Community College college or university all eligible students are encouraged to apply details are on our website and on our social media all right upcoming events we have a lot of summer camp availability and opportunities for folks stay tuned and follow us on social media for details and exciting opportunities for students this summer April April 1st believe it or not we extend our heartfelt thanks to all military families for their service and their sacrifice on April 15th we encourage everyone

072to wear purple and show your support for military children and their families as April is month of the military child April is also National Occupational Therapy month we deeply appreciate the hard work of our occupational therapists who support our students every day and I didn't write this but last but not least a personal favorite apparently April 19th is National Husband appreciation day so I called your wife and let her know please um all right they'll give you a day for anything won't they um all right it's hard to believe but we areach approaching the final quarter of the school year as we reflect on the progress we've made and before we power through the rest of the school year let us for not forget folks spring break is just a week away everybody take a

073breath and hang on um it's right around the corner this is a perfect time to hit pause I would encourage everyone to recharge and enjoy some well-deserved rest whether you're traveling spending time with loved ones or simply catching up on sleep take this time to relax and now I'd like to encourage everyone to check out our quarter in review video highlighting the incredible work that's happening across our schools I [Music] if you'd like to know more about some of the things we talked about there's a hand out in the back over there on the back table with links and things you can follow thank you right um now for the board chair report uh I want to start off there's a lot of things that apparently happened in April um April begins National autism acceptance

074month um as someone who knows and loves someone with autism this month holds a special place in my heart um the board had an eventful and busy productive month in March while I was unable to make special visits to schools I had the opportunity to attend various school events where I witnessed the remarkable talents of our staff and students the month began with read aloud sessions at rville Beach Elementary and several other schools it was heartening to see a diverse group of individuals including board members Commissioners and other community and government officials join in this was a wonderful way to promote a love of reading among our students the board also engaged in insightful discussions with principles particularly regarding cell phone policies and the potential for an AI pilot program we're grateful for their time

075and valuable feedback they provided the budget was a major topic of discussion this month and I'm pleased with a productive conversation ations we've had were especially appreciative of the Commissioners who took the time to meet with us and discuss the district's needs in depth Additionally the board held a work session to discuss call to audience and various committees this session proved productive and may offer solutions to lighten the workload for both staff and board members all while ensuring the district continues to operate smoothly on a lighter note if you were unable to to attend the best foot forward event at the beginning of February I highly recommend you mark it on your calendar for next year I didn't go last year I wish I had it was an incredible Showcase of the extraordinary Talent we

076have within our County from steel drum performances which was phenomenal to singing dancing acting and more it was an evening of unparalleled Entertainment Board also hosted a town hall meeting where we heard from members of the community about their thoughts on the AI pilot and we were grateful to have evident president present to share insights and answer questions thank you to all who attended and contributed to the conversation to close out the month Porter's Neck Elementary hosted a leader in me showcase where attendees had the chance to see student leadership in action students LED conferences shared object lessons about the seven habits performed skits guided tours of the school and even invited adults to participate in a fun game of are you smarter than a pelican a big thank you to the staff and students

077who orchestrated such a thoughtful and engaging morning I look forward to visiting more schools this month and wish everyone a restful and well-deserved spring break and this concludes my report um and now I will turn the mic over to uh Vice chair Miss Barnhart to do the call to audience thank you madam chair first up we have Jackie deasio Jackie oh all right next is NC case good evening how's everyone doing um I just want to preface this with if I'm disrupted I'd like the clock to be stopped until I'm no longer disrupted thank you um I don't I I'm I'm kind of at a loss where to start and it's not going to be a popular view with half the room and that's too bad when you partner with glisten to hold a direct

078action protest at our school board knowing full well that glisten is an organization along with the Trevor Project and glad that has contributed to the malfant that we have seen all across the country this doesn't make me a fascist because I want to affirm reality okay at the end of the day you can calm down at the end of the day today um you talk about marginalization and exploitation and colonization these are words that I hear from you all the time online and I've logged for the last three hours over two th last three years over 2,000 hours listening to the radical left and listening to the queer Marxist political faction tell us their plans it's not conservative commentary I've heard it directly from them directly from them I can name them who in the

079room raise your hand if you know who so lewises who authored the book social reproduction Theory can you please pause the time I need you all to sit down please please sit down thank you you may continue marginalization exploitation and colonization well the kids are being marginalized they're being exploited and you're colonizing their bodies by giving them cross sex hormones puberty blockers and eventually surgery social transition leads to medicalization Almost 100% of the time so why would you be promoting it in a state where it is not legalized unless the doctors themselves are engaging in medical fraud as Dr Aon H shared on D Awareness Day in DC we're not going to tolerate it and if you continue to do it you have to deal with me thank you for your time thank you Alisa

080um Alicia ugand Deli good evening last month on March 14th Dr Barnes wrote a letter to New Hanover County School Community it began as we continue shared our mission of providing the best possible education for our students I want to express my gratitude for your ongoing support our schools are more than just buildings they are spaces where young minds grow explore and develop into thoughtful capable and compassionate adults so I wonder how does suspending a 5-year-old provide them with the best possible education how does suspending a six-year-old help with their young minds grow and how does suspending in seven-year-old help them develop to thoughtful capable compassionate adults the letter goes on to say our classroom should be a place where all students feel safe supported and free to learn without unnecessary distraction by the phrase

081all students do you mean the children who follow the rules and the ones that need help and support to follow the rules article one section 15 of North Carolina Constitution states the people have the right to to the privilege of education and it is the duty of the state to guard and maintain that right uphold that right for five six seveny olds provide them with the help and support they deserve keep them in school where they can learn and Thrive thank you thank you Peter [Applause] Maryland Education Code section 7-35 point1 States a student enrolled in a public pre kindergarten program kindergarten first grade or second grade may not be suspended or expelled from school it goes on to say that prek through 2 grade uh children may only be expelled if it's required by

082federal law and they may be suspended for not more than 5 days if the school administration in consultation with a school psychologist or other mental health professional determines that there is an imminent threat of serious harm to other students or staff that cannot be reduced or eliminated through interventions and support now those five or up to five days out of school are not a punishment in the state of Maryland but an opportunity for an administrator with a mental health professional to make plans to address a child's serious mental health condition and it goes on to State the school shall provide intervention and support to address the student Behavior if the student is disruptive to the school environment or commits an act that would be considered an offense sub subject to suspension but for the students

083grade so imagine if all of our five six and seven year olds in our schools received the interventions and supports that they needed to address their behavior instead of being kicked out of school stop punishing our youngest Learners and end all K2 suspensions thank you thank [Applause] you thank you Deandre corn I don't know if I say that last name right DeAndre is it corne is that how you say last name could you say that one more time for me so I know is it corny Fe how do you say the last name okay thank you hi um I uh on February 7th I tagged every member of the New Hanover County school board on a Facebook post about optimism Oasis U warning the uh New Hanover County Schools to practically give it land um

084that belongs to Johnson prek Elementary School so that optimism Oasis can build a sports complex under the GU that they would allow new Handover County Schools to use their facilities if you look at their website that they have multiple buildings they have a garage parking deck with a hotel on top of it they have a restaurant for their patrons optimism Oasis is not just building a sports complex so that the school system can use it with the land that they want from from new Handover County schools that currently belongs to Johnson 3K Elementary optimism Oasis is a nonprofit portion of a for-profit corporation and you would be giving a corporation the opportunity to make millions of dollars don't do it thank you thank you sir Gail major Gail major Gail major hello everyone um first

085time before some of the new uh members congratulations Mr Perry seeing your back Miss Justice Mr Merrick um I'm here because I wanted uh the people behind me to Su to see what I saw these last two weeks regarding the AI um a positive a lot of positive things truthfully um but there were some concerns so the AI had questions and it was out there publicly Beyond North Carolina through the system of the government so it was questioned because of some of the the financial things that were concerned and the uh connection to the French military uh I was at the Town Hall beautifully done uh superintendent barns with a mic for all of us to speak then I went I was the only person from the community to your planning meeting also very impressive

086so what I what I got out of that was we had different parties coming together having intelligent conversation to make the best decision for the people that means all of us here doesn't matter if we're an r and a d and for the students and whoever's in the building right so as I sat there I listened to everyone speaking which was beautiful but I was concerned about three of you that is out there that is out there not Statewide but also nationalwide when we bring in anything that has to do with foreign military it goes out there so I'm here to inform you it is being watched and it is going to have some they're watching to see what you do for what I understand it's on the table right now and whatever happens but

087the other thing that is also out there nationally is harassment so whether your candidate or excuse me a board member it's documented if you are out there harassing people that becomes public thank you um Loretta stack house have to get it in two minutes the student code of conduct lists 65 violations that a student might commit and although it states that a student's age developmental level and grade should be considered when deciding on a disciplinary action for a violation when it comes to outou of school suspensions for serious VI violations five six and seven year olds are treated the same as 15 16 and 17y olds why the fact is the six-year-old brain is developmentally different from a 16-year-old brain consider bus safety why do you suppose there's a policy that states kindergarten through second

088grade students must be met at the bus stop by a parent or legal guardian unless they have submitted a K2 without parent form is it because a five six and seven year old thinks differently they are still learning and they make mistakes sometimes serious mistakes instead of kicking them out of school they need help and support from our professional Educators school counselors and social workers it's time to ban all out of school suspension for five six and seven year olds it's also time to invest in our youngest Learners by bringing teacher assistants back into every K to second grade classroom for a whole day and bring and begin hiring more school counselors and social workers to to give them reasonable case loads keep our youngest kids in school where they can learn and stri strive

089end out of school suspension for five six and seven thank you your time is up kale tab Gail [Applause] tab good evening y'all I'm the Reverend Gail tabber and I come before you as a pastor in this community a servant of Jesus Christ and a Shepherd called to protect the most vulnerable Among Us especially our children scripture teaches us the Holy Bible teaches us that every person is made in the image of God IM magod day with sacred worth and dignity and as we pledged earlier tonight with freedom for all when policies are crafted or revised they must reflect this Divine truth I am deeply grieved by the removal of language that names diversity inclusion equity and gender identity not because these words are trendy but because they point to real lives and the real

090struggle of God's children and really they just point to fairness to erase them is to deny the image of God in our lgbtq UIA students our students of color and our differently abled students all of whom bear the marks of div Divine creation Micah 68 asks us what does the Lord require of us but to do just us love mercy and to walk humbly with our God and it's not just to call on a personal righteousness it's a mandate for public leadership and the removal of protections like the policy that prevents out that prevents advertises from defaming students based on sexual orientation or gender identity is not Justice it is a failure of moral courage to disband the Title Nine committee is to silence those who cry from the margins Proverbs 318 calls us to

091speak for those who cannot speak for themselves and in the and for the right for to speak for the rights of those who are destitute the students affected by these may never stand before this microphone but their pain will echo in our sanctuaries in our counseling office and they will be in the hallways of our [Applause] school [Applause] Amanda good evening my name is Amanda rism again I'm a board certified behavior analyst and licensed North Carolina analyst doctoral student of psychology and a former special education teacher my most important title this is my second time speaking to you all after taking some time to review the literature and research on Ed educational practice regarding out of school suspension I found no evidence that suspension decreases the misbehavior of an individual student those that are observing

092an individual engaging in misbehavior or lead to an increase in school safety and it definitely doesn't lead to the contribution of creating an environment that's more conducive to learning two decades of research actually show the negative effects of exclusionary discipline in 2003 Dr Raphael mendz from Fairley Dickinson University published a report titled predictors of suspension and negative School outcomes a longitudinal study in it she wrote proponents of out of school suspension frequently argue that so-called get tough policies or Zero Tolerance policies make schools safer and create a Better Learning climate and truly there's no sound research that supports this broad claim the results of this longitudinal study suggest that frequent use of suspension has no measurable positive deterrent or academic benefit to either the student who are who is suspended or the non-suspended students as

093this research shows disciplining elementary and middle school students with out of school suspension predicts future suspensions and contributes further to a student's poor academic performance and failure to graduate on time fair and consistent discipline administrative policy 4303 States in part the board recognizes the negative effects of exclusionary discipline if you recognize the negative effects of exclusionary discipline then why are we subjecting children to suspension and seclusion still what if it was your child it's your time to end it for five six and seven-year-olds our youngest Learners need effective intervention compassion support and not punishment think of your Angie [Applause] KY shout out to New Hanover High School in The Rise program again in recent weeks there's been a lot of discussion around the adolescence film if you don't believe these things are happening in our

094schools you're sadly mistaken in recent weeks we've had staff severely injured due to lack of support large fights where students require hospitalization students who self harm teachers leaving the field and parents homeschooling the community is frustrated that your only solution seems to be more reactive policing and creating policies that further divide and harm students instead of uniting and building trust perhaps inste of destroying Dei Title 9 defunding prek and targeting those who don't fit your agenda and we could shift the focus towards protecting them though much through much of the appreciated conversation with the student support team it was noted that the violence from the community is bleeding over into the schools and they can't fix that so why then are we not taking the opportunity to utilize Partners within the community who do have

095skills and resources for violence prevention and reducing toxic stress violence is a multifaceted issue and one that deserves a legitimate investment in the community which New Hanover County has yet to do we thrown more in law enforcement at the issue to the point where the behavior is now been criminalized and adjusted around that presence if that approach were going to work we would have seen it by now we recognize that it would still be foolish to take that to pull all those officers from our schools overnight but in eliminating an US versus them mentality the solution lies in a place where schools can tap into those resources that better support families what we have in a addition to programs like the healthy opportunities pilot and the community health worker violence prevention model is a group

096of intrusted individuals who built relationships with the community and who can provide the support that the schools and police may not have because they have not built that level of trust and connection I encourage you to educate yourself and address the root cause and better serve students and staffs on that note you can't force us to but you hold our children Hostage to your hate every day you stand for that flag but you can't stand for the kids in this County Barbara [Applause] G good evening I'm going to talk about zero tolerance policies short-term suspension policy 4351 States no student under age eight or underg grade three will be suspended for out of school except in response to incidents involving involving violations of policy 4325 which is drugs and alcohol 4331 which is assaults and

097threats and policy 4333 weapons bomb threats terrorist threats and clear threats to safety all three exceptions are zero tolerance policy two of them State any student engaging in such Behavior will be removed from the classroom or School environment for as long as necessary to provide a safe and orderly environment for learning but why are five six and seven year olds being treated the same as 15 16 and 17 year olds any young child involved with drugs assault alcohol threats weapons bomb threats terrorist threats and clear threats to safety needs help from professional Educators school counselors and social workers kicking them out of school will not maximize their learning or improve their behavior or problem solving skills it will increase their chances of being suspended again being absent from school making poor academic PR process progress

098not graduating on time dropping out of school not continuing their education After High School and entering the Juvenile Justice System it's time to end all out of school suspensions for five six and seven year olds thank you very [Applause] much my name is Rachel Dole I'm a parent in the district and a pastor in the community dismantling the diversity equity and inclusion committee Banning books and removing written history because a few find it uncomfortable only serves to break us further apart I saw a sign recently that read quote there are no white people in the Bible take all the time with this you need it said if we start Banning books that ask hard questions and speak of Justice we might not like where that could lead I grew up in wimington my family has

099been here for Generations as I've been reading history lately I've learned that some of my ancestors were there in 1898 at the couet writing rewriting history as they saw fit later other ancestors of mine helped to start the first school for black children in Rocky Point the more I learn the more I see the importance of standing together building our future on firm ground with one another we teach health class in our school because the more you understand your body the better you can care for it the same goes for our community Banning books that will leave out black and queer voices of our community has not and will not help wimington or our country and it's time we openly learned about our community's past and our nation's past as playwright and Duke associate professor

100Mike Wy said we tell our history not to make people feel bad but to make people feel end quote people that feel small and Afraid inside feel the need to bully and try to silence others those who know their worth and see the worth of others know that together we can build something far stronger and better than any of us can alone each one of you on this board has worth you don't need to try to silence others to prove it let's work together to equip every person in our community with the skills and knowledge we all need for them to have thank you teaching our history the good and the bad and teaching students missah [Applause] Bron Deborah brunon I'm going to pause well I'm not if you could pause for one second sir

101if you could sit down please thank you is the Dei assault on the school's curriculum driven by fairness or by fear no matter what restrictions or changes are placed on diversity it exists and it will continue to be celebrated with respect and with joy the community doesn't need this board's permission to do that this strong self-sufficient Community will still learn and teachers will still teach courage Community courage John Wayne said courage is being scared to death but settling up anyway it takes courage to do a course correction even when the party most of of you belong to is mandating that you do disrespectful things to diverse parents diverse children and a diverse Community who have never done anything disrespectful to you this county has a diverse student body here are some thoughts for you to

102ponder two of my grandsons in the third grade were told by a white youngster in after school I don't stand behind black kids you have the power to bend circumstances I saw this firsthand in the recent board's well-run policy committee meeting kudos to the legal staff for cautioning against adding biological to describe sex the DPI recently ran a webinar on the Holocaust will this material be purged to in HB 171 if HB 171 becomes law here's an example of courage and Community from 1955 you may not know this but but Mrs Rosa Parks was bailed out of jail by civil rights leader Edie Nixon accompanied by a white couple Virginia dur and her husband Clifford Mrs Durr and Mrs Parks worked together in a hostile South under life-threatening circumstances to Make a Better Community there's

103even courage down the road in white t City done yeah thank you King [Applause] Park good evening Dr Barnes and bour blessed is the one who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor sits in the path of Sinners nor sits in the path of the scornful but his Delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law he meditates day and night the fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgments father give them complete knowledge of your will and spiritual wisdom and understanding so no one will deceive them with well-crafted Arguments for wisdom is shown to be right by its results I pray you lay down your anxieties presenting every need with Thanksgiving trusting that his peace which goes beyond

104understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus for the wisdom from above is first of all pure it is also peaceloving gentle at all times and willing to yield to others it is full of mercy and Good Deeds it shows no favortism and is always sincere those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness guide them Lord into your truth so they can say with confidence we have depended on God's grace and not on our own human wisdom I I bless New Hanover County schools in the name of Jesus as schools of light and his peace amen thank you Sandy Isles what's it like to constantly be defending your hate does it gnaw away at you like a cancer or is it like a black hole that

105grows by consuming all of you and where light cannot Escape when I was a little girl I always wondered if I'd have the courage to stand up against the Defenders of hate in Nazi Germany or during the Civil Rights Movement I hoped I would yet I never imagine I'd know for certain yet here I am standing before you today most of you would not align your hate with the racism of Nazis or KKK yet you banned a book because it amplifi the voice of a black man his voice threatened you because you favor the voices of white man and fist bumps with the proud boys you praise school choice despite its segregationist roots spawned from the verdict of Brown versus Board you support the criminalization of our black boys through your tolerance of our disproportionate

106Behavior practices questioning why we are even required to report demographic data Josie just as Nazi Germany hated gay men one of you called transgender students it and another spewed hate speech about them across social media the Nazis exterminated disabled people finding them to be of no value for society some of you find our disabled students To Be An Inconvenient burden as you worry more about the other students in the classroom tonight you'll spend far too long Defending Your Hate by justifying the removal of words like diversity equity and inclusion from our policies as professed Christians you despise Dei even though Jesus was the ultimate Dei supporter demonstrated demonstrated by his equitable inclusion of his diverse disciples and followers he never asked you to carry the burden of hate shame and darkness quite the opposite he

107asked you to radiate his light and love so I guess I've answered my original question regarding what it's like to constantly defend your hate it's a dark shameful burden you created for yourself choosing to reject Justice light and love thank you wor I know that five six and seven year olds can't be suspended for minor offenses by using inappropriate language showing disrespect or insubordination today I'm asking you to end suspensions for all offenses Dr Walter skilliam from the Yale University Child study center has said we would never send a child home because the child was struggling at reading we would never send a child home if that child was struggling with math why would we send a child home for struggling with social emotional skills indeed why are we sending children home for struggling with

108social emotional needs you might say oh we don't have enough staff to keep them in school or we don't have enough rooms to work with those children or our staff isn't trained to handle those problems as a long lifelong educator and a lover of children I'm asking you to invest in our youngest Learners hire more Educators teaching assistants school counselors and social workers be creative with finding spaces for the needed interventions and supports and as for training get real our teachers are overworked and underpaid every time you add something new something else has to be taken off their plate and most importantly teachers deserve reserve a seat at the table where decisions are made and use the meryland state statute that was spoken of tonight to transition from punitive measures to proactive interventions for our

109children get the suspension policy right and then do the job like the teacher was up here talking about at New Hanover High School The Rise program that should be happening every every classroom every day in this system thank you when I retired a few years ago I promised that I would continue to advocate for both teachers and students and I'm here tonight to talk about the assault against lgbtqia youth civil rights I know that due to personal beliefs a number of you believe these youth do not need or deserve equality and protection however your personal beliefs don't matter here you were elected to represent all New Hanover County School students equally and fairly recently there have been a number of directives from the federal government to change laws and even words and laws that result

110in stripping away civil rights and this board because of personal beliefs has jumped at the opportunity to align its laws with the federal government under the guise of just wanting to adhere to policy for those of us who closely followed the board it's easy to see who is using it as an excuse to discriminate against those whose existence you reject from the time we're little children we're always told that bullies are bad and we should never be a bully and more so if we see someone being bullied we should speak out that's why I'm speaking out now since the majority on this board were elected in 2022 you've taken multiple actions to try to humiliate and discount these marginalized youth who you were elected to protect how dare you if you feel elated and Powerful

111as their civil rights are taken away you are a bully and you ought to be ashamed people don't pretend to change gender to use a different restroom or to perform in a different sports League no one is going to open themselves up to such extreme criticism unless living their life authentically is more important than fitting into society's expectations the least you can do as a board is to recognize their dignity as human beings and protect them as you do all the other students in new han County Schools this in turn would make you a good human and not a bully with a mouthful of scripture and a Heart full of hate thank you thank you car [Applause] grette I want to bring attention to North Carolina State statue 7 B-1 1 which addresses Juvenile Justice

112and juvenile cold the statute recognizes three types of juvenal including Del delinquent undisciplined juveniles who are defined as being less than 16 years of age but at least 10 years of age the third is vulnerable juvenal which includes any child between the ages of nine who commits a crime or infraction the law supports these children through a juvenile court counsel who offers up to six months of ju of case management it includes screening assessment access to Community Resources and programming for child and their family however I feel compelled to express concern regarding the school board policy 4351 which punishes our youngest Learners 5 six and seven by expelling them for issues like drugs assaults and weapons this policy appears to lack the supportive framework that our Juvenile justice system provides I urge you to reconsider

113this policy and create a new suspension policy that outright bans all out of school suspension for our five six and seven year olds and ensure that they receive the cenal help that and support they deserve thank you thank you Su Chris Sutton and then again for Jackie deasio and that concludes the call to audience all right board members we're going to take a five minute recess and come back at 7 o' yeah you nailed that yeah for e for e for e e e we are back in session board members back to the Das please all right um We are continuing on with consensus items Madam chair I make a motion to approve the consensus items all right any discussion hearing none point of point of inquiry mad did not hear is on I don't

114know I don't know what's going on with hello no I think my give us one sec we'll figure out it says it's on sorry can you hear hello no all right mics are not mics are not working oh are they no I thought I heard myself it's not just for us are we good can you hear me a little better all right I'll put it right up to my face all right we have um a motion to approve consensus items and a second any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed passes 7 to zero continuing to policy I I am going to um turn it over to the chair of policy Mr wior oh thank you thank you thank you um we did we did allow a half

115hour to discuss these individual policies if needed um but I'll make a motion that we pass uh the policies as provided um 1310 all the way to 9120 as uh written second all right discussion um I saw Mr Perry and then I know Dr marck has some concerns so um this after uh speaking uh uh earlier with Miss can you hear this I'm sorry uh Miss Barnhart uh I believe we need to uh pull off uh 4303 uh due to the last paragraph I think we maybe we missed that part I think we did yeah okay so 4303 s I'd make a amendment to say to remove that one from the consens okay are there any others that need to be removed Dr Merck you had a list correct I'd like to remove 3100 41

116right now I got 3100 3,200 right 4140 4310 9120 how many does that leave sir that would leave us 1310 300 3130 3420 uh 40 no you said we're taking that one off too I say 50 did you say 5240 yes you did and 71 7130 okay so motion to approve the policies that Mr wero just listed that remain 1310 Y is there a second is there any others that need to be removed Miss Justice oh okay that's what we're on right now because I wanted to make a comment um well we're just removing right now and then we'll discuss some of the policies in a minute this is just this is just to vote to pass those all right can we repeat which ones are being pulled please the ones well I'll leave you

117what what we got left 1310 3,000 3420 70 7130 that's left that's left so five those are the ones to approve all right any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed those pass 7 to zero all right so let's pull up 3130 to begin with that's a great idea 3100 we 3100 3,100 so that is curriculum development um who brought that forward was that you Dr Merrick all right go ahead sir so changing the word and if it would please uh Madam chair uh for time sake I believe I could combine 3100 3200 4140 and 4310 as my objections are largely the same again I'm sorry 3100 right 4140 and 4310 okay is that a motion no he's just grouping them all together and so your concerns are

118sir my concerns are that changing the word diversity when it is completely unnecessary no one's rights are being Abridged by using this word and I want you to notice that the president's executive order uh and I will read the title of it is ending radical and wasteful government Dei programs and preferencing and in section four paragraph C it reads this order is not intended to and does not not create any right or benefit substantive or procedural enforcable at law or inequity by any party against the United States so what you're seeing is that the word equity in itself is not a problem the word diversity is not a problem it's the executive orders talk about using Dei and how it would abridge certain people's rights even that not law but I'm willing to go along

119with the rest of the board with those executive orders but this is not it when we take away the word Equity when we take away the word diversity we are telling something to the public we are telling something to our students we are telling people who are already feeling marginalized and so I would like to uh make a motion that we deny the change in verbiage in these four policies and revert them back to the original form okay there's a motion I will have order we do have business to do please be respectful we need a second for his motion well I'll second it okay Miss Justice I'll second it but I want to tell you now I'm going to vote against every one of these it's like I said during the policy committee I

120taught history for a very long time and in government Civics um I know the law this this executive order means nothing it's not the law and it's basically created to confuse I know people don't want to hear it for political reasons we're here to educate our children we need to teach them facts the beauty of us this country I look around this audience is our diversity and that's one of the reasons we become the strongest nation in the world and it didn't happen immediately back before the Civil War we were a mess and after 1965 and I been around long enough to know that this country has just exploded in science knowledge oh um creativity and all of that in my opinion being as old as I am and have studied history studied government is

121from that so I'm not going to vote for any of this this is ridiculous it's not the law it's being done out of I don't know capitulation to a bully we stand up in our schools every day and tell our kids not to do that don't bully other children be brave speak out everybody up here should they know better but on the other hand I'm not voting for any of them I'm going to leave them the way they are I'm just announcing that now that's the end of my discussion Mr Perry good evening as to Mr Merck's um motion I agree to the extent that diversity is not a for that a word in and of itself but it has been hijacked to some extent in literature public commentary and if and there are we

122are like it or not we now have uh a federal government who is very intent on making sure that we get rid of this language out of our policies or we could be risking many millions of dollars in our School District budget so therefore when if we see it even in cases where we it thought the word diversity isn't referring to Dei if there's any way that that could be construed or cost us millions of dollars I'd rather use alternate words so that's all thank you uh Mr wior and I you know I don't disagree with my colleague over here that diversity is not a bad word but I you know I look at the word heritage why is Heritage a bad word I I don't understand that I you know if we look at

123policy 3200 uh the rich Heritage of our nation that to me that is a a well ver way to say it you know why not say it you know if we can improve the the wording why not do it and I think Heritage actually improves policy 3200 okay there is a motion on the table to leave policies to revert policies 3100 3200 4310 and 4140 to the original language Miss Buie will you call the role Miss Bradford no Dr Merrick yes Mr wior no Mr Perry no Miss Justice yes Miss Barnhart no and Miss Mason no that fails 5-2 I make a motion to adopt 3100 3200 removed if you continue to be disrupted 4310 as presented I make a motion to adopt 3100 3200 41 please pause Miss Barnhart go ahead make a motion

124to approve 3100 3200 4140 and 4310 as presented I'll second the motion Miss buoy will you call the role Mr Perry I miss Justice no Miss Bradford yes Dr Merck in League with the most underprivileged I do not approve Mr wildor I miss barnhard yes and Miss Mason yes that passes 5-2 we have the next policy I believe is 5240 if we're going in order then 43 4 I'm sorry thank you 4303 I make a motion to send 4303 back to policy I second the motion okay any discussion could I hear it again 4303 back to policy hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed that passes 7 to zero Madam chair Miss Bradford just a point of clarification um we have three left 5240 and 6220 I think the

125objections are almost identical so do we want to combine those um I would have to ask the individual that put those forward that would be Dr Merck are those similar concerns I am uh very willing to put together 5240 and 6220 together but not with 9120 okay no I didn't mean that no okay so miss Mason Mr wood if we could uh ask the attorneys for their um input on on those two policies I was going to do that anyway for 5240 and please what specifically are you asking um actually the word biological 5240 and 6220 5240 and 5240 and 6220 it was the changing of sex to biological sex schols I don't see any risk to us any it's a policy board I don't see it Li ability for making that change or any

126compliance problems either way one way or another umy 6220 awesome that is operation of school nutrition services with suggested edits Miss Mason if I could Mr W go ahead if you don't mind uh we just just want to clarify the word biological in that in those two same those two policies biological is is inserted in both of those yeah versus SE just having sex biological sex in 6220 um is deals with operational standards of the school nutrition services um The Proposal was basx pregnancy child birth National disil eligibility stats The Proposal as you can see was to change it to qualify um not discriminate based on on Race biological sex child birth parting status is the other addition this discussion actually came about in the bullying policy n issue and the the concern that I

127had was about Title Nine in particular Title Nine the language of the statute talks about discrimination based on sex now apparently that language was fine for 50 years from 1972 until 19 until when um gender identity was added um and I think one of the problems now is that we are I think are proposing to take out all references to gender identity but qualify sex by saying biological and that's not quite in line with what the fourth circuit says in the Grim case so I think we would be safer to just leave it the way it was before 2022 and just leave sex as sex now here we're dealing with discrimination and a ban on discrimination again um I I I I don't see the the need to qualify sex by just saying biological sex

128there if you believe it's biological sex well you're already covered um by just the term sex there's there's no additional there's no benefit to qualifying that by saying biological sex the the parenting status and look you can add as many protected classes as you want it's not that that's never going to um create additional liability for us maybe more headache um enforcement wise but I it's just it seems un necessary to qualify and probably not the greatest idea in the world when we talk about Title 9 compliance to qualify sex by saying biological sex only um because I know that at least one panel of the fourth circuit the Grim panel disagrees uh with that reading of it so I my suggestion would be just leave it at sex okay uh Mr Perry my understanding

129from your concerns at the policy committee was that in this particular on a couple of these particular cases that didn't specifically deal with Title 9 that you thought the addition of the word biological was fine uh are you now changing your mind who's going to do more research I did not remember the discussion of 6220 but fortunately one of the other staff members who was there had handed me um her notes uh and apparently that according to these notes I had said yeah just you know let's let's not add in the the qualification of biological sex there again you know I'll do my best to defend whatever policy decisions you guys make but I think you're you're better off just leaving good enough alone um and leaving it at the word sex instead of um

130qualifying that some people would view that as a narrowing of the anti-discrimination protections and I you know I don't know what benefit comes from that um but I can think of some potential um problems with it so okay uh Miss Bradford I am going to move the we separate these back out and that we adopt 6220 without the word biological based on the recommendation of our legal councel I'll second discussion Mr Perry while I appreciate the wisdom of our our board attorneys I believe there's another case we are forgetting out which is Tennessee versus was which was just this year Tennessee firsts versus Cardona which which is also fourth circuit not an appeals court but nonetheless that's what stopped the Biden rules integrating uh gender identity into Title 9 and it the kabash was put

131down on it and and this happened even before President Trump was swor in the office I believe if we want to comply with this we need to use precise lines language and you know there was a day when you know 50 years ago when sex meant biological sex and every and gender was the same thing as sex but no longer we need to Define our terms and so we have to come to a decision today as a board do you want what do we mean do we mean biological sex or do we need we want to leave it open and tacitly approve what the liberal fourth circuit has ruled Grim 5 years ago so you have to make a decision vote your conscience or vote not to get sued that's where I'm at Dr Merck

132thank you and while I uh don't agree with uh putting the word biological in for the very reasons that our lawyer has stated we we're missing the elephant in the room because the more concerning uh part for me is by deleting the protection uh around sexual Orient ation and gender identity now the Supreme Court in Bostic versus Clayton County ruled that discrimination against someone for being gay or transgender is inherently discrimination based on sex which then makes it fall under Title 9 Title 9 uses the phrase sex not biological sex and like our lawyer pointed out this change may be in Conflict Title 9 states that not only can't we discriminate or harass based on sex but we also have to give notices on our website it we have to notify parents students employees we

133got to conduct trainings for employees all around sex discrimination the code of federal regulations title 34 which covers education uh and is current as of March 2825 in part 10610 States discrimination on the basis of sex includes discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes sex characteristics pregnancy or related conditions sexual orientation and gender identity if we're going to leave in pregnancy conditions as a protection in our policy why in the world would we be removing sexual orientation and gender identity I'm sure that you're all aware there is a critical Mental Health crisis among teens today in 2020 67 children in North Carolina under the age of 18 died by suicide in 2021 23% of North Carolina High School students reported seriously considering suicide 46% of the queer Community seriously considered suicide that's twice the rate

13453% of transgender and non-binary youth seriously considered suicide these are from the ni and CDC by the way in a survey of new hver County students 10% of high school males reported sexual harassment whereas 47% of lgbtq plus students did while I believe Dr Burns when he says that regardless of policy he will work to protect every student and I very much appreciate that I have to ask my fellow board members what the message is that they're hoping to send to our lgbtq students who by the way make up one tenth of our students what's the message to their parents to our community when you seek to remove badly needed protections for them I move to deny this change in verbiage in policy 5240 and 6220 that sends a chilling chilling message to our community

135and endangers our students the table is there a second Miss Bradford so was that an amendment or was that a motion a motion to deny the change of okay so there was already a motion on the table we need to vote on the original motion before we can vote on your motion um so the original motion is to pass 6220 without the word biological but leaving the rest as is then I will amend it Bart thank you so I I was not privy to this information my colleague just shared but um from what I glean just auditory listening to you my understanding is based on what you read with with sex that is included gender identity and sexual orientation is included if you just have the word sex in there not eliminating the biological so

136I um I I'm just from what I heard I I I don't recall the pregnancy and child birth being mentioned in the Montage that I just heard but I I do believe that when we have the word sex in there it covers and I would love for legal to speak to this it does cover not discriminating based on sexual orientation and gender identity and I would like confirmation of that prior to the vote attorney that that is true with with respect to the fourth circuit um Mr Perry mentioned the the Tennessee case um an interesting thing about that the appeals court in that case never reached the question of whether the Biden administration's view of the law was correct or not um they said that they failed to comply with the administrative procedures act um

137now had they gotten to it I'm quite sure that they would have concluded that the Biden Administration was wrong based on the rest of the the um discussion in it but the fourth circuits case the Grim case um you know it deals with title N9 and Title 9 and title 7 the the statute at issue in boso are quite different Title 9 I'm looking at it on my computer it uses the words students of one sex and the terms students of both sexes so obviously Title Nine view sex as you know a binary thing you are either one or the other you are not you know you can't be multiple or none um you fall into one bucket or the other um be that as it may I think Grim got it wrong but Grim's

138the law that we're stuck with right now and you know if we don't want to get sued the way to do it is to comply with um with with that if the statute does use the term sex just sex um earlier in in Title 9 that's a safe way to go we use sex we copy the statute you're always safe using word for word the language of the statute so that's my take on it I I don't I'm not endorsing the Grim view I'm just telling you that that's we B on the statute sex isn't the statute sex is in the statute that clarifies all those okay thank you for that Clarity Miss Justice okay my concern about sex clarifying everything it has in parentheses after biological sex which we've already said that that's something

139that we want to leave out or some people have we're going to vote on all this um it says after the terms here biological sex including pregnancy child birth and parenting status and these are in parentheses and sexual orientation and gender identity has been taken out of the parentheses now if we're going to put including pregnancy child birth and parenting status and yet take out sexual orientation and gender gender identity that in itself pre so prejudice against gender identity and sexual orientation so I say put that back in there and be very clear I totally agree about a pregnant child or you know student or even staff but the point is is that that if that's going to be left in then this should be left in too all right um Dr Mar this is

140your last opportunity yes I would like to amend the motion uh to say that that we would past 6220 taking out the word biological and leaving in the words sexual orientation and gender identity second okay Mr Perry the reason the reason some of these things are left out and some of them included to be to me it's all very bewildering this is a school nutrition program we're not going to be discriminating against anybody for any reason for the school distri I mean why do we even have these class suspect classifications in a school nutrition program I mean you know what I'm going to make a motion that we just remove every single one of these classes from this policy we cannot add on to an amendment so there is Mr wior Question second okay this

141ends discussion that requires remind me 2/3 all right Miss buoy will you call the RO to End discussion on this amendment this is the amendment the amendment and discussion go ahead call the question okay no you're calling the question it's calling the question yes I'm confus yes to call the question okay let's restate it right all over again this is for ending discussion this is call the question this is what we're voting on right now is calling the question and ending discussion clear okay okay M Branford point of inquiry sorry yes of the amendment of the amendment thank you m braford yes Dr Merck yes Mr wior yes Mr Perry yes Miss Justice yes Miss Barnhart yes and Miss Mason yes okay so the amendment is to approve policy 62 20 removing biological and adding

142back in sexual orientation and gender identity Miss buoy will you call the role M Bradford no Dr Merck yes Mr wior no Mr Perry no Miss Justice yes Miss Barnhart no and Miss Mason no so back to the original motion which was to approve policy 6220 removing the word biological you've spoken twice on this make an amendment to that one go ahead point of in is that I don't believe that would be allowed because we have we've already had the amendment so then it would be a second Amendment we' voted on this I agree with that okay then no no no Amendment I completed I made one and you said I was out of order for making an amendment to an amendment I I challenged the the interpretation of the board of the chair just

143needs a vote okay so uh the parliamentarian the r there is a challenge to my ruling that requires a 2third vote if you believe I was incorrect In My ruling vote Yes if you believe I was correct in my ruling vote no Miss buoy will you call the role M Bradford no Dr Merck no Mr wbore no Mr Perry yes Miss Justice no Miss barnhard no and Miss Mason no that fails the motion to approve policy 6220 removing the word biological Miss buoy will you call the role Miss Bradford yes Dr Merck no Mr wo yes Mr Perry yes despite everything else Mr Miss Justice no Miss barnhard yes and Miss Mason yes that passes 5 to2 we are at time for our policies so chair Miss Bradford I move that we adopt policy 5240

144as written second point of order we were just told that we were out of time I think we need to extend time to extend is there a motion to extend time I make a motion we extend time for 10 minutes second okay there's a motion to extend time for 10 minutes um all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed no no okay can you call the role on that one miss badford yes Dr Merrick no Mr wbor yes Mr Perry yes M Justice no Miss barnhard no and Miss Mason yes that passes 4 to three so we have 10 minutes Miss Bradford you had a motion I move that we pass policy 5240 as written and is there a second I'll second any discussion Dr Merrick then Mr Perry I have a

145feeling I'm going to sound a little bit like a broken record here but when I hear my colleagues say well doesn't sex just sort of cover all of it legally it does but we are not simply legal here we are in community we have a responsibility to our students to our staff to our parents and to the community at large and when we tell our students that we will not protect them if they are lgbtq even if maybe legally we would by just telling them Noah nah you're not worth it we're g to take you out of that policy when there's absolutely no reason to take it from the policy I am incensed I am hurt I feel a great communion to the gay community and I feel like this is a personal attack on

146me uh Mr Perry I think I can get what I was going to do with the last pause into this one I would like to make a motion on Part B number two to remove everything after abusive language and remove everything that's starting at such as language all the way to the end of uh the period before number three we don't need we just need we don't need a bunch of uh protected classes we just need to make sure that our student Community isn't abused period so um sir just so you know you can't make a motion after a motion you can make an amendment to a motion what was the point what was the original motion the original motion was to pass 52 40 40 i' like I'd like to make an amendment to

147the motion to say so could you please say that Amendment again clearly to remove everything in Part B section two after uh abusive language beginning at such as language all the way uh to the end of Point number two see there is there a second to that Amendment I'll second that okay Madam chair I can't find that can you help me it is part B under prohibited advertisement messages two contains liist statements personal attacks and abuse of language right anything after that saying okay Miss Justice yeah that's a mouthful after abusive language but if you read down there there's things that definitely need that are not abusive language encourages Commission of unlawful Acts or the violation of unlawful School regulations that's not necessarily abusive is inappropriate considering the age of the students in the school

148that's not in abuse that's not necessarily abusive includes information that is inacurate misleading or false same thing and then um here we go again is for any product or service not permitted to mine miners by law so just by ending it right there you're leaving out a whole bunch of areas I think there's a I think for clarity purpose he I don't believe Mr Perry was referring to removing the rest of that it was simply just for justar it is to remove everything here I'll read the specifics um so it was after abusive language correct okay so such as langu defaming a person's character race religion ethnic origin biological sex including pregnancy child birth and parenting status family status or disability that's what Mr per is looking to remove yes all right taking out you're

149offering to take out section two but leave in three four and five correct that is that is the mo the amendment that has been proposed Dr Merrick I do appreciate that in some ways that um kind of equal you know levels out the playing field but I wouldn't want anyone's personal character to be uh uh defamed I wouldn't want it to be defamed based on race I wouldn't want it to be defamed based on religion I wouldn't want any of these things I don't think that we should be allowing our advertisers to to defame any students of any class protected or otherwise Madam chair Miss Bradford um I'm going to read it the board of education prohibits advertising that is vulgar indecent or obscene we're Mr the the the motion to amend is to leave

150that but T take out contains liable statements personal attacks abusive language no nope starts at including such as okay such as language defaming a person's character race religion ethnic um having been an advertising for like 40 years um there are specific laws that have to do with advertising and what you can have and when you cannot have in an advertisement and the the the government takes this very seriously so I would need legal advice on this attorneys could you weigh in you asking me I apologize I was I was looking at the the language and the it's highlighted behind you if you want to see exactly what the proposal is it's right screen have it prior to biological yeah after abuse of language yeah I I couldn't support that without a legal opinion that tells

151me that's okay think we need to research that to to remove s so much of that number two Mr Perry we need to look at that first and well one of the problems youve got is you're taking away your ability to police um clearly offensive um advertising messages yeah again the law is very strict on Advertising some of which you know again if we skip back to Title 9 in this the whole idea the umbrella of Title 9 is any educational program the educational program so to the extent that that you know I I don't think you could have you would have a problem compliance wise if you had say the clan advertising um at your football games um some of their ideas that openly discriminated against certain groups and and I'm looking disability for

152example is you know I can't imagine a group actually wanting to um advertise something that that you know um it's weird did that but yeah I I I think I'm having a hard time thinking of a compliance example with it but it just doesn't strike me as a good idea but okay um Miss Barnhart you had something M I'd like to offer a substitute motion to send this back to policy okay in addition to the robust discussion that's currently happening I feel like it's warranted some further discussion I know for me personally advertising in schools this is always a questionable thing there's pros and cons of every every side of the coin here but I feel like this should have further discussion in policy so I would make a substitute motion to send this back

153to policy second parliamentary procedure is a substitute acceptable because there's already been Amendment because there's already been an amendment to the original motion asking all the questions tonight no Mion point of order we're getting clarification right now if it would help I will withdraw my motion and then you can make yes you you would withw the amendment okay that solves the problem so I make a substitute moot I'm sorry amendment I make a substitute um motion well it's a substitute motion because it's not speaking to so I make a substitute motion to send policy 5240 back to policy second okay any further discussion I'll have a second of discussion Miss Bradford we have about minute 4 30 left of our time so quickly ideally I would say yes but because of the makeup of this

154board we will simply send it back to policy and it'll come back here we'll have another 20 or 30 minutes debating it and we'll end up in exactly the same place um I am getting to the point where I am feeling like we don't need a policy committee because we don't take their recommendations um so I want to just keep plowing on and if the motion that I made fails then it fails all right so there is a substitute motion to move this to policy Miss buy will you call the role Mr Perry I miss Justice yes Miss Bradford no Dr Merrick yes Mr wildor no Miss barnhard yes and Miss Mason no that passes 4 to three with 30 seconds we have how many policies left 91201 uh what do we do with 4,400

155then 40 oh 4,400 was another one yeah I I have 3130 still 3420 and 4400 and 9120 okay barart oh we were just dealing with the one in cont I was going to make a motion to postpone the the rest of the policy discussion to next month second any discussion didn't hear she's postponing the remaining policies U Mr W could you list those One More Time by my count and I may be wrong we may have passed for I Dr American taking 4,400 off so maybe we've already passed 4,400 yes but I have 3420 we haven't discussed yet 31 3130 discuss yet you're right and then yes yeah you're right she so there's a motion to send those policies back or postpone them till next month all those in favor signify by saying I I

156any opposed no that passes 5-2 okay um old business um Dr Morgan to talk about the ncdot acquisition of right of way at Johnson prek Center we I think you got everything that you need regarding um Department of transportation's proposal to purchase that right of way um the land that we currently own with Johnson Johnson prek is 1344 is the mic on oh it was a user error I apologize okay thank you all right uh beginning again so I think you've got everything you need for the Department of transportation's proposal to acquire the right of way at Johnson pre Center um they are offering $1,767 185 to purchase 13.44% Acres as part of their plan for the uh Railway proposal M chair yes sir Miss Bradford I move that we accept this recommendation by the

157staff to approve this sale is that is there a second second all right um Mr Perry just very quickly we heard from a member of the community tonight about optimism Oasis a sports complex does this have anything to do with no sir okay unrelated okay Dr Merrick remind me it um it seems to me there was a small amount of that 1.7 plus million that was um restricted can you remind me small amount it had to be used for a specific purpose I'm not aware of that and I'm certainly happy to follow up on that and let you know with do you have any information on that any restrictions question again a restriction on yeah originally we had asked for like 1.6 or 1.65 or whatever and then there was an additional ask um and

158that it had to be used for a specific purpose the only thing I recall is a additional um debate about putting up fencing or something similar to that and that was not approved they they did not respond to that request so this would not include that that's and that may not be what you're referring to that's the only thing I can recall I I'm as you were talking um there was also talk about moving the playground that was I believe what what you were referring to Dr am if if correct we're not exactly netting 1.7 point whatever right oh correct I understand what you're asking now so the request was in part for to to fund the labor for moving those so that was that was in part why they they came back with a

159higher figure right uh Miss Justice this is going to seem I'm not sure um after hearing the gentleman today about Johnson uh pre preschool we um is it once do buys this land is it stipulated they have to use it for that there's there there couldn't be some way that down the road something could happen I mean I'm just I I didn't think about this but there's way too many strange things that go on these days with you know oh let's let Dr Morgan answer well Dr Morgan doesn't have an answer for that I really can't speak to what the Department of Transportation may or may not do in the future I think their proposal right now is to purchase this and I the best I can tell you is the the contract that they

160are offering us or offering you the board okay okay um missart what I believe my colleagues might be speaking to is the property of land that was close to Mary C Williams and the discussion of a new build school there I believe that's where are you speaking of the call to audience speaker the the so that is different different um different spot of land okay I'm just getting confused no I understand I understand I I wish I could tell you that that won't happen but I can't appar it's not the same piece of Mr Perry um I just so they refused did I catch this right they refused to put up any kind of sound barrier essentially they've refused to respond so I think for all practical purposes the lack of a response is a

161refusal to accommodate that request okay in that case I would suggest we vote now this is the school first so all right there is a motion to miss Justice yeah I'm sorry he's got a point uh how loud will this be how often will these trains go by is this going to has anybody looked at the thank you uh you got a bunch of little kids in there and I've lived next to tra railroad tracks back both my grandpa were engineers um yeah it get pretty darn loud uh Dr barrence have you looked at this do you know what's going on this has been so far in the future that they haven't really given us any indication of that when we're talking 8 to 10 years before they move this down the road so we

162really I didn't explore that option about how loud it would be I didn't know was that long down the road okay thank you all right there is a Mr will deore I mean we can I can certainly need that discussion with okay Dr I do want to let you guys know that that money we did include in this year's budget so would it may if we don't just know that we may have to come back and do an amendment to our budget later okay actually did I say that correctly correct right yeah youve had two I'm sorry I have had two okay yep you had two all right is there any other there's a motion on the table to accept Miss boy will you call the role Miss Bradford yes Dr Meritt yes Mr wo

163yes Mr Perry given the fact that we need the money yes Miss Justice yes Miss Barnhart yes and Miss Mason yes all right thank you Dr thank you next up is the superintendent 2025 26 recommended budget Miss Sutton good evening everyone um last week we presented the superintendent 2025 2026 budget for recommendation um just for informational purposes I tonight um I'm requesting approval of that budget plan including the budget request that we're going to submit to the county um for consideration by the County Commissioners and so that um budget request there's a letter that was provided to you that we would be sharing if this is approved tonight with the county manager County Commissioners tomorrow um the additional request of the county would be um seven 96476 and operating and that included the budget priorities

164that we identified during the budget process and then a capital outlay request of1 19,43 733 so requesting um approval from the board to move forward with that um budget request of the County Commissioners and to move forward with the budget plan um to come back back with a resolution in May I make a motion that we accept the superintendent's 2425 recommended budget 25 I can't read yeah 25 26 I'll work on that that one that one the one is right here thank you can I make an amendment to that motion I would like to do we need a second before we have the a second we got a second okay go ahead I'd like to make an amendment to that removing the increase of stien of $ 7,942 pardon point of inquiry where is this

165$7,000 dollar for the board yes sir oh us the $794 ask I make a motion to amend the motion to remove that ask okay is there a second hearing none major Miss Bradford I would support um the motion but there was just one little part of what we passed last Tuesday that I left off the motion that I made and it was on the recommendation of um staff that with the board compensation to add into the budget process that there would be compensation would automatically increase to mirror the annual adjustments of the North Carolina teachers so we don't have to revisit this every couple of years oh Miss Justice yeah that's that's an excellent I yeah wait a second but now she was wanting to remove it can you clarify what's going on she was

166so that that Amendment did not get a second oh good so the um Miss Bradford is yes could you repeat what you so going forward board compensation would automatically increase to mirror annual adjustments to North Carina teacher salaries I'll second that okay so that is an amendment any discussion Mr Perry um I'm for that amendment I I just wanted to uh ask a question about the overall um I guess I came on after the M Bradford made her motion uh Amendment motion so I am definitely for what you're talking about and I just wanted to know from a point of clarity as far as uh approving this General budget tonight that doesn't forego us having further discussion this about our cameras and all that other stuff down the line does it uh Dr bch about

167what cameras we should be wear that's part of the capital outlay I believe uh in your capital budget there are that we have created a five-year U refresh for our cameras that is still currently in our in our capital budget request so I guess my question is by approving Ming this tonight we are automatically going along without we can still have discussions about that later we already discussed it this is to so according to assembly the recommendation is to approve the superintendent's budget recommendation and County request if approved the budget resolution will be provided to the board for approval at the May regular meeting so if we we send this forward and this is just making sure that I'm correct we send this forward the resolution gets sent to our commissioners and then there's a

168bit of conversation that happens and they may send us back a different number and then we have to discuss based off of what they are so tonight we just this is sending this particular proposal forward to the Commissioners okay correct thank you correct correct and if we receive a number back from the commissioners Miss Sutton and I will take our budget rework the capital and resubmit something for your approval okay thank you all right um and the attorneys had something to add just one thing I was going to say um changes in the board stien have to be in your in your budget ordinance um so you've got money left over this year you're just going to have to amend your somebody asked me Ashley asked me to look at this m Sutton asked me

169to look at this um earlier today the steps that you go through to change the board stien um essentially it has to be in the you have to have an amendment to your your budget resolution um which I guess you just did a minute ago and I was just going to remind you the the step up that you were just talking about if that comes up again to remember to modify your budget ordinance again oh when we say automatic I I I wanted you to understand you still need to jump through that hoop of of modifying the so it would need to be in our budget every year then if we chose to do it yeah if if you if you get through you know half the way through the year sometimes the general assembly

170doesn't have it they never have it by July 1st so if it happens you know what I mean in um November whatever then you just need to change your your budget resolution to reflect got it what the new amount is going to be that was it Dr yeah I just want to sort of say for the for the public who might be saying gosh it seems selfish that the board would be looking at a a raise for themselves when our schools are hurting as much as they are the the vast majority of the quote unquote uh increase is really just moving around from one account to the other uh you know $2,500 is typically given towards Transportation every year uh I live in Carolina Beach I would use more than that but uh now it's

171going to be put in into our salary which means uh I'm going to have to pay tax on it so it's not like we're getting a huge bump and in the end I think we're going to get a bump of about $500 a year so I just I want the public to know that yes it's moving money within the Board of Education our actual account moving it to the stipend and Miss Bradford and then just just a word correction it is not a salary we are not salary it's a stien and it's very very low and um we've just added a couple of pennies to us there hasn't been a raise in it in 18 years Dr bres just to clarify again uh of the of the board's typen increase 22,000 of it about 75%

172or more is a zero sum game it doesn't touch kids it doesn't touch schools it doesn't it doesn't didn't force us to remove anything from schools okay so there is an amendment on the table Miss Bradford I'm so sorry can you repeat the amendment one more time can I get clarification just before um the amendment or I'm sorry the motion that you made um or you're getting ready to make and you talk about the same raise as staff or um would it be the classifi sometimes classified certified staff the the raise is different so would it just be an average or would it teachers I just want for clarification I believe she said teachers oh I'm sorry I I did say North Carolina teachers okay sorry that uh Dr Barnes sorry for clarification if that's

173something we have to put into our budget request every year is that something then they should just vote on every year you're GNA need to change you when you change your budget resolution every time you're going to need to change it anyway so I mean it it my recommendation would be just like we did during this budget process it would be part of the incre the recommendation just like we say we're we're estimating or we're forecasting a 3% increase for teachers and then we would say and then we're requesting a 3% increase I think it would be part of the budget documentation every year just like it was this year that's the belt and suspenders approach and and it has the benefit of being simple because you've dealt with it at the beginning of the

174year right so you you will already have a balanced budget you'll have a way to do that it's already built in Okay so for clarification are you saying we don't need this or we do need this amendment I believe we do need this amendment just for that clarification of what the expectation would be for this year and the and this so this wouldn't go into effect for July 1 is that correct it would go into effect for the next year we're just building in into our procedures okay okay point of order Madam chair can we extend time for 10 minutes is that a motion I'll make a motion to extend time for 10 minutes second for 10 okay I mean I don't know if we need 10 okay um any discussion hearing none all those

175in favor signify by saying I I any opposed no passes six to one thank you Mr wbore for adding that little dissenting all right so miss Bradford could you restate your Amendment okay so the vote we just had was to extend time and it passed okay just just check in um it's getting a little late yes um to approve where'd she go she's approve the budget to move forward we've already done that point of no we haven't hav't done it yet that's just it or finish going forward board compensation to automatically increase to mirror annual adjustments in North Carina teacher salaries all right this is we're voting on that Amendment Miss buy will you call the role Mr Perry hi Miss Justice yes Miss Bradford yes Dr Merck yes Mr wildor I miss barnhard no

176and Miss Mason yes that passes 6 to one going back to the original motion so discussion the amended motion Miss barnhard I'm I'm sorry go ahead I thought this was the discussion discussion on the amended motion which is the amended budget that we just correct I want to start by saying I really appreciate the staff and the transparency in this whole process I think it's been the smoothest transitions that we could have had um but I cannot in good faith adopt this budget tonight I looked every single one of our County Commissioners in their eyes when we were having budget discussions saying that I we would be pursuing every Avenue of funding for our public schools and a week ago we turned down $3.2 million and in this budget is over $1 million that that

177Grant would have covered and in addition we just asked for a rise I think it's hypocritical and I appreciate all of the hard work that went into this but I'm sorry colleagues I cannot approve this budget tonight miss Bradford and Madam chair well I agree totally that we have overlooked we threw out the baby with the bath water we overlooked that there are things in this budget that that pilot Grant of $3.2 million would have covered would and we are now going to go to the County Commission and ask them for that money to replace things that would have been covered under that pilot and I think it's heinous but I am still going to vote to pass the B budget um whether the County Commission let us have what we've asked for based on

178what happened last week and again tonight um we're just going to have to wait and see how much grace we have with them um but I am going to we've worked so hard to have this amazingly transparent budget that's balanced and there's been no contention on it whatsoever which in itself is just amazing and so I will vote for it but maybe I'll hold my nose while I do it I don't know Mr wi deore and I'm just going to quickly Echo uh a thanks to and her staff Dr Barnes and his staff for all their hard work and putting this together the finance committee for all their hard work and helping that uh I think that um you know hopefully the County Commissioners will uh help us out as much as they can um

179we do need uh to do everything we can for our students and that's what I'll be voting for Dr Merck I want to uh Echo what my colleague here has said uh I watched the budget process last year and two things I noticed that uh there seemed to be very poor communication between the superintendent and the board mostly when I looked at the board they were looking at their papers going what am I looking at what Miss Sutton and Dr Barnes had been able to bring to us was clear it was concise and look how much faster we got it done um I really I can't thank you enough I mean that's seriously good governance thank you Miss Justice I Echo everyone else here um you guys have done a fantastic job I've been doing

180this to since 2018 I've actually worked in other districts and watched the sausage being made uh I was off the board for a couple years but I was still watching very closely and this has been the smoothest budget process I have ever witnessed and most of it is because of transparency because of professionalism um as far as speaking to the County Commissioners we should be as a unit together on this we shouldn't bring up facts that aren't in evident uh to assume that we are walked away from a million dollars we don't know that because it is an assumption we haven't had any figures given to us all the stuff has been thrown at us the last week or so we need to move on from this and focus on getting the budget passed and

181as far as compensation it probably works out it's sort of like teaching the amount of work we put into this maybe we get a quarter an hour some days it's really sad that some people don't understand that this should not be a position for privilege and people that would spend that amount of time in their personal life in order to do that work for so little compensation have to be some kind of privileged person in society one as far as their income level goes either you might have be retired have a spouse that can support you you know still work and kill yourself cuz you're young enough to be able to do that but being on the board is hard work this is not a lot of money we're asking for so to say that

182we for anybody to refuse that isn't being honest with what's going on here we need to encourage people to run and be part of uh our government agencies that's one of the reasons I do believe that County Commissioners actually gave themselves an 83% raise a couple years ago because it causes people to be a because they have just as much work I don't think they have any more than we have we have a lot of work uh and we don't get compensated near as well so you know I want to encourage people to run for office and I also want to encourage people that are in positions to assist them to do that to be fair to everybody equally Mr Perry I just want to thank uh Dr Barn all staff everybody for doing this

183budget great job uh I wish I could have gone to a few more of those budget workshops but I I know I wasn't there because I one of those people who actually ask us no work and the little little bit of compensation that we are we get now uh compared to how many hours you put into this I mean we are making way less than minimum wage so uh we're not asking for much so I I I fully support uh uh the budget as is and uh let's do it all right so there is an amended motion to approve the budget with those changes this that Miss Bradford had noted um Miss buy will you call the role Miss Bradford yes Dr Merrick yes Mr SCH board yes Mr Perry yes Miss Justice yes Miss

184barnhard no and Miss Mason yes that passes 6 to one moving on um board uh ethics training for board members this was brought to um our attention by Miss barart I know that um some of us were able to attend ethics training a couple months ago um but there are some that have not yet had it according to policy we do need to make sure that everyone has that um and so I believe this was a request to ask the attorneys and to for us to approve the attorneys um doing that ethics training Miss Bradford did you have something I moved to approve that we have our board attorneys give us ethic training and ethics training okay second all right and we will have to sit down and talk about the logistics of all that

185um all right any further discussion hearing none oh be the so the individuals that still remain are Miss Bradford Miss Barnhart and Miss justice so yes M ber the only point of clarity I know um it says in policy the people coming on have a 12-hour training and then we have an annual two so I don't know if it how much delineation there needs to be but her policy it was just we have to approve the vendors who we accept training spy so this was just a suggestion to say can we do this and I wanted to bring it before the board uh Miss Justice 12 hours uh I can remember going through the initial training in 2018 it certainly wasn't 12 hours um but on the other hand since I already have had the

186initial training maybe that would qualify me for the two hours I don't I don't I don't know if that I'm just look into that but I don't think 12 hours is well ncsba when we went to the training was two full days really yes they've changed it thank you so all right there is how would that work if two of us need two hours and one of us needs 12 hours how would that work that is logistical so I I think we can meet your needs for two hours or 12 hours that we put on lots of cles along the way it's not a big deal that's every two years by the way the 12 hours oh okay according to the School Board Association it's every correct 12 hours in a twoyear period with ethics

187training so total of 12 over two years but right two hours of Ethics training two hours of Ethics training all right so there is a motion to uh have our attorneys do the ethics training for our remaining three board members all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed that passes 7 to zero letter to ncdpi miss Barnhart thank you madam chair this was brought before the legislative committee and we had um given feedback I had um thank you to my colleague to the right to help write this letter after the legislative committee we um I had reached out again to my colleague specifically in paragraph two after concurring with him um he agreed with the the written text and so what this letter is is is to address superintendent Mo green and

188a few of us had the opportunity to speak with him last night and what this was one of the topics of discussion that came up with our networking event um specifically in regards to the power school breach and as we transition over to Infinite Campus different protections that we as the state at DPI can take and steps that we can ensure data privacy as we move forward so my recommendation after conferring with colleagues would be to adopt this letter of support and then further send it to the office of superintendent M green second um and if I might we will be changing the date on that correct absolutely because to we will adopt the letter to reflect the date as today April wait a second can we wait tell April second April second that's going

189sound really okay uh it's getting late y'all Dr Merrick I would seed to Mr Perry who had his hand up before me okay Mr Perry I just want I just wanted to say I a pleasure working with Miss barard on this uh she shares Our concern about keeping our students data private uh in the future what happened with power school must never happen again so uh we have to work uh as hard as we can with state official and with within our own it Department to make sure that happens so thank you okay and Dr mer yeah the the the problem I have with the letter is that um and I understand the intent and I and I feel for the intent about keeping our students private information on a local network um it sounds

190uh like a good idea because you know we got burned by power schools my concern is that you know and we've heard it through a couple of different uh uh Consultants saying that putting it in the cloud those companies have much much more robust defenses than we would ever be able to have locally that's probably and I you know I I agree with my colleague who has said well there's more people that want to hack into that uh Cloud but it only takes one and if our local networks are not strong enough I hate to think and then it would all be us and we would carry the liability we could not we could not give that liability over to uh Infinite Campus we would have to accept it ourselves and I think that's another

191huge issue so I can't support it as is Miss Justice all right and then there's state law too as far as sharing information with federal laws and state law and federal law always supersedes whatever we come up with so at this point it's a nice letter but we can't do we really have any teeth behind it in reality uh when the state well I just described so I think I might object also not personal I think was a good plan but in all honesty right now we don't even know what our information is being done with by the federal government and the state you know uh yeah education department so we're living in very scary times and if I might add I I understand what my colleague is saying to to the further right of

192me um but I also appreciate what my colleague next to me is saying in that using our voice um we can possibly lead the state of North Carolina to push for ncdpi to have more accountability and to Pro protect our students and to protect protect their data um and so I I support the letter for sure Mr war and I'm just going to um we have about 20 minutes left in our time and so I'm going to call the question second it is 8:19 we have a Clos session yeah okay all right so there is uh motion to well we just had a call the question so we have to vote on that first um that is ending discussion we're voting on ending discussion about the ncdpi letter all those in favor signify by saying

193I I any oos osed that passes 7 to Z now there is a motion to approve the ncdpi letter with the date change um Miss booy will you call the role Miss Bradford yes Dr Merrick no Mr wbore yes Mr Perry yes Miss Justice I'm going to say yes but remember the state and the federal government always Miss barnhard yes and Miss Mason yes that passes 6 to one moving forward uh we have the new han County Schools employee performance bonus plan ad hoc committee um Mr Perry I believe has talked about this we've talked about this a lot so um Mr Perry I'll just summarize for the audience this would be a a performance bonus that's over and above Beyond uh our our our our employees salary and wages this is not meant to

194replace um we've discussed this in length this would be a committee on how to do that fairly to come up with a comprehensive plan we are certainly this would be an advisory committee uh reporting to the full board and obviously once we come up with a full plan then we can move uh you know for the board approving it and then hopefully seeking the funding that we need in order to give this advantage to our great employees here at new Hana County schools and I just want to say if we are passed today I would like to have to to make sure that uh Mr wildor knows that that I'm I'm I am for having a initial introductory meeting where the people that are on the uh list the current specified people would then get

195or nominate other people to join us for our first real work session together so all right um is there a motion I like the motion that that we approve the art committee right is there a second second okay discussion we have five minutes total for this is there discussion Miss Bradford and then miss Justice I really want to increase teacher pay um I will vote no because I don't think that at this time we need another committee I think we need to focus on the tasks at hand um and this will just be a distraction at this point I'm not saying I would not vote for it next year or in six months but I can't I cannot in good conscience vote for this at this time we have uh a robust meeting schedule now

196and we have board members who don't make the meetings and I just cannot support it okay Miss Justice agree with Miss Bradford um our teachers aren't even get enough our teacher assistant nobody none of our educators are getting enough in this District um and also you're right about the full schedule about the Committees but beyond that Educators don't work in competition they work collaboratively that's the way the that's that's where you get your best outcomes that's a fact they've done tons of studies on this Merit pay is not effective uh you can show me give I I would like to see some real studies that show that it is because it has proven not to be so I well I think the intent is in fact I know the intent is really good this isn't

197the business world this is education and we need to be lifting everybody up not competing in fact that they're going to do it anyway and I would like to see this you know if you want to discuss it further down the line I don't know if I'll ever agree with it because I do believe education is such a collaborative process but this year definitely is not good between the fact we don't have enough money as it is uh it's it's just and the committee meeting is just getting out of hand I'd like to have a committee or two we can that's my take okay all right Miss Buie I had oh I'm so sorry going to come back over here right sorry Dr Mar I I take all the uh all the comments uh to

198heart I do I admit that it's going to be a hard job I also think that anything we can do to support teachers more than we are doing right now should be taken up and maybe the committee will see it's not just for one teacher maybe it's for a whole department and spread some money around if any of us do not want to sit on that committee I think it's fine to bow out but I think there are people here who are willing to sit on that committee and you know it the money does not have to come from the endowment or from the county you know there could be corporate sponsors for this there's ways that it could be done I'm not saying it's going to be easy the metric for deciding is going

199to be really a tough one but I'll support you Mr Perry thank you uh Mr ort and I appreciate Mr Perry saying that you know my biggest thing is we need to if we're going to do something like this we need to have the people that are in the classrooms in the schools to be part of that team and and I think he said I completely agree okay we need employee by hand or this isn't going to work all right okay Miss buoy we have call the RO Miss Bradford no Dr Merrick yes Mr wior yes Mr Perry yes Miss Justice no Miss Barnhart yes and Miss Mason yes that passes 5-2 all right um we have no new business uh so I will I will entertain a motion to go into close session pursuant

200to General statute 14331 18. 11 C for the following purposes to prevent the disclosure of information that is privileged or confidential pursuant to General statute 115 c-42 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 between the attorney and the board and to consider the qualifications competence performance character Fitness conditions of appointment or conditions of initial employment of an individual employed or considered for employment within the school system or to hear or investigate a complaint charge or grievance by or against any individual employee so moved in favor signify by saying I I any opposed we are in closed droll e e

201e in open I move that we accept the personel report second all right there's a motion to approve the Personnel report oh oh oh oh all those in favor sign oh any discussion no hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I any opposed that passes 70 I will entertain a motion to adjourn second oh wait crap I got to do announcements I'm so sorry let me read them quickly um policy committee will meet Wednesday April 9th 2025 at 10: a.m. uh at the board of ed Center general public will have the option to REM viw remotely on YouTube Board of Education will hold a agenda review meeting on Tuesday April 29th at 2m at the Board of Education Center general public will have the option to view remotely on YouTube uh Board of

202Education will hold the May regular board meeting on Tuesday May 6th at 5:00 p.m. board of education center general public will have the option to view remotely on new Handover County Schools tv YouTube I will entertain a motion to adjourn second any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed we are adjourned sir for