001e our April 9th regular uh board meeting glad you are here just a couple quick reminders um before we begin I'd like to share these reminders with you please keep the a clear during the our meeting to allow members of the school system and the sheriff's department to be able to move around also except for when honoring the flag our opening prayer or participating in the call audience please remain seated during our meeting we hope to have a productive and efficient meeting in your help is greatly appreciated Miss Buie would you please call the role good evening Pete wbore presid Melissa Mason here Jesse Barnhart here Pat Bradford I am here Stephanie krael here Hugh mcmanis yes ma'am and Stephanie Walker here welcome again everyone thank you for being here uh at this point I
002would uh entertain approval of the motion to approve the agenda so moved so moved second we have a second any discussion yes please M Bradford um Mr chairman I'd like to add to the agenda under old business um I actually make a I move that we add a 10-minute discussion of the memo that received today just a few hours ago about our District's finances okay there's a motion to discuss the agenda assuming the the U um information we receive today is there a second I'll second that first and a second any further discussion on that Mr chair can can you just repeat where you wanted to have that Miss Bradford um I think it fits under old business but I'm not particular I don't care okay any other discussion I I'm wondering what you want
003to discuss because it's um the it's up to the superintendent and our finance department to manage our Affairs and this really has nothing to do with that the memo has nothing to do with our work it has to do with employees work who we do not manage so I'm wondering what you what you're interested in gleaning from this I think she would like to save that for the discussion so we have a motion in second M walk are we voting on this motion first we're going to do that yet and then we'll we okay all right um just because it sounds like it might be a little split vote would you please call the roll this is again to approve a 10-minute discussion addition Mr W deore I vote Yes Miss Mason yes Miss Barnhart
004yes Miss Bradford yes Miss crille no Mr mcmanis yes and Miss Walker yes that passes six to one are there any other discussions Miss Walker thank you um I would wanted to just amend the agenda uh down there on part um I think 16 new business under B I just want the wording to say school climate survey not discipline survey um we talked about this at the last meeting but I think we forgot to get it changed in it and it I mean we have discipline questions for sure but I just would like to change that to school climate survey second um okay you're going to second before I even get a chance a second all right we have a first and second any discussion uh I think we can do this one uh all
005in favor please signify by saying I I all opposed passes 70 now we have an amended agenda we have a first and second to pass that any other discussions all in favor of approving the amended agenda please signify by saying I I I all opposed passes 70 uh at this time I would like to call forward make sure I'm in the right place I am um M uh Reverend Pastor Tony McGee to from Liberty Baptist to lead us with the invocation Pastor let's all stand our feet I just want to read a quick scripture and then I'm going to pray um Proverbs 22:6 it says train up a child in the way that he should go when he is old he will not depart and I just I just thank God for that that Insight
006that this body here is is helping us those of us that are bringing our children to the education system to train children up uh so that they'll know what to do and how to do it so let's pray father we just come to you right now in the name of Jesus we thank you Father for this opportunity to pray and share this scripture we pray God Supernatural insight and wisdom upon these proceedings father that what would be done will be will be done in a way that will bring glory to your kingdom and strengthen and train our children they that they would be good citizens those that that that honor you and and honor each other father and I just pray God you continue to bless us and keep us and strengthen us that we
007in fact would rise up and be all that we should be giving you the praise giving you the glory and giving you the honor we thank you in Jesus's name amen thank you Pastor this time we will have Laney High School's chorus directed by Jennifer musi uh Laney High School uh Laney chorus teacher uh will perform the national anthem here they come [Music] who [Music] and [Music] still [Music] the [Music] [Applause] and at this time we ask Miss Bradford to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance Miss Bradford I 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 you alluce um well hello we are from Laney High School and I'm not Jen meski
008unfortunately um I'm Megan p go her student intern and now they will all introduce themselves um my name is Cara style and I'm in 12th grade my name's Jericho O'Brian and I'm in 11th grade my name's Sydney Pucket and I'm in 11th grade my name is Payton Tessier and I'm also in 11th grade my name is Montgomery laner and I am in 12th grade my name is Bella marshman and I in the 12th grade my name is Samantha Davis and I'm in 11th grade my name is gwenneth pal and I'm a senior my name's lawon polyur and I'm in 11th grade my name's Alan stud Baker I'm a junior I got to say that was one of the best R editions I've ever heard so would you please join me in another round of applause
009thank you all very much for being here tonight thank you chose all right Mr wildor the um I received an email that folks are having difficulty hearing some of our board members so perhaps we can make sure our microphones are on and we are talking into them close enough to our mouths okay if everyone will please be cognizant of that I would appreciate it we're going to continue on with the approval of the minutes do we have a motion to approve the minutes Mr chairman I could not I could not open the minutes from 3:26 or 312 and right now they're still spinning it's been spinning for me since I think Friday so I would make a motion to approve the minutes from 36 and 321 but not the other two okay is there a
010second I'll second that for the same reason same reason okay all right any further discussion not all in favor of approving could you repeat those dates I write that um 321 3624 and 32124 okay all in favor please signify by saying I I all opposed passes 70 we'll continue on with our recognitions come on up sorry uh good evening we once again have some wonderful student St and staff recognitions to share the first up is Angela Jeffrey a few months ago we recognized Angela for being a finalist for the North Carolina outstanding teacher of the gifted award and we are thrilled tonight to share that she [Applause] won she is an expert opinion the finest AIG educator in the state and this is our second year in a row that nhcs is had a teacher
011claim that title and our AIG team was recently named a promising District by the DPI as AIG coordinator Angela helps gifted students at Laney and new hover find challenge enrichment opportunity and connection she ensures that they get the differentiated curriculum they need but she also matches them with opportunities to lead and grow beyond the classroom like Governor's School study abroad or space camp and just as importantly Angela works as an active talent scout finding students with gifts they may not even recognize themselves Angela serves more than 600 students but excels at seeing the strengths and possibilities in each of them in her nomination letter supervisor Marine Mian wrote that Angela actively seeks out students in underserved populations to work with and that she collaborates with teachers to ensure learning environments Challenge and Inspire her students
012thank you Angela for your exemplary service and congratulations [Applause] excellent next up is the Laney Buccaneers cheer team they're unfortunately not able to be here tonight but we still want to recognize them they took home the NCCA division one state championship in their category a first in school history most of the 19 young women on this team had never even competed at the high school level and the Laney cheer team hadn't been in competition at all for several years but last spring coaches Nikki little Jamie green and Sarah zukul Modo became determined to get the bucks back in the blue mat the team was assembled in May and they practiced all summer long they cheered on the football team in the fall and the basketball team in the winter all while refining their competition routine
013and at the end of January were crowned state champs watching their routines what strikes you is not just the athleticism of backhand Springs and jumping splits it's how interconnected they are and how much trust that takes standing on one foot 8et in the air balancing on just the hands of your teammates with a big smile on your face or being flipped through the air and knowing your teammates will have to catch you that takes an incredible amount of teamwork strength and the absolute faith that I've got your back and you've got mine the motto of NCC CCA is where spirit and Sport come together and we can see that not only do these Buccaneers emblemized the sportsmanship we hope for an all student athletes but they have the true Spirit of teamwork as well join
014me in congratulating The Varsity Buccaneers cheer [Applause] team next up is Allison wi Alison is a behavioral specialist with our prek program and she was named the Smart Start of New Hanover County 2024 children's Champion being a champion of children is a little different than being a champion in other Realms there is no title or trophy it means you're doing the quiet work of providing opportunity for and nurturing the gifts of our youngest most vulnerable students as a behavior specialist Allison helps teachers set up classrooms based on research on the neuroscience and social emotional lives of toddlers she identifies children who might need additional support in order to be happy and successful at school and she helps these three three and four year-olds learn to name the feelings they're feeling and gives some self-regulation strategies
015so that their brains can calm down and learn she said quote our goal in prek is to set the foundation for school and learning so that children can feel safe loved and their brains can be built it takes only one caring adult in a child's life to make a difference we are fortunate to have this skilled caring Champion for children serving in new H County schools and Allison was unable to be here tonight because she's coaching a G but please join me in congratulating her [Applause] now right tonight we have the privilege of recognizing two very fine basketball teams on their Monumental Seasons the New Hanover High School boys team were nchsaa East Regional Champions and ended their season with a 32 to1 record and the first appearance at a title game since 2012 yep
016you can the hogard girls basketball team also had an epic season earning a conference Championship and ending their run in the final four with a 30-2 record one too and while we know that you wish those final games would have ended with a different outcome we are celebrating how far you did get and that you left nothing on the court that you you were in the arena in every way with your head with your heart with your team and I'll say what I used to say to my own son after a game win or lose we loved watching you play We Loved packing the rafters at Brogden Hall we loved that shutter down home game upset over South View we loved sending you off with school parades we loved caravanning to Winston Salem we loved
017packing any venue in town that would stream the game so that we could watch you play together you represented not just your schools but your community with grit and a believe in your a belief in yourself that defied seeds or brackets you put us on the map for all the right reasons you made your community proud and we're proud of you for your perseverance and perspective as Hanover Jr Rod mcgallen put it we knew every game was going to be a battle we knew we had to stay levelheaded and stay pounding and just be us and we'll be just fine and I can't think of a better lesson to apply from Sports to life so congratulations again to both teams first we'd like to welcome the New Hanover voice basketball team and coaches to accept
018your [Applause] [Music] [Applause] recognition get him [Applause] Assemble and now congratulations to the girls hoger team come on [Applause] up [Applause] you [Applause] and finally we get to recognize seven students from each of our high schools who have been awarded the State Employees Credit Union people helping people scholarship this $10,000 scholarship recognizes students from SECU families who not only have demonstrated Scholastic achievement but also have shown Leadership Excellence of character integrity and Community involvement SECU Foundation established the people helping people scholarship to help North Carolina Public High School students attend college each of you has shown not only that you can be successful in high school but that you have the confidence curiosity and character to soar into higher ed learning we can't wait to see where you go from here congratulations to you all
019first is Shania hunt from Ashley High [Applause] School we we'll do each one all right next is Kylie Smith from hogard high [Applause] school right next is Rebecca shook of Isaac bear Early [Applause] College Emily Radford of New Hanover High [Applause] School George long of CC all right and Abigail wowski of Wilmington Early College High [Applause] School all [Applause] right all right before we move on to student voice we have one more recognition M Bradford Mr chairman with your Indulgence I would like to recognize the passing of a new han County School employee his name was ASA O Brown who passed into heaven March 17th of this year he was born and raised in Friendship Community of Rocky Point he graduated from bergo school in 1970 so Boyce is much older than even me um
020he attended &t University from 1970 to his graduation in 1974 the following year he attended Virginia Tech in Black Berg Virginia to work on his master's degree woohoo before returning to North Carolina he was employed as a coordinator for the Rowan Oak Consortium for Manpower services back home ASA was employed as a consultant on the Planning Commission for the Tri Counties New Hanover Pender and Brunswick County he ran unsuccessfully for County Commission in 1990 ASA Brown was an extremely well read gentle man who cherished his conversations with others he also worked for the the new han County schools for 18 years from August 20 2002 all the way to November of 2022 and for the last several years of that he was well he was a bus monitor but he transported exceptional children so join
021me in honoring and celebrating the life of this kind man ASA O Brown thank you m Bradford we will continue on with uh our student voice student voice oh I'm sorry one second student voice I'm sorry I apologize One More SECU scholarship winner Bailey Willard from Lany High [Applause] School [Applause] and now we are ready for student voice we were just getting you warmed up that last time April fools sorry good evening members of the board and Spectators my name is m Matthis and I'm Jinger at hogard and I'm here with some of my peers smon and Cassidy um to explore a recent topic and project we've discussed on the student ambassador team class Rank and whether it's a really accurate measurement of academic performance due to the variety of factors that can affect it
022in the midst of college acceptance season this topic captured the interest of many students we've interviewed a wide range of students and Educators to gain the best understanding of the current class rank system that we have in place we would like to begin with a few key research findings according to the American Psychological Association the emphasis on class rank not only harms student mental health but also Fosters excessive competi competitiveness in high schools the college board's research supports that the advanced placement courses are crucial for college readiness yet the undue focus on GPA and class rank discourages students from enrolling in these academically enriching courses similarly the association for Career and Technical Education Act has highlighted how Career and Technical education programs significantly boost student engagement and the likelihood of graduating on time however the
023current GPA waiting system deters students from pursuing CTE especially introductory CTE courses which are a foundation for these programs they do not carry the same weight as AP or IB courses potentially jeopardizing students class ranks we also wanted to bring awareness to the uncomfortable fact that yes students with more privilege are at a high Advantage when it comes to being ranked for example I personally went to a private Middle School which provides students a head start because they can gain credits before entering high school and thus get pushed farther ahead in the system having access to these higher weighted classes earlier on has put me at the top of my class while my public school friends FIS Cassidy who might have maintained all A's still could never catch up to me in the ranking moreover
024this system's pressure has led me to forgo classes that aligned with my genuine interests like entrepreneurship for fear of impacting my GPA negatively why do we need a system that inadvertently encourages students to shy away from their personal interests and potentially life-changing experiences furthermore The Narrative that a single numeric rank can encapsulate a student's academic journey is increasingly being questioned by the universities the higher uh education universities themselves according to college board and the National Association for College admission counseling an evolving Trend among colleges and universities shows a diminishing emphasis on class rank as a Criterion for admission as they also understand that there's more to a student's capabilities character and potential than an inaccurate class rank I'll also share from my own personal experience I have played with the hogard orchestra for four years
025but it was a big decision deciding whether or not I was going to continue um to play in the orchestra because there isn't an AP music class and I knew it would set me behind in class Rank and many of my peers unfortunately decided to quit um their music classes once they entered High School just because they were worried about their class Rank and how it would appear and for colleges they wanted to give themselves the best chance to succeed so our conversations and interviews across the county have shown that while some students feel neutral about the class rank system as it is many students feel Boxed In by the current system and there's a growing desire for Alternatives that honor diverse talents and efforts more holistically um while we know it is mandated by
026the state to report class rank we have also seen many cities have proposed bills that offer alternatives for instance the North Carolina School of Science and Math as reported by wal is exempt from this law and chooses not to report class rank on their students transcripts similarly Raleigh Charter High School found a way to comply with state requirements yet bypasses class Rank by blacking it out on transcripts with all this in mind we just wanted to open up this discussion of this system and consider some of the AL Alternatives that other school systems have proposed um for example the Latin honor System and the adoption of ties and ranking are potential Alternatives that could Foster a more collaborative and supportive academic environment um we will be continuing our research on this topic and we would
027love to be pointed in the right direction of who to contact to research this issue and potentially viable Alternatives so thank you we just wanted to open up this conversation it's something we've been talking about a lot as a team um and we'd love to talk about it with you with you all more so thank you thank you board members you have anything any questions or comments M Walker I see your hand up thank you Mr chair um so I have questions and I I had a daughter in school that had the same issue as you guys did like what do you take do you take a lower weighted class and that affect your GPA because at the end it was all eras to who was top 10 and all that and while I do
028think it's kind of good for competition at the same time it it is a little unfair so would you mind sending us your information and maybe we can reply back with some thoughts on how we can look at that because I think it's very stressful when you get to your your senior status and you're looking at collagen if other systems are doing it I don't see why we couldn't look at that I mean it'll help with stress and M Health H that M crille yeah I just had a um and you sort of mentioned it a little bit when you were talking about the stress um when you were talking with your peers did it appear to you that um we were having a like a a stra a mental health strain that they needed
029to um you know maybe seek counseling or they um talked with their counselor a little more than they might not normally have because trying to Grapple with all those issues or maybe even parent issues because parents going you will take this because you will be number one um sort of thing did you did you come across that in any of research yeah so we interviewed um students from every school and we found that most students it is a stress point for a lot of students and students that worked a regular job throughout the school year were um less likely to say that they um were enthusiastic about taking AP or IB classes um or dual enrollment even um just because of um the workload that they already have um but yeah I would say that
030um most of the people that we interviewed especially at the traditional public schools um it was a point of like stress because there's also not a lot of information about like what colleges um consider important um in regards to like it kind of changes year by year and um at different universities so yeah but I would say that um it in our research we found that it is a stress point for a lot of high schoolers Mr mcmanis I this has been around for ever and I totally agree with you and being on the board I didn't bring it up myself but now that you brought it up I'm glad you did thank you it's probably something we do need to discuss and I just leave it with saying we look at the kids at
031the bottom and we give them great opportunities and we pass a lot of kids but to punish the kids at the top because of probably an archaic policy Dr F you may want to address this that is something that we can address is it not oh I that that's I'm not sure if that's that's probably a policy I have to check and see we can get back with you okay yeah I think it is thanks Mr chairman um I like how you guys were able to actually talk about some of the Alternatives of talking about having ties and rankings and I wrote down the Latin honor System as that those are the two referenced so when we have further discussion as Mr mcmanis said those are going to be those are when you're looking to
032change something has to go toward something so that'll thank you for bringing those up and thank you for your guys's presentation absolutely and I will say that you know I remember years ago my son was in a similar situation and he wanted he wanted to take oceanography he wanted to take oceanography but he looked at his GPA and he said but I also want to be number one so you know it's it's either or instead of you know this is a great opportunity so it is something I think we can discuss so thank you for your time thank you so much for being here today this at this point I'd like to welcome Rebecca Long prek teacher at College Road Early Childhood Center and she will be speaking as part of our monthly teacher voice
033so miss long I think she is she here as long are you here okay we will carry on maybe we had a little mixup there one last call Miss Long no no miss long okay well we'll carry on um with our superintendent report Dr F welcome back last week was National assistant principal week that was April 1st through the 5th this month is school library month and we will be celebrating and our media coordinators and all they do to support Literacy for our students April is also National volunteer month month of the military child National Child Abuse Prevention month exemplary professional development system award we have a strong working relationship with UNCW Watson College of Education an important piece of that is our school relationship partnership last month this program won recognition from the National
034Association of school University Partnerships and representatives from our schools and UNCW accepted the award in California new han County schools in NC DPI recognition last week I was able to present at the State Board of Education about our principal coaching model that we are piloting for DPI many district districts have programs like these that pair retired principles and principles at low performing schools however ours is different the state program provides principles in our low performing schools the opportunity to be paired with a highly effective principal across the state who leads a school with similar demographics we were asked to share this because our district is the only District in the state to have this opportunity why because we came up with this idea it's Innovative and it's having such a big impact across the state
035while there we're also while I was there we also received State Board of Education recognition from the office of early learning for our champion of change literacy award and in the same week we learned that DPI put us on the promising practice map for the state for our reading instruction as you know our new science based reading curriculum is bringing amazing results to our reading scores we're extremely proud of the work that our Educators and staff in are bringing the change to new han County Schools new han County Schools received the first ever YMCA impact award for partner of the year new County Schools became the first district in the part of the state also to offer flag football to our women athletes Ashley hogard Laney and new hver high schools competed in their first
036match congratulations to hogri high school and being named both a unified Banner school and a member of the ESPN honor rooll last month also happy birthday to Alderman Elementary School they are 60 years old thank you sir please all right thank may I ask that um direct Dr bring us for the May agenda briefing um showing where that we're in full compliance with a couple of laws that had just changed haven't heard anything in a while um the parents Bill of Rights and the women's fairness and women's sports can get an accounting rille yeah I um the I'm happy to have Dr f give us that report but the um people on a senior staff you know are responsible for that and um our legal counsel um can help keep us up to date on
037those kind of things as well may I ask yes so when you said an audit what would you like to to see about that please need to know that we're in complete compliance with nothing's been left out so you is there something tangible that you'd like to see am no no no I'm saying is there something tangible that you want to see data just that we're in compliance comp okay yes with both okay very good thank you I'll carry on uh with the Chairman's report another busy month uh hope you enjoyed your spring break for those of you who celebrate Easter had a wonderful holiday for those of you who celebrate will celebrate Passover I hope you will have an outstanding holy day and for those of you who celebrate Ramadan I hope you had
038a happy Ramadan aelia Festival was outstanding and the weather is and was perfect as Dr F mentioned new hanur County Schools received an award for uh our business partnership with YMCA impact award I want to thank my fellow board members who joined me to accept the award thanks also to my fellow board members who joined me as we completed our Center for k creative leadership training it was outstanding it was three-day training and we had day three on March 22nd it was great to work together with other members of the board on this training several us also attended the CN training on lunch and learn on restorative justice or discipline held on March 15th we will continue to have discussions with our partners the County Commissioners in ways to fund our school schools so we'll
039be able to continue to improve the education for all of our students as I mentioned in the agenda review I have to say one more time how wonderful the best foot forward was we have wonderfully talented students uh and we just heard some more of them today as they sang in new Haner County schools and that is for sure so um very very pleased about that and uh finally as we return from spring break we need to focus on ending our school year on a positive note as a former principal I remember how important this time of the year is is the final Sprint to the finish line so um looking forward to some great um great last month and mon excuse me and uh also finishing up on a very high note at this
040point we will turn and we will begin our call to audience Miss Mason if you will take I'm the list okay just uh by the way we will need a short session I did not mention that before as I thought I was going to f all right we're going to start off with Peter RIT oh my goodness here we go I like it the policy committee is meeting here next week they'll talk about due process and review if parents should have the right to ask questions for their kids that's just five six and seven year olds well here is something easy we're sure principles can do call them before you decide call before you make a decision how is aive iive Behavior defined was it a major or minor infraction before you use the last
041resort tell them other strategies you have tried we know suspensions harm our kids so call them before you decide policy 34351 is all about shortterm suspensions it's really written for the older kids now give the young ones your attention we want principles to delay before they have their final say after they' talked to a child and the facts are compiled have them call a parent right away yes call them before you decide call before you make a decision how is aggressive behavior defined was it a major or minor infraction before you use the last resort tell them other strategies you have tried we know suspensions harm our kids so call them before you decide call them before you decide thank you Chris Sutton I I can't beat that song that's rough to come up behind
042that's um so in 2019 the previous superintendent was suspended without pay after intimidating a Community member by reaching out to his boss now in 2024 the current superintendent decided to forward three emails from community members to someone outside the school system who in turn looked through the workplace website of one of these people copied a link to their inclusion policy and pasted it in an email back to the superintendent while alluding to considering sending an email to their boss imagine if he's doing this to community members imagine what he's doing to staff members that speak out you take part in something that intimidates community members then you should have to answer for for it just like the previous uh superintendent did I believe it needs to be public I we've been waiting there's some of
043the victims here in this room and they've sent emails and they they've not even heard anything back and let's not pull the political card this superintendent has fought with board members on both sides of the aisle even before this new majority came in uh he also fought with uh or intimidated some of our community members on both sides of the aisle for instance we had the incident with uh What uh Matt Coyle and Angie kany where he tried to have them charged went to the Sheriff's Office da declined to take out charges he's intimidated numerous times we get to see his email tra remember he said that I intimidated someone by asking a simple question before he has a long history of this and this is yet another incident today I don't know if there's
044ever been any investigation into the superintendent I think that the community deserves transparency with this I especially with our past and multiple times we've been told that our our culture of retaliation our culture of coverups are gone we're not receiving answers for this the board all understands what we're going through right now the victims are here in this room two of them and I spoke to the Third he sent an email that our community is not allowed to see it's completely redacted and he sent it to someone outside the outside of our district explain that to us explain why we still don't have that email thank you Mr Leslie posie okay now that I have your attention I want to talk about paying attention you regularly discuss how students don't pay attention in class problems
045with constant use of phones and other issues those decisions are part of your job another part of your job is being responsive to the community you have allotted us one hour a month to speak to you in many cases that's all we get some of you have said on that dis you don't have time to read the emails we sent you so this 2 minutes a month is all we get you are supposed to be public servants and listen to us as we demand solutions to our school budget saving school-based staff and other issues quit looking at the paperwork for later in the meeting that is supposed to be homework start putting your focus where it is supposed to be right here at this Podium thank you Barbara thanks at the March 19th policy committee
046meeting Mrs Bradford mentioned that so far this year there were 13 K through 2 grade out of school suspensions from serious offenses Dr fa said he wasn't sure where the number 13 came from the number 13 came from the K through2 out of school suspensions data provided by the office of communications and Outreach based on VI the violation coding from August 23 to February 24 only 13 K through 2 suspensions were from serious offenses a week earlier I read a speech from this very Podium and cited the number 13 so did two other speakers sometimes it feels like we're not being heard why is that later during the policy committee meeting we learned that 49 of this year's suspensions that have been coded as minor offenses were in fact based on audit serious offenses the
047miscoded offenses from the past two years are reason enough to have a principal call a k to second grade parent before they decide to spend a child that way a parent can learn if their child was involved with a minor offense or a serious offense and how it would be coded revise policy 4351 and have principles call a parent before their five six seven-year-old child is kicked out of school thank you thank you Janette Kosar good evening I am Janette Kosar a retired University Professor mother of two children m a grandmother to five and great-grandmother to one I ask you what should school policy decisions be based upon board policy 2400 is about Pol po policies it states all policy decisions will be made while keeping in mind the board's objective to provide students with
048the opportunity to receive a sound basic education therefore should a policy decision be based on whether or not a student's parent has a phone that works um no a working phone should not be the basis for establishing a policy should a policy decision be based on whether a translator can be found for a parent who doesn't speak English no again availability of a translator should not be the basis for establishing a policy policies should be based on what will keep our children in school learning and thriving at the March 19th policy committee meeting an elementary school principal said that implementing a revised short-term suspension policy would be very very difficult fortunately she didn't say it would be impossible principles have a difficult decision to make when they are determining if the behavior of a five
049six or seven-year-old warrants a suspension I am making this request please revise policy 4351 so that K A K to K first second parent will receive a call from a principal before he she decides to suspend a child if principles deem parental involvement is important then they will not let the logistics of including a parent stand in the way of this important decision principles are bright and dedicated professionals I am sure they are capable of working on their concerns about phones and translators at their monthly meetings thank you thank you Judy [Applause] Justice Judy Justice Mark Allen EML Whitehead okay Veronica mclen Brown thank you Miss Mason for putting short team short-term suspension policy 43151 on the agenda at last month's policy committee meeting and a special thanks to miss Rafford Miss Mason and Mr
050vog vogle for understanding the precise nature of love our children's requests we are requesting that you revise policy 4351 so that kindergarten to second grade parents will receive a phone call from the principal before a decision to suspend is finalized we understand and respect the principal's authority to suspend students however we are advocating for a simple change in the policy a change that invites encourages and celebrates parental involvement the revision does not mandate or require uh parental presence principales retain their authority to decide on out of school suspensions without the parent being present do you believe building positive relationships with parents is important for successful schools do you believe parents deserve the right to advocate for their children do you believe five six and seveny OES deserve every opportunity opportunity to stay in school where
051they can learn and Thrive well one single phone call can help build positive relationships with parents one single phone call can increase the number of days that students are in school learning and thriving one single phone call can be a crucial step in Breaking the Vicious Cycle of the school to prison pipeline love our children is simply asking you to embrace the transformative power of a single phone call to empower parent voices and to Foster an environment where our children Thrive thank you Lindsay Phillips Lindsay Phillips Loretta Stackhouse Dr fa invited the members of the policy committee to attend the principal's meeting on April 11 he wants them to better understand short-term suspensions and due process from their perspective here are some questions I hope the committee members will ask the elementary principles which positive
052Positive Behavior Support alternatives are you using in your school with kindergarten first and second grade students who display challenging behaviors which Positive Behavior Support Alternatives have you found to be the most effective with your youngest Learners how many different Positive Behavior Support alternatives are used with five six and seven year olds before an out of school suspension is used as a last result short under the current short-term suspension policy what do you do when you're ready to notify a cave to second grade parent when their child is being suspended and you're unable to reach them by phone what do you do when the parent doesn't speak English and you don't have a translator if you made that phone call before you've decided to suspend the child how would you handle this being unable to reach
053the parent or needing a translator I suspect the principles would deal with both of these issues the same way they're dealing with them now revise policy 4351 have a principal call apparent before he decides to suspend a k to second grade student thank you Natasha too Natasha too hello I'm Natasha to I'm running to be in the seat that you guys are sitting in and I'm here to speak today about school safety however what I find astounding is rather than this board or the superintendent be focused on our school safety after two loaded guns being found at our schools in the past month or so um he's more interested in finding ways to retaliate against a concerned citizen that speaks out vocally against him this is America is it not still for the remaining time
054um free speech is awarded to us and it is one of our foundational rights um I find it just outstanding and outrageous rather than focus on the true problems that are in our schools and facing our teachers and and students you would rather find ways to retaliate against people that don't think the same way that you do I don't know if our parents I don't know if our students are aware of the increase of Acts of crime and violence within our school houses it's not just in our County it's across the state and it's across the nation there seems to be a lack of serious consequences facing our students I don't know if it's just restorative justice I don't know if it's can be pinned on one thing but I know if don't get a
055handle on it now we're going to lose all the great teachers we have left that haven't already left and good luck recruiting anybody that wants to deal with kids that are unmanageable that are not disciplined and that don't know what serious consequences are they deserve better this country deserves better they are worth fighting they deser kids thrive in structure as Educators we all know that as parents we all know that it seems like there is a serious lack of structure not just for our students but for our Administration and there should be some more accountability thank you Christina Mercier as I Was preparing this month's speech I reread the speech I'd given in June 2022 while the ask was slightly different I want you to hear again what I said about the school system and
056Commissioners working together regret L I have to say that from conversations I've had with people who contacted the Commissioners most got no response or a response from one commissioner that was entirely unhelpful and discouraging my question is this why are the County Commissioners so disassociated from the needs of the school system why are they insisting that funding the schools would mean an increase in taxes many entities must appeal to them for funding why is it the public schools who bear the burden of being the reason for a tax increase right now you're probably thinking why isn't she asking the County Commissioners these questions this is my answer you are the entity who applied for your budget to be funded did you Advocate with the Commissioners to fully fund the budget have you invited them to
057visit schools are you facilitating regular meetings between the Commissioners and Educators and support staff are you creating an ongoing working relationship between the Commissioners and the school system or is there an adversarial relationship to accept when it's time to submit a budget request that is what I said to years ago and it appears not only has nothing changed but apparently the relationship and communication between the superintendent school board and County Commissioners has gotten worse therefore I have some new questions how can you be a leader in public education yet refuse to advocate for students and teachers why is it okay to settle for the state's minimum standard when it comes to staffing yet when it comes to test scores you expect our students to exceed the minimum if you truly love education you cannot continue
058to allow our schools to suffer we need teachers and staff nothing else can replace qualified and caring adults in the schools they are essential for Success students get one chance at an education advate thank you Miss mer your time is up thank you your time is up Karen Clark we just need Jesus Ronald Reagan if we ever forget that we are one nation under God then we will be a nation gone under job the fear of the Lord is true wisdom to forsake evil is real understanding Jesus The Living Word I am the way the truth and the life George Washington it is impossible to rightly govern without God and the Bible James Madison the future and success of America are found in the laws of God upon which our constitution was founded John Adams
059we recognize no Sovereign but God and no King but Jesus Grover Cleveland the receptions of the teachings of Christ result in the purest patriotism the most scrupulous Fidelity to the public Trust and the best type of citizenship I pray you walk in total Integrity walking in the light of God's word he has prescribed the right way to live to obey his laws with all your heart to live in the word of God walking in his truth his Commandments are your counselors and his word your light I pray he opens your understanding to the ways of wisdom and gives you Revelation to make good decis decisions for our children that you have an understanding heart so you can passionately know and obey his truth I decree new Handover County Schools reflect our state motto as originally
060intended to be rather than to se bringing True Justice and righteousness to our schools in jesus' name for yours is the kingdom yours is the power yours is the glory amen thank you you Reverend Kelly wheat Rivers good evening I'm Kelly wheat Rivers the associate Minister for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Wilmington I'm a local Hospice chaplain a member of love our children and a mother of a second grader in new Hanner County I'm here to speak about the short-term suspension policy 4351 which in includes a section on the pre-suspension rights of a student these include the right to make statements in their defense the right to request that the principal hear from other people and the right to request additional time to present those people does this list sound like something a five six
061or seven-year-old could do I ask because the policy also states that a student quote does not have the right to a parent or other representative present at the informal meeting I understand that principles talk to children all the time without parents being present it's part of their job all love our children is asking for is let a parent or Guardian know let them receive a phone call from a principal before a decision is made to suspend a student in kindergarten first grade and second grade may we love our children advocate for them and celebrate their childhood thank you thank you Katie Gates good evening a school board can be used as an instrument of righteousness to restore Traditional Values for Success Psalm 34:15 says the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his
062ears are attentive to their cry I asked you to remember back to grade school when we had a healthy fear of discipline from teachers of parents and of the principal and of making poor grades people weren't offended maybe had hurt feelings but the phrase sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me was prevalent we were told to suck it up and we're probably better for it for the first 200 years of education in our nation there was prayer in schools we had spring concerts and sang patriotic songs honoring our American Heritage students look forward to eth and 12th grade field trips to Washington DC kids were happier healthier and productive The Pledge was spoken and kids wouldn't dare think of sitting down or recusing themselves except for a handful of
063religiously exempt students which is their prerogative God family and country were honored these were there were not epidemics of failing students gender dysphoria depression Suicidal Tendencies nor Viewpoint discrimination in politicized classrooms nor did we see a generation of indulged students embracing socialism and Marxist ideologies fed to them through the Ala publishing companies and the education system Bard as you cut the budget and simplifi programming please Embrace Godly and moral values upon which this nation and Liberty has thrived teach history from primary sources not from a deconstructionist and revisionist perspective replace some paid counselors with volunteer chaplain as they're doing in Texas put the acts to CRT and Dei programming as University of Texas has as Oklahoma schools have there are currently more than 30 bills across the country targeting Dei funding including North Carolina 27
064States ban CRT now is your chance to reset our trajectory and righteousness thank you thank you Miss Gates Lisa Goff you're an elected official so you're in a light a spotlight and people are watching what you say and what you do you're accountable to many but you're also accountable to God who sees everything and knows your thoughts and motives there are things God hates lying a proud look the spirit that makes one overestimate himself and un underestimate others murderers deception Impressions that aren't true I want to thank you for laying down your lives for this board it's a lot of hours I see it it's a lot of hard work you're on other committees you have staff that works hard too and I just think that um you don't forget your why why you were
065elected why you ran because it was all good and I'd have to say that I don't like big education it's so corporate I get lost in all the minutia so I would have to say that um defund Big Ed and see who stays stays for the kids right not for the money thank you thank you Angie Kaney why do kids bring guns to school because they aren't safe there when schools are significantly overc capacity and underst staffed with a toxic prison culture ignoring the worry of safety is not an option two weeks ago a load loaded weapon was found at Lany and was quickly dismissed with Decades of sexual assault ignored despite glaring warning signs it's not surprising there's zero research to support the narrative that more cops on campus yields safer schools there is
066substantial evidence to support the fact that social emotional learning programs and restorative justice practices implemented with Fidelity do create safer schools evidence-based prevention programs adequate space and adequately trained education and mental health sta mental health staff reduce School violence strategies laid out in the settlement plan from the recent sexual assault cases Define provisions that address safety our district intentionally ignores them while our board attacks reputable prevention program programs and F continues to cut positions and viable resources the most recent attack falls on the Family Life program that teaches sex education and prevention and addresses building healthy relationships and setting boundaries this directly falls under the parameters of the settlement and keeping student stfe if cut the required parts of the curriculum would fall on other untrained and already overburdened staff members to teach we would
067go from having a family Life program that most of the state envies to losing key components of that program that directly impact our students and have proven a decline in teenage pregnancy a repeat mistake of the costly destruction of eliminating our title n Department the district is dishonest in saying these positions are central office positions they are not these teachers teach students directly cut central office positions that cater to the superintendent who makes about five times a teacher salary but to cut student facing Educators Mental Health Counselors EC prevention programs and even District student support staff would be detrimental to the safety and well-being of our students thank you Miss KY David [Applause] Perry uh good evening uh Mar Margaret Thatcher once noted that the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of
068other people's money and as uh Dr F recently came to this school board uh and asked you to approve a free School breakfast program with a $1.3 million grant for all of our 25,000 students he said that this would cure an alleviate the problem of students who are going hungry and would cost the school district nothing but as usual he did not tell you the whole story you see the ongoing cost of providing this free breakfast for all is subject to the Community eligibility Provisions which mandates that we are only going to get reimbursed for the ongoing cost for the percentage of people in our County that are eligible for SNAP or tanif benefits I feel that we are going to be on the hook for millions of dollars in the coming years because of
069this program this kind of uh quick and rash decision is the same thing that got us in trouble and why we have a $20 million shortfall now our previous School Board thought it was a good idea to fund permanent positions with temporary extra money bad idea if we were doing that in our own personal finances we'd be in bankruptcy court or jail the fact is we need to make Financial priorities we need to focus on our education of our and providing a top-notch education and making sure that we have highly qualified teachers we are a school system we are not a welfare agency so therefore I would ask you to reconsider this program that doesn't mean you don't care go to County leaders go to charitable organizations with our County think outside of the box
070before we devise another socialist program that we cannot afford to maintain thank you thank you Mr Perry Diane ziki Diane ziki good evening everyone unfortunately the situation here continues to get worse and not better what we have is an employee that you hired who is not working for you he's working against you to listen and hear that Senior Management made the decision to close the career Readiness program at Mosley is a direct slap in the face to all seven of you when H mcmanis asked how long this had been in the works fa replied then he gets in front of the media and says he did give you proper notice because in November he gave you 20 days notice to the letter going out to the parents that he was closing their program and they
071had to find another school it's unacceptable I'm a business owner you hire slow and you fire quick when you have poison inside your organization you get rid of it this is a bipartisan issue there was not one person standing up in favor of that program being closed and of a Welcome Center going into its place there is a trend here of a lack of respect for the constitution of our country and for the freedom of speech we saw this back in July of 2021 when he went to the sheriff's department and he pressed harassment and intimidation charges against two people who spoke at a public forum the sheriff correctly determined that they have the freedom of speech and dro the charges but that is completely unaccept Behavior most recently several emails were sent to the
072board and he in turn forward them to Linda Thompson Chief equity and diversity officer who is not with the Board of Education Dr F this is doxing and it is illegal you do not forward this information on to people outside of the realm it was sent to and unfortunately this is just the tip of the iceberg we've asked for public comment to no avail you guys have a decision to make you either do something disciplinary including termination or you stand complicit with it Tim [Applause] mer good evening nice to see you again try to be a calmer voice for you tonight uh you've told us that we have a $20 million shortfall if we are to Hold Steady at last Staffing and operational levels but you know even last year we were woefully understaffed if
073we wanted to keep our children safe in the classroom and in our schools and I hear that you only want to ask for 4.5 million from the county I'm confused are you willing to absorb $15.5 million from our budget these aren't just numbers you're talking about putting our children at risk for their physical safety and their Mental Health because you don't want to ask for more you don't want to ask for what our children need I watched a uh one of your budget sessions recently and a few of you said oh you know we have to be really careful about what we ask the county and you know we can't ask for too much and I say why on Earth not why won't we ask for what we need I mean aren't we all committed
074to the same things here I would think that the County Commissioners also want to see our children being uh educated will I would like to see our kids go to school excited come home happy they should be safe and they should get a sound education something that will help them to succeed in life do better than their families have in the past and they can do that if we do the hard work of fighting for what they need I understand the Commissioners might not agree but you have to ask or you won't get and really where will it end unless we a different state legislature it will be even worse next year with more voucher money going and more crumbling and overcrowded schools larger class sizes and yes more fights our children depend on you
075to do what needs to be done to keep our children safe and give them a quality education please go get the funding thank you Steven Exel good evening tonight's call to the audience started with a song from uh love our children another Pete classic uh but he also had a catchy tune but with a very specific plan we want the principles to delay before they have their final say after they talk to the child and the facts are compiled have them call the parent right away so first a principal gets to the required due process by talking to the children involved in an incident and getting the facts then they then they then they call the parent of a kindergarten first or second grade student and ask any questions or concerns that they might have
076and finally then the principal makes a decision but the most important line in the song was we know suspensions harm our kids we know suspensions harm our kids policy 4351 should be about our children we must do everything we can to keep our kids in school where they can learn and Thrive allowing parents to speak to a principal before a determination is made to suspend a five six or seveny old just makes sense what parent wouldn't want that for their kids Revis policy 4351 currently principles call parents after they decide to kick a young learner out of school so have them make the call earlier as the song says call them before you decide all right last call for Judy Justice I don't see her Mark Allen Emma Whitehead and Lindsay Phillips that concludes our
077call to audience yes please return at uh e all right now you turn it on so you can hear me there we go we are back welcome back to uh our next item which is consensus items uh we have uh items a through H Mr chairman yes ma'am um M Bradford I move that we adopt the consensus agenda taking out a b c d g and h a b c say it again down well yes AB b c d g and H but I have a question um first if you if you could indulge me to ask that question ask um all of Theseus and contracts these legal documents have they been reviewed by our board attorney Mr vogle Mr vogle okay so we're looking at consensus items a through H yes ma'am yes sir
078and don't believe our firm has been asked to review any of these documents if if that's not right I welcome the staff to correct me but they don't look familiar and uh something that our Law Firm was asked to review so Mr chairman I would then move that we postpone the vote on a b c d g and H until they've had a chance to be reviewed by our legal councel um they advise us on contractual legal agreements and it's prudent to have your attorney look at a contractual legal agreement before you go into it one of those I think is like five years um I'm deeply concerned so I would move that E and F be approved as a consent agenda the others be held until next month and that they get reviewed by
079our legal attorney okay before we go I saw a hand up there but before we go to the hands is there a second second okay now we have a first and second all right um let me ask Miss Sutton have since we're so our normal process is if we use the contract template that the attorney reviewed initially when the attorney first came on with us we don't send that those contracts again for the attorney to review but if there are changes if the contract is not the template that's already been approved those are approved by our attorney so that's the nor that's the process that we're currently using Okay other discussion Mr MCM down this way oh I'm sorry Mr C had her hand up first I apologize yeah I'm just wondering why we didn't
080say anything about this at the agenda review that is our process and Mr Mr Vogel attended that meeting he could have put his hand up at that time I haven't reviewed them so I'm I'm just having a hard time with this because we asked all the questions that we wanted to ask and we spent about 30 minutes on that topic going through them Mr MC just a question so I understand actually you were saying that this is pre-approved because of the blueprint that that you use each time a template it was your word correct so we have a template and all that's been reviewed by the attorney um and we're just filling in things like the vendor name the vendor address the dollar amount so those are the additional items that are being added to
081the template let me ask you a question of Mr V I'm going to speak next uh Mr vogle have you reviewed the template um yeah I think I'm recurring like uh remembering a kind of a basic template that we may have reviewed you know way back you know when we began in in the July August time period yes you did review the template okay so my question would be well okay M Bradford my question would be of these a b c d g and H every one of those is a template give me a second I I need to look to see if they're all templates or not and then I can confirm or if those that have contracts I can speak to the contracts for construction these were developed by the attorney um and
082adopted um by the school board and um Mr vogle and his his U Associates have reviewed those uh so as as uh Miss Sutton was saying we're just filling in the filling in the blanks so that's C that would be C and D those are two contracts for construction Mr mcmanis I apologize but I'm just still trying to get my hands around this so Mr vog all of you involved so he has the attorney has had access to the dollar amount no the attorney uh approved the templat that the template okay so the procedure was approved for every single thing ABC on here right okay but the specific final contracts with the do the vendor names the address those we don't resend we haven't been resending that to the attorney because the terms and conditions
083are the same in the template for each contract and how long have you been doing this you and Mr Anderson so I mean we were doing that even with Arington and Smith no I mean before that how many years have you been doing the template 10 plus 10 plus okay and so this has never been called a question till now and we had the new attorney review the templat just to make sure that he was okay with the templates we had been using well somebody explain to me apologize why we've need to review it again I'm asking if it had been and that's the first that we've heard said he had I'm not sure what his answer was but Mr Anderson and there's there's four things here that we don't know that are from a
084template yet okay let's can we pull that's why I was just saying let's postpone it a month let's figure it out and bring it back or we can just do it now M graville yes so I'm looking at the Cooperative Innovative High School renewal form which is something that comes straight from DPI so um that would be one that I'm feeling like we should be pretty solid on because this this is the same contract that we've done Dr fac any comments on that that is straight from the state that's just something the state sends us to sign just to renew for ctec I mean for Wilmington so um that is just a state document that we sign we don't get the attorney to review that that is a state document to continue with the um
085High School M your final time yeah and I'm just looking that the budget contract for the zspace was exactly like the previous contracts that we've done you know last month too and we had no questions about so I the it's the same thing we're using we just changed the numbers and I know from signing these things too is that we we just put the the new stuff in and then we go as long as the document has been approved the zspace that we're signing now is the same zspace that we signed last time at the same document and these if for our dollars if we don't use these dollars this time we won't be able to use the dollars next month for our dollars so um we have to use these dollars or we will
086forfeit these dollars Miss Sutton and I will add the zspace is using the standard terms and conditions template that I referred to earlier okay so we have a motion in front of us right now to approve E and F and to table a b c d g and H we have first and second um May I amend that you may amend that um I would amend it to remove AB check um and I think the professional development for the UNCW is that a template no one's answered and the Network Solutions is that a template no one's answered but the others are good I I think from what we've been told what brings me to this is last month I got a contract in front of me at 710 and I was being asked to sign
087it or to to approve it right then and there and I had never even read it so forgive me for being just a shade on the suspicious side as to whether we're following procedure here when I get two contracts you know one of them had a term of a year and eight months and we never even read it we just y'all voted I didn't vote for it but y'all voted so I'm just dotting eyes and Crossing teas because if I'm voting for something or voting against I want to know what I'm doing okay and first off Miss Mason do you agree with Just Just A and B now okay Miss Walker well I understand we should be extra careful on when we um vote to approve things I feel like we've had two weeks now
088and I feel like we've already talked about them and if they are boiler boilerplate contracts or ones that we've used before and we're just renewing and they been uh the attorney's already looked at them I just don't see why we don't approve them and Mr W could you just make a note with letter B it is the same contract template that Miss Sutton is using for um the zspace so there's no reason that we should be pulling that one either the only one that's sign letter B is not using that that template um letter B is an online subscription it's basically buying our domain so we can have nhcs.net and it's it's done online there's no people to talk to so they won't sign ours so what I included was the their terms and conditions
089I was supposed to give that to doctor or to Mr vogle to to sign and he has not reviewed it so that's one he has not reviewed that he prob should yes and he should have yes when did you submit it to him huh when did you give it it's on me it's on me I didn't send it to him that's 100% on me so I didn't realize that that was one that was marked that way so that is that one's on me that's letter b b as a baby b as and Bo all right so right now so B needs B definitely needs to to be pulled back but um what was the answer on a anyone yes Dr Barnes just waiting my turn yes Dr Barnes a mon mirrors the other uh agreements
090we have with schools to host student teachers there is no monetary value with a but it it follows the same pattern of our other agreements with schools like for interns and that for interns and student teachers yes Miss Bradford like commend one more time okay I move that we approve the consent agenda holding back Item B Network Solutions LLC contract to be reviewed by the attorney Miss Mason do you agree and I will second it okay all in favor please signify by saying I I I all oppos pass to 70 we can carry on all right next we have policy consensus Miss Mason only two policies uh this month policy 5020 visitors to the schools and school facilities this was brought forward by Miss vnum um and Miss Souza and um the changes are on
091the on letter f um regarding private service providers in schools um and then policy 3470 4305 Alternative Learning program/ schools and this was just this was brought forward by myself um just to provide Clarity and um on on who terminates a program or a school that is an alternative learning program or School you like to make a motion I move that we accept them accept them thank you I'll second that are you second that okay um any discussion M crille and I just want to point out that um in policy 4305 that um Mosley is not an alternative school that there's no language about that in the policy but um I just want to make sure that we are all clear and all listeners are clear that um the career reads Academy at Mosley is
092not an alternative high school any other discussion all in favor of U these two policies accept these two policies please signify by saying I I I all opposed you you don't get to vote Dr fa I have to clarify something I'm sorry um we went back and actually did some clarification with the state um Mosley was actually um in 2008 it was designated as an alternative school the board never went back and took that designation away so because it is an Eddy as an alternative school it is labeled with the state as an alternative school so to get that label away it will have the board would have to make that determination okay thank you for the clarification is now appropriate to make a motion to clear that designation to change that Des I'd like
093to make a motion that we change that designation okay need a second is there a second we want to take the alternative school designation away from Mosley is there a second hearing none that dies we will carry on with old business new han County Schools Finance memo Believe Miss Bradford brought this forward so I'll let her speak first Miss Bradford thank you um I'm really concerned that we're telling principles that we can't there was a memo that came out today the news media has already gotten it so they because they're asking about it that we can't afford to buy supplies for the schools um and I think there were four or five things in the memo and I'm really concerned we're at that point that tells me that you know we're we're at Rock Bottom
094here if we can't buy notebooks and pencils and things that are needed and how did we get here where's the planning so that this doesn't happen and I don't know what other surprises are around the corner and it and it really really concerns me we have people who come and they speak and say you know ask the ask you know ask the County commission for everything that you could possibly want that's not really good leadership to do that you're supposed to set a budget and live within it you're supposed to anticipate costs that are coming up you're supposed to anticipate a recession or a downfall or a student decline um in enrollment you're supposed to anticipate those things and adjust according ly and yet we're in this big giant crisis that gets worse instead of
095better and I don't want to leave it you know to where as soon as the meeting's over everyone speaks to the media and tells them what they think but that we don't address it here as a body of seven people that are responsible to the voters for what happens up here so that's my concern to find out you know at 1:30 in the afternoon before a meeting that you know we can't afford we've told our principles they can't afford to buy supplies because we're in such a dire budget crisis that's a very serious concern thank you Mr s would you like to address that you I'm sorry is there a question or is there something specifically you want me to speak to or I can just talk about the memo in general I just want
096to make sure I me the memo in general would be great okay all right so um annually we set yearend deadlines to meet um federal and state regulations so that's not new um normally those deadlines are set to end at the end of May um State and fed that would be local money and state and federal normally set to end at the end of April um and know that's a memo that we send out every year um and that memo already went out earlier this year with those deadlines um and so when we were analyzing the budget um for next year and prepareing um we decided we were going to um instead of having those local deadlines be at the end of May we've pushed those up until now um but we know that there
097are some things our schools because we have um change the deadlines on them without notice we know that there's still things that they probably have to do that are mandated um and so with that in mind at the same time we sent out the memo we also sent out a form for them to complete so it's an e it is an extra step for them but it allows a little more oversight on spending at the end of the year so we can make sure the things that we're purchasing at the end of the year is not just to be purchasing to be purchasing um that it's they are things that are needed by the schools um not just trying to spend all the money um because anything of course we don't spend this year we
098can use towards next year's budget so the intent of the memo was not to say you can't buy anything the inent the memo was to say please complete the form and have it evaluated by the chief finance officer and the superintendant before you move forward with the purchase I'll be glad to answer any other questions you have M Bard had her hand up thank you Mr chair Miss s that was my question is understanding I appreciate Miss prad for bringing up the direct concern that if I'm a principal and I have a need for supplies this memo is not saying you are not allowed to get supplies it is saying we want the process to make sure that we are spending the funds that we have in the most efficient way possible throughout the district
099okay thank you um so along those lines I'm looking at the last um sentence in the first paragraph such diligence is necessary to ensure the schools will have adequate funds available for next fiscal year I'm just confused about that are we trying to save this year to add it on to next year yes so um what I was trying to communicate in that line was just to share um whatever funds we don't whatever local money we don't spend this year will fall into fund balance right and then it would be available for future use so the intent once again wasn't to stop people from making purchases that were required or needed it was just to stop people from spending money just to spend their budget down there anybody is there anyone that has not ask
100a question that has a question before we go around for second round Mr Bradford M bford um um on that note just last month we hired two new law firms one without looking at the contract um adding expense to our current budget so I'm going to be bold here and move that we terminate those two agreements that we agreed to last month um which a majority of you voted to uh approve in the March meeting under the circumstances we should not be adding any other vendors any other expenses to our already challenged budget I'll second that second first and second further discussion Mr Walker so I I I think we hired the additional law firms to cover special education or exceptional children issues which will not hope they won't overlap with the attorney we have
101now so I don't think it's extra things that we're paying for others M crille and I don't know who the Second Law Firm she's referring to but um would you would you clarify who that second law firm is s law firm and per P those two okay so all right so that agree I thought she was talking about something else another Law Firm that we needed to have to handle um other matters okay so we have yes so I would yeah I would say that we that doesn't count on this because we're just covering um ourself and we're not comfortable with Mr Vogel we have a motion in a second Miss uh bo would you this this is to eliminate the contracts for the SN and the uh the SN law firm and the pr
102schol Law Firm Miss Bo would you please call the role Mr wbore no Miss Mason yes Miss Barnhart no Miss Bradford yes Miss kill no Mr mcmanis no and Miss Walker no okay that's defeated 5 to is there any other discussion about the new han County finance memo M Crable the I'm assuming that this means also too that um board members um will not get reimbursed for travel expenses in between schools and to I mean huh doesn't matter okay and then um any of our travel monies that have already been um approved they're still good I mean I'm not gonna use them because I'm G to keep it in the pot but the um I just wanted to make sure that no I don't care no I mean I know I know it says it
103I'm ready do my does that mean that these folks will have to pay out of pocket for any kind of out of County travel in County ones that aren't appr so it just says ones that aren't approved already is that what that says so there no additional there's four months left in the budget year related to travel is that the yeah yeah sorry number one so if if what we're saying is um don't incur that travel if it's not needed but if you have to do that as part of your job and I gave examples like going to the bank traveling between schools then we're required by IRS regulations to reimburse our employees when they're using their vehicles for that type of travel but we ask that the supervisors or budget managers be aware of
104um our limitations here and to not do that if we don't have to okay all right Mr mcmanis Question does that also affect the board travel monies absolutely not any shape form an or fashion and why don't then maybe we should give what we have left if we're going to take it away from the schools I don't see how we can go out there and start traveling when we don't have money in our schools and give that to the schools can you can transfer on all right we'll carry on with our uh new business uh school safety committee discussion Believe Miss Bradford you uh brought this up so actually I want you had that start that off for us please okay we have three policies policy 1510 policy 4200 policy 7270 the deal with safety
105we're going to want to consult those but I believe that safety in our schools is our responsibility I respectfully continue to disagree with thanington Smith the lawyer who stood in the court and declared it isn't the school district's responsibility to keep students safe I believe it is in sanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different outcome we must have a different outcome I move to create a seven member board committee to address student safety okay there's a motion to second okay we have a motion and a second question further discussion let's let's Mr mcmanness Mr pford is this when you're saying school safety you're also meaning or implying the behavior yes student discipline yes and accountability yes attendance sure accountability for whatever we have in place as far as policy
106um maybe summer school requiring kids who are far behind because the safety of students to me doesn't just involve discipline it involves academics attendance passing when I'm not prepared to go to the next grade we've got to start addressing that folks so if you say that's part of it I then I'll support M Walker so I I like the idea of having all seven us because I think we all bring something different to the table I know um Mr man has brought up discipline I'm going to throw in mental health and I'm going to throw in Aces and Trauma because I feel like it's all related um you know obviously I'm we're all concerned with the potential Cuts Like I'm sure we none of us want them but um we were I think a couple
107us were at social worker conference today um this morning and you know the idea of of cutting folks like that I think is going to cause things to be unsafe as well and um I know I attended something this this weekend and I heard from a special education teacher that talked about if we cut more special education teachers that's more students that won't have those services and that could be a safety issue too so I think if we can all come together and bring what we have to the table and make a make it a robust discussion I'm I'm for it Mr crille yeah I I think adding a another committee is um a Superfluous approach is that we can have work sessions to discuss that um we I miss Barnhart made some comments about
108you know her concerns about traffic safety that's a whole another that's a whole another realm um the mental health that is a student mental health safety issue um the having a all seven board committee is basically just having another work session and there are some issues that we are not going to be able to talk about um in public and I forgot to look up the state statute that says we don't post you know our safety plans we don't post our um our um Maps you know Eddie you may know that you better than I forgot to look it up um if you know what that is just spatter off but um if the whole intent is for us to have more consistency um with the policies we already have that's Noble but we have
109policy committees that can if we don't think our policies are good enough or tight enough um or harsh enough then let's look at our policies and then hold the superintendent and his staff and the principles mainly accountable to that having a whole another committee I'm just wondering what are we going to do we don't direct the work of the employees so if we have a committee committees are supposed to have a subject matter expert that goes along with that so this is a multifaceted approach so we would have to have someone from Julie Barnum's Department we'd have to have somebody from Eddie Anderson's Department um as a subject matter expert when all we have to do is just ask them for updates and they can give us updates quarterly updates if we need them if
110we want monthly I don't know that monthly is what we want but maybe we do but maybe quarterly establishing a whole another committee to sit around and rehash all the things we've been talking about when we already have committees in place if we're not happy with those committees then let's look at that groundwork first let's give our chance our staff a chance to do what they've been tasked and we pay them to do the I I just don't get how I mean we're we're getting out of our lane of governance because what is this committee going to do you know we we're going to recommend to ourself you know board committees recommend to the board action so we're basically just going to recommend action to ourself and then action to the superintendent which is what
111he's already tasked with doing so I I just think that we're adding another layer that is not important I mean I shouldn't say not important that will not benefit what we want to do I'm a safety person through and through that's my career that is what and that's what I believe in but we've got um um we already have a safety management team that um Chuck Silverstein our executive director leads we've been asked and tasked um by the governor and Ben David and um Jay corpening to look harder in our communities the NC Safe program there are some of the things that we want to solve that aren't really solvable at our level but we can be part of a community task force Jake corpening has a um Community safe safety task force I don't
112know when the last time they met but we already have all these resources out there we've got our SRO that we can that we can that are on the Safety Committee we've been invited several times to attend that Safety Committee and learn about what we do as a whole already in the district so I'm I'm just wondering why if we want to cut down on unnecessary expenses is I'm thinking our time is an is an expense that um we don't want to cut that we should not be cutting into so okay well thank you thank you Mr crille has anybody like that has not spoken once like to speak go ahead you yeah you just seconded go ahead is this the second one no this is your first you just second um thank you Mr
113chairman um I had wrote down a couple unique safety challenges um as Miss Kel said staying in our lane the started this school year I had talked with Mr Anderson about school bus safety and he was able to reach out to the county and they had a billboard and working with our state NC doot to have flashing lights so that everybody had unified language about school's back in session school bus safety what to do when you are on a school bus and so I think there are some unique challenges that we've we've heard people from the call to audience bring to us and I wrote down school zone sign the paints lights around our school sidewalks around our school that's a unique opportunity for this board to come together to work with those multiple entities
114to work with wmpo to work with ncdot to work with our County so we can help shine those areas that we can say hey here's a here's something that we could really use some improvement on direction of traffic is through NC um do excuse me and we have to get that permission so I see this as an opportunity for the board to work with multip entities to help the flow and the safety of our schools from a bigger unit in addition to some of these other things that have been brought up by my fellow board members and so I think it could behoove us to do that Miss B Miss Mason and I really just kind of want to reiterate what Miss Barnhart said I think that we all have our own separate experience um
115Miss crille has amazing experience on safety but we have also other people who have been involved involved in policy Miss barnhart's not on policy anymore but maybe she knows of a policy that we we might not see um and so I think having all seven of us would would make the discussion definitely more robust as Miss Walker said but would give us a focus we spend so much time disagreeing it would be nice to have a a meeting of the seven of us where we can agree that this is the route we want to take so I'm in support of it as well thank you Mr Walker thank you God I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget sometimes it's hard to keep it in there um uh so a couple points um there are
116clear there are members of this board who feel that there are important emergent issues that we should discuss I don't think it's just members of this board I feel like staff members as well I've heard from staff members um discipline safety traffic whatever there's a lot of things that invelop you know are involved with the word safety but what we can do to this grael point I mean we can make this an ad hoc committee which is technically it's a it's a it's for specific purpose and maybe for a specific amount of time we give ourselves a goal of a certain amount of time to to meet or talk about it that way I mean it doesn't have to be a permanent it can be an ad hoc we have ad hoc committees before for
117purposes so I mean that way we're keeping it focused and we can we can get to it in emergent time that so it's not just stretched on forever so that's that's going to be my my suggestion if we do this committee we make it an ad hoc I mean we do it in a determined way and we all bring something to the table thank you m Walker Bradford well Miss Walker I had didn't want to bring a plan or didn't bring a motion without having some sort of plan knowing that there's seven completely um intelligent people on this committee we're AR not going to all agree on everything but here's what I was thinking if we had a committee of seven then we break it down into three ad hoc committees 2 two and three
118to be assigned by our chair because some of us are going off the board in eight months and some of us are staying on so we need he needs to mix it up with with with the way he does that but um if we if divide into three subcommittees three ad hoc committees um underneath the umbrella and then each subcommittee take a lane for example discipline and maybe under that is is is is all the other things we've talked about but then maybe traffic and school buses is one of them but each ad hoc committee then decide which which lane which which lane do they want to focus on so you have four lanes and we only have three committees so each each committee gets their own lane and then a third of another bigger
119Lane which may be his discipline um maybe uh cell phones go under the committee that Mr McManus wants to be on because he's kind of spearheading that but we divide it up by agreement after we're assigned to a committee of what's our most important uh interest to see some resolution this isn't a quick fix we're not going to you know come up with something in in in a couple of weeks hopefully by the end of all of our terms we've improved school safety um it's a long-term thing but if we divide into three subcommittees then we come back together on a routine basis as a whole committee and say this is what our committee's come up with past yours and then everybody reports on that onethird of whatever we agree that onethird is whether it's
120discipline or um you know maybe it's hardened structures we can the first thing I'd say to do is after we're appointed to committees would be everyone list everything you want to see this done and then we divide up by priority kind of like we've done this sort of thing before strategically just plan it out I think it works um I've been out there in the community asking people and um people believe that that that we have issues I mean just to remind you um on Friday March 20 a student was found to have a loaded pistol on his body um two students in February on successive Fridays a prek and a Rachel Freeman child had a 9 millimeter loaded um in a backpack these things can't continue it's not you know we're not Reinventing the
121wheel here every school district in in Across the Nation across the state have these same problems but some are doing a little bit better job than we are and we think we can do better we're not taking Mr Anderson's place we're not taking Mr Silverstein's place we are adding seven really good Minds to that mix to the paid staff that's already doing it thank you Miss crille so what would be wrong with not having a whole another committee that one of us is going to chair um and then the board chair does not appoint the leaders of subcommittees unless we say that that's what we want him to do the the committee would be doing that themselves but what would be wrong um with having a work session a special work session every month where
122we talk about the the individual issues so that we all can have input to that our committee needs by definition we have a subject matter expert so we would we would be needing to engage the folks over here in some manner to help us develop agendas and to get the work done because we are not a body that gets the work done they are the body that gets the work done so I'm just thinking that we don't necessarily need all the now we're talking about four other committees and maybe more when we could have work sessions already planned in to our day our policy allows us to have an interim meeting on the 3D Tuesday of the month um so there are other Alternatives than setting up more structure um that we just are going
123through checking off boxes and I liken this to we're a corporation we're we're a big company and it's like saying that a company has safe committees down on the line and then they have division safety teams um and then the corporate seite people come in and say you know what we don't like or value the work that you're doing you're not doing it right so we want to have another committee that we're just going to tell you what to do so I'm I'm just thinking that this is and it's not that I don't value safety I just think we already have structures in place and we just need to use them better we keep talking about that you know the folks over there aren't managing properly well we're just adding a whole another four other
124committees to try and manage that so I just don't think it's necessary we are just about out of our time for this discussion so we do have a motion and a second in front of us that is to form a Safety Committee um since I haven't done a lot of speaking this I would like to to um clarify my thought on this is that we I could bring back to our agenda meeting uh at the end of the month uh these possible subcommittees and we could start the discussion more robustly at that point exactly what we're going to do how we're going to do it um but that's just a suggestion we do have a motion and second in front of us you repeat the motion please Safety Committee of seven is what I heard
125that's it that's it Miss uh buy would you please call the role Mr wbore yes Miss Mason yes Miss barnhard yes Miss Bradford yes Miss Crill no Mr mcmanis yes and Miss Walker yes pass is six to one and I will bring back the information we'll have a further discussion We'll add that to our agenda meeting uh soon or at the end of the month not soon uh's getting very close um at this point we'll carry on our discussion School climate survey um Mr mcmanis well simply I think that we need to do i' like to get a pulse on our staff with regards to discipline with regards to safety with regards to what's going on in their own schools and collectively as a school system I think that's you know some people say get
126a pulse whatever you want to call it how you want to label it I just think that's the right thing to do it needs to be simple needs to be unless somebody wants to where they can Circle rather than have to write their handwriting and it needs to be done so they'll feel safe there's always this rumor that somebody's going to be able to find out what they wrote um I don't think that's possible unless we did that from B Geto I don't think we're that that dumb but uh I just think that's something we need to do would you like to make that motion sir I do I so move yes sir is there a second second we have first and second Mr MC menis motion Bradford second Miss Walker so the in my
127mind there's two thoughts that go at least to that go into um doing a service like this we've done one we did one a couple years ago I wouldn't say use the exact same questions but we can model it after that but I feel like there's other questions that'll probably be pertinent you know I would like to get a pulse on morale as well I don't know what that question looks like yet but maybe the board we can put our heads together and come up with some in different categories I've heard discipline I've heard safety um and I mean and I brought up morale so I don't know how to exactly structure it I guess the next question would be how is it admin minist administered and um you know I think the some of
128the feedback I got from last time was that there were folks that were nervous to do it just because they didn't know if there were any identifying you know information on there so whatever it looks like I would like for it to be as Anonymous as possible and the data be as pure as possible so we can get the best you know information out of the survey so just that's open for discussion I I agree I think maybe my thought my thought I'm going to speak real quick um is that I think that maybe doing something even as easy as a Survey Monkey but as long as you have you know I would say no obviously no names maybe certified or non-certified that's only identifier at all um you know and I I guess my
129question would be would we want to do it school by school or not you know that that's the other question too because we could have a school that has some concerns where another school doesn't have concerns you know are the schools doing great so you know I think we might that might be another good identifier you know Laney High School and and certified that's the only identifiers or something like that just a thought Miss crille so I want to ask a question of Dr Barnes and then I have some um other things to add so we're currently in process with the um teacher working condition survey correct the survey closed last Friday on April 5th we had almost 90 I'm looking 91% I think of our staff has completed the survey so on that survey
130I haven't you we haven't seen it obviously um are there questions on there that address discipline school safety all the things that um the that we're talking about up here I think the the North Carolina teacher work condition survey is sort of a broadspectrum antibiotic it sort of ask questions about all sorts of different things parent involvement leadership um culture climate discipline it sort of hits the whole board it does ask some specific questions is your sa is your school a safe place to work and learn it asks some questions like that and it does break it down by school for us um we've got like I said the survey closed we'll get the results of that sometime early summer June usually is when we see it okay thank you so I want to ask
131my my questions now so um I my my my points are what audience is the Sur discipline survey intended for climate survey what is it intended for what audience Mr mcmanis what audience well I think we're doing which would probably I guess as we discuss and defined but I think we do need we' be helpful to identify schools but at the same time we're looking for climate we want to fill how people feel no my question is who will be taking the survey um certified staff um classified staff principles um executive directors you know who supervise principles let me ask that question with a question if we're going to do it which I don't have a problem with at all as a matter of fact I'm glad you asked that question then we could break
132it down by school office staff as a whole or maybe custodial staff or maybe bus drivers but I think we don't need to leave anybody out I guess is the answer I want to say okay so all right so that needs to be clarified um part of our committee is going to clarify what we're going to do are we having a another committee now no but but as a board I mean excuse me okay so if the who creates this climate survey and um will be someone from District leadership um from student Support Division or is another ad hoc committee that we're putting together is it um our last survey that we did was put put together by the Communications Department um will it be online you know for people to do how will they
133how will they feel protected that they if they want to answer anonymously because if you do it by school and you say office staff you only got like one you know so that's going to be kind of feeling like I'm under the pressure so then who collects and Cates the survey data who analyzes the data and then creates suggests implements revised District policies and procedures or procedures and then potentially making recommendations to the board for policy changes um have we looked at the policies in question the ones that um some of those that Miss Bradford listed off but specifically um 4,300 so there's a lot of stuff that goes involved into this survey if we want to do it with Fidelity um but the main thing is who's creating the questions who's collecting the data
134so who over there is going to get more work um and then who analyzes this data um I do have to say that there was one point that Miss crille brought up that I absolutely agree with um if we were to ask specific schools I think that there are some school populations that are so small that it would be easily identifiable and I would be hesitant to isolate each School specifically um for that reason I want as Miss Walker said I want our teachers and our staff to feel that they are safe enough to be able answer honestly um and candidly and I think that if we are too specific in our groupings that that they may not well I think M Mason M will have valid questions and that's why we need to talk
135about it but to answer your questions the best I can at this moment I would suggest that HR and Communications would be responsible for putting this together and deciding what what are questions would be I guess the best ask at that particular time if not school kind of said the two things are the questions and who's going to do it in the in the safest most Anonymous way possible where we can get the the most and you know um the most out of these surveys because we are trying to find climate and you're right the other one teacher oriz was that was only teachers um so those are two main things secondly I will just say that we have done one of these before and it was not that difficult to do so I don't
136think it's that much of an ask to do it again I think what we just need to do is come up with the questions I I've sent you guys the list from last time I think there's a lot there but we want to customize this to our district I think we it's it's specific of the questions we have as board members here that we ask all the time or what we hear from staff we put them in there CU I mean I know teachers have asked me about lots of different things and um I just think that if we can get it in a good survey that people feel safe taking we can do that I really do think we can do it thank you Mr chair I was going to offer the suggestion that
137maybe tonight we give a directive for the superintendent to bring back a survey to us that encompasses climate and maybe some some of the indicators that we have talked about of having classified or non-classified and maybe even dividing it up into prek Elementary middle school and secondary high school so that we kind of know the gauge of where that's at maybe even suggesting with that but I feel like that we have a lot of good ideas of things that we'd like to see but until somebody shows us a product that we can maybe approve as a board to say yes we agree to the survey going out but I think that might be a better directive tonight to say direct the superintendent and thus his team to bring us a survey that would Encompass a
138climate and then we can add whatever questions we would want to see um I respectfully disagree um I think at this point you know board members should have input and so let me throw out I mean if we can pass this motion tonight then maybe just like Miss Walker has a list of previous questions so anybody who wants input on the questions they send them to whatever the designated spot is I don't care who collects those questions um but then working with HR and Communications we get a draft survey that we all get a shot of getting it on our computers we look at it we say yeah it's fine with me and then we move forward I mean there's there's lots of ways to put the structure in it once we pass the motion
139to do it but I think board members I personally want you know some input I just don't want to say oh let's throw out another survey out there and y'all do it and let us know when it's done that's not what we're talking about here to to clarify Mr chairman I said to be approved by the board so I want to make that Clarity I don't I wouldn't want to just do the survey I'm saying direct to bring us a survey that we can approve that would then go to the staff and we would be able to have that input yeah and to clarify I think board members want input on what the questions are rather than have it pre but you have the previous one so that's good preone okay so we have a
140motion in second to to uh host or to have a school climate survey um I have no problem if you guys want to send me the questions you've already sent me those questions we start with that I will try to coate those questions and bring them back to us on our agenda meeting no problem you send it to me Mr chair ma'am would like to make it make the motion clear on who is who are we directing to do it like not just are we having a survey that is either we're going to do it or we're directing Dr fa to direct somebody to do it because I think that needs to be clear okay Mr mcmanis it was your motion and that would dictate the questions go well that should be an easy answer
141for you m kill Dr F or the Board of Ed has the right to direct Dr F to do it but we might as well direct I would say HR and Communications are made for this well that's why I wanted the motion to be clear that answer your question with our input Mr chair can we put a time a Time on it like I think it should be done sooner rather than later and and I think we we want to get the question shoot in a certain amount I mean maybe that shouldn't be part of the motion or not I don't know but if we we make it kind of time bound or whatever we we can we have expectations we're going to send questions in to you it just and I'm sure you can
142probably say it was online but how was the survey that just ended presented protected whatever how did people feel better or well one thing it's it's a long-standing survey so an educator has been here for a while has taken this every two years for whenever this latest incident they actually emailed directly a link to each employee they put it in off they went and then when we get the information back I don't get it by school or by you know individual I mean I get the information back by school but not who said what so Mr MCM I just want to be clear so your motion your thought is that they that Dr Barnes and his Department would do that or with Dr Barnes and Communications Communications would do it so okay so maybe should
143we not leave that up to the superintendent to decide who yes yeah I mean what you can do is you can send me the questionss I'll send them to Super you want to do it or you don't want us to do I mean what do you think about we have to sit down and talk about what needs to go in so there's a there'll be a team talking about it now no no no no no I'm talking about the senior leadership has to what that looks well actually I don't think it's going be optional no I think the board as a majority want to see it so why don't we and I definitely understand I just want to have a very clear motion on who who is doing what and if we want to have
144a time limit in it then that should be in the motion so that we are very clear and no one's pointing fingers and no one's getting mad and no one's thinking that the other person's not doing the work do we have does the board feel and and you know be honest do we feel like the agenda meet if we had at the agenda review that's was that too much time I mean that way we have some time to get it together we can get it to Dr F he can bring it on it's two weeks Tuesday yeah two weeks from now two weeks from now it's a good time yeah that's fair okay okay can I just add Mr the communications did it last time and it I just I I'll resend it to you
145guys what happened last time I think Communications did it and they had got a temporary Sur Survey Monkey account I'm not suggesting we do that the same this time but that is what they did last time so to for communications okay so yeah Mr mcmanus' uh motion is to to have a school climate survey of all staff um that will be we we will submit questions you can submit questions to me I'll send them to Dr fa and he will either have communications and or HR or whoever else he has to work on it um can I ask another question please you may last one please I just want to know when are we expecting to get the results back and will that most likely fall right into the time when we are preparing for
146our eogs and our eoccs um and teachers are just very distracted so I'm just wondering you know is this something that we want to have done by the before school lets out or is this something we want to have done after students are there they take the survey during their you teacher workdays at the very end me I don't want to be disruptive to um the end of this like you said in in your opening remarks Mr wior that we want to finish strong and you finish well and we don't need to be piling on more stuff to our senior staff their staff and our school staffs Miss Mason I think that's kind of the purpose of us doing it and putting it forward now because that eliminates the end of the year craziness that
147we all know happens if you've been in education for any amount of time you know that as we get closer to the end it gets crazier so I think that was the purpose in introducing it now and that way we can get it done we can get the information and we can move on from there and our time is up for this thank you Miss Mason Mr mcm's motion is to have a school climate survey uh Miss buy would you please call the role Mr wildor yes Miss Mason yes Miss barnhard yes Miss Bradford yes Miss kill yes Mr mcmanis yes and Miss Walker yes passes 70 thank you again we'll get that and thank you Mr Walker for um getting all that information to us already that's awesome uh we will as I said
148before need a close session so quickly I will entertain a motion um to go into close session pursuant to General statute 143 31811 C for the following purpose to prevent disclosure of information is privileged or confidential pursuant to General statute 115c 402 and not considered public record within the meeting of chapter 132 of General statutes and two to consider qualifications competence performance character Fitness conditions of uh appointment or conditions of initial employment of an individual employed or considered for employment with the school system or hear or investigate complaint charge grievance or by or against any individual employee do I hear such motion so MO is there second I'll second it thank you all in favor please signify by saying I I all opposed we're in closed session board members how about if we give you
149about 3 minutes four minutes to get in there please e ter all right we are back in Open Session correspondence does anyone have any correspondence they like to share yes I do Mr crille thr from the left and go down break down line um I just wanted to reiterate what Dr F said um April is um National assistant principal month and last week was National assistant principal debt um week and I just wanted to reiterate how important their jobs are and how much we value them the April is also National autism month um and wanted to give a shout out to all of our Educators special and Jen Ed that work diligently with these students to help them overcome their challenges and to be the best students that they can be also wanted to reiterate
150what Dr fa said that this is April is National librarian um week month and it's also National School librarian month and again reiterate how much we value the work of our Librarians and our media Specialists to ensure that our students have access to um all the materials that they need to be successful in their education and then finally April 15th is um purple up day for military kids and April is the um month for military students and um I don't know exactly what our population of military students is but if we have any in our district then um I want to commend them for their their strength and their courage and their bravery um for having to move a lot with with their parents who are in the military so um April 15th we're purple
151Miss Bart thank you Mr chair last week um I had the opportunity to go up to see The Joint house and Sate education committee and Miss Crable was able to attend part of the meeting as well and it was um a wonderful highlight of some of the great things going on our district we got to see spark andc and Dr Skipper from CC was there to actually present to the committee and just talk about the great things that's happening as well as the clld the program with our seventh graders was able to present and so to hear the engagement from our legislators of the quality programs that we have here was just very exciting thank you ma'am Miss Mason no bar Miss Bradford yes Mr chairman thank you I feel it's important to address one
152more thing since it has been spread abroad in November of last year we heard a couple minute presentation from Dr fac on plans for our schools which would help teach English to students newly arrived in the country this unnoticed presentation was brief when it concluded I said to Dr fac something like congratulations this is wonderful I sure did I said that I was elated why I'll tell tell you why because the previous 6 to8 months I had in public meetings and in outside of public meetings spoken repeatedly to the staff about addressing the multilingual crisis in our school district and all I got back was just blank stairs not one word not one word was said to me oh we have something that we're working on hold tight or how about this one we've been
153working on a plan for three three years now and we're going to share it with you soon know that didn't happen so yes I was elated that they were finally taking it seriously and we were going to start to address the issue three things immediately happened after that agenda briefing meeting the school district sent an email between Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday telling the CRA Mosley families their students could no longer attend their school and they would have to choose an alternate education I became very concerned for those students I started thinking this smacks of what happened at Williston albe it on a much smaller scale insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome second I did my due diligence I looked into the Greensboro School Dr facon had
154said the taxpayers had been tax dollars had been spent to send a team to I read the neighbors comments in doing so I learned it wasn't a school to teach students English as much as it was an Immigration Center with wraparound Services funded at taxpayers expense I wondered did the people living around Mosley off Prince's Place Drive did they know this was slated to happen to their NE neighborhood was there a County meeting on it that the neighbors got to to have input I pondered how was it this board member knew nothing about it and then just St later the Mosley students and their families came with school staff to our board meeting the students sat through an entire public call to audience and then one by one five of them poured out their hearts
155it was hard not to cry with them every day I cons continued to gather facts talk to people in the county I visited the school I read procedure and at our next meeting I called for a public hearing to hear from the public in a public hearing setting Vice chairman Miss Mason called for a delay in the students time to pick up another to pick another school from then on I was increasingly convinced that this was a very bad idea the numbers didn't make sense then and they don't make sense now we were overwhelmed with email to save Mosley School some of which offered numbers that made better sense now new Handover County schools has more than a thousand homeless students new han county has quite a few more homeless multigenerational residents of this County
156born and raised here where's their loaded up debit card where's their Free Housing our tox dollars should go to support and to help new han County residents not those crossing our border right as we speak to this day I am still very aware of how darn close we came to having the superintendent and the staff changing the lives of every single person in new han County and our students irrevocably with zero input from majority of the elected leaders on this board or even the county I say majority because at least one of us have walked back their statement saying they had no knowledge of the plan where the truth lies I do not know thank you Mr chairman Mr mcmanis you good Mr Walker all right last I make a motion to adjourn last there
157we go Motion to adjourn second all in favor signify by saying I I we are adjourned e