001Good [clears throat] evening everyone. Would like to call this September 8th meeting to order. Um, welcome everybody here and those online. Um, Mr. Vonte Leech, he's running a little late, but he will be here. Um, we're going to have a moment of silence and also we're going to remember our board member and interimm secret superintendent, I'm sorry, and educator, Miss Lis Free. We have a moment of silence. Thank you. Um, we have a pleasure to lead by Southside Asho Beta Club. >> [snorts] >> I pledge alce to the flag of the United States of America and to to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank y'all. Before y'all leave, if you would tell us your name, y'all would come down and just tell
002us your name. [clears throat] >> If y'all want to come up and take pictures, you're more than welcome to. My name is Gabby and I'm in fifth grade. >> My name is A and I'm in fifth grade. >> My name is Melanie and I'm in fifth grade. >> My name is DJ and I'm in fifth grade. >> All right. Thank y'all. [applause] [laughter] Um next we'll adopt the agenda. Motion someone >> got a motion by Mr. Trey Brit second by Mr. Bradley I'm sorry miss motion [clears throat] all in favor by saying I all oppose um the minutes need a motion for that got a motion by Mr. Bradley Fields, second by Melissa Ocean. All in favor by saying I. Those opposed. >> Uh M. >> Oh, Bradley. >> Okay. Next is the month impact
003by Mr. Jamal Camel. For all the board members, we'll go up to the podium. >> [clears throat] >> Good. Good evening, Chairman John Simmons, Dr. Harrison, and members of our school board. It is my honor to recognize the September 2026 impact award recipients. These employees embody our district's one team one goal model through their collaborative leadership and unwavering commitment to fostering a supportive, thriving school environment for students and staff alike. We extend our sincere appreciation to uh Mr. Brandon Ventor of S city who has continued to support our endeavor by recognizing our staff with our commemorative plaques. So we want to first recognize our classified employee of the month which comes who comes from St. Paul's High School, Mr. for Vincent Henderson to come at this time with your principal. [applause] I'm with >> the
004public school county proudly recognize and honors Mr. Vincent Henderson, head custodian at St. Paul's High School as the district September classified impact award recipient. Principal Jason S praised Mr. Henderson Henderson by stating he is a true definition of dedication, hard work, and servant leadership. As our head custodian, he takes tremendous pride in ensuring our school is a safe, clean, and welcoming place for students and staff. Consistently going above and beyond behind the scenes, Vincent embodies the one team one goal, leading by example with his reliability, positive attitude, and genuine care for others. His impact is felt throughout our entire community. As a district, we celebrate and honor honor Mr. Henderson for your powerful difference you make each day. Thank you. [applause] >> [applause] >> We want to want to now recognize our certified impact award
005recipient. from Fairmont High School, Miss Shondaanda Hughes, so she can come forward with her principal and family. [applause] >> Congratulations >> [laughter] >> The district proudly recognizes Miss Shondaanda Hughes, math teacher at Fairmont High School, as the district certified impact award recipient for the month of September. Principal Dr. Anthony Barton shared, "Miss Hughes exemplifies dedication as a math for teacher and tirelessly advoc advocate for Fairmont High School students and mission. Beyond her classroom excellence, she organizes memorable senior experiences from the senior sunrise and senior sunset to the senior trip, ensuring our graduates leave with lasting connections. Mrs. Hughes also gives freely of her time at home athletic events, working concession stands for baseball, football, and basketball with unwavering enthusiasm. Her positive attitude, school pride, and willingness to step up wherever needed uh ensures that Miss
006Hughes should be recognized as our recipient for our impact award. As a district, we celebrate and honor Miss Hughes for the powerful difference she makes each day in the lives of her students, colleagues, and school community. Congratulations. [applause] >> [applause] >> Thank you very >> [clears throat] [clears throat] >> So before I get started, I like the St. Paul's FFA to come up please and their sponsors. >> [clears throat] [clears throat] >> Come on over here. >> Good evening, Chairman Simmons, Superintendent Harrison, and board members. Tonight, it is my honor to recognize St. Paul's FFA for earning the National Distinction Following Gold Rating. After earning a gold rating from the North Carolina FFA Association, the St. Paul's FFA chapter has taken its success to the national stage, earning a prestigious two-star rating through the National
007FFA Chapter Award program. The gold rating placed St. Paul's FFA among chapters eligible to advance to national competition. The National Chapter Award Program recognizes FFA chapters that successfully implement the organization's mission and strategies while providing meaningful educational experiences for their members. Chapters are evaluated using national quality chapter standards and their program of activities with an emphasis on growing leaders, building communities, and strengthening agriculture. In addition to receiving national recognition through the National FFA Chapter Award program, the St. Paul's FFA chapter will have one of its members competing at the 99th National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. After earning first place in the Spanish Creed Speaking Leadership Development Event at the North Carolina State FFA Convention, Miss Pinetta has learned the opportunity to compete against FFA members from across the nation. This prestigious comp competitive event
008challenges students to deliver the FFA creed in Spanish while demonstrating confidence, poise, and effective public speaking skills. Earning national recognition reflects the St. Paul's FFA chapter's commitment to ex excellence in leadership development, community involvement in agriculture education, as well as the dedication of its members, officers, and adviserss. Congratulations >> [applause] >> Oh, >> congratulations. [applause] On behalf of the St. Paul's FFA chapter, I am the 2025 2026 St. Paul's FFA president. I graduated last year and on behalf of all of our past officers, our current officers, our adviserss, and all of our members, we would love to thank you guys for recognizing us today and all of our hard work over not even just the four years I was there, but over the years our chapter has been developing. Thank you. [applause] >> Good evening
009everybody. My name is Mariela. I won first place in in FFA cr speaking in Spanish and I will be competing in Indianapolis. I will now present the FFA in Spanish by EM Tiffany for Tiffany. Hores man. Astoid. dependency. Thank you. [applause] >> The best high school in the world. [laughter] >> Congratulations. [applause] >> [snorts] [clears throat] >> Now we have the um superintendent survey by Mr. Sam Thorp if you would. Um board members just let him go ahead and do his presentation and then we ask the questions when he finish. >> Good evening Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Harrison, thank you so much uh for making time for me tonight. As you know, I'm here to present the results of the surveys that you began sharing with your community and staff a little
010over a month ago as part of the public input portion of your superintendent search process. What I'm going to do is walk through um this PowerPoint that I've prepared and give your board and the public and your staff a little bit of detailed information about what sorts of things specifically characteristics and types of experience are most important to your community and staff when it comes to selecting a new superintendent for your school system. At the end of the PowerPoint, I will answer any questions that you have. And then the next step in your search process, just to orient you in terms of your superintendent search timeline, the next step in your search process is your application deadline, which as you know is on September 30th. Um, you will get an email from me the following
011day at the latest by the end of the day on that next day, October 1st, letting you know that all of the application materials are available for you on assembly to begin reviewing. And there'll be very detailed information both in my email to you as well as on assembly explaining to you what's been posted and how you can begin reviewing uh those materials. With that introduction out of the way, unless there are any questions right now, I will transition to my PowerPoint. You had very very good um participation in your surveys by both your community and your staff. Specifically, in total, you received 169 responses to the community survey, which includes five responses to the Spanish language version of that survey. And you also received 429 responses to the staff survey. Of those respondents, um,
01261 community members and 138 staff members also submitted written comments. In some cases, very extensive, detailed written comments discussing issues that are really important to your community and staff that they want you, the board, to take into consideration as you move into the next steps of your superintendent search process. Again, these are good response numbers given the size of your school system and your community. So many thanks to your board, to your school system staff, in particular, Miss Cely, who did a lot of the leg work in terms of pushing out notifications and encouraging folks to respond um to the survey. Most importantly, however, on behalf of myself and NCSBA, on behalf of this board, to the folks on your staff and in your community who took time out of their busy schedules to respond
013to these surveys, thank you so much. We so much appreciate this board. so much appreciates the very meaningful feedback that you have given them and the information you've shared with them. Um, all of it is going to be very helpful to the board as it moves into the next steps of its search process over the next several weeks and months. Uh, briefly just to give you a little bit of demographic information about the survey respondents. Of those responding to the community survey, the vast majority lived within the attendance area and or have one or more children who attend school uh within the district. You also had a fairly sizable number of alums, graduates of your school system that responded to the survey. And I always think that's worth noting. Of those responding to the staff
014survey, the vast majority are teachers, followed pretty uniformly, almost perfectly uniformly by school and district level support staff and administrators. Um, you also had a reasonably sizable number of folks who identified as other and maybe didn't fit neatly in to those provided other provided categories in the survey. And I always think that's worth noting as well. What the survey did first is it asked respondents to rate the characteristics uh that are most important to them in a new superintendent. Rate numerically from one to five with one being not at all important and five being extremely important. And within the top 10 characteristics, you had a very very high level of agreement between your community and staff. Specifically, the top 10 are exactly the same. They're just in a little bit of a different order. And
015those top 10 overlapping characteristics are understands how to provide safe environments for students and staff. Understands how to effectively advocate for needed resources. Models high standards of integrity. Is willing to listen to input. Communicates well with people of all races and socioeconomic status. Knows how to encourage staff, students, parents, and community members to work together. Has a strong understanding of school finance, budgets, and business. management is accessible and responds to concerns in a timely fashion, supports firm discipline in schools, and is able to develop and effectively communicate a vision for the school system. Next, the survey asked respondents to again rate numerically from one to five the types of experience that are most important to them in a new superintendent. And within the top five types of experience, also fairly high level of agreement between
016your community and staff. Specifically, four of the top five types of experience are exactly the same. They're just in a little bit of a different order. And those four overlapping types of experience are has been a successful principal, has experience with building, maintaining, and managing schools, has been an effective classroom teacher, and has experience in curriculum development and instruction. The only differing type of experience within the top five for the community is has worked in North Carolina public education and the only differing in the top five uh type of experience for the staff is has been a successful assistant or associate superintendent. Um in addition um to these survey responses, you also as I said at the beginning of the PowerPoint also received written comments. about a third of the total overall survey respondents also
017submitted written comments. We incba never summarize those comments and that's because we don't even want to appear to be editorializing, misinterpreting, miscommunicating the feedback that your community and staff are trying to give you. What we do instead, as you know, is we post full unredacted PDF copies of those comments to Simly and give you as much time as possible to review those comments. We did that about a week ago. post. You've had a week to review those comments and I'm sure you've been reviewing those very closely. Um, we also have created a leadership profile, a draft leadership profile that's comprised of the top 10 characteristics and the top five types of experience identified by your community and staff as being most important to them in a new superintendent. and we will convert that leadership profile
018into a rating chart that your board can use is welcome to use um as a tool, one of many tools um when you're reviewing applications, interviewing applicants, and of course deciding who your district's next superintendent is going to be. As you know, that is a draft leadership profile. Most boards keep that as is and use it more as a community and staff leadership profile. You are welcome to revise it as much as you would like. just let me know if that's something you're interested um in doing. Um that concludes my PowerPoint presentation and my summary presentation of the survey results. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. U just know that the next step in the process will be your application deadline and you will hear from me the next day and then
019we're scheduled to meet about the applications as you know on October 20th in the evening and I will of course email you detailed information about that meeting as we get closer to it. Okay. Anyone have any questions? >> Mr. Sam, I just want to thank you for everything you've done so far and continue working with us. We got a good working relationship and um I look forward to continuing it for sure. >> Thank you, sir. I really appreciate that. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Sam. We greatly appreciate the help you doing for us and the work. It doesn't go unnoticed. Appreciate you. >> Thank you, Mr. Simmons. >> Next is the U career center repurposed by Mr. Bobby Lley. >> Good evening, uh, Chairman Simmons, uh, Superintendent Harrison and board members. As shared during
020our construction committee meeting, it is our intention to again to repurpose the old career center so that we can house technology, our North Carolina student information system and accountability and also uh portions of our maintenance department mainly our individual our two individuals who work on our lawnmowers and we also have some welding space for them as well. So again, part of the reason or a few of the primary reasons for uh transferring these departments to the old career center is as everyone knows our transportation building is very [clears throat] prone to flooding and it's become even more prone to that with the work being done on 95. Uh also this will ease the strain of the building at transportation. We do have some tech septic issues that every once in a while pop their head
021up, but if we're able to get these departments out, then that will ease as well. One of the key factors that I looked at when making this decision was that now everyone has their own office space and the transportation in transportation. Some folks were in cubicles and just did not have the privacy of their own office space. And every department has the potential for their own conference area as well. We are able to achieve this with little to no cost other than the lab labor of moving our folks from one department to the other. Um and since our construction meeting, I've had a conversation maintenance and I walked through some of the areas last week and they are currently on site now of course discarding some of the old furniture and things that need to
022be taken out of the building. Also along we're giving the building and floors a good cleaning. So again, we uh are thankful for technology is currently in what we're looking at the yellow space here. Uh Tal has not moved everyone there because we needed to get one of those spaces clean before the help desk could move down. But as of right now, all of his lands, uh his WAN Cole is currently on site there and our uh cyber security officer. So again, we believe this is going to benefit everyone. It's going to uh allow the building to ste serve a purpose to us and at some point in time. Currently, the building does not have a name. Uh not quite sure at what point over the years that it transitioned away from Hilly Branch being
023part of the name. I think everybody always referred to it as Hilly Branch. Uh but the official name that we submitted to DPI was always the Robinson County Career Center. So just keeping a thought in the back of your m in the back of your mind as a board at some point in time uh us reconsidering returning the original name to the facility of Hilly Branch possibly as Hilly Branch Educational Resource Center. And that's just a thought. Not asking for any anything on that tonight. Any question? >> Um, I hate to bring this up, but it was brought up to me. Mr. Bobby, have you had any concerns, complaints about the smell of mold at the old career center? >> I have not. >> I I have one. Would you do a check there? Just
024>> I can get with our environmentalist tomorrow and we can we can walk the building. Yeah, just just check it so we can say that we're clean with that. Appreciate that. >> Anyone else? >> Mr. Chair, Mr. Bobby, um with the recent expansion that we've seen in the district, uh you know, in particular, you know, adding the new the new career center with, you know, 144,000 square feet. Um, do we have enough staff to maintain these facilities as they should be? So, in terms of custodians um maintaining the the exterior of the building, are we do we have enough staff in terms of um their ability to to maintain those facilities the the way that they should be? Because I maybe we've hired some additional staff for that, but I I it hasn't been apparent.
025>> Okay. to address two different sites. At our new site over on Liverour Drive, we have, if I'm not mistaken, five bus drivers that serve as bus drivers and custodians. So, the time that they are there between bringing the children and departing with the children. Those individuals have been assigned uh specific areas within the new building that it's their responsibility to clean. In terms of the old site, this this site here, we had one custodian who at at one point in time was at maintenance, was located at maintenance the entire time. Once our custodial uh custodian left or will resign from the transportation, we split that individual between maintenance and transportation. Once all folks are on site here, that that individual will then just serve the old the career old career center site in maintenance.
026Guzman and his staff are comfortable because they're going to be limited in the space that they're using other than the restroom. Uh Guzman and his staff are are comfortable with maintaining the building. And in terms of yard work, in terms of yard work, remember we've contracted all of our grass cutting. So even at the old site that was absorbed as part of one of the contracts. >> Okay. So that in the in the past those five individuals that were bus drivers they were not serving as custodians as well. They were just bus drivers. >> No sir. They had they had spots within the building that they were responsible for cleaning on a daily basis. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Thank you, Mr. Bob. Thank you. Next is the uh 25 26 district
027data. Dr. Carr and Dr. Dallas. [snorts] [clears throat] [snorts] >> Good evening again, Chairman Simmons, Superintendent Harrison, and board members. Tonight, we'd like to share our 2526 end of the year EOG EOC data. And so we'd like to start with some highlights. This year, our district has officially been removed from the low performing list. This is the first time since 27 2018 school year. We have reduced the number of schools identified low performing from 23 to 16. Seven of our schools exited low performing status and 15 of our schools improve improved at least one letter grade this past year. [applause] More schools are earning a C or better. We actually had 19 schools that earned a C or better this year. And based on the growth, we actually had one additional school when we look
028at growth um that met uh non-l low performing status by exceeding growth and having a D. So that gave us 20 schools that exceeded growth or either had a um C or higher. Our graduation rate went from 85.6 to 89.2 and which is higher than the state average at this point. The state North Carolina average is 88.8. 8. So we have now exceeded the state average for graduation. [applause] So in doing a comparison um to show how much we grew compared to the state, what you'll see on this chart, and I'm not going to read every line, but in every single grade level as a whole, we have seen greater improvements than the state. So if you look, you'll see that for all EOGs together, we increased by 6.4%. 4% as a state increase increased
0293.6%. Allowing us to get closer and closer to that state average that we see in all the other grade levels across the state. You'll also notice when we look at um our reading and math scores, we either um were about the same as a state as far as um the increase or exceeded. Especially proud of our fifth grade that went up 11.3% as you'll notice in our third grade reading that went up 12.8%. We did see a slight dip in eighth grade ELA, but we've also um started diagnosing and looking at the data and analyzing it to determine what that gap um was so that we could help address that gap in our schools. In science, you'll see once again, we saw an increase in our fifth and eighth grade science above what the state
030saw with their science assessments. Now, looking at our high schools, you'll see the amazing gains our biology teachers made. They actually increased by 19.2%. Um, in math 1, 19.7% and English 2, 10.9. We saw tremendous gains in those areas. We did see a dip in work keys, but we also recognize that the state sees this as an area of concern for the entire state because everybody is seeing a dip trying to determine what are other strategies we can put in place to support our students with work keys. Um everything else you'll see there's a slight increase um or a bigger increase and then there was a slight um decrease with math credit. But let me explain that math credit deals with every child taking levels one, two, and three in math. And what we have
031seen some of our numbers when we look at our students in extended content, they count in this number. And what we're seeing is because that increased number of students, those are students that do not take math 3. So what it'll show is that we're not meeting the completion as much as we'd like in some of those areas. Then over the next couple of charts, I'm just going to quickly um show you. You'll see this is just our data over the last two years. And you'll see that in every grade level overall, we saw an increase in our scores across the school district. We saw the same increase in reading. And just like we talked about, our third grade reading really saw a tremendous increase. We did see a slight decrease in eighth grade leading reading
032as we talked about a few seconds ago. With math, we saw an overall increase in all of our grade levels. And so you'll see that reflected here. Um and then with science, same thing. We saw that increase from last year in every area. high school EOCC's, same thing. Um the continued increase that we're seeing in our high schools, which is also reflected when we think about our graduation rate. Our students are becoming more and more proficient. And then these are some of the additional indicators like we talked about. You'll see work keys on here. That is where we saw a slight decrease in work keys. You'll see across the bottom, it'll first say work keys, which is overall just so that I can help explain. then work keys gold, work keys silver and work keys
033platinum. So how many kids are achieving those different ratings and then you'll see graduation rate in AWA and ACT. So we do see a slight decrease like we talked about in ACT I mean not ACT work keys those are an area that we're continue working on with those work skills. And the last slide is our English learner progress and you'll see that we had a slight increase there and we did have a slight decrease in our exiting of our students. So our overall data shows the dedicated work that our schools and principles have done when looking that at them being instructional leaders in the building to do the work and help um support our teachers in doing the work to support our students. It really shows that we're slowly coming back up where we want
034to be and we're going to continue seeing that growth. And so we are just looking forward to what this looks like at the end of the year this year as we continue increasing our scores and um really see the success that each of our schools is having. Um, you also, just so that you know, have two packets that we're not going to go through the individual schools in the grade level data um that you can pruise at your own leisure. Um, but if you have any questions for any of us, we will be more than happy to answer. >> Fields, >> I [clears throat] want to say thank you to all the teachers in the building who did a phenomenal job this past year getting our students where they needed to be. and I recognize
035their extremely hard work that they did. Also want to thank Miss Susan Miller and the North Carolina Science House and the work they did with our biology teachers getting our scores where they are. I think that's a great investment. Hope to see that relationship continue to be forged. And my one question that I have is with the standard change for math, how are we going to support the eighth grade team now that they're teaching math one so that they're prepared for when this standard changes? >> Great question. So part of what we are doing right now, we do have a partnership with SB through the state which um is allowing us, it's called the hope grant. And so this year, six of our schools, they're starting to work on um building understanding of the content
036and deeper understanding of how to conceptually teach. And they're working with what we're teaching and what's coming up. So they're starting with half of the middle schools this year in seventh and eighth grade. And next year they will do the other half. This will allow us to be better prepared for the implementation of the standards when they're fully um adopted because they are not completely adopted yet. And so once those materials come out, they will also infuse that in their training to help us support them. >> So are they so they're going to teach modeling? >> Yes. >> And pedagogy? >> Yes. >> And then once the standards come out, you're going to >> do additional training. >> Yes. >> So we're going to keep math one and eighth grade. Is that what you're saying?
037>> At this point, we I can't say until we see what the actual standards look like to know what's the best fit for our district. And so in doing that, these students that pass the exam in eighth grade, are they going on to do trigonometry and calculus as well in high school? Is that the expectation? >> So right now it's they're breaking apart math 1, two, and three into different areas and putting different things into different areas, but math one and two will still exist. So math two, they will still have to take math 2. And then after that, it's actually going to allow them a pathway based on where they're wanting to go in their career. So, it looks a little different than what we're used to now. So, some may take something like
038AP calculus, some may take something that looks more like the traditional math that we're used to, but it's really going to depend on what the child wants. So, there's going to be five or six options based on what career the child wants to go into as far as what courses. So, our high school math will look a little different than what we're accustomed to. And I also want to add, thank you to the other science teachers in our elementary and middle schools. They did a phenomenal job, too. Good job everybody. >> Mr. Trey, >> I'm sorry Dr. May. I'm sorry Mr. >> Me. Yes. >> I want to thank everyone too. I want to go back and thank the students because they were stressed. They worked very hard. The parents parents were stressed. Um uh
039everyone that had a hand in it and the central office, everybody that had a hand in this. It's a great achievement. I remember the day when we used to celebrate our achievements. We were growing and growing and then things happened with the pandemic and we just bottom out. But I think that us moving ahead now that we know what we can do. We just need to continue to improve. But one thing that I'm still concerned about is that connection when they leave K2 to go to grade three. You know, I think we still have some work to do there. Because kids when they get that foundation, if they ever get that foundation, then they can read, they can comprehend. I think we still have a lot of work to do down at that grade level.
040And I won't get the results of the survey, but parents were could see that concern as well. And that was uh evidenced in even in the superintendent survey by some parents. the connection was we needed to work on that connection. So, we we've done well or you all done well. Everybody's done well and we appreciate that. We really do and we hope that we can maintain and as far as the curriculum, whatever curriculum we choose, we want the teachers to be have a part in it. That's been my concern the whole time. Make sure the teachers have buy into what we do. and I congratulate this school district and I'm very proud of what we've done. Thank you so much. >> Mr. Trey, >> I got a two-part question. Um, during my time at Lumberton,
041I know with the work keys testing, I think the seniors that took the work keys at Lumberton, we put them in a if they took the work keys test, we put them in a hat to get in a drawing for more graduation tickets. Is that is any like that taking place at our high schools now? I know different high schools are doing different incentives but I can't say that they are doing that. Um I know we are actually uh we purchased part of Apex is doing some work keys stuff to also help with um the work keys assessment. So through several of their courses they're getting that um additional support but I know there are some schools that are doing something but I can't tell you who or which high schools >> what is what
042is I guess y'all's y'all's area. What is what is y'all's plan to improve work keys then to implement on down to the principles to the seniors and that are taking it. What is the plan for public schools Robson County to improve that? >> So part of us is working more closely with those teachers that are helping use those tools with Apex um that are actually taking those courses so they have a better understanding what that test actually means because I think one of the pieces that we find is teachers really don't know why we take work keys. Um and so that disconnect as we're trying to help them understand what's the purpose of we work keys, how does it help your student um because every child in our school district takes it and that does
043not happen everywhere. That's a little different. And so then also looking having a better understanding of the tools that we have available to help them with the teaching because we have it embedded in two of the classes right now, but we're trying to help make them see that connection with everything. Mr. Terry, come back to you. I'm sorry. Mr. Craig, then I come. Mr. Terry, >> I want to also um echo what's been said about um all of the individuals um staff, teachers that were involved in in this increase. I want to well, thank you for all your efforts as well. Um and I appreciate all the hard work that's been done. Do you mind going back to the first slide? I have a a quick question. So that second point, 23 schools, 52.7. >>
044Mhm. >> Wouldn't 52.7 be 19 schools? >> Should be >> It should be 19. >> So that should be 19. >> It should be 19. >> Okay. I just wanted to make sure that I was uh reading that. >> No, you're you're absolutely right. We didn't catch that. Thank you. >> Okay. I wanted to make sure that I was reading that correct. So, and let's go to slide two, the second one if you don't mind. >> When I look at the um the individual school pages, I'm counting 28 that met or exceeded growth. >> So, for Yes. But for low performing status, remember it is also um A through C and then the additional schools. So 20 of the schools met or exceeded to get off the low performing because if you meet and you're
045a D or an F, you cannot come off the low performing. >> Okay. So we're only counting the schools in this number that helped us get off the low performing list. >> Okay. >> All right. Gotcha. And also um based on my calculations, um PSRC's math one grade level performance is about 6.7 points higher than the state average. Mhm. >> And our math three performance [clears throat] is about is is one point higher than the state average. >> So we are we're certainly in good shape there. So that's that's very encouraging. Um the only the the biggest challenge it looks like we have is in middle school. We really have some challenges at that at that middle school point. So what are we doing to address those issues? >> So like I spoke about with
046the SB. So, one of the things we know with math that is one of our biggest struggles in middle school. And so, one of the things we did was partnered with the state with DPI for the hope grant to help build the content knowledge of our teacher and pedigogy with teaching math because that's one of the things we saw is a gap in seventh and eighth grade math. The other thing this year all ELA, math, science, and social studies teachers will be [clears throat] required to take a literacy course to help build their literacy understanding sort of what Dr. Manuel was talking about. We need everybody to really be a teacher of reading and understand what that really means. And so that will start sometime in November. So we are trying to put multiple pieces
047in place at the same time, not overwhelming teachers by putting too many things in place at once. So helping them build their literacy understanding will help them in all the subject areas when we think about that piece and then like I said helping build math content knowledge um because we do have a lot of middle school teachers that come the non-traditional path and so that is one of the areas that we have to help support our teachers in developing that content. Can you also talk just briefly about how the changes in the accountability framework um may have impacted the the results from that from last year to this year >> in what um in terms retesting? >> So you want to yeah you want to give the numbers >> um so to your point Dr.
048Lleair this year we were able to retest in some additional subjects. So, we were able to retest in grade three reading, fifth grade science, eighth grade science, and biology. So, um, from our last board meeting, we did go back and we tried to pull all of our numbers to see what the difference was of how many additional students did retest this year. So, in 2425, we had 7,52 retests. That's not necessarily students, right? One student might have taken two retests in different content areas. This year in 2526 we had 8,97. So we had an increase of 1,855 retests. Based on the nature though of we were able to retest more students. Uh when we were at the board, state board meeting last week, um Michael Maher talked about one of the board members asked that
049exact question about the impact and he was able to basically tell the board that on average students who did take a retest grew between two and four percentage points. So not huge gains, but they were able to see that as an average across the board. They did see more elementary students testing than middle and high school, but overall that was basically the impact that they saw. >> Well, I appreciate you explaining that because I didn't know it was that when you when you put those numbers in there, you know, going from 7,000 last year to 8,900 this year, it it's not that huge of a difference. >> Right. Exactly. >> About a 25% increase, >> right? Okay. And also the um it looks like the ACT benchmark changed from 19 to 17. And I'm guessing
050that they done that to align with the UNCC system because I know at UNCCTP um I think it's a 17 for the ACT. >> So well thank you for those clarifications. I appreciate it. >> That's great. [clears throat] >> Thank you Mr. Simmons. Um ladies uh again what everybody said folks uh taking low performing away is just um that's a fantastic it's a feeling and it's just a great thing to take that off world because people look at that and that's all they see they don't see nothing else they see low performing district so that's out of the way. Now, let me ask this question first. The uh with the high school graduation rate, when we do the uh high school graduations after graduation for those students that needed an extra hours or whatever, that
051is part of that graduation rate. Am I correct? >> Yes. Yes. Okay. >> Okay. they graduate that time >> before that time. And my point uh board members and everyone just to mention uh if you've never been to that high school graduation that the kids have and we have about two weeks after our regular graduations, you need to try to put it on your calendar and go. Uh that's one of the best things that I think our school system does for students. uh that those kids can go back. They need whatever they need to graduate instead of going back to school for another year and the face is on the kids and especially the parents. It's just worth going to see and um they can move on with their lives if it's going on to
052school, if it's going into workforce, whatever it might be. But that's something that we've done for years and I hope we continue to do it because it's just one of the best things that I think this system does for high school seniors. Thank you. Thank you, >> Dr. Maya. >> I want to go back to something the lady said. Work keys, you know, we had a dip there, but let me tell you, I don't think it's the students didn't know. Students do not take that test seriously. Most of them, let's say, for example, you have two hours to finish work. Some of them might be finished in 45 minutes. It's just something they say, "Oh, we got to do it, so we're going to go in there and do it and get it over with."
053They do not take it seriously like they do their EOCC's. They do not take it seriously. Trust me, if they took it seriously, they would do much, much better. Now, he's nodding his head. He's been a high school principal. May he say something to back me up. Mr. Chair, may he say something? >> Jamal. Jamal, you've been a high school principal. Am I telling the truth? >> They just don't take it seriously. something somebody told them they had to take, so they go take it. That's my comment why I think those scores are low. >> Anyone else? Um, before y'all go, I want to also thank Doc Williamson. Um, he came here with an ideal and a goal and it's come to show that that goal that he had in the ideals. Our teachers got
054on board, our administrators, our students, everybody in the building, but most importantly, our kids bought into it. And this is the reward. So, I think we all should get a round of applause for that. [applause] >> Thank y'all >> and thank you guys for supporting us. >> Next, we have Southeastern Integrated by Mr. James Granger. Good evening everyone. I see some very familiar faces here in the room. It definitely feels good to be back here um at PSRC with Miss Lisa and Mr. James. Um just to provide some lifesaving resources that are available right now to our students, families, and our staff. Um, my name is Cassie Hunt and I am one of our professionals, our qualified professionals. We're a mobile crisis team here in Robinson County. So, we all know that a student cannot
055thrive if they are experiencing a severe mental health crisis. When our youth faces severe distress, substance use issues, or developmental challenges, families often do not know where to turn or even staff. um which frequently turns out into a emergency room visit. So first, Southeastern Integrated Care operates a 247 mobile crisis team such as myself. Um if a student or a family member is experiencing an immediate behavior health crisis at home or in the community, me as a qualified professional, we will come out to where that student is. we will come to where you know the school whichever school it is we will go out and see that child. Um we provide on-site assessments and immediate stabilization. Um and that is completely free of charge to our students. And that direct hotline for this mobile team
056is 910-5937749. that will get you to dispatch and they will dispatch mobile prices to one of the schools or wherever that student is. Um, and that's 9105937749. Second, I would also like to mention our behavioral health urgent care here in Lumberton. It is located on 105 Farm Brook Drive. And now this center, it serves as um like a safe alternative versus going to the emergency room and having to wait long periods of time. Um there's no appointment needed. Um and this is for adults and youth. And upon arrival, once you walk in, you're able to see someone within 15 minutes. Um so you don't have to wait like as you would at the emergency room. Um and now this team here they provide urgent psychiatric evaluations, medication management and short-term observation stays and this is
057up to 23 hours of safety or like a safety stabilization just to help stabilize the students or individuals, adults, families as well. Um so it's very important that if you see something say something. So just keep in mind of mobile crisis again we are available 247. Um that's all day and all night. [laughter] Good evening. Um so my name is Lisa Ryzen. I'm the MST therapist for Southeastern Integrated Care. Um MST stands for multi-istemic therapy when kids may youth well we serve kids ages 10 to 17 and we may receive a a child from um that had had a crisis earlier that will be stepped down to us and we will give therapy. Um, MST is an intensive family community-based treatment that focuses on addressing various factors contributing to serious antisocial behavior in children and
058youth ages 10 to 17. It's a very good therapy. Um, so I I used to be um on the behavioral team for school system and I was a EC teacher um at Roland Norman. So um I'm excited to be here with you guys and I'm excited to be talking about this. Um, I don't have my cards because I don't know what I want to say. I have my cards because I would say too much. And so this is going to stop me from taking all your time. Um, you know, unfortunately in the environment that we're at, in the location that we are, things are normalized that shouldn't be normalized. Things are generational. They're accepted. And unless we step in and say, look, that might seem normal because it's been repeated, but just because it's been
059repeated doesn't mean it's normal, we can stop it and we can move forward and break the chain um that is repeating. So MST is designed to keep young people in their homes, schools, and communities. MST focuses on the systems instead of just the individual. MST recognizes that a young person's behavior is influenced by lots of different factors. Um, family, peers, schools, neighborhood. Um, and I tell my my my youth coming from a EC teacher, a lot of the, you know, the clients we have, they're going to have diagnosis. But, you know, I tell I tell my families, you can take any car off the road at any time and they could all have diagnosis. doesn't make we're all a product of our environment and some can move forward in different ways than others. But I
060also tell them a diagnosis um is not an excuse. It's a factor because it needs to be considered but it's not an excuse for behavior. Um MST team consists of four therapists each having five cases for a four to five month period. Therapists work directly with families in the homes to empower parents with skills needed to effectively address their child's behavior. So we don't just work with the individual, we work with a family um to help them increase that structure, consistency, and rules, boundaries, expectations, strengths. Um we try to work towards the strengths of we can acknowledge those and utilize those to set short and long-term goals. You know, with the introduction of cell phones and internet and everything else, there's so many triggers to kids when parents are trying to provide [clears throat] consequences.
061And we step in and help them build their skills and empower them to say, "Look, this is the hierarchy. The parents are here. The kids are here. They want to be here and here now, but that's not that's not where they're at." So, we step in and help with that. MST addresses multiple issues um a wide range such as substance use, truency, academics problems, lack of efforts, negative peer influences. Um we use evidence-based CBT therapies. MST therapists are highly skilled in treatment. Um the MST team possess a master's degree in mental health field and have all completed rigorous standardized training um overseen by MSD services. methods the MST use covers cognitive behavioral therapy, behavioral therapy and pragmatic family approaches as well as contingency management. We meet weekly as with a MST expert for consultation have
062team supervision as well as quarterly booster trainings. So MST is held to a different standard than like say intensive inhome therapy. MST is its own unit that we work under um for different areas in the United States. Um yeah, we serve ages, like I said, 10 to 17, um four to five months, and they typically get around 60 hours within those those months. Yep. So, I appreciate you guys giving us a chance. Anybody have any questions? >> So, try >> um maybe somebody can is our social workers admin aware of this? >> Absolutely. So, we have a contract with the public schools of Robinson County >> through Trillium. And so, what we're working to do, and I have some resources I'm going to leave here, too. But what we're working to do is there's four
063therapists. We cover Robinson, Scotland, Bladen, and Brunswick counties. Um, and what we're trying to do, school just got started, so what we like to do is give school a couple of weeks so kids can be acclimated. Teachers are, you know, we don't want to bombard you right off the beginning of the school year. But we do have resources to go by to every school to take to every guidance counselor um with our information. I have a card. We can bypass the whole referral process. You can literally call me and I and give me the family's name and information. I'll reach out to the family and then I'll schedule them an assessment myself. >> Um so that cuts out a lot of, you know, the paperwork and things because I know everybody's busy. Anyone else? >>
064Well, we thank y'all. >> Thank you. >> Next, we'll have um a planning session. Um this here will be something that the board would um discuss um sibly which Mr. Thorp talked about it. Um this is something that we will try to uh get away from the paper and use this here um the computers. Um also we will have Mr. Eric. She will come in and talk to us a little bit about financing and some other people come in. Um we just need to pick a date um next month on a Saturday u when we can do it. So if you can pull out your calendars or Mr. Cole you can pull up the calendar. Yeah. October cuz like he said some of the stuff that uh um it's going to be on sibly that
065we're going to have to do for um the superintendent search >> how do we need to try to do that before um before our first superintendent search meeting like maybe October 30 or October 3rd on a Saturday. >> Yeah, I would suggest we would need to. >> Anybody got any objections to the third of October? Third is not going to be good. Dr. Harrison can't be here. Um, how about the 17th do >> I guess what how long and what uh time frame are we looking? >> It'll be from 8 to about 12 at the latest. 8 and 112. We'll start off with >> I'm sorry, >> that's correct. >> We look at October 10th. >> You said the 10th. >> I can't do that one either. tent. Bradley has something to do on the
066tent. >> Unless you want to do it, I mean, you want to do it in September, go ahead and have something in place >> before the superintendent search starts. [snorts] >> You'd have two weekends in 19th and 26 before >> That's fine with me. I mean, whatever y'all do. Can you put September up there, Mr. Cole? >> So, y'all good with having September then? >> What about 26? >> Give you more time to get used to using computer. >> That way hopefully next board meeting we'll be on it. >> Quit picking at me, Mr. John. >> I'm sorry. [laughter] >> Quit picking at me. >> It's a good idea. there's any bugs yet. We can get technology involved. >> Rich won't be here to 26. Somebody from your firm can be here. >> You talk
067you get somebody from your firm. >> The who? >> October 24th. Can't get no better for your firm. Cool. >> [laughter] >> Mr. Richard, he won't be able to make 26, but he'll have somebody for the um the firm to come on the 26. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't hear that part. Uh Mr. Craig. So, Huh? >> Uh, can she be virtual now? >> Can she be virtual? >> Yeah, she can be virtual. >> Okay. September. Yes. >> Yeah. Breakfast at 8 and Huh. Oh, Erica. Miss Erica can't be on 26. Uh [laughter] yeah, we got to have her. What we're going to talk about is what I think we're going to talk about finance. Erica needs to be here. >> She can't do that. I can break it up during the week. Two hours.
068one day and another two hours or you want to do it all at one time? >> Yes, Mr. Why don't I have a conversation with the chair about [clears throat] the specifics and what we want covered. Then I will meet with the leadership team and we'll figure out when we might be able to do it. I think we really need to begin making that transition to assembly. Um it's more efficient, cheaper, and easier. Um, and so we need to bring someone down. I think it's important a couple of you have mentioned to me and I haven't followed up with you, Miss Crystal, about your meeting with u Miss Erica, but a couple of you had mentioned that you met with her. We got really, really good information that helped you that I think we need
069to have her share that with the entire board and uh see what that might look like and maybe we can do an hour of each. And I just mentioned to the to the chairman that I think would be better on a night on a on a at a time other than a board meeting where we've got action to take and we've got other things on our mind that I think particularly the finance stuff needs your 100% attention. Need to have time to ask questions that we're not at the end of the day with a um a finance update where everybody including the superintendent is ready to go home. Um, so let's may let let me have a conversation with a couple of folks and we'll get some dates out and see what we can do.
070>> Okay. So, we'll take that off the agenda there. >> There's no um public comment, so we go into the action items. Um, in November, um, the conference in Greensboro is the week of our board meeting. >> Um, so, huh, let me pull it up. Is it the Yeah, I think it's is it 8, 9th, and 10th? >> The the conference in Greensboro is the 8th through the 11th, Sunday through Wednesday, and your board meeting is on the 10th. the um 12th. >> Everybody here with that? >> What's that? >> The um move the board meeting from the 10th to the um 12th. That Thursday instead of having that Tuesday, have that Thursday. >> Okay. Huh? >> We can make arrangements for somewhere else. >> Okay. >> So, the 12th, everybody good with that? >>
071You need a uh vote on that because it's a change in your regular meeting schedule. >> Yeah. Got a motion by Mr. Brad, second by Mr. Christie Fields. All in favor by saying I. >> I. >> Those opposed. >> And that'll be at 6 p.m. regular time. >> 6. >> So, it's changed from November 10 to November 12. >> Yeah. Any [snorts] other questions about that? All right. Next, we have the uh district mental health plan by Dr. Harrington. >> Good evening, Chairman Simmons, Superintendent Dr. Harrison, and board members. The North Carolina State Board of Education has adopted the school-based mental health policy that aligns with legislation and as a result, the district has developed and updated our district mental health plan which has been provided to you in your board packet. So, I stand
072before you today to share some information about our district mental health plan and ask for approval of our 2627 plan. I would like to direct your attention to pages three and four just to share a brief summary of the plan. So in the visual that has been provided, we have the universal prevention measures that are in place as well as our early in intervention measures. And if you look down at the bottom, there are some areas that we have noted we do need to improve upon throughout the district. We have our referral treatment and re-entry information that is in place, our suicide risk assessment protocol, and as you heard from Southeastern Integrated Care, they do respond to all Robinson crisis calls, including the public schools of Robinson County crisis calls. So, we do have our
073crisis response protocol in place. And so, we do communicate with with the agency. Um we also have our mental health provider list that is available to share with um parents, guardians um or any community members. We have our stakeholder engagement as you see um that is presented. If you turn over to page four, [clears throat] it talks about ourus with local entities that are in place. And if you note at the bottom, it talks about additionalus um will be provided as our partnerships expand. And then we also have a reporting component. Each year we have to complete a report. And the report this year is due September 15th. And so at this time I want to open it up for any questions you may have about the plan that you've been able to review. >>
074Dr. May, >> Mr. Chair, I have thoroughly looked over this plan and compared it to last year. I want to make a motion that we approve this. Uh I do want to say um I want to ask one question. You know, [snorts] last year we came up with the Hazel thing. Are we still using that program? >> So last year we did run into some roadblocks and we were never able to get that in place. Um we do have the iPads here in the district. We did have a representative um from Hazel Health that came and met with Miss Angela Jones. And so we have a meeting um hopefully by the end of this week. We do have our representative that we have been in contact with, the one that did meet with Miss Angela
075who will be transitioning to another position. Um just found that out this afternoon. So, we hope to have a meeting this week so he can introduce us to the new representative so we can go ahead and get Hazel Health started. >> Okay, I go back to my motion. I vote I make a motion that we approve this mental health plan. >> Okay, I got you. I already got Crystal. >> Yeah, >> Mr. Chair, thank you so much um Dr. Hernum for putting this together. Um the [clears throat] mental health plan says um that we've got a counselor and a social worker at each school. Um is it possible for us to maybe not right this minute to get a list of the current ratios by school? >> Yes sir, we can provide that information. >>
076I appreciate that. And also um pages 25 to 26 um talks about evaluation. Um how do you how do you evaluate this and how do you know that things are working just in general? So [snorts] do you want me to Okay. So um with the district self screener um previously we used classworks. This year um that the screening will be completed here at the district level. Um very similar questions and so that information is reviewed at the school level. We also have the classroom guidance and that varies from school to school. Um so having those conversations with the principles. Um we have had a survey completed in the past where we have asked the counselors and we have asked the principles what was needed to support the mental health needs at the school level. So
077we have that information as well the MTSS framework. We have teams um a district team as well as school teams and that that u data is monitored. Um when we look at the referrals there are different types of referrals. So we can look at DSS referrals. We look at our suicide risk um screeners that have been completed as well. And also it mentions the gaggle alerts. So that is continuing to be monitored as well. And so those are just a few ways that we monitor monitor that data. >> I appreciate it. On pages 36, 37, and 38 with the provider list is still labeled as labeled as 2526. >> Yes. So that that is the one that we are using right now. So the district mental health team and part of the EC department, we
078um are collaborating to update that. >> Okay. I also noticed on pages 21 and 24 that eel is still um is still mentioned and I know that that's that's our uh that's our curriculum at this point but um can is there any way that you can speak on how those materials are still being um supported and is that being done at the district level or at the school level? >> So with L education that is still being done at the school level. So with that being used in grades K8, there hasn't been any change with that social emotional piece there in the EL education curriculum. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome, >> Miss Fields. >> And can you can you elaborate? I'm sorry. Can you >> can you just in simple terms kind of
079tell me how Dr. Bullard and her work with MTSS ties into all of this? as well as supporting the school and the district as a whole. >> So when we look at the MTSS framework, we talk about behaviors as well as attendance, academics and so uh well social emotional learning. So um there is that the FAM s component that's mentioned in here and with the MTSS framework um there are meetings that are held with the school. So if you look at the data at the school level um those students are identified um whether it's tier one supports, tier 2 supports or tier three supports that can be put in place to address the students needs based on the academic piece, social emotional behavior um or any of the other components as these schools use that
080framework. >> So Dr. Bullard's only one person. Is she working with the team of people with overseeing the MTSS process? >> So as the MTSS coordinator, she is communicating with the So each school does have a MTSS coordinator and so she meets with those those coordinators to take information back to the school. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Okay. We got a motion by um Dr. Emanuel, second by Mr. Christie Crystal Monroe. All in favor say I. Those opposed. Next we got >> Thank you. Next we got um policy 3510 religious base as simple by Mr. Bobby and also he will be doing the third party contract consultant service PC. So good evening [clears throat] again chairman Smith and board members. So, I've presented in front of you a revised policy 3510, religiousbased
081exemptions. I've given you two copies of that policy in in uh in your packet. One will be the clean version that will be placed in our policy manual. The next >> [snorts] >> uh shows the details or what was changed based upon the recommendations of the schoolboard association. Uh our policy now meets all statutory requirements. Uh I've also shared the policy with our principles for review and also uh a draft consent form that we will work with our attorney to get that consent form. It does not have to be part of the policy to get that uh consent form revised. So at this time we are asking for the board to set aside policy and approve 3510. Got a motion by Miss Ocean. >> There's a need a second. >> There's a motion to approve
082policy 3510. The revisions to policy 3510 and um and not uh does not include the consent form. Yeah. >> What's that? >> The motion set to prove that's what she was doing. >> I'm sorry. Wasn't I'm sorry, I misunderstood the motion. >> The motion was set aside policy policy in place. >> So the mo the motion is to the motion is to wave the policy requiring two readings in order to adopt this tonight. Is that your motion? Motion. Miss Ocean. Okay. Thanks. Second. >> Need Sorry, I need a second. >> Brad. >> So, are we setting aside policy because this this didn't go before the policy committee? Is that the reason in that or? >> So we are asking that now because of the recent general statute requirements we need to have this in place
083in case parents come to us and request a religious exemption in the classroom or to be excused. One of the major provisions is to offer time for students to uh have a religious activity outside of the outside or within the school day. So, has this gone before the policy committee is one of the questions? >> No, sir. >> So, you're asking to suspend the policy in order to allow it to be adopted tonight? >> Yes, sir. >> Mr. Trey, >> I mean, maybe maybe this needs to be brought out. I don't know. But, um, what is the reason for bringing this to us? Is there a situation that's taking place somewhere that we need to know about? >> Not not at the current moment. >> They explain it. The release time religious instruction is a
084new statutory requirement. It's in place now. It's legally in place now. And we are now legally required to allow students to be excused from school to attend religious instruction during the school day. We can put certain parameters in place um some of which are in this policy uh dealing with that. But we're now allow we're now required to allow at least one hour of release time religious instruction. >> Mr. Craig, uh, I'm going to say I seen the information Mr. force you're talking about when [snorts] the legislature just passed this I don't know if it was two or three weeks ago and said you had to do it now I'm one would like to look at it and read it but at the same time this came from the school board association right Mr. Bobby,
085>> correct? >> Which was directed by the legislature for all systems to have in policy. >> So, we can look at it, but we're still going to have to put it in place at some point in time. >> At some point in time, we're going to have to have an option or a detailed plan of how we're going to allow students to receive that religious excuse period during the instructional day. >> And this from the state board gives us a a written policy to follow. Yes, >> we need to have some something in place for our principles to follow. Yes, this a state law right now. >> We don't want us to asking getting one response at St. Paul's, another response at Coral Sweet, another response at uh Red Springs. I would suggest we go
086ahead and adopt this policy >> and if there any changes folks need to make, we can do that some point down the road, but we need to have something uh to guide our principles. >> John, I'll second a motion. Okay. >> Okay. We got a mo, excuse [clears throat] me, got a motion by Miss Ocean, second by M. Crystal Monroe. All in favor said this to suspend the policy. This is not to adopt this. >> Yeah. All in favor saying I. Those opposed. >> Motion pass. >> 10. >> Yeah. >> Now you need a motion to adopt the policy. May I speak to this policy for a second? >> Got a motion by Miss Ocean to adopt the policy. Second by Miss Crystal Monroe. All in favor saying I. >> May I speak to this
087for a second? >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> There. If you look at this policy, I just want to call your attention to a couple things. It um on page two of the policy, [clears throat] excuse me. Um in section um B release time religious instruction um there are some safeguards that are put into place at number three which is to reduce the amount of instructional time lost and to minimize disruption to school operations. Students may be excused for only one hour of release time religious instruction during a school week. release time. Religious instruction will not be permitted during core classes of math, science, social studies or English language um or state required tests, screenings or other assessments or state required remedial instruction interventions or retesting. So those are the restrictions that are in place on
088that. Just want to point that out to you. Good. Now, >> so you now have a motion by Miss O, seconded by Miss Monroe to approve the policy as presented. >> All in favor say I. >> All oppose. Motion pass. >> That's 10. >> Yeah. >> Mr. H. >> Mr. Schwarz, a question for clarification on page one of three. >> Yes. Under section A, [clears throat] the curriculum of the school system will be based on the current statewide instructional standards. The board school administrators will exercise their authority to select appropriate materials and teach the curriculum. So, does that mean the religious curriculum? >> No. No, this is not the religious curriculum. This is um the curriculum that the board adopts a cur the board adopts a curriculum that's based on the statewide instructional standards uh
089the standard course of study that is enacted by the state board of education. And so this does not involve religious instruction. Um what this section A is is it's different. This is based on a law that passed a year ago um maybe two years ago. I can't remember for sure. um that allows a if you look at paragraph B, it allows a student, parent or guardian to petition to exempt a student from participating in any specific classroom discussion or activity or assignment that would impose a burden on that student's religious beliefs or invade their privacy by calling attention to their religion. So, paragraph A says, "We're still going to teach the curriculum according to the standard course study." Paragraph B says, "There's an opportunity to object if it interferes or would impose a substantial burden
090on your religious beliefs." And section A is based on a law that went into effect about a year ago. And section B is based on the new law that just went into effect. Okay, thank you. And [clears throat] uh I've also presented at your desk tonight. We selected LLJ as our independent third party reviewer as we're exploring our performance contracts. So we are asking for approval of their contract pending legal review. There are a few grammatical er errors that needed to take place after our attorney reviewed that contract last week. Got a motion by Mr. Henry Brewer, second by Mr. Bradley Phillips, and that's to approve this contract pending legal review. >> Yeah. >> This is the guy that's going to oversee the driver, the light bulbs, and all that stuff. Is that correct? Now,
091how much Just update me, Mr. May I please just update me, Mr. Bobby? How much are we paying this guy to oversee? >> Update is clarifi clarified. >> Yes. So, as this contract as it is written, we do not owe him a dime until we get a until a certain point in his work. And the way this contract is designed, we had the conversation that the public schools would not pay him. His money would come out of our savings. So, his payment's going to be written into the contract with whatever energy uh savings company we decide to go with. >> All right. And I know this is not what we're talking about, but go back to the driver stuff. You want to go back to that just a minute? This guy potentially he's going to
092supervise all of it. Right. So Jonathan's or LLJ's work will uh will they will assist us in writing the RFQ that is the next step that he will also work with us helping us to rate and uh rate and rank those energy companies that prop present a proposal to us and guide us through our selection. That is one of his responsibilities. >> Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, you got a motion by uh Mr. Henry, second by Mr. Brandon. All in favor say I. All oppose. >> 10 over. >> Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Bob. >> Thank you. >> Next is the school fundraiser by M. Erica and also the monthly finance report. >> Good evening, Chairman Simmons, Superintendent Dr. Harrison and board members. Um, I have presented the school fundraisers that we received in the
093office by this the date of the board meeting and I can answer any questions anybody has. Got a motion by Miss Crystal Monroe, second by who was it? M. Christopher Fields. All in favor say I. >> Those opposed? >> 10. 100. >> Yep. >> And also the monthly financial report. >> No, ma'am. >> Got a motion by Mission to approve. >> Second by Mr. Craig Lowry. All in favor say I. Those oppos. Yeah. >> Thank you. Thank you. [snorts] >> I move [clears throat] that the board of education enter into close session for the following purposes to consider uh confidential personal matters as >> Let me run for one second. Mr. Chair, we need a motion to amend the agenda to add um an item 4 C under close session for close session minutes for
094the close session minutes that are included in your packet and then to add a new item 5B for approval of close session minutes. I make a motion to do what you just outlined for us. >> Motion to amend the agenda >> to to add items 4C, close session minutes in the close session and to add an open session item. Um 5B, approval of closed session minutes. >> Okay, gotcha. >> Make a motion. Yep. >> Who's second it? >> Who's a second? >> Okay. You got a motion by Mr. Bradley Phillips. Um, close session minutes. Um, second by Miss Ocean. All in favor say I. Those opposed. Got it. >> Good. All right. I move that the board of education enter into close session for the following purposes. to consider confidential personal um personnel matters as
095provided in North Carolina General Statute 143-318.11 A1 and A6 and 115C-319 and to consult with the board of education's attorney to preserve the attorney client privilege as provided in North Carolina general statute 143 dot um I'm sorry dash 318.11 A3 and pursu it to North Carolina General Statute 143-318 that 11 A1 to consider close session minutes that are confidential to um pursuant to North Carolina General Statute 143-318.10E. 10 E. >> Got a motion to go into close session by Mr. Bradley, second by Mr. Trey Brit. All in favor say I. All oppose. So session Motion by Mr. Trey Brett. >> Yeah. Got a motion by Mr. um Trey Brit, second by Mr. Trey Lar. All in favor by saying I. All >> oppose. Back in open session. Um approval of personnel as was presented. Got
096a motion by Melissa Ocean, second by Miss Christie Fields. All in favor say I. All oppose. >> We don't have no legal issues. >> Yeah. Um, next is the close session minutes. Need a motion to approve close session minutes. >> These are the minutes for February 10 and 20. >> These are the minutes for February 10 and 24, 26, 2026, and March 10, 2026. Who was it? Okay. Got a motion by Mr. Christopher Fields and second by M. Trey Britt. All in favor saying I. All oppose. All right. Motion to journ. Got a motion of journ by Mr. Leech who was late. [laughter] Second by Mr. Ocean. All in favor saying I. >> Who was the second by? Miss. >> Okay. All All in favor say I. All oppose.