Construction | Curriculum | PSRC Board of Education Meetings: 3/30/26

001Good afternoon everyone. Call this construction meeting to order on here on March 3rd. Present we got myself, our chairman Mr. Britt Mr. Leak, Mr. Manuel Mr. Leach and Mr. Fields. Online we got uh Ms. Monroe, Robert Locklear and Mr. Craig Lowry. First order of business is a moment of silence. Okay, thank you. Next is the previous update for the Little Field sewer engineer design. Good good afternoon Chairman Seamans, board members, Dr. Williamson. So, for today's agenda we're going to walk through previously projects that have been approved and we have not yet completed those projects. So, outstanding project from 2024-2025 is the Little Field sewer system. Uh it has passed all environmental testing at this point. Um we according to LL&J, we are currently waiting on the sewer engineer guy to design the system so we

002can get that put in. Once once the system is designed, we will have a finalized cost for that project. And if you're the sewer system will run out by the baseball softball field into the track of woods behind that field is where we're going to end up tying the whole school into that sewer system. 25-26 capital outlay projects that were approved, uh we have completed the roof at Purnell Swett's auxiliary gym. We did ask Miss Erica and I with our engineer to hold off on Parkton and Union until we were able to get the funds recouped from our extra projects and we've since done that. So, I've gotten in touch with uh our engineer and we are moving forward with Parkton and Union Chapel roofs. Uh those should be beginning in the next couple of

003weeks. Uh I I handicap parking that is also in progress and should be completed shortly. We also >> [clears throat] >> approved some CTE projects that were based on a recent audit and three of our gyms required uh bleachers. So, the bleachers at Red Springs High have been completed. Fairmont High and St. Pauls High should both are both scheduled for this month. And I've also included what we've started doing is is having a running tally of all the projects that we have approved. >> [clears throat] >> So, in terms of the roof at Purnell Swett uh we estimated 220 225 100,000 dollars for that. The bid was actually almost 224,000. Uh, the roof at Parkton was bid at 146. The roof at Union Chapel was bid at 97, uh, thousand. The IAA parking and walkway

004were originally estimated about 15,000. That came in at almost, um, 5,700. The bleachers [clears throat] that we installed at Fremont High and, uh, all three, we estimated approximately 196. And you have this information at your desk. It's in the packet underneath your agenda. Fremont High [clears throat] bleachers, uh, once we get those installed will be a total of 226, 226,000 dollars. St. Paul's High is going to be approximately 260,000 dollars. I'll say those are all of our projects that we have approved previously and are not completed at this point. But as you can tell, all of them are in some sort of progress at this time. Mr. Chair, if I may. So, those are the projects that we have not completed. Bobby, would you just take a a minute because I want the public to

005hear all the completed projects from the sheet I passed to that. Um, some impressive list. And we very intentionally have touched every attendance zone. Take a minute, run through those starting with 22-23, please. Yes. So, um, what we, again, what we've done over the last few years is just keep a running tally of all the projects that we've completed. And in 22-23, we had a laundry list of, uh, out, uh, capital outlay projects. We went with a complete the parking at Long Branch and both IEA. We did some renovations at our Lumberton location and our Shining Stars. Um, we did propose doing the tennis courts at at Red Springs High, but we have not moved forward with that. We completed tennis courts at Purnell Swett. Um, bleachers at Lumberton Senior High were replaced during that

006year. We also made roof improvements at Lumberton Senior High auditorium, Pembroke Middle School, and also at Piney Grove. Uh, we had also discussed in 22-23 completing the athletic complex at Red Springs High. Um, we have not moved forward with that and we were able to purchase some maintenance vehicles in that year. Uh, that particular year in 22-23, we had a little over $3 million in planned capital outlay projects. For 23-24, um, we placed the modular unit at St. Pauls High, gave him an additional eight classrooms there. Uh, came to a cost of approximately $1.2 million for that project. We also, uh, went back and did kitchen renovations uh, at the Shining Stars location in Lumberton. We did the drop ceiling and LED lights at Oxendine Elementary and part of the modular units at St. Pauls

007High was also utility work that, uh, allowed us to connect the modular unit along with the multi-purpose building. You're going to see that, uh, all of our SO work is kept separate from this because of again, we just felt like those funds did not necessarily lend itself to capital and so we listed those separately. Uh, so in 23-24, we did have an emergency project at Townsend and we had to get to the roof there and this was discovered as we were doing HVAC work. So, the roof there cost us uh approximately $375,000. And to for our projects in 2024-2025, we completed the bleachers at Lumberton Junior High. We also paved the back parking lot at St. Pauls Middle. As I've already stated, uh Littlefield sewer replacement was part of those projects. That's still in progress

008and we did some locker renovations at Lumberton Senior. And those are all of our capital projects up until this current school year. >> [clears throat] >> What we are proposing for the 2026-2027 capital projects and is to do paving at Magnolia Elementary School along the back side of the elementary where it's a car drop-off. And again, all of these are estimates. We have not moved forward having a conversation with an engineer to kind of get nailed down hard prices here. I'm just trying to do an estimate based on other projects we've completed. Also, at Prospect Elementary School is to do a back parking lot for staff. Uh paving also at Red Springs High to see if we can come in and do some sealing and restriping there as opposed to trying to uh redo the

009entire parking lot. Going back to our Red Springs High athletic complex, we understand that uh in order to host regional track meets, there's three activities that need to be placed there, long jump, shot put, there's one more, and I cannot remember the third one. I apologize for that. High jump should be, Mr. Bobby. High jump, high jump. I thank you, Mr. Craig. And [snorts] also, we are looking at sodding the uh softball field there and doing the sprinkler system there. At least that way, the school can begin to use that field for soccer. >> [clears throat] >> And we are estimating that cost to be approximately $150,000. So So Bobby, at the Red Springs High project, that complex, if we complete these capital projects this year, the only thing left would be bleachers. Would be

010Um uh bleachers, scoreboard, field goal post, uh and the PA system. The bleachers that we have looked at already have a press box incorporated in them in them, and then whatever utilities it would take to get those uh to tie everything in. Mr. Bobby, can I say something? Let um Dr. Mayne Mr. Craig then you. >> Okay. Thank you. Go ahead, Dr. Mayne. How much I don't have a calculator, Bobby. I'm not that smart. How much have we spent in the last 5 years in capital outlay? Estimate, guesstimate. I know we talked about projected and once the past, and I like what you've given us here. This is it shows that we have needs and and have successfully completed most many of those needs in the last 5 years that you projected or this committee

011projected. But I'm just curious, what's a round ballpark we spent last 5 years? Yes, ma'am. Maybe Erica's got a bit better hold on it in capital outlay. >> [snorts] >> Uh SR funds were just 55 million. And without SR, I'm trying to project the future, just curious. And in those SR funds, remember we had two rounds of H vac work. We had an initial round out of two uh and three, we were able to tackle most of our high schools out of three. But also, we did playgrounds, outdoor classrooms, and the two multi-purpose buildings at both Swett and St. Paul's out of SR. Appro- over the last 3 years, Dr. Manuel, approximately 10.2 million Excluding SR. Excluding SR, yes. >> With with that being in mind is what Erica and the auditor presented up tonight

012in 2028, unless there's a windfall, somebody brings us some money, we will not be able to continue that rate, do you think, Miss Erica? With capital outlay. I'm sorry. [snorts] I didn't mean to take up >> No, no, we've had that conversation, so I appreciate the question because you're absolutely right. Um Good evening. And yes, ma'am, that's correct. Um and also on the information Mr. Bobby included, there was some emergencies that occurred at St. Paul's Elementary School to 700 plus thousand. So, that would also eat into that dollar amount. So, that is correct. We wouldn't be able to continue at the same rate. And so I'm sorry, miss. And so, to refresh everyone's memory, um there were issue with lead paint at St. Paul's Elementary, and it was one of those things, the more we

013did, the more we uncovered, and the state came in and required more and more at the each step along the process. We were hoping to get away or get out of that project. I think we first estimated about 250,000, but as Ms. Erica just indicated, the price tag ended up over 700,000. Thank you so much. Ms. Crudup. Uh thank you. Uh uh Mr. Bobby, just just to reiterate, uh doing this thing several years ago and starting to come up with goals and what we could try to accomplish, folks, I think it's one of the best things we've done, cuz we knocked a lot of things off of checklist to get done. But I want to mention the uh bleachers for I think it's Fairmont and St. Paul's. If if I'm not mistaken, then that'll give

014us the school color bleachers at all of our high schools. And and folks, that's that's worth noting and telling people that all our high school has these upgraded bleachers. Uh I was at school at a school in Fayetteville about a month ago, and I sit on the same bleachers there that I sit on in the 1980s. So, sometimes people say we're not moving forward and doing these things, we are, and we just need to make sure people know. Some of them you can see, and some of them you can't. But putting these plans out ahead of time and then trying to stick to them as best we can, um we've accomplished, in my opinion, a lot of different things, and a lot of things have been added to the the Thank you. Um, Mr. Bobby,

015getting up with her, Miss Brew just came in and Miss Fields, could you just give them a little quick update on the um projects for 26-27? Okay. So, So, what we have proposed for our 26-27 capital outlay projects, we'll be paving at Magnolia, the rear of the school, um where is the car drop-off line. And again, we have estimated the two paving projects. We're just doing estimates based off of other places that we've paved. Also, paving at Prospect staff parking lot. We're estimating those two at $500,000, $500,000 apiece. Um, Red Springs High parking lot to do some sealing and striping there as opposed to a re-pave. And again, I just estimated $50,000 for that. Uh, Red Springs High athletic complex to get the athletic complex in a position where they can do two [snorts] things,

016play soccer there and host regional track and field events. We would have to have sprinkler install- sprinkler installation, sod installation, and um purchase additional equipment to complete the track track and field. And those are three different events that would take place there. And we are estimating that cost about $150,000. And the [clears throat] bleachers? Bleachers, I'm sorry. Oh, for Red Springs or >> Springs. Yeah, so bleachers, we are not we have not put that on here. The last time we checked, bleachers were going to get us close to a million dollars. For that complex. And again, that bleacher those bleachers include the press box and any utilities, any additional utility work that would be needed to make those functional. >> [clears throat] >> But what we're requesting here is again to be able to get

017the complex where they can play soccer there and in the event >> [clears throat] >> to host a regional track and field event. Bobby, if you would, please, update the board on three ongoing projects that every year we One is the potholes. How you're addressing that. That's ongoing. Also, um exterior lighting. What we've done with that through the power company. And then our video cameras, which is an ongoing project. Can you address those three for us, please? And so, we have been working with a company the last 3 years, asphalt regist- restoration, to repair our potholes in our schools. Again, that work typically needs to be done in the warmer months. So, we will begin to see that work kick back up now that we're getting a little bit warmer. In terms of cameras, uh

018there's no particular line item set set aside just for security. We have been very fortunate enough the last 3 years to obtain the school safety grant. As of yet, DPI or uh there's no school safety grant available because the state has not passed a budget. Uh so, we do not have any monies that is set aside exclusively for security. So, what I did last year with our money is I purchased over 200 cameras, and we have those in the warehouse. And as schools camera systems fail, we are repleni- we are installing those cameras there on a school-by-school basis. We have covered at least four schools toward the end of last year through this year. Fairmont High, we covered the back of the property. Parking is was an entire reboot. South Robeson, we just finished up

019that project and the team is currently at Tanglewood. So, I do know that there may be schools where one or two cameras aren't working, but our goal is to tackle those places where the system has failed completely. I got an email today from a principal where their system has failed. So, I know that we're going to have to go out to that school in the next several days to get that taken care of. Um in terms of exterior lighting, when we started our project over at Purnell Swett and St. Paul's, one of the agreements we made with the with all of our utilities at that point was that they would evaluate our system and any light that was of age, they would go ahead and convert that to an LED at charge. Okay. Anyone else

020have any other questions? >> [snorts] >> Okay. >> Inside Inside Mr. Mr. Simmons, if if the construction committee is fine, I think we're going to ask that these be presented to the full board. Is that right, Dr. Williamson? Our proposed projects. >> That's correct. Okay. Well, Mr. Craig has a question. Go ahead, Mr. Craig. Well, it's just Mr. Bobby, now all the CTE stuff that we had to do to meet the requirements that was given, has all that been completed? That the parking lot stuff, yes, Mr. Craig, and we're going to have to go through and work through our water fountains and other things to check those off. But yes, our team's been working on that since last year. Okay. But if you notice, that the high schools all the high schools have adjusted their

021parking spaces. >> Yes. Mhm. That's all for the CTE audit. Okay. Well, uh just that my uh token that in the coming years, can we add look at added on the track at Pernell Swift? Uh as I've said, they haven't ran a meet out there probably in close to 15 years at the school. Thank you. And Mr. Craig, that is part of the We created a list last year requested projects. I think Dr. Emanuel's term windfall, if we got a windfall of money, that these are the projects that we would go back to. And Pernell's the track is on that list. Okay. Hopefully that windfall is coming. Yeah. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Bobby, can you update us where we are with the performance contract in those that will address the water conservation issues.

022So, we have currently placed We did an RFP RFQ for the third party, and the third party will be our go-between will be the firm that will go-between us and whatever electric company we decided to work with. Um we have put that out. We've gotten a response. Um we have not sat down and evaluated that response. Um so, we do have a vendor in mind that would be our third-party representative. And remember going back to Alisa's presentation, this would be the company that would bought with that would negotiate between us and them and work on the projects that need to take place in the district if we decide to go with the performance contract. >> Hey, Mr. Brown, did we do anything camera-wise at the bus garage since the incident a couple years ago? Yes,

023that system was that system was installed within a month of uh of that incident. Okay. Okay, anyone else have any other questions? Um Mr. Brown, let's go back to the rare experience to the complex. I know we were looking at uh bleachers and stuff, but have we considered maybe using the bleachers that we got moving them to the new complex? Are they in good enough shape to do that? There was conversation We did have a brief conversation about that, but I believe the issue there is that the middle school is going to ultimately take over that field for their sports. And I don't know that those bleachers could be moved. Anyone else? But Sheriff, I may and [clears throat] this is conversation only only at this point. Erica, you and I have had a conversation

024about um moving forward with budget concerns for next year, the uncertainty of federal money, um certainly a reduction in state money, um that one of the options could be that we convert capital fund to current expense. We don't think that we would have to do that, but just for information, um, share that conversation and how that would work if that became necessary. Yes, sir. So, one of the options districts have, if you need uh, you know, you don't have the money in current expense, you can request from your county to use your capital outlay funds for current expense. We have not had to do that, um, before, so I would sit down with the county to see what their process was. But, for that reason as well, we are looking at limiting projects to ensure

025if that comes to that, we have that option and availability with our capital funds. Okay. I was reading about Forsyth County how they were in Have you heard about that? How they were in dire financial straits and the state is going to loan them money. I hope we never get to that point. Yes, um, in fact, I know the new superintendent well. They've closed that gap, um, to tune, I think, Erica, about 47 million already. What happened there and a couple of other districts was they put a lot of personnel in ESSER money. And when ESSER went away, they continued that personnel. Wow. So, that's that popped up a lot, which we determined early on we weren't going to put personnel in there. So. And also, Nash County was having some discussions about the same

026thing. So, I'm glad that somebody here was smart enough to not get us in that pearl. Yeah. Which we've never been able to use local to pay employees. We We don't have it. So, the only PET staff that come out of our local budget are our maintenance, of course, cuz you can't pay maintenance out of any other fund. Um there's a required portion for ROTC instructors. Their pay has to be split. And then we have um the print shop and just some supplements. I'm thinking through all my dollar amounts. But we don't have we don't have any other employees in our local budget. Thank you all for being able to look into the future and not get us in that mess. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Bob. If not, we'll

027go ahead and adjourn then we're going to our next meeting. Yes. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, I'm sorry. Yeah. Oh. >> [clears throat] [snorts] >> I have a motion by Mr. Leach to bring all our 26 27 capital projects to a to the full board, second by Mr. Herring. All members as in favor by saying I. Motion passed. And Mr. Simmons, I would like to add this. Uh DOT is working with Pembroke Middle to pave their bus parking lot out behind the cafeteria. So, if we see that going on, that is not part of us. It is a special project that DOT has has chosen to take on. And we are hopefully going to get word before the summer for that work to take place. Hey, Mr. Barber, to that note on the DOT with

028buses, can we have them look at our middle school as well? There's some uh big big holes back there, to say the least. I didn't know if that could kind of fall into that, cuz some folks tell us it's a state road. I don't know how it's a state road, And we'll look at it. Okay, cool. Thanks. All right, that's it, we'll adjourn. >> Mhm. >> the same uh blessings of our meeting that was imposed with the last meeting. So, we want to thank you all for being here. We want to thank um Dr. Carr for getting all her supervisors, directors here. And I would would caution everyone presenting tonight to give us the skinny version. Do you know what the skinny version is? They're not answering, Dr. Carr. They don't know what the skinny

029version is. Skinny version. And I know there would be tons of questions that you may have. Other than the question or two that you have tonight, you may want to schedule appointment with these different people if you have deep in-depth questions, you need more further training or explanation. We will begin with the first on the agenda uh would be the science curriculum adoption. And because of some of us don't know some of your names, would you ladies, when you start to present, sure you give us your name. I know it's you, we know you, but I'm talking about the ladies who work in the curriculum instruction departments. Of course. And the gentlemen, if you have any gentlemen. We do. So, good evening Chairman Emanuel, Dr. Williamson, and board members. Tonight, we want to share a

030little bit about some updates in the curriculum department. Um, so as you know, two years ago, we talked about new science standards coming into play for the district, for the state. Um, and so the past two years, we have been using a variety of resources, but had no adopted curriculum to use in fifth, eighth, or biology. So, earlier this um, spring, we posted an RFP to um, gain some um, potential companies that could provide a curriculum for the district that met the needs based on the state criteria and based on the standards. And so, we opened that RFP, as always, for two weeks and closed it on the February 12th. Once we received that, we had about 15 different companies that had applied, um, but we had to go through the initial review of those

03115 companies and asked um, basic criteria based on the rubric that was shared with all the companies to see which companies would actually move forward to come to the curriculum committee that included teachers, principals, parents, and district staff. So, once we reviewed the initial rubric, and it included curriculum supervisors, EC staff, and ML staff, so we could get a variety perspectives based on the curriculum and based on the criteria set, there were six companies that were actually taken to um, the board, I mean, to the curriculum committee that um, reviewed the actual presentations. So, each company was asked to present to the entire committee of teachers, principals, parents, and district staff, and those members included people from every single school. So, we asked each school to identify a fifth or eighth grade teacher or biology

032teacher based on their school makeup to come to that. We also identified at least one elementary, middle, and high school principal, and then also parents from those areas and teachers that teach ML and EC, and then district staff were part of it but were not allowed to vote on any of the curriculums because they were part of the process of the initial review. Um and so, we met on the 19th where all the curriculums were reviewed. The companies came in and presented their information to each of them, and then they also had opportunities to look at the curriculum and dig into those pieces, and then we did a final vote on those curriculums. Excuse me, would you clarify the initial email? Multilingual. Thank you. So, as a result and after review of the curriculums, the

033votes, and the cost in order for everybody to have an opportunity have access to a curriculum, the final vote came out to Discovery Education. And so, our recommendation is an adoption for curriculum for fifth, eighth, and biology only of Discovery Education for this upcoming school year. Any questions about that recommendation? Um So, they literally gave a vote with all these people involved. And tell me again how many more companies or We had a total of 15, but we actually had six companies that actually presented that night. I'm sorry, four, not six. Four that presented that night that were narrowed down from all the companies based on the criteria. Some of them did that turned in submissions did not meet the criteria at all. They were not a curriculum, they were just resources, and so quite

034a few got knocked out just because they were just resources instead of a full curriculum. So, you you're comfortable in the committee they're they are comfortable that they met the standards this specific company. Yes, they did. Okay. And Dr. Carr, will you answer this question for me just for clarity as for the money situation, this was the best bang for our buck? It is. This curriculum allows us to buy for all three grade levels. Um if we did any other combinations, um it would cost us another four or five hundred thousand dollars. And so we had to look at also the physical responsibility of what options were when we looked at all the costs. Uh [snorts] Uh I'm not sure. I I apologize. Let let me clarify who's on the committee and who's online. Okay.

035Um Mr. Henry Brewer, Mr. Terry Dr. Terry Law Clear, Mr. Brad Bradley Phillips, and Mr. Chris Ms. Crystal Monroe, they're on this committee. And I'm not sure I know Mr. Brewer is here. Mr. Phillips here, but I'm not sure who's online. Uh could you go? Craig's not online. Oh, okay. Craig's online. Crystal's online. Ms. Melissa's online. Dr. Terry's online. Okay. Mr. Craig has a question. How do you do that? All right, Mr. Craig. Uh thank you, Dr. Manuel. Uh Dr. Carr, with this uh recommendation of using this material, uh as long as teachers are can do they have to bring other material if they want to use in in class if it meets the criteria for the state requirements, they will be allowed to bring in other materials? They'll be vetted materials they can bring

036in just like we did with reading and math where they can be bring in materials that are adopted through the state such as science curriculum pieces that they have online and some other materials that may have been purchased to help them support the work. And I would just say, you know, that's good. When we started with EL and the uh uh the the math curriculum, you know, there was a lot of pushback about bringing in stuff, but then as we got to a certain point I'm saying we are now more and more materials are being brought in. So, we do need to make sure that communication is from principals and teachers that they can do this. Just make sure they get it vetted or whatever needs to be done if they have materials that's good

037to be used. Thank you. Yeah. And there are already some Sandhills materials that the Sandhills put together that are also to be utilized. So, there's a bunch of resources that they've put together that are not full lessons, but are materials. And there's some additional kits that are out there at some of the schools that they can use and bring in as an additional resource to help support. So, there's additional resources that are part of what they have, but are not full lesson plans that they can help build into this curriculum. And Dr. Cole, let me excuse me, [clears throat] add to that. Those additional materials that was developed in the Sandhills have really been adopted across the state for for the science. And so, we're very thankful for that. So, this recommendation, it aligns with

038the applied methodology hands-on that aligns with everything. So, in terms of teaching the new curriculum teachers already, we've been doing that with all the other curriculum, address that because that was an important part of that. And then teachers wanted that. They wanted the applied hands-on. So, this curriculum builds in the pieces that may be missing in some classrooms so that hands-on piece with those experiments and the different pieces that they need to do or they call phenomenon, which are really these hands-on opportunities for students to explore science before they dig into the content so that they can make real-life application and understanding of what really happens outside by observing something or doing experiment or different types of things, but what it does here is build it in so they don't have to come up with

039their own experiments or think through that process themselves. So, it is a lot of built-in pieces and there will be professional development that will come along with this to help teachers understand how to do those pieces um because that is a new shift for science with the new standards is a lot of hands-on and that is a struggle if you've never done that before and so Susan has gone out and done a great job of done it doing and modeling some of that, but this gives them the resources so they don't have to search from place to place to find those same um materials and same experiments or different phenomenon-based activities that they're going to do in the classroom. Um thank you. Mhm. Before we recognize Mr. Henry, uh >> [clears throat] >> we want

040to apologize. I do want to recognize Mr. Vontae Leach for being present at this meeting and also um my handsome Mr. Smith over there. Smith. >> [laughter] >> Dwayne Smith here. Recognize >> [laughter] >> I'm sorry. Okay. Uh this is just not my day. I've had a rough day. All right, Mr. Bull. I just wanted um verification um that our teachers and staff that's involved with um fifth grade, eighth grade science have are they familiar with the changes and do we have total um buy-in? The changes as far as So, Susan has been working with them for the past 2 years as far as the changes are concerned. So, training has been provided. She's been modeling it. The biggest concern that I've heard from teachers is I don't have the resources or I don't know

041how to pull the stuff together and this allows them to have that tool to pull the things together to help them plan those lessons and to do that work that Susan's been modeling for them. And a follow-up question is um with [clears throat] with the hands-on is that going to lead us in back in to looking at possible labs? And if we do, do we have to look at funding for those areas? So, most of the things that you'll see in science, it's usually stuff that you see around the house. So, it might be balloons, it might be um sand, it might be plastic bags, all sorts of things, rubber bands. So, it's not necessarily those full kits that you're thinking of. It's more of those materials that you can find around the house, but

042schools can use their Title 1 and their local funds to help purchase the materials that are needed with anything that does not come with the curriculum. Are we um are we presently doing dissecting and stuff like that in science class? >> We we have a few that are doing it, but that is not overall. A lot of them are doing more of the um online dissecting than the hands-on dissecting anymore. Okay. And I'll just add though, Mr. Henry, to your point that one of the biggest shifts that we've had in the science curriculum and content is moving to what we call SEPs, science and engineering practices. So, that gets to that applied piece. So, it's no longer just delivering content to students, we want them to actually be able to apply it. So, the curriculum

043Discovery really fit well with the lesson plans that we use now, the 5E. So, the teachers really kind of appreciated that. So, it's already fitting into the structures that we have in place. Madam Chair, if I may. Also, let's clarify The new science curriculum is approved by the state board by the state and a mandate. And so our job is to match up resources to help teachers. Talk about that, so it's not something we've done locally. Otherwise you're aligning the standards with the discovery. >> That's correct. The state requires us to review certain criteria for each of the curriculums that we adopt. And so looking at does it meet the state standards, does it provide the SCPs, does it do all of those things? And so part of the evaluation of any curriculum that we

044do, the state requires us to make sure that it includes all those components. And then um Mr. Brewer asked a question about the labs. So those same materials we use in math. Okay, identicals. And so it really helps us to give kids that opportunity. But everything that they named out we use in math also. And that was important that that we aligned that way. Are there any more questions dealing with the science curriculum adoption? Did you all have further presentations with that? Not with the science. We're going to turn it over to the supervisors for some other pieces. >> Okay, hold on just a minute. So are we we say we saying that we need to move this for adoption on the board agenda? Okay, we will at the end Mr. Von table bring it

045up for approval. Right, Mr. Von that's your job at the end. Do you want to do it now? You are not on committee. I'm sorry. Apologize, but I still like you. Okay, go ahead Mr. Brewer. You will go ahead and do it now. Let's get it over with about bringing it up. Let's clarify Mr. Brewer before this is for 38. Yeah, 38 and biology is the same. >> eighth and biology. So for the tested grade levels, these are the only grade levels in biology. 5th, 8th, and biology. Discovery curriculum. Bring it for action item. I make a move that we bring to action item the science curriculum for 5th, 8th grades, and biology. Discovery. Uh Discovery to our next board meeting. Made a motion. Mr. Henry made a motion and got a second. Phillips. Phillips,

046yeah. Okay. Okay. So, I'll turn it over to Ms. Alicia Mansfield and Kim Demery to talk about ELA standards. >> Hold on. Hold on. You have something. Oh, sorry. >> We've got to vote. >> Sorry. Okay. Those in favor of moving this to an action item for our regular board meeting in April, raise your hand, please. Say I and raise your hand so I can see it. Okay. All of you have to be on the committee. So, it Okay. I'm [clears throat] sorry. Hold on before the vote. He has a question. All right, Mr. Henry. Do we have a cost on this? She's answering yes. She's getting her facts together. It's a pro- and I don't have the exact number. It's approximately 100,000 for all three grade levels. That's relatively cheap. >> It is. All

047right. Now, those on the committee uh need to vote one way or the other about moving it to an action item for the regular board. All right, Mr. Henry's on the committee. You're on the committee. I'm on committee. Okay. I can't see. Ms. Krista Monroe, are you voting? Yes. And Terry Dr. Terry, you voting? Yes. That's for now. Um, I'm good with it. Okay. Is Ms. Christer Monroe voting? Yes. Okay. Unanimous vote passed. Yay. Okay. [snorts] Now, we'll go to the standards. All right. Good afternoon, Dr. Williamson, Dr. Emanuel, and Chairman Dr. Emanuel and board members. I'm going to focus on the K-12 English language arts updates as far as the standards. This slide um provides highlights with the most recent phase of our ELA standards revision process in in pertaining to what has happened

048this year. This year, the standards writing team developed draft three, which was analyzed and refined based on stakeholder's feedback to create draft four. Draft four was then presented to the state board for discussion in December of '25 and then again in January of 2026 for action where the state board actually approved draft four as to adopt our current oral coming 2026 standards. So, right now, we're still in the installation process, which began in January 2026, and it will run until August of 2027 where during this time, we learn more about the standards. The state will train us in turn will also train the schools, but this new standards will not be implemented into the school year of 2027-28. Okay. This slide actually provides a quick overview of the major shifts from the ELA standards to

049the 2026 ELA standards. I I not go in depth with each one of these because the next few slides will talk more about each one of them, but I'm going to give you an just kind of overview. If you look on the left-hand side, it gives you 2017 ELA standards. It shows you that our current standards are more singular standards where and we have strands, four strands, and they're structured like anchors and clusters, but the upcoming standards that we just recently that was approved and adopted is actually standards and objectives. So, it talks more of the layout and the format of the standards, and we went from having four strands to three strands with one sub-strand. Our next slide on Oh, hold on just a minute. I hope that this emphasis on writing and speaking

050types, I hope that we go back to the emphasis on writing. You know, I'm talking about writing as we did it once, not necessarily for testing, but to train children on how to write. Opinion writing and also cursive will be down in the lower grades as a teaching them cursive writing, but I'm talking about persuasive writing, informational writing as well. To put that emphasis back where it used to be. Yes, so that strand for writing is still current. They did not That's not one of the strands that they take away, so it's still going to live within their standards. On the right-hand side, it does mention with the 2020 seats that again there are fewer strands, um, but their strands now are focusing on the three. And the next two slides or the next slide

051that Ms. Alicia Manfield, she's going to talk more about the three strands with that complex text that's integrated now that's new. So, we have made a key shift to, um, complexity now that lives in within all the standards and not just one. But again, there are updates to writing and also those speaking expectation on with a broader range of text types. So, we're just not talking about text, it can be videos and other areas of text. So, this gives you kind of a visual of what the format currently looks like. On the left-hand side, you will see the structure of our current standard. In this format, each grade level standard is connected to that broader anchor standard, which is then organized again into certain strands and cluster. If you look on the right-hand side, you

052no longer see that anchor standard. What you will notice is that complex text, that's a new strand that you see. These standards are organized and they're closely related to that new shift that's occurring with complex text, and it makes it There's more clarity for teachers to understand what standards are and what students are supposed to know by the end of the school year. So, also this format is closely aligned to our new science standards, as well. Now, uh will teachers receive training again on these new standards as in the past? Yes, currently our district will go to training in June. The state will provide us with training, and then we will come back and plan and determine what the training will will like for teachers the upcoming year before standards are implemented. And I have

053another question. Will our substitute teachers, like when they go through their training, and this has always been an issue, and maybe it's not an issue now, is that we never when substitute teachers have training, they don't have this kind of training. I'm wondering if that's going to be incorporated in substitute teacher training. I'm not saying to the details as teachers, but they need to have some kind of training aligning with what we teach. Good question about that, ma'am, and school board. So, just um for great question, Dr. Manuel, what we have done over the since we've had Shelly, anytime um we have long-term subs, they get to participate in those trainings that's that is occurring. So, if you have a long-term sub in the ELA classroom, they will be allowed to attend those trainings that

054are happening in the district so that so that they can um be well versed in what's happening and the expectation of carrying out the curriculum while they're in that classroom till that school can hire a full-time teacher. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Henry. And and Mike um I got faith. Getting um getting back to um uh uh item that was brought up earlier, cursive writing. Where does the state stand with um cursive writing and and um and in alignment with Robeson County Schools, where what's our future objectives on that? I'll ask Miss Dr. Carter answer that. I knew what happened in the past, but she'll have to answer that now or Dr. Dallas. I'm sorry. So, [snorts] cursive handwriting along with multiplication, teaching multiplication tables, is actually required, and we do report to the state each

055year on that. So, it begins in second grade, and then it matriculates into third grade. May I ask a question? Yes, sir. >> is for both presenters and uh Dr. Dallas and Dr. Carter, talk about text complexity and seeing that and okay. Got you. Good afternoon, Dr. Emmanuel, Dr. Williamson, and board members. My name is Alicia Mansfield. I'm the ELA supervisor. I mostly support grade 6 through 12. Um, and those folks who have those teachers who have specialized license in English language arts. That's mostly what I do. Um, so I'm going to talk to you about text complexity and some of the other major So, Ms. Demery just spoke about the format changing, which brings our standards more in line with the other standards. I think DPI has an intention to eventually make all of

056the standards for all of the um, content to follow that same format, so there's some uniformity there. So, that is one major change. Another major change is, in fact, text complexity. So, in the past we had 10 anchor standards that lived within four strands. The four strands you may have heard very frequently: reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language. And they've taken the those standards that were numerous, numerous, and have condensed them into four strands that include complex text, comprehension development, and communication and writing. So, it's not the absence of standards, it's the reorganization and sort of prioritization. And that priority on complex text is huge in these standards. So, complex text is supposed to be um, implemented, seen, and demonstrated throughout the other two standards. Um, so um, and that will be It's really

057this idea that students need to be able to eventually independently read complex texts of a variety of genres. And um, so we're not going to see any more this idea of reading information and reading literature being distinguished from each other. And we'll add to that reading information list a variety of genres. So, um videos, um infographics, all sorts of things that students would need to be able to interpret as they left the public schools and went out to work and um post-secondary education. So, um yeah, that is one change there. Um as this is that is significant and I imagine as we do training, we will be doing a lot of training on text complexity and what that means um at the different grade levels. That would be my prediction. In a In other words,

058a simple definition of text complexity is you're reading a story out of a textbook, out of a literature book, okay? You read that story, all right, you understand what you're reading. But then you get a medical diagnosis from the doctor and you read that diagnosis, that's complex text. You understand what you're reading. Now, is that an example of text complexity? In the real world, yes. Yes. For our students, it might include things like um as they age through the school system, it might include things that when the things are explicitly said, when you might have to infer something that wasn't clearly stated. It might include also text structures and and in our high schools and now in our middle schools, it will include things like rhetoric and how we have to be able to understand

059who is doing the talking and what do they have to benefit by you agreeing with their position. Got you. Any more questions on that? I do want to ask another question and and to help out. >> [clears throat] >> So, how do we factor in Lexile scores to text complexity and our materials? Talk about that cuz that's how we make those decisions. Right. Right. Okay, so currently the state of North Carolina publishes Lexile grade bands for proficiencies on our EOGs for grades three through eight and then for English two. And they they publish bands for not proficient students, proficient level four and level five. And that can be part of the guidance that we use to select text. It's not the only piece of guidance that we use or that the state uses even when

060they publish out those scores. For example, in high school, you can have an extremely complex text that is very difficult for students to understand and it can have a lower Lexile. So that deals with qualitative complexity. At the high school level and at middle grades and even at elementary, qualitative complexity might include, say in a narrative, how many characters are there? Is the narrator who's telling the story reliable? Are they trying to trick the reader into believing something? How much scientific and social studies language is being used in a nonfiction text? So if I'm reading an informational text, do I understand concepts that were taught to me in my science and my social studies classes? Do I have the vocabulary to be able to manage and understand those texts? So but Lexile is a consideration.

061It's just the state is very clear, it's not the only consideration when you are looking at text complexity. Now let me explain what Lexile is. I think I can do that in a sentence. Excuse me, I have to drink water. Um Lexile is a numeric score that is given to texts. I'm so sorry. That is given to text based on the vocabulary in the text, how frequently it's found in other texts, and also the length of the sentences. It is an proprietary algorithm that was established by a company called MetaMetrics, and it is used to unify an understanding of um what can be quantified with a computer uh about texts. So, excuse me. Thank you. So, our most complex texts at higher levels of complexity uh of that Lexile measure may it's not the length

062of the text, and it's not how hard it is necessarily to understand. It's can my students access the vocabulary and what we call the syntax. So, the syntax involves the sentence length. Do the sentences in this text have nine words in them, or do they have 37 words in them? And a sentence with 37 words has lots of things like phrases and clauses that are very hard for students to understand. And actually that ties into new instruction that we will have that's explicitly stated in our new upcoming standards about syntax, which is this idea of grammar and um but in a new way of thinking about it, so that students can have access to longer texts, texts with long complex sentences, and texts with discipline-specific vocabulary and less frequent vocabulary. Cuz we want our students

063to be prepared when they encounter a mortgage application, when they encounter a contract, when they encounter their um stuff in college that they might be learning in their community college, or if you're an HVAC specialist, you need to be able to read a technical manual, which would have probably a very high Lexile. >> [clears throat] >> So, there's strong >> sufficient? So, there's strong implications in terms of how set up our classrooms because of the complexity, because of all this, flex grouping is just critical to achieve that and make sure that we keep all kids and we'll talk about that later on in our board meeting. But that's that's why we flex group based on that data. The needs of our advanced students need to be addressed and that is one of the ways that

064they would be addressed. Um I'm willing to support my students who have um unfinished learning. I might need to support them with some specific instruction in academic vocabulary um and in um understanding how sentences work. And that will that is actually going to be part of our new standards with um understanding complex sophisticated sentences, we'll call it that. That as students advance through the grade level um that specifically talks The standards will now explicitly talks about God. Simple sentences, compound sentences, complex sentences, compound-complex sentences or sophisticated sentences as which leads into that long sentence length which increases the Lexile. And I imagine I'm going to imagine that we'll be doing quite a bit of training with teachers on that. Is that In other words, as at the top of the rung of the ladder, but

065when you're teaching kids that can't read, it's common sense to start with a simple sentence. John saw the rabbit. And then you move on up when you get children as they learn more and become more complex sentences. I guess, you know, we know what you're talking about, but teachers should know that if they they understand that what you're saying. Right, right. So I would say yes, it um and when someone says uh if a student can't read, I think in five five six seven eight dimensions that means different things to different people. Can they decode and the that's can they get the words off the page? Can they pronounce simple one syllable words? Have they learned as they advance through the grade levels things like multi um syllabication um and morphology which is going to

066be part of our new standards and that's in the next slide as well. Um but then also that is part of it is is increasing sentence length. Mhm. Um Mr. Henry Um as teachers look at text complexity and do they will they have training or a tool to actually identify root causes that may be a hindrance to actually getting a grip on understanding text complexity? I imagine we'll be doing training on text complexity for some time as it's a complex issue. Um thank you for the question, Mr. Gore. Um and so would there be a a tool? I imagine the state is producing lots of resources and they have announced that that is one of the resources that they will be present or providing for us. Um and then there are some other well published

067and well um respected um agencies that have published resources on that as well. So I imagine we'll lean into some of those like student achievement partners, I imagine. So. Is It's fun once you learn about it. If anybody wants to come to the training. Um Do you have other anything else that I can We have this one which we've actually kind of covered which is this idea of foundational skills being added to grade six to 12. This is very new and will require a lot of training. And so, we will see for our um middle and high school students will now have standards related to oral reading fluency, which is very new and we will have to do a lot of training and I will have to learn some things, too. And then also morphology,

068word knowledge, and morphology, things that they do now and 3-5 will be extended all the way to grade 12 in a grade level appropriate fashion. And I think we have The only other thing we had to add was that there is a new something that is new, which is the oral language being added in K2. It's a new standard. >> Okay. Do you want to say anything [clears throat] about oral language? Did you ladies identify yourselves when you came up? I didn't. Thank you. Did Would you do that so everybody can remember you when Sorry. the superintendent decides to give you a evaluation so we can all help him. Uh my name is Kimberly DeMarr, I'm the K-5 supervisor. My apologies. Okay. >> [clears throat] >> Very grateful for her skill set. And if you

069missed it, I'm Alicia Mansfield. Thank you, ladies. I love it when the questions all answer the slides. That was great. Okay. Thank you. I do want to ask So, they mentioned fluency, which historically because kids could call a word that was interpreted, but that's not the case. Talk about how we move beyond that to the application of that word. You made reference to that, but just how critical that part is. In the lower grades, we're actually trying to work with teachers now to understand when we say fluency, we're not just talking about word calling. So, a lot of our teachers are doing isolation strategies, like I may be working on decoding words in isolation, high-frequency words. So, we're trying to move towards when it comes to fluency, how can I apply that skill that I've

070learned in to actual text. So, if they're working in small groups, we want to make sure that two students have time to actually apply those skills inside of a text to build their fluency and automaticity when it comes to reading. Mhm. Is that what you were Thank you so much. You're welcome. Now, I'm assuming this is nothing that we should bring for approval because it's required for the state. Hi, I'm Melissa Wayne. I'm the math supervisor for 6th through 12th grade. Um right now, we are currently in the board review and action uh section of our standard development. Uh previously, last school year at end of April, May, the state sent out um request asking teachers, uh do you want to help write our standards? So, and when I forwarded that information through email, uh

071they applied automatically to DPI. So, some of our teachers did get um to help develop our new standards or rewrite our standards, but right now, we've already went over draft one, and we've um our teachers gave me I sent out uh a interest form. They said they were interested in reviewing the new standards. They went in, they read the standards as a grade level, they met together, and they completed a survey in which they brought back to me, and I submitted their overall comments on our district's survey for the math standards. But right now, we are currently getting ready to undergo draft two, and the state recommends that instead of doing it by grade level that we team our teachers up in grade bands so that K2 would look at kindergarten, first grade, and second

072grade standards all together. So 3 5 6 8 and what I did was I grouped my high schools into two groups, math one and two, and then the higher maths in another team. So what they're going to do is they're going to look at a vertical alignment. So they're just not focusing on the grade level they teach, then they're going to look at the vertical alignment. What did kindergarten teachers supposed to teach when I get them in first grade, do they know this? And vice versa. And then what as a kindergarten teacher, what do I need to prepare my kindergartners for when they get in the first grade? And it goes on up. So and then the state has not sent out the the second draft yet. They're sending that out in mid-April. So once

073that gets sent to me, then I'm going to share it with those teams, and then we'll get back and probably submit the district's survey in the beginning of May. Okay, any questions on that process so far? Now the installation is for 2 years, 26 through 2028, and during that time the state is going to do a lot of training, which we will give. Excuse me, just a minute. So on the math, the part where you talked about kindergarten The grade bands? Yes, so it needs to align with first grade. How does that work when seventh grade is teaching basically teaching a combined seventh eighth grade math, and then they're taking math one in eighth grade, and potentially taking it again in the ninth grade. How does that work? What do you mean potentially taking it

074again in the ninth grade? Math one? Mhm. Potentially. Um with when the standards with our current standards right now, middle school standards gear everything toward math one. Okay. Sixth grade standards is unit rate. Basically, everything have to do with unit rates. Well, that crosses over in the seventh grade as constant of proportionality. Just bear with me. And then in eighth grade, it's con transfers to slope. Well, all three of those concepts is the exact same thing, which is the foundation of math one. So, even though our seventh graders are doing that combination of seventh grade {slash} eighth grade, they're not getting all of eighth grade content. All of eighth grade content is really not needed for math one um standards. So, then why do we have an eighth grade math if it's not needed for

075math one? Well, it not everything is needed. The founda- The eighth grade is linear functions. That's the whole entire eighth grade content, linear functions. And math one, it adds on to that linear functions as in adding exponential functions along with quadratic functions. Which would be applicable to which math level in high school? What do you mean? Trigonometry, algebra, calculus. >> don't have those levels anymore. It's is uh all of that was broken apart. Your geometry, your trigonometry, your some of your calculus was broken a broken apart and put into math one, which consists of functions, geometry, and statistics. Same thing with math two, it consists of algebra, geometry, and statistics. [clears throat] So, it's like it brought it it separated and brought it back it was separated and it's brought back together. So, how do

076we help those in 7th grade who can't really deal with the 7th 8th combination and just need 7th grade math alone? And the when we get into 8th grade, what happens is the teachers are have they are which is how I taught it as well, went back in and focused on the things that were missing that we did not get in 7th grade so that it would help with 8th grade. So, how do we help support those principals and teachers who may not be doing as well in the 8th grade like they were at the high school level? Let me let me answer a part of that. Secondly, one of the reasons um help me to remember we're not scheduling 8th grade math. We don't teach that. It's caught up in what you just explained.

077That's totally true. The second thing is what we noticed is that students do better with math one than they did with 8th grade math. It never had an impact on anything and and that led us to make that but kids do better with math one. Test data shows that so we don't offer Go to the mic, would you please, ma'am? Good afternoon. Uh I just to clarify, there are less standards in math one that they have to focus on. Um with 8th grade they have more and it was a broader range so what we found is that when we brought in 8th grade math one, our kids performed better because we could actually teach those standards in more depth and detail throughout the year as opposed to 87 days in a semester for high school.

078So, that's kind of why we are pushing for the math in 8th grade math one. One of the things that I can tell you Miss Christy is that I taught math one in 8th grade. Okay, whereas and during that time I my students had to take both tests. They had to take the 8th grade math test and the math one test. I had students make high level fives on the math one test and only scored a level three on the 8th grade test. It's specific. Very It's It's specific. >> It is very specific. The 8th grade content is broad. The geometry part alone is everything they've ever learned about volume and area and surface area along with brand new shapes that had never been introduced, which they have to memorize the formula for because they're

079not given. And [clears throat] it's at grade eight, kids they're mentally cannot remember all of those formulas at one time. Whereas in math one, they had one formula they had to remember, a squared plus b squared equals c squared. And the other thing I was going to say, one of the things we've seen is we have very few kids actually taking math one now at the high school level. So, majority there may be some of the schools we only have 10 kids taking math one. So, high schools look very different when it comes to math one now. That's great. Uh are you finished with your presentation? No, no, ma'am. [laughter] Okay. Okay. Um, Mr. Cole. Here, uh, how does the draft standards respond to the new, um, standards? Okay? So, the thing in math is

080we our kids need we have a streamlined language and clear expectations now. They are more [clears throat] clear and precise in the language versus our current standards. We have a improved progression across the grade levels and we're balanced. We are talking about conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and the real-world application. It has the why, the how, and the when do I use this? Okay? Right now, our current standards, [clears throat] and this is this is for high school, our all of our kids are required to take math one, math two, math three, and an additional fourth math credit. Okay? And there's basically two paths we're looking at. Okay? The first path on the left is they're going to a university. The path on the right is they're going directly into the workforce or they're going to

081go to a community college. There's not much of a difference. Right? So, it's basically one size fits all. That's our current standards right now. Whereas our new standards give our students a little bit more that more pathways. Okay? Our the first three the pink, the green, and the beige is all based on what type of career where all of them are actually. What type of career that our children want to go into. And it gives them Okay, I have to take math one. I have to take math two. But it gives them options for the other two math credits. They're still required to take four math credits in high school. But it gives them a little bit more options and a little bit more guidance based on what their interest is. Any questions? Ms. Tamy.

082Thinking back, Dr. Emanuel, when we first um discussed uh uh uh adopting a curriculum remember this was a a lot of question that we was asked. Um I think we are now this is signs that we're showing the improvement that has been made even on the state level as far as our concerns about everybody's not going to go to college. >> That's right. Everybody's not going to be a bricklayer. So, how do we use the system to identify those folks and appreciate what you all were doing. Um Thank you. Ms. Fields. So, explain to me again math eight we don't totally focus on that. We do the math one. But we're still offering the calculus and the higher maths. So, how does that affect the students who are pursuing that path? Um Okay. Right this

083year is our first group of kids that took math one the whole entire county math one in eighth grade. So, these kids now, there's less kids in high school that took they've already got a high school credit of math one. So, they still have four years available to get into calc AP calculus or calculus for cur what when their career choice of whatever they want to have after high school. They have more they got eight semesters to get that math up there to get it instead of having just the three years because they had to take math one in the first year of high school. Well, where would they learn all those linear equations that they would have gotten eighth grade? In math one. Seventh grade in math one. But, they only had to memorize

084one in math one. >> That was just one formula. Any other questions? Okay, next slide, please. Okay, in summary graduation requirement for high school is still four math credits. Math one and math two will be where they get the majority of the foundational skills that they need which is what it is now and then the higher maths beyond math two um they will have it in those pathways of whatever career choice that they're looking at. Okay? Next slide, please. So, as of right now, we are working going to be start working on the second draft of the standards at the end of the year, the state's going to present that in the summer to the state board and then they're going to vote so the next two years is the installation phase where we're going

085to have training, unpacking everything that we need to do to get our teachers ready to start implementing the new standards in the year 28-29. Okay. Any questions? Any questions? I do want to add historically in the past that was a four-year process. Yes. But now the state board has added that fifth year which was needed, correct? >> Yes. Um we saw uh about what happened in science and we needed the additional time with the language arts. So with the math they was like we're going to add one more year for our initial process of doing this revising standards. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Job well done. Next up arts education graduation requirements. >> [snorts] >> Good afternoon, curriculum chair Dr. Emanuel, Dr. Williamson, and board members. My name is Steven Tyler. I'm the

086arts education supervisor. Uh today I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the arts education graduation requirement. A while back DPI said that all students between 6 and 12 grades were required to pass one arts education class as a graduation requirement. This class can be dance, orchestra, visual arts, any of the arts education credits that we offer in public schools of Robeson County and they just have to have that credit between 6th grade and 12th grade. Last year we got together with the principals and we assessed all of the middle school schedules to make sure they align with the requirements for our standard course of study classes. Our goal is to get all those requirements for all of those students during that time so they have the most options after they get out

087of middle school to get the classes they need and start getting on the path that they want and not have any sort of nagging requirements that they need to get caught up on. Any questions? That's just my one slide. Uh-huh. I have just a question. What is the most uh in the small schools, what are they offering? What is the most uh frequent course that's offered in the smaller middle schools? Smaller middle schools. In the smaller middle just specifically middle school? Yes, sir. Uh right now visual arts for middle school you have more of. Uh elementary school you have more music for everything. Middle school is is visual arts. Some of your middle schools uh currently do not have chorus or band or those classes, but almost all of them currently have a visual arts

088teacher. Okay. How about high schools? What are kids enrolling most in? Do you have much dance, any dance at all? We currently have three dance classes in public schools Robeson County. We have two middle school dances, Lumberton Junior High and South Robeson, and then you have one high school dance class at Lumberton Senior High School. So, three all together. And do we presently have any classes of violin and anyone teaching violin the violin? Yes, ma'am. We currently have one orchestra class and that's that teacher splits between Lumberton Junior High School and Lumberton Senior High School to give us the the broadest opportunity to reach the most students. Okay. And Mr. Henry? Uh I would previously attended some of the programs that you led and I was impressed. And I recognize most of all that we

089have a lot of talented students and staff members. Uh I'll never forget. I couldn't believe somebody taking 10 buckets, 5-gallon buckets, and making music. Yes, that's >> one. But my question to you is as we as we progress through the arts program, do we have anything that would correspond with like um our early college program to give these students recognition or some credits that they could possibly use if they chose to make a a life venture out of that? Uh yes, sir. That is currently one of our our main goals is to synergize Mr. Davis and I sell and also Miss Hernandez at RCC. We are starting to look into options for early college students to get arts education credits. Currently, we do not have an arts education teacher on campus at early college, so

090we want to provide them uh opportunities for that, but it is something we're working on, but it's we're currently working on it. Any more questions, comments? Thank you, sir. Good job. >> Yes, uh if any student in high school wants to get a arts education endorsement on their diploma, it's just like any of the other endorsements. There are requirements that are in the handbook that is given to them. I think I showed it to them in eighth grade as they apply for their ninth grade classes. All of the requirements we wrote that up and aligned it with DPI. And really, the just the the gist of it is they have to take four arts education credits between ninth and 12th grade. And it can be any of them. They could take dance one year and

091then orchestra one year and then band one year. But, if you have a student that's going to school for art or planning on being an artist when they grow up or if they just really genuinely enjoy those classes, they can get the same endorsement that a students can get for other areas. And all that is in the book, so they can see it and it's very clearly laid out. Um, before you ladies begin, I I want to make an announcement. The chair, um, superintendent might want to make the announcement about Ardrey Kell High School. Go ahead. You You get the big books for me. I don't know what to announce. Oh, the announcement. Ardrey Kell High School has won the regional. Yeah, you want to make that announcement? Go ahead. Ardrey Kell High School has

092won the regional Battle of the Books. And let's give them a round of applause. >> [applause] >> And they're going to state school in April. And Mr. Vontay Leach is challenging everybody to, you know, the board doesn't give them money for travel cuz they have to give it to bands, the orchestras, the this and that and the other. So, he's challenging us to make a donation to help them on their trip. Isn't that right, Mr. Vontay? All right. So, get your pocketbooks ready, board members. John Simmons, did you hear that? >> [snorts] >> All right. Now, ladies, you may begin. And one other thing to add to Mr. Henry's comment is actually our 10th graders are eligible to apply to the North Carolina Governor's School as well for the arts. So, that's a good opportunity

093for them as well. So, we just want to provide a quick update on computer science. Our upcoming ninth graders this year must take computer science. That's a new requirement. And so, what we are doing is every ninth grader going up this year will take a computer science course from a list of courses that's available at each of the high schools. We are at the same time going to work with the middle schools. They just released a list in December of courses that are middle school courses that meet the high school requirement that we're going to work with our middle schools to get that computer science in middle school in eighth grade so that they can take that course in middle school, get that requirement met, and have more opportunities when they get to the high

094school. So, we want to try to take some of these things and put them in the middle school, so students have more opportunities, more courses they can select when they attend the high school. And so, that is the current update for computer science. Any questions about that? Anybody have a comment? No, the capacity at the high school to teach computer science with we are heavy in business ed, which is not required as much anymore. And then, Miss Campbell, you can look in terms of certification because it has to be on the license where we are that we can meet that need, correct? Yes, sir, Dr. Watson. Um through licensure we look for the high school of our teachers who can teach the computer science. And I will give that list to all the high school

095principals that they're they're aware of all of their teachers on their campus currently who [snorts] have the ability to teach computer science classes within their building. And then, we also gave a list of those within the district um who also have that endorsement on license. So, if we had to pull someone, um we could um through our district our district that has the capacity to ensure that we can teach those classes. Ladies? So, the state is currently, just as a quick update, is currently looking into what they call high-quality instructional materials. So, they're reviewing their process of how materials are presented to the districts as far as what they should use for uh providing instruction. Um and so, instead of looking at just a textbook, they're looking at resources, materials, and determining um a process

096for how can they help support districts at are at standards-aligned materials, things that are effective, coherent, and engaging. They have not flushed out the process, they have not flushed out the criteria. Um we had a meeting 2 weeks ago and they told us they are in hopes of having a process approved by the board early December so that they can start creating a list of materials that we could potentially look at for ELA or English language arts in the spring. And so I just want everybody to be aware they're changing that process of how they look at textbooks, how they look at everything, how they look at funding when it regards those pieces, but we will not know anything till the spring in regards to those changes. And so that is coming, forthcoming. Okay? Thank

097you. Mr. Henry? Uh I'm just thinking about the middle schooler. I think this is be a grand opportunity, but how will this be offered to students? Will it be an elective? Or is it a requirement? And if it is a requirement, is it going to compound um to overwhelm students in the middle grades? Are you talking about computer science, Mr. Henry? Yes. So computer science is a requirement by the state, but what it would do is instead of the eighth grade CTE they're currently doing, it would be their computer science. So every high school student, I mean every middle school student already has that in their rotation of courses that they're taking. So what it would do is just the content would change that they're being provided in those courses. Great question. >> [snorts] >>

098I want to make a comment about this HQIM. I can see those approved orders like with Title 1 when they come here or any other monies that they whatever the schools are ordering, they would be on these lists when DPI gets those lists ready. Yeah, so they're not quite sure if it's going to get into that much detail or just be sort of a criteria of this is what you need to make sure that you vet every material that you're using. So, that's part of what they're determining. Is it going to be an actual list of materials or here's a checklist of criteria that you need to use to evaluate. >> I hope it's a list if that would sure help a lot. Yeah. It would. Wendy, let's go back to Mr. Boo's question. So,

099in other words, computer science is not a graduation >> requirement. Mhm, just like the arts. But, that's amazing. It's a work requirement when you get hired for a job, though. That's amazing. That is. Yeah. They're getting I think they're getting a better at looking at courses that our kids need to make sure they're successful in those careers. So, it's a great thing. Um so, the last thing we have is we want to review some of the curriculum pieces that we currently have in place. So, we wanted to show up here you'll see for L education. So, first we're going to go into reading and so you'll see L education currently shows the progress from 2021. We actually didn't adopt it till 2023, but that we've gone from 22 to 32% for English 2 from 35

100to 41%. Um what we know with the ELA standards, the installation like we talked about will be next year for 26-27. So, we will start all the training with all of our teachers on the standards, what that looks like before they start any new teaching next year, and we'll actually implement anything new with them 27-28. That means for us we'll need to start looking at a new curriculum adoption. So, in spring of 2027 we'll need to do an RFP. So, the same process we just did with science we'll need to bring to do an RFP open for applications and let those teams come in to review currently what we have and see what is the best option based on um the cost and the alignment to the new standards. And so we're hoping also that

101by then, like they promised, that the guidance will be out from DPI, so we can use that as a resource to help us make that decision when that time comes. Um so then we just wanted to show you renewal cost right now is approximately $599,000. Um with Kiddom, which is the online platform, would be almost a million. Um so we're actually looking at just doing the materials. We did look at uh already thinking ahead, what would a new curriculum cost us based on what we have looked at just with science and based on what's on the current list DPI has. A new K-8 curriculum will cost us around $2.5 million when the time comes. So we wanted to kind of give everybody a heads-up of what that would look like when that time comes. Any

102questions about ELA? Okay, Ms. Jamie. My question would be now uh looking back and thinking about when we adopted a curriculum, we had a choice as a LEA. Mhm. So this is putting us in more alignment as the state is saying this is going to be a requirement. So will somebody from the state level meet with our board to explain that this is the new state approved alignment and regulations put in place by the state board and we need to focus on purchasing these materials needed to be in alignment with the state. I I can't say that the state will come down. I can say they'll give us all the materials and the criteria. I can't say, you know, we can definitely ask if somebody will come down at that point. I know they're going

103to provide us whatever criteria and what we need to look at. I don't know if that'll be a checklist like I said or if that will be literally a list of here's the things to look at as far as curriculums. We won't know that till the spring. And so once that happens, yes, there may be a possibility of somebody coming down, but I don't know at this point. >> [snorts] >> Uh any more Mr. Britt? And Mr. Henry, as the thing as a district we have the option to choose if you understand what I'm saying for the curriculum along with that RFP that would be coming out. Hopefully teachers and stakeholders are going to be more involved in this. Um Wednesday I met with y'all and went over this and I understand the business side

104of it. Dr. Williamson as well, he knows my feelings on it, but um I'm asked this question and fourth grade book The Hope Chest is currently a book that's being read right now in our fourth grade. Have y'all ladies read that book? Kim, have you read it? I don't know much about it. I'm going to tell you about it cuz I've read it. It's basically about 11-year-old girl who parents get upset with her and leaves home. When she leaves home, there is words in this book, the D word is in this book. Profanity. Along with there's other situations where she's walking down the street and basically a drunk crowd invites her into their party. This is 11-year-old girl. Along with voter suppression, there is that in there. There's other statements in there as Hills Half

105Acre and things of that nature. I am asking for y'all to get rid of this book. It is trash. Our fourth graders do not need to be reading it and I from my understanding they're going to take the whole 9 weeks to read this book. Um I've read it. I've got the book here with me. I've got it highlighted and tabbed. This book has no business in the public schools of Robeson County and I'm asking I'm not on this curriculum committee, but I'm asking this board that this needs to be looked into and it needs to be gone out of the public schools of Robeson County. We can find hundreds of other books for them to be reading for this 9 weeks. Yeah, absolutely. No problem. Don't Don't we have Excuse me. Don't we have

106a censorship >> Yes, we do have a committee. We'll take it to them. >> Who was on that committee? Can we make that clear now? Cindy, can you talk to who's on the committee for book review? No, can you speak to it? Okay. Um my name is Cindy Dr. Mayhew. Yes, Mayhew. >> Board. My name is Cindy Humphrey, I'm the media supervisor. We do have a committee. Um a few few people that I can connect from top of my head. Myself, Kamisha. Um I have a couple of principals, Dr. Cole from Rowland Elementary. Um Miss Brown from Red Springs Middle. And I have a parent from Fairmont area, but I can't remember what their name is right now, but I can get that committee together. And um review this book. >> I would like this

107book looked into and I'm going to be honest with you even more cuz I know they're reading it right today if you're not careful. I don't know their time and that sort of thing. I'm asking that it stop immediately and find a different book to read. We we can do that. I mean Miss For some reason I'm thinking we've already pulled that book. That it should not be Go back and look. We pulled a book for the same We've pulled some books, but Hope Chest was not one. I think it was a a third grade book that we pulled. But this is the first I've heard about Hope Chest. Okay. And and my information is coming from various fourth grade teachers across this county. It's not coming from one. I've done my homework. Yeah, no

108problem. That's fine. No problem. Um usually they'll let the media coordinators know and no one has let them know, so but we'll look into it. Mr. Brewer In the meantime This is why >> to me, ladies. Mr. Brewer This is why I ask about um a requirement coming from the State Board of Education. Before it was like we were out shopping for an automobile. You got Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge, so on and so on. Um to me the responsibility lied on our present board. It whatever we chose. And we did take some hits just like Chairman Britt mentioned. But if the state level if we're following their recommendations, I think this this responsibility liability piece should go shift back more towards the state. Then this board here being beat up by the general public about uh

109information that shouldn't be out there. And I understand it's like [clears throat] buying a car with no radio. Where do you find a car with no radio? Just using that as an example. Miss Wyatt And uh Mr. Brewer, I I understand 100% where you're coming from. You we shouldn't have the as a local board find stuff like that and deal with it. But when we do find stuff like that and deal with it, we can stop that any point in time. So and I I I suggest and I I I feel confident that that we'll do that. And in the meantime, too, anytime a parent wants to opt out of a certain text, they just need to notify the principal. Okay? Anyone else? Mr. Terry? Are we um are we going to be asked to

110purchase any um additional uh materials related to EL? Can you repeat your question? It was sort of muggy. Would you mind me mind repeating it, Dr. Terry? Are we going to be asked to purchase any additional materials related to EL? Did you like these serious question? Are you going to be He said, "Are you going to be asked or we going to be asked to purchase any more materials as related to EL?" The consumables that the students use. >> The consumables that the students are using, they said. Students write in those each year, so that's usually what they purchase each year. Can you hear Dr. Terry? Yeah, what would be the process to uh replace EL with a different curriculum? When we >> [clears throat] >> when we adopt for the new ELA curriculum, and

111that's going to be when? We'll start the RFP process for the new standards in spring '27. >> [snorts] >> So you're so so you're saying that we are locked in to EL until the '27-'28 year? At this point, we would have to spend 2 and 1/2 million if we would adopt a new curriculum and then have to adopt a new one for next year. Mr. Gray? Uh thank you, Dr. Manuel. Uh the comments couple of people said uh when um and Mr. Brett, anytime you know, somebody finds a book like he found there, um when it's brought to that committee, we've always been able to go ahead and get that book banned from the schools or taken out of the schools. And but I will say this on two fronts. Um cuz I've been told

112this, that when we get material books in, uh people have the impression that us as a board or you as a school board that works there, that we read every book that comes in. I've been told that. I know y'all read all the books. I'm when I'm saying Dr. Carl, your group and our group. And when you tell people no, we don't do that, we can't do that with the number of books. I've been told we read all the books in a library. But you know, that's just not, you know, something can be done. But the public needs to know again, like someone said, that when a book is found, be it by a teacher, by a parent, by anybody, they need to let the appropriate people know so that book can be looked at

113and if it needs to be removed, then it is removed. Thank you. You're welcome. Anyone else? Anything further, ladies? Mr. Craig, you have another question? No, ma'am. I hit the wrong button. All right. You're forgiven. Thank you. Someone provided a quick update on math also. >> Okay. So if you can It's not. So math, same thing. You'll see our growth from 21 to 25. Um same thing. We'll start installation as Melissa talked about from 26 to 28. So we'll start training on standards. The state will provide resources. They have said they will also do an HQMI guidance for math, but that will come after they get done with reading cuz reading is being adopted right away. We'll do an RFP for it in '28 so that we'll have ready for an adoption for the '28

114'29 year to start with the implementation. Um, and so you'll see the renewal cost and like we said, any projection of a new curriculum would be at least a two-and-a-half million dollar um, purchase. Okay. Any questions about that? And then one more slide, just quick update. So these are just things that you'll just know that are coming up. Canvas, which is the platform we use where anybody can use any resources to help um, teach that's online. That's our platform that we use, our LMS, and it's the renewal cost is up there. Um, EC, we have our two curriculums that we use, Gold Book, which helps with the writing of IEPs, but also with goals for our EC students. And then Unique is used for our self-contained students for their own curriculum. And so you'll see

115the renewal costs there. And so those are projected as what we'll need for the upcoming school year at this time. And those two are paid out of EC funds, is that correct? >> No. They're not? No, they're paid out of textbook funds. Oh. Because we have to think about textbook as all as part of core instruction for all of our students in their particular needs. >> Okay. Mr. Brew. Do do we get a uh, allotment of textbooks um, funding from the state level at this present time? We do, but it's not a lot though. It is uh, right around 700,000 per year at this point. So is that >> [snorts] >> something that we may be looking at trying to uh, hide some funds or not hide them put it on reserve to help accommodate

116when this time comes? Or [clears throat] how what's the future plans in having the revenue to take care of the need. Erica, will you address what we get what we have? And so, Mr. Brewer, to that, this conversation is really about, as Chairman Tray said, the business side of this, affordability, what can we afford and not afford? What we're using is all that we could afford at that time. You've already heard to renew all those new curriculums, 2.5 million, which means 5 million per year for the two new. We can't afford that. And as Dr. Winston said, Mr. Brewer, on the board, that has always been the problem. That's why the curriculum we presently have, we adopted when we had ESSER funding. So, the system was flushed with about 170 million dollars at that point

117of ESSER, which is now all gone. We do have the textbook allocation that we receive year to year, and it can be held. It is one of the few one of about four funds that don't expire. So, at June 30th, we don't have to revert our textbook dollars. They will remain in our textbook account. But, as Dr. Carr indicated, that annual allotment is only about $700,000. But, can't can it not be used for Didn't we use it for technology one time? Maybe some software that supports curriculum, but not technology computer hardware. No, ma'am. >> Okay. It can't be used for that purpose. Do Wait Wait, Mr. Phillips is first. Will we still be able to use the overstock of curriculum material in the warehouse with this? So, when we do our orders, we always look

118at what we have left, and then order the difference that we need between it. So, we use up what we have first. Okay. Mr. Hamley. I'm wondering if we have a building check and balance system into these programs this paying all this money for just like the gold book and the unique um to make sure that not only just the teacher but as a LEA we're meeting standards this required. Because when when we look at our litigation issues a lot comes through those avenues that we have to deal with. So Gold Book is literally just like I said, it's a tool to write IEP goals and so our teachers are using that. We can see based on the platform and based on the IEPs our IEPs are written much better than they have been in

119years. Um so there's constant training on that and you can see the usage so there's a usage report of how that's used. Unique is only for those self-contained classes so it's a small group of kids. It's not the majority of our EC kids and so this is not a curriculum that they all use cuz keep in mind resource teachers are also using some of the same resources that everybody else is using but then providing specially designed instruction based on their particular IEP goals. So this this program that's also usage that we can look at. It shows which classrooms are using it and how they're using it and just in observations we see the use of those um curriculums. Uh any more questions these ladies? Uh that concludes the items on the agenda but I would

120like to request that um for the school board meeting that they just be as in way of announcements information about the new ELA standards, new math standards, arts education requirement just the announcements at the board meeting. Not explained like you ladies did today. No, no, no, no. Just make it announcements for information. Would you all do that at the board meeting? Yeah, do we make an abbreviated version as information on them? Yes, please do that. Because I think the public needs to have a little more information about what we're doing with curriculum and instruction if if possible, but not not presentations cuz you'll lose them. Okay, Mr. Henry. I think it's going to be very important too that we um that we actually say that it's becoming more in alignment with state requirements. >> Yeah.

121Rather than just it's like it's something that we're making decisions here to do. That's correct. Thank you so much for that. Okay, now uh our agenda has been covered. I do think it's appropriate to ask if anyone uh the committee and or the other board members present, if you have a questions or something you would like to say before we conclude this meeting. I know we have another meeting after this meeting. So, anyone want to say anything? If not, I want to say I really appreciate everybody being here. I know the superintendent's going to give you some uh goodies for you ladies and gentlemen preparing this presentation, aren't you, Mr. Superintendent? And I appreciate everything you do for our children. I appreciate everything. And the curriculum supervisors is who I was talking about. Thank you.

122And the other ladies up here at the table and everybody. Thank you so much. And I want to give a special shout-out to the school board members not on the committee here and those that aren't the committee that are here. And Jonathan Simmons, I didn't forget your name. I just wanted to make you smile every time I call you somebody else. But, thank you everybody for being here. And and please please consider at least if you can if you have any extra money making a donation to the early college because like I said the board does not fund the trip to state for to compete for the state. Um And Dr. Manuel, I want to echo you've seen evidence today of the level of work that I see in our department. It's a hard job.

123It's a hard job. It's a hard job. You've been there, you know that. Um but they do outstanding work. They're really in the building supporting teachers, supporting principals, and we appreciate that. Our growth over the last four or five years is evident. We've seen in math that we had what a 24-point jump increase, 10-point in English language arts. So, again, I echo that. We appreciate your work and continue to push on. But, thank you. This uh okay. Do I hear a motion to adjourn this curriculum meeting? Or do I hear a second? Uh meeting's adjourned. >> Mhm. >> Good afternoon and welcome to the special called board meeting March the 30th for the public schools of Robeson County. Um We have Mr. Bradley Phillips present, Mr. Vonta Leach, myself, Trey Britt, Mr. John Simmons, Henry

124Brewer, Dr. Emanuel, Ms. Christy Fields. Online, we have Mr. Craig Lowry, Ms. Crystal Monroe, Dr. Terry Locklear, Ms. Melissa Ocean. First up, we've already had our moment of silence at our earlier meeting. Let's move on to information items. A, board policy 3130, flex grouping for instruction. Dr. Carr and Dr. Dallas. Good evening, Chairman Britt, Superintendent Williamson, and board members. We did want to take the opportunity to this evening to address um concerns around flex grouping as they relate to policy 3130. So, um due to the lack of specific detail um with the concern, this response will be somewhat limited in its specificity. And instead, we're really going to describe the standard practices that we utilize in our district related to grouping. Okay. We recognize that policy 3130 explicitly allows teachers and principals to group and

125regroup students for instruction using formative assessment, particularly for communication skills in math, so as long as that grouping is based on individual needs and does not consume the entire instructional day. So, we have tried to outline some points that we feel are important when we look and you consider what grouping is in our schools. So, we start with flexible grouping and daily targeted intervention. Students are flexibly grouped for daily targeted intervention in reading and math, which is consistent with the policy. We understand the expectation that grouping and regrouping in these areas is based on individual student needs and not for the entire instructional day. I think earlier you heard Ms. Mansfield actually talk about text complexity. That is a perfect example of how there are times in a class or during intervention we have to

126group students with their ability right to understand or comprehend that text. Students move as their needs change rather than remain in any fixed homogeneous or homogeneous track the entire instructional day. This effort utilizes all of our support staff. We have classroom teachers, instructional assistants, interventionists, tutors, YDS staff, AIG specialists, ML teachers, EC teachers. All of them really are utilized in order to target the instruction that students need. In some cases you'll hear it called WIN, what I need. It's all about trying to give students what they need, right? And you're going to see the next bullet point talks about formative assessment. We have pushed our schools to be formative schools. We have pushed our classrooms to be formative classrooms, which means we don't just take data and sit on it. Our goal is to make

127sure that we address the student needs and yes, sometimes that is by grouping students so that we can give them exactly what they need. Um formative assessment data guides how our students are placed and when we say formative assessment data, that might be classroom assessments, observation, progress monitoring, check-in data, teacher observations. We really want our teachers formatively assessing every day. I need to know where my students are at all times. Um these groups also um are based on individual needs and current small group and intervention practices are designed to adhere to these conditions. Because groups are formed and adjusted based on up-to-date data, students instructional plans are responsive to skill level and growth rather than fixed. One of the differences between data and assessment is it might be diagnostic, but if you don't do anything

128with it, you stay there. Our job is to make sure that we use formative assessment and we respond to our students' learning. The next bullet point talks about support for all students, not just high performers. The assertion that intervention efforts focus primarily on students who are already performing well academically is false and not consistent with our expectations and practices for intervention. All students, including those performing below, on, and above grade level, participate in small group instruction and receive support designed to meet their instructional needs. Alignment with MTSS and best practice. Additional targeted instruction outside differentiated core instruction is an essential component of MTSS and it does align with current research-based best practices in reading and math. When you go to any state meeting or you read any federal research, that differentiated core and that supplemental

129and intensive extra support is everywhere. Right? We have to meet students where they are at. We do recognize that policy 3130 recognizes that ad ad hoc grouping for daily instruction may be used as an intervention strategy to improve student performance, provided that it does not isolate a student for a major portion of the day. It's always based on individual need. So, that's why you will hear the term flexible grouping. Right? We move students as we need to based on their performance data. Inclusion and clustering. The concern fails to account for our district's use of inclusion and clustering to support students who receive specialized services. These service delivery models are supported at the state and federal levels. In many classrooms, students identified as exceptional children, multilingual, and or academically or intellectually gifted are intentionally clustered into

130specific sections so that specialized and general education staff can collaboratively provide services in that general education setting. Clustering in this context means strategically placing a small group of students with similar service needs in one room so that co-teaching, in-class support, and differentiated instruction can be delivered. This is different than tracking. Tracking is based on overall ability and it's one shot. Kids don't move. That is not what we're doing. We make sure that we use our service delivery options. So, in summary, while teachers and administrators do use data-informed grouping practices, and we do flexibly group students, including clustering, these practices are designed to maximize student access to core instruction and specialized services. Any questions on our practices related to flexible grouping and policy 3130? Anybody got any questions on grouping? Mr. Henry Broaddus. Just for the

131uh >> [clears throat] >> for the policy committee, um is there anything in here that you would suggest that needs to be reviewed with the policy committee for possible change or whatever to clarify some misconceptions? Um actually, I think it actually addresses the idea it gives the schools and the classrooms the authority to make those decisions based on data. And I think it's making sure that teachers and principals are using due diligence when making those decisions. So, I feel like that's covered in there. It makes sure that it's addressed based on data. Dr. Manuel. Also, the bottom line with all this still in place, the law North Carolina law gives the principal the right to grade classes by. Yes, absolutely. I mean, that's all I have to say about that. Dr. Terry Locklear. Hey, can

132you hear me? Yes, sir. Okay, so I wanted to make sure. So, um, in one part of the document you said and uh the information that was shared earlier from Miss um Melissa, it said, "We lack specific detail. So, here is our general explanation of district practice." Yes. To the um the intervention for high performers allegation, you said that that assertion is false. So, my question is, what information do you use to support the conclusion that the allegation about um intervention [clears throat] being focused on high-performing students was false, especially when you stated that the concern lacked specific detail, um I mean, and you only uh explained it in general explanation of practice? So, the concern that was delivered to me was very broad, and it lacked any specificity. So, that's what I mean. If

133I would have known a school, a grade level, a classroom, right? Then I would have been able to actually directly respond to that specific concern. Okay? Okay. I'm speaking generally. I'm in classrooms every week, as well as our principal coaches. We understand how intervention works in our buildings, so I feel very confident that what we are saying is true, and I feel confident that the way our teachers are grouping students during intervention is very effective, and it's what our students need. So, instead of saying that assertion is false, maybe it's some generally speaking it's false, but we have no evidence to support the the allegation. So, if you want to wordsmith it, we can do it that. Yep. Any other questions, comments on grouping? May I ask >> Yes, sir. Dr. Cole, from the state

134level this is what they recommend. In fact, as part of that we talked about that. Yes. Um [clears throat] so, even when I went to a CAO meeting or curriculum meeting for state um 2 weeks ago, that was one of the big pieces is is how do we make and sure that we provide flexible grouping and meet the needs of all of our students by using that data. So, this is part of what the state is pushing to ensure that we're meeting the needs of our students. >> [clears throat] >> And Mr. Chair, if I can, we'd be happy to research it, but we need more information as got the dollars. Give us a name, give us a school. You can do that in private. We don't care if we be happy to go beyond

135um what what what we've been given. This is all that we can provide. If there is ever a concern, please address it so that we can follow up. And that way we can give you the response. Thank you. Miss Erica, could you go over the uh NCDPI paper that we have in our packet as well. I think that needs to be coming from you. Good evening, Chairman Britt, Superintendent Dr. Winston, and board members. There are a couple of things you should find in your packet. One is a response that I typed up related to um complaint that was brought to the board in closed session at the last board meeting. And I also have to start by saying there's not a lot of details included, but I have generated a response and just wanted to

136discuss based on what was included in that complaint. So, it indicates that there are employees receiving school-based salaries while performing central office duties. That is correct. The school board in October of 2021 approved a plan up plan where the central office would compare the salaries of employees that they were making at the schools to here at the central office on the admin pay scale, and whichever was higher, that would be what their salary was here when they came to a central office position. So, that's what we have been following since the board um approved that in October of 2021. So, yes, that is happening. They have not received any bonuses that I know of that have been earmarked for school-based personnel. In my response I list the bonuses that I'm aware of and that go

137out of the payroll office. Those are the principal bonuses that are paid in October. And those um employees that are either paid as teachers or principals, they are not coded um as such and they do not receive these bonuses. As a central office employee, they cannot receive the principal bonus or any of the other bonuses that I'm going to mention. So, there was there's the third through fifth grade reading bonuses, the fourth through eighth grade math bonuses, CTE teacher bonuses for credentialing, and all of those are paid in January. And the NCDPI sends us a list of names for the employees that are eligible. They only go to eligible employees and I am tasked with ensuring that they meet all the criteria. There's normally a three to five-page FAQ that DPI sends out to us

138um with deadlines. They have to work through a certain point. They have to be employed in that position and so forth. There's also AP exam that I um coordinate with each of the high schools to determine the eligible teachers. That's also paid in January. And again, without having specific transactions, names, times of anything that allegedly occurred or was paid, it's really hard for me to to verify without some more specific detail. So, we have in the past received allegations numerous times and we have always been contacted and given specific detail by any number of people. That could be um our audit team. It could be NCDPI. Um we are audited through a lot of different parties and can have an audit at any point in time. Uh DPI receives a transaction file that includes all

139of our accounts payable information and all of our payroll data on a monthly basis. That file goes out within the first five to six days of every month. And there's a Lassiter website that Miss Alexis has also included a letter and she has referenced There were no findings for 2420 2024 2025. That's detailed in the information you've been provided and that is monitored on a monthly basis. And I agree with you Miss Erica, that fourth line there DPI audits every educator and school administrator paid from state and federal funds to ensure that in the that the individual is coded to a program that aligns with their license area when applicable for the school year there. That's Yes, sir. Erica, will you identify who Alexis is is and read that entire document, please? >> Miss Alexis

140Shauls is uh I'm not sure of her specific title. She may be considered a chief finance officer of DPI. She is over the entire business and finance department with the Department of Public Instruction. And her letter is dated March 19th. Dear Dr. Wimson, per your request, I have reviewed the most recent compliance reports available to available to me at the Department of Public Instruction and noted the following. The fiscal years 2024 and 2025 financial statements for the public schools of Robeson County have been reviewed and no findings or questions caused were noted. The fiscal years 2024 and 2025 single audit on compliance for the public schools of Robeson County have been reviewed and no findings or question caused were noted. DPI audits every educator and school administrator paid from state and federal funds to ensure

141that the [clears throat] individual is coded to a program that aligns with their license area when applicable. For the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025, no exceptions are outstanding for the public schools of Robeson County. DPI audits every educator and school administrator paid from state and federal funds to ensure that the individual is paid in accordance with the appropriate legislated salary schedule when applicable. For the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025, no exceptions are outstanding then the public schools of Robeson County. And yes, Ms. Alexis is the CFO of BPI. She's the CFO of the NCDPI and has been for at least the last 15 years. >> [clears throat] >> Any questions, comments, concerns? I don't think we need to go into closed session. I think we're good there. Anybody? Are we good? Nobody's looking

142at me. Are we good? Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Erica. No. No. No. I I do want to say and as superintendent and these folks, I see them every day how hard they work and for someone to call in to question their integrity is bothersome to me. And when again, DPI DPI monitors every month. Part of it was that somebody spoke to DPI and DPI says that can't be true because they would never do that. If there's an issue, they would let Erica and me know first. They would never tell anyone else anything. And so, again, Erica, I apologize. I know when you read that information, your reaction um I apologize that you had to go through that. Same thing in terms of someone saying that we are a bullying group. None of that's

143true, but we do appreciate the opportunity to share that out to the public. And again, we invite anybody at any point in time, if you have a question about anything, come ask and we'll be happy to share the facts. Thanks. Thank you, cabinet and Dr. Williamson. Um, transparency is the key, like I've always said, and that's that's about as transparent as you can get. Mr. Vontae Leach, you got a question? Mr. Bradley Phillips? I got a motion made by Mr. Vontae Leach to adjourn. Hold on 1 second. Mr. Craig, go ahead, Mr. Craig. Mr. Craig, go ahead. I was just going to second the motion the motion. Got you. Motion made by Mr. Vontae Leach, a second by Mr. Bradley Phillips. All those in favor, say aye. Any opposed? Ayes have it. Meeting adjourned. Mr.

144Fields, you all feel like uh feel [snorts] like I'm going