NHCS Board of Ed. Agenda Review Meeting | May 28, 2024

001C okay we're going to start up uh with our agenda meeting thank you all for being here today uh I do want to remind everyone uh or thank everyone for uh all those that serve for Memorial day yesterday um for everyone that has lost someone or those that have just served we just want to you know take a moment to think at that those wonderful people that that served and gave their lives and gave their time uh for us so let just have a moment to think about that thank you uh as we go forth I also would like to mention uh this is we're right in the middle of graduation we have had some wonderful graduations to this point we congratulate all the graduates uh we will have some more graduations coming up soon

002so uh very excited to be part of that one of the best parts of our job is to see these young people go through school successfully and then graduate so uh just really want to wish them all the very very best in their Futures uh and at this point I'm going to turn around and ask Miss Buie if she will call the role good afternoon Pete wildor present Melissa Mason here Jessie barnhard here Pat Bradford I am here Stephanie crille here h mcmanis and Stephanie Walker here all right thank you board members for being here uh at this point we will have our invitation that will be brought today remotely from pastor Matt Morehead of Crossway Chapel um we'll do that this time hi my name is Matt Morehead and I'm one of the pastors

003of cross Chapel of Wilmington and just wanted to thank you all for the way you serve our County and area grateful for each one of you and privilege to be able to pray for your your meeting today uh God I do want to thank you uh for each person represented in this uh in this meeting in this leadership team uh for the Board of Education I'm thankful for the role that they play in serving the students and families and individuals in our County and uh got to ask for your your blessing on this time today in their meeting I thank you for uh the ways in which you have guided and strengthened them uh during this complicated and difficult season and I pray that you continue to Grant wisdom where they lack it uh your

004word says uh that it's good to give thanks to you uh for all the good things you have done and your word also says that that where we lack wisdom that we should come to the one who provides uh the wisdom that we just simply do not have on our own um God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob uh and so we we uh we ask on their behalf that you grant them wisdom where they lack it that you grant them Unity uh where they need it uh where they um need vision for the future even if that future is just a couple steps in front of them that you grant them the the vision to see what needs to be done and how to lead well how to serve well and I pray that you'd

005strengthen them for that task but thank you for the teachers uh for the administrators and for the the board as well and just the the way in which they serve and Lead um the education system in our County and I ask that you go before them and in this time that you truly superintend their time that there be a humility graciousness and the way that they're able to operate with one another that would would help them to effectively serve um our County thank you for your kindness I thank you that you put you put people in positions of leadership and service in order uh to benefit um our city and our County and I pray that that their leadership would do just that uh thank you for your kindness to us grateful that you are

006ultimately the one that we trust in and pray that we do that more and more each moment and each day in Jesus name amen we ask Miss Mason to lead us in the pledge Miss Mason our pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much all right at this point I will entertain a motion to approve the agenda motion and a second and discussion hearing none all in favor please signify by saying I I all opposed pass 60 we will do as we have in the past again we've asked Miss crille to keep up with time thank you crille for doing that uh we will be going through each item

007if there's one that we need to discuss further or have a question about please stop me and we will do so this is again for next Tuesday we'll start out with call the order roll call approval the agenda invocation presentation of colors national anthem M Walker has agreed to do our Pledge of Allegiance Miss Walker doing that uh approval of the minutes recognitions we have a lot of 10 minutes does that sound about right sir yeah s okay yes you're moving along so fast you completely passed I wanted to um to look at the agenda for a minute and to consolidate um so we just we just whizzed right on by it if we could go back to that please to which one the approval of the agenda okay I'm there um I'd like to

008go ahead and take two the two legal items for the consent agenda and move them to the legal item under old business B1 B2 and B3 under um what is that okay well let's 11 let's let's go ahead and get when we get to that point why don't we do that okay I just thought it was an agenda thing to move them down yeah we will be like I said when we get to that point we'll we'll stop and we'll that way there we're not kind of jumping all around all right so recognition we're good for 10 minutes okay student voice we've alloted 10 minutes teacher voice 10 minutes superintendent report yes ma'am you know who we're having for Teacher voice it it was on the thing okay yeah it was just yeah it changes

009okay I didn't look at it since then I'll go back and look I'm sorry Miss Harris from Miss Harris from hog high school okay I can look that up okay uh superintendent 4 five minutes sir yes Mr chair yes ma'am um I move that we instruct the superintendent and the board attorney Mr Vogel to be ready to begin the annual superintendent evaluation process at our next meeting in June thank you Mr chairman to the end of June no our June monthly meeting oh one that's not when it starts it starts it's supposed to start in April but well no what happens is all the collection starts I never give you anything in April it all you'll have all of your information just as normal in July because I have to wait for all the data

010to come in I don't have any data we had to have all of our well I made a motion we had to have all of our evaluations was it but I will second it we have first and the second now we have discussion so we can discuss it we had to have all of our stuff done by the by the end of June all of our stuff because remember I was sick I was sick and I couldn't get it done and I was the only one that didn't have it done it's July if you'll go back you'll look it was when we switched over attorney remember and um Mr vogle had to finish what durington and Smith had had started it's always been with all due respect I remember clearly I was sick at the

011end of June and I was supposed to be done by June I was the only one that hadn't finished and I felt really badly about it so I stand on that recollection do have a motion yes so um this is kind of out of the blue and I'm wondering where Miss Bradford where if you could ask Miss Bradford where she recommends that we insert this into this agenda as we're going through the agenda and we're up to the chair superintendent report and the board chair report we're not up to a spot where we would insert a superintendent anything because that would be a closed session matter anyway right right so I'm I'm confused as to why we're why this was interjected right here right now this br speak that just a few had superintendent so

012this had superintendent felt like they went together so did you ask for that ahead of time to be on the agenda like we're supposed to do six days ahead of time no ma'am okay so the chair doesn't have to sorry may I just ask for clarity Mr chairman are we are we saying that the process will be started on Tuesday or saying to for him to start collecting the materials I just I want Clarity on what the motion is prior to my decision right well I think and I don't want to speak for you Dr F but I think that you know in our meeting this morning you had mentioned that you would have that all together for our agenda meeting at the end of Mee basically a month from now yeah so it'll be

013all together in in the the June 28th or whatever that June 25th I believe it is June 28th okay M Walker tough question so we sorry we're using the state tool still correct and it's it's it's my understanding that it has to begin like we we don't start it until the superintendant fills it out first he does his and then we do it I know we had I think when the new board came in I think we had maybe maybe it was me that harped on June 30th is the date because I feel like the process I think according to our policy maybe not starts in April and then we're supposed to but I get it but I know we've been doing a little bit later um so if we get on the agenda are

014we going to just discuss like what would we discuss I would say it would be a closed session um Mr Bo if you want to jump in too uh on this make sure if I special I speak correctly that it would be a closed session discussion uh in June uh he would present his um his own self- evaluation uh and then we would go from there he would give us his um different uh what are those things called the goals the goals self evaluation self valuation but the the artifacts artifacts thank you there's the word artifacts and then we would go in and we could actually do our own ratings in July is that correct Mr bog yeah that's right that kind of um evaluation work you know occurred closed session because it's a Personnel

015matter if I'm not mistaken though I thought I thought Miss Bradford was requesting that the superintendent kind of address the status of it and his super superintendent report next Tuesday I thought that was her motion it's not what I heard and Mr chairman I will amend to add the June monthly board meeting closed session that's going to be next week's close session close session okay yes ma'am very oh wa so we're talking about this on next Tuesday that's what she's this motion but I thought we already heard that we're not getting any artifacts until June 30 until June 28th so why are we talking about it at closed session I'm not certain I understand that we we haven't had a second so I will second what well she amended it okay yes thank you you

016allowed to amend your motion I I had I'm looking at um um I'm trying to find it in policy but I seem to recall that um and I could be incorrect that this needs to be done prior to the start of the next school year my question would be are we referring to um because we do have year- round schools are we referring to when they start their school year or when the traditional schools start their school year that would be my question and Mr Bogel back to you on that there's no there's no set rule on that I mean obviously the sooner the better I do think the board probably did more work last year year in June that is being contemplated to do this June um though I didn't begin until July 1st

017last year but I inherited a lot of work that had already been done in June so it's up to the board how it wants to proceed so I would like to propose um that we before we do our part the evaluation that we have a training session because it was kind of painfully obvious last time that we didn't understand all of us collectively um did not understand the tool and how it worked and what it meant I mean and and even though those there are some of us that have been through that training several times a refresher is never bad um because this is a big tool and it's a big job so if we could commit between now and the time time that we get Dr fa's um artifacts that we get some training

018on the tool that we are using the and it doesn't have to be long um just remember we've had like two professional you know two Consultants come in and do that ncsba could do that you know for us too you know free of charge um so I would like to I don't think that has to be a motion but I would like to get some consensus that we do that no problem with that all right we have a motion and second any other further discussion on that U could you repeat the motion again because I just want to make sure I know what I moveed to instruct the superintendent and the board attorney Mr Vogel to be ready to begin the annual superintendent evaluation process next week at our June monthly board meetings closed session

019period okay Miss Bo would you please call the RO Miss Bradford yes Miss crille yes Miss barnhard yes Miss Walker yes Mr wildor yes and Miss Mason yes okay that passes 60 we will start that process next Tuesday we also will have a closed session for another purpose um that I will share with you in close session so that we will have two reasons to do that okay carrying back to our by the way this is I love this we need to keep this very brightly because I can't I can't not like I go find it I love it being right right there in front of me um okay so uh my my report uh then we have the call to audience consensus items go go ahead I have bcde questions on so okay let's

020start with B so my question on B was just why the difference two of them had option b and one of them had option A so just why they were marked different with those options okay and how that compares to the traditional high schools of evalu evaluating that school which was most okay that' be you and your on you just smiling at me I appreciate items b i you that's okay so I was looking through and um two two of them had option b one of them had option A and so I was curious why and how this compares the option A how does that compare to our Traditional High Schools being evaluated with that so option A is the traditional me method so there is no good so they will be compared to our

021Traditional High Schools yes okay so option b basically is um a modified option and basically what it says is it's broken down into three different compon components and it is student persistance student achievement and student growth so it is different so the student persistance is something we don't have with the other options so basically they look at um the number of students that start enroll um complete and finish enrolling in school graduation rate and things to that nature because you're looking at alternative settings so with the option b that is something that is different there and they look at the different components with that factor so that is 20% students achievement is 20% and student growth is 60% and that option move over here to Mr badford you want to go through BC and D

022or we have let's let's say let's say on B let's say on B why don't we just start at a you know and and anybody else have a question on have go ahead Miss Mas um related to that has um Mosley always been option A yes so they've always been evaluated with the traditional let me let me say for the last several years they have been option A I can I can research and see um when they change but I'll have to get back with you if you want to know that but yes for the last several years they've been option A okay thank you on B yes gra I thought we had a lot of discussion that we about where most fit in as an alternative school and that we were going to be

023um that we that we we weren't going to be an alternative school anymore that we were going to apply not to be an alternative school so why are we filling out this form as for to be a modified school if that's not the direction that we want to be headed if you recall it's the board's decision to be an alternative school yes and the board decided that it did not want to change um most decided that sorry okay anybody else un go ahead my my question is really on all of them um further down I have some specifics but I was concerned um each one seems to have its own contract and I've asked before so can you guys report to us on all of them have they been reviewed by the board attorney or

024is it following a attorney approved template that we've used in the past because I saw some things in in some of these that I'm going to call out but so I'm asking ask you that for all of them and I will continue to do that are you asking me for Mosley Ashley question that's a that's you can answer for B but really it's probably an Ashley for a through T oh I'm going to let each individual senior staff member talk about their specific contract because they actually submit those two board attorney or not I think we're done with B we'll head on to C miss barart you had C thank you Mr chairman um I just wanted to verify is this just showing the public that we are actually applying for the CTE um like

025that we've applied for it yes we have to do this each year bring it to the board for approval right perect see see going once twice going on to D anybody D the um I don't have any questions about it but I have I won't be able to vote on it um next week okay the um but also okay okay talk about yeah I was just going to um make a comment that um that is the same mou template that we use and there were no standards change so there was no need for a riew and that is d d cor thank you okay Mr chair yes ma'am um I'd like some clarity with theou with communities and schools um are they going to be working with individuals from Fort City United next year along

026in this or so this mou is only for the um services that are directly um created by communities and schools and um we don't have any further Direction on um what whether Port City United is going to be a program that is going to be utilized utilized by this organization and that would be or or right or not in our because I know we have a separate currently expires in June for Port City United but under this umbrella yeah this is not this mou does not include any Port City United um services this is um standard as we have done for several years for the student support um basically removing barriers to learning support programs that communities and schools has done on under the CIS model okay which is which is separate from from that

027m b okay so M Mor following that we we'd heard um and I don't want to go across the lines between closed session and Open Session but we heard uh about a either an employee or contract worker for communities and schools and them being let go for poor behavior and are we addressing that as we go forward have we changed anything the way that we that we are working with people um after that event so um communities and schools agrees to comply with our policies and operate in a very consistent manner with the school district in resolving any types of concerns and I think that's probably about as specific as I can be um but the terms of our mou have not changed okay on with e can I just make a comment to um

028um to address Miss Bradford's concern about the PO you know the the contract that um wanted to call our attention because all of the contracts that I have been looking at except for the one where Mr vogel's contract it were it says this mou um may be terminated by either party without cause upon written notice of at least 30 days the parties May renew this mou by written agreement for an additional one-year term so that is the template that has we have been using um for every other contract that we have that we can terminate when we want to terminate as long as we give the appropriate notice so I just wanted to kind of call that out are we on we are on now on E go ahead okay and E reminded me if

029you'll go to E Article 5 miscellaneous Certificate of Insurance see this is one that fluctuates from agreement to agreement um this one says and this is what I'm used to um having to have furnished certificates Insurance showing that I had what was requested in my day-to-day um day job and so on this one e it has the correct language and then in some of the later ones I noticed that's not in there and so for consistency that's what I'm asking about these contracts um so I'm just pointing out NE Article 5 miscellaneous a that's the the standard language that we've had with some contracts but some of these on this sheet today don't have have that um and I'll get to them when we get to them okay anything else on E I have a

030question so um this is I guess this is for you this is your department um one of the lines in there um that was explaining what dragonfly is it says submission and management of documents and info related to student athletes um is that about like the any sort of portal or the nil for students or scholarship opportunities is that with um information of documents and management of that is or right um I can get you a list of exactly which pieces of information would be in here but of course this um because there will be personally identifiable information in here that's why we use the theou and to um cover any of that confidentiality but I can give you a list of I was just curious on what the information because this wasn't available when

031my daughter was the student athlete right and so it was um just curious yes and this is now the universal system is used uh we don't just use it here in new han County it's used across the state yeah okay thank you all righte and I just have a question on that um under article three talking about the cost and it said there's no cost to our student staff and their parents and guardians but then it said you can opt into an upgraded fee based could you elaborate on what that is of are we doing that are we opting into this potentially Fe Bas so that would be on an individual basis okay and so I can provide you with what that information would be would include all right thank you on E nope all

032right Arts Music Academy and this is our standard mou and we have been doing um the Brooklyn um program for um the two prek for quite a few years right now I mean I'm sorry quite a few years now so um we would like to continue this program I just wanted to point out that this is minor there's a typo on number four third bullet Brook one is missing it's and that I don't think it was somebody would Ty fast number four third bullet the word Brooklyn missing thank you all right thank you carry on with G travel tracker software yes go ahead first question who wrote that contract did travel tracker wrate that one and has it been reviewed by the board attorney um this has not been approved has not been reviewed by

033the board attorney um this vendor has a has software that they're not willing um to sign our contract so in the past we have signed their terms and conditions there's no changes to these terms and conditions they're the same as what we signed three years ago and this is a three-year contract renewal and if we um have an issue and we need to get out of the contract we just have to give I believe it's 30 days notice but I can confirm that real quick it's totally written in their favor and it's you know almost $112,000 so I think it would be prudent to have a the board attorney review it before we sign it and agree to pay that we certainly can I don't think they'd be willing to make any changes to the

034terms so we would probably well if not then we just wouldn't have the software but we'll be glad to do that number six yes yep it's a 30 days advance notice if we intend to not renew the contract now be better to know in advance if there was something there that you that wasn't palatable than to be sued to perform on the contract yep and so I don't know if Mr Vogal would like to speak to um standard terms and conditions that I've shared with his staff in the past um and I believe normally the response is if there's something the vendor is not willing to make an adjustment on then it's up to um I guess the board senior staff to determine if that's something they're okay with but if you'd like to speak

035more of that I'd appreciate it oh there's nothing more I can say I haven't been provided as you noted haven't been provided contract to review okay so I will do that and you want me to bring that in July then well if you can you got a whole week okay I'll be glad to do that thank you Mr um so when does this contract end like are we under the time limit of our 30 days just in case we don't get Mr vogel's approval before Tuesday um if we are able actually um we will be beyond the 30 day I mean we will not be within the 30 days um if we're not able to approve at the board meeting so we just wouldn't have the software for whatever amount of time until we're able

036to get a contract approved okay my question is what what will that disrupt yeah that's it's billing related to field trips um is there anything else that we're keeping in travel track or other than the field trips it's just anytime our U school buses are used outside the normal delivery of students to and from school one of my concerns is they're track Al they're tracking our student athletes information or student students field trips information it's got a lot of personal information that they have access to and I just before you know I vote to approve it I want to make sure that our board attorney says yeah that that that's okay um what you did three years ago I wasn't here Mr V will you be a have time to review that but next week

037of course we'll make time absolutely thank you it's uploaded in assembly should I send it in a separate email would that be more helpful no you can access it on the line no we have access to it thank you thank you Mr w m so the um if we didn't have the software tracker um first two questions one this doesn't track students this tracks our buses leaving the school right leaving the the depot going to a school going to a location doesn't track the students that's correct it's tracking the cost of like the fuel right the um wear and Care on the vehicles um so that we can charge the school or department for whatever the cost was to Transportation it's in essence a way for us to Bill and reimburse transportation for their expenses

038but Eddie please add anything that would be help yeah that's all I want to make clear that we're not trapping students on this and then let's just say perhaps that it doesn't get reviewed by the attorney or he has concerns that we can't approve on June the 3 um how would we do that you'd have to have a person assigned to that task of like logging it in or making spreadsheets or we we would do that we would have to come up with a way to do that manually okay which would be like a lot of time perhaps yeah like a dedicated employee almost um well yes it'd be it'd be time for transportation as well as the schools submitting those requests because they can access travel tracker uh on at their school on their

039computer they submit those requests and they see that it's approved or denied like in real time and then they can see what it's going to cost and then make appropriate decisions based on that correct okay so it's kind of a big deal if we don't approve that and just to make sure everybody understand that the meeting is actually June 4th not June 3rd okay we going to did you have I did I just wanted to clarify it's the board's decision to work with us so when Consulting Council to give advice he would be sharing that with us that we would be making the decision of adjusting based on advice so it's not his decision to whether or not it's his opinion to give to us to help us make the decision so correct okay okay

040we're going to carry on uh H is authorizing increase in micro purchase threshold resolution nothing uh I is syn law ma'am nice um I continue to have concerns about the term of this contract going all the way till December of 2025 but um I guess I'm confused as to why we moved the special education bullet up underneath everything and took it out of the first paragraph I don't know if anybody answer that didn't we do that because we only approved them to be special education right but what I'm saying is if you read the contract and look back at the old contract it says effective current what we have in front of us effective March 12 2024 sync law the LLC agrees to serve as attorneys it doesn't say as EC attorneys it's just in

041parentheses up underneath the heading so I didn't know why that was taken out of the paragraph itself yes that that was not intentional I'll be glad to add that back um two things um I strongly object to an 18month agreement um as you as I have said repeatedly we adopted this agreement in March without having reviewed it without having seen it it doesn't follow the template for attorneys it was missing the revision and termination um that was completely cut out it was a missing insurance and taxes and um other other pieces and that one had no insurance clause in it this one now has an insurance Clause that says uh syn law shall procure General commercial general liability of $1 million for each occurrence with $2 million General aggregate coverage by June 5th so my

042question would be they don't have it now um because it wasn't in their last agreement did they have it now and have we been represented by an attorney that didn't have insurance and do you have copies of their insurance if we do have it I do not have copies of their insurance last time I spoke with them they did not have this general liability coverage and they were working to get the coverage because in the original contract we did not include it as a requirement so they did not have it at that time wow so could we request the copies of the invoices we've had from since this when this first contract went into effect and see how much work we've had done the attorney having they haven't completed any work for us they've done

043no work since March that's my understanding can you confirm that's correct question yes so I did want to point out in this contract again where it says the terms and um contract revisions upon mutual agreement the contract may be revised at any time this contract may be amended only by written amendments duly executed between the two between our board and S La termination for convenience the board May terminate this contract at its complete discretion upon 20-day calendar notice in writing from the board to syn law prior to the date of termination so I just that is the template that we've been using and again the only one that I have seen that does not have that 20 days in it is is the one that we have with Mr vogle currently because he didn't well

044I don't know why it's not there but it's not there Mr but so to miss Bradford's point I agree with her on let's look at sync law like letter I and letter O let's pull those out of consensus and put them under the um old business legal services so that we could be talking about all that at one time and we might even want to think about just throwing in the point scoll contract um that we also have she I know she's talking about um in the when I looked this morning boogo was under um consensus it's not anymore under this one so yeah they've already moved that down but I do agree I got to look at 1:00 before I come I I think that's a good idea and let's let's let's go ahead

045and talk about let's move I down to the legal services uh I'll make that motion and we have a first and second all in favor please signify by saying I I all oppose okay so we'll move we'll remove I from consensus item and put that down under Legal Services I think we're going to have to address the 30 minutes but we'll get to that when we get to that can we also think about in in with with that move and it's not on the the green agenda and it's not on the white agenda you know the original um this one it's not on here um yellow oh this yeah this is like safety yellow green sorry the um if we could perhaps pull up the pointer scroll contract at the same time so that we

046can be looking at the the comparisons to make sure that any legal contracts that we have for Legal Services all say the same thing would that be something that we could just add in just for comparison purposes you might have that prepar is that mean is that easy enough to do but those are our only three law firms right now is Vogal SN and forner I mean for Legal Services right that we we don't contract anybody else okay m b yeah and and I just want to point out um this is sync number one two pages the template that you told us last month we were using is four pages um sync number two that we just got is three plus the signature page and I'll be just really honest you guys it's sloppy it

047they renumbered by hand at the bottom of the pages I'm going to have a hard time continuing with an attorney that hasn't done any work for us um that does sloppy contract the first one they submit doesn't have any insurance on it they don't have any insurance that's probably why it was left off I'm going to have a really hard time in a week I mean you know of of dealing with this we shouldn't have done it we should have read it we should have had it reviewed we didn't I didn't vote for that most of the rest of you did and it was a mistake I'm sorry thank you for your opinion Mr we will carry on M wel so I just just want to be clear on we we approved last month the

048template I think that Ashley had brought to us so all we're trying to do is make sure they're all in uniformity I don't think we're going to rehash the contract itself because we've already approved it right right okay okay carrying on with what is now I was J year end budget amendment resolution I see nobody yes me um I just want to make sure that nothing moving on that yearend budg resolution there's another one coming up too no money's coming out of our fund balance thank you around around see nothing okay uh copy L I'm just going to say with the old letters you don't mind uh co uh color copier contract for print shop no okay black and white copier contract with print shop uh and capital out I'll ask on LNM we're just

049doing this because it's time for our annual contract and we shop that out and compared it to other companies to see if we could get a better rate right um right and I these have not gone to the attorney for review because these were using their terms and conditions so I can certainly send those to Mr boogo if that's what we want to do yeah I just I just was hoping that we chopped them out I've done better on my copier contracts in the last couple years than I have in the past I can provide that information so I'm going to ask the same question that I asked before if we are we under the gun to excuse me to approve these contracts the and if we don't you know um are are we already

050missing what we said we're going to do and if we don't do it at June the 4th meeting then are we stuck not with our print shop not being able to print our work we would have a Breakin Service as far as contracts but we could probably communicate with the vendor and get you know a month by month until we have a new contract approved it would just be based on the current contract okay okay caring on with uh where are we o Microsoft uh you skipped over in capital fund project transfer okay I always skipped in so Capital outlay fund project transfer okay can somebody explain what that is please so this budget transfer deals with our Lo with local Capital fund as well as the 2014 bond funds we have gone back uh

051over the past couple of years every project that's been compl complete and has any savings has been identified as well as a couple of projects that we deferred knowing we weren't getting capital for this fiscal year to address some of the highest priority needs such as new Handover uh this the new projects are new han High School Um Myrtle Grove flooring um that will be doing this summer some additional funding for Williston boiler the bids came in uh a little higher than we anticipated um Anderson playground equipment I'm happy to say the PTA raised funds for the playground uh structure um we would like to move it to a better location for drainage so we would pay for that and then uh winterart replacement of Winter Park uh their sewer lift station so those are

052the um those are the new projects all the other projects um are either savings or deferred capital thank you thank you very much uh let's see I believe we are now on the Microsoft uh enrollment for Education Solutions agreement with with soft soft Choice Mr chairman yeah ICP and R is exactly the same thing and I went and looked at them is it change on the yellow did somebody catch it we're on o oh sorry so anybody got anything on o that what did O nope no O's all right Award of mil contract for Child Nutrition p is that what you talking about no I'm talking about the old one Microsoft EES and so on skip it and then it's down there is that a second agreement I see it on here twice and I

053looked at them and sometimes I can't see a difference in things okay okay let's cross off Q then all right get rid of Q thank you um change order for owner contractor agreement for new hbur high school Title 9 softball field Renovations see no one carrying on consideration for bids new hburg High School Safety and Security upgrades and I'd just like for somebody to speak to that just out loud so public can hear about it too I don't have any questions that I just like for it to out there so this is a continuation of our Safety and Security improvements throughout our district we're following along with the 2019 risk vulnerability assessment that was completed by true north um they had prioritized not only the recommended work but locations and uh so New Hanover High

054School will be constructing a security vestibule along with some renovations to their main entrance and that work will be done this summer awesome very good okay um and then we end with uh what will be now s but it was T spark NC 2024 2025 mou is this just that's new continuation what we do yes and it is new Miss Bradford because I was working with the attorney and we um took some time he was working with the um company we need to get it up here for funding purposes so um but it's just the renewal so we can get our them but yes Mr vogle reviewed it and he um actually um didn't get it back from them until um I don't think they sent it back to him until like Friday evening um

055Dr F you might want to address this if you know it at the graduation for ctec um principal Skipper told me that she had five students graduating that day that had jobs on Monday in high high tech that was just really really exciting there's a great program that connect with and Spark andc um so sparking see it's been a very good opportunity for our um students and we're actually looking at some other opportunities for it I'll just say that that y I say but yes this is just a Ral for our current spark and see okay carrying on we have policy consensus hold on a second so are we gonna count still stay with five I think five yeah okay that's good there just making sure a consensus Miss Mason we have 10 minutes a

056this time I mean I would think unless anybody wants to pull anything that that would be enough time more than enough time fa I think that we should at least move up to um 20 minutes because there were several policies that um I didn't get a chance to weigh in on that I'm going to have questions about and the changes to the emergency policy um I think we need to have more of a discussion with the whole board and not just the um two people that were in attend three people that were in attendance at the meeting so I think we should up to 20 minutes 20 minutes sounds good to me going on to Old business Head Start Grant Dr B Miss smes G to bring up Dr kooken she is going to just

057give a brief overview what we're not supposed to hear the review now that's that's coming up it comes up for next it's on next week's agenda yeah so yeah we're not going to do well well it's not my call doing the pre she's gonna give you some okay is that the preate update that we're doing later but it's not on the agenda for today's meeting unless it's a PR update up here okay okay hi good afternoon um like Dr fa said I'm Dr Trish cook executive director of federal programs and Miss Shannon Smiles who's the director of our early childhood education program we just wanted to let you know that with the Head Start grant for which we applied we're in competitive status and so that means that any organization can also apply for that

058Grant um we haven't heard anything official yet um but we do anticipate hearing something by the end of the week and once we know more and have more information we'd like to do a Pres presentation for you next week at the board meeting okay we'll definitely put that on we have it that is that it okay thank you how much time do you think you will need for that Shannon Smiles three hours I got it I was going to say 25 minutes yeah 15 15 15 yeah they'll have a presentation and kind of give you an overview today they really don't have any information to share because we're waiting for the official um notice but we want to give you an update but we really just don't have any information to share I don't we

059say 20 I always like 20 is good you know we're done 15 then great if we're okay no let's say 20 minutes so you have 20 Miss miles 3 hours and 20 minutes that's not enough for Miss miles I miss miss Bradford and can can can we just briefly in that touch on how this affects overall prek and then because we've got those two two prek classrooms hanging out there now and so I just need a bigger I need a more complete picture of the whole thing they're going to give you an entire picture and that's they're going to give you an update of how this affects the entire um Head Start prek so they're going to give a clear picture of our program as a district level do we know which two preas those

060are and we're just holding that just because we don't know yet or is that so basically we're we are going to next week give an overview um at the district level because the biggest thing we want to make sure is to share what what we're Ser how many students we're serving and the amount of classrooms we're serving so I think when we share next week you will see and get that clear picture we just don't have the information now so it was just we wanted to give you something but we just don't have that information at this time so I think next week you'll really have a clear picture all right carrying on to that so again Mr cille we have 20 minutes for the policy consensus 20 minutes for uh the Head Start Grant

061discussion uh Legal Services now we have the legal services local law firm uh now we also have the sync in there I'm think we need at least 45 minutes for that so are we calling them the legal services in like subset gole subset sa subset pointer is that how yeah okay let's go 45 minutes for that so there's no C it's it's B one two and three that's what I that's what I yeah I think we're also going to have CL in there or something too that's where you had up crossly that's that that that's that we can we can talk about that in in the legal services right that's I'm saying that's all be in that same spot okay uh interim budget resolution I'm looking over at suton how long is that going to

062be and I'll go you probably just depends on if there any questions I'd say five minutes okay let say 10 you sure Bradford have a question okay just in reading this we're adopting it we have state public school fund local current expense fund Enterprise fund Federal grant fund other restricted Revenue fund just in that can you explain all those things you know so that people are are on the same page when you when you do that what you're going to present to us um that's a lot of funds for people to sort out sure so normally in um an internal budget resolution if we knew that our Revenue was going to stay pretty consistent with the current year or going up we would normally say if you were to go back and look at previous

063year years that we would continue um at the same level as the current um year spending levels and so that's that first sentence you see under the main points um however since we know that we're going to see decreases related to Federal funding um and we're going to see decreases related to Capital um and then also I know that there are some um grants that are getting or that will be decreased or I haven't received an award letter for so um we've adjusted the current spending levels for next year in anticipation of the reduction in funding or revenue and so that's what the spending resolution is for so it's just to continue operations of the school system until we have a resolution in place but to not spend more than the revenue we think we're

064going to get at this point in time thank you okay all right um finishing up we have um the new business I don't think anything's under that and we have a Clos session probably at least a half hour for that so it's 30 minutes for that um a consensus item we have another Personnel report there which should take about five minutes we're going to have two Personnel reports we we have two you were my surprise for close session all right uh and then uh correspond let's drop that down to 5 minutes and announcements 5 minutes so what do we have Miss Crill um 270 minutes plus a 5 minute break so 275 minutes and div can't do that in the head please I could have done it in my head just making sure 275 ided

06516 um 4 hours and a half four and a half hours so it's a little over four and a half so so by our policy we need to end at four hours so we need to cut something what what can we yeah just a a thought I know that um a lot of us have very strong opinions about a lot of things but um I think that would be very important in this situation to limit the number of times that we are saying like limit the number of times that we are speaking um so that we can get through as much as possible um it would be better if we didn't eliminate stuff in my opinion because I think a lot of it is things that we need to address and some of the things

066that are going to take the longest are things that we need to address um and so I would I would suggest that we limit the number of times that we each get to speak okay I would second that first and second I don't think she made a motion a motion suggestion okay so if We are following Robert's Rules of Order strictly like we've been trying to do it says that each person is allowed to speak twice and um you have designated two minutes um in two minutes each time um that's all that's not our Robert's Rules of Order that's just what we have we've settled on even though we haven't written that down so I am not in favor of limiting people to one time because this these are these are top topics that we

067all need to talk about I I don't think I said that I'm sorry if that did not come out clearly the two times was what I was saying there not going on I mean is it a possibility that if we are close that we could just extend our time just to get it done I know we don't want to do that typically we did last week but if we have to and it's because we don't want to cut things off well I mean and I agree I mean at 4 hours what what what I could do is I could say we're at 4 hours we can either stop or we can I mean and some of these things we added more time as a cush so we may not use right all of that time

068right barnhard I mean I respect what everybody's saying here but I I don't think it's smart for us to go into a 4 hour and 35 minute meeting with a just notion that we're just going to keep going I think we should tone down on the time that we spend and be diligent and stick to the agenda for the time being I hear what everybody's saying but we become less productive the longer we go on together so I favor of wanting to extend this for 4 and a half hours I do agree that everything on here is important but I think that we should stick to the timelines and I think we should come down even if it's chopping five minutes off of a couple of these things each so we can get under the

069for Mr just to support with that suggestion but and Miss Mason I just came from a state level meeting that ran two days that was chaired and on contentious the chair would say it was Billy Miller he would say I know this is going to be contentious so we're going to ask you to speak for against we're going to call for and against and you do that sometimes he said we're going to limit the time to this amount and we're going to stick to it so go on all day and not get to the end of the business you know it's so typical in a meeting that has contentious items so I would agree with Miss Mason that we could limit our time and stick to it okay well I will do my very best

070I'll bring my running shoes and we will keep it as close to four four hours as we possibly can um and in fact you know I I have no problem I don't think there's anything that I have to say that's huge huge huge so why don't we just go ahead and delete the you know my 5 minute uh chair report that'll at least bring us a little closer to that that 4 hour so let's BL do that I will all right um very good is there anything else we need to talk about with this if not we will work forth to keep it as close cl to that 4 hours as possible uh looking at our schedule for today at this point we will move into Clos session get my closed session sheet out okay

071I make a mo or I I would entertain a motion to move into Clos session pursuant to General statute 143 31811 C for the following purposes to prevent the disclosure of information is privilege or confidential pursuant to General statute 115 C 402 and not consider public record within the meaning of chapter 132 of the general statutes and to consult with the attorney in order to to preserve the attorney client privilege between the attorney and the board including in respect to John Do's 15- 17 versus new han County Board of Education and to consider the qualif qualifications confidence performance character Fitness uh conditions of appointment conditions of initial employment of an individual employed or considered for employment within the school system or to hear or investigate a complaint charge or grievance by or against any individual

072employee we hear such a motion so move is there a second second any discussion not all in favor please signify by saying I I all opposed like sign we have carried 6-0 we are in Clos session e e e um thank you for those updates in the board package oh you're welcome save us a few minutes all right who's coming just I mean but like the the literacy people that came before that to give the awards we're back in Open Session uh at this point I would entertain a motion to approve the Personnel report so moved is there a second second first and second any discussion hearing none all in favor please signify by saying I I all opposed like sign pass is 60 our Personnel report is approved Mr chairman ma'am could we um

073just have a minute of budget update so that you know we kind of all are on the same page where we are after the holiday we could do that if we have a a motion and majority so move that okay there's a motion to add a quick budget discussion is there a second not second we have first second any discussion okay ma'am I don't think we need that at this point in time because we need to just wait till we hear from the County Commissioners okay I'm not in favor of adding it at this point because it's four o' well you have information that we don't have well you say we haven't heard but M yes ma'am M Walker well I I just tend to agree only because I know there's a county budget meeting

074tomorrow I just I don't want to talk about it too much I I guess I'm concerned about that but also we have two other things on the agenda I gotta go okay all right we have a first and a second um Miss buy would you please again this would uh let me make sure but I think this would this is a super majority super majority which would be actually five out of the six of us to vote for that uh Miss boy would you please call the rooll Miss Bradford Mr chair I'm sorry Mr chairman I think it would take 2/3 which is four out of six yeah oh two3 okay now super majority okay thank you sir no it is super majority but it's four out of six four out of six when it's

075six okay so four out of six we would take four of us pleas is this being asked to be right this moment or is there going to be Direction Bud update to look like that discussion Mr chair it would be just basically uh Miss Sutton and Dr pal sharing with us any information that they might have oh okay that kind of thing any updates on that yes we're just we're spending more time arguing over it than it would take to have said we have to follow okay M would you please call the role yes M Cay Bill no Miss barnhard yes Miss Walker no Mr wbor at this point that doesn't matter but I'll say yes and Miss Mason yes see one two three oh that is four out of six okay so miss Sutton

076would you give us a quick update on where are we going to add it are we going to just skip other things can we add it to the end all right let's see we could add it let's go ahead and get through what we have after we'll do it right after our committee reports which is right before jman okay so we'll carry on with do we have a prek update or do we already have that yeah so I guess the confusion is I give a report but that's usually on agenda review that's uh the start the Aon committee report okay okay would you go ahead and do it sure I was just making sure it was little confus out point of order we're out of we're point of order we're out of order we need

077to follow our agenda right but it's prek update so what do we have a I thought we just had that from do we have that I was just saying we're I'm confused we already had the pre update I thought no were the two that were in so we've already done that okay we've done that out of order so let's go to we took it out of order okay we were out of order but we CU they were here so we we DED them out let's go on to our Battle of the books Mr chair one question yes ma'am when is the committee report supposed to happen next week no no you can do it under committee reports right here in a minute but it's not listed it's not it's not listed that's why I'm confused

078just want clarification it wasn't listed as a committee report right so I'm assuming that's what that was supposed to be perhaps let's go ahead and just do it under committee reports we'll just add that in okay and I mean that's that's that we have committee report so we have need to vote on we'll make yeah that in okay so battle book update Miss Bron yes I've asked Dr Mary Alice Hudson to come up here and do a presentation so she will take over thank you very much ma'am okay all right good afternoon I am Mary Alice Hudson I'm the lead media coordinator for the county my job is to support our media coordinators as they build strong library media programs in our schools and one of my responsibilities is the coordination of our new han

079County Schools Battle of the books competition Battle of the books which we fondly call Bob has a long Rich history in new han County schools that I'm excited to share with you today thank you um new han County schools has been participating in battle of the books sponsored by the North Carolina School library media Association also called ncslma for more than 16 years I ask our Librarians and Bob has actually been part of our school's libraries longer than they have so I don't know the the exact start date but I do know that our elementary and middle schools have participated for many years and our high school participation began 3 years ago that began when a group of students at Ashley High School asked their librarian to help them create a team and that first

080year they didn't have anybody to compete against locally but they did go to Regionals and place third third in the region then the next year which was last year all four traditional high schools had teams and this year we added teams from Isaac bear and Wilmington Early College high schools so our 23 24 battles had five high school teams eight middle school teams and 22 elementary school teams teams can have up to 12 students so I would estimate that this year's battle involved about 350 students in grades 4 through 12 our winning teams traveled to other counties and represented new Haner County school at the regional battles our elementary team Bradley Creek won the regional competition for the second time in the last three years and in the last seven years we've had three middle

081schools win at regionals one of which which was Noble in 2017 went on to place third in the state Middle School C competition our students have experienced a lot of success associated with participation in Bob but like everything else with Bob beating the competition isn't what makes you a winner students benefit from Battle of books in many different ways the reason students join and the ways they benefit are as numerous as the students themselves if you'll advaned so I I'll start with what is Battle of the books Battle of the books is a voluntary competition that schools and students can choose to join teams are often coached by a school librarian but the head coach can be any certified staff member who is an ncslma member a school can have one team consisting of 12

082students some schools allow all interested students to participate in site-based Bob meeting meetings and activities but only 12 students can participate in on the competition team school librarians across North Carolina volunteer to represent their region and work with peers across the state to select the book lists to write questions for the competition to set the timeline for each year and to organize the regional and state competitions the NC ncslma Battle of the book manual provides a process for book selection which instructs the committee to consider student reading levels student interests genre quality availability authoritative reviews Awards wordss and previous book lists to select to select titles the ReUse of titles helps to reduce the cost of purchasing books for the competition and the time required to write competition questions for each of the books everything

083about Battle of the books participation is voluntary whether or not a school participates is that school and librarian's choice whether or not a student participates is that student or family's Choice the book lists are shared a year in advance so parents and students have time to make decisions about participation so what happens if a parent or student has concerns about a specific book participating students are not required to read every book that choice is left up to the student and their family if a parent seeks to challenge a title on The Bob list ncslma has guidelines for individuals to challenge titles Bob is definitely a competition based on books but it's also so much more it's Avid readers finding a place they belong and reluctant readers becoming readers it's generating generating excitement about reading throughout

084our schools and County it's belonging to a team and working together to meet common goals it's friendships it's the opportunity for students to visit local college campuses and to travel to other parts of our state to proudly represent new Haner County Schools so what does bob mean to our school communities when parents talk about Bob you definitely hear their pride and their child's commitment and achievement but you also hear their appreciation for the academic and social growth their child experiences through participation in Bob the parent of a current senior shared that her child was never on a sports team but Bob allowed her to find her people and to compete alongside her peers our Librarians see as many benefits to Bob as they have students who participate the list is long and includes so many

085positive things like sportsmanship and teamwork kindness friendship cooperation and Expos exposure to new experiences and opportunities these Reflections came from high school students who both also mentioned that Bob helped them move from reading the same books over and over again to trying new genres one mentioned that he pretty much only read JY B Jones until he joined joined his Elementary Battle of the books team one librarian told me she has a group of nine third graders who have been counting the days for a full year to finally be eligible to participate in Bob the goal of Battle of the books is to promote literacy and the joy of reading which it absolutely does but as you've heard it does more and it means more to the families and students who participate thank you for allowing

086me to share the many and varied ways Battle of the books positively impacts new hanare County Schools students thank you we have any questions first off thank you very much for that um I do remember uh me uh asking my our librarian at my my school when I was principal that uh you know you are going do this right yeah you are going so yeah and we we did really really well over the years but U do we have questions for I just have I just have a comment my kids both did battle the books been around for a very long time and uh I love the fact that it encourages kids actually read a physical book and I I I got to attend some of it at um Ashley um the competition was it

087was fun to watch and actually I think I was there at the time they had a a challenge they had never had that before and they won the challenge that means they were really reading paying attention so I thought that was great I just I wouldn't say how much I love this program and how much it's been a part of this district for such a long time others graille um I got a letter from a fourth grader that I would just like to take time to read um why I liked Bob I liked Battle of the books because I got to read new and amazing books I also like that I got to meet new people from my grade and other grades I like that we got to go up against other schools to show

088what we learned I learned that you cannot judge a book by its covers I just wanted to add that since we didn't have any Elementary School testimonials I wanted to make sure that we had an elementary school testimonial any other questions I have I have a comment um Miss Mary Alice did we as a district submit any any titles to Bob so ncslma has a link on their website that will allow any individual to submit titles I don't know if individuals in our County did or not um so we so as a as a district though we did not have any submission process and so um are they required in CSL are they required to follow any of our protocols or guidelines so they have their own protocols and guidelines um they don't differ vastly

089from ours I mean I know we had just gone through the under process of changing and updating some of the things of clearly outlining the expectation um I have mixed feelings about this because I absolutely love the fact that there's this competition and I also have been reading through the battle of the books for elementary myself and I have a assumed to be nine-year-old daughter who is very excited to be a part um but some of the choices I question a challenge um of why we're putting these in front of our our nine-year-olds um one is about a father who's incarcerated for murder and she finds a letter written by him um one is about standing up to censorship and it's this moral dilemma of this small child standing up and making choices that benefit

090them in the process this child is encouraged and actually does run away from home because in her home she was not getting what she needed because she has two siblings and I I'm confused why that's being celebrated and at the same time I love the fact that this competition exists because it is created this opportunity for our small for our small kids but I'm concerned that an organization that we know once the and please correct me if I'm wrong once the list is submitted it goes into every single library for school libraries and public libraries around the the state correct once the list is created it's available avilable to everyone around the state and it should be if we're if we're creating this competition it should be absolutely available to our students if they want

091to participate um is it is it correct that our our teachers in order to give these kids these opportunities they have to pay to be part of this organization is that a correct assessment a yes someone has to be a member of ncslma so I I'm I'm having a hard time with those and the same time respect the fact that professionals can disagree but I also want to make sure that we are really Gathering the spirit of our Educators and I'm concerned that that's not happening one but two I'd like to know do we turn away students from competing in this competition so the competition teams can only have 12 students so if more than that want to participate they can't take more than 12 to the competition however many schools do allow as many

092students as are interested to participate in the site based activities that go along with Bob and the books are available to any student who would like to read them okay they're not reserved but they just wouldn't be able to participate in the competition only 12 can go to the competition and I do remember we had some teams like my My Librarian was a big which I think was great she was a brief opponent of 12 and and she move the kids in and out and there's other teams that have I think there's five actually on stage and she had five you know the other teams at times had you know those all their coaching strategies but they had five and that's all I had you know and that's I guess up to them so any

093other questions forers Mr Bradford yeah um I read and write for a living I encourage reading and literacy and so I'm all for anything that gets a book in a kid's hand um did you say that any individual can submit titles to this list like I could submit one my neighbor could submit one or is it only members of the ncslma I I'm not 100% positive the answer to that I'm pretty sure that the submission is on the public facing side of the website what I was told that is that the the group of there are nine individuals who serve on the committee that evaluates the books they're from each of the regions in North Carolina that they read they divide up the books and they read as many as they can and they only

094consider books that someone in the group has read and then they use the process as outlined by ncslma to narrow down the list they only replace they never replace more than half of the books on the list each year just so that they don't have to so we don't have to buy so many books that's a funding issue and how does one become a member of ncslma you pay $50 so I can join yes okay so anybody off the street could join this organization start making suggestions on the list of what our kids are going to go to the Battle of books and sooner or later they're probably going to you know hit the jackpot just seems like a lack of control there that makes me very very concerned from a curriculum standpoint the nine

095individuals who serve who represent their region are school librarians of the appropriate grade span so there are nine elementary school librarians on the elementary the elementary group that selects the books and sets the timelines they're nine middle school librarians and they're nine high school librarians so yes you could join but you would not be eligible to represent your District yeah so I just wanted to um make a note that we did have um um the um one of our Librarians is on that team um Miss Wilcox you know from right um new Hanner we have had Librarians from New hver County Schools serve on serve to represent our region it's not just us it's the whole region they don't answer to Newan County Schools the whole organization is a volunteer organization so they have volunteered

096their time as individuals to represent our region and so um the um um this is kind of just making an opinion on WE that the content that we don't want some of our students being exposed to you um that Miss barnhard had brought up and I just started thinking about that um because these books are even if we chose not to put even allow them in our library they're in new Hanner County's library because the the lists are posted on their website but I'm thinking to back to just more books like let's just take Nancy Drew for an example you know um Nancy Drew in book 115 smokes a cigarette and um without telling her dad and do we want our kids being exposed to that the um Nancy Drew also likes to sniff out

097a you know a scoundrel and breaks into rooms by picking locks and sneaking out of the house so if we're looking at it from that perspective on we don't want our kids exposed to some content the kids don't have to read that book I mean we've already we've already heard that several times is that everything about this is optional and you know parents can read and I mean I read so many B all the books books over the years because I read them with my kids as an opportunity to just spend time with them and and read books and you know you know me I'm super competitive and so we were making up questions ourselves you know on whatever so I just the um I just think this whole the conversation that we're even questioning

098the battle of the books um is is just kind of seems odd that we are now we're now we're saying we don't want you to read you know you know books unless unless I get to approve them so I'm I'm hoping that's not where we're going with this m Walker so I'm reading here student participation is voluntary students are not required to read every book parents and students have access to the list in advance to me this is all voluntary Choice parent participation I don't see a problem here if a parent doesn't like a book they don't have to get their kid so I just I I don't I don't believe in trying to control what other parents decisions they make for their kids you Mr chairman um there's a couple of things in our

099curriculum that I openly had conversations with Dr fa about that parents concerns brought up and it's it's our job to make sure that we're providing the best for our students and I think one in particular this is wh and wisdom in fourth grade discussion of a suicide and in graphic detail how the kid does that and I said why is this something that we're allowing in the content area for our kids it's a legit question there was also a second grade issue and I think the district decided to pull some of that so having questioning content does not mean that this is a bad conversation to have it means that we care about our children and so for me in this organization seeing that the only way that our kids can compete is if the

100teachers pay into this organization I would like to see that model changed I was looking at a few different counties some of them pulled the requirement to even be in the organization and still did a similar option for their own County I think that was Henderson County when I was looking this up the the reality is I think that we should be looking at our Professionals for the direction of what we want to see here and we do lay the guidelines for what our professional and the expectations are so I would like to see um our staff look into other options potentially that does not involve utilizing this organization and continuing having a literacy competition so that's my two s well I think we actually have that on for discussion for next week Sobe we

101can carry on uh here thank you so much for excuse me Mr bore where on this agenda I it's not only agenda for next week that's why I was kind of curious of what we were talking about this was this is strictly information only unless someone's going to try and force add that to the agenda on Tuesday I thought it was supposed to be un but I guess it's not so I guess we could add it for next month we so choose let me I can SAR it was on Mr chairman I'd like to add one thing there is a detailed process that the committee the the regional Representatives do to actually approve a book once the book's recommended doesn't mean it's automatically going get on the list there's actually a very thorough detailed process

102that the committee does in order to say yes or no this book is appropriate for the list and they make sure that the books are for the appropriate age range and can you go through and since yeah I'm just going to throw my two sents in but can you go through the process say there is a parent or a staff member that has an objection to a book what is the process our our process or the recommended process by NCS L the one through Battle of the books I do have that along with many other pieces of paper take time take time oh goodness also to if you notice on some of these lists that there are student choices that students submit choices of books and um so that was interesting when when I looked

103at the lists that are already out for because a lot of kids are already starting to get their summer books so they can read but they have student choices and they have um questions that students can submit so yeah it's student Centric also yeah so you ask if a parent objects to a title the first step is to follow the districts policies and procedures for reconsideration of material so the very first step is the parent would go to the library and they would follow our policies which begin with going to the principal or the librarian of that school okay that so that's where it ends or say oh no if the if we as a district choose to remove the book it can be eliminated from our competition but it won't be the questions about

104that book would not be removed from Regional or state competition so we would just remove that book from our competition okay so our students would be at a disadvantage throughout the rest of the conversation yes because we chose them do that okay this Mo but if a student chose to purchase the book or get it from New Hanner library or read it on their Kindle then they could still participate in the competition right well the student could absolutely participate in the competition no matter but he asked if a parent chose to challenge a title listed on the book list no that's what that's what I'm saying is that if if a parent chose to challenge it it I guess we get back to the whole stamp thing that they one parent could take it out

105of the every library but if a student chose to read the book even though we don't allow it and don't think it's good um they could still read it whether it's in our library system or not and then go ahead and and compete with their team right because somebody could answer the questions yes I would assume the child the parent the the parent the the child of that parent wouldn't read it but any other child I guess could access it another way right okay okay all right any other discussion on this okay if not we will thank you very again thank you very much for being here thank you thank you we'll carry on to our safety uh conversation um and I'm going to start because we're Team one so um I had the privilege

106of sharing some time with Miss Walker the other day uh I've taken notes she actually took better notes than me because she r a lot better than I do but um we we talked about our our uh area which was preventative safety I already talked to Mr Anderson uh about some questions we are going to bring forth to him uh on like safety training uh some data on discipline which I'll get uh that in the future so we can bring that to the whole board um you know referrals etc etc a lot of mental health Miss Walker I'm going let kind of pass it over to you for a little bit yes so Julie doesn't Julie doesn't know this yet but I'll be sending her some questions because we figured it falls under probably your

107um probably I mean it's just general questions about um how students get referred to Mental Health Services just general stuff like that we came up with probably about four or five questions just to get some kind of an idea um what the process looks like you know and and maybe even if we can get some historical data on like has it gotten worse with referrals or not so I will shoot those emails to you and C see Mr will deore that's all we also talked about you know maybe using the survey and just a real quick update on survey the survey window is still open uh-huh till the 31st so it's still going on so we'll get that that be able to clean some really good information about this whole area from from that um

108yeah I'm trying to read my chicken looking at your notes you know a lot of things how many referrals and that kind of thing but also you know the the overall feeling from the from the district was your safy assignment help meal Health yeah mental health preventative um things also you know Mr Anderson uh you had shared at one point um so another question I'm going to ask you and I'll send it to you but it's followed up you know that that whole thing you had mentioned about the uh scan um we hadn't heard any more about that that you uh you had gone to a different County and there was a a scanning device that oh Johnston County was that's correct it's a weapons detection system and we discussed that in the other safet

109okay okay well good that'll be another question we're going to bring forth so that that was our end kind of our conversation uh yes ma'am yes I was wondering so I'm looking at the how you broke it out and I'm still a little confused um preventive safety that sounds good you know um mental health um the that is one of the Sha goals so um you don't have I don't I was just wondering if you had anybody from Sha on there because that is what I'm the board liaison for that um when we have reporting methods I had some questions did you guys talk about what reporting methods are we talking about like facility safety concerns like there is a hole in the ground um Personnel safety concerns like um you somebody's bothering me or

110I feel like I have mold you know I'm breathing mold or title n i mean did any of those kind of things come up in your conversations we really we focus more on on the preventive um uh discussion in student safety but also the preventive care in mental health um but that's on your that's on the list for what team one is supposed to do and then entrance scans really to me seems more like team three you which we did discuss okay so I'm just curious on how these got broken out and um are we still in the in the phase where we can massage which group talks about what I think we can you know we can always you know massage it as you say I think it also is you know just at

111least a a good start starting point for us so and I'd like to hear from you know group two now about their what what they have okay um Team two is H mcmanis and me our safety assignment was internal things inside the school's safety we had three things first off did you meet as a group yes we did um we have cell phone use social media use in the school and in the classrooms and that comes under right now in our mind the first the first swipe at bullying bullying is a a vast topic and it's not at the top of our list right now because it's just not at the top of our list right now uh it it is but it isn't so anyway let me just report um we believe restricting cell

112phones and social media use in the school will make will also reduce the bullying on a larger safety issue this is the first way we'd like to address bullying in conjunction with cell phone use and social media we reached out to Brunswick County schools for our number one issue cell phones and social media uses in the schools we spoke to Jonathan Pascal the assistant superintendent over secondary schools in Brunswick County um I think Mr mcmanis may have hired him into the system I can't remember there's there's some nepotism going on in there somewhere um Mr Pascal's comments included phones are a distraction for the classroom we're starting to get feedback he said they were pretty sure they were looking at doing a pilot at one of their middle schools or their Coastal School of Choice

113which is an achievement Academy like he said our C CC school um he said the greatest concern and the feedback they've been getting has been school safety from the parents point of view of a larger event happening and the children and the parents having access to the child via the cell cell phone so Mr Pascal said every expert that they have consulted says that you want students off their phone in an emergency it only adds to the fear um so Brunswick as you may or may not know from the um the the news um they had a presentation last month from the uh group with this Yonder cell phone bag or pouch so we were calling them specifically to find out how that gone and what did it look like um and so on and

114there's plenty of news out there um but it is a bag or a pouch um the students are all issued one just like they would be issued their computers and um there is no mechanism that they have to walk by to scan to lock the he said what what the proposal is um the only special Hardware is for the unlocking so there's unlocking stations on the the kids' way out of the school um as the students walk in they put the phone in the pouch as they're walking it locks an administrator is standing nearby here's the lock at student moves on he says pretty fast um so he put us in touch with Isaac castran the education Partners um he's the prin the partnership's principal lead they're out of Washington DC it's a national company

115with this product that has this Yonder cell phone bag um they have approximately he said between three and 4,000 schools in the country that are using them in North Carolina only one school Cherokee Middle he said they have signed up Warren County um to come online in the fall the cost is $25.50 per student the cost includes accessor support for the roll out the parent letter staff presentation literally all the support packages included in that one price if the student lose the pouch they get charged for a replacement fee just like if they lost or destroyed something else that belonged to the school um he said across the country 85% of the schools are implementing at the middle and the high school level he said of those 85% at middle and level um the splits

116like 50% it's it's just not really starting in the elementary schools um again the parent PUSH Pack is coming from empowerment of um it comes from from empowerment of C current school policies um he this man um talked about no researcher is saying that there's a positive effect this is a negative negative statement nobody's saying there's a positive effect from students having access to phones or social media in the schools all the feedback is negative negative negative um he said the number one the school again is in a large emergency can the parents get hold of the child and so when I ask about that he said and I didn't know this but he said schools have trauma shears in an emergency kit in the classrooms and those are able okay she's notd so she

117knows about it those are able to destroy the pouch in an emergent situation so a student could get into it if they're locked in the classroom and they need access to a cell phone so that was an interesting part so then what we did is um he sent a he sent some reports over the holiday that I may or may not have sent to you two of you I can't remember but he sent me some reports the man from Washington um I did ask could he come and make a presentation to our board and he said he would be happy to um many he has time available in June our second thing was exterior building doors being propped open with a pencil or a rock or so on that's our second as a committee of

118two that's our second highest concern right now and the need for enforcement to have a penalty um and we're we're looking for ideas door checks um but we think the best way to get answers for this is principal input for the individual schools so um again we have three um three recommendations and our third thing was intendance based failures while we had Brunswick on the phone we talked to them about what they were doing and um they have just revamped um looking at absenteeism and they've reamped their policy 4400 and um they're feeling good about that so our committee has three recommendations for adoption number one cell pH use and social media use in the school and in the classrooms be restricted uh we move today to contact the equipment partnership lead the Yonder cell

119phone phone Bag Company Isaac castran education Partners Washington DC the scheduled presentation for us during the month of June this phone number's on here um number two to address the safety concerns of exterior building doors being cropped open in our schools we ask the principes for their input for their individual schools to include an enforcement penalty students and staff at their next meeting whenever that is um and number three attended space failures refer to the policy committee a request for drafting a policy giving detailed expectations on what to expect of parents in terms of absenteeism and getting the kids to school and a recommendation from a committee does not need a second well um I don't think we're going to be able to add that to our already very full June meeting but we could

120definitely uh contact this gentleman for the July meeting and see what he's got could we have a presentation at the agenda review in June for July so I actually check that date you said it was AV okay very good think that's a good idea yes so I had some questions just listening through when we're looking here school-based safety um did you guys take a look at the the when it says um did you look at the Safety Committee and what's and the school safety plan that is in the school and is in the school district um those kind of things are talked about at the safety management team meeting that we all have been invited to um also wondering when we're talking about safety plan since that's in your um we have an EOP for

121the district we have eops for the schools so our I'm I'm wondering if your recommendations are to just not look at those the and then um also like some of the safety plans you know that Julie that you didn't discuss was like threat assessments that you do your crisis management team that you have in place um for that so there's a lot going on that um we we probably need more input from Miss Barnum on um for this school-based safety you know so I'm not I I'm not thinking that we're ready we're at any way shape or form to have recommendations coming from the first subgroup of meetings you know especially if they um didn't include the a subject matter expert and all all committee members weren't subcommittee members might not have been present at

122the same time but those are some key things that according to our list that we that we have systems in place and I would would think that we don't want to go off making recommendations until we have looked at what we already have in place well I know Mr McMahon has brought up the cell phone oh no I'm that one is that one's clear I'm talking about the all the other you know things in there all right uh and let's hear from group number three uh which is m greyville m Mason and Miss barard tag team sure thing all right tag team so um a bulk of our conversation started off with acknowledging that um school zone uh signage and markeing around um looks different throughout the county and so we discussed how we can

123do a better job kind of streamlining that process and understanding that we'd have to work with do um and potentially W and things like that to provide a better um to Pro provide better consistency and so Mr Anderson was going to kind of bring that information together before we meet because this was just kind of like the initial thoughts in our head of committee meeting and then we're are going to come back together maybe in June whenever whenever you need us to come back together Mr chairman we'll get back together um to do that to look at that so that we can do a better job advocating for the exterior things because we know once VFS or people are entering their school zones it creates an issue for us whether we like it or not

124and so we acknowledge that um M sure um we talked about there had been a concern um for the runoff about elections and polling stations so we had some discussion about um if if we need to make adjustments to those agreements um whether they're ideal or not and Mr Anderson was very helpful in um in that conversation additionally we talked about um facility upgrades um talking about the weapons detection um at Johnston County um talking about you know following the recommendations from true north um things like that um can I elaborate with the weapons detections we talked about um from the issues that happened last year at Ashley um how it's really important that we have some outward deterrence and I know we had um dogs and stuff that were coming into the schools but

125just really to have something that we can provide our staff and the community that they know this is an outward deterrent in addition to the other things because protocols being followed and we're doing a great job with that but just something else that we can help help support and assist our staff and students so that was why the out the weapons detection came up because having it be mobile um rather than having to funnel kids through one doorway which has been an issue we've talked about um potentially it would be classroom spot checks so that students know that this is available an opportunity for us that you could have to go through this and you're going to have to shore up whatever that looks like in your backpack so can I add to that the

126I was not able to attend the meeting but I watched it um on um the reporting of the zoom and some of the other things that um were brought out about you know a lot of the things that we're looking at um are not in our capital outlay and that we would have to definitely prioritize that um but that we were working through the True North Assessment recommendations um to do with that and we were also looking at um for that open gate which is the entrance scans I was saying Team 1 was talking about to me that should be team three um but talking about looking at that um AI grant that we have what that looks like and some of the other concerns were that about um from two member I mean from

127Josie and Melissa that about you know our lockdown procedures about sister schools and the district Safety Committee um just had a drill and and we talked very specifically about that so some we we do have a lot of plans already in place and so I would just encourage encourage us to make sure that we have our subject matter expert there um at the meeting so that we can um expand on what we're doing well have us understand what we're doing and then decide if we're doing it well or if we need to um do more for that but it was it you a lot of good stuff you know came out of that um for that and I was just I had a question Eddie when you were talking about I I was talking to

128my screen when trying to answer you know ask you a question but the um the metal detectors that we have here at board meetings are that those are mobile but those aren't the open gate mobile ones correct yeah the wanding but sometimes we do have a um we do have the the thing they walk the the art that they walk through we had that but um it was an older one that was given to us and we could never get it working okay okay so we went the wanding so so it's just there some I've seen it there but so but we just walk through it as pretend like you're walking you're getting scanned and then we the well an open open gate uh it would be that's a very similar system there's just two

129post and you do have to walk through one at a time but it's it's pretty quick yeah so thank you for having meeting I enjoyed watching does anyone else have any questions about any of the or you guys done first one other so um one thing that was noted was that some uh CC students and there may have been some other Early College I believe that Mr Anderson brought this up um that are transported to the traditional schools to be bust um if they arrive before during lockdown they don't know what to do so they were working on Shoring up that procedure does anybody have any other questions about anything I think it's a good start a lot more discuss obviously um and I think I'm going to I think I will go ahead and

130contact this person so at least we can hear from what what buns county is doing uh at the end of our um in our next agenda meeting so a month from now next we have Head Start Head Start I just updated my thingk you yeah be is brief because I know we got one more item um so I'll basically uh it should be linked it's not no I guess it didn't get linked typically the Head Start is linked but I mean it it's it's been sent to me I'm confused because usually it has been at our regular board meetings but we've moved it to here um that's going to be permanent right I think this where are now yeah I just want to make sure everybody can see it um because typically it is you

131know I'm sorry um Miss Walker but I was it was shared with with me by the early childhood education office that there was no Head Start report for this meeting okay well she sent me you let me one um I guess this is the right one is May 2024 one that's right okay um maybe she just didn't share she probably just didn't share and I can forward and maybe we can get just get it put up there that's all good anyway um I'm not going to read the numbers um because I guess usually when they're up there everyone can read those but so I'll just read highlights um well Pro program update um they're encouraging people to come visit Johnson prek Head Start Center um we would like to welcome any board member to visit

132the center and complete an assessment walk through form you are not required but we' like to see you Center highlights we finished our kindergarten transition field trips to College Park Snipes and Sunset Park spring pictures were taken on on um April 16th all returning students completed their educational screens for 2425 school year um students performed their spring be uh I guess Brooklyn Arts Museum concert I'm not Brooklyn Arts is that right yeah the Bama bam I just say bam then at s's Academy for their family and friends on April 26th and May 3rd had a total of 270 people come out to see their our students celebrated teacher and staff Appreciation Week um May 6th through 10th everyone received multiple guests from students staff and our Community Partners um in a housefield trip Marine CSI

133was at at Johnson on May 15th and 16th for select classrooms to see and um say Johnson's field day was May um Friday May 17th we will that's pass there it is yeah um they hosted it says says they hosted fun stations for classes to rotate through they had 277 family members attend with 51 being father figures so that is the highlights there it is oh hey it all right you go didn't have to that part well thank you m any questions questions and our last uh bit of item before adjournment is a quick budget update so after our board budget work session on May 14th um on the 15th I submitted our request memo to the board I'm sorry uh to the county um and that request was the 10.1 million that we talked

134about in the work session um the memo that was provided to the county was the request was included in the board memo email um on May 18th and I'll be glad to ask any other questions that's I haven't heard anything that's all the information I have at this point any questions no I would entertain a motion to adjourn so moveed is there a second second all in favor please signify by saying I I I all oppose thank you board members and central office staff we are adjourned e