NHCS Board of Ed. Agenda Review Meeting | March 25, 2025

001e e e welcome e calling the uh agenda review meeting to order uh Miss buy will you call the role good afternoon Melissa Mason here Jayy Barnhart here Pat Bradford I am here Jud Justice here Dr Tim Merrick here David Perry here and Pete wbore pres gracious uh I will entertain a motion to approve the agenda so move oh you know what hold up I'm looking at the wrong thing sorry we're going to do the uh invocation first oh um the invocation is going to be by Reverend Jermaine armor um who will provide it [Music] remotely my name is Germaine armor and I am the pastor of the St Luke church here in the great city of wimington let us pray heavenly father in some circles you are known as teacher so we ask that

002you would bless every teacher in our school system and every employee in every school Christ came to us not as an adult but as a child so Lord bless every child enrolled in our school system and those who will soon be school aged children and Lord bless our school board members with wisdom insight and love as they lead us in the development of our most precious gifts our children this we ask in the name of Christ amen to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right now I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda s second Miss jce uh yes I would like to remove it from agenda you want to remove an item

003from the to another area Okay um I have to look down through this thing again okay um uh under information C guidance on policy uh shouldn't that be in policy instead of here on a regular meeting so this is related to policy that were discussed in policy committee and just to kind of get guidance for the whole board to be able to hear um for those of us who weren't at the policy meeting won't they be doing that when we approve or have the first reading these are specific policies that didn't make it all the way through okay um uh Dr mer just a little history um in December I put forth uh some items for the agenda review and I was told by members of the committee that even though I had submitted them

004in time to the agenda review I had not sent them out to the rest of the board and so I uh didn't know that that was a thing so I removed them and said we do that in in January and then in January I was told well those are about policy so they don't come up in ag agenda review you got to send them to policy first and now I'm looking at something here that says we're going to talk about policy at the gender review and I didn't receive it ahead of time and why isn't this being sent to policy so again this was in policy um there was discussion there and uh it was requested to be discussed and get guidance from the attorneys that is what Miss justice during the meeting itself getting

005plan guidance to the attorneys I guess this is more elaboration if is that correct is what they are trying that's my understanding Mr Perry am I correct in assuming that what we're discussing and in part 6 C is some of the questions we had regarding the ones we didn't agree on completely were consider remember I was adding biological to the the preface sex and things like that is that the these are the topics we are discussing yes okay yeah um Miss Barnhart thank you madam chair just for clarity it's under information so it's not a voting item it's just bring it to the attention of the board correct thank you ma'am okay okay can I say yes Mr Justice um clarification I guess just for me I I wish I had realized that's what those

006three were referring to so we went over how many policies I know 28 thank you thank you it was it 28 28 it was a lot it was 28 case anybody didn't knowto okay so do you resend your I resend it okay now it makes sense cuz we did want clarification so the motion on the table is to approve the agenda all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed passes 7 to zero all right let's start looking at April's agenda and Miss Barnhart can you keep the time for me all right we have uh the call to order the roll call approval of the agenda the invocation presentation of colors national anthem pledge of believe sorry I'm kind of flying through those but those are generally pretty um approval of the minutes

007recognitions 15 minutes 10 minutes we need to signify or who who do you have doing the nation oh I mean the was that what you were looking for theed okay would you like to do the pledge Mr I I think should do there you go you can't Vol to your anybody else I think Mr I was going to say you can do the pledge I'm happy there you go okay Dr will do with that then I I I I I I volunteer Mr wi for for singing okay only if you want everybody to run to the exits you know all right so continuing on uh recognitions 10 minutes should be enough I guess um student voice 10 minutes uh teacher voice 10 minutes superintendent report five is five okay um I'm going to need 4

008five I'm just kidding um call to audience UH 60 consensus items oh there's nothing under information consensus items um 2024 2025 Financial audit contract does anybody have any questions about that okay Laney High School serving line questions okay contracts you did you have something Miss no I'm trying to pull it up on my on here I kind of flying I'm sorry yeah it's okay um contracts extending into fiscal year 2026 okay contract with North Carolina sound for intercom systems uh Dr Dr Mr Perry thank uh the uh I just was have we had this contract addressed at previous meetings in the last couple of over the last two or three months is the school like is it is it are you referring to the contract that's sing into next year the North Carolina sound for

009intercom systems I think that we look this December and together yes you did approve one in December for for Murray middle school and you approved some last month for some additional schools that were being funded out of Lottery and then this is being funded out of school safety Grant these are these are two different two more schools um any other questions on that all right policy um Mr wbore you mentioned policy consensus you thought would take a little bit longer what kind of time frame do you think remember my statto um yeah I I would say at least 20 minutes 20 minutes okay Madam chair uh Miss barnhard for reporting Clarity if there's if we're seeing an increase time is there discussion to be had today about some of these policies past practice we haven't

010generally correct I mean I don't recall us doing that in the past as much I mean we we've done it with the new board but in with the previous group I don't I I guess it's the point of clarity as the consensus item for five minutes and we just went through and any asked questions on any of those because it's consensus so it's supposed to be a quick passing so we can if we're upping the time of policy I didn't know if there was questions to be answer here's what we can do um looking through the policies does anybody have any concerns questions Dr Merck I have questions and concerns about several but because look I know this is a public meeting right and and people could be here if they wanted to but the

011fact of the matter is we've seen from the the views on YouTube that a huge number of people watch our our our full board meetings but only a fraction of people actually watch this meeting and because policy is so important uh and the public should be kept up on what and why I really think that we should have any discussions about these policies at the full board meeting just my opinion um anyone else with thoughts I mean I can go one at a time through them Miss Justice yeah this is a change practice uh for me because I don't remember having discussed policies before the agenda year so since we weren't for a warrant if you want to say that although I've gone through these policies were there you were there um it would be

012a lot I guess more U Equitable to what we're doing considering the past practices if we went ahead and waited until we had a regular meeting and then if you want to change in the future and discuss policies during the agenda review that would be absolutely fine but change the Midstream especially with everything going on with some of these policies just seems proper that we we just go ahead and wait until the regular meeting like we have in the past so what what uh Miss Bradford um actually for the last four years since well it's not four years whenever we redid and added the agenda briefing the idea was that we would discuss anything on the main board meeting agenda in advance so a we could have plenty of time before we voted and B

013so we could get out questions that we needed answers to that the staff maybe could answer and we've been operating that way and I don't know when we added the agenda briefing but somebody could probably tell me but we've been doing it that way since then if you've been following our meetings before you got elected so it's not a change from uh what we've been doing um it's not something new um and I would like to know what the issues are so that we can talk about them now so that if we're going to vote on it as a consensus I can walk into the meeting knowing exactly where I stand on the cons ensus CU that can move very quickly and again we want to get out of here in our 4 hours and

014not have to postpone stuff off the agenda from the regular board meeting because we didn't have time because people wanted to discuss things at length during the meeting because we didn't do it here so I would move that we discuss them now um and the other the other thing that we have done in the past is indicating which ones would be more that we would be more likely to pull out so for me for example um looking at 3540 um that's one that I would probably want to pull out and discuss um a little bit longer and that might shorten the discussion with all the policies unless there's an inordinate amount of them um were there any that others had that they wanted to pull out Dr mer I have several what I'm going to

015say now for what it's worth is that because I I think the public needs to hear and to understand our thinking whatever conversations we do today I'm going to do the same ones next week so the public can hear them so if we want to do it twice we can do it twice I don't mind but I'm going to do it again next Tuesday so what I'm asking is if there are any that you are going to want to pull out for further discussion for next week I've brought forth 3540 are there any that anybody would like to pull out specifically Dr Merck 31 3200 4310 5240 7130 and 62 yeah can you slow down and say those again we're trying to write them down it would be helpful if you could go ahead and

016give us the title of that policy when you're doing it yeah that would help too well I can it'll take me longer that's okay go 3100 let's go back to our policies you want to tell you what Pete you want to look them on policy I got right here in okay that would be helpful so 3100 3200 is selection of instructional materials okay okay give me one second to get back to my list 31 is curriculum development yeah 4310 and these are all that were discussed in the policy meeting yes these are all the ones that were inability yep 5240 advertising in schools okay 7130 7130 is lure with suggestion edit suggested edits and 6220 I didn't hear Last 6220 6220 operation of school nutrition all right are there any others that people had that

017they wanted to pull out for further discussion next week and just to be um clear we didn't do the first one comprehens of health and safety education is yes are there any others that people had concerns with that they wanted to pull out for further discussion just so that we have a heads up and people can prepare a little further um Miss Bradford Madam chair if we're going to have a full-blown discussion on seven policies giving them three minutes each we've now sucked up a lot of our 4 hours so I would be um you know interested in talking about them today that's the point of this meeting I mean mine mine is relatively brief my concern is relatively brief um when looking at the um the comprehensive health and safety education program I was

018looking through and I know that in other areas in of policy we have that it's an opt in um to make sure that that parents are saying you can do this um but this one is an opt out um and I'm trying to remember if that was always the case um Julie could you remind me 3540 3540 or maybe it's maybe it's Dr Hamilton oh you don't have a microphone Dr Hamilton doesn't have a mic thank you the staff had made move forward with a recommendation for it to be opt out um however I think during policy committee Mr volore the policy committee wanted to move um in the direction of keeping it as opt in so that was just the staff recommendation at that time which of course is still in policy committee so

019um that's why that has not moved forward yet so I'm looking at it and it says um um with parents or Guardians may choose to withhold their consent for the child's participation in any part of the entire sex education portion of the health curriculum to do so parents or Guardians shall complete and submit the bottom portion of the letter indicating they want their child excused from participating um I consider that an opt out does anybody else U Mr P yes I mean at our last board meeting we decided that it was going to be off in so uh now could the whole program would be opt in if you want to be part of this could you opt out of particular segments uh yes but I think that that language needs to be more clear

020to say that yes you can you have to opt in to get in but then once you opt in you can opt out of certain lessons that you don't want your child to be in I think that's what we decided at our last but right now it says parents or guardians of high school students shall receive a letter from their child School stating that the child will automatically be assigned to the sex education portion of the curriculum Dr Barnes you wanted to say something I know that that statement had been made I don't remember if that was voted on specifically I just want to remind the board and caution them that that's a lot of effort for our staff to individualize lessons on a on a daily basis I know that was something we had

021mentioned and talked about I don't remember if it was actually voted in in this in the approval of it okay oh I look up in there it was my understanding that this was still in policy and still under revision is that correct Mr well it's here it's here to it got passed right and um General statute 115 c8130 does um state in section B that each local Board of Education shall adopt a policy and provide a mechanism to allow a parent or legal Garden to withdraw his or her child from instruction required under the subsections 10-13 a of the section which is where we got that language about opting out and withdrawing gotta u m Bradford um I like Mr Perry I I remember that we passed this saying we were going to remain opt

022in in a full board setting so why are we now putting it back into policy to decide if we want to do it again so I think that um Mr wior could probably speak better to that got my right here you made other changes to this in policy not this right we may see Chang made there then again and then the right this was the way it was we did not change okay uh Mr per I would I oh I'm so sorry Dr was first sorry and mine's quick I think we voted that it would be opt in and I think the state statutes and parental rights means we have to let parents opt out I I know it's going to be really inconvenient but I think that's that's in the statutes is it not

023Mr Perry I'd like to make a motion that we send this back to policy we did take a vote on this or we can we can discuss it again at at at a at a board but we made if it was against the law for us to opt in then somebody should have mentioned it at our last board meeting okay so and nobody did so we've been operating that way and I'm not trying to blame anybody I'm just saying it got overlooked so at this point if there I i' say we send this one back I would like to make a motion that we send this one back to policy to review the specific part uh and get the advice from the lawyers and then proceed from there and then we can recommend that the

024board change its mind about the op in if if if we are so persuaded second okay uh M Bradford what attorney sitting right beside Mr Perry why don't we ask him now save us all those steps I thought that was coming Mr bford it was Mr Blanchard was at that last meeting so I'm sort of Flying Blind as we go and discuss these all right Miss Mason it's not against the law to have people opt in we can't have more restrictive guidelines than what general statute we can't be one end got thank you okay um so there is a motion to send 3540 back to policy uh any further discussion discuss Miss Justice just suggested that it's possible for us doing extra work to change something that the law says we have to be doing

025I would like to discuss this in policy a little more thoroughly uh after we can we get back together and being that we policy we do get to look at these things a little closer just because for various reasons it is a state curriculum requirement all right so there's a motion to send 3540 back to policy um all those in favor signify by saying I any oppos no that passes 6 to one um so I'm looking at our agenda and I just want to make sure that we have time to cover all the things that we need to cover um how much time Dr Merck would you need to ask your questions or today if you were to do that I'm I'm just being really honest I think the public needs to hear the objections

026however much time we spend today we're going to spend it again on Tuesday so I I frankly think it's a waste of our time to do it now it's up to you guys we can do it but I think the public needs to um if she's going to do it again next week I me to be honest just kind of wasting our time today especially if we're up against time anyway all right so let's continue on um so Madam chair Miss bford of those six I would like us to go ahead and um either budget the time or take something off the agenda so that we don't run out of time in the meeting and something that is important doesn't get discussed because we didn't do it today Mr W can I make a suggestion

027we just add let's go and add 10 more minutes said to you 30 minutes okay we had 10 more minutes for next week see where we are time wise and that sounds good thank you um old business NCD acquisition of right of way at Johnson pre Center Madam chair yes ma'am since it says last meeting can we have Mr Anderson tell us what this is about even though I already know do we um and and how much time do we need that's the other thing me right now or yes please now how much time do we need for next week first I think if we can address the questions now it would you need just a few minutes to vote so like five perfect awesome go ahead Mr Anderson so um this is part of

028the beline Railway Improvement project where um the in the ncdot railway division in um city of Wilmington plans to bring passenger rail back to the city um part of the abandoned Railway um system lies on the property of uh Johnson prek and uh this is a request from do to purchase 13.4 uh Acres of rideway for that for that Railway um the offer includes uh the purchase of the RightWay uh and also um $ we actually went out and um got prices for that quotes for that went back to do asked them uh for an increase of $99,100 uh which they agreed to so the total offer today is 1,767 of5 um the offer is attached as well as the amendment and then there's a site map of Johnson indicating exactly where the RightWay is

029uh it follows kind of the Northeast Northwestern uh property boundaries all right does anybody sorry does anybody have any questions this Barnhart I don't have a question but I did ask last time if there's a way to get more money so I appreciate you getting us more money Mr Anderson thank you um I had Dr mer first before so let's go Mr Perry first um just want to clarify I think it's great uh rail would be great to have here in Wilmington again um can you are there any safety concerns regarding uh the school or the presence of a passenger Rail and everything that that brings with it as far as increased people there Etc that's going to have any effect on the prek center and what's going on there and uh just want to

030make sure everything's nice to safe there will be um you know fencing to provide a barrier from the rail to the uh playground and we'll relocate the playgrounds uh so that they're not in close proximity to that um the only uh there there's obviously you'll be able to see trains that might be really exciting for prek kids but um adults and adults um but there there would be you know that Visual and and um you know the noise from the train it's understanding that this particular line is uh limited to passenger it's not a freight train so um the the noise would be minimized as well thank Dr mer and I I think it's obvious but just to be clear you're the the map that you're looking at it's just you know whatever 20 ft

031or 50 ft or whatever on each side of the track that's all that you're talking about all those 14 acres are all just right there at the track correct and that we just need to remember too that that extra money that you quote unquote got is encumbered we can't that that's got to be spent to do all that business so it's not like we really got more money well um not knowing what the timeline is for this and to be honest um I mean I think it's years down the road so the entire um the the the entire price of the purchase would uh be budgeted in finance and at such time that uh it's it's more appropriate we would request funding for that got it Mr wart and you had mentioned the noise but

032you know I do know that trains even passenger trains are quite noisy at times um you know is there any thought to give in some kind of a and a lot of times they have the you know the buffer walls that are up to protect from that noise so I have um actually made repeated requests to Inc doot and they have not responded U we're going through their acquisition agent um he's been very good about emailing me and keeping me informed um but at this point um after several attempts to get them to respond to that request they have not done so thank you sir any else all right uh superintendent 2025 2026 recommended budget we're going to be talking about that more today I can't imagine that that's going to be a long conversation

033after all the conversations we've had right so how long do you want I mean a minute and a half no Ashley what would you think 10 minutes to kind of give the overview or we just saying here it is folks so I thought what we can do whatever the maybe five minutes I'm just GNA I'm going to go over everything today and then just request approval at the actual board meeting unless you want me to go into more detail at the board meeting okay i' like to make a recommendation you at least allow 10 minutes we may have a question between now and then we W bring up and most of these documents have already been out there and been publicized so as well as the superintendent budget priorties that sort of thing y okay

034so 10 minutes um ethics trainings I think that's supposed to say for board members not by board members um but it's by the attorneys um so that discussion that discussion um how long do we think that will take that was U Miss Barnhart you had asked for for that yeah I don't think very long at all I just had asked if um I know per policy the who we get our trainings from has to be approved by the board and so that was a discussion if the attorneys had the ability to do the every two year so yeah I can speak on that um that won't take us long to discuss we can do whatever you want as far as training okay it looks pretty uh wide open as long as you approve okay 5

035minutes all right letter to ncdpi 10 minutes enough yeah do we have copies of that it's uploaded it should be yeah it's on the it's attached um oral history how much time do we think we need for that this was a this was a discussion that we kind of started a probably 6 or eight months ago of of potentially having a database of living history and we have such a rich community so I would I would be fine with a 10 or 15 minute discussion of just hearing about the opportunities that we can potentially support our staff and amplify the curriculum that we're utilizing so okay let's go let's go 15 for that um Miss Justice had her hand so and then you um wow so this is basically local history mhm a section on

036that which I think is an excellent idea having taught history and had to bring it in myself when I was teaching it because you couldn't exactly find it in cck um so this is what you are saying that we are going to be discussing correct I'm just trying to clarify this yep um Mr Perry well I was going to add it um at our um at our work session um not too long ago we did vote to add the ad hoc committee for bonus pay um that Mr Perry had um had drafted so that had not been added so I'm going to make a motion to add that under old business you have it left or history oh I'm sorry wanted to um I wanted to comment that that was stemmed out of our presentation

037last year on the Freeman family and the history of seab breze and we were supposed to have a presentation to the full board on that uh from Dr Hamilton and last month and it got pumped out for time we've not brought that back I thought that's what this was I thought it was coming back to us um again I you know while these people are still living we need to do oral history with them um but we we have kind of sidelined that Freeman family and the seab breeze that we had some presentation to but we didn't we didn't get what Dr Hamilton has for our school district and that was a date of it was a long range date when we passed it but that's next school term that's supposed to be implemented so

038when does that come back anybody if you have any questions or answers Dr Hamilton whenever you tell us to have it on the agenda we'll have whenever whenever they whenever we ask her to put it she'll she'll do it um put it on the agenda um Miss Justice okay you're talking about a standalone presentation about seab GRE now that we didn't have time to have before but we're going to have so we had one previously this is we voted to add it to our CL Freeman family and SE two two related but not completely separate I mean they're separate topics the history of the Freeman family is fascina um I know I'm I'm very I'm very aare so we voted as a board to adopt it into our curriculum now we were getting a presentation

039on when and how and why and I mean not why but the whole of actually it's time to adopt it into the curriculum okay Miss Justice wow you are so many historically rich experiences in this region you know this I taught history for many years here and cabb that supr Community one a part of it I mean all of down the coast um I'd like to see this expanded on just literally having a part of the curriculum devoted to these different have maybe somebody do research and and have a local curriculum in introduced at some level here in the in the social studies curriculum not just one incident but the many rich ones we got some really amazing we really did and I believe that's what we had voted to do with the previous board

040um and then just kind of the progress M Barnhart and then Dr I'm going to Echo my colleague Senate that that was the purpose of this conversation because we had discussed it months ago to have it embedded and really just have a resource um in in conversations I know Mr wer we we've gone to the Holocaust um showing that we had but he's brought in people um to come and be presenters in our schools to support just the dialogue and I said that would be a great what a great way to be able to you know come here and film it and so that it's accessible to every single one of our Educators U and I I just put these topics but absolutely it can be expanded to different topics of what does a database

041look like to really um have some rich in-depth history that all of our all of our schools can access and so that was the point of this conversation it was wasn't trying to take a new turn it was just saying how can we do that in a way that we're supporting as a board and in a way to highlight just the rich history that we do have so these are just some examples but Dr mer yeah I was just a little a little confused that we are bringing in SE and and Freeman family as part of okay good I thought I heard you say was separate all right um and now I'll make the the motion to add the ad hoc committee for bonus pay um under old business all right um all those in

042favor signify by saying I I any opposed passes 7 to zero we'll say because we've had a lot of discussion about it unless people have more questions um I'm going to say five minutes does that seem reasonable to everybody okay five minutes um we don't have anything under new business um we have the Clos session time or the closed session reserved um and we will need a closed session and that personality Point afterwards for the first okay do we know how like estimate of like how much time we might want to I can guarantee that I will take five minutes it should be quick it's it's it's just a couple people I could not finish before today okay so just to be safe we'll do 10 10 minutes under close um and then the consensus

043item of the Personnel report uh correspondence announcements and adjournment uh Miss Barnhart 20 minutes 3 hours [Music] minutes Dr M yeah I just I do have uh I'm hoping to have an announcement to uh of a of four scholarships to be awarded to Newan high school students so I would like the opportunity during announcements to to make that no yeah you um um Mr uh since we have uh it seems like we have a little bit of time uh left on the number of minutes that you just mentioned we are at uh um I'm just wondering because I am such a big fan of the history thing and would there be time at next week's meeting to give that presentation that you were talking about that's next week that's a week I don't want to

044put pressure had a present she already had it ready we have a presentation ready we had also reached out to one of the members of the Fe Freeman Family to come and speak as well so I'll need to check in with him and make sure he's available as well but we can move ahead with what we do have and if he isn't available we could reschedule him from another time if you would like what is the will of the board I made a motion here I get a second second okay any discussion Miss barnhard thank you I I love the idea of having a presentation um I don't want to condense it so I know we only have 20 minutes left so to say you know last time I think we might have even went

045over time when we had the historian kind of just be able to talk and see and share pictures and just hear her life it was very um very educational and just really cool to be able to say how could we embed this for all of our students to keep hearing so I what I I would like to see is if if we come together to say if we have have some different things that we want to see and then allow Dr Hamilton time to bring potentially multiple presenters or even create those video clips and things like what we're discussing opportunities wise I I'm not opposed to having them here I just don't want to short their time so and I would agree with that Justice yeah um the is the CRI committee met yet or

046is that okay this would be something and I'm talking now about in general the many historical events that have happened in our Reg uh uh take something to take to the social studies area of curriculum committee to develop it because as I said Freeman Beach is just one there are so many oh my I don't even want to begin because I could be sitting here listening absolutely we're in a very Historical Area literally of our democracy of our state the world actually uh Miss Bradford you had you had a comment um do we have a motion on the floor at the moment Mr Perry made a motion to add in that presentation second and it had a second two seconds I would amend to move it out a month and put it firmly on the

047okay we're doing April next week so the May meeting agenda and a agenda review or the May meeting main meeting okay that put it out a whole month but it the whole point was we did it at an agenda review and we voted on it in an agenda review so we wanted to take it to the board meeting and have the presentation for the public okay is there a second to her Amendment 5 Seconds okay 30 at least 30 minutes yes yes and that would give more time uh any further discussion and this is to move the presentation the oral history I'm assuming the whole discussion yeah not the not necessarily the lady with the slideshow but it' be fun if we could get those uh posters that I know one of them we had

048was wrong but um the post the the poster boards back with the pictures of the families and stuff that would be cool so the for the public the question is are we taking the whole e out and moving it to May is that your Amendment yes ma'am okay all right just that we're all clear that is the um further all those in favor signify by say I I any opposed that passes 7 to Zer so that will be in the May meeting May oh my gosh it's almost may go um all right so that that does change the time for yes Mr Perry that's a good I think her was Amendment M it was um but it was conflicting because you were going to extend it for I'm fine with it I'm not I'm okay

049so because it was conflicting so you're going to retract your original motion yeah yeah so that does change the time a little bit what do we got now beautiful awesome all right um I need my paper sorry all right I will entertain a motion to go into close session pursu it to General statute 143h 31811 C for the following purposes to prevent the disclosure of information is privileged or confidential pursuant to General statute 115 c-402 and not considered a public record within the meaning of chapter 132 of the general statutes to prevent the disclosure of Student Records re 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

050appointment or conditions of initial employment of an individual employed or considered for employment with the school system or to hear or investigate a complaint charge or grievance by or against any individual employee do I hear all right all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed passes 7 to zero we are enclosed the button e e e oh it doese I can't can't do it we are back um let us keep going um I will entertain a motion to approve the Personnel report so moved second all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed that passes 7 to zero uh the Google to Microsoft presentation Miss Brinson take it away Lance here with me a doing a lot of work on the technical side of this transition from from Google to Microsoft

051so um thank you for the opportunity to kind of go over and give an overview of why how we got where we are when is transitioning from from Google to Microsoft for as far as our email we have always been Microsoft it's the email piece that actually made the big switch okay so first I want to kind of go over a website that we have created a web page called operation go micro that um is pulled up that kind of talks about the transition um gives a general overview and then we' provided resources we've got um the Google to Microsoft data Migra migration that kind of goes over which data is going to migrate when we when we move the schools over and it kind of gives more specific information can go into that I'm

052not going to go read all that to you we also have a place where staff can submit a question and get feedback and then we have FAQs we're turning that into and then we have scroll down a little bit we also are including basically the counterpart between the Google apps and the Microsoft so you can see Gmail is the same thing Outlook you know Google Calendar is the same thing as your outlook Calendar Google Drive one drive kind of goes through those different areas that are the same and identical and the task that you can do the last most important piece on here is our T timeline so this goes into the process that we started back in 2021 to get us to where we are today so I'm going to let Brian kind of

053go over that with you good [Music] afternoon um so we'll start with 2021 instead of going back to 2003 when I started here so I'll save you a few years all right so the first thing is the technology uh division Microsoft license review so we are paying for what's called a A3 level license and this gives us a certain level of software and Licensing for the amount of users for staff for students lots of different things um when we were looking at the A3 licensing we were we decided to compare that against the A5 licensing to make sure that we weren't uh we wouldn't be better suited to go to the A5 uh for staff students and business needs as well as our cyber security um requirements um specifically the A5 adds some mobile device

054management uh email archiving some Advanced threat protection video conferencing using teams um an additional storage space and after we completed completed a cost analysis we determined that if we went with the bundled offering of Microsoft to the A5 we would save additional funds and also meet the industry standards for cyber security and cyber insurance requirements the ne necessitate geez necessitate establishing a baseline of security measures um considering all the factors the decision to move to A5 on the next renewal date was made um it just made Financial sense and we have all of that broken down uh as well so the first thing we did was get an initial conversation started with Microsoft uh we wanted to bring them inhouse and talk with our Technical and some instructional staff um so we did that and

055then in 20 2022 um Microsoft came on site and we had kind of a it's almost an all day meeting at the technology department we brought in a technical team they had Engineers uh customer support specialist and we had internally our technology team we brought in some um instructional from the curriculum instructional side of things and had basically Microsoft show us what they could do and what we had available to us with the A5 offerings um next thing we did was we visited enlo County Schools uh from a technical standpoint so enlo has been a all Microsoft uh district for a long time and they are actually um around Co they were the one of the only school districts that during remote they actually had their scores go up because of the Microsoft teams and

056everything that they had in place um they were able to transition to a remote very easily and efficiently so they are kind of a standard Bearer for the way that things could be done with Microsoft so we wanted to see how they were doing it from a technical standpoint um so we did a visit there and then we did a um presentation back here at for senior staff um on Art technical findings and during this time you'll see the section there for you scroll down there's Technical Training configuration assessments that occurred in 2022 these are a lot of things just making sure that if we did decide to go with any of these Microsoft tools or even the things that we did have we needed to make sure they were properly uh set up that

057we weren't getting ourselves in any any trouble with from a cyber security standpoint that students didn't have access to things that they shouldn't have um so we had a lot of training and that took place to set up everything properly um and those were a part of our licensing as well so we have what's called FASTT track with Microsoft where we get a certain amount of credits toward um setting up everything from trainings to just the technical side uh next thing we had was a instructional team so our digital teaching and learning and I believe they had some other folks from curriculum no okay just the details went to enlo County to view the actual uh tools being used in the classroom so the teachers with Elementary and secondary so they came back pretty excited

058about some of the things that they saw uh so at that point our next step was to actually Eng engage with the FastTrack team for exchange um I will not sugarcoat the fact that it is not an easy thing to manage two mail servers and have them running in parallel so we had to get some support to for us to be able to to do that um there's a lot of configuration and mail flow rules that are set up for us that life would just be so much easier if everything was one or the other so when we at Microsoft things will be uh much less complex from a male flow standpoint for us to manage uh so we had to engage with the FastTrack team to help us configure these things uh after we

059did that the very first pilot program was myself and my uh cyber security analyst Charles White and we ran and our our lives in Microsoft fully and Outlook and just everything Microsoft for about 60 days and then we had a few directors and or the other director of Technology as well as uh client services and networking supervisors that we brought on board and this whole time that we're running these um we're getting feedback this works this doesn't work uh testing mail flow that sort of thing and we're doing it in-house so that we're not impacting the rest of the district uh the next Technology Group two or three excuse me in January 20 2024 we brought half of the technology department over so what we wanted to experience there was what problems might they see

060and then what problems might they see communicating with people on the Google side of things as well so we left half of our department in Google and half of our department in Microsoft so that we could try to flush out any of those Communications or collabor ation and sharing issues that may happen between and we could easily yell down the hall and somebody could say hey Brian this doesn't work and I would have to immediately listen and fix it all right not just me there's a lot of folks and from then on we moved into uh yeah pilot group 4 which was the rest of technology so as of March 2024 all of Technology was fully implemented into Microsoft Outlook and all and from there we reached out to other departments and discussed we had

061individual meetings with departments that would be interested in being a part of the pilot program uh Jennifer Johnson and myself visited each director gave them an option of saying would you would you be interested in the pilot this is what it looks like um this is what impact it'll have on your staff this is what the expectations are and we gave them a kind of take it or leave it if you don't want to be involved we completely understand but we had a handful of volunteers um one of our first volunteers was uh Mr Silverstein up there as a entire department of one he was more than willing to to jump jump one ship we are thankful for that so we started off with really small departments in the pilot and work worked our way

062up um to the point to where in July uh we did brought on information systems and in August where CTE Human Resources executive directors Federal programs on down the line to where we've got all of central office except for we've got special education coming up in April and then we have um transportation like the bus drivers and things like that I think we still have a few more to do with those so at that point by this summer the goal will be that all of central office will be fully implemented and fully operational in Microsoft Outlook from there um what we're looking to do is we know that the Infinite Campus project from Power School transition is is a major undertaking um our goal was not to impact the teachers any more than we than

063we had to so we wanted to free them up to have the opportunity to to learn Infinite Campus and to implement it properly so we're kind of putting on the Microsoft breaks for our students and staff at the schools and we will be an implementation of 2627 for them that'll give them time to focus on Infinite Campus give us time to find any other possible issues that we could iron out um as well as some additional testing talk about the so um along with that we have we've always been a Microsoft shop our servers and everything we've always um our finance would have a fit if we moved away from Microsoft you know in their Excel so we've always been Microsoft since you know since Microsoft started with um Microsoft Office um we have with

064the A3 license we've been able to get the office um 365 licenses for every staff and every student um we didn't advertise that but some kids started they saw it and they were able to use it so we then are making peopleware so what we are going to be doing even though the schools aren't transitioning their email we're still going to be providing training for teachers next school year who want to learn and start get back to using Excel um PowerPoint word versus using the Google stuff it's their choice we're not going to force them one way or the other um Google is not going away anytime soon even after they transition the email piece will go away but Google Drive and all the other Google tools are going to stay it is going to

065be a slow process to Wing people off of that because I do know and understand how invested our teachers are into that when we do the migration though their Google drive files will be migrated automatically over to one drive their email will be automatically migrated over so they'll have a much easier transition than anybody in central office had the um with making people aware of this transition we have had um early conversations with the three early colleges they um expressed interest in trying to be an initial pilot for schools because their students are enrolled in Kate fear and UNCW and Microsoft is what they use and they are having kids not knowing how to save a Word document to one drive and attach it to a a lesson in canvas to send to their teacher

066so they have expressed interest in being an early pilot for us and so the conversations have been had and they're looking at doing the staff in May and the students then when they come back but that is initiated from the three schools it wasn't us initiating with them so but it makes sense because of how their students are functioning that they need to kind of be prepared and be comfortable using those tools that they are going to have to use at Kate fear and UNCW um so we did and this whole process of comparing these things we did look at the cost so basically in our tools we need to make sure we have an antivirus a an MDM which is a mobile device management it's how we manage basically our iPads and our devices

067push out applications reimage the machines that is necessary um having enough storage that's one thing of if you've been reading your emails for me we are running out of storage in Google and we are asking people to delete old things go through it right now we have 7% of our storage left in Google and that's email drive and photos um we have to have the ability to archive emails we have to have the ability to do Bren of word processing spreadsheets presentation software um Advanced threat protection that's actually a mandatory requirement minimum requirement of our um cyber security insurance we need to have we have to have Microsoft licensing for some from core basic central office needs so looking at all those we did a comparison between the Google education fundamentals program which is the

068lowest level to the Google Education Plus along with the Microsoft A3 and the Microsoft A5 so Microsoft A5 is right at $400,000 a year the Microsoft A3 plus all the other things we need to have all those features would be 8,000 the Google Education Plus would be 632,000 and the Google education fundamentals would be 56,000 so we did do that cost comparison and and looking at all those features it's also an advantage to kind of have some of those core features to be in the same in the same product kind of thing with the same company so that way they're not pointing fingers when stuff isn't working it's basically going to be Microsoft's problem to fix and we found that that works good in when you're mixing different vendors they do like to point fingers

069at each other and then it takes a longer time to resolve a situation if you have just one vendor to point at they kind of solve the problem a lot faster is it questions there Bradford um the Google Docs and the Google Sheets um Google Docs can be a live document and we can all work on it and it's constantly updating is there an equivalent in Microsoft I know yes the Microsoft Word can do the same thing you yep if you share it with somebody else just like you share the Google Doc then you could have more than one person in there editing at the same time but it's not like kept live somewhere and yep yep it's in your it's in your one drive long as you store it in your one drive or

070a team or SharePoint basically long as it's in Microsoft One drive it's real time collaboration just like the Miss Justice yeah this first came to my attention I think all of our attentions when we switching over the outl and it sounds like this has been a to down process again decision of central office and it's moving through central office it's going to hit the schools in 26 27 because of Infinite Campus you don't want to get throw too much at at once is that a good description yeah okay uh the cost is that is close but yeah it's obviously that the Microsoft is slightly cheaper overall here's my concern um I've done some research in the back and I don't bring it all because I think most people are aware of the fact these are

071two competing companies and that it's this is a problem everywhere because of the competition um and that's all right because it just Mak you know our lives a lot easier because we have all different access to doing what we do but it's Google is considered more user friendly and uh I mean this is a fact and when you look at when you look at overall Google's more user friendly Microsoft has got a lot more detail you can you can do certain things on different levels businesses like it uh smaller businesses like I mean these are just a lot of the things about research here's here's my concern out transitioning for me for cat has been a nightmare uh I've lost things things have disappeared on us I know all of us have been having trouble

072with the email but that's just email I've talked to teachers teachers are the ones that are have come to me freaked out about the transition all the things for years I think we started with Google in 2014 is when we started 2012 I believe somewhere around there yeah and before that we were Microsoft we were Microsoft before that yeah yeah and so but Google's become a huge part of our operations especially in the schools um and because of that I I've heard some teachers are very freaked out for a number of reasons about losing up the time that would take for them to transfer a lot of the work that they've done over the years into Microsoft um and also again the user friendly can come together um and when I talked to you initially

073you did say that when the decision was made teachers weren't brought in uh you said that there were people representing teachers and staff that you know the the heads of the Departments but the teachers themselves when the decision back in 21 or whatever when these discussions were going on classroom teachers really weren't getting the input or the ability to really have a say and this decision making um so this is seems to be driven from the top down and I mean this is an information session M and that's what I'm taking it as I would love to be able to feel comfortable with Outlook not just out with Outlook yeah but with um Microsoft because that is where we're headed but this is this is a very difficult transition and the fact that I think

074it almost feels to the to those in the schools like it's been under the radar because it has been going on at central office and other areas first um and now that it's coming out they're able to voice their concerns so I would like to hear more from them and how this translates to what they do in the schools no offense to what everything else that goes around the schools because we can't function in the schools without it but the most important and you said Ono County likes it yes it's very well that's the kinds of things that need to be explained and I hear right out out looks freaky I don't know why things disappear in the way they do they do but uh Google's definitely much more user friendly and that aspect lot

075and I understand what you're saying about sheets I used to love to be able to communicate with people for can do I've got both at home I mean I've been using Microsoft you know I've got the program for years you know Excel out word I love your word but I'm concerned about the schools and what this means for teachers in the classroom all the work that they'll put in since 2012 lot you know lot people retired but there's still a lot of people here that have come in during that time and what does this mean when they're trying to transfer L things they're they're not going to lose their stuff their stuff will be transferred for them it will be done from on the in the background so when they come to work one day

076they will have all their files in Google Drive and in Microsoft One drive so they will they will be done for them so they won't have to worry about that they won't have to transfer their emails over we will be doing that for them their calendars can be transferred over all that stuff can be done for them we have um we did send information out we do have an educational technology advisory committee with consist of some teachers and administrators we mentioned it brought up to them we did send emails out and we did have some some Town Halls where people could call in and teachers were we did on workday one of them and teachers were participating in that and they were they were excited we haven't heard a huge outcry from teachers um when

077we explained to them you know the process and that we're not their biggest concern was losing their files they're not going to lose their files their other concern was you know Google going away right away it's not going to go away right away it's just the email piece that will be they'll still use the the Outlook so and and like I said trainings are going to be provided we're doing trainings now for central office I'd love to be able to do additional trainings for you guys and have you guys attend additional trainings so that way you get more comfortable using the tools as well that's that's not a problem so miss Justice I'm going to pause you because we are just we are at time for this discussion and there are a couple other people

078that want to talk so I'm going to make a motion to um continue this for five more minutes do I hear a second all right all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed passes 7 to zero Mr wi deore you had your hand raised a long time ago a little TI it's okay um first of all I want to thank you for doing it in a pilot form I think that's great you know and you guys trying it out on the front end and stuff one question I had and I've noticed it myself is in the old version or Google I guess things would pop up in my calendar to say Hey you know you want to do this or you don't want to do this that doesn't happen anymore I mean

079that's concerning you want reminders like you know this is coming up well basically you know invitations for stuff you we get invitations you know I there was a meeting that I missed because it never popped up I like that's just a matter of turning on notifications I'm sorry just a matter of turning on your notifications those are by choice okay okay yeah we we need to be able to get you guys where you're a captive audience where you can put aside all your board work and we can kind of work with you to kind of go through these things so that way you you get that Comfort level and we get those settings based on what you're what you're wanting um you guys are very busy people and we yeah and you guys just to

080throw get a little deeper into that your your workflow your day-to-day lives are a little different um the teams you know if you have it running on your on your computer or running on your phone you're going to get those notifications in real time because you're in it all day um if you guys are going back and forth between personal work or you don't have notifications turned on for you to get get that team's alert when it comes in at real time or that notification for a calendar event in real time you're just not going to see it until you then go into Outlook at that point you've already got 100 notifications that you're behind on so you're I think you're losing stuff possibly just out of the needle in the hay stack standpoint whereas

081in reality if if you have this up all day you're using it you're going to see that stuff in real time coming in but my question I guess my my my answer to that is the fact that system I didn't have that problem so yeah so one of the one of the things as well is you are most likely running Google in your your day-to-day Life as a Google application and running the Google app you've got it making all those notifications for you so we need you to set those same notifications up on the Outlook side that you're running on your devices so those like and if the other side of that too is some people like the feature I don't use it that will look in your mailbox and tell you that you have

082a a reservation or if you want to to accept this reservation like if you got a um rental car they sent you something confirming your reservation for a rental car it'll automatically put it on your calendar for you and alert you that by default is turned off in Microsoft so if you wanted that sort of thing it needs to be turned on these are these are right choice of how much notification you want to get blown up with and non-stop on and on what devices for instance I'm up here I've got my laptop open and I've got teams and Outlook running I'm not getting those notifications on my phone because if I'm sitting here I don't want to be getting notified here here and then in my office getting five more notifications on the iPads

083that I have set up as well so it's it's really comes down to preference um it's there's a lot more granularity with it which is a good and good and bad thing to put on idea about we can definitely help you with so with that added time we have 1 minute and three people want to talk so I guess I'll make another motion to extend for five more minutes we have to keep this a little bit more brief um so that we can keep going in in what we've got to do um so I will make a motion for five more minutes okay all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed no passes 6 to one um Mr Perry um mention apologize um you mentioned mentioned that we were down to 7%

084on the uh goo drives and the one drives um the I just want to clarify both both these in both cases whether we're talking Microsoft or outlock we're talking about cloud storage are we not yes you are again with what we've just encountered with power school breach I think we should be making an effort to not have stuff on the cloud to have internal servers that we can point to is an OP okay that's not an option with Google and I also can um I can address that a little bit with internal storage um we pay a lot a lot more money for Hardware internal storage than external cloud storage and on top of that the security means and the amount of uh resources it takes to secure local data is a lot tougher than

085the cloud storage um so for instance we have a net app server back at the office that we're we got 20 terabytes of of space in um that 20 terabytes cost us way way way more than the 125 terabytes that fer getes us like we couldn't even come close to that level andless you guys want to probably up our budget about a million dollar well I mean I I I certainly appreciate the budgetary concerns that certainly means it but you uh means a lot but I mean we we certainly don't want to risk uh um you know maybe our students personal homework or whatever getting out there and leaked out on the web or being held hostage by some ransomware attackers so safety concerns too so Microsoft being the company that size that it is

086they have a lot more resources and they're a lot more secure than what we are able to do something internally just because we have it internally doesn't necessarily mean it can't be compromised as well so this the amount of resources Microsoft has is infinitely more than what we have to be able to keep things secure here as as well there's one of the main things that Microsoft offers us that Google does not with our license in is what's called DLP um policies that allow us to classify data so we can say um data that has a social security number in it cannot be downloaded cannot be printed cannot be covered to the cloud can only be stored on one local system only Dr Barnes and uh Geller have access to that data Brian doesn't these

087are things that we cannot do with local storage the way that it's set up now so there is inherently more security built into what we have on the Microsoft platform than we could ever possibly possibly provide internally with the staff and resources and and uh Hardware that we have internally it's just not possible all right um we have three minutes and two people want to speak so if we could keep them super brief Miss Bradford I know I gave you a hard time I love it and I'm still not where I need to be but I think I've passed the learning curve where I'm not frustrated and and frazzled over it so I know we started way earlier than the three new board members so give it just a few more weeks um it does

088get easier and there's some features that I really appreciate more than what we had and I know you never expected me to say that but I do we are recording this right yeah okay thank you I'm I'm telling you Thank you and one of what's one of the things that we're seeing with people when they come over is the is the overwhelm factor and we completely understand that and but we want to be able to walk you through piece by piece that's why we have the technology Learning Center site that's why we're offering these these classes you know we're trying to get as much information out there as we can thank you Dr Merck close it out for us I will contact you individually and I'll see my time based on the fact that we

089are right up against it did you want to say something oh are you ready I just want to I mean I wish this wasn't the world we lived in but when I see $118,000 I see a teacher in a TA and I wish I didn't have to nickel and dime to that extent but that's what it is that leads us right into budget perfect Dr bar the superintendent 2025 26 recommended budget Miss while Ashley's making her way to the podium I just would like to say how confident and and great all of at least the cabinet members around this Podium or around this table felt about our budget process we are in the place where we are ready to bring a budget to the County Commissioners two months prior to them needing to have it

090[Music] done I can also say that with Ashley's help this is a budget that has been vetted by principles assistant principles staff we listened we got feedback we built this based on what stakeholders said they needed and said we wanted so take it away Ashley thank you okay thank you so I provided handouts to board and staff is the same information that is uploaded in assembly but I know sometimes it's easier to have a handout versus trying to view it online so that's provided for you um the in your packet and then also in assembly the first thing you see is just the summary information that we've gone over before I haven't changed anything in that summary information um the same information coming forward and then next in assembly and in your packet you'll have

091a copy of the PowerPoint presentation that I'm going to go over um and then you also have a copy of Capital outlay summary request now this is different from what we've talked about before because um based on our last board budget work session the capital items included here are just the priority One items from each of the areas so you have a new summary with that information and then the last document you have is also the same as was in your binders and we've gone over previously is the summary of the budget changes so that there 's nothing different on that document either so I just wanted to um go through what you had there as handouts and what was new and what was different so if we're going through if you have questions certainly

092be glad to answer those questions so let's start with the presentation um and please let me know I'll try to pause between slides in case you have questions if there's something um you'd like to talk about in a little bit more detail and so as we start the presentation um the first thing I wanted to share um once again is we are having to look at Revenue um as far as as far as state reductions in Revenue because as we know most of our state revenue is based on student enrollment so we do see a little decrease there um 259 students compared to um the previous year so that 259 is based on current enrollment and so that's going to amount to a about a one $ 1.8 million reduction on the state revenue side

093the next slide shows our average daily membership information um over the past five years and so you you see our projection as we're going into the new year that was the number we just talked about on the previous slide um but you can also see the previous years and so just um I just want to make sure I'm clear because I know it does get confusing with the membership numbers average daily membership changes really every day so you will hear different numbers from time to time so when I'm um providing information to the board related to budget I try to provide for the previous years where I have the the June final enrollment number that's what you have for those previous years but if the year hasn't finalized yet I'm still using the budgeted number

094until I get the final number so I just wanted to make sure if you're comparing data to other average daily membership data if there's differences that's likely budget versus the actual ending numbers then on the next slide you'll see U our County request so based on our budget document and our board work sessions we're going to request $8 million from the county and that $8 million includes our in people Investments our inflation increases and also our budget budget priority items that total 5 million so together you'll see that that's that $8 million request of the county for operating for operating that's correct the next slide shows other changes in revenue and these were things that we've talked about before but just as a reminder we did receive some FEMA reimbursement um this calendar year school

095year that we will not budget until next year year um we also um have included in this budget the $1.7 million that we talked about earlier um for that easement and then Medicaid reimbursement indirect cost and interest Revenue we see increases there that we feel comfortable budgeting in next year that we didn't have budgeted this year so that total other Revenue increases amounts to 3.4 million we also want to talk about our um reduction in fines and forfeitures as a result of the city of Wilmington ending the red light camera program and so we've adjusted our Revenue based on that um Revenue Source going away and as you can see you know we looked at the previous three years to determine you know an estimate of what that Revenue reduction would be the only change

096we had to the allotment formulas was the the instructional supplies for schools and for the prek there is a change on this slide I want to make the board aware of uh we went back through and we did notice that we were able to balance the budget uh with a reduction from $65 to $61 per ADM originally we had $60 there so I wanted to make sure I pointed that out so that is um a little bit smaller reduction to the schools than we originally thought we were going to have to do that there um the prek reduction from 300 I'm sorry 130 per ADM to 120 that's the same as we've discussed previously and as we've talked about that adjustment that funding is going to go to support athletic equipment request um that will

097address some safety concerns that we have yes oh I'm sorry so this reduction the ADM in supplies this is from the state the state reduced how what is it where's reduction coming from so this is our local um allocation that we make to the schools and this was a reduction that we had in the budget to to balance so the ADM numbers are changing for for the school but we're also reducing the allocations that we're making to the schools and we've taking some local funding right this is all related to local that's correct got you I'm just trying to understand where yep yep good question question next I wanted to share a little bit more information about people investment increases the this budget is being built on a raise of 3% um we do not

098have information from the state as of yet as to what their actual increas is going to be for raises and benefits however we've used um the average over the past 5 years to estimate what we think the those increases are going to be and we're building the budget based on that information um the number for our locally paid employees was $ 1.9 million right at $2 million for the raise and the benefits and that's part of the request to the county we also have increases for inflation related to our insurance and so you'll see um the general liability Auto liability and property insurance increases here we reviewed uh the previous three years to determine what those estimated increases would be um except for the property insurance we actually did receive a quote on that one

099um so that that increase is a true increase we know that's definitely going to happen Redford um Ashley we're in that I think it's general liability where that is um our um the Liberty Mutual that type of Insurance liability it's those are part they're what's the word um they're part of that okay yes that's correct writers also inflation increases on the next slide you'll see we've estimated for utility increases for water electric and natural gas here um once again we've looked at the previous 3 years and obtaining some information from the vendors to determine what that estimated increase needed to be for next year um children with disability services is also an area that we needed to focus on this year um we used one-time Medicaid funding this calendar year to provide an additional $1.8

100million to that area and no that that Medicaid reimbursement while we did budget 500,000 um in this budget we're talking about um it still is less than the Medicaid we received this year as you remember the Medicaid this year was really back pay um for the previous three to four years where we hadn't received that reimbursement annually as we anticipate going forward they've changed their process for reimbursement at the state level and we are anticipating being able to receive that funding annually now which is why we built that 500,000 into the budget going into next year um however um that still left some funding that we needed to cover to help support um the children with disabilities program and so we are adding into our budget an additional $1.8 million for that program did you

101have a question now I ask is about the natural gas okay preschool Services is also an area where we use one-time funding in the current year and we need to address that going into next year's budget we were able to use um Title One funding um to support pre Services we had some carryover from the previous years that we were able to use um going into next year we are not anticipating having that carryover so we built in in um a budget built into this budget um 72,000 to help support the prek program as you guys know the NC prek Grant does not 100% fund that program and so that's why we're having to put in some local funding to provide the additional support needed any questions up to this point and then next that

102brings us to our superintendent budget priorities which equal 5 million and Dr Barnes you want me to continue would you like to say anything going in sure we'll just run through this real quick basically the two initiatives that we're focusing on are school safety and individualizing instruction for students so uh the top one two three bullets there the top three categories there all makes about a million dollar specifically for school safety now we don't want to just address physical safety needs of kids at are high school without also without not also addressing the critical issue of helping students learn different behaviors to change their behavior permanently so what you're seeing is half of that money going to implement safe and civil schools throughout our district it's already been implemented in several schools with great results

103the safety positions and the weapon detection are high school specific for our four traditional high schools and then that bottom thing that school specialist Position will be something that each individual school's leadership team will be able to pick from one of about five different categories specific to gain data points that we can then lobby with the state for positions that we think are needed and part of what the state expects us to complete anyway right now those five hang one sec can those five right now the school Specialists we looking at either academic REM mediation academic extension Behavior graduation rate or something to do with specifically helping support EC students so ma'am repeat that uh school school uh sorry academic remediation academic extension Behavior graduation rate for EC support and what we're going to do

104is specifically set up a data point that we can then gather and provide you guys with an Roi provide the County Commissioners with that and then also bring it to the state to explain that Mr car uh just on the weapon detection equipment for the high schools is is that metal detectors what is yes okay Miss Bard thank you I just want to reiterate so with this we're talking about a pilot that we can in turn present to the state so we can pilot that there even too that's what you're saying that's the plan that we've been discussing with her maybe we secure it through the endowment maybe it's through the County Commission but that's what we're saying for the next 2 years looking at those data points so we can in turn correct go

105to the state yes with a potential pilot for change of the allotment correct thank you sir and when I talk with principles and when I talk with stakeholders this individualizing instruction and safety of students is what's going to bring kids back to this District thank you thank you in addition to those request that Dr Barnes just talked about we also wanted to show support um Dr Barnes and County manager and County staff um have worked on this program um that they're calling Family Support Services pilot and this isn't part of our request they're covering the cost associated with this pilot however we certainly want to show our support for this um to help um decrease our um abs ISM um and I don't know Dr Barnes if you want to speak to that at all

106sure it's a Cooperative agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services or uh social work so they will have family support Specialists that will work for D DSS but be placed in our schools specifically to help us attack The Chronic absenteeism and attendance issues that we're seeing so these folks will actually be employed by the county but will work collaboratively with us with our social workers with our principes M Justin how many of those approximately would it be five five throughout the district yeah yeah so we will Target specific schools that we can use to to test drive it with and um this is something that we specifically talked about I mean I've said a lot that I feel like our concerns that are stopping us in this District are behavioral they're they're social

107emotional they're attendance-based they are not strictly academic Focus if we can get these kids back back to school for the extra 20 days of school that they miss we will see that gain in academics as well so we really appreciate this was something that that the county came up with over a conversation we had had with them or that I had with Mr cudr and he brought this back to the table and I was like yeah yeah we'll do that great so it was really a great opportunity for us to just increase that collaboration between us and the County Commission and so I said just we wanted to make sure even though this wasn't a financial ass we definitely want to show our support for the pilot that the county staff is bringing forth to

108the Commissioners then next we have a slide um going over the board of education pay increases that we discussed at the last board work session and I know um you guys have a handout there that talks about um that increase and I I want to I guess hand hand it off to the board if there if want to have a discussion that's different than what I have on the slide so the original discussion was my understanding and I could have misunderstood was an increase of $4,000 per board member um and then we costed that out and it's a $3,142 and we were able to identify during the last board work session majority of the funding or budget to fund that increase and and that that made up $22,200 and so the amount that was left

109I did um in our last board work session we looked at three different options or scenarios and um the board directed me to bring back whichever was the highest as the recommendation here and so I've done that so if we were to um make the adjustments that I'm proposing here that you that you guys have a handout on um the request to the County Commissioners would be 7,942 related to um that increase Dr May yeah just I mean for the Public's sake I think it's important to note that you know 22,200 was a money that was already in the budget that we are trying to carve out that was actually supposed to be in the board's budget that we are then you know being willing to to go without so it's not and I think

110that's important to make sure that everyone understands this is coming from the board's budget not not um like schools or student facing or even central office it's this board's budget is what was reduced to fund that increase mford um that last thing in in bold remaining balance request from County Commissioners $794 you divide that by board member it's an increase of $1,345 per board member per year um and if you then divide that by 12 months it's $945 per board member per year per month per month per month excuse me Mr wior I was just going to remind everybody too since everybody's watching sure everybody's watching but in case they're not watching um they can come back and watch it later we actually took a substantial uh cut last year too when we look through

111the budget too so you know we're continuing to use our own funds in in different ways and uh so just a reminder and I just wanted to uh and perhaps you can answer the question uh cuz I don't have the exact date but it's been a long time since uh there's been a pay increase for board members uh maybe Dr P can give us a specific last time it was I can tell you we discussed it at our budget workshops and then so tell the public yeah um the last pay increase was um um and all that did was replace what had been taken away in 2008 so in 2008 they voted to decrease their stien because it was a tough time and teachers had been furloughed and so on and so then they rode

112with no increase all the way to 2018 um so it's been a very long time before the compensation for the board members went up at all thank you 2008 Dr BR couple more points I think to reference what Dr Merck said 22 Grand of this was a zero some game didn't affect the kid didn't touch the school so we appreciate that um the other thing I just want to make sure you get people know that that is 4,000 a year not 4,000 a month I don't want someone leaving here going oh my God you know 4,000 a year divided by 12 I just wanted to make sure that that was clearly stated thank you we're good the next slide covers um a request that we discussed that the last board work session uh related to

113the disaster event mou that we currently have with the county and so um what was decided at that work session was that we would go make a request to the County Commissioners that thatou not only include disaster events but that also includes emergency events and that um the the proposed revision would ensure that cumulative damages or unexpected repair cost exceeding 500,000 within a fiscal year the county would provide additional funding up to the 10 million um as needed so I just wanted to make sure that verbiage the wording there was the intent of the board um before I um shared that or included in letter so that looks good okay and so that was all that I had uh but certainly want to make sure um you don't have any other questions or any other

114discussion that you want to have um before we wrap this up Dr mer I'm I'm very proud of all of us uh working together to hammer this out so quickly and the one comment I have um not for this year I'm not looking to drag things out any longer but you know when we talk about our teachers having to come up with $1,000 of their own money every year for supplies I would like to start thinking forward as we talk about next year what we have something like 1,700 teachers times $1,000 well what are we talking about 1.7 million but it's it's time that we start thinking about putting that into the budget ahead of time let's start imagining that we can take care of our teachers as well as we take care of ourselves

115so that's my that's my thought thank you I have been through this process since 2018 couple years out of it this is the best not that it wasn't good you know it was good back in 2018 but but really this I feel so comfortable I know what's going on there's no mystery it's all rational and needed so I would like to thank our leadership all of you guys for doing this thank you very much and the from The public's thank you Mr W i' I'd like to Echo my colleague to the left's uh sentiments here thank you so much M Dr Barnes thank you so much everyone around the table thank you so much I mean I think this is uh just a really good uh effort to uh support our teacher support our students

116which is the most important thing uh so thank you very much and I think uh I hope we can get it f work with the County Commissioners to get this pass I will say that we have been talking and coordinating with the County Commissioners all along with the county manager I think us being a United cohesive front gives us the best place to move forward I will bring as much passion as allowed to this conversation with the County Commissioners as well and to kind of follow up with that I I want to thank our County Commissioners as well um for just being willing to sit down and talk with with us and work with us and listen to what we need and ask the questions that they had um but also thank you to our

117staff and thank you to Dr Barnes this has been the most transparent process and I think that the public appreciates it I know that I appreciate it um and I know the rest of the board appreciates it so thank you guys uh Miss Bradford I what's our next step so I just wanted to make sure you guys take a look at the capital outlay budget summary once again these are the priority One items that we discussed at the last work session um but it is summarized um in so it's um only the prity ones so that will go to the board um at the actual board meeting for for vote and so if you guys have no other questions or discussion at this time what I'll plan to do between now and our board meeting

118is to start working on the draft letter that we would submit to the County Commissioners and I would like to provide a draft of that letter to you before it's actually submitted so I would like to provide that so you would have that at the at the board meeting SP her thank you I appreciate the clarity on that as well um I had a couple questions because I know we're going after all the streams of Revenue sources that we can at this time and so um for clarity in the event that potentially we we land um an endowment secure an endowment ask with this would it just be reflective in a negate amount of the operating expense and then potentially in the event that we do not get the full ask of capital and facility

119would it come back to the board for us to kind of redy out what projects are going to be tackled for the year so if well um if we if we end up seeing we made an endowment request and it's also on our operating request we get run instead of the other I'm sure we would dialogue with the commission about how they'd like us to handle that in regards to the to the um capital and the and the capital budget if we go to the County Commissioners with this ask and they say we can only give you blank amount of money then what our staff would do is we would come back we would reassess the needs we would bring it back to you with the num with the number that they ask us to

120hit if that makes sense yes thank you that that I just ask for clearing that process I appreciate that good question anybody else thank you Miss suton thank you and as that's two weeks before we uh before our deadline wasn't it that's correct two weeks do oh that is a question we have budget some budget work session still scheduled are those so those were just in case we needed them so if if today you guys had more things for me to cost out or if you wanted me to switch some things around in the budget we built that work session in just in case we needed it so in my mind as of right now it's cancelled unless you guys just want to meet look at that can we canellation I think you guys you

121guys need to vote on the budget first and then we'll cancel it that's that's true that's a good point that's a good point and then and then Ashley's heading to Disney World no no no no Miss Sutton's going to Disney World um so next on the agenda it says board member stipend increase we did cover that did you want to add any more Miss Redford yes I would um Madam chair I'm move that we as a board adopt Ashley's recommendation for the board stien today right any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I any opposed that passes 7 to zero are you good I'm good all right happy excellent three weeks um now moving on to guidance on policy I'm going to turn it over to well miss Bradford did request

122it but um I'm going to start with Mr wior since he is the chair of policy and then the attorneys if if if that's okay if you could kind of give a brief synopsis of what's happening and the questions and then we'll have our attorneys kind of help okay well sure I'll jump right on in um we just had some wording uh ideas and we kind of went back and forth on them um so it it is back to um what our attorneys think might be the best wording we've had several um actually other policies 73 60 8220 9125 which are not in this list of course 1720 and 4329 we actually held back in policy uh waiting to to figure out if you remember yeah uh waiting to figure out we did kind of

123bring one forward which would be just discuss next week but uh we just need to you know discuss whether like words you know like the word in 41 we got here 4140 uh you know he there there my way think there might be better ways to word things not necessarily um to destroy or or to change the you know like say uh uh 4140 the board uh uh Embraces the cultural word originally was diversity we can change it to perspectives and insights there's a lot of discussion that you know maybe the whole board would like to discuss uh briefly you know whether we want to stay with the word diversity or go through the other and and you know to me you know I actually recommended the words perspectives and insights because that that gives

124to me a more of a full picture of what we're looking at but you know totally up to everybody so my question so each of the changes is different based on the policy so let's um let's take this one at a time as far as um looking at 4140 um so thoughts about specifically 4140 and then um the only change there is know that first area get the council from the attorneys and yeah we're on board with those Mr will deore okay okay there's no legal implications or anything like that see any problem okay so discussion then uh Dr Merck what are you saying you have no problem with the old or the new the new the new the red the new red ink we agree with the concern with leaving diversity in there might

125have run a fou of the new Trump anti- D and so we just want to stay clear that and I think what Mr will wior has proposed covers that base adequately and uh straddles both lines of anything yeah thank you all right Dr May um I'd like to read from uh the executive order ending radical and wasteful government Dei programs and preferencing and that down at the bottom of the executive order it says in section 4 C this order is not intended to and does not create any right or benefit substantive or procedural enforcable at law or in equity by any party against the United States do you notice they use the word Equity equity in itself is not an illegal word nor is diversity if if policy 4140 was was if the word diversity

126there was part of Dei then there would be an issue but I see no problem with using the word diversity it's still a word it still has [Music] meaning Mr Perry yeah this is probably one of the ones me and Mr World War disagreed on I I'm actually agree with uh Dr Merck in this particular instance I believe this this particular section is not talking about diversity equity and inclusion so just to ink out I mean I have no problems with perspectives and insights but I'm just saying diversity in and of itself is not a four-letter word so I don't know if it's necessary but I don't have a problem with if we go to perspectives and insights I just don't know if it's necessary right Mr Justice I like perspectives and insights but diversity

127is one word instead of three words being crammed in there um it's sad what you do out of syllabus every time you know you run across these words to try not to offend somebody as you said they even use the word Equity their own document um this is this is just sad to be afraid of a word this country was founded a lot better than that we're not supposed to be afraid of words but uh you know as I said perspective and insights is very nice I've taught many of I he I love for exchange but diversity would be just as well sort of silly um with that said I move that we add 4140 with the change that Mr wbore read um to the agenda for next week for the other to add it

128to the move it out of the held held into the to the action column for next week does that make sense we next week's voting into under the consensus policy consensus yes ma'am I think it's already on there clarification I think it's already on it just not with the the change then with the yes that's that's the motion I made perspectives and insight I'll second that okay well any further discussion um hearing none um Miss will you call the RO Miss Justice what we updating the language to yes yes we're not the for the change but moving it to the yeah I'm moving is fine point of inquiry it is to move this change over to what is already on the agenda right so in other words we will be discussing this next week next

129week yes soine yes okay Mr will oh oh sorry yes okay mford yes Mr Perry yes Dr Merritt yes Miss barnhard yes and Miss Mason yes I we didn't need to do that all right so that will those changes will need to be um transferred over to the current document on there um moving to the next one school assignments we'll do 4150 Mr rore could you super brief where's the change cuz we didn't I didn't see in there there was a strike out I don't see any I don't see any in 4150 all right so only 38 why can't I'm not seeing any changes to that one so um we're going to continue on um with Dr Merck I think just for clarity sake I make a motion that we drop this from the agenda

130uh and you know if if you need to take it back to policy and and to review it uh fine but uh just for clarity to say I'll second that it's actually not on the agenda yeah well on the policy agenda for for Tuesday it's not on these these well it would have to be for the next one it would have to be for for May one more all right so there is a motion to move 4150 over to policy probably not this month but next month um and there there was a second any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I the opposed passes 7 to zero policy code 3 policy code take uh my colleague to my left uh her thoughts before uh you we're able to use

131a lot fewer words here on number six Foster respect for different cultures and I think that kind of brings all those other words together and is able to uh you know in three words do what we what the previous writer did in uh three times side so I mean I think that that's what we want to do you know one of the things want to do is we want to Closter respect for different cultures um and um as far as legality and protection from I I certainly don't have any either way I would think we SP it doesn't move the needle okay either way but it does pointed out have the advantage of um verbal economy verbal economy I like that Mr Perry yeah again this is another one where I I um where I

132didn't think they were really talking about diversity equity and inclusion um I think though and this I have no problems with the cultural for different cultures but part of the sentence here is ideological diversity which is different from cultural uh appreciation so I think we need to add that in somehow because there are different you know that's a different thing Dr Merck I would make a motion that we add on to that read for different cultures and ideologies because that way it allows for Thought differences I'll think of that okay M Bradford I I think we have to move on this motion before we do anything else okay so any discussion on the motion to add ideologies M Barnhart you look like you want to say something do you I guess um just some clarity

133on what that I mean re respect but what does that mean in the implementation piece of it and I guess that would be a question for Dr Barnes I think for me the the oper operationalizing oh God we have another word folks the operationalizing of policy you guys set policy and then send it to me to enact operationalize put it into uh practice those sort of thing all the conversations we had at the policy committee meeting a couple of weeks ago I'm bringing them to the principles next week nothing that I saw in the changes that you made change what we do at the school level with children so does that answer your question yes any further discussion on the motion to add and ideologies to policy 3000 yes oh Su Justice's hand and then

134we'll come to you okay M Bradford so I would move that we postpone this motion to next week and put it on the agenda for next week okay is that Amendment yes because I don't think we can do a substitute can we yeah I didn't but I would say that's an amendment and then we can vote on that yeah I would say that that's an amendment okay then I would admin to do just that to move it to the agenda for next week okay any discussion on moving it to the agenda for next week all right all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed I that passes um so because we've postponed it all right attorneys do we need to vote on the original motion because we've postponed the change that was

135suggested in the first part of the motion asking Dr Merck made a motion to add two words Miss Bradford made a motion to postpone and send the policy to the next to our meeting next week does that it's not conflicting does it cancel out the initial motion barely amend so we vote on that amended motion oh so we we need to vote for that first okay we already voted on the amended we voted on the amendment we didn't vote on the amended motion so we jumped the gun so no we didn't jump the gun um all right so now we're going to vote on the amended motion the original motion was to add the words and ideologies to policy 3000 the amendment that was made was to send this policy over to next week's meeting

136so we're voting on what exactly we're sending thank you what we're sending so the verbiage that we are sending to next week's meeting is there any further discussion clear as mud Miss Justice it's clear as mud I'd like to say that I voted in Coss for because I thought I was voting for The we're voting on now it doesn't change anything because I've already voted but I'm just want to clarify that I would have voted no I had no all right yes for the all right so that's clear do we know what we're voting on so the initial motion was to add and ideologies to policy 3000 and then discuss it next week under policy consensus any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed no no that passes 5- two

137all right as we continue on um we started a discussion of board committees um at our wonderful work session that we had um not too long ago and some of the changes that we had made were to condense um Finance Bond and capital into a joint committee um and to reduce the uh scope and the number of legislative meetings um those were two that we had dis two major ones that we had discussed um we don't have the the actual the actual calendar anymore but that's okay we don't need it it's okay it's okay um but if you all recall it was just a very full calendar and just so to reiterate for the public the purpose of doing this is we are we are elected to go into our schools as well as do

138all these committee assignments but we have had over 20 committees um and they take up a vast majority of our time if you were to look at them in in one month in addition to any budget meetings in addition to agenda review in addition to um other activities that are going on and in in addition to the regular meeting so the whole purpose of talking about these committees was to kind of reduce and condense and see what we could do without what we are already covering things like that so um I'm going to I'm going to kind of go through um I have the list in front of me uh and see if there's any changes um that we think maybe are necessary or if we want to just leave it as is and also

139there are some that we can't make changes to so just discussing that as well so um the next one I have is policy um I think that that's I mean that's part of our job so we we need that one that one's that one's kind of an Untouchable um so I'm going to leave that one alone um student scholarship we all part of that um I think that one's a super positive one that we can all get to participate in um and so I would just ask that we leave that one um alone as well um next on the list is Title Nine um and we met um yesterday yes it was yesterday um and had some discussion with the Title Nine committee members um the motion that was made by um Mr Perry was

140three-fold and I may forget some of it so you may have to help me with it um so the first part was to dissolve the board committee that is the title 9 committee the second part was to have uh have a report from the Title Nine Department by an twice a year the review thank you so having an a by anual review from the Title Nine director director um to the board so that we are up to date with Title 9 all things Title 9 UM and having that regular so that we are still getting the information that we need um and then the third part was to uh have an have a an advisory uh committee that would be led by Colonel Henry where uh they could work on uh educ continuing efforts for

141education and then make suggestions that through Dr Henry that could come up to us from time to time but just to in order to keep up uh you know trust with the community and things like that and I believe Community Partnerships was part of that as well um so that was the recommendation from the committee um and so miss Bradford um thank you mam chair um Madam chair I move that we dissolve the title 9 board committee um bringing in all but suggestion three um of the advisory committee you just be adding back a committee um but to keep the B anual review um from Colonel Henry okay is there a second for that all right so discussion on that motion Miss Justice I am very shocked this committee was put together because there was

142a need for it we're going to be living it for years to come we were just talking about well can't put it this way it's still out there it wasn't just for athletics for females as some people were talking about it is for a voice for our community to protect our children and our staff from a variety of harassments and it this assults um to have them aware what goes on in the schools in the community um Colonel Henry is not he's just he's one person you're going to get that information he's going to get that information probably through 360 or whatever form it sent to him there's a lot more goes on that people won't talk about one of the good things about this committee Title 9 was that that was opening up avenues

143for professionals because there were professionals on that Committee in in these areas uh that we're serving uh not just professionals but actual community members to discuss with the public the goals of doing right by our kids in this District to be made aware of what's happening and to have resources as you mentioned not just training though but what's going on in the community itself because there's a lot more along this area than just our schools it was a very useful committee I'm sorry that whoever was in charge of it for a while Let It Drop we were trying to put it back together it's only had really two or three real meetings it doesn't even have the chance to fulfill its original intent and I was here when they put it together and it was

144demanded by our community because of what had happened to our kids for too long I don't want to see us falling back into not realizing how important it is to protect our staff and our students from these many things that can that falls under Title 9 that will take place place if it's relegated into the background so if I might um and then I will um sitting at the meeting last night we did we discussed um a lot of different things and one of the the the things that we talked about was the history of the title n committee and Colonel Henry shared a I consider a pretty thorough history of the title line committee and on his um and he based it off of notes from the pre vs title 99 um and in

145his summary he actually and um Mr Perry you can correct me if I'm wrong he actually mentioned that this committee was formed before um the two gentlemen were arrested uh that was the information that he shared last he that was the information that he shared last night so that's not true in in addition to so when we talked about if I might miss Justice I'm sorry it's not you I'm sorry um what he talked about was what they did so they had three Avenues they had policy they had education and they had Community Resources I believe those were the three different subcommittees that he talked about um they when they first started recognized that there was no title 9 policy and so they they that that subcommittee really like delved into that and worked with

146um I'm assuming the board of the time to develop the policies that we absolutely needed to have um the resources the education um and they worked on getting the training and making sure we had all the trainings um and there's a plethora of of trainings that we do still offer regularly um so that was also discussed um what I brought to the attention of the committee because the question was asked well why are we trying to get rid of this and I said um in the two years that I been on the board um I served on that I I was tasked with that committee um the title n committee my very first year and I looked at the committee members and I said was I ever did you ever see me prior like in

147that time frame and they said no and I said last year were there any meetings and um they said no there weren't any but we had one there was there was one and I said so what what are we doing what is the purpose of the committee we don't need to have a committee for committee sake we have an amazing Title 9 team it's not just Colonel Henry um and what what is the what is the goal and the purpose of the committee um they understood that there was a lot of work in that beginning that the Title Nine committee could do and did do um and we absolutely appreciate the work that they did do do in many instances um and so that was the that was the discussion that was had last night

148um I want to make sure every like other people have opportunity to talk but Mr wbore and then Mr Perry and then and Nam what other members were at this we we had um Dr uh there principles there were two principles Miss skeller was there col Henry was there and Community um Community two community members and then um Mr Perry and myself and Dr BRS that was that was those those were the ones that were present um Mr Perry um I guess want to also as far as um Miss Brad for a motion to exclude the advisory councel I mean I asked everybody last night when I made the motion for that recommendation I said I if I think it's important to keep a uh the trust of the community we are not that many

149years removed from this terrible sex abuse Scandal and um and we don't want to lose that trust so I would like to keep those communication lines open and also um but I said not you know I don't want to just have a like you say a committee for committee sake uh do you think it would bring value and I think uh in the consensus was at least on education and resources that it would and I think Colonel Henry agreed with that assessment would you take that the same way uh Miss Mason that that he was open to it and that he wanted to do it um yes Colonel Henry was was open to you uh Dr Mar I I have I have a few thoughts as you might imagine I would um first of all

150the fact that uh Miss krael did not call a meeting for a year has nothing to do with whether or not there was a need perhaps it was that Miss krabel did not see that there was a need um as far as the people that were at the meeting last night there were representatives from for instance the Carousel Center um and I have had numerous emails uh last tonight uh and this morning that these organizations are confounded upset frustrated they believe there is necessity and they told me that they did speak out and spoke out rather passionately I was not there as you know I've been removed from that policy from that committee temporarily we had a survey from about 3 years ago that showed that there was clear need for more work on an

151educational and a social level um I would be good with breaking down this dissolving this committee if we did another survey and we found out that there was no more issues in our schools but that's not the case Rape Crisis Center Coastal Horizons i' I've heard from a lot of different people new Haner County Education justice of course Dr Barnes mentioned in our last the meeting before and pardon me Dr Barnes if I paraphrase you incorrectly please correct me but having a public facing committee that discusses Title Nine helps the public to understand that we're at work everything that Dr Henry does he does behind closed doors as he needs to and the public does not know all the work that's getting done by having a committee that he comes to and says hey this

152is what's going on these are the numbers of concerns we have these are what's you know what's going on he can't obviously tell in a public meeting confidential information but the public gets to know that we're working at this um I'm glad to hear that he said it so what Dr Barnes I heard you say uh that last meeting was that having the committee and having it be seen by the public actually might prevent Predators from wanting to come and work in our district because they can see that we're working on this and we're not going to permit it I don't understand my colleague across the way here I don't understand why I don't understand the threat of having a committee an advisory committee especially when our community Partners want it our director of Title

1539 is in favor of it what do we who stands to gain by stopping it so I'm not in favor of that motion uh I would rather see that I'm I'm fine with it being an advisory committee I said that during our last meeting you want to make an advisory committee that's fine either way a committee or an advisory committee would have to bring their recommendations to the full board they don't decide anything for us so you know we still have to look at all this what are we afraid of thank you madam chair um part of my uh qu I had a lot of questions of where what the work of the committee actually was and with the lapse of meeting time it didn't mean that title 9 work was not happening um it's

154just as my colleague said when you're talking about investigation of sexual harassment you can't openly discuss that in a committee meeting you're you're not able to have those conversations it was not on the last two agendas to discuss that um and so this is It's a frustrating aspect because there's lots of different components I had um sent in a few suggestions I know we had done a title 9 audit and from the verbiage that you share with me chair Mason that it was titled something different but there was difference in facilities usage between our male and female athletes and so I wanted to hear an update about that of where we were working and how that was going as well as this board gave the opportunity um to Pilot a women's wrestling program at one

155of our high schools and to say is that something we can expand to give that opportunity to all of our females so I understand there's lots of different aspects here but when I was thinking back through the history we didn't have an investigation department Department a title n investigation department um and that is part of the reason why we landed in the predicament that happened years ago so this those things have changed as you said policies have changed um the process of how things are investigated with Fidelity has changed uh because we want to do better I um I'm intrigued by the idea of having an advisory committee I would have to know more I guess to see exactly what again concerns with how does that how does that overlap the work that you can't

156talk about openly in public and it's not not saying that it's a bad idea it's I need more guidance and Clarity of what that looks like for collaboration to be successful for our district so that that's my hesitation from it um so I like the idea of meeting with professionals I I Network a lot in the community and we have a lot of different resources and to make sure that our schools have access to different things and that our counselors and our social workers and our and thus our administrators are aware of the of the resources we have in the community is very important so um with that I just I I need more clarity before we discussed an advisory committee I'd like to I mean I like the idea per se but I I

157need more clarity of what is what is the goal of the advisory committee if if we're not able to discuss some of the Hardline things um when it comes to a sexual harassment investigation publicly so I'm just confused by that so if I might one of the um Carousel Center she re she mentioned a training that had been done um in the past that we no longer do um it was every 3 years Dr Barn do you recall the name of it I wrote it down but I don't have that with me today um but there was a training that was Steward yes Ste um stewards of children is it has the name changed because she indicated that that was a separate that was a separate program so it's things like that things such as

158talking about what resources are available from the carosel center um or within the community um miss vernham you look you look puzzled um that was it was stewards of children um and so that was one of the topics that was brought brought up is discussing what resources are available um that that had been a free training um for staff um there so that would have been the education component and a bit of the the community um relationship component um I'm trying to recall Mr Perry it was it was your suggestion and so I know I had asked a lot of questions last night um so if you could just tell the board uh who would be on it and because you know who would be on it and what would be kind of the the

159task of the of the advisory yeah I think it it would be uh everybody that's currently well the public we not be a official board committee anymore although I guess there would be have to be according to Dr Barnes an ex official member member um uh yeah not a voting member um and uh but then it would be run by Colonel Henry and then everybody who's currently on it could still be on it and uh and it would be talking about the educational and resources things and not about particular cases because obviously you can't go there yeah um and then we we also made it very clear last night that policy is is a board perview um that that is not something that is within their realm at this point um because they did put

160forth those policies already um and they did work on that that's not something that they would they would be focusing on Dr Merrick and then miss Bradford I just wanted to answer one of the uh suggestions here that we can't talk about um investigations no we can't we can't talk about names but during our last meeting before yesterday Dr Henry gave us a report of how many investigations were ongoing what type of Investigations they were and it shows the public what he's doing that he's actually on top of things that the that there we're we're looking at these things um and I think that's critical information on an ongoing basis and yes education and resources uh the the Comm commit members uh when they got the copy of the um survey from 3 years ago

161were all very excited about I can't say all many that that got to me very excited about perhap doing the survey again next year because it's an issue we can't have we the the survey showed that girls were more than two to one likely to be uh feeling harassed or discriminated against um so is that getting better that is something that as a board we need to be concerned about um and I think this committee is the place to do it as far as I can tell Dr Henry has his uh uh Colonel Henry sorry has his hands full in investigations and responding uh I don't know that there's as much education and Outreach done uh by that department I might be wrong um Dr bars go ahead I can speak to the education Outreach

162part we do numerous trainings every year first off every staff member is required to review things like DD report and sexual harassment things like that in the beginning of every year we also do trainings for principes assistant principles new teacher training when the custodians meet we can do it with them so we do upwards of I I don't want to I don't want to give a number but Jen would you say 10 to 15 a year just reminder ones in general I would remind the board as well that if you shift this in policy from a board committee to an advisory committee most of the the Committees that are in your policy you guys can I mean personally what I would do is sort of do a hard reset and invite everybody back to the

163table again and refresh it and re renew it but you can also say in your policy we'd like to see these kinds of people in the committee so the board does have sort of the purview to say hey we want to make sure there's a principal we want to make sure there's a parent we want to make sure there's a Community activ member you know things like that so that's something you guys can do within the policy as well and most of your advisory committees have some sort of guidance for me as who you'd like to see a part of the pile and that I he in paraphrasing brf um two things looking at the minutes from the only meeting um in 24 um they went over the history and so on I I would

164imagine similar to what they did last night um but the stated goals at the time um were to when when the committee was formed were to get into compliance and to hire the title 9 coordinator we've done that you gave us a charge look at committees see how we can reduce the number from 20 to or 23 down I don't see the point in replacing a committee with a committee it doesn't it doesn't achieve the goal um last night's meeting I didn't count a whole lot of members of the public here but you probably had equal number of Staff here and our resources in these people's time are valuable to me I don't want to bring them out for meetings that they don't have to because when they get done with this meeting they have

165to go do their day's work and that's not fair so you task us to to to and I have a couple others you know to shrink some committees so that was what the the point of my motion the idea of a biannual review with the title nine director is awesome he' bring I have the statistics from the last time he gave us those statistics of all the cases and whatever whatever without naming names that was great information but so I I I believe that should stay in there but to add a committee to take away a committee doesn't work for me um just to make sure that we're using our time wisely we do have um several more committees to kind of work through uh as well as the AI discussion and I want to

166make sure that we have enough time to do all of that um so miss Justice if you could keep it brief and then we will then we will vote on the motion I'll give three an advisory committee I mean Advisory Board isn't the same as a committee you're not going to have to have everybody up here from central office spending their time um I can't emphasize enough how important this is to the community somebody over there said that this is a this is going to help us the community Buy in to what we're doing that we're doing the right thing I saw from I saw from 2018 forward the horror of what we went through is not done there's still court cases is there's still unfortunately a movie there's going to be a lot of

167stuff still happening and we got to have the the community buy into to us that is so important um and I don't know where col Henry got that there wasn't I know that Kelly was in jail when we formed that title 9 committee that he was already in jail he'd been in jail for a couple months so and it was a pretty big horror show and I just don't want to revisit that in any way shape or form that's that's my fear all right um Miss we have a motion to uh dissolve the title 9 committee and have by anual not by annual twice a year um review from the director review from the director of Title 9 UM Miss buy will you call the rle order so didn't we have an original motion that

168came from committee that would be and that would be that was a recommendation that was not a motion so I mean that was not a motion that was a recommendation all right so I'd like then before we take that vote then I would like to make an amendment to the sir we are we are at time add the committee so advisory committee so you are making an amendment to her motion cuz she she didn't want the advisory thing so you are making an amendment to her motion yes add the advisory okay so the amendment is to add yes can you make an amendment that subtracts and ads I don't think you can you didn't make an amendment you made a motion sir we're asking for the attorney's advice sir I thought that a motion was

169made by Mr Perry to make those three things that was a recommendation from the from the title n committee amended that recation no she made the motion no I made a motion I'm amending it to she didn't keeping from their recommendation the B anual but not not keeping from the recommendation the adice so Mr Perry wants to add amendment to that motion by he wants to adding The Advisory reversing my saying delete the advisory you can't she didn't delete anything because there was no there was no motion is that a um gentlemen I'm trying to get clarity um so is it possible is that Amendment possible if it negates the original M Bradford's motion stands on his own Mr Perry made a motion to amend that okay that is what needs to be voted on

170okay all right so the amended the amendment is to add um Title 9 as an advisory committee Miss buoy will you call the role I'm sorry was there a second oh was there a second a second I'll second okay there was a second thank you okay Miss Justice yes Mr will deore yes Miss Bradford no Dr Merrick yes Mr Perry yes M barnhard no and Miss Mason um just a pause Mr R War what did you say you said no okay thank you just keeping track um I say no so that Amendment fails um 4 to three going back to the original motion to dissolve the tit online committee um Miss buoy will you call the RO and have a by annual review thank you would you please call the Mr Perry I Dr Merrick

171nope Miss braford yes Mr will boore yes Miss Justice no Miss Barnhart yes and Miss Mason yes that passes 5-2 all right continuing on in the um committees Aces which would be what they title it but that's our EC committee that is not I consider that an Untouchable um because we do not run that one it's a liais on position um so I'm just going to kind of find find all of the liaison positions so Aces gifted advisory uh I believe sha is a liaison um Soil and Water is a liaison yeah well technically we appointed ass supervisor but yes from our it's a little different uh parks and garden yes okay and Legion um let's see CTE that is it's advis okay all right so is required because of the per I mean please

172so we we we don't touch CTE as well all right um so what remains that reduces it a lot um oh educator of the year we can't that's that's an Untouchable as well um all right so uh calender committee we we we we kind of need that one too so we have to keep that one um so who needs a calendar for school yeah um so the next one on my list is curriculum Miss Bradford um thank you madam chair having been on the curriculum committee the last two years um that meets four times a year I I move that we dissolve well no I move that we restructure the curriculum committee to a standing Committee of the board comprised of three board members with the meeting scheduled to be a minimum of every other

173month could go to monthly if there was a whole bunch of stuff to be done but that's already doubling you know um what we didn't do last year um but to make it a a standing board committee versus what it's been um Dr Hamilton knows my opinion on this we just we just haven't done anything with it um so that's my motion so to make it okay is there a second for that all right uh discussion Dr Merrick if you only met four times last year then it's obvious to me that you don't need to meet more often than that because you didn't meet last year I think we just heard that logic being presented a moment ago so restructure yeah no what we heard before was that the title 9 committee didn't meet last

174year therefore it's not necessary if you only met four times last year then it's obvious you don't need to meet more often than that um I am new to the curriculum committee but with everything that is going on um and all of the changes coming down from the federal level um I think it's definitely more important that this that this committee meets more frequently um curriculum is absolutely integral into the educational system that we are tasked with um ensuring is running and so I think that you know increasing the the meeting times increasing the number of board members even to have more feedback um I think that's a good idea um and I would actually um if it's all right love to hear Dr Hamilton's thoughts on adding more time because I know that that's

175more time on you so thank you Miss Mason so since I've been in this role we had just recently adopted new curriculum uh resources to support the North Carolina standard course of study that we do teach so really our curriculum is the standard course of study anything else will be resources that support the implementation in student learning for the North Carolina standard course of study so we do have the new curriculum in place that um that most recently I think has been adopted and that we've been using for the last two years so the things that have maybe been potentially a topic of interest for that kind of committee right now would be the local history information that does also still support our standard course of study because we do have local history standards we

176have uh quite a bre of resources available currently to our teachers for that including topics that have been discussed here earlier this evening so I would just need the board would just need to determine what those conversations would be more frequently um we are new into our curriculum so I don't see that we'd be creating new curricular resources for our teachers at this time right Miss Justice I was on the curriculum committee under Dr Smith then under Dr facon uh I used to be curricular head in a whole school district um and I've taught for many years we get our curriculum from the state it's standard course of study there is nothing mysterious about any of us we don't need to be meeting every other month in my opinion um I I am excited about

177the fact that there is a new push we just talked about it about using use u local history to fill out some of the curriculum that the state requires for our students um and I'm going to be real straightforward here this is this is a sad thing that outside forces it's very political seems to think the curriculum is somehow or shaping our children's future in in some way that's going to propagandize them and harm them if you look at the state curriculum it gets boring you can cross your eyes it's if you don't understand what's going on if you're not happy about the subject or thrilled about it but it is what it is and it doesn't need to be political and it does need to be what's good for the kids as far as

178knowing knowledge and it is pretty darn um straightforward the people develop it come from universities across the country it's it's it's needed in order for our kids to make good decisions in all areas science math Social Studies English uh but the professionals are the ones that need to focus on it not us board members having a meeting every other month trying to control something that's not happening there's no indoctrination going on if teachers could indoctrinate kids that have them come to school on time and every day keep it within the realm okay well but I mean that's just what's important what's important is the kids learning understand um Mr Perry um as I I agree with uh this motion curriculum is what we do so I think meeting more often is a good thing even

179though I do recognize that there's probably some level of hypocrisy in saying that worried about a title 9 uh committee using more staff time and then increasing this at the same time but I still think it's a good idea it's worth doing so I support it um well before I have you um Mr W deore or Miss Barnhart did you have anything you wanted to add to make sure everybody has an opportunity to speak on this Miss Barnhart thank you madam chair I'm happy to speak um when we're talking about being able to support our staff one of the very first decisions we had to make was passing the curriculum it was like the first night we were sworn in um and what was presented to us and the justification piece and we were able

180to see the content prior to passing it was the scaffolding supports and I asked a lot of questions that I'm sure my colleague would also have the same kind of thought process about when you're discussing curriculum and being able to say how are we supporting the resources we have a lot of different programs we have a lot of different pathways and saying things like having an oral history database to help amplify what our um teachers can do it's not saying I'm going to create the content um although I'd love to join up with the math colleagues and do that um but looking looking through at the lens of saying how can we streamline accessibility to our staff how can we create that support system so we have that quality content for all levels of scaffolding

181so I don't I don't see this as a as a bad idea I see this as saying how are we coming together as a district to support our staff in a way that ultimately we had to approve the curriculum and there's been feedback since I've been on the board mixed feelings of the curriculum that we adopted that we were told the staff wanted right that was the first decision that we made and so I I think having that open line of dialogue helps to hear how it's being implemented the pacing structure that has been change and I'm grateful for the leadership to make those adjustments because we do receive a lot of feedback and so being ingrained in the process is not taking over the process it's being familiarized so that we can help support

182um so I I see this as a potential opportunity um to be able to work collaboratively with our staff and to support them Mr rort did you want to add anything but I probably won take quite as long as my colleague over there um you know as a former principal um curriculum is what we do that's what the school system is all about that's what we we do from uh prek all the way up to the Early College High School um and it is very very vital that we know what's going on you know with with our curriculum uh and be part of that uh that that process so um I think that the uh Avail availability of our staff is very important and keeping them um you know not from meeting here all the

183time makes a lot of sense also but I do think uh that's one of the main things we do you know we we do policies the school system does curriculum so that's what they're all about Dr Barnes thank you um I think for me I I think the board and the superintendent and the staff are working very collaboratively together so I'm not concerned about that sort of collaboration I do just want to posit maybe if it isn't broke don't fix it m and maybe we at least put this off and see what our what our growth data looks like what our retention looks like what how after two years of full implementation with W wisdom what are we seeing happen I almost wonder if you maybe don't want to put the cart in front of

184the horse uh Dr Merck and then miss Bradford and then we're going to need to close this this understand and I try to keep it short um I agree with my colleagues who said this is what we do and I take it that the Wii is the school district I don't believe it's the board's job to dictate curriculum we just got done with our last meeting saying hey you know what we trust Dr Barnes and we trust his staff and our job is to get out of the way more and uh I think that is important to have oversight uh and that's what we do as a board but I don't know that we need to meet every month or even every other month to watch over someone who we've just voted to to take

185from a uh interim to a regular full position so uh I say get out of the way and let our district do the work unless we find that that they're not doing it well and I I don't I see no reason to say that so M Bradford let's just okay um because we have 19 minutes left in the meeting and several other committees that we need to make sure that we cover very briefly it's very easy let the teachers teach this isn't our job they know what they're doing they professionals okay the motion is to restructure the curriculum committee to a uh standing board committee and meet every other month with two additional members three board members just right now just as well there's currently one board member on there but additional additional two board

186members Miss buoy will you call the role Miss Justice no Mr wildbore no M Bradford yes Mr Perry yes Dr Merrick no Miss Barnhart no and Miss Mason um yes but that fails for 4 to 3 um so as it stands right now curriculum will remain the same um Head Start start uh we don't have that Grant at this point um I don't I didn't know what we should do with that particular committee I know Miss Barnhart you've been part of that one in the past so I didn't know if you had any advice or thoughts on Head Start quickly thank you m chair I have said on multiple occasions that we need to change this to prek liaison we have multiple Pathways that we service our prek students I think we need to do

187that but I'm going to make a motion to postpone this board committee discussion to next month so we can finish the agenda item all right any discussion on the postponement okay make sure I'm writing this down somewhere there it is um all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed that passes um all right moving on to um the facility ad hoc committee um if we can keep this are we was that part of that motion or was it I was this part of the I mean for clarity yes Madam chair it's under the board committee discussion which I just made a motion to move to next agenda making sure that we're all right um so the last thing on the agenda is the AI pilot um so I we have on here

188um what we have is uh is the the PowerPoint um that Evan gave us um so so I will open the discussion up on the AI pilot Mr Perry and M I just going to limit my comments to one set of comments and then I'm not going to chime in I think we've had a lot of discussion on this I'm with ourselves we know where we are uh most of us know where we are in my opinion AI is a tool it's like a gun can be used for good or it can be used for bad it can be used responsibly and it can be used irresponsibly I'm not opposed to AI in our schools in some context uh but we have to take safeguards and guard rails uh there to ensure that the liberty

189of our students doesn't get infringed upon so we need to proceed with caution and I don't believe that you know those safeguards are in place at the state level we don't unlike other states we don't have legislation on the ethical use of a I we have we we've also had an amendment to the parents bard of rights that allows school security systems to uh track the biometric uh data of our students and even though this system says we're going to turn those features off why is that in there unless they eventually want us to turn it on and I would like to see uh those changes made and then for for them the SCP scrap this scrap this current asked the general assembly I appreciate Senator Lee's uh concern about security out our schools but

190we have to go back and kind of go back to the drawing board in my opinion I mean I would love to say you know this maybe even a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the rights of our students I I do not believe this system out of the box the way that's been presented to us which seems to vary is going provide very much in the way of benefits to our school system and opens Pandora's Box to all sorts of things down the line there somebody that I really respect texted me earlier and sometimes we agree and sometimes we disagree but she made a point well why worry about the wh ifs but the wh ifs are important our Founders were thinking when they drafted up the Bill of Rights they they went through all the wh

191ifs you you know you read The Federalist Papers all a bunch of wh ifs because they were thinking ahead nobody thought that anybody was going to violate their first through 10th Amendment rights but they wanted it down because they wanted to take those protections before they started a new government we need to take those protections for our students and for our parents and you know I just don't I believe also that we if we I I can probably speak for everybody that nobody was impressed with everan as a vendor and this is this this this vendor is being forced Upon Us instead of us being able to pick the vendor that's best for our school that provides the best capabilities for our school so I would push back and say you know what uh thank

192you Senator Lee but you know if you'd like to rework this we would reconsider it next year but for now my vote is no um I Believe Miss Barnhart was next thank you chair Mason um reflecting on this I I understand we have um a lot of different Notions out there and there was a change in the technical Corrections which changed the scope of work and it limited who was able to apply and so with that I think that there is some reflection on implementation um but I have to go back to the why why was this created and I called principal Sutton and I said Mr Sutton I have to ask you about one of probably the hardest days of your life at the shooting at New Hanover High School back in 2021 and

193I said and I don't want you to relive every detail but what I want to talk about is the takeaway of changes that we want to make so that this hopefully never happens again in our school system he spoke of the response time that he could be able to actively um respond to a crisis situation he talked about the need to be able to en real time communicate with his staff to take a headcount of who was where including students and the reunification piece one of the things that came out of that day was the hiring of Chuck Silverstein and talking about preventative me measures and different things that we do in protocols we have good protocols and procedures when our teachers find it they know what to do they know how to do it

194and so what has what the scope of discussion has come is now we have this one company and it comes back down to me of the practicality of what's happening because the scary thing when we hear the words AI is that robots are taking over our schools and that's unfortunately just not true the AI component of this pilot what it would do it would send an alert notification it's utilizing our local cameras on our local server and it would send it to the core administrators at a building to say hey you need to look at this area they would respond and be able to potentially close a door that got left open by accident they would be able to approach a child that potentially has a weapon on him or her in giving time in

195a crisis situation is the difference of a circumstance that nobody wants to see the ending to of the worst case scenario that we came really close to that day back in 2021 so then the flip side of this is Evan is partnered with raptor and what Raptor does and that they are in tons of school districts across across the country they are in active response situation that are skilled in M making sure that active communication piece is there and the reunification piece I have friends and I have I have administrators and their bravery and I'm going to commend them and I'm sorry to relive this partial of their life but sharing with me that that was the worst thing that ever happened not being able to account for kids the length of time while the

196parents were in their worst nightmare and that's the part of raptor of this pilot program that what we would utilize is to be help with that reunification piece to know who is your guardian that you go with and that I can account for you and know you're safe because that's our job as the school system so I I I understand the frustration because we initially had a scope of work and that scope changed a few months ago with the technical correction so I don't want to be Allin with all of the technology that was originally listed with evidon of their capabilities I do not want to utilize the facial recognition software because I understand the concern nor do I want to see that be implemented but to get a notification heads up text to our

197admin so they could potentially respond to a dangerous situation I absolutely want to have that capability and so looking at this I think that if we can redefine the scope of work to talk about the alignment that we need to see for our cameras to meet the specs that evident has already defined we would not be implementing we would not have the funding to implement this in every single one of our schools but I think we could have Target focus of the secondary schools so that we can equip our admin to be more responsive and have active communication in a crisis situation and so that that is where I'm at tonight with this um we have already passed the deadline for the general assembly this funding was supposed to be in contract by January 15th

198so if if this is not the will of the board to move forward and I like I said I believe the scope needs to change from the initial RFP that was um initiated with evident but if we're not in favor of this then the general assembly is in session and have the ability to take the $3 million back if we do not utilize it in a safety format for our students so for me um moving forward with different protocols in place I'm in favor of this thank you madam chair uh Miss um I'm just going to note we have about eight minutes left and I think that there are at least four or five people that want to talk um and I want to ensure that we all have the opportunity to say what we

199need to say um I uh will make a motion to extend our time 10 minutes for five people 15 so 15 I'm G to say 15 go um okay uh all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed passes passes six to one well uh Miss Bradford was next the minute you started speaking I have my hand up Ian oh I'm sorry I didn't I'm sorry I must have been appreciate okay I wish that we didn't live in a world that was so full of hate and I wish that we didn't live in a world where student bring guns and knives to school I wish we didn't live in a world where three students in our classroom and beat up another kid okay but the world is getting more and more violent and

200we need to put every safety protocol that we can give every tool schol to our staff that we can because this is all about protecting our kids and our staff so that they can learn and grow evil is real and to not do everything we possibly can to keep our kids safe in school I just can't do that so I'm going to hold my nose on some of these parts but I move that we accept the pilot program safety Grant to implement upgrades to our existing school safety system including cameras that integrate AI technology beginning in the high schools and the middle schools not activating the facial recognition features do you need it again why are we Mo it's fine we need a motion um and there is a second so um I believe Dr

201Merrick and then Mr W deore so I want to acknowledge the impassioned please of my colleague Senator Lee I mean um Miss U Miss barnhard um but please don't we have how many letters did we get from our parents how many people came to our meeting I have only heard one person from the public say that they were in favor of this and I have I have gotten so many personal emails I've had so many personal conversations as passionate as my colleagues are believe me the community is every bit as passionate I had ho high hopes for this when I first heard about it um nothing that evident brought gave me confidence all the cronyism from the state legislature did not give me confidence the idea of taking taxpayer money and putting it into a

202system that they even say well we really can't tell if they have a gun well we really can't tell if they're having a fight well then what are we doing this for and there are so many negative potentials from this I would like to revisit again if we get a chance with a more reputable company with better technology and as Mr my colleague over here has said once we have a policy on AI I think there is a lot to be said that it could work for us but not in this situation mror thank you I wrote down some notes because I knew we're going to vote discuss this and vote on it I think we live at an interesting time this is a vote that will uh like many before it will have impacts

203on our students and our faculty alike General statute 115 c307 directs that the first of the listing of responsibilities of teachers is to maintain order and discipline I agree with my colleague over there we did hear from 23 uh community members that were in that meeting we also heard from the leaders of our schools our principles in the group that I was in every single one of them recommended we move ahead with the pilot helping to keep our students and staff safe save now I understand we can rewrite that that that there's a possibility we can rewrite the scope of the work and use some of the money in the grant to upgrade our camera systems throughout the school s uh School District excuse me so we can direct the use of our funds to

204help keep our students safer recently we heard from our other stakeholders our community members 23 of them at the end of the day cameras are a one are wonderful if they're watched otherwise they're simply a tool to see what happened and deal with the perpetrator after the incident there was a fear when we reopened schools there was a fear from some when we took off the masks and there is fear from some that AI is not a tool but a monster waiting to take over our legislators seem to think it's worth the money our principles agree and looking ahead the advice I'm going to follow the advice of our school leaders our principes and our central office leaders and to close the brief part that I'm I'm going to speak about on the at the

205February 11th Paris AI Summit our vice president vice president JD Vance had the following to say about AI the Trump Administration believes that AI will have countless revolutionary applications in economic Innovation job creation National Security health care and free expression and Beyond thank you m Jon uh Miss Justice um yes listening to everybody we also listen to evidon both of their especially their second presentation was contradictory to the first many things um which and the company itself is going bankrupt in some parts of the world and it literally is not even an American company Raptor you're right I actually did the work the Raptor does now we used to have to put the packages together in order for if a shooter somebody came in but that can be done separately from evidon and this situation

206it's very obvious this is being pushed by certain people we weren't given a choice to actually have other opportunities I'm not afraid of AI my my oldest son is a software developer for AI the future is amazing but this particular company is not adequate uh I understand what the principal said I used to be one staring at those screens on Friday afternoon or during the day because you have to be reactive you don't have time to be proactive because we're so understaffed in other world but this is not the solution as I think was uh Dr mer was saying it doesn't recognize guns it doesn't really recognize fights um like the fight that did happen over there at Laney almost immediately SRO were on it and they were there because the teacher communicated immediately the

207situation at New Hanover I was here then uh the kids took plenty oh can you hear me sorry about that the kids took plenty of videos of what went on that child immediately disappeared into the streets and even with um evon's AI situation we couldn't have stopped that uh in fact the biggest problem with that was and we've learned from it was we were very unorganized and did the reun reunication with the parents improperly that was on the district Evan on and rap Raptor might have helped some but now we know better and so if it were to happen again it'd be a whole lot different scenario so all of these arguments that you're using are valid but this company isn't and the thing that scares me the most because I was really leaning towards

208because I've talked to principles I want them to have the opportunity to keep the kids safe the teachers defin everybody does but the thing that really bothered me the most was when they actually said there's about five or six functions that they swore we won't be using now but who down the line knows what's going to happen with that that can be turned on by other leaders not us we not may not be on the board for not Dr Barnes he may not be the superintendent who knows what could happen down the line under different leadership as far as those five functions that definitely impinge on the privacy and freedoms of our not just our students but our staff thank you so I'm going to take the opportunity to say some things um when I

209first heard about this I was actually pretty excited thinking of sorry keeping my kids safe and so I dove in I dove into this I did research I dug I talked to so many people and I listened to the principles and I I was like this is amazing these principles have this buyin this could work this could be phenomenal and then as I watched that that town hall presentation from Evan it made me pause because I thought about the conversation that I had had with the Davidson County chair and I've had this conversation with board members so this is not new information to them they they have heard me say all this I spoke with the um Davidson County Board of Ed chair prior to their vote and what had been brought to my attention

210was concerns about the security and so when I spoke with the chair over at Davidson he said to me without being prompted in any way shape or form what we are hoping to do is vote with a contingency that Evan has a third-party audit to make sure that the systems are safe to make sure that things are secure that there's no ability to have a data breach all of that and so that was awesome they passed that and and then moving on we had this town hall and it made me go back and say wait a minute what's happening in Davidson and so I called him again and said how is it going how is this third- party audit going how is this implementation going it's not implemented they voted on it beginning of February

211I know it takes a little bit of time I know things take time however um from that particular individual I was told that initially evident agreed to this third- party audit um and when it was there was an attempt to implement it there was push back from Evan that is a massive red flag for me I can't tell you about technology I am as naive as they come when it comes to AI I cannot tell you the details and all of the specs of every little thing but I can tell you that when somebody is unwilling to have a closer look that makes me question their integrity and their transparency we as a board as a community as a district have been working so hard to be more transparent to be a a community a

212district that has that Integrity we have worked to rebuild that and it bothers me to no end to the point where I lose sleep to partner with somebody who doesn't have that integrity who doesn't have that accountability I have gone back and forth on this for a while now um like I said I started out really excited about it and now I'm kind of feeling this tug that this company is is not trustworthy it's not trustworthy I want to keep our kids safe I have heard every single board member say we want to keep our kids safe we just put in we just heard from our superintendent about budget requests for how we can keep our kids more safe and we're we're asking for these things that you know hopefully we will get um I

213I understand it's a lot of money I understand that we could use it I understand all that I just don't know if I am willing to sacrifice or plug my nose and move with a with a company that is not transparent um and that's that's kind of where my head is at um um oh my gracious we have a call the question and we have an amendment so gentlemen sort of came at the same time I think the board chair have to decide she wants to address we have 8 minutes Mr wbore well um I think your point is very valid so I'd like to make an amendment that we uh do as Davidson did and ask for a third party audit of evidon second um ideally I would love that um but if they're

214not if they're they're having trouble in Davidson I have to wonder if they're going to give us trouble as well I guess that's the I guess that's that's the concern that I have Miss Justice yes I'm I'm I was going to say same thing you are let's move on let's go ahead and do this it's obvious and they are they're going bankrupt in what other countries are in they're not even in this country in K through 12 school if they were a reliable country company this would be a whole whole different matter but it isn't and this scares me we're talking about $3 million and and we're talking about a company that can't even keep itself together Raptor's a different area but they're together you can't separate them uh M bernhart thank you madam chair

215I think um if the contingency I I support having the contingency moving forward with an audit to say that this is what we're agreeing to and also checking into theany to look into the concerns that my colleagues are saying so I think that this is um a good compromise to look at how can we utilize this to better equip our staff and our facilities um for this there I listen to the town hall and I know that that was one of the things to break away from the um from the overhead sister company of it to see so this is um and if and if they give us push back and guess what we passed it with a motion contingent on that so it's we're not on the hook for anything if they're not willing

216to do it okay um so we need to vote on the amendment first and that is to um have a contingency to have a third-party audit um Miss buoy will you call the role Mr Perry no Dr Merrick no Miss Bradford yes Mr Vore yes Miss Justice no Miss barnhard yes and Miss Mason no that fails 4 to three the original motion was to oh just erased it Miss Bradford can you restate the original motion yes ma'am um I we accept the pilot safety Grant to implement upgrades to our existing school safety system including cameras that integrate AI technology beginning in the high schools and the middle schools not activating the facial recognition features right U Miss buy will you call the ru Miss Justice no Mr wbore yes Miss Bradford yes Dr Merrick no

217Mr Perry no Miss barnhard yes and Miss Mason no uh that motion fails um move weour second um all those in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed we are [Music] adjourned do not