PSRC Board of Education Meeting: 2/10/26

001Good evening everyone and welcome to this public schools of Robinson County Board meeting on February the 10th, 2026. Um call it to order the next thing. We've got a moment of silence. I'd like to remember um Mr. Glenn Patterson, County AD. His father just recently passed away. Also would like to remember Mr. Matt Chavis, central office custodian. His father passed away as well. So at this time, let's have a moment of silence. Oh, Mr. Craig, hit your button. >> Hit your button. >> Uh, Miss Satana, the assistant principal at Pinroke Elementary, her mother passed away and was actually funeralized, I think this past Sunday. >> Gotcha. Let's have a moment of silence, please. >> Thank you. Next up is Pledge of Allegiance by Piney Grove Elementary School. I aliance to the flag of the United

002States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible. That's a great job there. Um, if you would, can those students introduce themselves to us? >> Tell us your name. >> My name is Jezel. Uh, I'm from sixth grade. >> My name is Jeremiah Chavis and I am from sixth grade. I am Grayson and I'm in in fourth grade. >> I'm Gabriel and I'm from fifth grade. >> My name is Mason and I'm in third grade. >> My name is Kyle Clarence and I'm in fourth grade. My name is Michaela Rogers and I'm in third grade. >> My name is Ja and I'm in fourth grade. >> My name My name is and I'm first grade. Let's give those students Oh, got one more. >> One more. What's your name? >> What

003grade are you in? >> Kindergarten. Very good. >> Let's give those students a round of applause. >> Thank you, Piny Grove Elementary. Next up, we have adoption of the agenda. I got a motion by Mr. John Simmons, a second by Miss Melissa Ocean. Mr. Terry Lleair, >> I've got a question. Uh, Chairman, uh, I didn't have minutes uh, for open session or close session in my packet. So, do you think we should modify the agenda um, and remove the approval of minutes for the open and close sessions because we didn't we haven't had time to review those, Mr. Short? Totally up to the board what you want to do. It's fine. It's fine to defer if you'd like. >> I move that we defer. Um >> should we modify the agenda or just >> Are

004you making a substitute motion, Mr. Chair? >> We we can approve it is in as is and then defer when we get to that point. >> All right. I got a >> If If you're going to defer, you should um I'd recommend revising the agenda. Go ahead, Mr. Chair. >> I'm going to uh make a motion to modify the agenda that we defer the approval of open and close session minutes until our next meeting. >> Got a substitute motion made by Mr. Terry Lleair. Second by Miss Christie Fields. All those in favor, raise your right hand. We got Mr. Henry, Mr. Craig, Miss Dr. Emanuel, Miss Christy Fields, Mr. Terry Lleair, and M. Crystal Monroe. Motion carries. Any oppose? Show of hands of who opposes? Motion carries. Yep. All right. So next we would go

005to information items of Black History Month. Correct. >> You need a motion to adopt the agenda as amended. >> Adopt the agenda as amended. >> Need a motion. Need a motion. >> Motion by Miss Melissa Ocean. Second by Mr. Henry Brewer. All those in favor say I. >> Any oppose? Eyes have it. Miss Jessica Cely. Information items. Black History Month. >> Good evening, Chairman Bri, Dr. Williamson and board members. February is Black History Month, a time where we celebrate the culture, traditions, and contributions of African-Americans to our world. There are several observances and programs happening at the school level this month in honor of Black History Month. Thank you, >> Dr. Emanuel. >> I'm just wondering, is there some kind of I know it might be in your monthly, but is do you have a

006listing of those programs when, where? Tell me where to find them. In your packet, we have February um events >> for our board members >> and um in those in those uh in that document has the list of our events at our schools. >> Which packet don't >> Oh, I hadn't looked at it. Okay. Oh, I said thank you so much. >> Yes, ma'am. And we're thankful for the schools that help us provide those every month for you guys of what's going on at their schools. >> Thank you. I hadn't seen Thank you. Thank you, Miss Jessica. Next up, we have NCCAT beginning teacher of the year finalist, Miss Ryan Jacobs by Dr. Brock Ron Womble and Mr. Richard Schwarz. All members of the board, will we please go to the podium? Good evening. Um,

007thank you very much, Superintendent U. Dr. Freddy Williamson and members of the public schools of Robinson County uh, board educ education for the opportunity to be here today. My name is Brock Womble. I'm executive director for the North Carolina Center for Advancement Teaching. And I have with me uh, Ryan Jacobs uh, uh, and and also our president of our foundation um, uh, Richard Schwarz. and I'm glad for both of y'all to be here and and our board of trustee um Dr. Freddy Williamson on behalf of the North Carolina Center for Advancement Teaching is my privilege to announce that Ryan Jacobs, a third grade teacher at Union Chapel Elementary School, has been selected as a finalist for the INCAT 2026 Burrows Welcome Fund North Carolina Beginning Teacher of the Year. This recognition celebrates Miss Jacob's outstanding

008contribution as a beginning teacher and the meaningful impact she is already making on her students and the broader community here in Robinson Robinson County. I'd like to recognize Antonio Wilkins, principal of Union Chapel Elementary School, Makia Mccyver, U beginning a teacher coordinator for their support of Miss Jacobs. I'd also like to thank Mr. Mr. Schwarz, president of INCAT Development Foundation board of directors and superintendent Freddy Williamson, Dr. Freddy Williamson, who is also a member of the board of trustees for being here tonight to honor Miss Jacobs. The beginning teacher of the year award was created to recognize the creativity, resilience, and commitment of firstear teachers across North Carolina. Each year, more than 7,000 new educators step into the classroom statewide, and this award shines a light on those who rise to the challenge and represent

009the very best of the profession. Miss Jacobs will be attending a week of professional development focused on leadership with her fellow finalists in March where interviews and portfolio review will be conducted by a panel of judges from across the state to determine the next beginning teacher of the year. On March 12th, INCAT will celebrate all finalists and announce the winner at a recognition event at Wake Forest University in Winston Salem. At ENCAT, we are committed to advancing teaching as an art and a profession, and we are thrilled to celebrate Miss Jacobs as a shining example of this mission. Please join me in congratulating Ryan Jacobs on this outstanding achievement. and we are pleased to provide you with this certificate. Recognizing you is the INCAT 2026 Burrows Welcome Fund North Carolina beginning teacher their finalist. Congratulations.

010>> Yes. Congratulations. Uh thank y'all so much for this. Uh this is an amazing opportunity. Uh just want to say to the INCAT program, I think it is awesome to even um have something like this for beginning teachers. I know that sometimes it can be a struggle, but it uh motivates us and reminds us why we do what we do. Um, and uh, Robinson County, it's a tight-knit community, and I just w why I'm here. I just want to give it back, give back to Robinson County. I was raised here, born here, and this is why um, I want to continue doing um, what I do every day. I I want to be a teacher for a long, long time. I I love it and I appreciate everyone here. Thank you so much. Congratulations again,

011Miss Ryan Jacobs. Uh, next up we have monthly impact award, Mr. Jamal Campbell. >> Good evening, Chairman Brit, Dr. Williamson, and school board members. I am here tonight to recognize the February 2026 impact award recipients. Our recipients exemplify district's one team one goal motto. These individuals work collaboratively to cultivate a supportive and thriving school environment. We want to thank Cakes and Pastries and Lumberton for sponsoring this month's gift gift cards. We also have to thank Mr. Brandon Venour and Sign City for sponsoring our plaques. And so we want to first recognize our classified employee um which will be from PSRC Early College High School, Miss Valerie Switch to come up at this time. She's the secretary bookkeeper there along with our principal, Mr. Andrew Davis. The public schools Robson County is proudly proudly honors Miss

012Valerie Swit, secretary bookkeeper at PSRC Early College High School as a as a district February classified impact award recipient. Principal Andrew Davis shared, "Miss Sweat exemplifies excellence in her role as secretary and bookkeeper, demonstrating exceptional organization accuracy and professionalism. Her reliability and attention to detail keep school operations running smoothly, while her positive attitude and kindness create a welcoming environment for all. Balancing efficiency with genuine care, she strengthens relationships across the school and embodies the spirit and service of our school with teamwork and excellence. As a district, we celebrate and honor Miss Sweat for the powerful difference she makes each day. Congratulations. We would now like to recognize our certified impact award recipient, Miss Candace Grimsley, agriculture teacher at Lton High School. Representing her um her principal tonight was Miss Tissa F, the assistant principal. They

013can come up at this time. The district proudly recognizes Miss Candace Grimsley, agriculture teacher at Lumberton High School, as the February certified impact award recipient. Principal Larry Brooks shared, "Miss Grimsley, agriculture teacher and FFA adviser at Lumberton High School, has created a powerful bridge between the classroom and the community by connecting students with local farmers, businesses, and civic leaders. She gives learning real world meaning and cultivates serviceminded young leaders dedicated to community growth. Through her guidance in the future farmers of America program, Miss Candace empowers students to lead with confidence, integrity, purpose, equipping them with the skills and values to make a lasting impact in their school, community, and agriculture industry. As a district, we celebrate and honor Miss Grimsley for the powerful difference she makes each day in the lives of her students, colleagues,

014and school community. >> And she has her second family here, her students from FFA also here to represent her. Mr. Gright, hold tight. So, we also need to to make mention of how outstanding this teacher is. She has the top program in the state of North Carolina. Give her a hand. Not only that, she has the top program, top FFA program in the nation. Leadership matters and clearly you're leading our our future for us and thank you for that so much. Congratulations again to Miss Grimsley and Miss Sweat. Mr. Jamal, thank you for that. Uh, next up we have 2526 school performance awards with Dr. Carr and Dr. Alice, come on. >> Right next to him. >> Good evening, Chairman Trey, Dr. Williamson, and board members. Tonight, we'd like to recognize the 2526 school performance

015awards for North Carolina. So, we're going to start with East Robinson for exceeding growth. Fair Grove for academic growth. Fairmont High for exceeded growth. Long branch for academic growth. Lumberton Jr. for exceeded growth. >> Lumberton Senior for academic growth. Magnolia for academic growth. That's nice. Oxendine for academic growth. Parkton for exceeded growth. Penrook Elementary for academic growth. here. Okay. Piney Grove for exceeded growth. That's one of my >> prospect for exceeded growth. Thank you. Early college has exceeded growth and a certificate of achievement for the graduation 100%. >> 100% graduation rate. Red Springs High exceeded growth registration. Rex Wernernard, exceeded growth. Roland Norm, academic growth. St. Paul's High Exceeded Growth I said >> South Robinson exceeded growth. Southside Ashpole academic growth. Tanglewood academic growth. Congratulations >> Towns and academic growth. Union Chapel exceeded growth. and

016Union Elementary Exceeded Growth. So, um, there was a question about what's the difference between exceeded and academic growth. So, exceeded growth means they went beyond what was expected. So, they at least grew two points or more. Um, that's the highest honor you can get. And then academic growth is that we met the growth that's needed for a school, for a child to progress the way they need to on a yearly basis. And I want to thank all of our schools and congratulations. >> Congratulations again. Next up, we have award of appreciation with Snyder Electric with me and Mr. Bobby Ller. Mr. Bobby, if you would come on. Um, Snider Electric is a name that I've gotten familiar with since being on the school board, and I can't say enough good things about it. Miss Watkins,

017can you come on up here? Um, very essential in Lumberton High School. Obviously, that's a school in my district. So, there wasn't a time when I didn't call Miss Watkins. If I had a question about something, I saw something or whatever, I'd get that phone call back and she'd answer my question and to a tea. Um, a good working relationship is hard to come by these days and I appreciate Snyder Electric and the job that they do for the public schools of Robinson County. Um, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Bobby and let him say a few words and present this to you. >> Thank you, Chairman Brett, board members, Dr. Williamson. So, early on in this process, if you ever meet Miss Watkins, she is a ray of sunshine and uh I

018thought, well, she's got a pretty good sales pitch when she came in. But quickly, I realized it was more than a sales pitch. She was really committed to the students in the public schools of Robinson County and seeing this projects or our projects all the way through. Even though we had some roadblocks along the way with some funding, we realize if we had partnered with anybody anyone else, we would not have been where we're at today. So, Miss Watkins and and Snyder and Lonnie's part of her team as well. Lonnie's been our project manager here for a couple of years now and is still with us working on some other projects. But we would like to give this award to Snyder Electric uh in grateful recognition of your exceptional partnership with the public schools of

019Robinson County and your unwavering commitment to student success and safe learning environments. Your inspiring STEM event for middle school girls ignited curiosity, confidence, and a passion for possibility. Your dedication to our SRH HVAC project enhanced our schools providing healthier, safer learning environments for students. Through your continued collaboration and community leadership, you help us advance our team uh one team, one goal mission to provide environments where every child has the opportunity to thrive. This is presented on behalf of the public schools of Robinson County, February 10th, 2026. Thank you. >> And and I know Miss Watkins has a few words she would like to share with everyone. >> And anybody who does meet me and um I do love the district. I I have fallen in love with your students and we did u Mr. Lowour

020many of you I have met and worked with your students and we did the STEM event. Um, I'm not here just to do a construction job. You found that out. Um, we fall in love. We do a lot of things with your students um outside of our construction work. And um, I thrive on helping our your school district and um, Snyder is an exceptional um, company. Um, they really um, want to do what's good for your students and your community and we like to give back as much as we can. Um, so it's been a um privilege for us to work for you, your um your your constituents, which are your students, and all of your community, and it is pleasure to give back to you. You want to say anything, Lonnie? >> Yeah, I

021I mean, all I can do is just parallel those comments. Um, it's been a really really uh awesome joy to be here. I'm from Louisiana originally and uh literally coming here everybody thought that I was uh part of the Lumbi group cuz and I just joined in because I was seeing a lot of the people that look like my people from Louisiana. So it was really a God thing uh putting me here to team up with Snyder and uh this county. It's been a a joy getting to meet all the principles and all the staff and it it really is uh awesome to be able to feel like you're uh making a difference and actually helping you know the kids and the students and the staff. So, we're going to continue to try to excel

022in meeting and exceeding those uh demands and we look forward to more opportunities to serve this community for sure. these glasses. >> There we go. >> Congratulations. Thank you very >> Thank you again to Snyder Electric. Next up on the agenda, we have performance contract Snider Electric, Mr. Bobby Lair. >> Good evening again, Chairman Bread, Dr. Williamson board members to continue our conversation of a a good healthy partnership. We asked uh Alyssa to give us a brief presentation on the benefits of a performance contract. Uh we met with our construction committee a couple of weeks ago and shared a very similar presentation. So, at this point in time, I'm going to turn it over to uh Miss Watkins and just have her walk through the benefits if we were to enter into a performance contract

023and some of the uh savings and what we can do with uh those funds uh at the end. Thank you. >> You get me again and I have to lower this. I'm a shortcake. Thank you for having me here tonight again. And um thank you at having letting Snyder come here and talk to you again. We did come um in January and talk to the construction um committee and we wanted to share the information with you here tonight about how we can continue to help um the learning environment through an energy savings performance contract. Um we changed the presentation a little bit. We just made it a little bit shorter because I was um here a long time the other night and we wanted to make it a little bit more comprised. Um, so I

024wanted to u move forward and share with you what an energy savings performance contract is and who is a good candidate, which is this school district, and how it's funded, what projects can be included in this type of um program and energy savings performance contract um project benefits and what the school district needs to do as far as next steps when you move forward. if you decide to do something of this nature. So, I did a what, how, where, and why. We made it a little bit more concise and what an energy savings performance contract is. It is a self-funded program in North Carolina. This is the only time a school district in North Carolina can borrow money and it is self-funded. So, there is no money upfront. It is used energy savings pay for

025this. So, you're basically reducing your energy spend that you're paying the utility companies and you're putting that back into the school district and improving your infrastructure. So, it is a self-performed program. It's basically reallocating money that you're already paying out um to utilities, be it water, gas, um electric, any type of utilities, telecom, any type of utilities. So, you're basically reallocating that. So, this is a vehicle to fund infrastructure improvements. Um so if you have failing boilers, your heat, um failing air handling units or air chillers, air conditioning, um windows, um roofing, different things, um anything that is failing cost, very cost intensive, um infrastructure items that cost the district a lot of money. These things can be paid for through um reallocating that money. Um people that do this are your government. um you

026uh military uses this all the time. Um K12, health care, uh municipalities. So, a lot of people use this mechanism um as a vehicle to fund their improvements. This has been done for many, many, many years. In North Carolina, this has been utilized since 1982. And why you do this is when it's you're tight on money or don't have the money. This originally started in North Carolina. it was many rural school districts that started utilizing this because it was hard um they didn't have the money like the bigger school districts did or that have a lot of money or had a lot of u different funding allocations. So we started seeing more school districts doing this that had tighter funding um issues. So now it's more and more widely used. Most all school districts have

027done this or are doing this mechanisms. They do multiple of these. I have many school districts. This is my I started February 10th today actually 30 years ago forgot. So 30 years ago I started this. Um so I have many school districts that have done this multiple times and um so they utilize this program uh multiple times. Like Brunswick County Schools right now we're getting ready to do their second one. We are Cumberland County Schools has done three um they've done many of them. So, you've got many different um just around us, close by that have um utilized this multiple times. Who's a good candidate? Robinson County Schools, you're a great candidate. You're you're a school district that's tight on funding. Um you're looking at a way to try to find other mechanisms to fund

028more infrastructure improvements. You have the ESSER funding. You utilized it great. Um you did as much as you could with what you had with that ESSER funding. We will not see any type of funding like that again for a long time. We had the ARPA funds years ago and then we've had the ESRE funds this time. So it'll be a long time before we see that type of money coming back into our school districts again. So now this is another mechanism to help you um continue to improve your school uh districts. I mean, I I think you just had some more flooding and things that have happened in um I think it was at Lumberton Senior last week. You had some more flooding on um F-wing and G-wing. That's failing equipment and it's going to

029continue to fail. Um the more deferred maintenance you have, the longer it sits there, it's only going to get worse. As long as that deferred maintenance, it gets worse daily. So, it's not going to get any better. So, as long as it sits there, it's going to continue to degragate. So while you're looking at to trying to find a way to do this, you don't have the money. Again, there's no money upfront with a performance contract in North Carolina. The general statute in North Carolina general statute, it allows schools to be able to do this. It also says schools cannot have to put any money upfront as you're going through this process. Your energy savings have to pay for everything. Again, if we don't if you select a partner to go through with this, you

030do not go you come out with any money. There is a third party involved. You will have a bank involved. So, as we talked about in the construction uh meeting, which some of you weren't here for that, but we do have to go out and get a third party loan, but your energy savings are your collateral. So you're using energy savings at the all district that you're saving the money as your collateral to make your payments. So as you start saving the money. So you'll select an energy savings company. They have to be verified by the energy um department in North Carolina. There are only seven other companies besides Snyder. So we are one of them. You will have to go out for a proposal to select a partner. I'm just one of them. I'm

031here telling you about the program. I'll have to compete just like everybody else for your business. So, I'm just here to tell you about with the program, what it does. The energy office oversees this and also North Carolina Treasury overseas this for the school districts to make sure everything follows the letter of the law. So, when you're going through this process, you'll have energy office helping you. You'll have a third party owner that's required. So usually you'll select a um engineering architect that is in your interest. So they'll they'll represent the school district and that also they are paid for out of the energy savings. So again there's no money that the school district pays for upfront. You will use your utility savings as you are select your financer. Typically in North Carolina I see

032Bank of America winning these. will have other companies that um will bid on it, but Bank of America being a North Carolina company, they want to invest back into their school districts. They typically come back with the best interest rate. The interest and principal have to be paid for in this program, too. So, again, you look at this like a mortgage. When you close that, you get all your infrastructure and we'll go look at the entire school district and we'll come back and we'll co-author it with you. what where where are the biggest priorities and we'll look at all the schools and Dr. Williamson, we talked about before lighting really helps pay for this. Lighting is our quick payback. So, we'll look at all the district lighting. You look at water and you look at

033building automation. Those items pay back very quickly and then they help pay for the longer items like your boilers and your chillers, um your big um your big HVAC items that cost a lot that have a longer payback. So you use your short item paybacks to pay back the longer term. And we blend it all together, but it all has to pay back over the longest you can do this project is a 20-year term. That person that you select as your partner has to be that partner for the entire term of this project. So, when you're selecting a partner out of one of these other seven firms or Snyder, which there's eight total, you have to make sure you're selecting a partner that's going to be in business for 20 more years, that has the

034money to pay if you don't meet these savings, they have to write you a check. So, if we're saying we're going to guarantee, let's just say, um, I'll use another school district for example, we're saving $1.2 million a year. If we don't save that $1.2 2 million a year and we only save $800,000. We have to write a $400,000 check that year. You got to make sure you select a company that has the pockets to be able to pay that check. And again, it's overseen by the Energy Office and Treasury of North Carolina to make sure that you're writing those checks and a third party owner to make sure that those calculations are correct and that you're seeing those savings. So that happens every year for up to 20 years. You do not have to

035do a 20-year term if you choose not to, but the interest rates are usually very well, very good for you. And usually you've got so many needs that most everybody goes out to 19 or 20 years. So that's where we go in the program. Again, I've got a little graph here. So right now on the left graph you have your your operating and you have your your the gray one is you're paying your energy bill. That's what you're doing today on the left side. If you were to do an energy performance contract, you've got guaranteed savings. So we would come in and and look at everything and with your third party engineering company and us, we would decide, okay, this is how much we can guarantee that you're going to save. and the energy office

036in North Carolina looks at it as well and says, "Okay, we all think this savings is going to be there. We're guaranteeing that amount." You're still paying your energy bill, but the blue amount is the less a part that you're not paying the utilities. So, you're not going to pay the utility anymore. You're going to have less utilities that you're paying. That amount is the payment, the guarantee. So, you're going to put the inf you're putting new infrastructure back into the school district. You're also paying the loan back to whoever the entity may be and you're continuing to operate your school district. But at this point, you have new lighting, new building automation, new infrastructure, new technology in the school district. So now we're functioning better, more efficient, better indoor air quality. So kids are

037learning better. The lighting makes a big difference on learning as well. So now you're operating on the right graph versus the left graph. So you can either continue to pay the utility company and operate and have deferred maintenance building up each year or you can work on the right graph and have new infrastructure and paying less to utility company. >> Hold on, Miss Watkins. Mr. Craig has got a question. >> I'm sorry, Mr. Lower. >> Thank you. Uh and I hate to stop you. No, go ahead. question because u I'm getting to where if I don't ask it now. >> No, you ask it. >> Uh let me go back the the Okay, this will not cost us any money upfront. >> No, sir. >> None whatsoever? >> No, sir. It's written into general statute

03814364. >> So there's no money paid? >> No, sir. >> All right. She be That sounds good. It sounds almost too good to be true, but I believe you when you say it. Then the next part there, let's say we did light. Well, let's just say we were doing the lights with those two graphs there. So if when we got that energy bill, I guess let's say the year, if it didn't save us ever what we were supposed to be saved, Snider or whoever we're dealing with would write us a check for that difference. >> Yes, sir. And you can extend it out every how many up to maybe 20 years is what you're saying now. Uh go through I'm gonna keep the numbers easy for me. Let's say the project was going to cost

039$100,000. >> Yes, sir. >> So who goes and gets that $100,000. >> Okay. What you would do and you'll select a partner first. Okay. So from let's just say from tonight. Okay. You would issue a request for proposal out to select a partner at and at the same time simultaneously you need to have a third party owner selected for your engineering to represent the school district for your interest and then you select that partner and then at that time that partner would go out into the district and and and look at everything in the district. Your lighting, your water, all your bills. It it's it's a months and months and month several months of investigation. We'll go out and look at everything. Let's use your $100,000 lighting. So, we're going to go out and let's

040just say if we did lighting, typically lighting pays back very fast. So, that is done districtwide because that lighting helps pay for other projects. So, if we had, let's just say, lighting and F-wing needs stuff. Let's just say at Lumberton. We'll use that for example because I know that happened. So that needs some duct work and some heating and air conditioning at Lumberton. Okay. So we're going to use the lighting and then we're going to do the infra the heating and air. Let's say a boiler and a chiller for example over there. So what that does is during the process while we're looking and investigating it's called an investment grade audit. So everybody's auditing everything. So, we will co-author, work together to select that project. That project is selected together. We don't tell you what

041you're going to do. This is your project, your baby. We have to work on that together. While we're putting that project together, when we decide what the project's going to look like, at that time, we will work with Miss Settzer and this committee, whatever the um board decides who that committee is going to be that we're working with, we would actually have to submit out another proposal for a financer of the project that you're selecting. And it's going to be, let's just say, the 100,000 whatever. Okay? So, we're going to select this amount of project and then it has to be bid out to financers that may be interested. Typically, that's Capital One, Bank of America, and that will go out. They would bid on that project because it has to be banks that understand

042that energy is used as the collateral for this project. And there there are banks out there that understand that and want that in their portfolio. So then that is bid out and they're selected. So at that time your financer is selected. You already have your partner selected that's going to do the construction portion. So that they're like a general contractor basically. You've got your third party owner. So all of these come together and that application has to go to Treasury in North Carolina and Energy Office in North Carolina and be approved by all of them before you can ever go into a contract. So all of those entities have to approve it before the school district is ever allowed to sign anything or encumber anything. So you're not you're going to go down a path

043and investigate it. At that point you can still stop and say this is not for us. We've decided we don't want to do this and you're not out anything. You're still not paying a penny. General statute says you don't pay anything until you get past the investment grade audit. Then at that point, if we've done all the engineering and given you all this information and you decide you don't want to do it, there is a backout fee because there's all these engineering designs and drawings that are done. There was a backout fee at that point, but that's it. And at that point, I mean, until you get to there, there is no not one penny spent. If you continue to move forward, all that goes just into the application for the Treasury to approve approve,

044energy office to approve and your third party owner has to approve that. But we're all working together to select that project. Then if that savings is not met, year one, two, three, up to 20 each year. If it's not met, there is a check written by who that company that's selected as your partner. They have to be here to write that check for you. that year is from whenever it starts or whenever you get >> after construction is completed. So, most likely as large as this district is, um, and that company would come in once you sign that contract, we would go across the district. We would break it up in different clusters, probably three or four here, and do it all at one time. We work at nights and weekends, so we don't we're

045used to working in school districts. Um, that way it's done at nights and weekends, holidays. So we can get the lighting done fairly quickly because we want that savings to come in very fast and construction period here would probably be uh 20 months to two years and no payment is made then you are just capitalizing your interest like you're escrowing it just like a mortgage you're escrowing that interest so there's no payments during construction until construction is complete because you're banking all that energy savings. You've got to start seeing the energy savings to be able to have the savings to make that first payment. >> So, you do not make a payment during construction. >> I won't owe you up anymore. >> That's fine. No, I want you to understand it a little bit. >>

046Hold on. Hold on. Miss Watkins, Dr. Williams, you got anything? >> I I do. So, if the savings does not equal the payment, you've been clear that you have to write us a check. The other part of that if the savings exceeds the payment then the district will get the difference with an option right to put that towards debt reduction. >> Yes sir. And Brunswick County Schools we they exceeded theirs. They have paid their loan down um three times already. So they have exceeded theirs tremendously. Um so they've used their extra money to invest back into operations to do additional jobs and they've also paid their loans down. So you have the option to do it's your money um and your savings. So you the board can do what they want to do with that

047extra money. That is your money. >> Mr. Bradley Phillips. >> So I was in the construction meeting and you I got to hear the presentation. It was it was great. >> Thank you. >> Um but Miss Hera, can you not necessarily put you on the spot, but can you tell us roughly in perspective what we're paying utility cost? Seemed like you gave us kind of a rough number. It was like four four million 4.2 million some 4.8. >> Yes sir. >> Sorry it's 4.8 >> for total utility costs. Now when I say utilities with the 4.8 that is um electricity. We actually have another line item that captures some other things like natural gas and we have to break that out. But that's the bulk of the electricity cost. >> Right. So, you're going to

048take electricity, you're going to take gas, you're going to take water, you're going to compile those together, and a a good estimate, and we've got some estimate. We've got the estimates in a few slides. >> If you will, will you jump to that case study and just kind of hit on that a little bit? >> Yeah, I'm going to I was going to say we're getting right. Yep, we can jump to that. >> Okay. Hold on. Hold on, Miss Mr. Henry's got a question, then we'll hold the rest till the end. Go ahead, Mr. You mentioned the school uh would have engineering um company to represent us. Who would take care of that bill? And >> that that is part of your savings have to cover that. So all the overall savings when we are

049calculating that with your third party that becomes part of the project that has to the savings your savings have to pay for the third party engineer as well >> whether the project's done or not. Uh, the savings still pays the bill. >> Yes, sir. >> All right. Go ahead, Miss Walker. >> I'm g I'm jump We're almost there because I cut these slides down from the longer one. So, when we were just talking about you've got some quick return on investments. So when you look at the school district, we want to look at things that help your project which are lighting your um it says energy management system which are the building automation controls which cut on lighting and they also cut on heating and um air. So those we want to put on schedules.

050Um we've seen some of yours in working on the ESSER program. We have seen some of the schools that were working 247. So some of your schools are are on all the time. So you can save a lot of energy there. And then water conservation. And then we also want to look at some water treatment because we've got some areas where there's not water treatment going on. So that's messing up some of the equipment or can um so we want to get in here to really help um fine-tune those items. And then we'll look at it and te telecom as well to see how we can help improve that. And and we can go another step further too. um we're helping you with some security and card access and sometimes we can help with some

051of that as well. It has to be tied to energy um or some type of savings. So, we have to make sure it's tied to that. Your longer return on investment, which are more cost intensive, but you need the items as well. That's why we do the quicker return on investments are like your windows because we have some schools that really need some windows here. They're still single pane uh and older, which is not unusual. We still have school districts all over the state that are the same way. Um we have major HVAC equipment that the Esser just didn't go far enough. Um we we concentrated on the schools that we could with your ESSER and then we can still do roofing upgrades and um some other u weatherization. you you'd be surprised at how

052much that saves by just doing doors um weather stripping and things like that or going around and and caulking the other windows that need some help. Just those items really help um fund the whole project. So you have to look at the project as a district-wide project and not look at pieces and parts because some things may help other things. So we try to look at the district as a whole and then we take your highest priority needs and then try to build the project out from there at what is best for your district. Okay. So um again I mentioned indoor air quality. You do that the lighting levels will improve and you will be um amazed. When we did my daughter's school in Hornet County when she was there it was amazing. She had

053major eye problems and I wanted to know when we did her classroom the day they did it because she was having some major just could not see the board having issues and when we changed the lighting levels and changed out the lights in her classroom. It was amazing at how much different it was on her eye level just being able to see the light the board. Um, and there are studies out there about changing the lighting levels for children and and just by not having the right le levels for them to be able to learn. So that really helps learning. Um, and then for operations, being able to standardize on equipment. So that helps um on your inventory, your purchasing, and then being able to have um control system that works so they're not driving

054to from one school to the next to check on something when they can do it by the web or on their um their handheld systems to be able to see that. So it's going to u make operations more productive. And again, they're trying to do a whole lot of things with just the operations group. They've got a lot going on in that group. So we become an extension of that group because we bring our team in and we we are doing all of this work so they can continue to make the district run the way it's supposed to with their regular jobs. And it's a fixed price turnkey. When I say fixed price, this is the other great thing is it's fixed price. We're not going to come back and go, "Hey, we got a

055change order. We got another change order." And you get that when you're doing building or when you're doing additions. Don't tell me you haven't gotten them where you get change order and change order and change order. That's another thing that's protected under this program in general statute 143. You're not going to get change orders. If we miss something and we write it in this contract, and it's happened, I mean, I've had it happen a couple of times and we don't miss much, but if we miss it, if we miss a wing, we have to cover that whole wing. So if we miss six units on this wing over here, we have to cover those six units in that wing. So we can't come back and say, "Dr. Williamson, we missed those. We need a change

056order." That does not happen here. It's not allowed under general statute 143 under an energy savings project. We cannot come back and change things. Now, if you want some additional work that had nothing to do with this project, the customer can ask. But the ESCO, which is the energy services company, cannot come back and do cost overruns. That's a very unique thing in a construction project. So, it's going to impact um the district significantly. Again, we come in with a team. It is done nights, weekends, after hours. If there are things that we can do during school hours, we do it. If it does not affect learning, we do not want to do that. But you're going to be getting state-of-the-art um infra, you know, infrastructure improvements. Um and then the funding mechanism is in

057place and it's all done at one at one time simultaneously, which is phenomenal. So, it's going to really impact the school district. This is where you wanted to get, Mr. Phillips. So, this is a um we were we we did a study in the district because we were working on some ESSER um projects with you. So, I went ahead and started looking at some of your utility bills and we we pulled utility bills and this is actually a year old at this point, but again, it's only going to continue to grow. um every year you don't do work in the district um you're you're impacting your deferred longer. So what we took was we feel like easily and this is probably a 30,000 foot level. So this is only going to get a better view

058as you move along. We feel like you could save 1.5 million easily and it could fund anywhere. I mean, you've got and you've got a project that you could fund and you could save anywhere from 25 to 60% and that's, you know, that's if you were to do a lot of solar. So, I would probably safely tell you you could save 25 to 40% in several of the I mean throughout the district. It some schools are better than others. This is a blend of your schools. That's a lot of savings. This just that you're giving to the utility company. If you'll go to the next one real quick. So, what that will do is a 20-year program will fund approximately 31 million. And if you were to do a lot of solar, and I don't

059envision that here. I just think that's um again, I have to show you all of it. Um 31 to 71 million. So, a good number I think is 35 to 45 million would self fund here. And that's being very conservative. Snider's a conservative company. That's self-funding and that's a very high level. But I feel confident that you I mean again that that was a year old. So it's going to only it's only going to get bigger the longer it sits there because your your equipment's getting worse the longer it sits there. >> Miss Watkins, if I could, I'm going ask Dr. Williamson. I'm gonna put him on the spot because he's been involved in these before in other school districts. I would like the full board to hear his uh opinion on this. >> Yes,

060everything she shared is is absolutely true. Obviously, the quick money is your lighting. Um they do work on weekends after school, so very little disruption to the school day. Um we have old buildings is only going to get worse. It is a wonderful investment um to make in my opinion. So the benefits of this again again it's self-funding in North Carolina you cannot put any money I mean you're not required to put any money upfront no change orders and it's a closed loop approach and when I say that you're hiring a company that takes it from beginning to end that they're here they're your partner so when you're selecting this you're not selecting a low fixed price I mean a low cost or you know a lot of times when you put bids out. You're

061trying to find the lowest cost. There's no money involved as far as cost. You're trying to select a partner. So, you will put a proposal out. That's required. So, you need to put a proposal out to select a company that you want to partner with. And right now in North Carolina, there are seven other companies plus Snider. So, there's only eight companies that are approved in North Carolina by the energy office to do this. You also have to have a third party that protects you. Y'all would select that by just an RFQ in your local paper. If you already have an engineer that you typically work with that represents the district, that's who I highly suggest as long as they understand performance contracting. That's required. And that's your um if you want to jump to

062the next one. I think that's our next steps. Jump one. Yep. So right here. So where you are now, you need to get your third party and you would advertise to select and it says an ESCO which is an energy services company. >> Miss Watkins for clarity um for the board as well because this question hasn't been asked. How does Snyder get paid in this? >> We are paid just like a general contractor. So any other um time you've hired a general contractor, we get paid just like a general contractor. So we get paid when we send an invoice when we do our work. So we do AIA building just like you do when you've done any other general contracting. Any other energy services company, that's how they're paid. So we don't get paid until

063there's construction in the ground. >> Next, um Mr. Bradley Phillips, go ahead. Can we um pivot this, move it to an action item um to start the performance contract process to you gain more information for the RFQ process to select the partner? >> Are are you making a motion? Yes. >> You're making a motion to move it to an action item? >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. Henry, um what during this process, say we we go into a contract, um these funds that we're paying for energy sources, is that coming out of local funds? So that money can be rerouted and used for other things. How what would happen to those funds? >> I want to answer part of that. So, in part of the process when we're getting prepared to go under contract, we have

064to go to the county as well because the county appropriates your funding. The county will have to pass a resolution supporting this process because everything's appropriated from the county and they would pass a resolution supporting the school district entering into a guaranteed energy savings project so that they know that you are using your utility savings as collateral for your um third party loan. So they will have to have a resolution that goes into the packet to North Carolina Treasury. That answers part of it. unless >> right and I mean the other part of that is you use the savings would be rerouted to pay the loan off. >> So you would you would use the savings that you have to pay the loan balance and as she indicated if you exceed what your expectations were

065you could pay the loan uh balance down faster or it could be used for other things to do newer projects or other things at the schools. Okay, I understand the savings part, but what I'm saying is what we uh traditionally receive and pay out on a monthly or bimonthly basis, what happens to those monies? And I just heard that it's it's a contract uh with the county commissioner involved, but how does that affect us directly? So, if we were paying uh any money that we were using to pay utilities that didn't need to be used for utilities anymore, we would direct to the loan payment. >> May I do that? >> Go ahead, Dr. William. I'm sorry. >> And Erica, hold track. We had a conversation today and let me use as an example. We

066exceed our transportation budget by about $4 million. Correct. It it varies. It can be anywhere expend is anywhere from 2.75 to up to four million depending. Yes. >> And and so Mr. Henry, to your question, we could redirect those local dollars and would to help in those areas that we're struggling to to meet that need. >> And I'm sorry, the the local funding is the most flexible funding source that we have. So, it could be rerouted to EC contracted services. Uh, anything that exists in our budget, it could be rerouted to pay. >> Mr. Chair, if I may, I know that there's a motion. Before we get a second on that, can we ask our attorney to um clarify anything that we need or have input in this process? >> I I think Miss Watkins

067done a good job of laying it out. Um the um you can't just go with Schneider Electric or any other company on this. You have to bid this out through an RFP process. Um and you also have to conduct mandatory pre-bid meetings as part of the RFP. >> Um the board has to hire what's called a qualified reviewer and Miss Watkins has talked about that. That's usually an architect or an engineer. And that person basically prepares a written report and recommendation to the board um for which term to which uh firm to select, but that's not binding on the board. Um once you get the RFPs back, um there is a uh contracting process that you go through and um you um um you receive the proposals, you open the proposals, then they get evaluated

068by this qualified reviewer and then you select a provider that best needs the school, meets the needs of the school system based on the review that's done by the qualified reviewer and the evaluation that they've performed. And then the board has to actually the school system actually actually has to rank the respondents to the RFP um based on references from past clients and these criteria. the quality of products and energy conservation measures, the amount of energy savings, the general reputation and performance capabilities of the providers, substantial conformity with the specs and the other conditions of the RFP, time for performance, other factors that are deemed necessary and made a matter of record by the board. And the standard of the war of the award that you're supposed to make is the provider that best meets

069the unit's needs. And you're not bound by the lowest responsive responsible bidder standard as you are with construction projects. Okay. um you supposed to select a short list of finalists then bank based on the rankings and then the highest ranked finalist finalists provide their cost savings analysis for a proposed contract and they're supposed to compare the total estimated project savings and the total estimated project costs over the life of the contract which can be up to 20 years as Miss Watkins indicate ated doesn't have to be 20 years, but um most of these go for 20 years. Um and then you negotiate with the highest ranked finalist and if those negotiations aren't successful and you terminate those negotiations, you go to the next highest ranked person and begin that process. Before you award the contract,

070you have to give published notice of the um uh time, date, and place you plan to award the contract. Um you have to find that the total energy savings will exceed or equal the total cost of the contract. Um total costs include not only construction but also all other costs that are associated with the contract including the cost of financing whatever your interest is maintenance um and training during the term of the contract. Um energy saving me conservation measures must be for existing building or utility structures. They can't be for new construction. Um the provider has to give a bond um that equals 100% of the guaranteed energy savings for the term of the contract. Um and that's governed by law. Um and that uh has to be in a form acceptable to the state

071treasurer. Um uh let's see. Uh and then you have to submit this all to the state energy offices and state energy office and the local government commission uh for their review and analysis and feedback. Uh so uh I think that pretty much covers the legal requirements. Um, you can budget for this out of either operating or capital funds. And there's an annual reconciliation that has to be done by law where the qualified provider gives you an annual reconciliation statement that documents the measures and the verification of um the energy savings and all that will be spelled out in the contract. How that's measured. >> Dr. Emanuel, >> I have several questions and thank you for presenting it so well and thank you Mr. Lawyer. I have several questions. Um, first of all, I'm concerned when

072you said it could be capital. Erica, uh, tell me what loans we're currently paying per month. I know about utilities. I know about insurance we have to pay for. Erica, may I have Erica answer those questions? Mr. Chair, >> sure. What what indebtedness do we have now that we're making payments on each month? Not don't go the usual thing like insurance and stuff like that, utilities. What loans are we paying back currently? >> Um when you we don't currently have any loans. We can't borrow. >> Are we making like we had financed the lighting for everything one time and we paid that off. Yes. Do we have any such kind of loans we're paying back? Now, >> there may be a small amount for the QAB and qualified school construction bonds, but I think we're

073close to maturity on that. And I think the county is covering that portion. I can check that. But other than the qualified school construction bonds and the um qualified zone academy bonds, there wouldn't be any debt that we would be paying back on a loan um on a monthly basis because we can't borrow any >> Okay. That way >> going to another point. May I go to another point, Mr. Chair? All right. You said also that something this could go into capital outlay or we could take money out of capital outlay for this. We have a five-year plan that we've already committed to Capital Outlay to do a lot of other renovations for schools. So, I would totally be against using Capital Outlay for this specific thing. I mean, because we already have a list

074of those things that we supposed to be working on. But anyway, that's just my comment. Now, I have a question. >> Dr. M, if I may clarify, I think on this, you you don't pay the money out of your capital outlay right now. You can you you budget it. You can budget it through capital outlay or operating costs, but you wouldn't use existing capital outlay for understand this. Okay. >> In other words, I would not want capital I would not want something to happen. They say, "Okay, we got to use capital outlay." I think whatever funds we have in capital outlay regardless of this, it needs to be used for that five-year plan in my opinion. But I understand what you're said. Also, if I could continue my This is for my cler. Y'all might

075understand this. I just don't. Is this a one and this is for you. Is this a one-time deal that they go by and fix all the light bulbs and it's over or do you do that every year? Continue maintenance of those things. >> So, what we would do would we would come in and assess all of the lighting and if it needs new fixtures, they would be changed out. If they can be retrofitted, they would be retrofitted. It is done all at one time. So everything is on same schedule and then we leave enough lighting or light bulbs in inventory for it to be changed out. Now in the program we can do either way. We can do it a one-time thing and leave inventory or we can look at the program and have something

076done where you do a relighting at a certain point. It is crafted however the school district wants to do that. >> May I continue with that line? So as you know things were out. So I'm wondering that we may be in the same situation and this is not negative. This is just I know with my house when I do repairs you know by the time I turn around something else is worn out on that. So, I'm saying we may still be making payments on this loan and all this is outdated what you did. Am I making sense to anybody? Say no. Go ahead. Yeah. In other words, I guess what I'm trying to say, I'm looking at the the parts, the pitfalls that I see. Um, maybe it's just me and and having to be

077the business woman in my house. uh 20-year loan and you said there's no nothing we got to pay out. We're waiting on the savings. We're bidding on our savings as to what we can save. I guess the part that's worrying me, what is it going to cost? If I had a cost in front of them, if you had already done your survey and already done your needs assessment and said, "Okay, board, this is going to cost you $17 million." You know, I could I could pretty well go with this, but I'm having a problem here trying to see the savings on something. I don't know what it's going to cost. >> And that's where you're going down to look at you're investigating this process. That's why they don't make you h any entity have to

078pay anything. So, you can investigate what the cost and savings are. So, you can select a partner at that point. and and right now your deferred maintenance and you're worried about the 20 years. Many things that you have in the district and your district's not unlike any other district. >> Many things have a 20-year life cycle and you're on year 30 or year 35 and and you're bandating things. So, they're past their life cycle. >> And one last comment and I will hood. >> Go ahead, Dr. M. County commissioners, have we even discussed this with them? Because it seems to me like they got to be involved down the road is from what you said the commissioners, have we even discussed this with them? So, I don't see the hurry. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why

079vote tonight? Have we discussed this with them? >> We have not. We are not at that point. I think Mr. Bradley motion was to authorize the district to move forward with gathering that information that we can assign a dollar amount to that and and have all the facts before we approach uh the county commissioners >> with a joint meeting, >> right? >> You're you're trying to get to the point where you do know those numbers and and to get to that point, you have got to select a company that can come in and do those investigations. >> I think they need to know where we're going. If it's just a discussion between the superintendent and uh the uh chair that this is what we're proposing just to Yeah. >> And this process is not a

080hurry process. Even if we were to go tonight, we're still looking at nine months down the road and and that would be >> that's Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Mr. Terry Ller, so I understand that if we move forward with the motion Mr. Bradley made, that would sort of start the process, right? But what if we get to u just the point before construction and we find find out there's circumstances we didn't know about that may arise or maybe the county commissioners are not um going to be willing to work with us or or whatever issue arises um and and but there's already been work completed by Schneider then we'll we'll be on the hook for >> now what's going to happen Mr. likely is you're going to get to the the blue circle and

081the red circle. Those are the first two you're going to get to. And once you have that partner selected, that partner is going to come in and you're going to start having those discussions with the county, the county commissioners, and and and you're going to have that one partner. You've got to get to the one partner first. You've got to get there because you can't have the unknown until you get to that one partner. So you need to get to the one partner where you can start to know who that per that company's going to be before you get to the yellow one which is the investment grade audit before you get to having a whole lot of in in meat in there. You've got to get to that one company. So, you've got you're

082going to the county and you're having those discussions because you don't want to go with eight companies with the county at that point and not having an educated guess because once you get to the red one and there you're walking eight companies through, you're going to have to have you're going to have to have that meeting and you're going to have to let how many companies respond, look at the buildings and and and assess their assessment kind of like the high level one I did. um they're going to all have to do that. So, you're going to have to let them do that and rank and select a partner. And then at that time, that partner and the school district are going to start having to have those conversations with the county and and having

083some some more meat in in the um discussions. One of the things that one of the things that that I haven't seen that I I um I would really like for us to work toward and this may be the time for it is a a long-term um take for us to take a long-term view. >> Yes. >> At what our student population is going to look like moving down the road because we've got shifting demographics. There's areas in the county that are growing. Um and and I think there's entities that we can work with to provide us with additional information about uh what this county may look like. You know, if you're talking about 20 years, you know, sort of uh down the road because I know there's areas, the northern part of our county

084is growing >> and that's part of having that partner that there's going to be a whole lot of other things that are going to take place just like your demographics, the growth, all of those studies are going to take place when you have that partner in place. Um it's not just a construction project. It is helping you understand where schools are growing, where the demographics are changing, and that that's part of that partnership is understanding that with your school district because you're going to go in arm and arm together to really it's it's a lot more than just engineering a construction project because we have to understand the demographics and how um things are changing in Robinson County. >> Right. Mr. Schwarz, did you >> Yeah, most of these are different from what you would

085consider to be a demographic study. You're not most of these guaranteed energy saving contracts don't have a legitimate full-scale demographic study as part of the part of the project. That's I think you're talking apples and oranges here. you're going to have some of it because we have to know where >> at least different types of apples, >> but you're going to have to know like if you're if if something's um if a school doesn't have the population or if if something's exploding in a different part of the district and you're you're going to have to build another school or how we're those are things that you're going to talk with with your partner and understand and learn. >> Dr. Williams, um and my question is is to an attorney. I want to be clear this

086is guaranteed. So there is no liability risk on part of the district or the county. The liability risk rest with whatever company we select to do this work is guaranteed. So no risk for the district or the county. Correct. >> Yeah. You asking me that? Yes, that's correct. the uh it's the guarant these are called guaranteed energy savings contract and the guarantee is if the energy savings aren't realized at a level that will be sufficient to pay off the loan then the company you select is on the hook for paying off that part of the loan >> that's correct and that's why we used to have 14 companies and you only see eight here in the North Carolina now um many have exited >> Mr. Craig, >> thank you, chairman. Um, I got a couple

087of questions. Uh, the real quick answer on this. We were hearing no cost. It's not going to cost you nothing. Then we're hearing we got to pay back interest. So, can that be I mean, I'm hearing the interest be paid back. So, where are we going? No cost, but then we got to pay interest. >> There's no cost upfront to you. >> Up front? Okay. Yeah, but you're going to have to pay you're paying your construction and then in the loan you've got principal and interest and all of that has to be covered in the energy savings. So, when we're putting together the project, whatever it may be, lighting, >> HVAC, whatever it is, your your third party owner that you have to have by law, your attorney that has to look at it, their

088fee, all of that has to be covered by energy savings. >> And if it's not, then the company's got to write us a bill. Everything has to be covered by the energy savings that we just showed you. So, all of that has to be covered. You're not writing a check. >> Okay. Now, my conservative nature um and and dealing with something 20 years down the road. We got old buildings. Everybody knows that. We got old infrastructure. Everything needs to be replaced. We're not going to build 10 new schools. I don't think we are unless the state or somebody gives us a bunch of money. But we know we got old everything in the schools. Uh I still when I sit here, you know, I'm not going to be around when this is finished. Uh but

089I don't want to put somebody in a situation where another board is sitting here and they don't have money to do things down the road. Now, even though, like I said, it's not no cost, if if the things are not covered, we gonna get a check. That's all what's being said, which is all well and good, but that is a concern of mine to put other people in a situation down the road that What are they doing? Now, Miss Erica, and and you don't have to do it tonight. Dr. Manuel opened this up with with my idea of what we owe. I know we've got the seven and a half million we're going to have to deal with with the technology school. And you know, we figured we could do that. You know, we got

090information from you that that could be done. Now, my question is, and you don't have to answer tonight if you need to get it together. Is there any other monies like that where there's a $2 million bill or a $3 million bill that we're having to pay on? And uh if that's something you would need to look at and get back with us, I'm fine with that. You don't I'm not expecting you to answer tonight. Other than that seven and a half, I mean, that's what I think everybody knows about. But is there anything else? >> Go ahead, Mr. Sch. There's um one other thing I want to mention to you. The um uh for all these guaranteed energy savings contracts that exist throughout the state, there's a requirement that the local government that has

091the contract has to report that contract and its terms to the local government commission and the state energy office. And the local government commission compiles an annual report. um it might be bianual, I'm not sure. Um and it makes that report to the government operations committee in the general assembly >> and what they have to report is the expected energy savings that have been realized from those contracts. So they actually evaluate what was expected for the energy savings that's part of the contract and then whether or not those savings were actually generated and realized by the local government. So there are report you can go back and look at those reports that have been submitted to the general assembly the government operations committee and see what the performance has been. >> Yeah. every December 1st

092we have to submit from all all ESOs have to submit to um on December 1st every year and and Dr. Emanuel, you were talking about your capital project. We'll also look at that too because if you have some things set aside in the capital project, we can probably in go ahead and get some of those done in this energy project, too. That will help save those dollars. So, then you can free up those dollars to do something else as well. So, that's something to take. We we want to look at your fiveyear and your 10-year plan, too, because that'll help free up some money for the school district to maybe do something else that you couldn't do. Miss, >> just a thought. >> Miss Crystal Monroe. >> Um, my question is is the solar panels

093because that's what's going to be used. >> How long do they last for? >> And we're not necessarily doing solar. I was just saying I mean you may want to look at solar, but you may I mean you may not the the lower number that we had the 31 million is not that's just mainly lighting and water. Okay. >> If you're looking at the 70 some million that's doing solar. So it's a range. And again, I don't know what the project's going to look like today until we do the >> So that's what it bases off of. >> Yes. >> Okay. Because I that's what I was wondering. >> I mean, right now the lower number is mainly lighting, water, building automation, you your nuts and bolts in the school district, but if you wanted

094to do some other items >> like a bigger, yes. Then you're going to get to those larger numbers. It depends on what the school district's appetite is for or items. But until the engineering groups get here, because you're going to have all different types of engineering groups looking at everything in the district to figure that out. >> Mr. Vonte Leech. >> All I think Mr. Bradley had a motion on the on the table to go ahead and start the process to look at this guarantee of energy contract. And I want to go ahead and second that motion. >> All right. I got a motion made by Mr. Bradley Phillips, a second by Mr. Vonte Leech. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Any oppose? eyes have it to move it to an action item.

095Mr. Schwarz, um, we will move it to the first action item. Is that >> show of hands in favor? >> So, we've got Mr. Simmons, Mr. Phillips, Mr. Leech, this motion, and the chair opposed. And you Mr. L is Dr. Locker is abstaining. >> Okay. >> All right. Mr. Schwarz, are you >> pass 64 with an absention? >> Are you are you fine with moving it to action item first thing? >> Up to the board. Yes. >> Sounds good to me. First action item will be performance contract to move forward with Snder Electric. Well, their presentation they're not really in but as I understand the motion was to move this to an action item to authorize >> Can I restate your motion, Mr. Ph with with the consent of the board to authorize the administration

096to move forward with exploring >> Yes. >> this a type of guaranteed energy savings contract. >> Correct. Hit your button, Dr. Emanuel. What does exploring mean? What does that entail when you say exploring? >> I didn't make the motion, D. >> Well, whoever Bradley, what Mr. Bradley, what does that mean? Exploring. >> Hit your button, Bradley. >> From my understanding, we can't just say we're going to move forward. with Snder tonight or we can't move forward with this group tonight. >> You've got to have an and I guess like an exploring of um bidding it out to see what proposals we get back. I mean, you got to have a starting process asking a bunch of questions and getting the the >> and all this is at no cost. Am I correct? >> That's correct.

097>> Is there a shity bond or a guaranteed bond? We're not out on anything. >> Yeah. So, the first thing you need to do is go ahead and advertise and select your third party. You need to do that in your local paper. So you need to do an advertisement. Select your third party, get them selected first so that they can help you move to an RFP to investigate the other companies that are energy service companies and they'll help you. They need to come in and help you at that point. >> Miss Wat, Miss Watkins, I appreciate your time. >> Thank you. And if anybody has any questions, you both of you have my phone number. Please call me. >> M Dr. Terry, you got a question? >> Yeah, I got a quick question. I was

098just wondering why um why this didn't come as a full recommendation from the construction committee. >> It it it did it came as a recommendation to recommend it to the full board. Um >> so the construction committee voted to send this to the full board >> as a hit your button Mr. Vonte Leech. >> Yes. The construction um committee then we met actually we had the same um some of the same um information and we wanted to come to the full board before we uh for act before we want to come information to the full board before we can decide what we're going to do. >> Miss Christy Fields. >> Who made that motion and who seconded it? I was there. >> Mr. John Simmons. >> It was brought to the um construction committee and

099we didn't get a motion on it to bring it to the full board. So tonight it's bring been brought to the full board as a information item only. Now that Mr. Phillips have made a motion to put it to an action item in front of the full board. >> You got another question, Miss Fields? >> I do. So, shouldn't this go back to the construction committee before we come and bring this as an action item? We need to follow our own rules, don't we? >> Mr. Schwarz, what's your clarity on that? >> Uh, it's not required to go back to the construction committee. It's up to the ruling of the board. >> So, as it stands, it's going to be the first action item that we go over here in just a little bit. M.

100Watkins, thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Next up, Miss Jamie. Patiently waiting. PreK update. >> Good evening, Chairman Britt, Superintendent Dr. Williamson, and board members. Thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight and provide an update on the Title One PreK program. So, I provided in your packet um a title one prek fact sheet which answers some of our most basic questions. Um but I do want to take a moment to highlight the key areas that kind of guide how the title one prek program operates and why it looks a little different from other grade levels. So, across the district, our Title One PreK program includes 26 classrooms that are located in 20 elementary schools. Um we have the capacity to serve over 400 children. Um and these classrooms are strategically placed

101um to expand access to highquality early learning opportunities and to support a smooth transition into kindergarten for our youngest learners. So in terms of oversight um Title One PreK operates under dual oversight from North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, which is DPI, and the North Carolina Division of Child Development and Early Education, which we refer to as DCDE. So this means that our classrooms must meet both education standards and childcare licensing requirements. And while that does add complexity, um it also ensures consistency, safety, and high quality learning environments for our youngest learners. So next is compliance. In preK, um compliance is very structured and it's non-negotiable. So class size, staffing ratios, um staff qualifications are clearly defined by the state. Um classroom capacity varies by school but the maximum capacity that we can serve is

10218 students. Um we do have a required 1 to9 ratio and a licensed teacher and a qualified teacher assistant must be present at all times. So if ratios aren't met um a classroom can be found out of compliance um which can lead to a corrective action um temporary closure of the classroom or potential funding implications. Um so this is why staffing stability um and coverage planning are critical. So essentially this program operates under more regulatory um oversight than any other grade level. So another key area is facilities and safety. So prek classrooms must meet specific um facilities space and safety standards that go beyond the typical K12 expectations. So, this includes um classroom square footage, um child accessible restrooms, playground safety requirements, as well as daily safety checks. Um we're monitored by DPI, DCDE, um

103the Robinson County Health Department, um Robinson County Partnership for Children, Fire Marshalss, the list goes on and on. Um we're also closely monitor health immunizations and um documentation. So all students must meet strict health and immunization requirements and the documentation must be complete and current. These are items that are frequently reviewed during monitoring visits. Um so it's essential to maintaining compliance and ensuring safety. So the program also has the defined expectations around curriculum and instruction. Um Title One PreK is an academic program. So we do have a state approved curriculum. We have required developmental screenings and ongoing assessment of student progress. And this work helps us to identify needs early and support students before they enter kindergarten. Um, and new this year, the state actually now requires a literacy assessment at the end of the

104year, um, which is going to help evaluate language and literacy skills. So, we're in the process of learning more about that. So, family engagement is another required component of the program. Um, pre-K classrooms must provide regular communication out to families. Um, we have to conduct conferences and document all of those um, engagement activities because we all know that strong partnerships with families help to support student success. Um, and that's an essential part of our program's design. So, finally, um, enrollment and transportation. Um, enrollment for Title One PreK follows a structured process that includes application window, um, eligibility screenings, and then placement notifications. At this time, enrollment for Title One PreK is officially underway. Um, so families may currently submit applications to their school of choice through April 3rd. Um, and then following the application deadline,

105parents will receive appointments for their child to be screened to determine eligibility. and um screening will take place the week of May 4th at six identified schools across the district. Um and then families will be notified of placement no later than June 5th. Um I would also like to clarify an important point regarding enrollment. So eligible students can attend preK outside of their residential school district um provided that they do live within the county. Um, and in these situations, families are responsible for providing transportation. So, while we can't offer a district-wide pre-k, we do want families to know that they do have options. Um, so, collectively, these um areas kind of reflect why um title one prek is both a high impact area as well as a high accountability area. Um, so just a few

106key dates at a glance for you guys to look at. Applications can be picked up from the schools here at the district office or I do email them out to families um upon request and I did include my email address at the bottom of the slide. So applications must be returned to the school by April 3rd. Screening will be held at six identified schools across the district during the week of May 4th and then parents will be notified by June 5th regarding placement. Um, so staff will call families by that date and then I'll also send out an official placement letter to to families. So, um, thank you for your continued support of our youngest learners and the Title One PreK program. And she's probably going to get me for this, but I would be

107remiss if I didn't take a moment to recognize and thank Miss Jennifer Freeman for her unwavering support over the years. um her guidance I feel like has laid a made a lasting impact on our title one prek program and definitely on my work and I'm deeply grateful for everything that she's done. >> Any questions, comments for Miss Jamie? >> Miss Jamie, as always, we appreciate what you do. Next up, we have vision screening summary. Mr. David Cox with the Lions Club of Lumberton. >> I just like to first off thank the board for allowing us to come and speak tonight. Um my name is David Cox. I'm with Lon Lions Club. Uh just some background, Lions International is uh consisting of 1.4 million people in 26 different countries throughout the world. So we are a

108very large organization. Um our main goal with Lions International is the vision impairment. So we are all about vision um and trying to help vision throughout different things in our communities. So our main goal we do at Longington Lines is our anything we can do to better our community that we live. Um, and we do that basically through vision in the schools because the better our children can see, the better they learn, the less disciplinary action they'll have. Um, it's proven that about 80 to 85% of learning is visual. So, we want our children to be able to see and that's why we have come to the schools. Um, like I say, the basic thing we do is, um, right now in the public schools, uh, all of our kids, uh, first, third, fifth, and

109seventh are mass screened by your nurses through the eye charts, the Snelling charts, 165 years old. Um, it picks up one eye disorder. Um, Lions Club has bought uh, a piece of equipment. Actually, we own two pieces of equipment. It's the same piece. It's built by Welch Allen, um, which is HillROM now. So, for those of you that's not familiar with the medical equipment, Welch Allen or HillRom, HillROM owns or is the ones that produce all the beds in the hospital. They produce the blood pressure cuffs, you know. So, it is a piece of medical equipment. Um, we use this piece of equipment. The equipment cost us about $8,000. We own two of these pieces of equipment. So, and our equipment picks up six major eye disorders. Um, we can screen about 80 kids an

110hour. So, we can screen mass kids very fast. Um, our piece of equipment, um, some of the guys with me line George, if you'll hold up the piece of equipment, just to show you it, it's very small. It's very sim um, it looks like a old Polaroid camera. The way the camera works, it takes 23 pictures of the eye. Sends back a result. Um, so it's pretty quick, pretty fast. It takes very few very seconds to do it. So, two to five seconds probably. Um, it produces a set of lights in the front of the camera, which usually gets the children's attention. And that's all we need. We need a very quick glance. So, the camera is good for things that are that most um people are not aware of. We can do non-verbal children.

111Um we can do special needs children. Those are things that is it's a lot harder for our nurses to do with the eye charts. Um getting kids if we can just get them to look into the camera for one or two seconds, we'll get their results. Um in your packets, um I have included some the uh this is a referral. So for all our children, we don't give passes. We don't print passes. Um, and our main reason, two reasons. One, the cost. It's very expensive, y'all know, to print paper and ink. But our another reason is we don't want to get parents confused. So, we send home everybody a pass. We don't want to confuse them and think their children needs to go to the eye doctor. So, we like to send home referrals only.

112Um, back to the eye chart picks up. Myopia is the one it mainly picks up. Um, like I say, we pick up six major eye disorders about I went back and looked. We've been doing screens in the public schools since 2014. Um, kind of how we got into the schools, just to give you some background. So, we got into the schools in 2014 through a grant or the generous gift of Columbia River Electric Membership Corporation. They donated our first uh monies to buy our equipment. Um, that kind of helped us get into the schools and we still thank them today for that donation. Um that camera has since been retired and we have bought two more. So really we're screening um you know instead of 80 kids an hour per camera, you know, we can

113screen 150 160 kids an hour which is very fast. Back to on the screening report. It's pretty simple. Y'all had this in your packet. So it's pretty simple. You see what's red is what is um what is referred. You look over here under the child, it tells you exactly what it is. So when you send this home, a parent knows exactly why they are referring their child to the eye doctor. Um we sure hope of course they all go. We know, you know, statistics show that parents don't always take them, but we do like for our children to go. Um I I give you two referrals. The first one is just a standard referral. The second one I wanted everybody to take a a closer look at. You'll notice this child has a set of

114glasses on. So, our equipment does allow us to screen the children's with glasses. Um, two reasons for that mainly. One, we have so many children that once your parents carry to the eye doctor, they don't ever go back. Um, we can see that this child's glasses, we don't know how old they are, but they probably are not working because if this should have been a pass if the glasses were working. Um, and due to the fact that we have so many so much red on this paper, this child really needs to go back to the eye doctor. And that is why we like to send this back. And of course, if we refer a child that we take the child's glasses off, we check that sometimes just to see if a child, we'll have a

115lot of children will walk in and they'll say, you know, they'll have their glasses in their hands. We'll ask them, "Do they wear glasses?" They'll have them in their pocket and we'll say, "Why are you not wearing them?" And they'll say, "Well, it hurts my head. you know, I don't see as good. And we can take and check that child with and without their glasses to determine, you know, if they need them. Of course, it's not up to us to tell children to wear their glasses. But, um, of course, if we see this, we definitely want to make sure the child is recommended back to an eye doctor. So, if you flip to the statistics, um, this year alone in the public schools, we have screened 2,35 children in the public schools of Rosson County.

116We are actually about 3,100 total so far this year and we have several screens left. Um the difference is going to be we do screen some of our private schools. We screen the charter schools. We also screen quite a few daycarees. So that's where our difference numbers are. But you'll see your your percentage of failures um is pretty high in our county. Um, state average is about 12% of failures. So, we're real far out of skew on our failure rate. Um, I think we only had like one school that fell under that roughly or one or two schools. So, um, of course, these numbers, I can't say they're 100% accurate. I think if we screened a lot more kids, our numbers might be a lot better. Um but due to the referrals that we do

117that the schools send out you know these are the numbers we get back um when I say referrals the rights forms are to you know get the children so that we can screen them. So but you'll see your numbers. Um like I say we have been there's only since 2014 there's only one year we did not screen and that was COVID. Um, so we have been in the public schools and we go to the first two years we screened we did not do all schools but since then we have done every elementary school in the county every year. So >> Mr. Cox, for clarity, this is free of charge. Am I correct? >> It is. It is. Yes. It doesn't cost the public schools anything other than, you know, print the forms to send home.

118But I mean, no, we come out. It doesn't cost the public schools anything for us to do this service to the community. It's just a free service the Lions Club provides us. >> Mr. Henry Brewer. >> Oh, go ahead, Mr. Her. >> I wanted to say that um I I attended two diff two to three different occasions that Mr. Lawson called me and I was impressed. Um, you know, this is an organization that, um, I was so impressed that I reached out to different agencies and different friends to solicit for donations. Uh, because, uh, if I'm not wrong, they don't only just do eye screening, they may provide glasses for those kids that can't afford it. So, what they're doing is awesome. And it's amazing how many students in the classrooms that cannot see. I

119was a 10th grader before I found out I needed glasses. So, you know, it intrigued me. I appreciate what you guys and girls are doing. >> Well, thank you. So, uh to touch on that, we do we don't lead the kids um and and I leave my number with every um administration at every school. Um of course, we start the process every year with the um the nurse. Um I'm not sure her exact title, but Miss Newman, we start with her. Um so, she has my contact. It goes out to the schools. So, any nurse, any uh principal administrator can reach out to me if they have a question. So, when I say that, we if we have a child that falls through the cracks, most children in Robson County will not fall through the

120cracks, they have Medicaid, um they have private insurance, um the nurses do have what's called BSP vouchers, which gives them a free eye exam and free set of glasses. If they do fall through the cracks and through the years, we get one or two every year that is referred to us and we do purchase their glasses and give them a free eye exam. Um, and the usually the ones that fall through the cracks are ones that the uh Medicaid glass will not cover. Um, we have kids that need, you know, progressive lenses or they just need they don't have we had kid don't have pigments in their eyes, so they need sunglasses with their prescriptions. Those are things that are not covered with insurance. So, we will we do pick up that. So, >> Mr.

121Mr. Bradley Phillips, >> so I just want to thank the Lions Club as well. I I've you know I've physically sat there with you guys before and and watched this process. I mean it it doesn't you interfere with the school day. Um it really goes by quickly and it's not a rush process. Um you I would challenge any of you that have not seen that to to team up with them and go go see you just how they interact with the kids you know how the kids you respond to them. I think it's a great thing. I mean, I I think I probably made the comment 10 times when we were there. Like, man, this is mind-blowing. Like, you know, just to see the, you know, the technology there. So, yeah, I think it's a

122great thing that you guys are doing. >> Mr. Dr. Terry Ller, >> thank y'all for providing this service, especially free of charge. That sounds um you can't beat the price on that. So, is this something that y'all volunteer to do with your own time through the Lions Club? >> It is. Are you affiliated with with a doctor's office or No. How long have you been doing this in the school system? >> Since 2014. >> Thank y'all. This is good. >> Mr. Vonte Leech. >> Um, I would like to make a motion. Do we need to make a motion to make this action item? >> It's information. >> Information. Okay. I just want to make sure. Okay. >> Yeah, it's information. >> Just want to make sure. >> Anybody else got anything? >> Lions Club, we

123thank you. >> Thank you for your time. Appreciate what you do for public schools of Robinson County. >> Thank you. Yeah, you can ask. >> Next up, we have public comments. >> Mr. Mr. David Cox, sir. >> Um, can you bring those Lions Club members up to the podium and introduce their names and how long they have been serving. That request has been made to me. >> So, we have L Kenny Cox. They'll have to tell you because a lot of them's been there longer than me. I've been in line club 18 years now. >> 18 years. >> Line George Lawson >> Eight years. Line Stony Brick >> going on two years >> and line Richard P >> about 44. >> Wow. We appreciate y'all. >> Next up we have um public comments. There are

124none. So, we'll move on to action items. The first action item is um the call for a motion to authorize administration and attorney to move forward with the process to bring back to the board a plan to receive a guaranteed energy savings contract. I got a motion by Miss Melissa Oceans, second by Mr. John Simmons. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Any oppose? The eyes have it. >> Dr. He's with >> you standing Dr. Lleywood. >> Okay. >> Next up, we have proposed 202526 calendar revisions. Mr. Bobby Lleair. Good evening again, Chairman Rick, board members, Dr. Williamson. So, as uh we're all aware, uh since our last board meeting, I believe we've missed a total of four days based on weather events. So, we so we are asking uh to convert two teacher

125work days. Those were optional teacher work days set aside in our our traditional calendar. One being February 16th, the other being May 15th to student instructional days. We are also asking for early college um because they are on the same um they were in the same situation as the traditional schools to convert. the only day that they can convert to a student day will be this Friday, February 13th. Again, that was already set aside as an optional teacher work day. >> Mr. John Simmons, >> make a motion to approve. >> Motion's been made by Mr. John Simmons, second by Mr. Craig Lowry. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Any oppose? eyes have it. >> Thank you, Mr. Bobby. >> That was 110. >> No. >> Question. Go ahead, Mr. Phillips. >> All right,

126Mr. How many um days left do we have? How many remote days do we have left? You before we're out of days, I guess you would say. So in terms of district, uh, every school except Lumberton still has five instructional remote days. My memory serves can be corrected with correctly, we've used three remote days at Lumberton Senior High, one prior to Christmas for Snider's work and two for last week based upon the flooding. So at this point in time, we are not our calendar again is not developed necessarily by days, it's developed by hours. So we do have approximately again because of getting out early during exam days and half days and at Christmas approximately we still have I would say maybe two to three days based on ours. So, we do still have some

127flexibility left. >> And that's why I was a no because I knew we had time left and I I wanted just clarity there for the general public to understand, >> right? And so, uh, kind of what we've always said is we know we've got those that bank time, but there again, we know we have students that need that instructional face-to-face time and also to provide that opportunity for some of the employees who only get paid when students are in the building. And Mr. Craig, I think this will take care of the issue that me and you talked about earlier as well that Monday. Miss Jessica, just be sure we get that out for the public calendar revisions as well. Thank you much, Miss Melissa Ocean. Okay, next up we have North Carolina School Board Association

128Legislative Committee application. Um, basically Dr. Williamson got an email where we need to nominate one of our members to the legislative committee. This committee's primary task is to develop the survey that is distributed to every schoolboard member statewide and to create a draft of the legislative agenda. Mr. John Simmons >> like to nominate Mr. Bradley Phillips. >> I got a motion to nominate Mr. Bradley Phillips. Second by Miss Christy Fields. All those in favor raise your right hand. Any oppose? Eyes have it. Mr. Bradley Phillips, you've been assigned to it. Next action item is waving of policy 9300 naming of facilities. Mr. Richard Schwarz. Dr. Williamson, >> you want me to go first? >> Yes. >> Okay. At the um January board meeting, there was uh discussion after the construction committee presented a recommendation to

129the full board and you have this in your packets by the way um regarding the and that was a recommendation to install plaques at the uh career and technical education center and planetarium. The recommendation was considered as an alternative to naming the buildings themselves which was previously discussed at the November 18 board meeting. During the January 13 meeting, Dr. Secretary Lleair requested clarification regarding policy 9300, which is naming facilities, and directed a question to the board attorney. He noted that the policy does not outline a strict step-by-step process, but it does define uh does identify rather certain procedures that appear not to have been fully met. Specifically, he noted that the nomination forms for naming schools or facilities were supposed to be submitted to the superintendent and also forwarded to the full board for consideration.

130He stated that he believed the policy allows for facilities to be named either through a district recommendation or by an external entity submitting a nomination form. However, he expressed concern that the policy's required elements had not been fully met. He noted that policy 9300 references a public hearing that he believed had not occurred and also mentions a facilities committee. He questioned whether the facilities committee identified in policy 9300 is the same as the construction committee and if so that the policy may be needed to be updated to accurately reflect that and to reflect current practice. He further questioned whether it was appropriate for the board to vote on a recommendation from the construction committee regarding naming decisions when no public hearing had been held and no public input received beyond the group submitting nomination forms

131and letters of support. Dr. Lleer indicated that while he supported the placement of plaques, he had concerns about proceeding with naming a facility without compliance with the public hearing requirements outlined in the policy. He asked for clarification from the board attorney as to whether the process had been fully followed in accordance with policy 9300. I think it's safe to say that the policy is unclear as to when a public hearing is held or is to be held rather. The chair then recognized Mr. Bobby Lachler who explained that historically recommendations for naming facilities are first brought to the full board and then reviewed by the construction committee. If the committee supports the request, a public hearing is held afterward, not prior to committee review. Dr. Terry Lleair expressed concern that the public hearing step may have

132been bypassed in this case. Dr. Williamson clarified that past practice has been for the group requesting the naming to conduct the public hearing within the community. He noted that this interpretation has been consistently applied to athletic fields, gyms, and other facilities and stated that that's how we've been interpreting the policy and that the construction committee has been considered as the facilities committee. Dr. Williamson said the policy should be clarified. Ultimately, the board voted to table this item and request legal guidance on the application of policy 9300. I'm going to interject here. Policy 9300 is a mess. Okay. Policy 9300 states in pertinent part as follows. Quote, "The superintendent shall involve the staff and students assigned to the facility and the students parents in the process of identifying possible names for a new school facility or

133facility being renamed. Nominations for naming or renaming school facilities must be made by submitting a completed naming of schools and school facilities nomination form to the superintendent who shall forwarded to the full board for consideration and study by the facilities committee. A public hearing will be held to receive public input and uh there should be emphasis under that last sentence. Um that's not in the policy. PSRC does not currently have a facilities committee and the construction committee has been de facto filling that role. The board received the naming requests and they were referred to the construction committee. The current recommendation from the construction committee did not allow for a public hearing as is required under board policy. While a public hearing is not required by law, it is mandated by the current board policy. Public

134hearings are governed by another board policy 2300 section D3 which requires notice to the public of the subject date, time, and place of the hearing as well as any rules for participation. Policy 9300 is not at all clear regarding the public hearing. Further, there's no way to read the policy and divine that the public hearing is to be held by the organization or individuals recommending the name of the facility as apparently has been past practice. Beyond that, the naming of schools and school facilities nomination form makes no mention of a public hearing, but it does refer to the Robinson County Board of Education administrative procedure naming of schools and school facilities, and those procedures don't appear to exist. At the very least, the policy, the naming form, and whether there are administrative procedures all need

135substantial clarification. By law, there is no requirement for a public hearing. Whether or not a public hearing is to be held in is entirely to be determined by board policy, which the board may follow, clarify, wave, or revise. It's entirely within the board's discretion to wave the current requirement in board policy for a public hearing given the confusion surrounding the current process or not. the recommended policy 9300 from the North Carolina School Boards Association, which I think I'm I'm bringing this up because there was some statement or concern or or that we were following state schoolboards association policy. The recommended policy 9300 from the state schoolboard association policy listing service makes no mention of a public hearing. The inclusion of a public hearing appears to be a local peculiarity to our school board. Um, I've

136attached the PLS version, that's the schoolboard association version of the policy, along with several policies from other school systems, none of which include any reference to a requirement for or any reference to a public hearing. Um, and those policies were not chosen because they don't have a public hearing. They were chosen simply because there other school systems with which we're involved. We did not draft the policies. um but they do don't require a public hearing. Policy 2410 policy development allows the board to revise or rescend an existing policy by majority vote. If a proposal to revise or resend the policy is included in the published meeting agenda, the board may take action at that board meeting. If a proposal to revise or resend the policy is presented as an addendum to the published meeting agenda,

137the board will not take action on that proposal until a subsequent meeting. That policy also allows for any section or sections of a board policy not required by law, not established by law to be suspended temporarily by twothirds vote. The board may consider waving the public hearing requirement to avoid further confusion. The policy and procedure as currently written for policy 9300 are confusing, unclear, and subject to multiple interpretations. I strongly recommend that that policy be referred to the policy committee for revision and clarification and that the administrative procedures to implement this policy and the form be revised to reflect the outcome of the policy committee's recommendations and final board approval. Meanwhile, in light of the confusion regarding the public hearing, I recommend that this matter not move forward unless the requirement for a public hearing

138is waved or the policy is revised or clarified. And attached to this um you have uh first of all our policy 9300 on naming facilities. Next, you have the PLS policy from the state school boards association on naming facilities, which you'll see does not include a public hearing. And then there are some sample policies from uh the Wayne County Public Schools, the Moore County Public Schools, um Hyde County Public Schools, and Herford County Public Schools. Um which are just other school systems we were involved with. So, I just randomly went to their policies, pulled them up, and put them on here. >> Are you done, Mr. Schwarz? >> Yes, Dr. Williamson. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, based on the information uh shared with us by our attorney, I am requesting that

139you entertain a motion to wave the public hearing part of um policy 9300, please. Mr. Christie Fields. >> So, what what we're telling our community is that the local board has the authority to amend, adopt, or delete school district policies to align with state laws, community values, and student needs only when it's convenient. This policy was revised and the policy I'm referring to is 9300 naming of facilities on December the 14th, 2021 by most of the board that's currently here tonight. So I I don't know what kind of precedent we're setting that we've already started this naming process. We got halfway through it. Now we have all this confusion and we're trying to backtrack and we're trying to wave a policy. So who has the authority to put that on the agenda? A waving of

140a policy 9300 naming of facilities public hearing before addressing that with the full board. Your board policies say that the um superintendent and the board chair um developed the agenda >> with whose input? >> The input of two people >> they get input from the committee, from other board members, from >> Well, they ain't getting input from me. >> Okay. I think we're setting a bad precedent with our community and we're floundering. We're talking about this is a messy policy, but this policy was revised with again most of the board members that are sitting on this board right now. >> Mr. Terry Lachler, >> I'm wondering if we uh move forward with this um in in the way that in the direction that we're headed, does it make make the facilities that we've named under

141this policy null and void? I mean, we've been applying in the past and it's worked well. The only problem is in this situation, uh it just seems like they're trying to avoid there's some individuals trying to avoid the public hearing. >> This would not nullify passport action. >> Okay. So, we can use this policy uh the same way we've been applying it before. You know, um there was a crowd that came and spoke a few months ago about renaming the planetarium after Mr. Hooks. And during that presentation, I think we were all rolling in the same direction. If we could have voted that night to name the presentation after Mr. Hooks, it would have probably been probably been unanimous. and and and just like um uh last month that we had some individuals here um

142talking about um the there was a presentation about the recognition and everybody congratulated the tribe on that and uh we all talked about how we're excited we were about working with the tribe and now here we are at the very next meeting where we're talking about um a school that sits right across the road from the tribe and discussing naming it after two lumbi leaders and uh and and now there's all of this confusion It just seems like we're talking out of out of both sides of our mouth. And you might already be told somebody that you're not going to go along with this or you're not going to vote to um to name it after them. Let me give you some let me give you some information that might that I'm hoping that'll change

143your mind. When this with this tribal recognition, with this federal recognition, the tribe now has the right whether or not they choose to do so, they're going to have the right to open its own schools. I'm not talking about something that could happen tomorrow, but potentially that could happen. And if that happens down the road, there goes potentially half your student population. But if that happens, a bunch of jobs will be gone with that, too. And that'll impact all of us. And you know, there was some discussion last month about race. And I know it's it it's sometimes the underlying factor behind decisions that get made, but really when we're talking about something like this um and how the impacts could uh could could have some reverberations down the road, the only color that matters

144is green. Go back to your constituents and say, uh we really got to think about the long-term implications to something like this on our community and how it may affect the district. The purpose of setting aside policies is for situations that come up in the last minute, things that come up. This is not something that we've got to rush to do. We can either revise the policy and and and make it uh fit the way Mr. Schwarz outlined, make it uh flow the way other districts do, have a spelled out process. But I don't know why in the world we can't apply to policy just like it sits right now. What what it sounds like we're trying to do is circumvent the public's voice not to hear them. We've got these group of individuals that

145done what they were supposed to do. They filled out the form um and and they've done everything the right way and now we're trying to silence them. This group of people follow follow the policy the way it's written. They've done what they were supposed to do on their end, but we don't even want to entertain their request. It really makes no sense to me. instead of following instead of following that instead of following the policy the way it's written or or the way we've applied it in the past now we want to sounds like we want to silence them. You know those individuals the public is the ones that put us here. Um there's been some individuals that said they've heard push back on this. That's the purpose of that hearing. Let people come out

146hear their let us hear their their voices. Hear what they got to say. Have the hearing. apply this policy the same way we've done it in the past. Have the hearing and let's move forward. >> Mr. Mr. Henry Brewer. >> It's amazing how I've been on the board now going on my second term and naming a school using this policy. Even though it's it's not uh brushed up and specific, it's never been this big of an issue. Um, we heard several meetings that groups came and was public speakers and they were all of all races and the board voted and correct me if I'm wrong, white, blacks against the naming of the school. Indians voted for it. Right now, we have over 10 schools named after whites. Four is named after blacks. Now, we don't

147need to make this a racial issue. We need to do what's right that we're just naming a school and let's move on. >> And keep in mind, Mr. Henry, I'm going to clarify clarity there. There wasn't the public schools of Robinson County then. It was Lumberton City Schools. It was Red Spring City Schools and that sort of thing. It was not the public schools of Robinson County. Now I'm going to move forward to Mr. John Simmons. Go ahead. >> I make a motion of u the wave policy 9300. >> I got a motion by Mr. John Simmons. A second by Mr. Vonte Leech. I got a question by Dr. Emanuel. >> This is a lawyer question. Talk to me about what we're doing in the number of votes. Is it a twoth3 majority that you

148need eight votes to get this changed since we're rescending something or what are we doing? Are we re resanding it? Are we doing a new policy? What are we voting on? >> Okay, so um the motion is to wave um policy 9300. Um uh naming of that was the motion to wave the policy or wave the public hearing portion of the policy? >> What are we doing? motion was put your put your deal on your mic. >> You're not on >> the way the portion of the uh public hearing. >> Okay. Talk to me about the number of votes we need for it to pass and the isn't it two/3 or is it what is it we need? >> Okay. a proposal. This is a proposal then to um uh revise the policy >> of

149policy >> that's included in the published meeting agenda and that is um I'm sorry this the policy allows for any section or sections of a board policy not established by law and the public hearing is not required by law to be suspended temporarily by 23 vote. >> So we'd have to have two/3 vote correct of the board. Thank you. >> Miss Melissa Ocean. >> Okay. So for the last two meetings, I've tried my best to be quiet and let this try to die down and write out, but you all continue to say it's not about race, but you're making it about race. Our speakers at our last meeting made it about race, and it's it's not a racial issue. Not on my behalf. I don't have a racist bone in my body, but I want

150to do what's fair and right. And by having a public having a public hearing, of course, we want our constituents to be here, but it the vote still comes back to the board. Whether we have a public hearing or not, the board still makes the final decision. I've been at public hearings. I've had a public hearings when we closed South Robinson. The board came, they pretended to listen, they made a decision in our favor, and still voted against it four days later. So, the board has never been consistent in anything that it does. And it's not it's not about it's nothing about race. I am tired of hearing about it's four white schools and five black. That is starting is starting to really be pathetic that we make everything in this county about race. I've

151I've had enough. We need to either either put it to a vote or table it to another time when cooler heads prevail because these innuendos about people being racist and people banding together to keep somebody from having anything. What if a person deserves to have something then they deserve it. If we have people that are are a plaque, a school naming is a very a school naming is a very serious thing. And some of people are just going off based off what they're what they think looks good in the public eye. But we all need to do some research on some of the things that we're we're some of these votes because some of this stuff doesn't look right. If you go back and look at what you think the person has done and then

152what's published and what you going back through facts and things that have happened in the past with this same board. Things need to be reviewed before we continue to to make this a a race thing. It's not a race thing with me ever. >> Mr. Craig Lowry. >> Um, couple of things and uh, Miss Ocean is I'm going to say this. It's not with me neither. When I got on this board, I said I'm going to do what I think's right. If people agree with me, that's fine. And if they disagree with me, that's fine, also. Uh, but a couple of things. Since I've been here, when we've named whatever it was, a gym or something, there's been a public hearing. To the best of my knowledge, that hearing was conducted by somebody from this

153board. Now, if I'm wrong saying that, I'm I'm wrong. Uh, most cases, there's not a lot of people at the ones I've been, I think the most that's ever been was like 40ome people when we were dealing with naming the fields at Red Springs after Mr. Mike Smith. That was the most. I've been to some there was 15. My problem with all of this right now is this policy and I agree with you Mr. Schwarz. It's not clear but the policy 9300 as it is and as we've been following the last sentence on that per paragraph it don't say when but it says a public hearing will be held to receive input. Now that's on the policy and my problem is if we don't have a public hearing then we haven't followed policy. Now granted

154can a vote be had to change this tonight? Yes it can but you changing it in my opinion and what I call midstream. So follow the policy and then if we're going to look at revising it, revising it. Now I don't know how many people would show up or not show up. You would have to set some parameters. They might be 20 people there and that's it. Uh if you go there and there's a hundred, you going to have to limit who could speak. But I would suggest this also. If we have a public hearing, we don't need one. This is a countywide school. I think you would need at least two in two different sections of the county. That's just that's just an opinion of mine. There's nothing here says again one or two.

155But I still my last comment and I'll be quiet. The public policy says a public hearing. It don't say when or where or what time it occurs here, but it's on the policy and we should follow it. Or I will say this, there was a comment made. I'm going to look around. There's not a soul on this board but me that a comment was made nine, 10 years ago. We break policy all the time. And that made us look in my opinion then like a fool. But that comment was made at one of our board meetings that we and it was made by a board member, but it was said at the time and I'm the only board member sitting here now that was on the board at that time, but that comment was made.

156It didn't look good then. I don't think it'll look good now. We've got a policy here vague. But the one sentence it says is have one now. And I've been in those meetings. You've been in them. Some of them they can get ugly. They they can get ugly. But I think if it was monitored and done what was supposed to be done or handled in the right way, you have it. You go on. We come back and vote. If the vote's still what it is, it's still what it is. But we did follow what was on this paper. I'll be quiet. >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes, sir. Um, I would remind you that um, if there is a public hearing held, we do have a board policy that governs how the public hearing is held.

157Okay. >> All right. We've got a motion by Mr. John Simmons and a second by Mr. Vonte Leech. >> Mr. John Simmons, you want to repeat your motion again? >> The >> Go ahead, Mr. >> I've got the motion. The motion is to was to wave the public hearing portion of policy 9300 and this does require a twothirds vote. >> Mr. Bradley Phillips, >> just a quick question before before a votes made. So when this left the construction committee, I I know it was tabled several different times, but did it leave the construction committee as like just honorary plaques? Is that's the case? Like do we have do we need even need to go through a process of changing a policy hearing tonight? The that part was tabled um at your last board meeting and

158um the hold on one second. Um, the construction committee recommended placing plaques rather than naming the facilities and the recommendation included a plaque honoring James H. Hooks to be placed in the planetarium portion and a plaque honoring Dr. Barry Harding and Dr. Johnny Hunt to be placed in the building. But Miss Fields offered a substitute motion to name the newly built planetarium the James Hooks Planetarium with the name displayed on the exterior of the building in large lettering is the official facility name and to place Mr. Hook's portrait inside the building consistent with recognition practices. That motion was seconded by Mr. Brewer. So there was a substitute motion to the committee's recommendation which didn't require a a second. Um and uh ultimately you you ended up voting to table this item, the entire item. So

159that whole issue is laid upon the table and in order to get it off the table, it would require a motion to remove that item from the table. If it is removed from the table, then the motion that would be on the floor would be Miss Field's motion. which I just read about um uh naming the planetarium. So that would be the first thing that would have to be voted on. But that would first require removing this from the table. So right now the motion that's on the floor is the motion by Mr. Simmons to wave the public hearing portion of policy 9300. And again, that requires a twothirds vote. >> Miss Crystal Monroe, >> um, with waving the public hearing, is there a reason to wave it? Like, is there a reason behind it

160to wave it? I mean, because I'm not going to lie, like I'm a I don't want to be part of a not following policy. So, I don't want people to look at me and be like, "Oh, you you know, changed the policy or trying to go out of it. because even like code of ethics, you follow policy unless like it's changed. So, um I'm just wondering if there's a reason to not have the public hearing. I mean, I know we had the people here, but that wasn't considered public hearing. >> That's not considered a public hearing. I'm going to be honest with you. Um part of the reason why I wanted to put it on here because I don't want division in this county. I'm tired of division in this county. And I know what

161the public hearing is going to create. It's going to create more division than what's already been entitled here. And one of the things I said as board chair that I want to create unity on this board even more than what was already on here. But things like this have took place and we're back. We've took two steps back. Let's just call it like you see it. Okay. That was that was my reason and I'm putting it out there for everybody here. But now I will say this. I wish we'd followed policy last year when it came to this calendar because we didn't follow policy on that and what the law says on it. >> Mr. Bradley Phillips, your mic's on. you have something to say? >> Oh, Dr. Williams. >> Mr. Chair, if I may,

162and again, I want to direct my question to our attorney. Again, our intent tonight to wave the policy is not to get around the policy, but because there is an issue that was laid on the table, right? So, that either we consider to deal with that and the substitute motion and the recommendation from the construction committee. And so my question, Mr. Attorney, if we choose not to take any of these actions, what's on the table stay on the table with no time limit on it. Correct. >> I'm not sure what you're saying when you when you're saying choose not to take any of these actions. >> That's correct. To consider the motion to take from the table or consider the motion uh or consider the recommendation from the construction committee. So, if we're not in

163a position to do any of that tonight, then we don't need to wave the policy and what's on the table stays on the table until we're at a point that we do want to take action >> until there's a motion to remove it from the table. It's approved by the board. It stays on the table. >> Mr. John Simmons. >> Okay. I'll take back my um motion and let it stay on the table. >> If I may may, Mr. Chair. >> Yes, sir. >> That my recommendation is going to be if we choose to on the table that our next step is go ahead and to revise the policy. >> I've already said that. I've already I'll let the full board know because when I looked over this, I actually called Dr. William said our

164policy needs to be updated. No doubt about it. That's a mess right there. And it has put us in this situation because if it been more clear, we can only blame the ones that's on the board now. We blame ourselves and our predecessors as well is who we blame because obviously the situation is going to be partially new. Um I think we need to have a policy meeting and move forward with it that way. >> Mr. chair. So, what we're seeing is instead of moving forward and voting on the names um like we have in the past and applying the current policy we have in place, we're going to have a policy meeting and probably remove the portion for a public hearing because it's not required by law and then come back and discuss naming

165the facilities. I'm not saying anything, but the motion's on the table that has been tabled and it's tabled until we bring it off the table. So, we can go ahead and go and attack the policy and then bring it off the table or why can't we move forward uh with the naming of of the facility and apply the current policy the way we have in the past. Again, it's got to be brought off the table. So, Mr. John Simmons has rescended his motion of waving a policy 9300. Mr. Henry, I agree that the policy needs to be upgraded, but my concern is we're midstream. What kind of reflection are we making to the communities and the folks if we try to amend or wave a policy that's going to that is that is this is

166meaningful. I mean it's wrong time now to review this policy. I mean to to change it. >> Mr. Bradley Phillips >> in my I I don't want to change anything at at the moment in my opinion, but at the end of the day, we can amend and amend and amend, but what the construction committee approved is not what's on the table now because it was pivoted. So, I mean, we can sit here all night and pivot and I don't think it's going to get us anywhere. >> Dr. Emanuel, >> and this is question for the lawyer. A committee can make a recommendation to the full board. The full board does not have to follow it. Is that correct, Mr. lawyer. >> Absolutely. >> Who made that clear, >> Mr. Craig? Lowry. See if I can

167get my wording correctly. And Mr. Sor, you can tell me if I can't do this. That's that will be fine. Um, I make a motion that we proceed with the uh naming of these facilities as uh following the policy that's currently written in 9300. >> I got a motion by Mr. Craig Lowry, a second by Mr. Terry Lleair. >> Will you repeat it, Mr. Craig? My motion is that we go ahead and have a vote. Well, make a motion. I'm not saying a vote now, but I make a motion that we look at going ahead and naming these facilities with the policy that is currently written. And if you do that, the policy is currently written, then that means if you're agreeing with this, you're going to have a public hearing. So, if you don't

168agree with it and you don't support it, >> Mr. Chair, if I may. >> Yes, sir. That is the substitute motion. >> No, the substitute motion was to name the planetarium. Um the >> the substitute motion was was to >> name the newly built planetarium the James Hooks Planetarium with the name displayed on the exterior of the building in large lettering as the official facility name and to place Mr. Hook's portrait inside the building consistent with recognition practices. That was the substitute motion. The motion that Mr. Lowry has now made is to proceed with the naming of the facilities under the policy as current that' be policy 9300 as currently written and hold the public hearing. Is that part of the motion, Mr. Larry? >> Yes. Because that is part of what's written in this

169policy here. >> Okay. Yes, sir. >> And so that was the that was the motion. Now that it's clarified, >> do we have the second by Dr. Ller? I think >> second was by Mr. Dr. Ller. Mr. Vonte Leech. Hold on one second. Mr. Vonte Leech. >> So, um, it don't in our policy, it also states it don't matter when the hearing is. So, we can go ahead and take a vote tonight and the hearing could be after the vote. We don't necessarily have to >> correct. Correct. But the next thing if if this would pass then the board would have to under under policy 23 uh 2410 the board would then have to um no it's not 2410 excuse me um under 2300 the board would then have to determine the subject date time

170and place for the hearing as well as rules for participation. So this motion is in order. >> Miss Melissa Ocean, >> just a clarification question. When you say rules for participation, does that mean for the constituents coming in or for the board's participation? >> No, it would be for the the rules for participating in the hearing. So for example, everybody has an opportunity to speak for you know a minute and a half, three minutes, five minutes. Um uh you know they will the hearing will be limited to you know x number of people x number of uh uh speakers and um if people representing a group are asked to speak um to select a representative to speak as uh the member of the representative of the group. There are all kinds of different ways you

171could set rules for participation in a hearing. >> Understood. >> I'm not suggesting any of those rules. I'm just saying those are examples of different things. >> Mr. Craig Low. >> Well, I think it's been clarified and the source make sure I'm saying this right. That my motion is that we follow this policy here and go forward with naming the facilities. Now, that is not me saying that we have a vote tonight. As I'm saying here, and Mr. Devonte, you mentioned it. We following this policy. We have public input. Now, that input for me is before you have any kind of vote. Now, that's my motion. And there was a second, I think, to that. And if it passes, it does. If it don't, it don't. >> And it still got to be brought off

172the table. >> It would still have to be brought off the table, if you understand what I'm saying. >> When you say, okay, clarify that to me. What are you saying? Off the table. >> Motion of the naming of the facility that substitute motion that Mr. Christie made and you put it on the table. You put it on the table last meeting that we tabled the name >> we table. >> You have to bring off the table. It'll go back like Mr. Schwarz has already stated. >> Okay. Mr. Vonte Leech. All right. We have a motion that was made by Mr. Craig, a second by Mr. Terry Lleair. All those in favor, raise your right hand. All those opposed. We see that again. >> Repeat the motion. M. >> The motion. The motion by Mr.

173Lowry that's on the floor was to proceed with the naming of the facilities under policy 9300 as currently written and to hold the public hearing. Mr. Craig. Uh, this is not a motion. This is a suggestion. Let's take a 10-minute recess. >> Chair can call a recess at any time. >> I'll call a fivem minute recess. Work. He's back. We're ready to rock and roll. Um, I'm going to recognize the superintendent right now. He wants to speak, so I'm going allow the superintendent to speak. >> Great. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members, at this point and with the discussions at this point. It's clear we we have a lot of work to do, a lot of conversation uh that we must have. Um, and so with that, I want us to consider if it needs to

174be a motion to leave on the table what's on the table and let's move on, understanding that we've got a lot of conversation to have around this and it will stay on the table until a point that we're ready to to have that conversation. In the meantime, we can take a look at the policy. We just need to clarify that. That is not to say that we're not going to have a public hearing. And at this point, in my opinion, and my recommendation is let's leave it on the table and let's move on. >> I need a motion and a second. >> I got a motion by Miss Melissa Oceans. >> The motion is to leave. Um, >> she not on. >> Hit your button, Melissa. >> Yeah. My recommendation is that we leave on

175the table uh the naming of the facility tonight and that we that we move on. >> I make a motion. I got a motion by Miss Melissa Oak, a second by Miss Crystal Monroe. Dr. Manny, >> I can Does that also in the meantime you leave it on the table about changing the policy? Does that include that as well? Is that is that what you said when you say leave it on the table? >> Yes. to include waving the policy because that was the motion for tonight. >> Thank you. >> Does I'm still not clear. Does that Does that mean the committee is going to get together the policy committee and change the policies? Is that on the table too? That's not going to be done. >> No. In my opinion, that's a separate action.

176the policy committee will have a chance to to have that conversation to change the policy and not change the policy uh to clear up the language of of the policy. I'm saying for tonight um we've had a lot of conversation at this point. We've got to have even more conversation. Let's table this >> and and move on. >> Thank you. So the substitute motion as I understand it on that's on the floor right now is to table the naming of the facility. >> Is that correct? >> Okay. And that's been seconded. All those in favor raise your right hand. >> Post eyes have it. >> Our board policy requires that the minutes reflect the votes. So, can you raise your hands high so I can see who's voting which way? All this is Oh, it's

177now unanimous. Okay, >> that makes it easier. Thank you very much. >> D2, right? We're going to >> So, now we're going to >> Next would be monthly financial report with Miss Erica Settzer. Mr. Craig s on that month of financial any changes that you need to Sorry, Miss Erica. Go ahead. >> Okay. Good evening, Chairman Britt, Superintendent, Dr. Williamson, and board members. I'm sorry. >> I said, are any is everything any changes to the finance report? Everything still the same? >> Correct. Yes, sir. >> We're still in the green. >> Yes, sir. We're still in the green. Can >> pay all our in the black. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Right. Either which way you want to look at it. >> Way to look at it. Okay. >> Yes. >> I make a motion that

178uh we approve the financial report. >> I got a motion by Mr. Craig Lowry, a second by Mr. Henry Brewer. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Any oppose? Eyes have it unanimously there. Mr. Schwarz. >> Mr. Chair, if I may. >> No. Erica Ho, if I may. Yes, sir. Mr. Chair, Erica, we received some additional funding. Uh can you share that with the board? >> Yes. Um there are two different um types of funding both for the EC department. There were some competitive grants that Miss Tracy Hunt in our EC department and collaborative with her team applied for and and you know I'm sorry I always refer to everything as a code. So PRC 118 and PRC 119, 118 being the IDA um regular EC and 119 being the shining stars or pre

179preschool specific EC program. We received I didn't bring the exact I think it's 311,000 um additional funding for PRC18 and an additional uh 11,000 um for PRC 1119 and the uh state also did a reallocation of funding. So, we received um $490,000 additional dollars in our PRCO60, which is our regular grant for exceptional children. Um and we received some small amounts 1125 for 103, 2,700 for 17. So, they did a I'm assuming I don't know if this was leftover funding that reallocated to all the schools, but we just received that notification this week of the change in those grants. It's always good when we get extra funding, right? >> Correct. >> All right. >> Correct. >> Miss Melissa Ocean. >> Thank you. >> Oh, >> yes, sir. And I know we're ready to go, but

180uh Mr. Bobby, remind me our our month for transfers. Is it March transfer students that filling out the forms? So, I'm just asking every what we can do from the central office and I mean getting on with principles and making sure Did they tell them you do it the month of March, it's no problem. When you wait till June and whatever, it's a problem. So, whatever information we can push out because people still I didn't know and uh but I know we tried what we but it's still I didn't know and so uh whatever can be done. I appreciate. >> All right. Hold on. Miss Melissa, Mr. Bobby, would you elaborate some on that? >> Yes. Just very very quickly. So, uh Mr. Craig, what I've done the last three years is every parent that

181submitted a request for a transfer has gotten an email to me prior or the day the link opens explaining to do it again whether they were denied or approved. So where parents are saying they didn't know the window was open, then either wise their email has changed from what they submitted the year previously or they're not checking their emails. But I have started that the last three years that if you submit a request for a transfer, the following year you get an email from me stating here's the link and I'm sure Miss Jessica will put it out on social media as well. >> All right, Miss Melissa Ocean. I move that the board board enter in close into close session for the following purposes to consider consider confidential personnel matters as provided in North Carolina

182general statutes 143 through 318.11 A1 and A6 and 115 C through 319 and to consider confidential student matters as provided in North Carolina general statutes 143- 318.11a and 115 C-402 and 28 US code 1232G to consult with the board of educations attorney to preserve the attorney client privilege and to discuss the pending following pending litigation. Amber Dunn versus public schools of Robinson County at all 25c01561 and Amber done individually and is appearing in natural garden of a AD and BH miners versus public schools of Robinson County Wendy Dorsy car title I'm sorry. Oh god. No, no, no. Title N coordinator, assistant superintendent Freddy Williamson, superintendent. Trey Brick, chairman of the board. Matthew Lley, principal at Pimro Middle School. Trent D, school resource officer at Pimber Middle School. Jonathan Dow, former assistant principal at Pinroke Middle,

183Health P, teacher at Pelos High School. 7.25-CV0156 25- CV0156 EDNC and enriel Labs Incorporated. marketing sales practices and products liability litigation case number 19 MD02913-W parentheses NDC and EN re social media adolescent addiction personal injury products liability litigation MDL number case number 422MD3047 YGR NDCA is provided in North Carolina general statutes 143 3 through 31811 A3 and pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes 143-31811A1 to consider closed session minutes that are confidential pursuant to North Carolina General Statutes 143- 318.10E. >> All right, the motion by Miss Melissa Oceans, a second by Mr. Bradley Phillips. All those in favor say I. Any oppose? Eyes have it. We're now in close session. I need a motion to come out of closed session. Mr. Vonte Leech. >> So move. >> Motion's been made by Mr. Vonte Leech. Second by

184Mr. Henry Brewer. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Any oppose? Unanimous. Motion to approve certified and classified personnel. So move >> motion been made by Mr. John Simmons, second by Mr. Vonte Leech. >> All those in favor raise your right hand. >> Opposfield, you got something good. Anybody else? All right, we got a few people I need to we need to thank I think. Um, first off is this week is bus driver appreciation week. So, thank all our bus drivers because obviously without them, we appreciate the job they do every day for our kids getting them to and from school safely. Um, second thing is during the winter storm that we have, I like to thank Dr. Guzman, maintenance, the custodians, um, building leaders, Mr. Bobby and Dr. Williamson that were all behind

185that making sure everything was up and running for our kids. Um, we appreciate your work there. Third thing, Miss Jennifer Freeman, we appreciate the job you've done as assistant superintendent. We know this is your last board meeting and um we look, >> but Miss Freeman, we appreciate the job you've done over the years, Mr. Craig. Um and thank you, Miss Jennifer. I we go back a long ways, but thank you for everything you did, but I'd like to go back and reiterate adding those days. Um I don't know people might have missed that the the work days becoming instructional days folks it's very important the two people bus drivers cafeteria workers they're not paid if we're not in school and and I know that's that's one of the things that's looked at when you come

186back and do that because uh their checks are not that good to start with and we know that but that was days of employment they lost. So by, you know, those work days becoming regular days, they are getting paid. So that's very beneficial to them. And I want people to understand that had some play. It's going to get an instructional time back, but that's also a consideration, too. Anybody else? >> Oh, yeah. Mr. Fors. >> Mr. chair, I have an announcement that uh we have received another payment uh or we're authorized to receive another payment from the JLI settlement program with the Juul um u multi-dist litigation and um it's a little bit more than we were anticipating. We're going to get $54,3180. Um and that has been approved and we just need to sign

187off on it. >> Mr. Terry Lachler, >> Miss Jennifer, thank you so much for everything you've done for this county, this state, uh, and all your service, uh, 40 years in education. Um, you you I was telling I I told you earlier, uh, when you when you walk out, that's not a book walking out with you. That's an entire library. So, uh, we really, I certainly appreciate your service and all the lives that you've touched. I'm sure that those individuals are are grateful for you, too. You're certainly going to be missed. >> Mr. Henry Roar, I wanted to echo the same thing, Miss Jennifer. Um, I know our board's you've been on the spot several times, especially during COVID time. and uh also uh Erica, but uh you were always able to give us an

188answer or find us an answer. We appreciate everything you've done. Hope you enjoy your retirement. Um maybe we'll get to the point that we uh we put people in place that we don't have to bring retirees back. >> Miss Christie Fields. Miss Freeman helped me get started in the school system 24 years ago. She actually set me up, but we won't go into that. But I appreciate her. I appreciate her leadership. She really helped a single mom get her footing and helped me with doing what I needed to do to make sure my children were prepared. So, I appreciate her for that. And I know it's not it's really not goodbye because I'll be seeing her around. I also want to give a true shout out to the bus drivers. I appreciate you getting up

189on the cold mornings and warming up your buses for those children. And no, I'm not going to get on the bus and ride with you to see what it's like. I just want you to know I appreciate you from the bottom of my heart. I appreciate you. Thank you, >> Mr. Mr. Leech. >> Um, also like to echo the fact thank you, Miss Jennifer. Your um Miss Freeman, your talks and stuff always been good. You always have something nice to say to me every time I I see you talk to you. Thank you for your service to the PSRC. Thank you for your service to the state. Appreciate you. Thank you, >> Mr. Bradley. And I'd like to echo um a big thank you to our bus drivers. They really you when you really sit

190back and think about it, they really endure a lot. You know, those are those are a lot of sacrifices they're making to get our kids you safely to and from. Um and it means a lot. Um and even our you transportation staff in general, you know, getting the buses fueled up. um you going to calls when your buses are broke down. You It happens. Um and I really appreciate the work that goes on behind the scenes. And Miss Freeman, we hadn't worked together a ton, but I really appreciate everything you've done a long time in education. You know, I won't share my joke out loud that we talked about, but um I really appreciate you thinking it. It does not go unnoticed. Mr. John Simmons, >> Mr. Freeman, say congratulations. Welcome to the retirement world.

191It is a wonderful world to be in. Um, I thank you for all the knowledge that you shared with us, especially about the federal funding. When I came on, I didn't know a whole lot and you educated me a lot. I thank you and I'm greatly going to miss you here. Thank you, Dr. Emanuel. >> Miss Jennifer, uh, we go way back. She was a little girl. Uh, I used to work with Miss Jennifer's mother and she's the pure spirit of her mother with beautiful eyes and always that makeup, right? And everything. Her mother was the same way. Well, anyway, I want to welcome you to the era of not retirement, redirection. You'll find something to do. >> Yeah. So, congratulations. >> Crystal Monroe. >> Um, the same as Mr. Simmons said, "You did when

192I got on here. You were very educational. Taught me a lot that I had no idea what I was getting myself into and and I appreciate everything you do have done and do and enjoy your time to yourself." >> Again, thank you, Miss Freeman, for all you've done. Um, I need a motion to recess till the February 24th. >> You can just you can just call it from the chair. >> Okay. Motion to We're recessing this meeting. just announced you you need to announce the time date and place to which >> February the 24th at 3:00 at the new technology school. >> We are recessed.