PSRC Board of Education Meeting: 7/14/26

001How's everyone doing? >> Good. Welcome to this public schools of Robson County Board of Education meeting. I'm calling this meeting to order. Uh first item of business is the superintendent search firm presentations. First up, we're gonna have McFersonson and McFersonson and Jacobson, Dr. Barry Carroll, Dr. Carol Harris, and Rich Kratz. And if you notice on the agenda, we're switching the first two. Um McFersonson is going first and PWP will go second. They're um one of their principles got tied up in uh in traffic. So, thank you very much for Jacobson for uh being willing to switch and for for being here. Thank you. >> Good afternoon. Uh on behalf of McFersonson um and Jacobson, we want to let you know we're really um pleased to be here with you this afternoon and really appreciate the

002opportunity to come and present uh our proposal that will uh support you in your next and upcoming superintendent search. Uh before I get into the actual presentation, I'm going to take just a a brief moment to introduce myself and my colleagues. Uh you know, sometimes you've already done your homework and Google tells everything about us that we want people to know and sometimes what we don't want people to know. But anyway, my name is Carl Harris and um I'm I'm serving as one of the consultants and just briefly, my background is is in education, more than 30 years in education. Uh from a teacher to an elementary principal, middle school principal, high school assistant principal, served as superintendent in Franklin County, North Carolina, and also in Durham, North Carolina. And uh also served as a

003deputy assistant secretary at the US Department of Education. So, I'm g ask my two colleagues to briefly introduce themselves. >> Thank you, Dr. Harris. [clears throat] Good afternoon, board. Thank you for allowing us to be here. My name is Barry Carroll, and uh I have been with McFersonen and Jacobson since 2017. I've uh gone through quite a number of these uh searches with school boards and uh I feel like we have a lot of experience that we're bringing to you today and we can talk more about that. But I have uh I personally have led uh the search in Cumberland County where Dr. Bracie was hired. I personally led the search in Craraven County where Dr. Cheeseman was hired. We're looking forward for the opportunity to tell you what we think we can do for

004you. We have a unique uh process. that has some um things that we think will be beneficial to you. So, uh I was a educator for 30 years in Alabama. I live in Birmingham, Alabama. So, I came a long way today to be here. But, thanks for that opportunity and uh we're looking forward to talking with you more and hopefully answer any quest additional questions. I was a superintendent for 10 years by the way. So I have superintendent experience and uh all of us I would say have quite the rolodex if you will of individuals that we know who are superintendents, current sitting superintendent and others who might be interested in this position. So I'll leave it at that and let Dr. Katz introduce himself. >> Hi good afternoon. My name is Rich Katz. I

005guess 30 is our number. I also had a 30-year career uh in education. Uh over 20 of those were in leadership roles. I spent uh 11 as a superintendent. I was also a HR director, principal, assistant principal, and like others started out uh as a teacher. Uh my career was all in New Jersey. Uh and now though have relocated and I live in Wilmington, so I did not come from that far away today. Look forward to speaking to you. >> Okay. Thank you. We'll get right into the uh presentation. So uh you know from my own experiences whether we were uh candidates ourselves for superintendent or whether we were serving in the superintendent role uh itself uh we have uh always believed that uh one of the uh one of the hardest roles that board

006members face is selecting their executive leader. And so we come to you this afternoon fully understanding the important uh role that you're in and an important and the the important decision that you have to make as you move forward in selecting uh the next executive uh leader uh for your school district. Um so some of the things that we think uh would be important as you uh move through the process uh is thinking about where the school district is today. Uh what are the challenges that the school district uh that you believe the school district will be facing as you move forward and what leadership um what leadership profile are you really looking for? because those things will help shape uh one our candidate pool but also help help [clears throat] shape and keep us

007focused on what is going to be um our our primary focus. [sighs] So this next slide talks about the real goal of the superintendent search and in our process uh one of the things that we try really really hard to do is to upfront clarify the leadership uh that the district needs. And that clarification comes through an engagement with you as individual board members and collectively as a board. Uh helping us to make sure that we understand clearly uh what your uh what the district needs. Uh then we focus on building a very strong and diverse applicant uh or candidate pool so that you have choices uh when it comes down to uh selecting candidates that you uh believe would fit the profile that you have uh um decided on. And then uh we support

008the board uh in in making uh decision to the extent that you ask us to be engaged. Uh we fully believe that is ultimately the board's decision. But we offer our support uh in any way and we give you our best professional advice uh when you are when you when you ask for it or need it. From our perspective, this is, you know, how we, you know, go about doing our business. You know, why superintendent searches succeed, uh, or struggle, we we really kind of focus on, uh, these four quadrants here. uh clarity of the leadership profile is that when we go in and we know what the profile of the leader that you're looking for uh is and if we can match the profile to what the district needs are then we feel like

009we we've already taken that first step toward uh having a successful uh candidate in place. um the strength of the candidate uh candidate recruitment. Um you know we recruit from all over the country. Um but it doesn't necessarily mean that a candidate has to come from all over the country. Who knows where the candidate might end up coming from. But uh the strength of the candidate pool gives you the options to determine uh ultimately uh what candidate best fit uh the school district. uh quality of the board alignment. Um and this has to do with the board, you know, working as a unit. Uh ultimately, um there are um many of you as board members, you have your own perspective, but ultimately it's going to come down to this board as a unit making a

010decision about who the individual person should be to lead this lead the school district. So the quality of the board being aligned uh and having consensus about the leader uh would be a very important component of uh the success of the superintendent and uh attention to uh the leadership uh that will not only work well with the board but also fit the needs of the community. Uh as you know um a lot of the work is done here within this district office but most of the work is done in the community and in schools. So we try to make sure that we never lose sight of the focus that whoever is decided to be the leader of the district is also going to end up being a leader within the community. I just we've already

011introduced ourselves so I'll skip over this one and I just wanted to give you a snapshot of you know where we have been as an organization in supporting the uh selection and recruitment of uh candidates. As you can see as an organization we uh we have a footprint throughout the United States. uh but I can tell you in each one of these locations uh it has been an individualized approach focused specifically on what is needed for that specific district at that specific time. So with that I'm going to move on to uh my colleague um who is going to come and continue the presentation. >> I'm going to bring my computer. All right. Thank you. Just in case I have reading glasses, but I distance [clears throat] sometimes is an issue for me. So, you'll

012pardon me having this in front of me. I I would appreciate that. So, our searches, uh, first of all, let me say this about our searches. This, this search is your search. If you select us as a search firm, we'll utilize our process, but it's your search and we recognize that. And there may be things along the way that you may say, "Well, what about could we adjust? Could we do this or could we do that?" And certainly, we want to stay within North Carolina law and do everything according to the law, but we're going to be flexible as well. I think if we're not flexible in our search, sometimes we run into roadblocks. We are easy to get along with. we're easy to work with. Uh we're going to keep your best interest uh

013at heart and right in front of us. Now, the the process itself, and that's why I mentioned uh I think what's really important, two things that we do really well, is transparency and communication. You will, and I'll get to that in just a minute, you will designate a point of contact. I don't know if that'll be Mr. Schwarz or who exactly that will be, but uh whoever that is, that's the person that we'll be communicating with most uh and passing information back and forth. The process, our process basically has five phases. Uh and we'll get to that, but this slide talks about the 8 to 10 week search blueprint that [clears throat] focuses on three major areas. First of all, listening is very important. Dr. Harris mentioned, we listen to board members. We listen to

014you. What is it you're looking for? What are those characteristics? What are those qualities that you're looking for in a new superintendent? So, we listen very uh closely to board members. We also listen to community stakeholder groups, whoever you designated as stakeholders groups. We will meet, we'll come up here, we'll meet with them, and we'll gather a tremendous amount of information. And I'll get to that again in just a minute. So we listen and uh we develop as Dr. Harris said a leadership profile that will guide us throughout this process based on what you have told us and based on what community members have said as well. Then we recruit. As I said earlier, we have a big rolodex. McFersonson Jacobson has a big rolodex. We have a national outreach. Uh we contact um individuals

015directly. Um and uh you know we have those professional networks uh that we reach out uh to individuals as well. the five phases. One of the most important things we'll do if our firm is selected is that very first meeting. There'll be a lot of things will have to take place very quickly. Uh we'll establish some timelines uh as to when do you want the search to be completed? When do you want stakeholders meetings to take place? There are lots of timelines that have to be uh established and those critical dates identified. again identifying the desired characteristics of the candidate. Uh what is it you're looking for? You know, and and that could be anything. Some districts, just as an example, will say we must [clears throat] have someone with a doctorate. If they don't

016have a doctorate, then they're not really uh for us. Some districts and most say that's not a big deal. That's not a big we want someone who's experienced and has these other characteristics as well. So, but you will determine that you'll tell us that and we'll take that information uh and moving forward in the process. Um identify stakeholder groups, partner groups and feedback protocols. Uh we'll determine that at that meeting. You may say we want you to meet with parent groups or could be city council or county commission. It could be uh uh parishioners. It could be students. It could be teachers. Could be administrators. all kinds of groups that you make that determination working with your uh point of contact. We will set up times that we'll be here to talk to those individuals

017and we have a process for doing that as well that we'll explain uh determine salary range. Reason we do that very upfront in the beginning and notice I said range not a salary but a range because the board's going to determine that based on a lot of different factors when you select someone a range because when we're recruiting someone [laughter] whether we know them or not we reach out to them one of the first questions they're going to ask is what's the salary and we have to be able to tell them something uh to see whether or not they have interest in the job. After that, we we craft the job posting and the vacancy announcements and then we determine the advertising venues that we'll advertise. We advertise nationally. We'll advertise with North Carolina as

018well. Uh we advertise all over. I can assure you that if we're selected and we u once we're advertising everybody in the nation knows that this district is open and uh has the opportunity to look at whether they're interested or not. Phase two input and active recruitment. Again, we meet with those stakeholder groups, partner groups, and distribute online surveys. So, not only do we meet with them with the stakeholder groups and gather a tremendous amount of information from them. Generally, those meetings last about an hour, we'll meet with them. We capture everything that they say, be it good, bad, or ugly. We report that to you all. Uh, unless there's um disparaging someone's name or profanity or that kind of thing, we'll cut that out. generally that's not the case. Uh so in addition to

019that for individuals who may say well I I can't make it to the I can't make it to those meetings we have an online survey where they can go in anybody in the district they go in identify themselves as a parent or a student or some other type of stakeholder and uh they [clears throat] excuse me and they um they can go in and answer the same the exact same questions online as they will here at the meetings We develop uh promotional materials and advertise the vacancies nationwide again and actively recruit uh candidates. [snorts] Phase three is the evaluation and screening. So that first meeting, if we're selected, we come in and meet with you all and have a lot of information and conversation and we make a lot of determinations that night that we'll

020all put together in a package and everybody will know which page we're on. It's almost like hurry up, hurry up, hurry up for you. Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. Wait. Because when you get into the evaluation, screening, that's what we do. We do the recruiting part. We evaluate the uh so we take that off of you. You don't have to worry about that. Uh and we have a great deal of expertise within our company, within our team of evaluating who those individuals are who a good match with your district. Uh so we evaluate, we screen, uh distribute and receive and catalog all the application materials as they come in. Uh we do that obviously electronically. Uh we look at those applicant files. We read those uh and go into great depth conucts and background

021investigations. We not only call, you know, people will put their three references on there, but when we talk to those individuals, we also say, tell us someone else who knows this person that we they will tell us something about them. And uh so we we try to dig deep into the references and make sure that the individual uh that we bring to you or the individuals we bring to you to be considered uh they don't have any that you don't know about. We're very transparent with that. If we find something, we're going to tell you. uh even if it's questionable, maybe it's maybe it's nothing, but we're going to tell you uh that individ uh information about that individual that we found. Uh they invite we invite [clears throat] selected candidates to produce a video

022response to certain questions. Our process is once we've narrowed the list down to let's say six, that may not be the right number, but let's just use that number to six individuals who we think meet the criteria that you're looking for. We want to bring those six to you before we come back to present those six to you. We have them, we send them a a link that they can click on and they can videotape an interview where we ask them three questions. concern are hard questions. Uh but they get to videotape that and they'll submit it to us when we come to back to see you. We'll present that information to you and say this is uh Mr. Smith from wherever and you get to hear them answer the question. You get to see

023them on screen before you make a determination. And that will be when we come to present the the semi finalist or finalist. Uh maybe the top four, maybe it's five, maybe it's six. how many or whatever that might be that we think meet the characteristics that you're looking for and you'll get to hear and see them. [clears throat] Phase phase four candidate selection, we meet with the board to review the remaining short list of candidates. We assist you in identifying final candidates to interview. Uh we'll go through a process with you for you to select that. as I've already said, prepared you for the interview process and there's several several different uh parts to that. Uh we can even help you write uh interview questions, you know, or we can write them and send them

024to you and you give us feedback and say we like this and we don't like that and what we'll help you with that as well and uh be in constant communication on even interview questions. schedule and coordinate the interviews and we keep all the candidates that's our job to in keep them informed of their status whether they're still in the running or whether they're not. Um phase five is a transition uh and uh a guarantee uh meet with the board and sele u and the selected candidate to establish performance objectives. Once they're selected, we want to work with you and help make sure that we're getting those performance objectives and measures. And we provide a two-year guarantee that if that person leaves, if they were one of our individuals that we put before you and

025we thought they [clears throat] we thought that they were meet the qualifications that you're looking for, if they leave within two years, we'll do the search over for you at no charge except for expenses. So, there wouldn't been any additional charge. So, we're very confident and I've done quite a number of these and and uh and feel very good. We I've never had one to leave and within the two years. Matter of fact, most of the ones that when I was the lead or even a part of the search that went to that district, they're still there today. So, we have a good reputation of finding quality people and make vetting them and making sure that they know uh what they're getting into and that you know what you're getting into when you select them.

026Okay, Dr. Gats. >> Okay, >> so I'll wrap up with the uh last few slides. Um just kind of building off of that fifth phase and talking about retention. This the process is not over once a candidate is selected. It's really then the next step is making sure that the conditions for success are in place. So supporting that superintendent board partnership is a part of what we do and you see right there in the middle of that of that graph is the word alignment. So we help to make sure that the superintendent and you as the board are aligned because you obviously know that the board superintendent relationship is a huge part of success and has a tremendous impact on the climate of the district and the success of really your your students, your staff

027and your entire community. So that doesn't mean that we tell the board how to govern and it doesn't mean that we tell the superintendent how to lead, but we do assist with operating agreements, helping to define roles and responsibilities, goal setting up front so that you are set up for success when that new person comes in and you start your relationship together. The fee structure is um includes everything that you see there on the right. I don't need to read it to you. You can read that for yourself, but it's everything that you just heard about. Um, the fee for the search is $30,000 and then there's expenses up to 8,650. So that number you see there is a not to exceed which means it would be the maximum possible cost uh for your school

028district. It's not the actual cost, it's a maximum cost. And then finally, our hope is that and and we have a history of building relationships with school districts that when the search is complete, there's additional services that McFersonson and Jacobson can provide because we look to really invest in and be a part of the school districts that we serve. So that can include um leadership coaching, continued assistance with board governance, and that again those operating principles, uh assisting with the superintendent evaluation or even strategic planning. There's a variety of roles and uh that's something that we're proud of is being able to maintain those relationships with school district. We partner with K12 insight. Uh that's the software that's used uh the tool that's used that you just heard about and that uh helps to gather

029input from the community. We also partner with Innovate K12, uh, who assists with strategic planning initiatives. At this point, if there's any questions that you have for us, we're happy to answer anything we can. Anybody got any questions? I've got a question. Um, make sure I heard this correctly, that if the superintendent, we choose this company, superintendent leaves within two years. Is that what you said? Then you automatically handle the next search for free. If you if you select someone that we've recommended to the board for uh an interview, let's say it's those six, maybe it's or maybe it's four. I don't know how many it would be. >> We've recommended them. You sele You selected a superintendent from that pool. >> Dr. C, could you step up to the mic? Sorry. >> Yes. Sorry.

030Thank you. If you selected someone from that pool that we recommended and that person leaves for any reason within two years, then we will do the search again for no additional cost except we will charge you expenses for that. >> Dr. Terry Lachler, >> your um retention rate fiveyear and 15 is um it seems to be very impressive. So 80% 60% and 40%. U would would you say that that's um accurate within just a couple of percentage you know just a couple of numbers or so and how many total um successful searches have you conducted thousands thousands yes a thousand around a thousand over through the years I mean our company's been around for a long time uh and not only just superintendent searches we do other executive searches as well uh for other positions

031and school districts and other other positions as well. So, you know, we've I think we've been very very successful. And I'll say this, too. This sometimes is a hang up for districts. So, well, are you going to try to bring somebody in from California or New York or somewhere? I'll never stand here and say, "No, we won't do that." But what I will say is we don't differentiate by location. Uh if you have someone in this school district that meets the qualifications and we think they're a candidate, we'll put them before even if they're already in your school district. If they're in the state, certainly we've proven that in Cumberland and Craraven, we uh put those two gentlemen who got those jobs in front of the board and they were within the state of North

032Carolina. But then we also had candidates from outside the state who had interest in those positions. So we don't go well this person is from this place and they may not may not fit. We may say that that person may not be a good fit but we don't it's not on based on where they live or whatever. So we're very careful with that. Uh we're very transparent with that. We talk to the candidates. That's the thing I like about this. Not only we're representing you, okay, but as we get into this and start vetting these individuals, we talk to them and get to know them very very well. I knew Eric Bracie. Matter of fact, I c soon as I found out, maybe I shouldn't share this, but as soon as I found out that

033we we got the Cumberland County search, I called Eric Bracie and I said, "I just want you to know." And he said, "Thank you. I will I'll look into it." Uh, Craraven County, I didn't know Dr. Cheeseman. Got to know him very well during the process and uh that was a great selection there as well. So we we have successes and I've done superintendent searches across the nation but mostly in the southeast. So I'm very familiar I did shreport I did um uh I did Fulton County Georgia. Uh I did Troop County Georgia did Rowan Oak Virginia North Virginia. I mean the list goes on and on. So we have a great deal of experience and a lot a lot of success. Either one of you want to add to that? You know, I I'll

034just add that as I mentioned when I said we have a footprint all over the United States, but each search is a individualized search. And while you as a board, you're making a decision about who you believe your best candidate is, we also have to believe that's the best candidate that we're recommending. Because remember, this candidate is also going to be a representative of the search that our organization put forward for you. So we we kind of see it as twofold. Not only uh are you looking at your end product, we're also looking at it also because that's what we're going to put on the map uh as you know as far as our next uh search. >> Thank you. Anybody else have any questions? M Crystal Monroe. >> Um so I see like the

035five videos and the four background. If it were to exceed of course is there extra additional cost like past this if it did take longer and went past the range of what you have in here >> the range of five >> that's negotiable uh in some cases because our expenses have been less that we can work that in uh to make it six uh but generally we try to hold it to five but it can go over that >> it can go over and what got what makes your process different from the other processes out there. >> Um, I'll take a stab at that. Uh, [laughter] I, you know, there lot there lot of different companies that do superintendent searches. Some are a lot better at it than others and have really good reputations. I

036think we're one of those. I think we're probably one of the top two or three in the nation. Uh, and our process is the the vision for the process for all of us is the same. We want to provide the very best superintendent for you and your community we possibly can provide. And I'm sure that's for other companies as well. Uh the one thing, and I'm not saying because I haven't studied what everybody else does and does not do or how they do it. Uh the one thing that I really like about our uh process uh is that videotaped interview where it gives you the opportunity to see them uh on screen and hear them before you make a determination as to whether you want to interview that person or not. in addition to the

037mountain of information we're going to provide to you as well and as I said we're very transparent I could cite a couple of uh superintendent searches where uh we have found some things and uh in one uh it wasn't that questionable it well it was questionable so I just told the board I said you have to decide that here's the situation here's the story here's this person here's what happened you have to decide Is this person worth interviewing? Guess what? They interviewed that person. They hired that person because uh that person was fantastic and actually then became state superintendent of the year but had been in a situation that that person didn't really cause but was because of the district um was kind of a you know guilty by association although she was not guilty.

038I hope that answered your question. Anybody else have any questions for McFersonson and Jacobson? Fellas, I thank you for your time. Great presentation. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you. >> All right. Next up, we got BWP, Dr. Kevin Castner, Dr. Percy Mack, and Carolyn Mack. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you, ma'am. >> Yes, sir. BWP if I would ask that we keep this thing around 20 25 minutes with a five minute answer question answer period at the end. >> Yes sir. >> Thank you sir. >> Thank you very much. Let me say good afternoon to everyone and thank you for allowing us to present to you today. Uh we are BWP and Associates. Uh we've been around a while. We've done about 800

039searches during our term and uh you will get an opportunity to hear how we handle it and see some of the places where we've worked. And we encourage you uh if you have any questions, you feel free to contact any of the folks that we've worked with. They'll tell you that we, you know, are very transparent and we try to do a great job. Our goal is to make sure that you have to stay up late at night to make your decision. We want to give you the candidates who are going to make you stay up late at night. So, no matter which one you choose, they're going to do a great job for you. You know, our people that we have chosen uh are still there and uh we're excited about that. I'm Dr.

040Percy Mack. Uh I'm one of the directors of BWP. Uh Kevin Castner. Uh Dr. Kevin Castner is with us today and he'll talk to you a little bit later and uh Carolyn Mack who keeps us all straight uh as we move forward during this process. Uh I've been uh in education uh over 50 years. Uh and uh currently I've been I am the chair of the education leadership department at South Carolina State University. Uh I have been a superintendent in Dayton, Ohio and in Columbia, South Carolina. and uh I teacher, assistant principal, principal, head of the custodial crew, uh you name it, I've done it in uh in these days in in education. Uh Dr. Castner when he comes up, he'll tell you a little bit about himself and uh we'll go from there. If

041you look at our portfolio uh which shows the places I'll move it forward which shows you the places where we have worked. We have been in North Carolina in Moore County. Uh you can see uh Montgomery County Schools in Virginia, Sumpter, South Carolina, uh Richland 1 in South Carolina, Fort Mill, Hy County, uh Spsylvania County in Virginia, Savannah, Charlotte, Rockingham, and so on. You can see where we've been. We've been large, small, medium. Uh it doesn't matter. Most of our folks are still there. We give the same two-year guarantee and uh we try to make good choices so we don't have to do the guarantee part and uh you know we've been successful with that since I've been with the company. We have not had to uh redo a superintendent search. All of our searches

042have been right on time. Some of our objectives are first of all to create a a procedure that aids you the board in identifying the different candidates that we bring. We are, you know, we want to hear from you. Hear what your thoughts are. Hear what your pros, your cons, what you think are the uh outstanding features of your district where you think you have challenges so that we can ensure that the person we bring in meets that level of of of of concentration that you that you really need. We do we feel a great job of community engagement. We come in and we look to you to present to us who we need to speak to in this community because we want to develop a profile that fits this this area because there are

043no two areas the same. Your area is different from any other area and even in in your state. Uh we we we work with that and the interesting most interesting group that we speak to are the students. they will tell you the straight of it and uh you know they they they unfiltered. So we always enjoy speaking to the students uh when we come to districts. We feel we do a great job of of of recruitment. Uh we we get candidates because we expose this district on to the different um uh uh magazines to different uh media sources so that everybody knows that that your district is looking for a superintendent. And uh so they also know the profile that you're looking for because if they don't meet the profile, most people won't apply. You

044know, if you need someone who got to get the the finances in order, if they're not a financial person, they're not going to apply because if they do apply, we're going to check that. We look for people who have a track record of success in the area that you look for and especially in academics because we know you want your students to leave here and go wherever they're going to go whether it's college, the military to work, you want them to do well. So, you know, that's that's that's our goal as we recruit. We do a great background check. If we find that there's anything in that background that is going to be a pain to you, you will not hear from these people because we make sure that we go deep into the background

045to ensure that there are no surprises for this school district. um you know we we try to stay within timeline within budget so that the board uh is on on schedule because when you put the schedule out and we'll talk about that a little bit when Dr. Castner comes up uh you know you you can move it you can move it forward. All right so Dr. Castner, if you would come forward. I'm going give it to you in just a minute. But, uh, we customize to meet your needs. We identify candidates who meet your needs and we present them to the board. It's your call. Just like the last group, we give a two-year guarantee to the people we recommend to you. Now, sometimes board say, "Well, we want this person over here. We'll bring

046that person to you, but we won't guarantee that person. We will guarantee the people we bring to you. And normally the board and us, we hit the same people. We hadn't had that as a problem. If you have someone internal that you'd like us to look at, we'd be more than happy to do that. All right, Dr. Castler. Good afternoon. You're going to find that searches are probably more similar than different, but there is some unique background that each of us might bring to the table. For example, Percy, Frank, and I, we have over 40 years superintendent experience. That's helpful when you're talking about understanding the match and fit that you're trying to have. Now, there's a four-step methodology and we're going to go through it rather quickly, but we need to take each of

047these steps in the planning and the preparation of the search process. Now you have a folder and in that folder on the left hand side you have a copy of the PowerPoint on the right hand side and also the five step the four steps in the superintendent search process on the right side key decisions. These key decisions aren't necessarily going to get solved today. If you were to hire us, we'd want to come back and we'd want to talk about things like a community engagement calendar, deadline for applications, finalist interviews. We also want to talk about community engagement. We want to talk about updating your website. We're going to talk about different protocols. We want to have salary recommendations. All these you have an outline of this that after we present you might want to

048refer to them a little bit later because it gives you some thoughts. Okay. The other thing that you need to know is the board's the driver. All the decisions come from the board. We don't try to impose but we do try to go and give you some I guess some pluses and minuses in your decisions. Let me give you example. When you look at this, we believe that you should have a confidential search. We can maximize we can maximize the search and have more applicants if we can have a closed search. Um, we also want to get into an ad copy. We want to get assistance for district information. All of these types of decisions would happen if we came in at another meeting. Now, one of the things in community engagement, we will be

049presenting to you a community engagement report in which we will be meeting with a lot of stakeholders from all your districts and those stakeholders are going to be driven by you. So we want to try to increase that participation and we also to the point that we don't want to try to leave anyone out. Now you have a complex district. We know the different things you do. That means and and we choose to come to a district like this because we believe that well we choose a district. We like your size. And there's something else I do want to mention. There are 20,000 school systems in the United States that make up 3% of all the superintendencies. You're in that rarified air. Because when you are superintendent in a district that has 21 22,000, you're

050going to have a robust central office and you're going to have the ability to create participation in a large way with all members of your district. So size does make a difference. You know, we can find a district in Iowa 5 a thousand kids homogeneous district person could be superintendent of the year. That person might not qualify for some of the skill sets that you'll have when you do your leadership profile. So all this kind of follows out in a process and in that process also with the community engagement report and you're going to see a protocol example. We'll get to the point that in this deliberate process you can see we want the community understanding and we want to see the challenges that you have in your district. So, whatever district it might be,

051whether it's Fort Mill or whether it's your district here, all these things are going to be part of the information that we're going to need to use. The other thing, we want to recruit and present outstanding candidates. Frankly, you make that easier. The things that you're doing in your district, in your facilities, in your career in tech are benchmarking great things for your students. And people would want to come work here because they know that you're progressive, but they also know that you're complex enough that you have a lot of different hats that your students wear. And the whole purpose, and this is more from a superintendent's hat, is how you get all kids to be able to engage and you support them in helping them be successful. And that's a process. But we will

052initiate contacts. We get into their networks. And in doing that, we get into assessment of candidates. When we assess candidates, we don't go just on a great resume. We want to see strong background checks. We want to see a body of evidence where they had can show that they have an ability to move the needle in learning, in community engagement. In your case, in the progressive way that you've added your recent programs. That is impressive and that makes our job easier. That makes your job easier, but it also is part of your legacy. your legacy as board members. You've had a good superintendent, but now we still want to get get it right and we go to the next level and there's going to be a transition during a superintendent search. There's a whole energy

053that goes on that in spite of what you're already doing and the success you're having, you still want to build upon whatever you can do to get better. And so one of the things that when we get into the interviews, we teach the board protocols. We want the board to know what they can and can't do. There are certain things you can't ask. You can't ask religion. But when you read this document on protocols is self-explanatory. But the other part of this document because it's very comprehensive is we will have sample questions which you can pick and choose when you get to the point of wanting to do the interviews and then you get to the point where we pres we present the community and the uh report to the board and in that then

054the board needs to decide who it is that you want to consider to be in an interview. Now, it's not always an easy question, but you want to have someone that can stand and deliver, can tell you what they know about your district, and to tell you what they know about perhaps South Carolina, North Carolina, any of this immediate area. You can see that we've been involved in a lot of these different areas. We pretty much have established the east coast and uh so that's there. But in doing all this and the report you're going to get with the board, all this information comes to you and then in a deliberate way, you're going to have to decide who's going to separate and be who you want to consider for getting into finalist interviews. In

055this process, we'll explain everything we can for you. But when you look at the documents that we provide, whether it's community engagement report, whether it's the surveys, and also please understand that when we do community engagement, we will be interviewing all board members. We're spending our time with them and get a feel for your district and that's a very important process because the board should be driving this. So, while we're here for just a brief time today, I think that when you look at the handouts in your folder, it'll give you something to look at that might trigger some other information if you think we're the right match and fit. to be someone that you want us to bring forward great candidates for you. Making sure we have a track record where we get into

056the details and all that. So I don't want to belabor this anymore. All this information is here and I only would ask that as you go through all this. Think about it before you get into your final decision of who you want to interview. And we're very pleased to have the opportunity to be here. Thank you. Percy, do you have anything timeline? Well, we can get this all done by December, January. That's a window that we can work with. It sometimes is good to have that window because you want to have continuity because of the budget and whoever you end up hiring, you want them to also participate in the budget process. That's an advantageous timeline that seems to work. So, I don't want to belabor anything else, but you have all the information. Percy,

057is there anything else you want to add? >> Questions, sir? >> Yes, sir. Anybody got any questions? Dr. Terry Lleair, >> do you have a sense of your um retention rate of the candidates you you've placed? >> I said very good. I'd say it's 95. Stellar. >> Dr. Mack, can you step up to the mic? Sorry. >> Thank you, sir. We've not had to do the two-year, and most of our folks even get an additional contract, you know, in other words, when that three to four year contract is up, they get another contract. So, a lot of our folk uh they retire, you know, uh and uh the board wants them to stay at that point. And how many total searches have you conducted? >> Okay, I've I've conducted about 20 searches. Um, just about

058all the ones we showed you today, I've been a part of it. I was superintendent up until that point. And uh, then at that time when I retired from the superintendency in 2015, I started working with BWP to select superintendent. And uh my my role at South Carolina State is I uh as lead as uh chair of ed leadership department is my job to train principles and superintendent. So uh you know we our rate is is real good. >> I should have said um I should have asked how many um successful searches has BWP uh completed? >> I've done over 65. And if you'll notice in our report, you're going to see a number are part of a diverse candidate pool because sometimes when you have a district that has uh different types of people

059and students and everything like that, diversity becomes very important and you want to find that diversity. Here you have a three-part group of people and you want don't want any of them to leave leave out. Uh when I did St. Paul, you can obviously know that St. Paul was pretty complex but they were very interested in the community and that was important so that they did not leave any segment that they would have. Same thing with your groups. >> Thank you Mr. John Simmons, >> what is your um total price for the all of this? >> I think we put down 225 >> which I think is relatively low but we wanted the job and 225 you know uh that includes the base you know there'll be some additional with some expenses but not that

060much. Yes sir. Is there any other questions for BWP? >> I thank y'all for the presentation. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate your attention and allowing us to be here. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have Mr. Sam Thor with the North Carolina School Board Association. Mr. Sam, um 20 25 minutes and then like I have about five minutes of question answer. >> Yes, sir. I'll speak to the time. Um thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you members of the board for for having me. NCSBA and I really appreciate the opportunity to present to you about our superintendent search service. Um before I get into my PowerPoint presentation, I do want to take just a moment to introduce myself to you. Um my name is Sam. I'm an attorney at the schoolboards association where I

061head up our association superintendent search service. Um I've been at NCSBA for nine and a half a little over nine and a half years. And during that time, I've done a lot of both legal and policy work with school systems as well as superintendent search work um with school systems all over uh North Carolina. Before I came to NCBA, I did family law, practiced family law for a couple of years in Greenville, North Carolina. And before I ever went to law school, um I was actually a social worker and I did a lot of work with um teenagers, youth, young adults with developmental disabilities. I also worked at an intensive outpatient program with teenagers and young adults struggling with substance use disorders and other co-occurring uh mental health disorders. My wife is a teacher. She

062taught for seven and a half years in K12 public schools. She taught mostly kindergarten uh before transitioning to education research. She now manages an early math education research project at NC State's College of Ed. Um and my wife and I have a six almost seven-year-old son named James who is counting the seconds until he turns seven. and he is asking every single morning how soon he's going to turn um seven. I I don't remember when I cared that much about my birthday. Uh but it's been a long time. Um reason I'm here very obviously is you're beginning to look for a new superintendent and I understand you're hearing from a number of different firms. Um in anticipation of today, I sent your board attorney in response to the invitation to come today. I sent a

063number of draft documents, sample documents along with a memo explaining each of them. I've brought hard copies of those same draft documents with me here tonight. they're in folders in front of you, just pass them out to you. Um, without going into too much detail, we refer at NCSBA to those documents as initial search documents. Uh, what they are basically are documents that if you were to hire us to facilitate your search, we would need to get you, the board, to vote on and approve each of them at a called meeting, a regular or special called meeting in order to get your search started. The reason I like to send those is because I refer to them a lot. a lot of those initial search documents um during my presentation and I just think it's

064better for you to have them as I'm going through the PowerPoint. Um there'll be obviously time for questions at the end, but please by all means interrupt me with any questions that you have. I certainly want to make sure that all your questions are answered and that you have all the information you need from me um as you're making a decision. Please also know that I'm more than happy to come back in person or be available by email or phone to your board attorney or to any of you to answer any follow-up questions that you might have about our search service. Uh with that introduction out of the way, I'll now transition to my PowerPoint. We have a team of folks, two folks at this point, myself and Madison Galden, Maddie Golden, she's an editorial

065coordinator at NCBA. And Maddie and I and NCBA have a lot of experience in doing superintendent searches. Our association has done at least one search for 84 of the state's 115 school systems and we have completed or in the process of completing over 200 total searches. Um we are active members of NAS the national affiliation of superintendent searchers. That's a thinkalike group of other state school boards associations that facilitate searches for superintendent in K12 public school systems within their respective states. And through our participation in that group, we're always finding ways to improve our search process. It's also a great recruitment tool for finding a really, really strong and robust diverse um applicant pool from uh candidates outside of North Carolina. I'm also very tied in with the North Carolina School Superintendent Association's aspiring superintendent

066program. Um I present to those cohorts. I interface with the executive director and and a lot of those aspiring superintendents in that program as well as sitting superintendent. Um, and we feel like our involvement in both of those groups, active involvement, has helped us develop a really, really strong, robust, diverse pool of both instate and outofstate uh, applicants that we can draw on when we're facilitating searches um, for boards of education here in North Carolina. The first step in our process involves deciding whether or not you even want to do a search. There are some boards that I present to or that I have conversations with and depending on the circumstances, they sometimes have an internal candidate. More often than not, it's an internal candidate that the board knows for very certain they're going to

067hire or knows they're very, very, very likely going to hire. And in those situations, for pretty obvious reasons, it does not uh make sense to spend the time and money involved in doing a search. That's not the case with your board. You do want to do a search and you want to do it with us. Next up in our process involves approving those draft initial documents that I've shared with you in hard copy. The first of which is a timeline. It's on the right hand side of your folder. It's the first document there. One thing to keep in mind about the timeline is the only fixed date. The only hard and fast date on there is the one highlighted in yellow and that's the application deadline. All of the other dates are flexible, though we

068would want to stay somewhat closely to them in order to um land on or about that projected announcement and employment start date at the bottom of the timeline. The next document is a vacancy announcement that's behind the timeline that includes some general information about your school system and your community and explains to applicants who to contact with any questions about the search process, um about the application, etc. The application, the sample application is behind um the vacancy announcement. It includes mostly generic questions like employment history, education history, superintendent lensure, things like that. There are a few pages beginning at the bottom of page three and carrying through to page five. There are short and long form essay questions. Most boards, vast majority of boards actually keep those as is and save their district specific questions

069for interviews. We're happy to change those alto together or in part uh depending on your wants and needs as a board. When it comes to advertising, there are several places, free places that we always advertise very obviously. Um there are also a number of paid places that we offer to advertise. When it comes to whether or not you as a board want to spend any money on advertising, that's entirely up to you to decide. And of course, it's also up to you to decide where you'd want to spend those dollars. Um, in terms of recruitment, we recruit both instate and out of state very heavily. I've told you about the applicant pools we draw on. Um, we are also happy to reach out and recruit candidates that you, the board, either individually, you as board

070members, have folks that you'd like us to contact and reach out to, um, or you collectively have some folks that you'd like us to recruit. We're happy to do that as well. The third step in our process is entirely optional, but it's one we're happy to facilitate for you if you're interested, and that involves getting feedback from the community and staff on what sorts of things, characteristics, types of experience are most important to them and a new superintendent. Uh we have found that the best way to get the most feedback in terms of the number of responses as well as the most substantive uh meaningful material feedback is through online surveys that folks can fill out number one anonymously but also privately on their own time. Um we include at the end of our surveys

071I've I've included um draft or sample community and staff surveys. At the end of those surveys, there's an open-ended section with no limitation um in terms of content or number of characters where folks can discuss at length again anonymously um what sorts of issues are really really important to them um in terms of the superintendent search that they want you to take into consideration as you're looking at applications and considering what questions to ask, interviewing applicants, deciding who your district's next superintendent is going to be. Um, we would handle all of the logistics of setting up those surveys, working with your communications folks to push those out. Um, and then I would come in person at what is usually a regularly um, scheduled board meeting to share with you and with the community and your

072staff the results of those surveys. And at that same meeting, I would share with you a draft leadership profile based on the top characteristics and types of experience identified by your community and staff as being most important to them uh in a new superintendent. Again, it's an entirely optional step, but it's one we're happy to facilitate for you uh if you're interested. Once the application deadline has passed, we collect, organize, prepare all of the application materials and then share them with you electronically uh via a secure online platform called Simly that each of you would have and your board attorney would have a login ID and password for accessing. The two reasons we use as simply are number one, all applicants to your school system and including superintendent applicants are entitled to confidentiality and we

073found that the best way to guard and maintain that confidentiality is by using an online a secure online platform that only you the board and your board attorney can access. Um second reason we use it a little more practical. Um there's just a lot of paper involved in doing a lot of documents involved in doing a superintendent search whether it's the survey results, the application materials, the due diligence. And we've just found that the most efficient way um to share all of those documents with you is electronically as well. Once we've posted all of those materials to assembly and given you sufficient time to review them, I would then come and meet with you in close session at what is usually a special call meeting and I would facilitate a discussion with you, the board,

074wherein you would decide which of your applicants you'd like to have a sitdown in-person interview with. Um, one really important point I want to make about this step in our process and really about our entire process more broadly speaking, um, and the reason I emphasize the point is because on it we differ pretty significantly from many other search firms, not all search firms, but many of them. And not necessarily in a good or bad way, but in a really significant way. And that is we in CSBA never screen applicants. We never tell you which application to look at more closely, who to interview or who to hire. North Carolina law makes very very clear it is locally elected boards of education exclusively that hire superintendents. We do not get in the way of that. We

075get you as much information as possible and as good of information as possible and we help you process it in a really thoughtful and deliberate way. But when it comes to deciding which application you're going to look at more closely, who you're going to interview, who you're going to hire, that is exclusively going to be a board decision um if you work with us. And I just want to emphasize that once you've identified your first round interviewees, we then go and conduct very thorough internet and social media searches on each of them. And we pull um achievement data, test score data in as much as it's available. Um and we post all of that information to assembly well enough in advance of your first round interviews so that if there's anything we need to address

076prior to those interviews or even in those interviews, you have the chance to do that. uh we would handle all of the administrative logistics details of scheduling, coordinating, scheduling the interviews, finding a location, corresponding with the candidates, helping you draft interview questions, creating customized interview notebooks, and then I would come in person to help facilitate those interviews. We don't sit in on the interviews for the same reason that we don't screen applicants, but we are there to keep the minutes, get you in and out of open and closed session where they are coordinating the candidates coming and and keeping them confidential from one one another. Um, and then at the end of those interviews, I would meet with you again in close session where I would facilitate a second discussion with you. And at that

077point, most boards at that point are ready to narrow their list of first round interviewees to a number of finalists, somewhere between two and four, usually uh finalists. Once you've done that, um our team will go and perform much more thorough due diligence checks on each of your finalists. Um we'll update the internet and social media searches that we already did. We will get very detailed salary and benefit information from them. Not just a copy of their contract, but also a detailed breakdown um of what they're making so that you can begin thinking about what you would offer and negotiate in terms of a contract. Um we would get copies of any evaluations going back at least five years. Um we have a third-party provider, Baker Eubanks, that helps us um run a criminal credit

078and degree verification check if you're interested in that. And then we also contact references not the references that they've listed and sh the candidates have shared with us. There are certain people that over the 25 plus years we've doing we've been doing this that we think it's really important to call and talk to and there are certain questions that we think it's really important to ask. Um and we would perform those reference checks along with all of the other due diligence and share all of that information with you via assembly. We would also do this in a way that complies with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Without going into too much detail, the FC um is a federal law that applies to third parties like myself, a consultant like myself that does any kind of

079character and fitness check on an employee for an employer. Um not complying with the FC and the various notice requirements of the FC can subject your board to really really significant liability. And we have a really really great process in place to make sure that you, the board, get the information you need on your applicant pool to make a fully informed, eyes wide open decision. You need that. But we also do it in a way that's legally compliant and doesn't expose you to any kind of liability. Um, and I think that's really important and worth noting. Um, we would handle all of the logistics of scheduling the next round of interviews just like we did with the first round. and then I would come in person to facilitate them again just like I did with

080the first round. And at the end of that second round of interviews, most boards at that point are ready to begin negotiating with the board selected finalist. They're ready to pick a candidate and begin negotiating a contract with that candidate. If that that's the point that you're at, I would hand things off to your board attorney who would advise you on what to offer and negotiate in the contract. um we're there to support you and the candidate through the negotiations, but we're not involved um in those in those negotiations. Um the last step of our process involves drafting a um press release with the help of the candidate that includes a quote and a photo and and a lot of information that your public information folks can use to roll out the um announcement of

081the superintendent in a really um smooth um way. and we also finalize any of the minutes that we've been keeping at the various special call meetings we've been having with your board throughout the search process. We have a lot of experience and expertise and we hold ourselves to a really high standard. Uh this slide shows on the right hand side some of the searches that we've completed um fairly recently over the last three to five years. The ones on the lefth hand side are the ones I'm working on right now. I'm working with Cleveland County and Thomasville City. We also just recently, a couple weeks ago, well really it's a few weeks ago now added Elen City um to the searches that we're currently working on. Um we have a lot of expertise. I feel

082like our expertise is twofold. There are just a lot of administrative aspects and administrative details to doing a search. We're very familiar with them um and very proficient in dealing with them. Um, we also have a lot of expertise in deal deal dealing with um, navigating the various legal issues that can come up during a search process and we feel like that twofold expertise serves us really well in making sure that you have an administratively smooth and also legally compliant um, search process. We also hold ourselves to a really high standard. The most important decision that you make as a board is who your superintendent is going to be. You deserve nothing short of an excellent process, thorough, professional, excellent process. We would of course strive to provide you with that if you were to

083hire us to facilitate um your search. That concludes uh my PowerPoint presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions you have now, but I've also put my contact information on the last slide and I know your board attorney has my contact information. I'm happy to um be available to answer any questions that you have after tonight as well. >> Dr. Secretary Ller, >> do you have a sense of your um retention rate for the superintendents you've placed? >> We do not track the retention rate. Um though you will notice that we shared a list of all of the superintendent searches that we've done. I've even shared um contact information of the various um board chairs that or former board chairs that we worked on searches with. and you're welcome to call them um to ask about

084how they feel um about the search process and about um the length of time that the superintendent um has stayed there. >> I also noticed you you included a um a list or you included a visual that showed the states uh throughout the country where individuals have um applied for positions in North Carolina. And this is not a reflection of the state, you know, the um NCSBA. I was just wondering uh do you have a sense of about how many of those were actually placed? >> The vast majority of boards that I work with are interested in folks for for pretty obvious reasons um of instate candidates. They like folks that have either assistant superintendent or superintendent experience in North Carolina. And so while we we've there are boards, Cabaris is one that that has

085hired an out ofstate um candidate, most boards are really interested mostly in instate candidates. >> But you you were just uh that's it's interesting that you have that draw nationwide. >> I've worked we've worked really hard to cultivate that. Um >> thank you. >> Yes, sir. >> Mr. John Simmons, >> what is your total price for all this? >> The total price is $19,900 plus expenses. I've tried to estimate what I think the expenses are going to be. I think they will be in the neighborhood of $750 to $1,000. Um, I work extremely hard to um keep the costs down, not charging you food or overnight stays at hotels. Um, it's really the travel, the gas mileage reimbursement, which is at the state rate. um and any background checking that you do. So if you

086were to spend money on advertising or you were to um um forgive me um spend money on the Baker Eubanks criminal credit and degree verification checks, that's where you would add a cost. What I want to make really really clear to you is any board any expense above and beyond the 19,900 is presented to you the board. You the board decide whether or not you want to incur that additional cost. I don't go off and incur that and then bill you for it. So, I think it would be in the neighborhood of 20,500 to 21,000 right about and I' I've provided you a cost estimate that I think came in right in between that. Um, I can't say for certain what it will be because sometimes searches go on a little bit longer um than

087maybe I or you the board or even the candidates anticipated, but I do think we would be close to that number, that figure. I hope that answered your question sufficiently, sir. >> Miss Crystal Monroe. >> Oh, >> yes, ma'am. Um, do you have a one or two year a guarantee? >> We do not >> any guarantee. >> We we do not um do guarantees and if if that's a a deal breaker for you, then we we might not be the right um fit. I I encourage you to call EP or in as much as you're interested in doing any reference checking to call the various boards that we've worked with um to see if they're still satisfied notwithstanding the fact that we don't have a guarantee. >> Um but >> that is something to consider.

088That is a difference between us and many other search firms. Thank you for asking that. Yes, ma'am. >> How soon if we as a board made a decision um how soon would it be to get um announcement out for applicants? How soon could the search begin? Or how soon could >> Well, I'm sure you I assume you've looked at the documents I handed you. I I always come prepared to get a search started as soon as possible. So, I'm prepared. Our team's prepared to get your search started as soon as first thing tomorrow morning. I don't say that though to pressure you into making a decision about us or any sooner than you want to. >> Mr. Henry, if you look, there's a potential draft timeline that he's got in there as well. Pretty good

089timeline. I was asking for from experience >> as soon as you want is is the the short answer to that. >> Anybody got any other questions, [clears throat] Mr. Thorp? Thank you for your time. Great presentation. >> Thank you, sir. I really appreciate it. And thank you, members of the board. >> Thank you. You've gotten us back on track. >> I'm happy to to be of service. [clears throat] All right. Next up, we have HYA, who Mr. Schwarz advised me as virtual with Dr. Bill Adams and Dr. Ronald Taylor. [snorts] going to advance it. Are we seeing it there? Or do you want it from uh Ron? You have it up. Okay. Yes, sir. We're going we're going to go in a little different order than than uh what have in the uh the document

090that Mr. Schwarz prepared for us and we we certainly thank you for that. Well, thank you for the opportunity and the opportunity to visit you uh virtually. Ron, let's go ahead and and uh we we'll uh we'll advance that. And this is our our base base team. Uh the three people that would be the face plus Karen Shaw, who's not uh visible here, would be the team if if HYA were to be selected. Um uh Stacy Adams would serve as our project manager. And in full truth, uh Stacy Adams is also in addition to being a business partner, uh my spouse. Um and uh uh comes from uh the um professional development side of education. Uh Karen Schaw on the other hand uh does a lot of uh philanthropic work uh with partners uh in

091in that area and she's a former uh board of education member and a former board president. The other two people are in the back of the house. Dr. Nancy Perez is our CEO and um president of the company. Uh and uh Christina Melon does all of our support for our 130 associates across the country. But let me give you a little bit more about HYA and then we'll we'll talk about the process. HYA's been in business for uh over 38 years. We've done over 2,000 searches. We do 80 plus actually last year it was 90 searches nationwide. We have about 130 associates. Uh 35% of our associates are persons of color. Uh 49% are women and already mentioned we're womanowned that Nancy uh is the primary uh in the company. High satisfaction rate uh from

092uh board clients that we work with across the country. uh we are supported with research and analytics through the ECU group which is a sister company that does all of the analytics including uh even any of the marketing or advertising we do uh we can give you the u how how effective uh the expense is in that that area and we do have a full back of the house staff uh a number of us participate in national and state organizations I was a former uh AS AASA executive committee member on two different non-concurrent occasions and we have a number of university partnerships just to as we begin the the search process. It's so important and we talk about it for us to understand the stakeholder views if we're going to find a leader which is

093the best fit uh for your county, your your school district. Uh, and it also if you have a a firm that you're comfortable with and you partner with it, it it will demonstrate to the community how serious you take the selection of a successor superintendent. Right. Um, we we recognize that uh the community is going to want to see be very see a very transparent search. So, uh, we believe that's part of our responsibility to make sure it's transparent. But on the other hand, certainly as we work with, candidates, we'll talk about the the need for confidentiality there and just how we would serve as a proven partner. Most search companies have a number of steps they go through. The first three are common and what we're going to focus on, Ron, if we move

094to that next one. But we're going to focus on uh our what makes us different. But Ron's going to go over the uh process and then move right into engagement. Go ahead, Ron. >> Hello everyone and thank you again for this opportunity to share our leadership selection approach and highlights. Um if Dr. Adams and I are selected to lead the search for your next superintendent. Uh the HYA search process begins with the engagement phase. Uh which we anticipate will last between three and six weeks. We we utilize this time to understand the desires of your organization. Uh after which we move to the recruitment phase which lasts between five and seven weeks. uh where we bring the widest range of candidates that meet the requirements that we shape with you and your constituents during the

095engagement phase. Next, we work with you, the board, for three to four weeks to facilitate your selection process. And lastly, when you have completed this process with our support, we offer transitional services to support your superintendent's entry into this seat. So adding a little context to this engagement phase of the process, I just described um we know that the selection of your next superintendent is a true legacy decision that will have a significant impact on your stakeholders. Uh that being said, uh we are prepared to include several layers of thoughtful engagement with your community which includes of course interviews with the board as well as convening focus groups and forums and providing digital stakeholder surveys. We use this information collected from these opportunities to develop a leadership profile report and detailed characteristics that help us

096to aggressively recruit on your behalf. So we are your ambassadors if selected. If you select us um to to work with us on this search, we facilitate this process in very meaningful ways. We believe in both in person of course face toface as well as virtual discussions. We believe in if possible uh taking these conversations to where the community and stakeholders are. We believe that uh focus groups of high school students and parents uh staff members and administrators and others are very valuable and bring authentic context to this work. We also can if needed support various languages to facilitate this work. So one thing to know and and hopefully take with you is that we are data driven. We we want to clearly show you uh the trends and the conversations that we have had

097with your constituents. We know it's important that you as the board um are not only aware of the sentiment uh but also understand how each stakeholder group's responses compare with other groups. Now Dr. Adams will cover the next section the recruit phase. >> One of the most critical parts of the of the search is recruitment. Um and that's one of the things we believe uh sets HRA apart. Um we have the infrastructure, we have the network, the relationships uh both with uh the major organizations such as AASA the association Latino school administrators, NAPSI, the National Alliance of Black School Educators. um all in in uh in in in terms of our team and we have team members that belong to those organizations. There's a difference between active and passive recruitment. We do both and we

098we'd like to uh share some of those differences. But what we try to do is create a buzz around the search recognizing that every student has the right to quality education and that begins with a leader. Whoever that leader is is going to have an impact on student success. Part of that involves uh what we call diplomacy. Uh the need to uh recognize that uh confidentiality with candidates is critical but transparency with the community uh is is equally important. We also recognize there are political challenges. There are certain dynamics that can uh affect even board relationships and we try to bring boards together to coalesce around the best fit candidate. one of the uh if if you if you look at the graph that's up now uh we have the the last uh three years

099uh in terms of the number of searches we did 96 uh uh searches last year and you can see some of the competitors and the searches that that they've done when you look at the uh success rate uh over the last 10 years 94% of the superintendent selected through the HYA process have remained on the job during the the the uh first term contract. I think what's important when you see that 75% figure about 55% of the applicants uh that will apply will come through uh passive marketing and uh and recruitment in that manner. About 45% will come through active recruitment. People that may not be looking for a job, but we've read about their successes. we see where they may be the right fit. So, we'll reach out to them. About 75% of the

100candidates selected by boards come from that 45%. Uh although uh we there's a figure up there with our email subscribers, uh HYA uh puts uh we made a business decision five years ago. Uh and we put competitor searches up on our website. We get about 30,000 hits a month. So, it's it's it's active, it's passive. Uh there they're just a number of techniques that we follow. Ron, if we could advance just a couple of examples. Uh these are smaller districts, but I I wanted to give you an an idea. Uh Ridgewood, New Jersey, 52 applicants in the system. Cherry Hill, 48. Uh Somerset Hills, 58. Uh Falls Church, uh 65. What's important though is as we look at the number of states represented and then if we look at the out of state versus instate

101and it really all depends on what the board wants. That's why we customize and and meet those. But it's that ability to recruit based on what the community tells us and then what the board ultimately approves and the leadership profile report and the desired characteristic. Ron and I have a total of 49 years experience as serving in the superintendency. So we we understand that part of it. That also tells us we understand how important it is to partner with the board and it's a partnership and it's got to be the right partnership we believe to to to be successful. Uh and we just wanted to point that out with with with this slide. While we have a number of candidates across uh uh the the states that uh will establish a profile with us, we

102recruit for every search based on that search and those characteristics as we look at the recruitment process. I just want to finish this part of it. We do 360 reference reviews. uh if there's time uh during the questions, we'll we'll certainly respond to what that is. We certainly Google every applicant before we even interview them. In fact, the first one of the questions I ask is if I Google you, what am I going to find? And uh before you answer, I've already done it. Uh and that's that just begins the conversation in terms of how important that is. One of where where we do a third-party background investigation. We have a private investigator go to the county where the person is. Civil, criminal, financial, driving record, credential verification, media review, uh five-year media review, and

103social media review, which is one of the areas uh that creates a challenge today. Uh and we'll also do if the board chooses a behavioral assessment on the individual. Ron, if you want to move to the next piece. >> Thank you so much, Bill. Um so Dr. Adams and I we as he mentioned we have decades of successful experiences partnering with boards of education and we believe that clearly communicating is a key to success. If we [clears throat] are selected for this search we will provide a workshop to the board that focuses best practices and legalities of superintendent searches. We will facilitate not just interviews but performance interviews with SWAT analysis. We also do not believe in a one-sizefits-all approach. Bill mentioned it a little bit. We believe in customizing our search to what comes

104out of our engagement sessions. We will also work with you to develop uh case study assessments and other interview questions that are closely tied to the answers you need to feel most comfortable in making this important decision. Um Bill, he's an expert uh in the deli technique. So I will yield to him to describe it briefly before we conclude our presentation with a quick description of the transition opportunities we can provide. Bill I I say it jokingly and hopefully respectfully. Uh I'm sure that every vote is not 110. Uh and um we uh we use a technique uh when we get to uh providing you first of all with every application and resume and then a reason why if we didn't present someone obviously uh the board always has the option to uh uh to

105to to add anyone that from that pool that they would choose. But uh what what we do is provide five documents and um it's uh their letter of interest based on the desired characteristics. Uh we provide uh their resume, their application, a self introduction. How would you want want Ron or Bill to introduce you in third person and then the 360 reference review. Then we asked board members individually to compare head-to-head. So let's say there were 60 applicants and we presented a slate of uh of 10. We would ask you individually to compare candidate one to two. Pick one of the two. Well, I like them both. Which one is a better fit? I don't like either one of them. Well, which one would there be a lesser dislike for? And we go across one

106to two, one to three, one to four. and then use that. Uh, and we find it helps boards coalesce. Uh, it's an option. You don't have to use that option, but um, we use the deli technique often to help boards coales around uh, that candidate that is going to be the absolute best fit to lead the district forward. Let me talk very briefly about the transition phase and Ron we can go right right to that last slide. Uh we stay with you once you make your selection. Uh once you make your selection, we will sit down with you and take the information learned from the profile the uh leadership profile report and help develop help you with the superintendent develop your shared goals uh the 100 day entry plan and uh we can provide a

107dashboard to um show the progress uh over over that uh initial transition phase. Uh we've added and in our proposal, it's not on the slide, we've added an academy uh transition workshop. Uh and it's included in our proposal at no cost. If a person signs up to take that workshop, it's typically $4,500. uh that is used to help uh the uh new superintendent uh with the 100 day entry plan uh with uh transitioning into your budget uh and your budget uh process which u u uh we we went over in detail and and and looking at uh the challenges with that budget especially in terms of uh local share and I I believe some federal dollars that were uh recently u uh lost in terms of support, but all of that can take place during

108that transition phase. That's the uh the formal presentation that that we have and uh we'd be happy to try to respond to any questions or uh provide any clarification uh if that would be helpful. >> Thank you, sir. Mr. John Simmons, >> um what is your total price for everything? >> What is your total price for everything? the uh the total the total price uh that we quoted for the search itself was $38,500. We allowed it we allowed $4,000 for uh travel onsite. Uh and all we that we charge uh based on GAO uh and uh uh uh IRS rates. Uh uh there is no charge for meals or anything of that nature. Uh it includes two advertising packages. are packaged with uh the uh education week which is really the the base. It includes

109uh uh NASBY and olives that I mentioned uh that that's $3,650 and uh it includes that background investigation, the comprehensive one which is $1,950. That totals $48,100. Got you. >> Thank you, Mr. Adam. Dr. Adams. Um next up we have Dr. Cherry Luckler, >> I have two two questions. Uh number one, talk to me a little bit more about your process um this community engagement piece when you're um conducting individual interviews, focus groups, community forums. Uh is is that something that you would facilitate here uh locally on the ground? uh both on the ground and a a hybrid uh ba uh based on what's decided. We provide 24 intake sessions. Uh and um we that's the base usually and it's it's in the proposal that that we've included 24 intake sessions. We will interview each

110of you. Uh and we recommend um certainly uh meeting with uh your uh cabinet level administrators uh your building level leadership, your teachers, uh your support, your paras uh uh your parents. Certainly, we recommend I I know you have six high schools, but we recommend meeting with uh high school students uh middle school students uh if uh if you uh would like uh and we we get the input that way. We also recommend meeting with uh groups that may not be supportive of the schools so that you have both the distractors and the supporters uh that that participate in a in a process that that's wide open. But we will meet onsite. Uh we will meet uh uh virtually as well. I will be very frank with you. There is a higher level of participation

111in the virtual meetings generally than our face toface. But sometimes we'll do both. We'll do a we'll do a a community session uh uh on-site or community sessions, town hall meetings, or we'll andor we'll we'll do a virtual one for those people that couldn't come out and participate face to face. Ron, anything you would add to that? >> Yes, thank you, Bill. Um, I agree 100%. Um, one of the great things about our relationship is Bill actually recruited me to be a superintendent in my first superintendency. And I can tell you that it was very hands-on and very robust and I learned a lot before I even sat in the chair. I was a superintendent uh for 13 years. And in my last superintendency, one of my most um memorable parts of that process was

112interviewing with high school students. The board selected that to be a part of their customized process. And it was and it was um so eyeopening to hear from those students who you're going to serve um who you could possibly serve if you're fortunate enough as the superintendent. So I I agree with what Bill shared 100% that uh we can customize it to what you um want and our contract covers both in person as well as virtual. >> Okay. Thank you. Do you have a sense of your um uh retention rate after 5 10 or 15 years? >> There there there's a couple of statistics. It's it's it's very hard to keep track and it's been even harder since CO and the change that occurred there. But we have an interesting stat. It's it's dated, but

113from the year 2000 to the year uh 2016, uh we did a ton of searches and u 80% of the superintendent that served during that time were that that were hired either were still serving in 2016 or retired from the job uh as as part of that process. I can tell you this on in terms of average uh our average today is around 5.6 5.7 years in district. Uh the national average is around 4.6 and if you look at uh all urbans in America it's around 2.8. The great city schools the 75 great city schools it's about 2.3. Uh so um we have in today's environment which is uh and I freely admit a much different environment uh than when I served as a superintendent. Um it's it's it's better than uh what most of

114our competitors can tell you. >> Do you also offer a two-year guarantee? >> Yes, we do. The only caveat with the two-year guarantee uh is that if more than half of you change between the first and second year, uh the guarantee is off in the second year. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions for Dr. Adams and Dr. Taylor, >> fellas? I thank you for your time. Great presentation. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Have a great evening. Good evening. I want to call to order uh July 14, 2026 regular board of education meeting for the public schools of Robinson County. Will you please stand for a moment of silence, please? Amen. Will you join me in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America

115and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. [clears throat] At this time, we will proceed with the oaths of office for our reelected board members. We'll start with Dr. Linda Emanuel, Superior Court Judge Jame Gregory Bale, District 16B. We ask that all family members if you'll join please. >> Okay. [snorts] Let me get on my phone. >> [snorts] >> Um, >> I have to introduce my family. I'm so sorry you shouldn't give me the mic. This is my daughter, Tanya. This is my grandson, Justin. This is my adopted son, Luther. This is my honorable grandson, KJ. This is my baby, Jacob. My, which is my grandson. This is my sister, Lynn, and she's somewhere behind me. This is my famous daughter,

116Anessa. And of course, this is my honorable Judge Bill. Okay. Did I miss anyone? Will you give my family a hand, please, for putting up with me? [applause] Now, do any of them favor me? Take a good look. >> All of them. Okay. Now, we'll get down to business. All right. Yeah. [snorts] To >> affirm or swear. >> It doesn't matter. >> Which way you want us to face? Okay. >> Okay. [snorts] >> Right. If you'll raise your right hand. [snorts] I state your name. >> I, Lindy Emanuel. is solemnly affirm that I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina not in inconsistent therewith and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office as a member of the public schools

117of Robson County Board of Education. So help me God if you agree say I do. >> I do. >> I state your name. Linda Emanuel >> solemnly affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States, that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are may be established for the government thereof, and that I will endeavor [crying] to support, maintain, and defend the Constitution of said state, not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, to the best of my knowledge and ability. So help me God if you agree. Say I do. >> I do. >> I state your name, >> Linda Emanuel. >> To further affirm that I will well and truly execute the duties of office of

118a member of the public schools of Robinson County Board of Education according to the best of my skill and ability according to law. So help me God. If you agree, say I do. >> I do. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. [applause] Thank you. Thank you guys. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you. Thank you, >> Dr. Value. Again, congratulations. Thank you for your service. >> Thank you. Next, let me ask >> Miss Melissa Davis Ocean Shercom District Court Judge Crystal Marvin representing District 20 and Miss Ocean family. If you would join her, please Okay. Okay. It is a pleasure to administer the oath to Melissa on tonight. And I'm gonna have you put your left hand on the Bible. Okay. Sit that there. Yes. Raise your right hand. >> Okay. >> Are you ready? >> I

119am. >> Okay. I And state your name. >> Melissa Davis Ocean. >> All right. Do you solemnly swear that you will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina, not inconsistent therewith, and that you will faithfully discharge the duties of your office as a member of the public schools of Robinson County Board of Education. So help you God. >> I do. >> All right. I and state your name. >> Melissa Davis Ocean. >> All right. Do you solemnly and sincerely swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States, that you will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina, and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof, and that

120you will endeavor to support, maintain, and defend the Constitution of said state not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States to the best of your knowledge and ability. So help you God. >> I do. >> All right. If you'll state your name. >> Melissa Davis Ocean. >> Do you further swear that you will well and truly execute the duties of the office of a member of the public schools of Robinson County Board of Education according to the best of your skill and ability according to law. So help you God. >> I do. >> All right. So sworn. >> All right. Thank you. [applause] >> [clears throat] >> Miss Ocean, congratulations. Thank you for your service. Next, let me ask Miss Christa Monroe if she'll step forward. And District Court Judge Leah Brit near District

1212, if you join her, please. And Miss Monroe's family, you're joining. Family, if you're join, >> it doesn't matter. Whatever you want to do, >> I can affirm. It's fine. >> Oh, I didn't see you. over there. >> Where do I need to be? Right here. >> Okay. >> Good evening. It's a pleasure to be here tonight. >> All right. Raise your right hand for me. I state your name. >> Crystal Monroe. do affirm that I will support and maintain the constitutions and law of the United States and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina, not inconsistent therewith, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office as a member of the public schools of Robinson County. So help me God. >> I do. >> I state your name, >> Crystal Monroe. do

122solemnly and sincerely affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and that I will fear I will faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof and that I will endeavor to support maintain and defend the Constitution of said state not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States to the best of my knowledge and ability. So help me God. >> I do. I state your name. >> Crystal Manurl. >> Further affirm that I will well and truly execute the duties of the office of a member of the public schools of Robinson County Board of Education according to the best of my skill and ability according to law. So help me God. >>

123I do. >> Congratulations. Thank you for all you do. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you. Mr. Maro, congratulations and thank you for your service. At this time, let me ask Mr. Trey Brick. Here you'll go again. Judge Leo Brick, Lenia, and [clears throat] Trey's family. You join me. >> Hold it. >> Left hand. >> All right. All right. So, we have to go by Stony River. >> All right. Everybody good? >> Yeah. >> All right. I state your name. >> Stony Robert the third. >> Do solemnly swear that I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina, not inconsistent there, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office as a member of the public schools of Robinson County Board

124of Education. So, help me God. >> Please say, I do. >> I do. I state your name. >> Stony Brit >> do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof. And that I will endeavor to support, maintain, and defend the Constitution of said state not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States to the best of my knowledge and ability. So help me God. I state your name. >> Stony it. >> F further swear that I will I will well and truly execute the duties of the office of a member of the public schools of Robinson County

125Board of Education according to the best of my skill and ability according to law. So help me God. >> I do. >> All right. Congratulations. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Let's get a picture. >> Come here. Let's take a picture. Let's take a picture. Thank you, Dr. Williamson. Hold on one second. I got some people I need to thank. First off, um I'll let these people go ahead and have a seat. First off, um I can say is the Lord's good. Never would I imagine my sister swearing me in, but the Lord's good. Um, my wife, I'm a lot to put up with, but she puts up with me, so I got to thank her. My dad, he's right there with me. He listens to me a lot, especially when the numerous phone calls and

126everything else. But, um, I'm thankful for a lot of people in this room. I invited you to come. You mean the world to me. I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for these people in this room. Um, I tell Dr. Williamson all the time and he knows you're only as good as the people you surround yourself with. Dr. Williamson, I surround myself with some good people. Good good things happen when you surround yourself with good people. >> Absolutely. >> So, I thank each and every one of you that I invited. I appreciate you. This isn't my seat. Yeah, I do hold it, but it's y'all's seat. I represent y'all, the people of Robinson County, and we're going to do what's best for the students and staff moving forward. Thank y'all. [applause] Trey,

127congratulations and thank you for your service. Next item on our agenda, item D, election of the chairman of the board of education for the academic school year 2627. At this time, I will open the floor for nominations to serve as board chair. nominations for board chair at this time to serve for 2627 academic school year. >> I make an nomination that we nominate Terry Lcleair for board chair. >> Is there a second? does not require a second. >> Okay. Is there another nomination? >> Um, I would like to nominate Mr. John Simmons. >> Mr. John Simmons has been nominated. Is another name? If not, I entertain a motion to I'm sorry, Dr. Manuel. >> I make a motion that all nominations come to a close. >> Thank you. Move that nominations come to a close.

128Is there a second? All approved. Any oppose? Thank you. At this time and we'll ask for Do you raise your hand, please? >> Excuse me. Do we do we have Mr. Lowry on the line? >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. Yes. Did you vote on that last motion to close nominations? >> Yes, I did. >> Okay. So, that's an 110 vote you. Okay. Thank you. >> Great. At this time, we entertain a vote. Those in favor of Mr. Terry Lachley to serve as board chair, will you signify that by raising up your hand so we can take a count, please? >> I vote for that. [sighs] >> What's the count? >> I'm sorry. Can raise your hand. Keep your hands up. >> And Mr. Mr. Lowry, you're voting for Mr. Lair. >> Yes, I

129am. >> Thank you. Right. That's five votes for Mr. Lley. >> At this time, we'll entertain a vote for Mr. John Simmons to serve as board chair. If you do the same, raise your hand, please. >> That's six votes for Mr. Simmons. >> Good. Before I welcome our welcome our new board chair, let me say to Mr. Brit again, thank you for your leadership serving for a year as our chair. [applause] [clears throat] >> [clears throat] >> Good evening everyone. Um, I want to thank those who supported me and I also want to thank those who didn't support me. Hopefully before my term over those who didn't support me will feel the same as those who did. Uh, next item on the board agenda is going to be elect vice chair. Any nominations? >> Ready

130to come on. M. >> I make a motion that we nominate Dr. Terry Lleair for vice chair. Okay, we got a nomination for Mr. Terry Lleair. Anyone else? >> I make a nomination that we vote for Mr. Bradley Phillips. We have a nomination for Mr. Bradley Phillips. Okay. Anyone else? Mr. Mr. Johnson, I make a motion that we close nominations for vice chair. >> All motion is closed. Um the two candidates is Mr. Cherry Lair and Mr. Bradleyfield. >> That requires a second vote. >> Need a vote on closing nominations. >> Nomination is closed this time. >> You need a vote. >> Just need second. All those in favor say I. Any opposes? All right. Um this time for all the vote for Dr. Cherry Lley, vice chair. Raise your hand. >> I >> Mr.

131Craig. >> Hi. >> Okay. All for Bradley Phillip as vice chair. Raise your hand six. At this time, Mr. Bfield become the vice chair. >> [clears throat] >> Mr. Phillips, congratulations, sir. [clears throat] Want to say anything? Want to say anything? Get your button. I appreciate the opportunity to serve in this capacity and um help um continue to unite this board and move uh forward to um support our students and staff of PSRC. Thank you. >> All right, with that, uh need a motion for the um adopted agenda. >> Got a motion by Miss Crystalfield. I'm sorry, M. Crystal Monroe. I'm sorry. And second by Mr. uh Trey Britt. All in favor by saying I need a motion to approve the minutes. Yeah. Dr. Turtle Lley, >> did anyone else um receive the minutes prior

132to this meeting because they were on the desk when I got here? >> So, did anyone else receive them ahead of time? We can defer to minutes until the next board meeting if you don't mind. Thank you. Miss Filson, >> I'd like to uh move to amend the agenda by adding a curriculum update under the information items section, please. >> I already approved the agenda. I had to do that before the agenda's approved. >> You sure? >> Yeah. Okay. >> All right. Information item. Um, testing calendar. Miss Cindy Lewis. >> I'm sorry. Yeah. Go ahead. >> Good evening. Good evening, Chairman Simmons, Superintendent Williamson, Interim Superintendent Harrison, and board members. Included in your board package is the 2026 2027 school testing calendar, which now covers both the traditional school calendar and early college calendar. If

133you've reviewed our calendars in the past, you realize that this calendar seems to be more extensive uh and more detailed than it has been in the past. And that's because we have updated to the ADA compliance as well as combined early college and uh traditional schools. The process for developing our calendar starts with the information or the operational testing calendar from NCDPI. Once we receive that, we use their wide windows and build their our testing calendar through our um and with our calendar, our school year calendar. Uh once the testing department does that, we meet with a committee including the high school principles, middle school principles, and elementary principles as well as your school test coordinators or a representative of your school test coordinators from those levels and we invite the teacher of the year

134to that meeting. At this meeting, we look at the calendar, we revise it as needed and now we present it to you. the board. If you have any questions, I'll take those now. >> Ma'am, >> I don't have any questions. I just [clears throat] Miss Lewis, do you need this to be moved to approved item or what is it you need us to do? >> No, ma'am. This is anformational item only. >> Will it eventually have to be approved by the board? >> No, ma'am. >> Okay. So, noted. I think it's very comprehensive. Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you. I don't have any questions. >> Lock. >> This may not be a question for you, Miss uh Miss Lewis, but um is there a process uh required by DPI that we do a uh that we

135do a virtual learning plan during the summer before the school year? >> A virtual learning plan. If we plan on doing virtual learning for alternate weather >> that would be more of curriculum. [clears throat] >> Does anybody else have any testing questions? >> Yes, we submitted that for um to DPI to show that we would use those days if necessary for virtual learning >> for weather. Okay. I just wanted to make sure we had completed that. Thank you. >> Any other questions? Thank you, Miss Lewis, Dr. Car. Next is um recogniz athletes sports day partners Leech. on and um on last last board beat you see us recognize our athletes um that came through here for their great job that they did during the season during this past uh sports season. Um make all state

136all conference and everything. Um tonight we want to recognize um um some people that that helped the athletes stuff along the way last year. Um it was our first year doing it and we had over a thousand physicals this past year. This past May, um we had over,200 field free field schools to all the kids, middle school and high school kids. And we want to just show our appreciation and thank um UNCC help. You come up. We got um we got uh Mr. Henry Edwards, Dr. James um Schlaughterbeck and um Miss Mel Melissa Owens. We just want to thank you on behalf of uh the school system and um and our kids and the board members. Please come up. >> [applause] >> Hey, and we look forward to doing it again next year. Come on,

137get out in front. Oh, yeah. Get out in front. There you go. Get on up. >> [applause] >> Stay up here. Stay up here. >> I just wanted to say thank you very much. It's an honor to serve the the the region and it's it's you know we're standing up here as three there was over 90 people that were physicians and assistants and physical therapists that helped Chris Ellington really helped spearhead this this for us all and I just from all of us we just thank you. We love uh keeping taking good care of the athletes and getting them back to play and Saturday clinics. So thank you so much for giving us this opportunity. Thank you. [applause] >> Um, next we have uh another another uh group that I want to call out is

138a Outback State House of Lumberton. You heard it say we had over 90 positions and they they fed they made sure the positions were fed. And I want to thank Outback Olymp, [applause] uh we're really grateful for the community here uh and all our guests uh that have really became like family to us and given us the opportunity to get involved. something we're super passionate about and we're just thankful for for everybody in the community. >> Come on, boy. Get in the front. Good job. All right, stand here. One more and we'll be done. Got one more. Thank you, sir. And um last but not least, we want to um thank the brothers of u Omega Sci-Fi, new chapter of Omega Sci-Fi Fraternity Incorporated. They came out that day. They helped me serve the kids

139u we fed the kids hot dogs and um chips and drink right where they miss school and stuff. Um I want to call out brother. He's also the bosses for this local chapter here. Brother Mandre McCorin. Appreciate it, brother. [applause] No, this is outstanding. Uh, you know, that's one of our models. Lifting as we climb climb our watch word is service. Um, there's nothing like giving back to the community. And again, I'm the boss list for the graduate chapter of Omega Sci-Fi Beta New here. And again, some of you know my face. I teach over at the high school. So, you know, I served my country for 30 years and I was always want to do the community. So, I'm back here and I'm living a dream. So, I thank you very much for this

140award. Thank you. [applause] stand up. >> And that's it. Thank y'all. [applause] Next up, we have update on the CTE plan and science and Mr. Bobby Locker. Congratulations, Chairman Simmons, Vice Chairman Phillips. Uh good evening, Dr. Williams, Dr. Harrison, and board members. Uh we provided in your packet Metcon's monthly newsletter as it pertains to the status of our uh new career and technical education center and um planetarium and science center. went out on site today and just wanted to provide you even though the information that was included in your board packet was recent as of a couple of weeks ago. Wanted to provide you some more information as the project is quickly moving along to completion. So here we have uh thanks to Mr. Thiel from our technology department uh he goes out monthly and

141has tracked the progress of this building. So when we are finished, we're going to have a complete portfolio from when it was just dirt uh all the way to what you're seeing today. So this video was taken the end of June. So uh what we see here is our uh instructional staircase that was a uh I think a plan of Mr. Herman's. Uh to the left here is the ellipse and there are office spaces in this. To the right are our computer engineering and network engineering classrooms. This is the second level. Uh I think we're going to spin and you're going to see the back end of the drafting classroom there outlined in the blue. The other labs are are located on the right hand side of this particular video. As I've stated, the crews

142are moving right along. They've taken up all the paper off the floor. So what you see in here is the actual floor in the facility. Now the planetarium is to the left of this particular video. And these color schemes that you see along the walls are going to be throughout the entire building, even into the science center. So wanted to provide you some updated photos. Uh the left photo here is of the culinary lab. Uh if you can look here, you can see the TVs mounted at the front of the classroom. So as we've shared with you many times before, these are instructional places. So instructional uh labs in the classrooms. So uh as the teacher is preparing a meal, a cake or whatever, students will a will be able to see that instructor doing

143the work on the TVs at the front of the classroom. We're in conversation. We've already met with the health department to ensure that all of our health inspections go through here so that when we open the doors, we'll be ready to go. To the right hand side of this particular photo is the uh ambulance simulator. Although it is white, uh the gentleman on site today told me that it will be wrapped as a regular ambulance with our logo on the side of it. functional lights, functional medical equipment inside inside the ambulance. He demonstrated for me. He was very happy to turn the lights on and the sirens and all of that in the classroom today. Next, you see uh state-of-the-art to the left is our automotive room. During the process, the um old auto lift

144that was being that had been spec for this particular uh space was no longer available. So, the company gave us the most upto-date uh alignment machine. So, we had to do some reconfiguration in this space, but everything you see in the automotive space is going to be probably better than what most modern garages in the county have right now. to the right hand side is our we decided to do two megatronics labs. So what you see on the right hand side are the equipment or is the equipment that's going into the megatronics lab. Tried to get a good picture of the planetarium. And of course if you ever been to a planetarium the secret is is that it stays dark all the time. So but uh I got as much light as I possibly could

145in here. You can see we already have the seating here. Not sure that you can see. I think that may be the star ball in the middle to the right uh in the planetarium. We have one more piece of equipment that should arrive here at the office in the coming days to complete installation in the planetarium. Uh Ken along with a couple of other staff members, Mr. Cole has been part of training at the planetarium. I think they've done at least a 4-day training with a possible couple of other days uh coming up as well. The photo to the right has t was taken at the end of the science center. Uh so again, this place th this particular area we believe I believe is at almost 100% complete and could occupy individuals immediately. One

146of the highlights, and I'm not sure if you've if you had the opportunity to drive by this site prior to that to the asphalt going down. Um, the gentleman told me, he said, "When we get asphalt on this place, it's going to look night and day." And I didn't believe it until the day I drove by and they started paving the parking lot and it be to look like a school or look like a building. Uh again this video here is uh again from the last week in June the conexes should be gone. One of the things we talked about at our end of June meeting was grass and what uh we had originally planned just to throw seed I guess is the easiest way to say it and hope that it growed. Uh but

147in our conversation we got a price to uh do a irrigation system here and to saw this facility. So, uh, when we open in the coming weeks, we will have green grass at this particular facility. We're not going to wait on the grass to grow. So, again, I just looking at this facility from the air, from the ground on the outside, it is absolutely amazing to me. It is, if not one of the finest buildings in Robinson County, it's up there in the top three. I'm not sure that there's anything else in Robinson County that's going to come close to what we've been able to accomplish at this site. This is a key piece that I believe leading into the main entrance of the facility is our inlay. Everyday students, visitors, whoever visits this building,

148they're going to walk across our seal into that facility. So again, I again I believe this is everything that's in this building has thought and purpose behind it. Um took another picture standing out toward the parking lot just to give you a perspective of the entrance going in with the CEK monument there. Also wanted to share with you and for some reason it did not show but uh share with you the exterior photos here. Again, I wanted to highlight that there are currently planting trees along the facility along with some shrubbery and other things. One of the photos for whatever reason did not show up uh is the is the um telescope pad from the uh for for walking out of the science center. And lastly, Cole, I'm not sure this this was the updated

149one, but just to make this was the end of the Metcon report, but just want to make you aware tentatively, and I think Miss Jessica has placed some information either was in your board packet or was left for you. tentatively. Our open house is scheduled for Friday, August 26, beginning at 8:00 a.m. We will follow the next day uh Saturday, August 22 21st, I'm sorry, 21st um at 8:00 a.m. Uh we will then follow the next day with an open house and just invite the community to walk through, tour the facility. the instructors will be on site that if parents or community members have any questions about what will take place in that lab, what the curriculum will be, they will be able to answer those questions for them at that time. And that time

150on that Saturday again is going to be 9 to 12. Again, these dates are tentative. We are work, Metcon and SFLA are working diligently to meet this deadline uh so we can show this showpiece to the community and everyone that helped make this a reality. [clears throat] >> Dr. May, I have two questions. I know there's such a thing as a punch list now. Are they at the point where they're doing the list now and they're working on that and why by us moving in so quickly, is that going to hinder a lot of that those things they're having to do? >> So, so good question. So, Metcon has be has begun some of their initial punch list. So, they will they will from my understanding the conversation between Metcon and SLNA is they will

151begin to roll those punch lists together. So, Metcon will get at least two to three weeks if not a month in front of SF LNA. Then SFNA will follow them. That's why we have said this is a tentative date for us to do our our ribbon cutting. >> Now, I I haven't heard this and I would assume what kind of warranties I don't list them all. Do we have a list of warranties like on heat and air >> blah blah blah? Somebody has a list of all that stuff somewhere. >> So when we >> don't quote it just >> so when we take ownership of the building uh Metcom will prepare all of those documents and we will get those to maintenance. >> Okay. >> So everything that we have in the building the equipment

152is come from coming from Meteor of course will have warranty and there's owner training that's going to go along with the pieces of equipment we're putting in those classrooms. Also all mechanical will have a warranty with it as well. But all of those documents will be cons submitted back to us when we take ownership of the building. >> All right. Thank you. >> But both companies are working diligently. We have been in communication with both Metcon and SF LNA about this timeline and they feel confident that they can meet it. Herman, let me ask you anything on the equipment. You want to address that state-of-the-art the training, please? >> Mike. >> Oh yeah. >> Yes. Uh let me say good evenings to everyone. Uh the equipment that is being placed there is state-of-the-art equipment. Uh

153Mr. Bobby just talked about training that will start uh with our staff on that equipment. Um that will start next week. I talked with them earlier today with Metcom and they have the welding shop ready for training to be going on there. And I don't know if you folks know what the [snorts] CN CNC machine for the plasma cutter looks like. Well, we had a small little machine. This machine that is sitting in that building right now today is out of this world compared to what we had. It's going to be of course computer operated, all that good stuff. And it's really, really nice. Not to even talk about the 20 welding booths that have their own air purification systems built into each booth. So that is just you know phenomenal. You Mr. Bobby talked

154about the automotive um alignment machine. There has been dealerships in the surrounding area calling us to be able to come and see some of the training with that because they don't even have anything close because it's a laser alignment machine. That's why we had to make some adjustments in that um automotive shop in order to get that in there. It's and you know the typical alignment is done mechanically ch turning the wheels and all this. This is done by laser alignment. So just imagine that and and I couldn't stand here without even saying something about state-of-the-art culinary. You saw a picture picture didn't do justice, Bobby. You didn't do a good job on that one. But, uh, th that is a wonderful lab if you want to see a state-of-the-art culinary that I would put

155up against Johnson and Wales if you're familiar with them. And it is awesome. And like you said, there those monitors in there that will be u [clears throat] controlled by the instructor with an iPad. So, wherever the instructor's at, those cameras will follow. There's five cameras in the ceiling that will feed to the monitors and students won't have to gather around a table to see what's being done as the instructor is uh instructing. So, it's state-of-the-art all the way. Megatronics is going to be awesome. when we look at the hydraulic systems, pneumatic systems, the uh robotic systems and all those different parts that those students will be getting certifications. I have to mention that those students will be getting certifications on all those different systems. It's going to be amazing. Amazing. And of course, you

156saw the uh ambulance simulator. it. I I saw that about a week ago and you know it looks really good just without any color to it and all the equipment that is going to be in there. Anything that's on a truck that they refer to uh that you see at Lton Rescue or Pimro Rescue or wherever anything that's on that truck that is going to be in that ambulance simulator. Think about it. that it's going to be the greatest, the newest, and everything else with that and training will start next week with some of those uh departments in those shop areas. >> While you're up there, Mr. Hammer, uh we also want to congratulate on for being the um San Hill Regional Career Technical Administrator of the year. >> Thank you. [applause] Thank you. >>

157Thank you, >> Dr. Cob. if you were steps and we've been meeting all year in terms of academics in terms of scheduling transportation. Where are we with that? >> So, as far as schedules, all schedules should be um have gone home with our kids for the high schools. Um we are reviewing schedules for our K8 schools to make sure they are aligned with the number of minutes that are required as we speak. They submitted those about two weeks ago. Um, and we are realigning the transportation needs for our EC students to make sure that they're met based on the location they are attending. Um, and so we have everything currently up to date ready [snorts and clears throat] to go. >> Great. So, Herman, we our intent is to serve 250 plus students next semester

158and then max out in the spring. Correct. Okay. >> Mer. Okay. Five. >> Mr. Bobby, I got a question. I know us board members are going to get hit with it here as soon as these doors open to this bill. And Dr. Williams, you can chime in if you want to. What is the plan for the old hilly branch now? And what is what is their inform us that way we can inform our constituents when they ask us because I know that question is coming. >> So, what we've asked Mr. Herman to do in the meantime is inventory equipment and everything that's currently in the building. Um once that is complete and we know a 100% sure of our move in date, Dr. Whims and I uh along with the board will make a decision

159on our next steps. At this point in time, no final decision has been made for Hilly Branch. >> Thank you, sir. >> Terry, I want to congratulate everyone on this uh this facility. I mean, I I went in there a few months ago with the with with the rest of the board and um I could tell it was it was going to be um extraordinary, but with the pictures you've shown and um the technology you've described, it's it really looks um state-of-the-art and and I'm certain there's going to be other districts uh coming here and to looking at what we have and uh and hoping to replicate it in their areas. So, I was going to ask about um the enrollment. So, we're at 250 now. Um and what what is the total capacity of

160the facility? >> So so Herman if and some of the lab areas can hold 24 students. They were designed for 24 like welding for instance we do 24. Some of the classrooms uh network engineering, computer engineering, we hit uh the upstairs classrooms we targeted 30. So it is our intent to hopefully get to around 500 students at full capacity in the morning and an additional 500 in the afternoon. I'm particularly excited about the planetarium. I cannot wait. Thank you. >> One thing I will say with the equipment uh that we have coming in the building, understand that that's all brand new, and we have looked at taking some of the equipment that's fairly new uh the career center and relocating it to some of our schools that need other equipment, some of the computers that

161will go to uh some of our CTE programs somewhere else. And of course we have one uh a mechanics program at Pernal Sweat and they are you know really need some stuff that we have that's not really hurt and we can transfer that over and we're in the process of looking at that list and making a transfer request for that that equipment. >> Mr. Craig. [clears throat] >> Thank you chairman. Uh Mr. Bobby or Mr. Herman, the labs that were created for companies to come in, are we still looking at second semester or later of bringing in companies uh that would do instruction? >> Yes. So, in our convers in our conversation is our plan to what I'm going to say get the building up off the ground, get at least six months underneath our

162feet before we open those spaces up and begin to invite uh industries into those four business labs. And thank you, >> Herman. Let me ask you, how many letters of interest do we have at this point from business and industry that want to be a part of that? >> Yes. I I get folks emailing me all the time about that. Uh Scotland uh Memorial Hospital, they they they're dying to have a meeting and I'm saying, "We're not ready for, you know, to invite you into the building at this time." But anyway, uh I have like I know five concrete people, I mean concrete companies, I'll say is that are ready to come um you know that they're just biting at the bits. They can't wait. They want to see how this is going to operate

163and and I've been meeting with these companies and trying to explain to them the process and how it's going to be operational and how they can be a part of that. And a lot of them are just wanting to know how is this reverse internship going to be different from internships on site. And first of all, they don't have to worry about their insurance policies on site because they're going to be coming to our site doing the reverse internship. And then students won't have to worry about transportation getting to their sites because we have transportation to get them to our site. So, it's it's a just a win-win situation and I'm really excited about that. Um, and like Bobby said, we need some time to get the school operating before we start bringing them on

164board. >> Anyone else? >> Thank you, Mr. B. >> All right. Thank you. Next we have on finance financial amount excuse me financial monitor and review by Miss Ericson. >> Good evening Chairman Simmons, Superintendent Dr. Williamson, Dr. Harrison, and board members. You should have had um in your packet a letter from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Um Amanda Frederick, I hope I said her name correctly. She's our new um senior director over office of school business services and Mr. Irwin Benjamin. The public schools of Robinson County was selected for a monitoring visit. um that was completed and the review objectives, the 13 review objectives are listed in their letter that they submitted to us and we wanted the board to see that and see the final review status that no findings were identified

165and that this review is considered closed and complete and we didn't receive this notification until Friday. Um, but it should have been included with your packet. I can answer any questions. >> Eric, just thank you and your team for the work that you do and you always come in with clean audits and we appreciate that. >> Thank you, >> Miss. >> I don't have a question. um Miss Erica, but I do want to thank you for always having great audits and clear um setting clear expectations and and explanations for us. We appreciate it. >> Thank you, >> Dr. May. >> I'm curious, Miss Erica, what is a suspense account? >> So, a suspense account is like when we pay our orbit account, for example. Um the orbit goes into our bank account and the suspense

166account records that in our bank account and then uh orbit which is the online retirement takes that from our bank account. So that transaction will be considered what is a suspense account. >> Are they able to see any shortfalls in our monies? In other words, are they able to see that we're going to have a shortfall? Are they able to detect that? I'm sure they will once our audit is in place. >> Yes. >> Okay. Yes, ma'am. >> All right. Thank you and congratulations. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you, Mir. >> Thank you. >> Public comments. We have one Mr. um Charles Graham. Mr. Charles Graham. Okay. He's not here. Action items. Um, PSR beginning teacher support program, Mr. Jamal Camel. [clears throat] Good evening, Chairman Simmons, um, school

167board members, Dr. Harrison, Dr. Williamson. Um, I want to present to you tonight the PSRC beginning teacher support program. Um in your packet I provide a one-page summary of the program um that helps our new teachers um and then in the next page were the more detailed um parts of the program. Also this um plan has already been approved by NCDPI. Um we've done the peer review for our plan and so tonight I'm just asking for your approval for this plan. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Leech got a question. >> No, go ahead. >> Go ahead. >> No, go ahead. >> Go ahead. >> A motion to approve this uh beginning teacher plan. >> Got a motion approved by Mr. Leech, second by Dr. Emanuel. All in favor by saying I. >> Mr. Craig.

168Mr. Hurry. >> Ty's muted. Tom's muted. >> Miss Craig, I'll mute your phone there. >> We'll record that as 10. [snorts] Next, we have AC contracts with Dr. Um car m Dr. Car >> one question. >> Go ahead. >> Okay. [clears throat] >> All right. All of these and this is me personally. >> I'm going to make a motion to approve, but I have a question about the sun bill. Would you go back to that one? >> Yes. >> Uh first of all, there's some error in the address. [clears throat] I'm not sure would make it a difference. might legally if we had is they've got the old address 410 Cait Road. It's on page nine as well the old address. >> So these are still pending legal review but um because they put their

169address in there so I have to check with them because I don't have their address. So >> that's our address they're referring to. >> Oh I'm sorry. Yes, we can fix that. Yeah. >> Yes. I'm sorry. Yes, we can fix that. also with Sunbuilt [snorts] because it's very vague. It talks about it has $350,000 but give me an example of independent contractor that would be paid out of this. Give me an example. >> So for Sunb Belt it is for deaf or heart of hearing that's most of the services that we get through Sunb Belt. So it's somebody that's going in and helping interpret um for our students. Um so they are our deaf and heart of hearing services and they also provide occupational therapy services. So it could be just independent people, not just

170one company. >> No, Sunb Belt hires them independ independent contractors. >> Independent people. >> Yes. >> Okay. With that in mind, unless someone has an objection, I make a motion that we approve these contracts as presented. >> Yes. >> There mistakes in address. Yes. And that's what I I All these are pending legal review. >> Pending legal review. >> Dr. Carr, um this Sunb Belt, just layman's terms, they're just a contracting company that helps with deaf and heart of hearing. Are you correct correct on that? >> That's one of the services they provide. >> What about these independent contractors that we've got as well? Because just tell me if I'm doing this right. This one is not exceeding 350,000. This one is 585,000. Mhm. >> And there's another one for 585 or do I have

171two of the same sheet? >> It sounds like you have two of the same sheet. >> Okay. >> We don't have two that are 585. >> So basically a grand total of over 900,000. >> Yes, >> Mr. Curry. Go ahead. >> Yeah, M. John, just I was just going back saying I agreed with the previous vote. My computer had went down for a moment. >> When Mr. for said it was 100. I agree with the vote. Also, >> are you you're asking to Mr. Larry, are you asking to be uh uh recorded as a as a a yay vote in on the beginning teacher support plan? >> Yes, sir. That's correct. >> Thank you. >> Sorry about that. Sir, I just want uh the administration to confirm that the board is approving three different EC

172contracts with combined maximum obligation of about 1.28 million because there was some duplicate copies within our our packet. >> So, one of them should not be 585, one's 350. The other one should only be 350. So, I didn't realize there are two of the same. That sounds like there's two of the same ones in the packet. 250. [snorts] >> There's two 350. Sunb Belt is 350. Um [clears throat] speech I'm trying to think. >> Speech therapy language services. >> Yes, speech language services is uh Cole Pediatric is 350 and then um the other default hearing is 585. [snorts] >> Do we have um documentation on how we um on how this uh beating process was competitive? So these are the same. So these providers are so we seek providers every year but we try to

173stick with the same ones. So right now these are our same providers from last year. We have not changed any providers based on the services that they are providing. We don't usually seek new providers unless there's an issue with the providers that we have provided. Um deaf hearted hearing there's only two or three in the entire state to help provide the support. And so part of it is we're almost using every company in the area just to try to help provide the services. So we are constantly seeking um providers and looking for you know um competitive um opportunities with the universities to see if we can find some people that we can hire independently in our district. But that's we review the contracts every year based on the services they provided the previous year to

174see if they meet the needs of the district. >> So did we put it out for bid? >> No, these do not get put out for bid. Got a motion. You finished? >> Is that okay, Mr. Suarez? >> Yes, that's okay. >> Okay. I just wanted to make sure. >> Got a motion by Dr. Man. Need a second. Second by Mr. Leech. All in favor? >> The motion is to approve all three contracts pending legal review. >> What you see? >> I got this, man. >> Got a motion by Dr. May, second by Mr. Leech. All in favor saying I >> Mr. Craig. >> I 110 announce. Go [snorts] ahead. Announce. >> We got 11 110 vote on that. Next is the um AC contract. Dr. Williams. >> Great. Thank you, Mr. Chair and board

175members. I'm asking that we extend our current EC transportation contracts for one month and then for our board meeting in August, we're bringing to you the new contracts. >> Any question? >> Sorry, Brit. >> Dr. Williamson, you saying bring us the new contract? Is this the one that we talked about last year is what you're going to bring next month? >> That's that's correct. If you remember, we have a one pager and uh a nine pager. And last year we used the one pager. So we bring those two back for you to uh determine what you want to use. >> So we're going to have the option is what you're saying. >> Yes. >> Thank you, sir. >> This motion. >> Make a motion to approve. >> Mr. Craig. >> Uh Mr. Chairman, Dr. Williamson,

176with those new contracts, and I remember discussing last year, is this increasing the cost of our carriers? >> No. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Got a motion by Miss Ham, second by Mr. Brewer. All in favor? I see an I. >> I. >> The votes 110. >> Great. Thank you. Next is naming of the CT plan term um been tabled from February the 10th 2026. Dr. Williamson. >> Great. Mr. Chair, members, I want to start this conversation by asking our school board attorney if there have been a lot of motions and substitute motion. Can you clarify for us where we are in terms of what we may vote on tonight? I can try. Um um you had uh two different meetings in January and February when you tabled um action on the naming of the facility.

177In the January meeting, Miss Fields made [clears throat] um the con um in the January meeting, the recommendation came forth from the construction committee uh to recommend placing plaques rather than naming the facility. And that was a recommendation that came out of committee presented to the full board for consideration. And the recommendation included installing a plaque honoring James H. Hooks in the planetarium area and plaques honoring Drs. Barry Harding and Dr. Johnny Hunt to be placed in the building um uh at other places. Uh, Miss Christy Fields then offered a substitute motion to name the newly built planetarium for James Hooks as the James Hooks Planetarium with the name displayed on the exterior of the building in large lettering is the official facility name and to place Mr. Hook's portrait inside the building consistent with

178recognition practices. That motion was seconded by Mr. Brewer. Before a vote was taken, there were questions that were raised about policy 9300 and whether or not we were following that policy. Mr. Lowry then made a ultimately after a considerable discussion, Mr. Lowry made a motion to table the item which was seconded by Mr. Mr. Brewer and um passed by the board. So that whole item was tabled at the February board meeting with me one second if you would. There were um questions raised about um where things stood and I advised that the uh matter had been tabled. Um there was a motion made by Mr. Lowry to proceed with naming the facilities under the policy 9300 as currently written and to hold a public hearing. Um that passed and then a motion was made by

179Ms. Ocean to leave the naming of the facility on the table. That was seconded by Ms. Monroe. Um and um there was clarification that any policy revision would be separate from the current motion which only pertained to um uh the tableabling. That motion carried 110. So currently where this sits is is on the table. Um, and in order for it to be removed from the table, taken from the table, it would require a motion to remove from the table. If it's removed from the table, then the pending motion that would be on the floor would be Miss Field's motion regarding the naming of the planetarium. And that would be up for debate, discussion, and a vote. So the first thing you would need to do if there's going to be any consideration from this is

180to remove this from the table so that it can be further considered. I get list motion. >> I make a motion that we we remove the item from the table so we can have a discussion. >> Second. Okay. Got a a motion to move it from the table and bring it back for discussion by Miss Ocean, second by uh Trey Brit. Mr. Craig, how do you vote? >> I voted to remove it. >> Okay. Everyone else by raising your hand. All against raise your hand. M >> the benefit of having it removed [clears throat] again now >> I'm sorry. >> What is the benefit of having it removed off the table? >> If it's if it's removed [snorts] from the table, then it's back on the board agenda for consideration. >> Okay. I I'll vote

181for it. >> So that's 110 vote. 110. All right. With with that having been been done, now the status is we are back to the last motion that was pending before this was placed on the table. And that motion was Miss Field's motion to name the planetarium u for Mr. Hooks. And that the the exact motion was, excuse me, I got to go back here through a bunch of notes. >> This field substitute motion was to name the newly built planetarium the James Hook Planetarium with the name displayed on the exterior of the building in large lettering as the official facility name and to place Mr. the Hook's portrait inside the building consistent with recognition practices. That's the motion that's now pending. >> Mr. Schwarz, can I make a substitute motion now that it's on

182the floor? Can I make another motion since it's on the floor? I would like to make a motion that we keep the name public schools of Robson County Career and Technical Education Center as the new name and we place plaques on the inside as it was recommended from the construction committee and that his name would be there forever. >> Pla honoring >> the >> Dr. Harding, >> Dr. Harden, Dr. Hunt, and Mr. Hooks, the planetarian. I make that motion. Was it who was the second? >> Okay, thank you. >> So the mo substitute motion now is to keep the name of the career and technical Robinson career technical education center and to place plaques inside the building honoring Dr. Harding, Dr. Hunt and uh Mr. James Hooks. >> That is correct. And I would also

183like to add in there that if down the road if we want to add any other plaques for other superintendents, we can do that as well. In return, the name would stick forever. I already got one substitute motion. I'm sorry. What? Who's trying to do what? I'm Cherry was trying to make another motion. Do you have debate on this motion? I can't hear what anybody's talking there. >> Are we treating the two buildings as one building or two? Like is is the planetarium going to be like separated from the bris center or like is it >> Yeah, not the one on the substitute. Is one like the career center the other one like like sanitarium and science center like >> this is one motion both that's what Trey said >> you got one building >>

184one building and >> doing it one at a time >> right that's why our conversations have been career and technical education and so one building >> so it's one building then >> [snorts] >> We have to we have to handle the substitute motion first. Correct. >> You you had a substitute motion from Miss Fields that was pending. Now you've got a substitute motion to that from Mr. Britt. That's the pending motion. We'll call a question vote on it. >> Mr. Cray, >> Mr. Craig, >> I'm here. I'm here. I'm waiting. >> Did you hear everything that was said? >> I heard everything that was said. >> Okay. >> I have a I have a question for Mr. Trey. Mr. Trey or just a question in general when he said it could be other people listed

185other superintendents could be pl uh it might not necessarily be superintendent just other people that's just a comment >> that's fine I would like to just keep it the original that we had with Dr. Barry Harden Dr. Johnny Hunt and Mr. Hooks in the planetarium and leave it at that. >> How you vote, Mr. Gray? >> Yeah. >> I hear you. I'm thinking >> I'm trying to get little signal. All in favor of um putting a plaque inside the planetarium and the uh career tech by raising your hand. >> Substitute motion is to keep the name >> the substitute motion is to keep the name Robinson Career and Technical Education Center and to place plaques in the building honoring Dr. Harding, Dr. Hunt, and Mr. Hooks in the Planetarium. >> You can't can't do that.

186Sorry. This name would stay forever. You can't do that. >> Board policy requires that the minutes record the names of people voting on each side. So, I've got to get your uh >> names up here. >> I got them. I got them. Okay. So, I've got Mr. Brit, Miss Ocean, Miss Monroe, Mr. Leech, Mr. Phillips, and Mr. Simmons. Four. Mr. Lowry. Are you four? >> No. >> Okay. All against Raise your hand. >> Got Miss Fields, Miss Emanuel, Mr. Brewer, Dr. Llear, and Mr. Lowry. So, that passes 65. Motion pass. [applause] >> Thank you, Dr. Wel. >> Thank you, >> Terry. Um many of many of us attended the um the public forum uh the public hearing that we or forum that we had um uh last week about the naming of the school. Um

187and there there were there was a total of 20 people that spoke um 13 spoke for it and um and seven spoke against it. Let me just say that for everyone that came out and spoke, I want to personally thank them because uh because that's what um that's what citizenship looks like. That's what engagement looks like. Um that that exercise was exactly uh the way that the public should be engaging with us and I appreciate them coming out and and letting their voices be heard. So again, we had 13 for and 13 against it. Um, so I understand at this point the resistance behind changing the name of the facility, but I would also like to make a motion that we um put um a sign at the uh at the highway a little bit

188more permanent uh honoring those two gentlemen uh Dr. Harden and >> make another motion. It's already been approved. No, >> this is a separate motion, but it's not a matter that's on the agenda. Um, so it's the Mr. Dr. Ller. Um, is your suggestion? What was your suggestion? I'm sorry. >> So, we can have the PL on the inside. I mean, that's okay, too. But uh but I'm making a motion that we have some more permanent signage um on the outside of of the facility at the road honoring these two gentlemen. >> It's not on the agenda. >> Have to come back. >> You won't be able to do that. It's already been named. If you put another name outside the road, then you having two names for one building. Next on the agenda, um,

189but a budget amendment 2526, Mr. Urban, >> good evening again. I've included uh several 2526 budget amendments in your packet and I can answer any questions anyone has about those at this time. >> Miss Eric, has anything changed? >> No. >> Okay. I thought I didn't hear you. Go ahead. >> Miss Monroe has a question. >> She has a question. >> I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> The the minus 710 for the resource officers. What you can just tell me if that's in the good on the bad, the taken away. So the minus 710 for the resource officers, I had to get really creative at the end of the year to make sure we utilize all of our state funds first and other funding before hitting local. So we use the 069 funds to

190cover other areas outside of the resource officers. So that was a budget change from what we originally thought we would use um instate funds. >> Okay. >> The fun the 710 was used in 069 just not for resource officers. >> Okay. It was actually used in DSSAF. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I make a motion to approve. >> Got a motion to approve by Miss Ocean. >> Second by who was it? >> Trey. I'm sorry. Trey Brit and then uh Mr. Terry hit your button. Yeah. So, Mr. Schwarz, um I got a quick question. Is it legally and procedurally appropriate uh for the board to approve um the agenda from 25 to 26 u because the fiscal year uh year end closed? We're approving amendments, but the Okay, I just wanted to make sure. No

191problem. Okay. So, and it looks like um that uh there was Did we send some money back to the did did we spend all of our state allocation? >> We spent all the state allocations with the exception of the TA to teachers because the staff that we selected did not meet the criteria of being at an instate school. We talked about that in a previous meeting where um that procedure changed in the middle of a year and we had employees that were already uh selected for that program and they changed it to uh being instate. >> Okay, Mr. Craig? >> Yes. I don't have >> Say it again. I vote to approve. >> Okay. All in favor say I. [clears throat] Votes 110. Motion approved. >> Next is monthly financial report. Miss >> I can

192answer any questions anyone has about the monthly financial report. >> Make a motion to approve. >> Got a motion by Miss Ocean. Approve. >> Second by Mr. Bradley Phillips. Mr. Craig. >> I to approve. all for you by saying I >> I miss >> Erica I am looking at our state funds and the the final total is showing three and a half million deficit is that correct? >> No ma'am it's actually showing three and a half positive. So we have some funds that carry over and then some of our a lotments are position allotments. So we may be showing dollars there but we spend all the positions or their days now months of employment. >> So we have completely zeroed out on our budget and we're not carrying over any deficit for the next school

193year. We're not carrying a deficit. No, ma'am. But we spent just about all the local money we have to make sure um we didn't do that. >> And then what kind of shape will we be in next year at this same time? >> What are we looking what do we what do we need to prepare for as a board? >> Um we've already had that conversation. We've got to have an increase in local appropriations or we're going to we're not going to have any funds at this point next year to close out the school year. So, as soon as possible, we need to have another finance committee meeting. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Miss Erica. If we don't get any um additional funding from u uh any additional local funding, what will

194what will we look like? What kind of shape will we we be in this time next year? We've already we're having all of the conversations because we're processing the budget right now as we've talked about. Um we're going to have an impact to all of our local funds with the budget changes because the state does not fund for local China nutrition um federal programs. None of those a lotments will change based on this. But once we get all of that data in um we are in the process of going through all our funds to see what we can do um moving forward. But we don't have a local fund balance at this point. We've had that conversation. That's why we did the request to the county commissioners. Um, all of that has been said and

195stated and pleaded in the meeting that we had with them. Um, so at this point, we're going to have to go through every single thing we have and just cut where we can. >> I think we need to start having those conversations just [clears throat] in case. Mr. Curry, >> uh along with what Miss Currica is saying they're doing and uh with finance and our finance construction committee meeting, I think we need to work on establishing another meeting with commissioners as soon as possible and not wait until next spring to do that because we know we need money. I think they know it, but we still need to be meeting and talking about it. me Erica um did you get a chance and if not for next month show the state allocation for EC and

196then the total dollar amount so we understand why that happens do the same thing for transportation what we receive from the state what we actually spend and then the big one is contracted services which none of those are in our control. >> Yes, sir. Um, so I did get to do the breakdown and it's all the four areas that we've been discussing in our budget meetings and that we presented to our current commissioners. >> Um, in EC we spent a total of 26,81,498 and 2.1 of that came from our local funds. For transportation, we spent a total of9,674,18 and1,241,374 came from local funds. Substitute teachers, we spent a total of 5,94,466. $2,684,439 came from local funds. SRO's we spent a total of 2,941,287. 1,848,918 came from local. So, in all of the areas that that

197we've had a conversation about that we can't cut that are federally mandated, state mandated, um that are all requirements, those are the areas that hit us in local um based on the dollar amounts that I had previously shared with the board and we will continue to be underfunded in the next year in all of those areas. >> And let's just clear something up. Um do Miss Erica, um SRO, I appreciate the job they do. You heard the amount that we spend, but now that we PSRC pays for those SRO's. That is correct. >> And at the same time, if the county gives them a raise or if the city gives them a raise, we are obligated to fulfill that raise as well. >> $360,000 in the 2526 school year increase based on [clears throat] the

198raises that um our SRO's received. >> Thank you, ma'am. You got a question, Mr. Gray? >> Sorry. No, I don't. Okay, I'm good. >> Chair, if I may, Erica, we you and I also talked about the average pay increase 8% and that impact. Can you share that with us? >> So, this is very preliminary because we don't have a lot of the Q&As's, but the information is an average 8%. I want all the the teachers to to hear that part because everybody's not receiving 8%. Um, most of the staff with 10 years or less are going to receive double digit increases and it varies depending on your step, but anybody past 15 years on is probably going to receive at five or less than 5%. So that's what gets us to the average um increase

199there. It's the highest is 17 at the be at the beginning level. Uh, step zero is going to move from 41,000 to 48,000 and that's a 17% increase. And the lowest increase is where all of the steps are the same. Between step 15 to 24, they're going to get a 4.99% increase. And they will be stuck at that same rate from step 15 to 24. So, the total impact to non-state funds is close to $2.3 million. $2,298,210. That's for all of our non-state funds. That includes the 3% raise for uh noncertified employees, classified employees, the various bonuses. There's two different types of bonuses. Teachers who have um 15 years or less experience will receive $500. Teachers that have uh 16 or higher will receive $1,000. Everyone else, if they make less than 65,000, they will

200receive a $1,750 bonus. If they make more than 65,000, they will receive a $1,000 bonus. Hospital insurance went up 5%. It went from $8,500 a person to $8,925 a person. The retirement matching rate went up from 2467% to 26.10%. Factoring in all of those changes at this point, it that will hit all of our other budgets to around $2.3 million that we haven't accounted for yet. We hoping the Q&A comes out and gives us some additional information on the bonus. The state may cover the child nutrition costs. So, the child nutrition department would only have to pick up the raises and the benefit increases. We're still waiting for confirmation on that. Um, but at this point, all those other funds add up to about $2.3 million. >> Any questions on that? >> I will be

201send I'm sorry. I will be sending an email out to all of our employees so they can um the raises we are working right as we speak to get those in for 12-month employees. So they'll see that on their July check. We don't anticipate the bonuses being paid out until October. >> So we're able to close out this fiscal year with no exceptions. You've heard our local impact in in terms of dollars. attorney did an excellent job in terms of conversation we can have with our commissioners and I agree our takeaway tonight is we got to start that conversation early on we do not have any choice it is not a issue of somebody mismanaging something that's not the conversation conversation we're underfunded at the local level we got to have some No more question.

202Thank you, Mr. >> Thank you. >> Next, we got a um selection of a super. You got a question, Mr. Craig? >> No, I don't. Right. >> Okay. Next, we got a um selection of a superintendent search council by the attorney. Short version. You've had four presentations um from the firms that you saw earlier tonight. Um most of the board members are here for that. Um and uh so you've got you've got those before you. You can take action on this tonight. If you want to take more time to re to consider or read any of the materials that you got, you could defer action on this. You're not required to take action on it now. Um but um if you're prepared to take action on it tonight or anybody wants to make a motion

203to approve um any of the search firms, you may. Um uh with some of them, there's possibly room to negotiate as well. So um those are all factors for you to consider. >> Mr. chair. Um, with just listening to the financial report and, uh, taking everything in consideration, uh, I'd like to make a motion that we, uh, strongly consider as a board to, uh, use the North Carolina State Board for superintendent search. Got a motion by Mr. Henry Brewer, use the state [clears throat] >> North Carolina School Board Association. Second by Dr. Emanuel. Mr. Craig, how you vote? >> I vote for that. >> Everybody else by raising your hand. >> Dr. Question. Go ahead. >> I just wanted to say that um that I was that I was impressed with all of the um

204the firms that came out. Uh but in particular, if you if you look at uh HYA, um they've got a very high retention rate. Um they placed two over 2,000 superintendants. The price is about $20,000 more. But if you think about it, the the Mr. Schwarz, I think it was Mr. Schwarz that told us a four-year contract is pretty much standard now, >> right? >> Correct. So, I mean, when you're thinking about a four-year contract for a superintendent, um $20,000 is is not a lot. And I I do like the idea of of HYA having a nationwide a huge nationwide presence. Um, you know, it it may cost us $20,000 to get $20,000 more dollars to get somebody from right down the road, but just based on my experience, um, they're going to attract a

205lot more a huge pool outside of North Carolina and, uh, the individuals that they, uh, that they attract are going to be included in that schoolboard association, uh, pool as well. So, I just wanted to put that out there. I fully support the school board association, but I think it would um it would be money well spent to um to get a firm uh that has such a nationwide uh presence. Plus, they have the two-year guarantee and the school board station doesn't. >> You making a motion? Turn your mic back on. Hold. >> We didn't vote. >> This is a substitute motion. >> Sure. >> What is it? Go ahead. >> I'll make a substitute motion that we consider um HY. Anybody will second it. I had a feeling it wouldn't pass, but I just

206wanted to put it out there. >> Okay. >> Nobody second. So, the motion dies. >> Was okay. Aren't they able to see it? >> You have a question. >> Okay. >> Motion dies for >> Mr. Craig. How you vote? The vote is now on Mr. Brewer's motion for the North Carolina School Board to approve the North Carolina School Boards Association. >> Yes. >> Great. Vote. Yes. Everybody else, am I raising your hand? >> School Board Association. >> The be the one running. >> So it's 110. >> Votes 110. Motion pass. Who has the close session thing? Will you get the close session? request a close session motion. >> Yeah, >> I got I got it here. There you go. >> RIP. I move that the board enter into close session for the following purposes to

207consider confidential personnel matters as provided in North Carolina general statutes 143-318.11 A1 and A6 and 115C-319 and to consult with the board education's attorney to preserve the attorney client privilege and to discuss the following pending litigation Amber Dunn individually and as a parent and natural guardian of AD and BH minors AD and BH verse public schools of Robinson County. Uh Jessica Elizabeth Kimp versus the board of education public schools of Robinson County 25C V005984-770. Kathy Reeves and Frederick L. McCllum verston police department vers in the public schools of Robinson County. uh 7-26 CV000014- FL Jonathan Dow vers the board of education public schools of Robinson County 26-CV 00763-770 James Earl Carin II vers Joyce Brown 26CV00002520-770 as provided in North Carolina General Statutes 143-318.11A3 and to consider confidential student matters as provided in North Carolina

208General Statutes 143 3-318.11A1 and 115 C-402 and 28 US code 1232G pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes 143-318.11A1 and to consider close session minutes that are confidential pursuant to North Carolina General Statute 143-318.10E 10E and student test data that is confidential pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes 115 C-129C LC C3 and C4 and 115 C-81.5B4 and 16 NCAAC 6D 03110P and Q I need a second motion by Mr. Brit second by Mr. Leech. All in favor of close session. I say I. >> Mr. Craig. >> Thank you. issues. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Motion motion come out of close session. Mr. Bonte u made a motion second by Mr. Bradley. All in favor saying I. Cho. First, you want to do first. >> Okay. Need a motion personnel. A motion to approve personnel um by Mr.

209Bradley, second by Mr. Leech. All in favor by saying I know. Motion to approve. Um we ain't do close session minutes. We going to do it next meeting. Decided to defer action on the minutes. Anything else um for our um position that we going to be uh finance and all that? Me and Mr. Bradley get together um next week and you'll get an email where you going to be at. Need a motion to close. May >> I make one? >> If I may, um you're probably going to have to schedule a special meeting to deal with the superintendent search now that you've selected a search consultant. So that'll be just put that on your radar. That's going to be coming up. >> You just turn this one. Won't you just recess this one and come

210back in a week? >> So y'all want to do that? >> I don't know what their schedule is. So >> rather than come off for two weeks, we just say, "Hey, come back next week and be through with it." All right. Motion to adjourn. Who made a motion? Mr. Lee made a motion to adjourn. Mr. Brad second. All in favor? All right, let's go.