001to the March 12th regular board meeting we are glad you are here before we begin we' like to share a few reminders with everyone please keep the aisles clear during our meeting to allow members of the school system and the sheriff's department to be able to move about uh also except for when honoring the flag and our opening prayer and participating in the called audience please remain seated throughout our meeting we hope to have a productive and efficient meeting and your help is greatly appreciated thank you again for being here today um at this point I would ask Miss Buie to call the role Miss Buie good afternoon Pete wildbore present Melissa Mason here jayie Barnhart here Pat Bradford I am here Stephanie crille here sorry H mcmanis present and Stephanie Walker here all right
002uh at this point I would uh entertain a motion to approve the agenda is there such a motion so moved have a motion is there a second second okay I got a kind of seral second uh any discussion if not all yes ma'am M crille so um I'd like to um change policy amendments to be policy consensus so we're clear on how we're voting on these um we talked about this at the policy at the policy committee and at the agenda review that um we have been using the policy consensus method for for um over two years now and we really only had we we broke it into two parts so that we can get through as many as possible in a consensus vote and then any that um that are there for a second
003reading or that are brand new um we pull off into um its own item right and under subject it does say policy consensus so you're just make that the overall topic yeah I mean I I think that should be nor that should be the norm madam policy chair what's your thoughts on that that's fine with me okay fine all right I I'd like to I had asked if we did that I want to do that going forward but I had asked if we could have them listed out the ones that would be consensus and the ones that would be discussed and I think I've divided those out in my book it's a huge stack of things for tonight so I'm not comfortable saying okay just some of them are consensus and some of them are
004not without having it listed out can we get that before we hear policy our our protocol has oh yes ma'am um our protocol has been that all of them are policy consensus and except for the ones that we previously call that we pull um and we have to do it separately for policies that are brand new um like the 7205 um so that we can go through the first and second reading process as called out in our policy so we have adopted policy consensus method already and I I am uh I going to go to you Mr Walker but first we we had a motion and I never asked for a second so is there a second for that I will second that okay now we have second now M Walker well I I seem
005to remember at one genda review meeting Mr bord did ask that they do because I know at General review we do intend to pull some and we talk about that and I think for guess the sake of the public and for our sake to have them listed I think it's a good idea for the next meeting so I I I agree I'm not sure what I'm I'm agreeing to vote for but like to have them separate from going forward I think miss you said that was okay I'm okay with that too okay all right so the motion is to change the topic from policy amendments to policy consensus yes that yes Mr wiberg yes ma'am so are we saying that tonight they will all be consensus and there will be no debate on them if
006there's going to be debate can we discuss which ones would be debated tonight no no that the the the protocol has been everything is policy consensus when we get to the meeting if any board member wants to pull one off to talk about then we pull it off to talk about and we've been giving each other the courtesy of doing that at the agenda reviews to know which ones are coming off so yes so they're all listed together and per your request a while and and what we've always done too is the the um attachments are all listed there in order so that you can see them all but we don't normally list them all like we do in consensus we they're all just known to be consensus unless we pull them off so what
007are we going to do tonight are we going to just go consensus and are we not going to debate any are we going to debate only the ones that were mentioned on last Tuesday or we're going to be more flexible no we've always just if you want to pull it off then you pull it off the the idea is to do as many as possible through consensus but if we want to pull one off at any point in time then we can we have a motion in a second uh Miss buy would you please again it is to change the topic from policy amendment to policy consensus as it says in the subject Miss bully would you please call the role Mr wbor I say I miss Mason yes Miss barnhard yes Miss Bradford yes
008Miss Crill yes Mr mcmanis yes and Miss Walker yes okay so with that change we have a motion and a second to accept the uh agenda all in favor please signify with the amended agenda excuse me uh all those in favor please signify by saying I I all thank you all those that all those opposed like sign I passes 70 we will carry on now with our invocation it will be provided today actually I'm going to read these all so we can uh just move through them uh we have the invocation today being provided remotely by Pastor uh armor of the St Luke am Zion church we have have the presentation of colors today by the Ashley High School njrc Color Guard group uh unit that will provide the presentation of colors and is under
009the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Raider and master chief um Matthew damps principal Michael Perez our national anthem today will be provided um by new hanur County School's elementary students who have been selected to participate in the elementary school honors chorus they will provide us with the national anthem today the students will represent Bellamy Holly Tree Myrtle Grove Holly Shelter uh middle and elementary schools and our Pledge of Allegiance today will be done by our own Miss Walker so thank you we will start with our invocation my name is Jermaine armor and I am the pastor of the St Luke church here in the great city of wilington let us pray heavenly father in some circles you are known as teacher so we ask that you would bless every teacher in our school system and every
010employee in every school Christ came to us not as an adult but as a child so Lord bless every child enrolled in our school system and those who will soon be school AED children and Lord bless our school board members with wisdom insight and love as they lead us in the development of our most precious gifts our children this we ask in the Name of Christ amen amen watch p [Music] the [Music] Ro [Music] of the the of [Applause] the Miss Walker aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you if we could have the members of the Ashley NJ Roc come back and also the singers please come back we'd like to
011have you guys introduce yourselves [Applause] please I'm Allison Ripley and I go to school at Holly Tree Elementary I'm Ruth Adams and I go to school at Hol Shelter Middle I'm Elijah gson and I go to school at Myrtle Grove Middle I'm Colton leak and I go to school at Myrtle Grove Middle I'm trayon Spicer and I go to Holly Shelter Middle I'm Hannah Smith and I go to Holly Tree I'm Sandy Lao and I go to [Applause] Bellamy great great job great job thank you so much and if I could have you introduce yourselves please good afternoon ladies and gentlemen I'm Cadet Lieutenant Reg senior good afternoon ladies and gentlemen I'm Cadet petty officer first class Oliver Marshall good afternoon ladies and gentlemen I am Cadet Ingram ensen sophomore good afternoon I'm Cadet Parker
012po or petty officer second class I'm Cadet Ingram petty officer third class freshman here thank you for being here thank you for being here thank you guys one more round of applause for [Applause] please well that's a great way to start the evening um at this point our next uh bit of uh business is to approve the minutes is there a motion to approve the minutes so moved we have a motion is there a second second we have a first and second any discussion if not all in favor of approving the the minutes please signify by saying I I I all post by like sign please okay that passes 7 to zero next another one of my favorite sections of the evening which is recognitions we'll start with the classified employee recognition program ramp oh
013that's fine happy to be here this evening to share our Board of Education recognitions first up is Kelly Lewis in his three years as new Hover County Schools Athletic Director Kelly Lewis has prior prioritized one thing the best possible opportunities for every one of our student athletes Kelly implemented unified track and field so that students with and without disabilities could participate together and share in the joy of sportsmanship he led a voluntary Title 9 review of all of our athletic facilities to ensure that everyone had Equitable access to safe and quality spaces in partnership with the Carolina Panthers he is bringing a girls flag football team to the district this spring and in his 27 years as teacher coach and athletic director North Carolina he has demonstrated the highest degree of leadership contribution and character
014and that's why next week he'll be inducted into the State athletic director's Hall of Fame one of just two people this year to earn this highest honor for high school and Collegiate athletic administrators through the values that he holds and the way he puts those values into action Kelly ensures that everyone of our students has access to being part of a team we are fortunate to have someone of his caliber leading our Athletic program and we congratulate him on this incredible [Applause] [Music] honor congratulations there was an article recently about the student will recognize next and it said Lucy dimok excels in all aspects of her life and that about sums it up the new han High School senior is number two in her class with a 4.72 GPA she captains the tennis team which
015last year was the first in County History to make it to the state championships she's a leader on student council she represents our entire region on the DPI student advisory Council and she's involved in North Carolina youth government and if you didn't feel inadequate yet Lucy co-wrote a bill that was approved by the state senate and became law before she graduated high school Lucy has been raking in the recognition for her impressive accomplishments recently she was awarded the Spectrum scholarship by state Senator Michael Lee in addition to the prestigious Morhead cane scholarship and while all of this represents the level of Excellence we can dream of for our students what's really really special about Lucy is that she does her work with such heart the daughter of a new han High School teacher Lucy sees
016serving children as her calling she works with a fourth grade reading buddy who's learning English she volunteers at the Pediatric Wing at the hospital and she aspires to major in political science and help Drive policies that improve the lives of children Lucy was unable to be here tonight because she has an important game to attend but we're so proud to be able to shine a light on all she has accomplished and all she's contributing to our community and Beyond congratulations s next up is Madison SS when Madison SS was in second grade there was a student with a disability who spent time with her class one day a boy was bullying that child and young Madison got between them put her finger in the bully's face and said with the force of a Powerhouse little
017girl you better watch it a teacher who saw the interaction came up to her afterward and said something and she'll never forget I don't know what you're going to be one day but you need to be a teacher that prediction came true last year when miss a joined Myrtle Grove Middle School as a language arts and social studies teacher and that same sense of inclusion fairness empathy and finding strength and differences that she had at age8 is what she models her teaching after now misss was named as a finalist for the North Carolina Center for advancement of teaching beginning teacher award one of just 27 Educators from across the state to get this honor she said she loves teaching middle school because it's the age when students take their learning and make it their own
018but she also helps students at this tender age work on active listening showing respect and seeing things from others perspectives in order to learn from other people she said you have to trust that their inputs are equally as important you can always learn someone from some something from someone else principal Cindy Bliss said Miss A is a model of what we want future teachers to be but perhaps more importantly M's approach has earned her the buyin and engagement of her students if she was the only teacher in the world one student told me I wouldn't have any problem with it and that's about the highest praise you can get from a middle school boy congratulations Miss SS and thank you for representing us at the state level with such competence Innovation and [Applause] heart thank
019you next up we have two exceptional student athletes who shattered State records in swimming last month Cole Whitmer a senior at hogard high school who was committed to the University of Alabama was state champion in the 100 meter backstroke finishing in just 47.9 3 seconds Sean czer of Ashley high school was state champion and now record holder in the 50 freestyle which he aced in 19.75 seconds and the 100 freestyle in just shy of 44 seconds Shan who is committed to UNC for next year was also named the state meet's most outstanding swimmer no other area athlete has ever won that award since it was established in 1987 Cole and sea have been friends for years so winning state championships together was a particularly special way to close out two Stellar High School careers it's
020interesting to think about how many times these young men must have practiced those events honing and refining their techniques to shave off time fraction of a second by fraction of a second this success of our student athletes is not just the result of natural Talent it's a reflection of resilience grit and a belief that you can accomplish what might at first seem impossible congratulations to both Sean and Cole on bringing these titles home and for representing new Hover County schools with sportsmanship and determination and I know Sean could not be here tonight is Cole here no okay we will send their Awards to their school but congratulations to you both and our next recognition is for one of the board's own member Stephanie krabo Miss krabo received a certificate of achievement from the North Carolina
021Association of school boards which is why we had to bust out the big plaque to accommodate it um I've reported on and covered School boards for 20 years and I don't think I've ever seen someone as serious about Schoolboard business as Stephanie krael if you look up policy wonk on Wikipedia you just might find a photo of her and I say that with all due respect she knows every one of our board policies inside and out and every previous iteration of them as well um she has a seriously unmatched passion for Robert's Rules of Order at a meeting recently Mr wiborg called a point of order on her and she actually thanked [Music] him she has reverence for the policies the procedures and the structure because she understands that governing a school system is serious
022business and growth and progress and good governance happen within the confines of that structure not despite it to get this recognition from NCB Miss krael had to commit at least 101 hours to Schoolboard training last year though knowing her it was likely much more I don't have to tell any of you that being a Schoolboard member is sometimes thankless work it's especially thankless to put in a couple hundred extra hours of training on board operations or governmental relations so tonight we have the opportunity to say thank you to miss for her diligence and commitment to board [Applause] governance all right good evening everybody um we're going to change things up just a little bit so the folks that are typically highlighting and putting people in the spotlight Christina Kevin Chase if you'll come up here
023um we are going to recognize their commitment to Excellence tonight and um so I don't go off script and keep us here too long I've written a few things down please take this so here we go it is my distinct pleasure to recognize a few exceptional individuals I've had the pleasure to work with on a regular basis not only are they consumate Professionals in their field they are truly amazing and caring individuals dedicated to the pursuit of Excellence we believe they are simply the very best at what they do and the North Carolina school public relations Association otherwise known as uh ncpra they agree together Christina Bean director of communication Chase Folton and Kevin hubard our broadcast production coordinators re received an astounding total of 22 Blue Ribbon awards for excellence and communication during a
024ceremony last month in High Point ncpra recognizes outstanding communication through its Blue Ribbon Awards program each year the Blue Ribbon awards are the highest honor presented by NCB the school districts the awards are given for outstanding Communication in eight categories marketing digital media engagement Electronic media excellence and writing Publications image graphic design photography and special events and programs in addition ncer also honored the top entry in each category giving special recognition with the best of the best award and in this team of superstars we have won who has been recognized as being a little extra Christina beam earned the top honors for excellence in writing not only this year but for the past three consecutive years making her in our eyes The Best of the Best of the Best to Christina Chase and Kevin your
025achievements are a testament to your hard work passion and unwavering dedication congratulations on this well-deserved recognition we are incredibly proud of you and the entire team here's to many more successes in the future well done and thank you for your outstanding contributions to the new Handover County Schools uhoh who's in charge of the camera good evening everyone good evening board as you may know we have about 50% of our staff are made up of teachers counselors social workers administrators the other 50% are made up of hardworking folks like bus drivers teacher assistants custodians and the light and we wanted to find some way to recognize and appreciate those folks now of course getting to 1,800 of them is hard so we have a nomination form where anyone can nominate a classified employee to be recognized
026every quarter at our board meeting so I have two folks tonight and there's nothing the school people hate more than being called up here and bragged on in front of them so I'd like to call up Mr Sam canowitz from pwn Valley Elementary School with Perry Lewis his head custodian so if you guys can come on [Applause] up and I'll tell you Mr Perry this is Mr Lewis this is this is long here Mr Lewis begins his work every day at our school with an enthusiasm that sets a positive tone for staff and students alike he's meticulous in inspecting every corner of the building to ensure that it provides the best learning environment for students his dedication to creating this welcoming environment is the foundation of our top tiger days his dedication expands Beyond fac
027facility management where he can be found greeting kids in the morning coming off the bus and in the cafeteria at breakfast Mr Perry also serves at a positive role model for our students taking time to engage with them during lunch and at recess he listens empathizes with them and motivates them to do their best you can often find him checking back in with students throughout the day in the hallways reminding students of the expectations their teachers and family have for them in essence he's not just a vital acid to our school but also a heartwarming and inspirational presence he embodies excellence and is an example that your job doesn't Define you but rather the way you harness your work to inspire and uplift others will be your legacy thank you very much [Applause] sir and
028while they're getting the picture we want to appreciate Mark III is our benefit flexible benefits company and they support financially these gifts every three months as well so a now you can go have dinner all right next up I'd like to bring forth uh Deanna leak from Murray middle school and Natalie Soo we can give her a [Applause] hand this is Miss soo's 20th year at Murray middle school as a special education ta that alone lead to that a hand a round of applause folks she works in small groups with students to help them with their assignments and their testing she is knowledgeable in many areas and shares her knowledge with her students that she works with Miss sooko is trusted by the students as she develops relationships with them and gets to know them
029as people this is all about her caring for her students that she works with and many students when in crisis feel comfortable talking with her because she's earned their trust and shows them compassion Miss soo's presence in the building and her work in many areas help build relationships within the school environment and her dedication to the students have kept her as a longtime employee of new han County schools which is a better District thanks to people like you so [Applause] congratulations [Applause] all right next up we have our student V first off congrat let's give everybody a one more round of applause thank you we have a lot to be proud of with our school system that's for sure um at this point we uh speaking of being proud let's we are proud of our
030student voice uh participants would they come forward at this time please [Applause] welcome welcome good evening board members my name is Logan tamadon from Isaac bear Early College my name is Maya Roseboro from Isaac bear Early College I'm Lillian rle from New Hanover High School good evening my name is chrish Mishra from jonty hogard high school we are here today to discuss the importance of AIG coordinators but let me first start by expressing our approval and appreciation for your current method of fund dispersal that has been upheld by all of you from what has been made publicly available it is evident that the quality of the instructional programs offered to students is of utmost importance to this board as it should be in addition it is clear that you all recognize at the that at
031the heart of a successful school system are the intelligent and passionate teachers Paving their students a path to academic success in fact this board set us 66% of State funds and 50% of County funds toward staff salaries just 3 years ago however as we stare into the face of a $20 million budget cut we fear for the future of the quality of education and the new han County Public School System more specifically We Fear losing our AIG staff members AIG staff the reason why we fear losing our AIG staff members is that according to a study conducted by the National Bureau of economic research AIG teachers throughout the country have increased College attendance by age 20 by .5% as well as increase in increase $135,000 in lifetime income despite the many positives of having AIG
032staff members when the new han County School School Board of Education members face a similar financial situation in 2017 their solution was to cut many AIG staff members we strongly suest suggest that we not use this method to fix this issue we understand that Corners will have to be cut difficult decisions will have to be made and many people will be left unhappy but we urge you to hear us out a school system is only as good as the students that it produces AIG counselors in North Carolina have a history of being critical to both the academic social and emotional development of students according to a thesis published in 2023 by a scholar at UNCC Charlotte there is limited attention to meeting the needs of high school AIG students in research from 2014 establishes that
033gifted students have a wide variety of educational needs including Readiness levels interests and motivations AIG student support provided by counselors has proven to enhance student achievement and social and emotional adelement and though this established a broad context of AIG counselors I simply want to provide the evidence that gifted students can benefit from AIG counselors and social and emotional development Beyond just academic achievement successes of gifted students could be jeopardized by reducing their support in schools our team has conducted various interviews with our peers Gathering a wide range of data between different classes on average 81% of students believe that AIG councellors have positively impacted their High School career the others saying that they have not improved from AIG whether it be challenging them to take harder classes offering scholarship opportunities or even just presenting possible
034extrac extracurricular activities many students believe that AIG coordinators are a necessity to our curriculum one high schooler even says that AIG counselors provide more guidance to students in their understanding of how to make their college application stand out more than regular counselors students who claim that they have not personally improved from the AIG program usually mention that there's not enough meetings to persuade them to apply for rigorous opportunities however some of these students also recognize that some of their disin volvement is self-inflicted due to their lack of persistence when it comes to looking for resources presented in their weekly emails they also acknowledge the positive impacts that AIG has on other students one of which being the ability for students to have the proper guidance reflective of their needs as we stand on the Cliff
035of a crucial decision that will shape the educational landscape for countless students we implore you to reflect on the importance of our AIG coordinator positions and the significance of saving them these dedicated individuals Are Not Mere positions in our County but architects of the academic future of our students our elementary and middle school AIG coordinators serve as catalysts igniting students passions for subject extending past the ordinary curriculum they Foster an environment where young minds flourish allowing them to enroll in advanced level courses and further their interests in the high school realm our two AIG coordinators have and continue to introduce us to an abundance of opportunities including research programs leadership conferences and Scholarships in a diverse range of fields these are all integral to cultivating academic Prosperity beyond the walls of a classroom not every
036student in our County benefits from AIG as they may not be a part of the program however these positions at stake are crucial to the students who take advantage of the opportunities introduced to them and allow us to continue to recognize students for their talents we acknowledge the tough decisions that lie ahead in the face of a challenging budget cut however we request that you consider the profound impact of saving our AIG coordinator positions our coordinators are essential in our educational system and saving these positions ensures that the Excellence of our students in new Hover County continues to shine bright through this transitional period on behalf of student voices we thank you for your time and [Applause] consideration I mean I say it every time thank you so much for your I mean I know
037you guys work really hard and to be a part of student voice and come and report to us it's very for me I will just say very help F to know and I'm glad you guys are involved and I want you to stay involved so keep keep it up thank you you m yeah I just wanted to um the comment on all of you you know coming to in the evenings to do this but also I like the fact that you guys are reaching out to your peers and we see different students um every month so it is apparent that it isn't just the same kids doing the same thing it's all of you all working together um and really paying attention to the things that we're doing um you know you're our biggest stakeholder
038and um you need to hold us accountable you know and provide feedback to us so we do appreciate the effort that you're making and um reaching out to your students and I've talked to some of your other peers um that have been interviewed by you and um they're just really excited to be able to give feedback so thank you thank you m Mr mcmanis I just want to add I don't think any administrator particularly in a high school would like to have those positions cut we haven't discussed Personnel yet thank goodness we will I'm sure before it's over with um but it is important and they open a lot of channels research a lot of opportuni scholarships Etc and I noticed she left one of the speakers that usually speaks sitting on the back row
039in the purple but she told me she was going to Duke next year and she got some financial aid so I'm glad to see us working miss you yeah Cassy Cassidy don't be so quiet Cassidy all right thank you very much not yet one more you guys are popular I'm sorry just want to assure you that all of us are going to do our best to hold on to every single one of our teachers thank you so much thank you thank you and again thank you so much for being here and I know it's it takes a lot of Bravery to get in front of all these adults so great job you all thank you for being here thank you thank [Applause] you next it is my privilege to ask Miss Amy Gavin Teacher of
040the Year from the international school at Gregory to come forth and uh po poola Wyman the participating learning teacher of the year as he will speak part part of the um monthly teacher voice so welcome thank you very much for being here we're going to bring up our welcome welcome welcome good evening Dr Fon Bo members thank you for welcoming us to your meeting today my name is Amy Gavin and I'm a third grade teacher at the international school at Gregory good afternoon I'm paa Wayman I'm the Spanish teacher in middle school at the international school at Gregory technology we are here today with some of our students to share with you all of the amazing things about Gregory Gregory is a dual language immersion school where children learn both English and Spanish from kindergarten
041through 8th grade our Spanish teachers are from Spanish-speaking countries through the sponsorship of the participate learning program our students are taught and master the same curriculum and state standards as other Newan our County Schools each Home Room shares a Spanish and an English teacher where they receive daily instruction in ela math Spanish science and social studies I'd like to introduce one of our third graders to you good evening my name is Finn guiney and the reason I love the international school at Gregory is because we get to learn Spanish and I think that's a really cool thing to do I get an opportunity that most kids don't get if they don't go to a school at gregy knowing two languages helps me become a stronger leader in the future gracias I am a participant learning
042Bor teacher from Argentina I am one of the international teachers at our school there are teachers from Colombia Chile Mexico Cuba and many other Latin American countries we teach our language but we also share our culture with the kids Hispanic Heritage Month is a very important event at our school teachers share their Traditions music and dances kids also have the possibility of sharing their Hispanic Heritage at that event Chinese New Year is another event that we love to celebrate at our school black history night at our school is an event where we come together to honor and celebrate the rich Heritage achievements and contributions of black individuals and communities continue at our school students have virtual exchanges with others schools from around the glove these are only some examples of the exchanges we had only
043in my class we had connected with schools from many schools from Argentina Morocco Dominican Republic and Taiwan our kids pay attention to what is happening around them and take actions to make the world a better place the sdgs are part of our curriculum now Sophia boomershine is going to speak about hola GRE hello I I'm sfia bushin and I'm an eighth grader at the international school at Gregory I love being here because it is a small school and I I've learned a lot about different cultures thanks to my International teachers they share their life experiences and stories from their countries with us making the classes very interesting in Global Studies we're exploring worldwide issues and the sustainable development goals trying to understand how we can contribute to solving them last year we focused on the
044global water shortage and we even went to UNC Greensboro to participate in the model un we had fantastic discussions in Spanish about what different countries are doing to address these issues it was an incredible experience [Applause] Bonita our kids pay attention to what is happening around them and take actions to make the world a better place the SGS are part of the curriculum we took our kids to this huge event the mold in Washington DC in the Department of State and UNCG it was a mold completely in Spanish we are educating future bilingual global leaders who are taking an active role to make the world a better place at Gregory we focus on building amazing humans and offer opportunities for growth we sponsor both girls on the run and stride teams in the fall and
045spring Seasons we are also proud participants of both Elementary and Middle School Science Olympiad teams our elementary JV team won second place this year and our Middle School team won first place in their event and will now compete for the state championship every Wednesday morning children participate in weekly wave clubs to enhance their understanding of the world around them Gregory is also proud of our service to people we sponsor nourished North Carolina of Wilmington through Girls on the Run stride and other clubs and we are also involved in creating a healthier Earth we currently partner with Kate community college's landscape and design program with the hopes of building an outdoor learning environment and Garden on our campus once again thank you so much for allowing us this opportunity to share the international school at Gregory's
046progress and accomplishments thank you don't sit down yet we may have may have some questions in the board if you guys wouldn't mind standing up there for minute first off I want to say thank you so much uh Gregory is where my children all went through school but it is a great school and I thank you for highlighting your school uh board members do you have anything you'd like to share I wanted to just add that um I wasn't able to attend but one of your students invited us to come to the Ruby Bridges walk day and I understand that that was just phenomenal and you know good turnout and so I wanted to you know just speak on behalf of the young lady you know who decided to email a board member and invite
047them so that yeah and I forget her name but um I can look it up but the um another nice program that she all do thank you you're welcome to visit anytime we would thank you so much thank you thank you for all you [Music] do at this time I'll turn it over to our superintendent who will share his report Dr F observance for March this month we'll be observing women's History Month National reading month Dr Seuss's birthday read Across America week it is truly March Madness basketball season in new Haner County Schools as the district has two teams competing in the final four of the 2024 North Carolina High School Athletic Association basketball championship we have hoger huger's girls and new Handover High School varsity boys in the 16th rank lady Vikings extended their
048home winning streak to 11 pushing overall record to 30 and one and will take on 12th rank Roseville this Thursday the number one ranked men's new Handover Wildcats defeated Panther Creek in a tight game Friday night to advance this Thursday against the number two ranked Richmond Raiders team new Haner has remained undefeated after 31 games this season the winner of these two games Thursday will advance to the conference Championship Game we're looking forward to Vikings and Wildcat victories new han students put their best foot forward on Friday during the return of the district's Annual Arts showcase best foot forward students shine bright with each performance and highlighted the outstanding Arts education program that new hanur County offers Allison WI a prek behavior specialist with new Hur County Schools received the Smart Start 2024 children's Championship
049award congratulations Allison on this well-deserved recognition recently Ashley high school held a ceremony for or to honor Alex heith NFL linebacker with the Pittsburg Steelers during the ceremony Ashley officially retired Alex's High School joury Jersey to number 34 Alex is a son of two new Handover County School Educators mom Pat heith is a math teacher at Ashley and Dad Sam heith is a retired new H County School's principal congratulations to the heith family international school at Gregory special L teacher Devin Pierce is the 20124 Rookie of the Year congratulations the announcement came during a lunch banquet at the Wilmington rotary club February 13th where Devon and four other finalists each shared how proud they are to be a new hanor County School's teacher who empowered students to learn grow and recognize their worth and potential
050congratulations to Devon and all the finalists for being shining examples of Excellence spring is on the horizon new han County school spring break will be held this year April February 1st through the 5th I hope all students and staff will have a safe and enjoyable spring break and just for an update I know that a lot of you have been asking and talking about um budget and we're going to continue talking about budget um each year we do go through this process if you go back all the way to 2021 2022 2023 we've had the the conversations um there's no um mismanagement the our County does provide a substantial amount of funds for us in the tune of somewhere around 9 $4 million um we have to provide 7 million of those dollars to around
051$7 million to our Charter Schools 24 million of that goes to um teacher uh stifen supplements I'm sorry supplements and the rest is what we do we have to go back and I can direct you back to the May 6 2022 board meeting and we outlined what we needed to do and what we had to do um we shared at that time it was a little over 200 60 some positions that we needed to cut in order to make it and so that's where we are at this point I understand this is the probably the hardest time of the year for us and the budget team the department um I want to say first thank you because I know it has not been an easy two three months that we've been dealing with the multiple
052budget meetings that you've been talking about having to go through and look at budgets relook at your budgets but folks this is where we are and we've been actually holding it for about two years and at this point we can't hold it any longer that we can't support our budget will not allow us to support it and we've had conversations I know some of you know the the the the results of that conversation but we've had those conversations and it is not that we are not trying we are trying but it doesn't work we our Revenue changed and the the state provided increases and it became very costly and so we are we are here at this Crossroads but we will be continuing to have budget conversations there are more that will be coming up
053this month and we will have more conversations we are actually going to be pushing this out as far as we can as we said we will be looking at um the natural attrition so we'll look at the end of end of March we've already shared with our County that we would be looking at the latest possible coming to speak with them before we present a full budget so that's where we are there are um there's no more like there's no more that we can do um when it comes to I'm looking at our CFO there's no more um that we can do in an effort to put forth the the the revenue there's no more and so I just wanted to make sure that everyone knew that but you can also go back and look
054at the um May 6 2022 board meeting that is in on YouTube and we actually outlined at that meeting actually everything that actually is now happening we said it um so that's where I would direct you and direct all of your your questions would be answered in that meeting so thank you again that's my all right next we have the Chairman's report um and a lot of it going to copy what uh Dr F has already said best foot forward I was able to attend that last week and we started out with the Murrayville Elementary steel drum performance uh and all I can say is wow wow you know 30 plus students uh playing the steel drums it was unbelievable uh ending with the theater for all's performance again a wonderful performance and all the
055outstanding performances in between it was just a wonderful wonderful show I would highly recommend that for next year anyone who is able to uh to attend that it is a great uh great time great show it shows the true Talent one of one of the many talents that our students have I was excited to meet with Senator Lee this morning uh with uh fellow board members uh and also the staff there uh parents it was a um great meeting uh it was talking about the uh devices that the prek students have to help them in their reading we have some documentation that we were given that shows how much of a growth uh it is with those devices we also heard how much they prefer prefer those devices over an regular an iPad because the
056safety feature of they are not hooked into the internet so it was a great great time uh we do value Senator Lee's uh hard work and dedication to new han County Schools helping us out uh anyway he can um multiple meetings with our partners the County Commissioners working together support our students and staff and find responsible ways to move ahead with our budget uh and part of that is thinking outside the box congratulations and thank you to everyone who took the time and effort to run for office in the recent election and congratulations to those who will be moving on to the general election uh great and profitable meeting with the members of senior staff Kar Community College and board um to better uh um enable and understand ways to serve our dual enrolled kir
057Community College and new Haner County students so I thank you for all your hard work in that congratulations going out to the Battle of books participants and winners congratulations uh going out to our new hanar County Schools Bob Champion Bob is uh Battle of books Champions Bradley Creek Elementary uh Bradley Creek will represent us in the Regionals in Wayne County on April 19th 2024 way to go Dolphins also congratulations to Second Place Porter neck Elementary and third place Bellamy Elementary and all and all of the competitors they had a fantastic battle uh as Dr F mentioned a great time we had celebrating the rookies of the year new H County schools named Devin Pierce third year special ed uh education teacher at the International School of Gregory it's 2024 rookie of the year but congratulations
058going out to all of the rookies of the year and finally as Dr F mentioned congratulations going out to the hogard Viking girls basketball team as they continue through the playoffs as well as the New Hanover High School boys basketball team as they continue to play and win and stay undefeated so go white uh go Vikings and go Wildcats best of luck in the future to both of those teams uh again go out there and support them that ends my report and at this time we will move on to our call to audience Miss Mason all right you know the drill we'll start with Angie key greetings with brand new victims coming forward in a brand new case in the aftermath of Decades of sexual abuse the school board follows their same Playbook sadly the
059board has chosen not to address this situation at all and have taken a step backwards because the same federal law that protects minors from sexual assault also protects lgbtq students and we can't of that so they have attacked seal and Cut Pro proactive prevention programs first managed to drive away our title n coordinator who's a legal expert in the field and dismantled the title 9 committee at a pretty crucial time when they're under the confines of a settlement where they agreed to do just the opposite a committee has significant influence over policies and procedures which govern our school and should make them safer not here safety is a topic that doesn't seem to be prioritized on strategic plans and campaign main slogans and politics has successfully blocked the work of both EDI and Title 9
060despite some incredible Advocates the fact that some of you put your own children at risk to carry out your politics and play Russian roulette with our kids is frightening let's also address the fact that politics prompted you to sign a contract with a law firm that clearly cannot manage the train wreck that is new han County Schools Vogal doesn't have the staff the experience or the expertise but what they do have is a political agenda that aligns with the majority of you meanwhile they're distracted by their own sidebar legal troubles with the sinks and we are forced to seek out other forms to manage the work they're not doing thus costing taxpayers more money to defend corruption but budget I look forward to Mr vogle and the board being held accountable to hearing updated complete
061data with regard to Title Nine presented to the public and not behind closed doors I'm also requesting a follow up to the horrifying data from the title n surveys that our schools are unsafe it's doubtful we'll see this data because you seem to not want to change the culture that accepts sexual assault as a norm and holds Predators accountable it's not your priority now thank you Miss KY but it will be Dr Jamie [Applause] Pond good evening school board members and Dr fa I'm speaking tonight because of your recent passing of section Z of policy 7205 not only is this policy unconstitutional since race and sex are protected classes in the US Constitution but this policy is an attempt to silence and censor discussions related to race and sex in the classroom as such this
062policy tells teachers that they cannot talk about these topics because students might be uncomfortable and teachers could be accused of attempting to compel students to have certain beliefs when students are not provided the opportunity to have conversations about our pasts related to race and gender they cannot learn from this past in addition when students are not encouraged to have open conversations about these topics and what happened in the past we're neglecting to prepare them for the real world and interacting with people who are different I want my daughter and her peers to know about our country's past the good and the bad I want her to have teachers who can feel free to teach fact-based history that includes conversations about differences I teach College age students and I teach classes that are specifically on social
063inequality and my students regularly ask me how did we not learn about these issues when we were younger policies like this is how students come to college unprepared and unaware of history in addition when we eliminate discussions our kids are un unprepared to work with people who are different which can cause companies when their employees discriminate against clients customers and or co-workers if we want our kids to learn to understand each other they should have a place to discuss our history and one of these places the best places I can think of is in the classroom James Baldwin has stated that not everything that is faced can be changed but nothing that can be changed can be nothing can be changed until it is faced please revise this policy that teachers know that they can
064talk about gender and race thank you Dr Bond your time is up thank you Peter rowt last year there were 13 serious violations of the code of student conduct by kindergarten first and second grade students so why were there 71 K2 out of school suspensions and this year so far there have also been 13 serious violations by K2 students so why have there been 62 K2 out of school suspensions policy 4351 says minor violations are not cause for out of school suspensions why were all of those Young Learners kicked out of school the chart I emailed you and present here shows that short-term suspension policy 4351 is not being followed and it doesn't have to be that way love our children's proposed revision for policy 4351 would give parents the right to ask questions and
065get more information before their child is suspended currently parents do not have that right the current policy allows the principal to make a phone call and one of the questions a parent can ask the principal is was my child's Behavior a minor violation or a serious violation if it's a minor violation the policy says School administrators will utilize Positive Behavior Support alternatives we hope love our children hopes that the policy committee members accept our invitation to meet with you individually and to review policy 4351 thank you Leslie [Applause] posy good evening there are a number of people in this room who consider themselves biblical liter interests given this I would like to consider a coup I would like you to consider a couple of passages from Matthew I have had to shorten them for time
066Matthew 6 and when you pray do not be like the Hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men I tell you the the truth they have received their reward in full also Matthew 25 when the son of man comes in his glory he will separate the people one from another he will say to those on his right come you who are blessed by my father for I was hungry and you gave me food I was thirsty and you gave me drink I was a stranger and you welcomed me I was naked and you clothed me I was sick and imp prison and you came to visit me and the righteous will answer him Lord when did we see you thus and do all
067these things the king will reply truly I tell you whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you did for me then he will say to those on his left depart from me you who are cursed for I was hungry and you did not feed me I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink I was a stranger and you did not welcome me I was naked and you did not clothe me I was sick and imprison and did you and you did not visit me they also will answer Lord when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not help you and he will reply truly I tell you whatever you did not do for
068one of the least of these you did not do for me and then they will go away to Eternal punishment but the righteous to eternal life so if you're going to take these passage literally it seems to me that God is Not Looking for the person who prays the loudest or who can say oh Lord the most in two minutes but for the person who the people who care for the least among us and that especially includes the children thank you Miss posie Veronica mclen [Applause] Brown love our children is pleased to learn that the policy committee will review short-term suspension policy 4351 at their next Tuesday meeting however we are concerned that the committee will only spend about 20 minutes discussing a policy that we have studied for 3 years and that's why we
069have offered to meet with each member of the policy committee individually we can share the data that shows that kindergarten first grade and second grade students continue to be kicked out of school for minor offenses a clear violation of policy 4351 we can discuss the entire policy with you including the parts that read the initial notice may be by telephone but it must be followed by a timely written notice and we would like to explain our proposed revision it only applies to students in kindergarden first grade and second grade it involves one phone one phone call before principal determines if an out of school suspension is appropriate it gives parents the opportunity to ask questions and and get more information before their child is suspended it gives a parent the right to be present but
070does not mandate their presence it maintains the principal's authority to suspend and it helps s use them it helps you replace them of that $20 million that you're concerned about because it cost Zer do to implement our revision celebrates parental involvement and prints the needless and Vin the needless trauma of our youngest Learners love our children North Carolina hopes that all the board members will accept our invitation to have a one on-one chat we are crossing our fingers and sending up a gigantic prayer that you are all in thank you Jan [Applause] Landis one one phone call just one phone call can make the difference between a five six or seveny old getting kicked out of school or staying in school to continue their learning right now policy 4351 allows principes two days to notify
071a parent if a suspension is being imposed on their children on their child please revise policy 4351 to allow principles the same two-day period to speak to a parent before a determination is made for an out of school suspension the parent can get information about their child's behavior and then ask three important questions which Positive Behavior Support Alternatives have been used with my child is the out of school suspension being used as a last resort are there any other Positive Behavior Support Alternatives that could be tried the principal still has the final say as to whether or not the child is suspended the only difference between the current policy and love our children's proposal is when that one phone call is made We Believe parents deserve the right to talk to the principal before their
072child is suspended we hope the policy committee members accept love our children's invitation to meet with them individually and review our proposal let's write the rest of this story together Lindsay [Applause] Phillips good evening according to Economist Dr Isaac oper research has shown that among School related factors teachers matter most when it comes a student performance on reading and math test teachers are estimated to have two to three times the effect in of any other school Factor including Services facilities and even leadership I see this every single day at my children's school it's not central office or the principal that makes it happen it's the teacher so depleting teach the teachers of valuable support and overcrowding their classes even more by these proposed Cuts will obviously have negative impact on Student Success I recognize that
073budgeting is challenging I'm aware of the blocks at the state level and the discussions with the County Commissioners but what I cannot seem to wrap my mind around is a complete inability for this board and District to work within its own means to figure out somewhat of a solution before cutting 90 teaching positions for starters in 2014 the state took away longevity pay for teachers school districts were allowed to aot their own money to make up for it on page 18 of the New Hanover County School staff handbook it states those percentages however longevity is not being paid to teachers or anyone in central office who is paid at a teacher salary that being the majority of instructional Specialists curriculum Specialists and support staff housed at central office but it is being paid to everyone
074at the district level who is on sa pay or above for some staff that's 5K extra a year when we are facing a loss as great as this why is someone who's making two and a half times what the average teacher makes is just being gifted an extra 5K it's no secret New Hanover County Schools is super topheavy with EDS ads senior staff supervisors making up roughly 80 positions that's a lot of longevity pay I cannot imagine the impact that extra money would have on Staffing on Student Success Dr Barnes has often referred to Cuts your time is up thank you David [Applause] Perry I always have to put this up hi uh if you don't know me I'm David Perry and I'm running for the school board and before I start I just wanted
075to thank uh all the over 12,000 people that voted for me last Tuesday it was uh unexpected and uh AR inspiring thank you um but one of the things over in the campaign during the campaign Trail I was talking to people not just Republicans but unaffiliated folks and Democrats alike and they just want their kids to Great get a great and awesome education and we can differ on a lot of different things but one thing that we know for sure and we know from covid is that when our kids are not going to school they're not learning and I'm with these people here love our children when it comes to our suspension policy 4351 it needs a complete and utter rehaul you know most of these cases could be handled by a good and uh
076wellmaintained in school suspension program I believe that's true these people have been at it for three freaking years and all they've managed to do is get a k through2 you know out of suspension policy added to 4351 that's not even being implemented and being ignored and I've seen the statistic that different schools are different is not uniform you know our out of school suspensions across this we need a complete rehaul so therefore tonight I would suggest that we ditch the policy meeting on this topic and instead let's have an all day workshop on a Saturday so that everybody can come in representatives from them get bring in our principes bring in our teachers bring in the students and we've got really smart people in this school district and let's get it like a Congressional hearing
077where we hear from them and there's some back and forth so that we can do a total rehaul of this policy you know we can't give up on our kids boy if they gave up on me on every mistake i' made I'd be a Millionaire right now but we we have to we have to stick by our kids thank you Michelle [Applause] Lawson good evening and thank you for your time hearing me out tonight I know that our number one priority is student safety this year ctec high school was singled out and school hours were pushed back with just a few days notice because of this decision my little 75b 4 foot1 child is walking home alone in the dark that cannot happen next year I need your help keeping all students safe you have
078already heard from other ctec staff and parents and a student who spends 11 hours a day commuting spoke to you last month so you already know the ripple effect that this schedule change has caused the scheduled change has not only negatively impacted student safety but also student participation in sports extracurricular activities clubs enrollment in driver's ed classes availability for Afterschool employment which is different than all of their other new han County student peers and the schedule change has now limited student ability to enroll in their previously scheduled classes at Cape Fear Community College put simply in straightforward we have many reasons including safety why we need school hours at CC returned to 9 to4 thank you Loretta [Applause] stous good evening until August 2022 kindergarten first first and second grade children could receive an out
079of school suspension for the following minor violations of the code of student conduct harassment aggressive behavior insubordination theft bus misbehavior property damage inappropriate items on school property disruptive behavior bullying being in an unauthorized area leaving the classroom without permission leaving the school without permission and inappropriate behavior the revised policy 4351 would went into effect last year so that kindergarteners first and second grade kids would not receive out of school suspension for those reasons instead they would receive a positive behavior support alternative but that didn't happen last year there was 58 pay to suspensions in violation of the policy including three for showing disrespect and one for insubordination and one of for excessive display of of affection 82% of the K2 out of school suspensions violated the policy well okay it was only the first year
080of implementation let's look at the data for for this school year as of last month there has been 49 K2 suspensions in violation of policy 4351 including 10 for showing disrespect and one for insubordination and one for leaving the classroom without permission that is 79% in violation of the policy how can we get this policy implemented and administered properly love our children would like to sit discuss the data with you thank you Judy Justice hello notice no paper changed my focus when I heard Dr F superintendent report the statement there's nothing you can do about the situation with our budget I've been on I was on that board longer than anyone up there I have worked in administrations and other school districts and put budgets together I have worked with County Commissioners in other districts
081there is a lot that can be done and should have been done since he took office or excuse me he was hired I worked with Dr Markley I worked with a budget director that was amazing neither one of them here here right now you have County Commissioners you can work with it is their responsibility to make sure we have the money that $20 million we have it in this District we're a wealthy District we have a ton of money left over not left over it hasn't hardly been touched from the hospital sale not just the 1.2 billion but also the 333 million that is was promised to us when that hospital was sold and I don't see any of you trying to do it the last meeting you had with the County Commissioners they came
082out of that meeting saying they didn't ask for anything that's your job that's his job he's not supposed to agree that we spend too much money what he did last was when I was on the last year of the board he actually said that the county commissioner spent too much money and I've got it on video I can look it up and you guys can too spent too much money in our schools our state is strangling our public schools and the only place the money can come from is from the counties we are we are are blessed in this County we have resources beyond belief and it's you guys job to find that money and at that superintendent's job to work to get it thank you Alicia Ogen Deli Alicia Ogen Deli excuse me excuse
083me yeah okay good evening short-term suspension policy 4351 includes several things students can do when they receive suspension for example they can take textbooks home and receive their Miss assignments they can also take their exams they miss the policy also includes some things the students can't do for example the student has the right to be present at the informal hearing but does not have the right to have a parent or other representativ present and a student is not entitled to appeal the principal's decision in the imposed short-term suspension to either the superintendent or the board unless appealable or other basis so in other words currently a parent can't talk to the principal before the principal makes the decision to suspend their child and a parent can't appeal the principal's decision okay the policy doesn't actually
084say a parent it says student a student is not entitled to appeal a principal's decision but does that sound like a policy written for four five six and seven year old's Minds to comprehend that's why it's important to give a to parents the right to a phone call from a principal before their child is suspended so they can ask the questions and get more information talk to love our children and revise the policy 4351 thank you Christina Mercer I know that you cannot wish millions of dollars into a budget to magically cover deficits and that the state has cut education funding and refuses to release Leandro funds but I also know that you haven't been the best advocates for the needs of the school system and have been reluctant to give the County Commissioners the
085full picture of the impacts of a budget shortfall I'm concerned about the position cuts for next year you're cutting mtss coordinators which means all the paperwork and tracking for that will fall on the classroom teacher you're cutting many of the AIG teachers that means the differentiation will fall to classroom teachers as well you are making many cuts to the EC program and IEPs are being changed what the school can provide versus what the student actually needs without EC support that means that differentiation also falls on the classroom teacher when is the workload too much I'll say you're going to find out quickly that one teacher cannot do the job of five to six people and also actually teach and the Family Life program is also targeted this program has existed for decades and has provided
086up-to-date accurate and age appropriate information for fifth graders and middle schoolers about their their bodies and their development now the idea is to let fifth grade teachers and PE teachers handle this curriculum again this would turn over responsibility to classroom teachers who have not been trained to specifically cover human development knowledge is power and the family life curriculum is the best defense against being sexually groomed and perhaps one of the most disturbing Cuts is the cut to school social workers these are Highly Educated individuals who are trained to recognize child abuse they are trained to manage multiple crises and they are present in the communities but they are being replaced by communities and Schools Employees who are well-meaning but who lack the Education and Training of social workers sounds like a perfect setup for students
087to continue to be victimized why do I care more about funding than you do I've spoken about this for over a year and you guys are just now getting concerned push for more funding and do better Natasha too [Applause] good evening I'm Natasha T and I'm running to serve on that board those seats that you're sitting in our budget is facing a $20 million shortfall over 250 positions are on the chopping block n0 of those which are our Educators our students are failing academically with almost half of not proficient at reading and staggering 60% not proficient at math one as a result of the ineffective and racist restorative justice policies that have been introduced and enacted over the past few years our schools have become a Battleground for our kids if you don't believe it
088go watch my Twitter feed I've posted plenty of videos there to prove it because the they feel unsafe unsupported and underpaid many of our teachers are considering leaving or or have already left despite all of this and not withstanding the repeated requests for building upgrades and required maintenance that have not yet been addressed which has left some of our schoolhouses structurally unsafe this superintendent feels it's completely acceptable for him to rent the large luxurious SUV on his training Expeditions and change his flights at the last minute incurring large fees at our expense with his $100,000 plus contracted salary differential after a $250 $250,000 annual salary let's consider the following Dr F has seven employees under his pervie collectively making over $800,000 that's a 135 employees making $60,000 a year just letting you know Dr faasen
089oversees the accountabil instructional and academic accountability Department with of seven who collectively make $812,000 a year that's another 13 and a half employees at $60,000 a year the chief Dei officer with his HR salary of almost $118,000 a year why that's a total of $1.74 3 million a year with that $60,000 a year that's a salary of 29 teacher salaries thank you your time is up Katie Gates good evening board last month I mentioned 34 administrative staff are paid over $100,000 a year while the highest paid handful of lead teachers make might make $70,000 each salary inequity between admin and Incredibly important student facing staff is a problem collectively these 34 admin staff make $ 3,992 th000 interesting thing is since last month I discovered that eight employees in the superintendent's office received contracted salary
090differentials in addition to their already high wages these range from 16,000 to about 100,000 per employee think of 16,000 paying half a teacher salary or you could pay two teachers with Dr fa salary differential as you try and cut 20 million from the budget please consider cutting cutting the salary differential multiple admin positions and reduce the remainder of the admin salaries Also regarding the budget how did all that planning for the newcomers school and the elimination of the Mosley School of career Readiness get funded over the last 3 years how many hours were spent on that planning done without board awareness or consent this county has also received $94 million of Federal Aid through Esser one through three funds instead of investing in building infrastructure expansion and an academic success doctor fa who presides over
091the budget hired people for positions whose salaries were going to be unsustainable past the three-year Mark and now here we are in a pickle having to let so many go this is unfortunate Margaret thater once said that trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money cut program extras like Dei and seal put a stay on hiring consulting firms please don't beg for money from the Commissioners in state when it's Dr fa's fiscal mismanagement of the county and Esser funds that is the root issue I request an audit for the budget thank you Linda [Applause] Higgins hello school board members I'm here today to discuss the budget woses I have followed closely your plan to deal with this $2 million hole and I have to say that you are not being
092logical in your plans at all first you need more money and you are not in a position to create money or raise taxes that means that getting money from one of your four possible funding sources federal state county or the endowment I hope you have been on the phone daily emailing daily meeting in person regularly and begging from all three of these sources I will give you the benefit of the doubt in assume that you understand your job and have been doing it as you look at Cuts you seem to think that half the cuts can be sa can be sustained by your exceptional children who are either gifted or have learning disabilities this population is not going away in fact it's the one population that will not go to private or charter schools because
093they cannot get what they need regardless of your budget you are mandated to educate these children if you tell parents their children have magically created a become so good that they no longer need Services as you do their IEPs the truth is they will still need services and you will be setting yourselves up for failure parents of exceptional children are exceptional at fighting for their children if we have to fight we will and you will need lawyers as well thank you your time is up Sandy [Applause] Isles I originally planned to talk about budget cuts about how Dr F wants to cut 160 student facing positions more than half of them coming from special education Dr F you should look at us I was looking I was going to talk about how the community is
094fed up with Dr f for refusing to ask our County for more funding I was going to talk about the necessity of presenting multiple budgets to the county including one that would save every staff position set for The Chopping Block but I'm not going to talk about that instead I'm going to tell you what happened to my daughter yesterday she told me that her male classmate has been harassing her for a couple of weeks about her sexuality and yesterday that male classmate told her that every single lgbtqia a person should die in a well and or kill themselves and that everyone who is not heterosexual should die why do you think that child felt emboldened to speak in such a hateful and violent way way to my daughter could it be because Miss Bradford you
095called a transgender student a thing last year could it be because Miss Bradford Miss Barnhart Miss Mason and Mr Wilder War have passed policies that are a direct attack on lgbtq students stop smirking I hold you accountable for this because you set the tone for our schools own the culture that you created Pat Bradford look me in the eye and tell me that I am a bad parent Melissa Mason look me in the eye and tell my child does not deserve a safe place to learn and Pete wildor looked me in the eye tell me that my daughter deserved to be told that she should die in a well and kill herself you did this your hate put my child in danger and that is the most heinous of Acts that is your legacy Douglas
096Henry Doug Henry good morning good afternoon school board members um first off I'd like to say what I say doesn't go in vain in the name of Jesus Christ walk walk 1 Timothy 4:10 in fact this is why we work hard and struggle because we have set our Hope on the Living God who is the savior of all people especially the Believers this is how we should set are examples to our children in the word meaning conversation conduct or behavior in love which is the love of God in spirit the attitude or the power of the holy spirit in faith meaning trusting in God imp Purity both in sexual matters and in thoughts we please God when our walk matches our talk Yolanda Hernandez Yolanda Hernandez okay Chris Sutton oh there he is budget conversation
097matters more than anything right now however there was a public records request for email that contained two forwarded emails that were in opposition to the newcomer School these emails were sent from Dr F to the the New Hanover County chief diversity and Equity officer one of those emails was only a few sentences long yet the name and email address were redacted from from The public's view why would their identity be redacted from the public yet be divulged to someone who is not a district employee the other email was from someone who uh talked at call to audience numerous times and has been consistently critical of the superintendent her email to the board was forwarded by the superintendent to the county Equity officer and uh and at the bottom of the email it included the name
098of her company that she works for the equity officer responded to Dr F email wonder what included the name the company that she works for would say and posted a link to the company's website less than 2 minutes after that email was sent the county Equity officer emailed Dr F asking are your emails public record I don't know if F called her or responded in a manner that isn't discoverable via public record but we didn't see a response questions that came from this why was the one email redacted is it appropriate why was the this email forwarded to the county Equity officer was it a government employee or someone who may be retaliated against for their stance multiple emails in the pr included the above mentioned emails uh that didn't include the recipients at the
099top so we don't know who all those emails may have been forwarded to did the superintendent forward them to other people as well is this the new status quo if the superintendent disagrees with the stance taken by a Community member will he forward their email to someone outside the district who may intentionally seek to cause employment problems for them if nothing wrong was done please publicly explain why the one email was redacted and why it was necessary for the person in her position to have access to that info when it was sensitive enough to block the public shouldn't matter where you stand on the newcomer School wrong is wrong and this situation doesn't suffice thank you Don garette as an advocate and a parent I extremely concerned about the budget it is clear to me
100that the board has no interest in closing the educational gap for students receiving special education services a potential loss of 17 exceptional children teachers 69 exceptional children assistants and the further decline of adequate speech language occupational and physical therapists would be devastating to the students receiving special education services maybe the Board needs a reminder that the I AP is a legal doc document and that means creating a plan that is need-based I'm tired of seeing IEPs that limited services to 10 minutes 10 minutes for speech therapy teachers don't know how to put these plans together with the tools they're given at the very least we need supportive adults to reach their educational needs these are the very adults that seem to be Expendable when I ask my daughters who their supportive adults are at school
101it's always the teachers assistance they are the staff that sit Side by side to slow the process down to provide Clarity but more importantly they are the staff that believe in our students and that is irreplaceable my other daughter Treasures her school counselor so much so she wants her to move with her to high school next year these are some of the supportive adults that children have just that one adult um our teachers and support staff are not line items and if you have to give weight to each category shouldn't we be spending more on the students that need it the most but but it takes more one-on-one support to really reach these children dyslexia affects one in five people and it is the most solvable problem of our time yet schools Overlook the science
102of reading that helps all students become strong readers reading is a right and I challenge everyone to come out to the resiliency day at the camera and this Saturday to watch the documentary WR to read teachers have the power to ignite a lifelong love of learning and that is why we need a supportive budget so our dedicated teachers and support St be that Guiding Light thank you Barbara the last time the policy committee discussed the short-term suspension policy 4351 it was like a bad dream the discussion centered around whether a parent of a kindergartener through 12th grade student should be present at any meeting or appeal because each Traditional High School has between 100 and 200 out of school suspensions each year it would be difficult for a principal to coordinate so many meetings but
103that discussion had nothing to do with love our children's proposal our proposal only impacts kindergarten first and second grade students with serious violations to the student code of conduct that's about students a year it gives a principal two days to contact a parent by phone that's in the current policy most importantly it gives parents the right to ask questions get more information before their child is suspended and the principal still has a final say as to whether the child is suspended and don't worry about a parent abusing the revised policy it Curr currently states that a suspension needs not be delayed by our request for a conference we hope the policy commers accept our invitation to meet with them and review our proposal thank you thank you Valerie [Applause] Noel good evening education has always
104been a con instant in my life my Fondest Memories Are of Meandering through Library Stacks sliding my finger along slippery plastic spines until one caught me captivating my imagination as I devoured the book jacket slowly sitting in the middle of the aisle grabbing treasure after treasure until my pile was almost too heavy to carry time didn't exist just me words the crinkling of book covers and that smell I love to learn and it's a love for the Ages Every child deserves the space to know this love for our AIG students this love often just is a default setting and like every child our AIG students deserve the chance to nurture that love and watch it grow last year was our first year here and because we had homeschooled for two years my then fourth graders
105first year in the AIG was my fourth graders first year in the AIG program and he has thrived extended his learning and challenged his thinking both during and outside of the school day yet once again AIG coordinators are on the chopping block with the proposed 14 of 35 position cuts a 40% decrease although he couldn't be here today I asked my fifth grader why he values his AIG coordinator he immediately responded with this for many kids AIG is the main way that we are challenged in our learning it's where we get to go beyond to keep learning if we didn't have a chance to be challenged school would be pointless and boring and nothing what will these proposed Cuts mean for these students AIG students like all students need to be nurtured for many of
106our AIG students the at school AIG program is the primary way that they are exposed in a supportive environment to the rigor that enables them to access that challenge and grow that love a love that will be a constant in their lives a love for the ages and that's the beautiful thing about public education isn't it it's the only form of Education that ensures access to all students of all abilities no matter what your time is up thank you Jim nesbet Jim nesbet and William best William best William best best come up yes sir members I'm here on a different situation cuz I was born and raised right here in this town I remember in this place right here was a gymnasium Lake Forest High Junior High School I played in here I refereed ball
107games in here you've got two members of the board that I've known for many years on the court but I've seen so much racial things going on in these schools the kids sports keeps kids in school coach Leon Brogden that was one of his best things him and Coach Davis keep the kids in athletics and they'll stay in school and I saw it happen but right now I'm seeing so much disagreement you had you honored one here tonight that should not have been he just been nominated to the hall of North Carolina Hall of Fame your superintendent your Recreation director for the schools he's never been done anything for this County he's never done anything as far as I know him and Roy Turner who was one of the school administrators they've just been nominated
108for the North Carolina High School Hall of Fame and you've got two sitting right there on that board needs to be in there before them to and me I've been in 60 8 years I started when I got out of high school officiating High School softball college sports Recreation ball I've done it all my life but one ad one of your ads in this County nominated those two because he knows this will be the last Hall of Fame banquet in North Carolina when the State Board of Education takes over the athletic association in in July there will be no more High School Sports Hardley in North Carolina everything's going to travel ball and I'm objecting that these your ad dominating these two cuz I know I've known one of them since he since he was
109in coaching at Dudley High School I referee ball games with him in greensbor I've been all over this state up and I I want to see some of these ones like Bobby Moore Keith Moore all these other come in get nominated go in there okay that concludes call to audience yes e all right we are at uh 57 by the clock here so please come on backboard members we'll go ahead and start it back up lo as L thank you all right everyone would uh take their seats please I appreciate that board members just a a point of clarification before we start back up on the consensus items there has been an update to where is it where is it where is it I had it letter on N letter k letter k there's been
110an update so please renew your refresh refresh that's the word I was looking for thank you not renew refresh when was the update like just like ago yep so if you refresh that would be great and we'll carry on with our consensus items uh we will be pulling uh consensus item K excuse me consensus item G off which is the uh partnership articulation agreement between new han County schools and Cave Fear Community College uh I do want to give you a quick update on that and we will be pulling that off because we have a board member that actually works uh for them I met with K Fear Community College can we pull off while we're at that level sure um I need to pull off n n okay we got JK and N all
111right okay thank you okay g g so we have G K and N right okay gz right yeah yes okay uh just so I did uh meet with uh Kier Community College um we had senior staff in attendance we also had folks from kir Community College we had some board questions uh I'll run through those very quickly um tutoring available at kayir Community College was asked by one board member yes it is kir Will um they they will be able to be uh uh used in that fashion first of off I want to thank members of senior staff uh and U board members that were at that uh meeting uh drop students with uh C that is not what we we doing they will be uh supported but not dropped uh Power School access for
112K community college career coaches yes that will be able to be done um and okay they got that one there athletic directors counselors Etc will have extra supports so that we will not have a situation where a student athlete um uh grades go down to the point where they are ineligible so a lot of the questions that were raised to me were were uh brought forth um so at this point what I would like to I'll make a motion we uh accept or approve consistence items with the exception of G K and N second first and second any discussion if not all in favor please signify by saying I I I all opposed that passes 70 let's go ahead and Tackle uh G next uh again uh I just shared some information it was a
113very very positive meeting Dr fa and Miss vam were there uh excellent Miss Bradford was there uh very very good meeting um and I think it was very very positive so and they they are I'll say this out loud they are a very valued partnership partner for us uh so I will make a motion at this point that we accept G is there a second second any discussion yes ma'am yeah um how were the people in attendance of that meeting selected Mr Morton had put that together I mean from us I'm sure he didn't select Miss Bradford he did point of order I I think that's not gerain to this conversation it is gerain to the conversation because the rest of us don't know what was said at that meeting okay uh again there's a
114point of order brought forth and the chair rules that the point of order is well taken at this point we will continue um we have the motion and a second to accept letter G all in favor please signify by saying I I I I all opposed that carries 60 in this case 60 please note that it's 6 not 70 uh let's carry on with you ask for n to be pulled off so let's carry n next um yes I am not opposed to N I think um zspace is wonderful um this was not on our information session before so I was asking I would like to ask um Dr facon if she would just give us a a little brief update you did put it in writing but I was able to attend the um
115the demo and um I just thought that the rest of the board who did not attend might like to hear a little bit more about that okay okay it was actually on the um agenda but not the contract itself because it was getting audited so um zspace for um everyone um to know is a program that actually allows the students to have a virtual um learning experience we plan to utilize this in our health careers classes we also will be working with our biology teachers um so they can also utilize this information so so think about the kids could actually take a molecule and pull it out virtually and dissect it and look at it and break it down so this is something that we're able to do with our endowment Grant in a partnership
116with CTE thank you the um I just wanted to add in there too that um the we had middle school kids that were there and high school kids that were there and um we had to like crowbar them out of their chairs you know to go back into their classes because they were so in enthralled with the program and part of it like on a very broad scale is like a giant operations game where they have the body laid out and then they have you know iPads on how to learn about it but I just wanted to make sure that um it it got the accolades that it needed because on paper you know it looks good on paper but when they're in there and their kids are um participating in that it just make
117it takes learning to a whole another level and I mean these kids were just like so enthralled um with the whole program so I'm glad that's how we're using our grant money this Bradford we get it um up and running we will be definitely inviting the board to visit the classrooms so you can actually see that thank you Mr chairman mford can we have a little bit more explanation on the funding this is $576,000 and I want to make sure that those listening understand that we're not taking it from this pot of money that would fund teachers AG teachers assistance and so on so can you explain that again one more time please yes ma'am so this is a part of our endowment Grant we have an endowment Grant but we have partnered with um
118cfcc and UNCW it is to help secure and keep healthare providers here in our community so we're starting at the school level and then postsecondary partnership so it is part of that funding okay so at this point I would let's let's finish with and and then we'll go to k uh I would entertain a motion to accept letter uh n or approve letter N I make a motion to approve letter N thank you second we have a second first and second any other discussion all in favor please signify by saying I I I I all opposed carries 70 so the last one we have is letter K uh and that was a motion that was made I believe last meeting um that uh the legal contracts for consider ation by the S law firm and
119uh the POR rule for special education Legal Services uh through the remainder of uh until June 30th 2024 we have both of those in front of us here uh is there any discussion yes Mr chair oh excuse me let's let's start with a motion is there a motion yes uh M Barnhart thank you I I did want to point out prior to the start of the meeting I had only saw one of the legal contracts with pointer spr and I know in my motion last month um we discussed the syn Law LLC as well as pointer spr um but I did want to make note I'm not comfortable passing both of these as is because the discrepancy between the two if you look at pointer rule it says in the first paragraph special needs and
120expands Beyond um those that scope in in my motion last month was specifically discussed for our special education department okay yes we in discussion phase there's no motion we had a let's go ahead and take a motion and then we'll go from there so would somebody you make a motion about this and then we'll discuss it I I'll make a motion that we accept okay I'm sorry go ahead I'll say I'll make a motion that we accept the proposals okay I'll second that now we'll discuss it and we'll go from there Miss Walker so my I guess my question is um I I I I guess we'll use I know what the motion was and I agree with it and I think that if we stick with it I'm not really sure what the danger
121is in that that um contract I guess maybe we need to talk about that but I I feel like we're using it for special education purposes that's what we're going to use it for I don't I don't know what the problem I'd like to know what the different what we upgraded um let her finish I'm done thank you sir you're done okay yes ma'am um what was it that we are refreshing for um there was only one contract provided at that time which was the um I would say it wrong porner spru and then we we've added the syn okay so my understanding was when um Miss Barnhart made the motion to um the initial motion was to use um sync law firm and then her amended motion was to include pointer Sproul I was
122under the impression that we were voting we were were choosing between the two that we were not um going to be using them both no we did both no I remember talking about both I didn't I didn't remember um that we were going to be approving both Miss Bradford Mr chairman I don't like getting something at 7 o'clock at night that I've not seen before I agree with Miss Barnhart this says or other matters we're in a budget crisis and yet we're sitting here talking about adding another attorney firm or two other attorney firms that could be taking part of a teacher salary I'm uncomfortable doing this tonight and I'd like to see us move it out a month until we can study these things compare them and get on the same page Miss Walker
123um I think the addition was the sync proposal right because the pointer SP one's been on there for a while so the addition of the sinks is just the the new one and I I accept them both so I think that was the original motion yeah okay any other discussion I'm don't know why we would put this off we are um our central office staff has expressed concern um and um several members of the board myself included that um when we lost the sync Law Firm from Mr vogle you know he's not his firm is not capable of of meeting our needs for that and we need to have people that are are ready to roll now and I'm going to use just the the words that several of our board members have used over
124and over that um we can't afford not to have good coverage so therefore we're going to you know we'll either keep inadequate coverage or we for that so we need new coverage and I don't know why we would put off you know that we already that the the the law the com the contracts should be pretty much the same our legal council here reviews all of our law all of our contracts um as does Miss Sutton so there should not be a major difference between these two um to do that and we're using them for special education services um as part of this discussion but we are also able to use any firm we want to answer any of our legal questions that we want so I don't know why that is such a a
125um a sticking point that we can't move forward Mr Bradford I totally object to broadening the scope of what we voted on yall voted on I didn't vote to pass that what you voted on last month and now we come up with a contract we've not seen before tonight and you've and language has been added or other matters so I move to amend the motion that's on the floor to strike or other matters and in this in paragraph uh item one a second line or other matters which contract are you talking about po R and Miss Barnhart I did not hear that Miss barnhard I did not hear that I think she said second I said I'll second that that's what I was getting at when I was looking at the two contracts Mr chairman
126in the pointer SC contract the first paragraph said special education or other matters based on needs of the board and that's not the intent of my motion last month and so I would be in favor of striking that from the um pointer sprl contract okay we have a motion second is there a discussion on that part Miss Walker I just a question so there's a motion on the table already right but this is amend additional motion or it is an amended Mo I I don't understand yeah I'm kind of confused where we are right now we're amend the amended motion from M Bradford was to strike a line of the uh perer spru uh contract uh under a where it says um I don't see an a at all am I looking at the wrong
127one I'm looking at the wrong one gu 1 a yeah 1 a okay thank you yeah provider will provide legal representation for newy County Board of Education matters involving special education or other matter matters not handled by the board's general counsel that's the part right there correct yes that's it right there so I have it highlighted so we have a motion and second to amend so we just stke those one two three four letters miss kille this is on the amendment correct this is on the amendment yes um what are we so afraid of to have other matters in there why wouldn't we want to have the best legal council and the best options for us in there I don't understand why taking why we would want to take out or other matters when we
128know that we can go and get any other lawyer for any other matter that we want so I just think it's it's a semantic in there and um I'm not comfortable taking that out okay all right so we unless there's other discussion if not we will miss Barnhart no Miss um buoy would you please call the role and again this is only on striking from the contract or other matters so this is on the amendment not on the the main motion Mr wbore yes Miss Mason yes Miss barnhard yes Miss Bradford yes Miss crel no Mr mcmanis no and Miss Walker no okay so that does pass 43 so we now have we will have to update that contract and and strike the letters the words excuse me not the letters uh other matters not
129handled by the board's general counsel we're back to the main motion which is to accept these two contracts now the perus rule being amended we have a motion and a second on that Mr mcmanis you have a discussion or question yes sir so if I understand again correctly the rationale for these two potential contracts is because we feel like that the present attorney cannot handle or does not have the background experience in the exceptional Arena so that is the whole base for us doing this and so if I understand again correctly that a presentent council would not be involved in this so it wouldn't cost us more we'd still have to deal with the exceptional Arena I guess I'll look at big cheese over there sitting at the table is that correct I mean it
130just means that the these who have a background in this Arena they would not be um duplicate cases so they would be assigned to the attorney that would have the expertise for that now become through you uh yes or Dr F me as yes ma'am Bradford I would just like to repeat something I have said before I got information from central office and no one has disputed it when thanington Smith was our attorney for that whole last year there was one and a half EC cases one and a half that half carried over and the vocal Law Firm has represented us for one and a half cases so he's taken over one case in this whole time and I feel like this is just way overreaching I will vote no to it I haven't read
131this contract I can't read it the amount of time I have and I'm not comfortable ever signing a agree into a contract that I haven't read I'm comparing the two of them right now as best I can in the couple of seconds that I have to do it the rate is different there's terms that are different I just I'm not comfortable doing this tonight okay yes M graville yeah the um Mr chair I'll I'll address this to you that um we we can't compare Fairington Smith one and a half to Vogal one and a half we can't compare the costs of EC as a total because it's so dependent on what happens at the time we don't know how many cases we're going to have um with that we don't know the difficulty or the
132severity of um of of of settling these cases are so I think we all should just put oursel in the mindset that we can't compare what the other person did the other Legal Services did based on case amount it is how they managed the case and and and how um they charged us and how how much we were able to settle to the agreement of the plaintiffs and us so I just think we need to keep that in mind when we're when we're doing our deliberations Mason I too have concerns with the fact that we just got this contract from the S law firm and I am not comfortable I've been able to read through the pointer spru contract but I'm not comfortable signing anything that I haven't had the opportunity to go through Mr
133Walker I I I'm maybe I shouldn't assume this but I'm sure this has been these have been vetted already even though we haven't seen them I mean I I I don't think there's anything out of the ordinary um from what I can tell um they seem pretty boilerplate I mean there might be some little differences but um I'm not sure that that's enough for me to not vote in in favor I'd like to go ahead and get on with it because I'd like for us to have legal counsel that you know that can be referred to and we've all had our opportunity to speak on the main motion so at this point I'm going to call a question Miss buoy would you please please repeat the motion one more time so we know what we're
134is to accept the two contracts provided um again with the per spru uh contract uh uh Delete reping the words or other matters not handled by the board's general counsel that whole sentence um but basically accepting the contracts from uh pter Rule and from U the syc law firm Mr willor I'd like to um break the whatever we did last time um divide the divide the motion so that we can vote on in these in these um Law Services individually so that if we want to get sink in place to start doing our work why we're deliberating over pointer spou you want to divide the motion divide the motion so that we vote on them separately we vote on pointer Sproul separately we vote on sink separately so that we can move on now with
135legal counsel okay chairman point of order yes ma'am um on the divide the motion you're not allowed to interrupt interrupted you as you about to call oh I'm sorry I apologize for interrupting you're out of order and there's no debate on it there is no debate on that um so let's vote on Miss crra first off Mr CRA will have a second is there a second to divide and have two separate chair I just need to clarify you called the question right that means we have to vote yeah you're right all right let's call the question now good point thank you ma'am so we are now uh voting on whether or not to accept the two the amended perish rule contract and the um s contract Miss buy would you please call the role Mr
136wbore yes Miss Mason no Miss Barnhart yes Miss Bradford no Miss Grey Bill yes Mr mcmanis yes and Miss Walker yes okay that passes 52 we that ends our discussion about our close that down real quick all right uh we move on to policy amendments turn it over Miss Mason um on here is the majority of these policies were um ncsba changes um with I believe three that were sent back to the uh policy committee would you like to make a motion I would like to make a motion to um accept oh all the Poli motion I'll second that now any discussion Miss crra had her hand it first yes I want to pull off policies um like IID said at the um agenda review I want to pull off policies 2300 20 um sorry
1372320 um and 2660 and 2335 okay so we have 2300 20 let me show have that correct 2300 2320 2660 and 2335 correct yes okay anybody else no okay we'll pull those off uh we have a motion and second to accept uh a amended motion I guess we would you amend your motion to accept all except for 2300 2320 2660 and 2335 I will amend my motion to accept all except 2660 2300 and 2335 all right we have first and second on that any other discussion if not uh all in favor please signify by saying again this is except for those four all in favor please signify by saying I I all opposed that passes 70 we start at the top with 2300 board meetings M Grable you brought the question up so I'll let
138you speak first so in policy 23 um 2300 board meetings the you see under number three special called meetings and we added in um agenda reviews under 3A it's the second sentence second line um not opposed to that the um what I am opposed to is that um we need to have some description of what the agenda review meetings are all about um similarly to every item that is listed in letter A 3A work sessions Retreats public hearings are described in letters b c and d but we have neglected um and actually not neglected we have chosen not to Define agenda reviews we need some descriptive parameters of what this meeting entails I.E what do we vote on what do we not vote on um can we can we change the agenda at the agenda
139review meeting there are a lot of things um that go on there and then and the agenda review meetings are also mentioned in several of the other policies um about how soon we have to get information in and if we are going to make that part of other policies then we have to publish a schedule of all of the agenda review meetings just like we publish the schedule for all of the regular board meetings um we have a um calendar that Miss Billy put together for us which is awesome um the you all remember this one that is you know colorcoded and it tells us when but the public doesn't know that so they don't know when to submit things because they don't have a listing of when the meetings are and when we get
140down to other policies it says something like and they're generally or typically held you can't have generally or typically when you're holding people accountable um for other actions so I think that we need to describe a gender reviews in its own letter we can make it letter you know e at the end or we can make it letter C we can put it in the order of work sessions retreats to agenda reviews public hearings um I just think that we need to be intentional about describing what this meeting is it's a regular meeting that occurs every single month um so it's really not even a special called meeting but um I'm I'm willing to keep it there would you like to make a motion yes I my motion is um I'd like to add letter
141c 3 C agenda review meetings and put in some descriptive words um the policy committee can do do that we're not really supposed to be changing policy on the Fly okay so there's a motion to basically send it back to policy committee to add letter C is that what you're saying yes okay I interpreted that I'll second that we have a first and a second is there additional discussion on that Mr Bradford the point I have a question Mr chair um just a just a comment it had business discussed and the majority of the policy committee did not want to do that so if we send it back we're we're in danger of doing the same thing which is fine but just wanted to let you know know that that was something we discussed and
142we did not want this tight super control over everything that we do okay except what it's convenient for some excuse me you're out of order sorry barnhard thank you Mr chair I was just going to ask this came from the policy committee so the consensus of the policy was as is so I didn't know if the policy chairwoman wanted to speak to any of the justifications to address some of Miss kral's concerns but I am skeptical of sitting it back to policy of this is already the recommendation of policy and also a question Mr chairman it's it's my understanding that Robert's Rule of Order kind of helps us flow through our meeting so um I'm confused where the layout needs to be as far as voting and not voting because I thought that's built out
143before we go any further I'm gonna let Miss Walker speak next Miss Walker hi yeah I um I I understand it came out of policy but the will of the board is to send it back so I would hope that the policy committee would listen to that and hopefully take some some more thoughts on it and I will say that I feel like we this is was a relatively new thing that we did with the general review meetings this was a new from this past year and we did go through an extensive process that you help and and I think that's great and we did approve a lot of changes um and I just feel like it's not it shouldn't just be lumped in with specially called meetings I feel like it is a kind
144of a special meeting on its own that does have specific rules to it um or should uh at least that would you know be norms and I I take M Bradford's point about like being strict on it but at the same time I do feel like it's more than just a throwaway special call meeting it's actually become part of what we we do in a general sense and I think we should have some parameters so I mean if we don't send it back to policy I mean policy is probably the best place to do it to hash out what we need and maybe give feedback to policy committee um if not we can do it on the fly but I would prefer not to do that I would like to give some more thought and
145that's my that my thoughts on that but I would like to see it as it with its own heading um because it is such an important meeting that we do and there are expectations that we have of them so that's my thoughts SP I did not know I was going to talk um as Miss Bradford said the the consensus was that we leave it as is um if it's the will of the board we'll bring it back and we will take suggestions um but to the point that was made um I forget who made it um the we want to be careful how much we are codifying um because this is policy and it stays there um and so that was I think the concern of the consensus of the policy committee Mr will board
146I'm going to see Mr MCM you have anything you want to add because you haven't spoken yet maybe I'm only I'm still a little confused the heart of what we're what we're discussing the the agenda review is um that's where we Define hopefully everything we discussing when we come to these meetings um and there's I still think there's a process of how we place things on the agenda um hopefully and collectively we could agree on that but I think it would be I don't think it'll hurt to go back to the advisory as which is our proced procedure unless it's unless the vote says no which it probably will but I I think at least it would be heard again if that makes any sense because it is agenda is the key to everything that
147we discuss or we don't and so I think it's worth going back for another discussion okay and now I'll go to m graille for a second time two points one is um we spent a lot of time with the ad hoc committee and they put together some recommendations but did not put down any protocol and that's what I've been asking for since that came out we voted the majority of of the policy committee is 2 to one so that's not an overwhelming majority we have sent we sent back policy 7205 about five times um with the same people sitting there to use um Miss Bradford's point on why we wanted 4351 on the agenda so that people would have a chance to talk to us I'm using the same line of thinking is that um
148you guys you both still have not answered you didn't answer at the policy committee meeting and you haven't answered here what is your objection to writing down what we do and when we're going to do it and the public maybe might want to weigh in at our next call to the audience on that we've given them opportunities to weigh in on a lot of other things and so I don't I still am not clear why you're hesitating to define something that we already do we're doing it with the cap Fear Community College mou we didn't have anything in writing we felt it was important to um to solidify what we're doing so that we're not just pulling things out of the seat of our pants you know every time we get there so I just
149don't understand I would really like for my two colleagues to answer why they don't want it m Bradford thank you Mr chairman we met for weeks months we went over it we got legal advice from our esteemed attorney and we crafted this based on that um we need to go back again and get legal advice because it is um you know I wasn't aware at the time that we were having our ad hoc committee that I I wanted to have something set out and the consensus the legal consensus was that wasn't where it needed to be um we don't have to have everything we do set in such a tight parameter that we can't have some flexibility in in the way we do things and we've heard the legal opinion that we can vote on
150anything anytime anywhere if we are together um I still believe that legally holds and no matter how many times we say oh we can't do it that way we actually still can do it that way so I just don't think we need any more controls on what we do we've come a long way in our agenda briefings I think our last agenda briefing while not pleasant by any means was definitely um a good example of what the meeting was designed for M Walker thank you thank you um so I I I have some agreement with a lot of folks up here but but I mean looking at policy 2335 which we're getting ready to look at and it's it's it's got its own distinct kind of heading on top too so I think agenda revie
151meetings I just believe have come risen to the point of where it is an important meeting and it does need to be pulled out of this specially call meetings generally I think it is more than a general meeting um it is a specially call meeting because it's under part three but it's not you know I think in some ways it's more important than well we've got interim meetings here which we don't do anymore we used to do when we were first on the board but we don't do but this has become such a regular part of what we do it just needs it just needs more substance to it and that's all I'm saying I don't think we need to be uh we don't have to like Define it to the 10th you know the
152100th degree I just think that it it it needs more attention than just a throwaway thing mentioned in in the tops paragraph and to my point about 2335 it's it's been given that in another policies you know so I just think um I just will agree that I think it just needs more than what it what's in here that's it is it still correct that you can add to the agenda at the last minute with a 52 vote is that am I correct so if five members of the at the Das decide they want to add something they can vote okay okay the so miss you've already had your two times talk on this one so we need to talk about that too there's nothing that says you get two times you know we need
153to look at our Robert Rules of Order so you're out of order thank you you're welcome 7205 is micromanaging teachers excuse me thank you so much all right um so we have a motion in front of us right now to uh Miss kill's motion which was to um send it back to policy to have additional discussion on um the agenda review have a a special additional c 3 c c e or D whatever wherever we want to put it um Miss blue would you please call the role Mr wbor yes Miss Mason no Miss barnhard no Miss Bradford no Miss greville yes Mr mcmanis yes and Miss Walker yes the passes 43 so it'll be pushed back into policy Mr chair ma'am we'll be able to give our feedback to the policy committee absolutely it
154will be on not this month next month yeah okay thank you if I um the next policy committee meeting is next week so that that agenda is already set but for April yes gives us time to send your things right okay so we'll carry on uh 2300 is going back to policy 2320 M crille yes um so 2320 is um what is added in there is um the the the word that you know six business days you that was good all types of meetings require 48 Hours um minimum and then we added in the new um that the public will find out um after it says um all supporting docu all types of meetings require 48 Hours of notice all supporting documents must be updated prior to the start of the meeting board members will
155have access to these documents prior to the public and so my question to our esteemed legal counsel is um isn't it such that once a document is created it becomes a matter of public record so whether whether we give it to them or not if we have it then they can request it is that not right V well a public record is a document that's kept by the board or by the school district and it becomes disclosed upon a public record request it's not uh proactive disclosed the board and the school district have not proactively disclosing it so it might be the kind of record that would be disclosed upon a request it may or may not be and it may or may not require redactions any other questions Miss Walker so I so it
156is a public record I mean once we get it it is considered a public record anything in in print or on here I mean I I might be wrong but I feel like that's always been the case um so I don't know I guess I'm confused why like if somebody asked us for it for example and and it wasn't within the 48 hour like we could share it with them correct or not I mean so I don't know why we are holding it back I mean I'm asking questions because I don't know the answer legally would you like to ask Mr V that question sure I mean I think he's already been asked but I think he's answered that I I wasn't sure what the answer was I'm sorry I I don't I'm not I'm
157not I'm not trying to be rude I really just don't I'm confused because I would because I feel like 48 Hours um like if we get it then then technically it's it's public so 48 Hours doesn't seem like enough notice right I think the point I was trying to make is if a document let's say is given to school board members by the school district to help prepare you for the next meeting um unless that document is covered by some exception to the public records law it would be considered a public record that would be disclosed upon a request from the public a public records request okay Miss B and if I could just add um we do have access to documents prior to the community when it comes to the agenda um when we
158are looking at the agenda review they can see the agenda review they can't see the next meeting because we haven't approved that and so we do have that access already this is something that we are that it seems we are already doing seconds yeah I'm I'm just a little concerned there too that let's just say we get it and um someone from the public says um I'd like to know more about this so I know who it like to send emails or to come and talk at call to the audience um if we give them that are we going to be accused of um kind of what you know one of our constituents was accusing us of sharing documents um that should not be shared um so I'm just a little confused about that and
159coming back to another comment that one of our board members made is we are elected officials we deserve to have the information first if people in the public want the information first then they should run for office I mean oh my gosh I mean that I mean that's the thought process behind this so I'm just um I don't know why the public can't see it when we see it when when central office staff deems it appropriate for release it's appropriate for release for everybody to look at M Bradford Mr chairman I move that we accept policy 2220 as written ex 23 me 232 except under number one there's a period missing after the word meeting so with that Amendment with that addition to I move that we accept this as it is have a motion
160from M Bradford a second have second from Miss Mason any further discussion Mr Walker I have a question does this change something different than what we're doing now do we not normally do five days uh do we post the agenda five days before is this a change we're changing it to six it to two days we're changing it to six to match the policy we just approved right but I mean the 48 hour notice or to publish the agenda are we currently just doing 48 hours now no that's meetings it says along with 40 hours notice oh okay I see has been recorded 40 hours no okay two days this isn't about posting the agenda though that's what I'm confused about is this it does say that okay with open means off okay so we
161have a motion of second any other disc we we should had that first so I do apologize Mr did did they answer my question are we currently posting the agenda five days or 48 Hours what are we doing right now do we know what we're doing can help us out M do we post five days or so it depends upon your agenda or rather your meeting so all your regular board meetings are posted um five days prior to your regular meeting dates so your regular board meeting agendas are posted on Thursday by 5:00 p.m. and then if you have any meeting outside of a regular meeting that's considered a special meeting and we follow the 48 hour window for that posting Mr W I'd like to just also note that what Miss Buie says is
162correct um but with this policy change we won't be getting it on Thursday we have to get it five working days business days so Saturday and Sunday cannot count so it would have to come two days even more because the we're we're changing all of our policies to be five business days excluding holidays so um that is just one of the things that will be that will be coming from this where does it say that Mr you don't ask it it says it in um under B1 paragraph 2 um Regular board meetings require six business days including excluding holidays notice to the board of education maners along with 48 hours notice to the public so um we have and every and in in policy that we just approved 2300 everywhere we talk about days we've
163defined them to be calendar days not days so weekends don't count in the publishing of information okay we have a motion in a second um Miss Bo would you please call the the role yes sir okay the motion the motion again M Bradford made the motion to accept policy 2320 as stated with the accept with the uh amend with the change of a period at the end of the first under number one uh where it review meetings needs a period at the end that's the motion in front of us miss buy please call the role Miss wior yes Miss Mason yes Miss Barnhart yes Miss Bradford yes Miss crille no Mr mcmanis no and Miss Walker no okay that passes 43 moving on to policy 2660 Miss crille um we missed 2335 oh you had
164call out oh you're right let's let's do with that I just did the way you called them out but go ahead yeah I did because I forgot that number okay that's fine go on to 2335 please Advance delivery yes so again um we are adding agenda reviews in there um we are changing five days to six business days excluding holidays um and we're including agenda review it should you should be seeing it um in the first paragraph agenda review meetings should be also in blue because we're adding that um to that so again my point comes back to you we we have agenda reviews as a regularly occurring meeting with no definition of what it is and um when we have to have materials posted and when we have to have materials submitted so are
165in a policy we just approved the community if they want to submit something and I'm guessing that's going to be the same with us is we have to submit it six working days prior to the agenda review so that it can be considered for discussion on the agenda and um what we're taking out my same argument is materials will be made available to the public inspection at the same time that they are distributed to board members we're striking that out um because we feel like we need to have first crack at the information um my contention is I think that's a violation of Public requ public records if a person wants to have that and I don't I personally don't want to get in trouble if I want to share that information with people and
166on our agenda review we put non agenda items on the agenda review like we we continually talk about items at the agenda review that we're not even going to discuss it all on the regular agenda um so where is that outlined okay and we do now have a motion so Mr bford um Mr chair thank you I move that policy 2335 Advance delivery of meeting materials be passed as written second por Hort the second okay so we have any other discussion Mr Walker again uh with the last one we're changing it basically so the public does not get the materials except two days before I don't understand that I guess I didn't attend a policy meeting didn't watch it so can I can people explain to me why we're reducing the time that the public
167gets to see things and I agree again with the public records so I just would like to know the logic why people can't see it the same as we M um correct me if I'm wrong but is this currently what we do we currently allow make these available to the public 48 hours prior to the start of the meeting is that or is that not correct M buy so yes we do um I would say in all cases we do our best to make all materials available if there are you know contracts that are still being reviewed or other materials that are being finalized but the majority of materials are posted um per the previous policy descriptions um if you're adding six business days just FYI y'all will need to go back and revisit your
168agenda review meeting schedule as well as your schedule that has been released to um senior staff and administration for the um supplying of materials because if you're looking at six business days and your materials are currently posted on that Thursday afternoon at 5: you have your agenda review that Tuesday of that same week then you're going to have to back up your agenda review meeting schedule there any other questions or statements I feel like um go ahead Walker thank you I mean I feel like I'm this is what we do like it says we're scratching out at the same time they are distributed to board members and and putting in 48 hours prior notice I feel like something different that what we' been doing correct thank you I was like I'm confused like this is
169not what we do and I'm worried that that's not enough notice for the public to prepare themselves for a meeting and I also again I'm concerned with public records if we get it um unless it's student or staff related which is confidential then the public has a right to see it so I guess I'm just confused at why two days it's not enough time in my opinion and and I'm going to speak because I think I just heard Miss buy say that's what we're doing now so is that did I not understand you correctly that it's 48 hours now so you have two different different posting schedules um as we've discussed before you have your regular board meetings and then you have all other meetings your regular board meeting follows a different posting notice versus
170all other board meetings so your items for your regular board meeting for instance for tonight's meeting all items were posted by Thursday afternoon at 5:00 P p.m specialty called meetings such as your agenda review or a meeting that's needed to be held both the agenda and the supporting documentation have to be released within 48 Hours of that meeting so the 48 hours are for specially called meetings whereas your regularly monthly meetings is those five days prior so we post on Thursday by 5: if at all possible to allow for the public as well as the board members to review all items by Tuesday afternoon at the start of the meeting at 5 o'clock it's different that's different Bradford just pointing out something that's obvious we had a contract that we'd not seen before 7:00 tonight
171we had it come up tonight and we had it approve the public didn't get to see it or we didn't get to see it just pointing out the off Mr mcmanis um nicely as I can be there's been a whole lot of things brought up at the last second in the middle that was decided that we never discussed before or were warned but I kind of have mixed emotions about this my rationale being that we do bring things for discussion that don't go anywhere and we talk about the economics we talk about our monies we talk about and then people jump on it if we haven't really we've already left it behind same thing with the budget I've gotten more emails about the budget and we've not even discussed personnel and people are saying matter
172of fact I'll just say it someone told us someone told me I think told well both of us are aware of this somebody from the district send an email to hogard saying they were going to fire some people over I mean don't know the validity of that but that's how bad it gets when people are discussing so discussing is one thing approving is a second so I I have mixed emotion I'll be honest with you about it because what we say people take for granted like them Mr will I would like to call attention back to policy 2320 that we just approved where it says any supporting documents must be uploaded prior to the start of the meeting so we just approved a policy that allows us to change things whenever we want so that
173is what I was talking about is that our policies are conflicting with each other and the need to manage is um we don't want to manage it we don't want to micromanage except in certain cases but that those words that says any supporting documents must be uploaded prior to the start of the meeting will have made that um the change to the the um the contract perfectly legit it'll make the change to anything that they that we do perfectly legit so we just approved that so I don't know now why we're arguing that we don't want to do that because we we just did it all right we have a motion in a second in front of us miss buy would you please call the RO the motion the motion is to accept 2335 as
174written Mr that's conflicting so we're basically taking all our meetings and making it 48 hours now we're never we're not going to do Thursday anymore for regular board meetings so we are reducing it to two days well it matters how the vote goes oh no I'm talking about notice 48 hours prior posting you gend the materials that's what I'm talking about for our regular board meetings it's still 5 days I six days we passed this right it says regular meetings right here it says regular interim and agenda review meetings all will be 48 hours now that's what this says C so the policy committee votes without thinking I'm sorry just saying thank you all right we have a motion and a second in front of us to accept policy 2330 exuse me 2335 as written
175Miss buy would you please call the rooll I'm sorry for a point of clarification so 48 hours prior to the start of the meeting so therefore you want your agendas for instance for tonight it would have been posted on Sunday evening at 5:00 yeah says 48 Hours yeah everyone Miss Miss Mason let's let's ask the policy chair because you brought it forth I got you question are we talking business days or are we talking regular days business days it says it in here everywhere we're looking 2335 right now that President says 48 hours prior to the start of the meeting it does not say 48 business hours it does not say two business days says 48 hours are we talking business hours are we talking regular that's question for the policy commit Mr chair Mr
176mcmanis is next to speak yes sir would this put Miss Buie in a position that she would be doing working on Sundays or weekends to to to be posting whereas now it's done in the regular spray Bill sorry is that I I'll put you on the well as um Miss Mason just pointed out there's no clarification to specify whether it's 48 hours or if it's 48 business business hours um so that would be to the will of the board however if you're just looking at 48 generic hours then your board your board policy would be posted on Sunday evenings before 5 o' m Bradford that's not fair of Crystal um I I I move that we amend this based on what Crystal's just said for there where it says 48 hours prior to the start
177of the meeting make that if if I'm not correct help me with my math here cuz I'm getting late um if we backed it up to um business days then it would be Friday and that's what we're already doing correct Thursday so currently we post your regular board meeting agenda on Thursday evening Thursday it' be Thursday sorry that's not good okay so then that would be uh that would be 72 hours prior 72 business hours prior to your regular board meeting I'm sorry I don't follow you okay so we have a motion and a second to accept it as written there seems to me like I'm just going to say the obvious I think maybe this needs to go back because we have we're asking Miss buoy trying to figure things out on the D
178um so can we can we not send it back to the policy and let you guys talk to Miss buoy and figure this out no vot first okay let's that's I'll make that substitute motion Mr chair to send this back to policy I make a substitute motion to send it back to policy we have a substitute motion second and a second any discussion on that yeah yes please we would need distinction I don't think we need to mess around with business hours we need day we need it in days I think I think that would be consistent across the board I don't think it's 48 hour business it's very hard to understand and I think we well it's clear cuz look we don't understand it so can we send it back can we please just
179work that out where it's clear thank you working days as a rule of Monday through Frid yes we have a motion second a substitute motion and do we who I'm sorry who seconded it I seconded you did okay first second this is a substitute motion to send it back to policy to work it out so we have all the dates and stuff and please you know I would uh ask that we also uh talk to Dr fa of course but also miss Buie so that we have it um together um please call the rooll Miss buy this is a Subs motion to send it back to policy Mr wbor yes Miss Mason yes Miss Barnhart yes Miss Bradford yes Miss CR Bill yes Mr mmis yes and Miss Walker yes well done there 70 I
180like that all right M uh one second we're going to get one more we have 23 no 26 20 I would like to make a motion that we cancel or change the previous action on policy 2320 because they say the same things 48 hours so if we're going to amend one we need to amend them all together at the same time so my motion is to cancel the vote um or change the previous action um from 2300 and okay so 2300 was already sent back 23 2300 2300 was already then then um 2320 thank you for the correction okay so we have a motion is there a second second have a first and second this is only for policy 2320 any discussion yeah we need to Mr chair yes ma'am we just need to work
181it all out the hours and the days thing I just think that's it's clear we need to work it out so that's why I'm in favor of it so get the Crill has a m CR has a motion we have a second by m Walker any further discussion this is to uh cancel or cancel change the previous action uh this needs I'm going to ask you because it says varies so does it need a majority or a super majority I I consider it a motion to reconsider it needs a majority okay I'm reading off number 35 that says cancel or change I move to resend amend something previously adopted right but if you look at and you have to do it in that meeting but if you look at the end it says varies so
182is is it a majority or simple majority uh U super majority or simple majority maybe Miss Bradford can look it up in the book no I misunderstood Miss cble did mention uh that her motion was to cancel a previous action as opposed to reconsider a motion that had passed um we'll go with the simple majority since I get to choose all right so we have a motion and second is there any further discussion on that again this is only for policy 2320 to resend the previous motion Miss bully would you please call the role Mr wbor no Miss Mason no Miss barnhard no Miss Bradford no Miss crell yes Mr mcmanis yes ma'am and Miss Walker yes that's defeated 4 three so that wild point of order or want to insert here so what do
183we do now that we have and maybe Miss Mason wants to address this as the chairman of our committee what are we going to do now that we have conflicting policies which one takes precedent so which one does our central office staff follow which one does crystal follow which one does our community follow because they are different on the same matter the 48 hours is in in is in that policy so I don't know why we wouldn't want to go back and fix that so I can't wait for somebody to come up and you know get us on that one because it's something we could easily have changed all right thank you for your opinion thank you we'll carry on with 26 uh 2660 um yeah let's let's do it properly let's start with a
184motion please I would like to make a motion that we amend policy 2620 I mean 2660 2660 yeah the um in where it says in letter um in number three it gives a very nice statement on what the um policy is all about um why it came about and it has a statement in there um that the the board chair appoints two people but if the what I put in front of you um is and I sent you an email earlier today from Deb um sorry Sue Hayes who is the chair of soils and water and she sent us an email um that was sent to All board members so everybody got a chance to read it back in February and that's what I was trying to remember and find at the at the policy
185committee meeting but I couldn't find it um finally located it it this document tells us exactly how we have to um um ways to become an associate supervisor that we have to apply directly and we have to submit a resume and a cover letter and it tells what the duties are but our policy does not mention anywhere um that we have to apply it just says that Mr wildor gets to choose or the chair gets to choose um two people to represent us um and the Representatives May participate and all that's good I'm not opposed to any of that but our policy doesn't tell us that we have to submit paperwork in order to meet their policy so we're already going in as a collaborator not even following their rules so I my motion is
186to add in letter in number three um this document that comes straight from the soils in water so that we know that um we have to apply once you pick you say um Miss Mason Miss Barnhart um are you interested in applying and they say yes and then they submit their resume and cover letter so that they can be um selected as an associate supervisor by the board that is already there because I don't believe um based on talking with um the county manager who's in charge of this area that um we have to follow their rules you know with that and we don't have anything in our policy that outlines us following those rules okay now we need a second okay Mr Walker seconds discussion Miss Mason uh as we discussed at the policy
187uh committee meeting we added this line those appointees must be approved by the Soil and Water Conservation District indicating that though the chair is appointing two members have to be approved so that there it indicates that there is a process I think that if we add this document in it's going to make it lengthy I think that this is sufficient okay Mr Walker um I agree that it would make it too lengthy um but I don't know why we can't put a link or at least put it somewhere it can be referenced to in the policy because I just think you know years after we're gone I think it's a good idea to have something that references this document to know yeah oh well can I amend the motion that um instead of putting the
188whole document that we put a link in there at least I don't know if we can do it with our own web L I'll change my motion to provide a link to this document okay I've second that already so okay so we have first and second to add a link to this document is there any other discussion anybody in the no Miss barart are you still there okay wrong with the link all right let's uh let's vote then miss buoy would you mind Mr W so we're in the link yes Miss Mason yes Miss barnhard yes Miss Bradford yes Miss kille yes Mr mcmanis yes and Miss Walker yeah all right that passes 70 so we um I think we actually have to go back and vote on the whole thing now we've added to
189link so um I will make a motion that we accept 2660 as written with the amendment with the link is there a second second we have a second all in favor please signify by saying I I I all opposed carry 70 all right we are back on schedule here next we have our old business which is career Readiness Academy at Mosley Miss um who would like to start this discussion I can go first okay Mr can I just have a point of clarification we have two minutes each right because we agreed at General riew that's that's all we're going to do is 15 minutes discussion right correct okay just making sure there a timer somewhere I got a timer going right now okay we start with with Miss Bradford Miss Bradford okay the cost shared
190with the school board and other stakeholders in late 2023 for the district to retain CRA Mosley certainly appear inaccurate at this point however fast forward the proposed budget released by staff this month for C Mosley is significantly lower the budget for 2025 for C Mosley is under $675,000 under $675,000 in February after a public records request the proposed budget was released for the Mosley newcomer school it was to have been $1.8 million $1.8 million do the math this exceeds the proposed this exceeds the proposed 2025 budget for Mosley by $1.1 million even comparing it to the budget that we were originally shown last year is still an additional half million am I correct in Remembering this superintendent saying he would not move forward with a newcomer school without asking the County Commissioners for funds facing
191at least a $20 million shortfall I could not have asked the county to fund the replacement of CRA Mosley with a new program that would have increased the year's budget and every other Year's budget by $1.2 million because of the Grievous trauma that all this caused to the students I feel it would have been fiscally irresponsible to take that ask to the County Commissioners Mosley parents were emailed between Thanksgiving and Christmas 2023 essentially saying we're turning students out to replace them with the school for immigrants that is protect is projected to cost the taxpayers $1.2 million more than the proposed buz budget from Mosley that should not have happened that $1.2 million could have bought us some teachers thank you Mr chairman she made it in two minutes like to you would like to be
192next hold on can I just I have to reset my climber thank you sorry barart would you like to speak next next that way we don't forget you thanks Mr chairman um so I just want to see the whole process in this um was a very unsettling process and I think as we move forward in closure the things that we need to focus on is ensuring that these students um were kind of inserted into a WHL one and I think that moving forward our job as the board and working with the superintendent and staff we need to be cognizant of these decisions being made such that we can present a United message of what wherever the direction is going that being said I do um like that the superintendent decided to keep the program open
193and also the fact that we are not pursuing newcomer school I believe it's in the best interest of this board for us to direct the superintendent to staff to cease all plans for a newcomer Center here in new new hanor County Schools moving forward if that needs to be in the form of a motion I'm happy to make that motion at this time please go ahead and make that motion then ma'am I I I would make the motion to direct the superintendent and all staff at new Haner County Schools to not move forward and cease planning of a newcomer Center anywhere in new han schools second first and second Mr chair yes ma'am we haven't finished speaking yet why is there we're all going to have second we're all GNA have was a second yeah
194there's a second but we're going to all have a discussion you go ahead I'm not saying I just want to go so bad I can't stand it I just feel like's done with her minutes okay go ahead Miss Walker go ahead I'm just saying I'm not clamoring I just we've got a motion on the table how am I supposed to are we going to wait till everyone's finished and then vote on the motion that's exactly right well we're having discussion on it so is Miss barnhard done she is she has a minute to go okay hold on let me reset okay who would like to speak next Mr mcmanis my understanding when we met with the count Commissioners and where they supported obviously understandably to keep Mosley that they were going to pay for 1.3
195million at that time so where did I go astray that was not an understanding I don't know what you're asking well the way it was delivered the gentleman to my right who was on the County Commission said it will not it will remain and I I don't know why but I thought I understood that County commercials would get involved in that 1.3 million if let's let's ask Dr F if you don't mind no should I put a pause on houon please please yeah pleas sure it was always and so if you go back and watch the video um on 11:28 because that's why I kept saying go back and watch the video and I'll add to that um Miss Bradford at 2 hours and 5 minutes you said congratul this is fabulous those are your
196words um also I did say in there that it was if it's only funded fully funded by the county and in that this is when during budget season when you bring it to so at that time no one no one brought any questions no one said anything I let it sit I actually we presented then we presented again I provided more information and then I called you and then I said because of the actions I'm going to pull it but no one came to me with any questions or concerns no one but I I mean I agree let's pull it and you're right the reason why those budget numbers are wrong or not wrong but are different is because we pulled out all because that's what the board asked us to do if you go
197back and watch the other meetings you ask us to do it without those informations how would we be able to put it in in another building without those things so all we did is what the board asked for if you go back and watch your meetings you'll be able to find your words I don't do anything outside of what the board asked on the what was it the the 6 when I sent it to you I sent it that early for you to give feedback and had you given feedback we could have pulled it at that time no one said anything but I can say that there were about nine questions if you start at 1 hour and 50 minutes in that video you'll start to see your questions and no one had a concern
198about it at that time no one no one so that's what I'm saying there was no undercover there was nothing I presented it to you asked you for feedback but then for some reason now we are all up in arms but again you said to Dr fa by the way congratulations this is fabulous I think Mr mcm's Question actually was I guess May from Mr Sutton now my understanding of your question is that that you felt that the County Commissioners were going to now fund Mosley is that correct Mr McMahon that's his question though so don't say no that's his question I'm saying they're not well okay oh you're saying they're not going to fund it no what answer whenever yes during this time is when you would bring a budget proposal so this is
199when you we're doing budget season so you can't get ahead of budget season and do a proposal to the county we take one budget to the county and then the board has to vote on it and then after the board votes on it then we take it to the county so the it never made it to they said no before it actually came to them that's basically what happened but again I think Mr mcmanis is question has still not been answered which is did did the County Commissioners in your recollection say that they would fund Mosley they did not they did not thank you that's all we're trying to get to finish your Pres Cal preparation or are we including money for mostly and how much is that you I'm starting your time with with
200that question I'm starting your time back so we're still working on the budget so we we haven't got the recommendation ready for you yet but Mosley is included in the budget document that we bring thank you okay um thank you Mr mcmanis uh we still have Miss crille myself Miss Mason or Miss Walker who would like to speak next go ahead anybody else Miss Walker if you don't mind you the chosen one you ready I'm so I'm going you're on five go okay thank you I you said I have this minute okay I've I made a statement so I'm g go ahead and just read it okay um as I've stated before I believe in Mosley kids and staff and I'm happy to see the decision to close this school within a school has been
201reversed I can not unhear unfe what I felt when those Brave students came to us to Advocate on behalf of themselves their peers and their school community and the same goes for their staff Mosley is an alternative high school and I wish there had been a program like that for me when I was struggling in school back in the day it is not a special need school as been purported not that there is anything wrong with special needs schools it's just the distinction is important and the language matters it's called the career Readiness Academy because the education they receive will get them ready for whatever they decide to do next and whatever it is they will be ready for it I've had the honor to give away two graduating Mosley classes and I've always felt
202a kinship with Mosley students what I know about Mosley kids is they have challenges but they are tough whatever they are dealing with in their lives they are rising above and meeting those challenges people have sent me messages literally telling me that Mosley has saved their lives or the lives of their kids and that means the world to me the discussion that we had on the DI about Career and Technical education or test scores while those are absolutely they absolutely do matter I know from my own EXP expence that sometimes accomplishing something like graduating with a high school diploma is the point um I hold graduating from high school as one of my greatest accomplishments and Milestones right up there with marrying kids my house and my graduate degree I brought my diploma with me
203um it was a it was huge for me it set a tone for my life and opened many doors additionally it was always about Mosley students and never about students versus students I was very unhappy with the discussion about migrants and refugees it was never about that for me we don't pit students against each other and the fact is we do our best to serve all our students no matter where they come from or what language they speak and we are trying to do that every day all the time when students are in our school system we are obligated to serve them and I'm proud of that that's the value of public education time up I will conclude by saying I'm happy Mosley is still here and that the students get to experience an environment
204that will help them achieve their life goals and I'm happy that we will have the support of our County Commissioners to make sure that school is sustained and I'll give m walk through some that was good he said I could have the rest of his time okay I was going to give you some my time so all right Miss Mason or Miss kille who would like an all time you when you go Mr graille you like yeah the I'm just tell the we have two minutes left so superintendent spoke too so no I I we gave 15 minutes total two minutes per each and then one minute to wrap her up so I'm just pointing that out to you I'm ready to start you all right ready go go I'm talking I thought Miss Mason
205was talking no you're talking okay so you got me I got you um I don't have anything to say um other than the fact that um yeah because we already made this decision not to go forward the County Commissioners already told us that they weren't going to support us so I don't even know why we're sitting here talking about it the the information that we got in there for um the budget for going forward I think was helpful and I'm sure we'll see it again in the overall budget in there so that's all I want to say is I I support the program always have um but I don't know why we're discussing it because we've already made that call superintendent's already made that call thank you ma'am man miss Mason you going to get
206her Mr crille yeah hold on let me get there are we going to give her the full two oh yeah okay well yeah I'm going to give it my time okay I'm just making sure um respectfully I have to disagree um we didn't make the decision the superintendent made the decision and then voiced that decision um which is why in a minute I will amend Miss barnhart's motion um but just to point out with the newcomer school I worked in a school for the deaf for 13 years um and the best way to learn a language the best way is immersed in that language I have a degree in speech language pathology the best way is to be immersed in a language not to separate them out not to put them in a different location
207not to be in a different building um the best way the most successful way is to be immersed um and so that's why I would support um Miss barnhart's motion and I would like to actually amend it to add um that the board keeps the career Readiness Academy High School at Mosley open to students for the foreseeable future second okay for second Mr chair can I just clarify what was changed I I I can't remember what the original motion was you're just amending Miss barnhart's motion and for substituting what you've just said adding adding okay can me repeat what both said Miss barart can you barart would you make your motion again please sure I would make a motion to direct the superintendent and staff to cease all plans for a newcomer schols anywhere in
208new han County and Miss Mason would you and I am amending it to add that the board keeps the career Readiness Academy High School program at Mosley open to students for the foreseeable future okay we are out of time so we will go ahead and there it is ding ding ding the um are we going to say you know imp perpetu imperity or whatever whatever those words are um even if our staff shows that the school is not meeting the needs of students I mean I I have a problem with putting in in for in forever and ever um I think that at this time would be more appropriate why do we hire these people you know if they don't have a chance to give us information Mr chair well see if she wants to
209change that on 30 I you said at this time yes I can amend my Amendment okay yeah just change the words to that all right Mr Walker why don't you finish this and then we'll well um any board at any time can change anything to that point um but I don't like conflating newcomer school that sounds to me very political and then I'm only just saying it's what it sounds like to me with what M I like Miss Mason's motion I don't like the fact they're together I don't like this the the the the Commissioners have already made their resolution and I don't think that we're going to undermine that so I don't know why we have to do that but I that would be the only reason I would vote against it but I
210support half of it thank you all right Miss Bo would you please call the role and this is for the amended motion uh with the additional part that Miss U Mason yeah read read the whole thing again so we know what we're doing I can I can repeat it okay go ahead me if I'm wrong uh we are to direct the superintendent and the staff to cease all plans for new han County for a newcomer school did I get that right the board will keep the C the CRA Academy at Mosley High School program at this at this time open to students open to students at this time okay Miss buoy please call the rooll Mr wildor yes Miss Mason yes Miss Barnhart yes Miss Bradford yes Miss Crill yes Mr mcmanis yes and Miss
211Walker yes pass is 70 all right board members thank you for that carrying on um that was the amendment so we got well I think it was the whole thing am I correct well it was the amendment okay because Miss Mason amended the main motion so now you get the main motion which looks the same as right would you just voted on let's go ahead and vote on it again Mr bu would you call the rooll one more time Mr will yes Miss Mason yes Miss Barnhart yes Miss Bradford yes Miss Crill yes Mr mcmanis yes ma'am and Miss Walker yeah again passes 70 carrying on School meals for all new business uh School meals for all program uh I Believe Miss Barnhart brought this forward Miss Barnhart yes board members I know that um
212this is a directive of our or initiative of our of our district we've increased the amount of community eligibility schools that we have Miss Walker pointed out that we have a grant for free breakfast this coming year so this was an organization that I found out about a few of our high schoolers are represented in the school ambassadors and this is a a resolution that the organization School meals for all has that we can adopt as a board that just shows our legislators that we're in support of this initiative last year like I had discussed in the agenda review we had to use about $300,000 in our fund balance um from unpaid lunch debt and I know that we have a link on our site that people can pay um unpaid lunch and breakfast debt
213for our students but this would also help I think stand in line with some of our initiatives that our staff have already done and I would make the recommendation now that we adopt this as a board I'll second that um that was a motion but I was to say she said she just recommends I would say can you make that a motion please yeah sure I make a motion that we sign and adopt this resolution as a board tonight okay I second to that I was going to do the motion if you didn't so that's all any discussion no I think it's great all right uh all in favor I'll will do it this way all in favor please signify by saying I I all opposed Carri 70 all right all right next we have
214the N NS I can't SP late late day ncsba legislative committee Miss Barnhart you brought this forward please yes Mr chairman I had asked about this last month I I was going through my emails and I came across this that there is a legislative committee um through the ncsba that they help with the legislative agenda and in order to submit an application which is due on March 22nd our board has to First agree to somebody who can submit the application so at this time I'm bringing it Forward before the board um if anybody would like to do it I openly stated to you all an email I would be um interested in this position but also interested to see who else is open to it I'll make a motion that we nominate Miss barnhard for
215the uh ncsba uh legislative committee is there a second we have a first a second discussion Mr chair m Walker there's there's no one else right we're just nominating Miss barard I think it says for one nominate one of I I don't want it I'm just asking I'm okay to go ahead and vote if that's okay let's go ahead and vote yeah uh Miss buy would you call the rooll please this is to nominate Miss barnhard for this role Mr wildor yes Miss Mason yes Miss Barnhart yes Miss Bradford yes Miss crille yes Mr mcmanis yes and miss Walker yes pass is 70 congratulate Miss Barnhart uh if I need to sign something please let me know I will do so thank you correspondence y you're very welcome correspondence you may have to write something
216okay like a paragraph or two all right yeah you should have told me that before no I'm kidding I'm kidding Miss Barn Miss Bradford excuse me it's getting late I just want to comment on the Kare Community College mou it's wonderful that we could work through that and I am very pleased I value our Partnerships I especially value that partnership and I'm also extremely excited about a new chapter in our cfcc partnership bringing Aviation mechanics into our schools as well as an aviation flight school this is an amazing partnership opportunity for our students and we value kir Community College thank you Mr mcmanis we're doing the we we do have a closed session but we're doing our correspondence if you have anything anybody sir okay Miss graville yes um it's it's been a busy couple
217months and we've not really gotten to correspondence so I have a couple things I'd like to just um congratulate people on first of all we I don't know that we ever really talked about school counselor week which was back in February 5th through the 9th thank you for all the work that our school counselors do day in and day out um to help our students get to where they need to be um academically and um and emotionally um also um this in February 12th through 16th with national um school bus driver Appreciation Week um school bus drivers can't get enough appreciation so I just wanted to let them know that we were thinking about them during that time um this month of March is the national social workers month they get a whole month and
218counselors only get a week but that's okay because we know that they all work hard um 365 you need 247 so thank you to all of our social workers out there and know how M very much you are appreciated um I had the opportunity attend the elementary all count chorus um a couple weeks back which was phenomenal wanted to give a shout out to um Christa fa for organizing that and bringing to us a um a renowned conductor who doesn't usually come to elementary school things and decided that he needed to be invited back and be on a rotation so that is a credit um to miss facon um best foot forward was great and I did want to just add there's also an art show component to that that is taking place at cam
219um and that will be that art show will be hung until March the 25th um PTA um had their Reflections and we were able to move on um three state winners so I think that is pretty um speaks again to the Arts um Pine Valley did their annual Wax Museum and not only are their students great but the credit goes to the third grade teachers who um really do a a tremendous job in Pre um preparing these kids to come and talk um the read Across America that's a favorite part I know we all have been out there reading and some of us in costumes um but we won't say who that was Mr alligator um the um so also I didn't say that only on that one topic so um app seed we we
220got the chance to see that you know for our very youngest Learners learning um with technology um and that goes all the way up through the high school level I had the opportunity to sit into a class um where they were talking about um a collaborate collaboration that we're looking at with um ncate and Hof hofra University um to train our teachers on how to deliver um more exciting you know Career and Technical opportunities the um many of us have been listening to the portraiture of a graduate presentations which I'd like to commend you know um Abby Noble and Miss Henderson at New Hanover High School for their work in um teaching the kids the soft skills that go with um their hard skills of um writing the um the last thing too I just
221wanted to um reach out or thank the um the New Hanover County for putting together a wonderful program um called critical Readiness conference that our school teachers participated in um on their day off on their on their workday where um 100 professionals across the the county came together to um see how they can best serve our students um in their times of Crisis and um need and so I just wanted to thank them for doing that program and including new han over County schools in their efforts thank you very much we're going to carry on because we do have a closed session new hanur County Board of Education this is our announcements um sorry you have do you have something to say I'm sorry oh I'm sorry I did not know go ahead yeah I
222won't keep all I wanted to say is um I got with the task force subcommittee on men I hope we got to meet with Smart Start yesterday the folks there we're really looking into whether we can figure out a way to expand you know prek program and I just leading on to the to the app seed which I know we've talked about but no one's actually seen one of them these are what we saw today they were um their little tablets for the pre kindergarten class kids and basically it just helps them with kindergarten Readiness and I believe we should support this program for all our prek students and I hope we do cuz I think it's going to make a big difference on eog's and and everything else Beyond so graduation anybody want to
223talk about it let me know thank you ma'am m i I'll make this brief since you volunteered me to be on the teacher of the year committee um which actually is is one of the finest things I've ever encountered I'll briefly say this I've read over 30 portfolios I have never in my life realized the dedic ation and the seriousness of purpose that these teachers have and the one comment that go goes across every single one I've read if you don't love the kids care about the kids respect the kids take them where they are deal with that then you're not being a good teacher and every slam one of them I can't talk about particulars so I'm asking that in the future when this is all over if we can get some teachers to
224volunteer to actually they let us read anonymously if that's what they want some of their portfolios I want you to hear what these teachers do their programs I've never heard of that I mean it's unbelievable if that doesn't make you feel good about this County nothing will yes sir and so thank you for doing that well that's called B and told B and told okay uh but that that's what actually teacher voice is is some of those people coming and talking all right um back to what I was everybody good good okay uh new han County Board of Education will hold a budget work session on Thursday March 21st at 10:30 in the Board of Education Center the general public will have the option to view remotely uh new han County Board of Education will
225hold an agenda review on Tuesday March 26th at 2 pm Board of Education Center the general public will have the option to vote to view remotely and the new han County Board of Education will hold the April regular Board of Education meeting on Tuesday April 9th uh 2024 5:00 p.m. board of education Center the general public will have the option to view remotely on new Haner County Schools tv YouTube all right carrying on I will call for a motion to move into Clos session uh pursuant to General statute 143 31811 for the following purpose to prevent disclosure of information that is privileged or confidential uh pursuant to General statute 115 C 402 and not considered public record within a meaning of chapter 132 of General statutes to consult with the attorney in order to preserve
226the attorney client privilege between the attorney and the board including a respect to John do 1 through 14 versus new han County Board of Education and John Do's 15-1 17 versus new han County Board of Education and to consider qualif qualifications competence uh performance character Fitness conditions of appointment uh conditions of initial employment of an individual employed or considered for employment within the school system or hear or investigate complaint charge or grievance by or against any individual uh employee we have a motion a second second all in favor please signify by saying I I we are in closed session we have a less than uh we have 23 minutes so please go directly there please e I got three there's three coming up you're the key figure all we needs for us she sits and
227you sit we're good all right maybe Miss Mason all right we're back in Open Session and our final bit of business is to adjourn is there such a motion I move that we adjourn is there a second second all in favor please signify by saying I I I all posos all right Mr McMan gets to stay everybody else we are done thank you all for a good night have a safe trip home put