001e e e well e e e [Music] um I would like to call this uh board work session uh meeter Mee to order or March 17 2025 at 50:3 p.m. all right we'll have um the invocation by Dr Freddy W let us pray de God we're thankful to you for this another day a day that we've never seen before your creative goodness and we're thankful that you allow us to be alive in this day we thank you for your many blessings upon our families upon our loved ones we thank you for your blessing and guidance upon this school system the work that we're doing for our students we pray for this board Lord God we pray for all of our employees we pray for this nation we pray for the leaders of this nation we
002pray for those in the hospitals and the nursing homes ask that you have your way we give thanks to you for this day now guide us in this meeting that we can make decisions that would benefit our students in Christ's name we pray amen amen um information items uh 2024 2025 Traditional School calendar Mr Bobby ler so good evening chairman Lee Dr Williamson board members so we uh again so uh as always in terms of when we're having conversations about the Cal just very quickly again walk through the school calendar law so it is we must start the m Monday closest to August 26th dismiss students know later than the Friday closest to June 11th there are no waivers um we must cover at least nine calendar months and we must have 185 days or
0031,025 hours we have historically operated under the 1025 hours we must have at least nine teacher work days we must have two work days that teachers can take off uh they must accum we have a minimum of 10 leave days we operate under the same number of holidays that is uh released by the state U Personnel commission and Veterans Day must also be a holiday so we'll move back into the recommendation of the calendar committee for our for the 2526 calendar so if you would keep going down or M there we go so uh so this is the Cal calendar that the calendar committee met and presented as our 2526 calendar you can see that we would start on students would start on August 25th release on June the 9th so we have a total
004of 177 days in this calendar 11 of those days are holidays 10 of those are annual leave days and we have a combination of 17 teacher work days that give us a total of cover the requirement of the law of teachers working or being paid for a total of 215 days so this is the calendar that came out of the calendar committee all right Mr Trey Britt question Mr Bobby where in our policy does it say anything about calendar committee we we do not in the policy there is not mentioned to a calendar committee we have historically operated under for the 20 years that I've been doing this we've always had a calendar committee made up of principes teachers central office staff but we're not following policy is what we're saying because it's not in
005there that way Letter's a calendar committee is what we're saying though right I can't say we're not following policy policy just does right policy does not dictate that we have that we have a calendar committee thank you sir Dr Emanuel all right Mr Craig L then Dr Emanual uh Mr Bobby the uh things that the calendar are supposed to meet these requirements who are they established by the calendar law establishes our guidelines then once the committee gets together we plug in the pieces um from beginning to end and the calendar that is presented meet meets all the requirements of that law yes sir thank you Dr Manu um thank you Mr Bobby or whoever did this comparison appreciate it uh I want to clarify something I said at the last board meeting when I said
006this calendar the fairness with the days is uh for students and here's what I meant by that that the students have the opportunity we need to give them the maximum amount of hours for teaching and learning so they can learn these standards laid out by the standard courses study they can learn the skills and abilities with the maximum number of hours and not be cut short I don't see it as a popularity contest whether you know students and teachers find it more popular I think it's a sense of fairness where the students can have that opportunity because the state and the standard course has studied they lay out this is what they have to learn this semester and that's why they have the number of hours laid out there for those children to learn those
007standards so when I said fairness and it's a student oriented calendar I mean U number of hours that's what I meant I didn't mean that students like it and or teachers like it I mean it was laid out those number of hours for a reason the fairness to students that's why it's student oriented uh also Bobby I I want to follow up on a comparison you had now tell me if I looked at it wrong am I assuming that if we went with this proposed C that was adopted for cin County that there are 11 less days how many less days are there in the first semester then there would be in our life semester so in comparison to the two calendars and we were going to walk through all of those um later on
008there are 11 less days between the calendar that the calendar committee is proposing versus uh the modified calendar that Mr Terry shared with us at the last board meeting May I continue with one more Point Mr J yes one more okay so this is a question for Miss Erica Miss Erica would that mean that cafeteria and bus drivers will get paid 11 less days first semester they would get their check that would get paid 11 days m s so I'll be honest Dr I hadn't looked by semesters because we set the calendar based on the whole year but it does mean for the course of the school year that there would get paid Le 11 less days they get paid by the hour is that correct correct okay so that would be they would get
009paid this is bus drivers cafeteria workers if we went with that this is another Avenue to look at that all bus drivers and all cafeteria workers will get paid 11 less days if we went with this type of Cal wouldn't be equal to the last semester so those are the points I'm raising and it's not a popularity contest it's a contest if you want to see it it's a contest that students get the same amount of hours first semester to learn the standards laid out by the state that they do life semester it's a fairness and it's set up for students that's what that was my point last board meeting and I think it was taken wrong that I said I was indicated it was more popular no idea it it was made for students
010and also uh there's a concern I'm not sure bus drivers and cafeteria workers would reap the benefits of 11 less days to be paid thank you Mr chair if we can oh I'm sorry M uh Mr Miss Christ marro um is it working this is just like so I'm agreeance to my big thing is the testing before the Christmas break so I'm just like looking at these calendars they're going to be taking the tests from the 12th to the 16th so to speak or the 15th so the five days prior to that of them coming back from their Christmas break what is the to me what is the difference like what are they going to be is it just reviewed because it's like 5 days it's not a make or break the grades aren't showing
011any different from before to after so I'm just trying to figure out why there's such a dep discrepancy on having the test before Christmas break right so so if you look at our the traditional calendar the calend committee has come up with principles and teachers historically used that week of the 5th through the 9th as a time to regroup and review so they're able to bring those kids in get them settled down and then actually begin testing the week of the 12th through the 16th so uh if you look at applying that same methodology or same thought process to the other calendar in which teachers again take the last week take the last five days for review and then the LA the next five days for testing you're really now eliminating back to probably about
01266 days of instruction not counting the other interruptions that may take place or scheduled activities throughout the year so for principles uh their thought and I think that has been shared is that they bring those kids back in get them settled review hit the key points and come in and test is very vital for them M Chris M Mor and I understand what they're saying but like as the teachers and the students because I've heard a lot of students would like it before if the test scores aren't a big change and difference what difference would it make for the extra that's what I'm trying to figure out because the grades aren't changing whether they have the extra 10 days or not so that's what I'm just trying to figure out the grades nothing's changing besides
013I could understand if the scores were higher and said oh there's proof that the kids are doing better testing prior but it's not so that's my thing is not a make or break decision on that extra week of I'm just thinking most of the students that I've spoke to I'm I'm just talking about students and teachers they they would like to go and have their testing before so then once they're gone teachers and students can have their break and not worry about anything so when they come back they start fresh but I that's what I was just trying to figure out if it was a big difference in the scores I could understand but there's not anyway that's all my thing and mot to your point it will change what administrators and counselors have to
014do during the Christmas break because if we test um before we go home for Christmas that means schedules have to be ready scores all that changes somebody's got to work during the Christmas break to be ready for second semester in Jan January so so that part of it would would change to that um in your board package we did po principles in terms of looking at both calendars it was it was clear every principle uh would love for this board to approve uh the calendar recommended for the calendar committee um the information is clear when Bobby was Shar a comparison but principles as our inst instuctional leaders now every single one said um they would rather operate all the calendar presented by the calendar committee Mr Bradley Phillips um have a question had a question
015for Mr Bobby hey so if if we test before Christmas you wouldn't have to review quite as long right is that an accurate statement or do you have to review so long before you test absolutely I just feel like if you soon as you get done with the subject if you test then before Christmas I don't feel like you would have to review for you eight days 10 days or however long it is you know that information is there immediately you're not having you know to review what you lost during a Christmas break yeah but in the in the the major difference between the two calendars is there's still that opportunity to review but the other proposed calendar is a loss of 11 11 instructional days in that first semester so yes review is going
016to take place in either testing before or testing after but the issue with testing before is you sacrifice 11 instructional days there's 11 days difference between the two calendars Mr Terry then we're gonna have Mr Trey then Dr Eman I would say that um in terms of the Liv instructional days that that you you could um if you look at the way that the hours were calculated the calendar that I propose just had days I mean there's ways in which you can maximize um hours add a little bit to the calendar U before school starts add 10 minutes to the beginning add 10 minutes to the end reduce Resources by five minutes that gives you 25 minutes right there so I mean there's ways to to make it work to maximize instructional hours I would
017also argue um that you know uh there's there's learning loss that occurs there's plenty of research to support idea that I mean if students are going to be out for three weeks before they take exams then they got to come back and review for another week what about all all of the learning loss that occurs during during that break so there's ways in which you can leverage that and also to to Dr manel's point that was made in the um curriculum committee meeting um earlier uh this month uh she noted that she liked um for students to be able to start college early and um if we have exams in in December um to follow along with with college calendars then that would give students that are graduating early the opportunity to start college in
018the fall they maybe would have maybe like a um if they're going to a a university they may have provisional admission but um that would that would help those individuals that that could graduate early and and go ahead and start college in January so um there's ways in which you can you can leverage the number of hours versus the number of days to uh to to maximize um to maximize the instructional hours and um and also I I would argue that um that the way that the hours were calculated based on the proposed calendar was the the absolute bare minimum so there's there's ways in which those those can be recalculated to maximize those days plus we may be able to leverage that opportunity to to let bus drivers drive for for more than one
019school so um and we we may be doing some of that now but uh but but that's another way we can look at it and also the biggest argument I would say um is uh the the loss of funds um for um in terms of being able to pay our bus drivers and cafeteria workers um we we have local funds and I've asked for detailed information on local funds um and I have not received the information that I've asked for and there's ways that that we can leverage our our local funds to cover some of that yes local funds we we just talking about the school calendar we're get on that local funds at another time but this is Trey brck are we are we moving to the principal survey results is that what you
020were getting yes okay well um one I'm just going to State this when I first saw this in the packet I didn't know it was going to be in the packet but 38 principles didn't elect me I'll just be up for the people of distric a elected me but now in return North Carolina General statute actually 115 C- 842 when you look at the schedule it says that local board of Education shall consult with parents and employed Public School Personnel in the development of the school calendar in Return of that for what was mentioned earlier days may be scheduled and planned for different purposes for different personnel and there is no requirement to schedule the same dates for all Personnel but um I'll be up front I had some principles call me and tell me
021this poll once they I guess when they left here or wherever they met I don't know how it was done but um thing was they didn't like was that their name was in it I had two or three two that called me and told me that one in person but in return I if you want to know the truth I think it's created some division because wherever calendar goes somebody comes up to me and say well your principal said so such and such how's that going to make the teacher feel how's that going to make the principal feel d man um I guess I'm confused the and this might be the law you need needs to clarify you said in your reading of that law that a school could make school system could make the
022schedule what now would you read that and let the lawyer interpret that something about to make the schedule to their convenience or something you read to that particular statement oh I'm sorry Mr you mind Mr chery reads that cuz I that didn't click with my brain North Carolina Journal stat 115 C- 84.2 school calendar Mr Schwarz and on uh let's see here that would [Music] be something to the fact that local you used to mention fact local Boards of Education shall consult with parents and employee School keep reading about the schedule the schedule on the fifth subsection of that General statute days may be scheduled and planned for different purposes for different personnel and is no requirement to schedule the same dates for all Personnel that that's the part how would that work that I'm
023not click that's not clicking in my brain there's ideas and things that be tossed around that but I'm just reading what the law says and understand but I'm asking the lawyer what what is that I mean I don't understand how that would click you could have different calendars for different schools you could have different calendars that match up with uh for year round schools um and that sort of thing so in essence the high schools could have a different calendar than Adam MIT middle if a district wanted is that what you're saying that you could have a different calendar for every single School in the district if you want it good luck that would be a financial nightmare M Mr chair if I may say to address uh because testing prior to Christmas truly only
024affects high schools so the elimination of 11 days in that first semester when we're talking about adding time to equal the 80 I think it's 77 versus 89 or something to that effect I would have to look at that we would have to add an additional 53 minutes to every day to equal instructional time from 77 days to the days add 53 minutes 53 minutes would have to be added to the instructional day for the time to be the same Mr T based on my based on my calculation it was 5 minutes but I'm not nearly as um as versed in this as you are Bobby 53 minutes would totally change our transportation absolutely transportation and ath and your that Athletics would would factor into that as well overtime for certain employees teacher assistant those
025folks that are not salary secretaries power Powers anyone who would be considered classified in the building yeah all miss miss kirst so when years ago when it was before Christmas or before yeah Christmas how did it affect everything back then in the time and the dates we we were able to start school at the beginning of August we were able the calendar law at that point in time allowed us our own parameters to start and end say we were not bound by the August 26th and June 11th beginning and end so and I know going back to like Cumberland County and Har Harnet County and other counties that are having the testing before I mean their score levels are of course higher than ours and they're losing instructional time because they're starting the same time
026as we are so I know I seen this letter from one of the caran county about because of the what is it um the military which I understand that so they kind of helped that out but that's what I'm trying to figure out is I hear this being an issue but then again I'm seeing it everywhere else where it's not so I'm just trying to figure out the difference between each school and they're not doing 53 minutes or 20 you know so I that's I'm just trying to have a hard time adapting to what's the big deal pretty much when it comes down to it my and and so it you you are correct there are other districts right now it's probably a 50 5050 split across the state uh but to try to pinpoint
027one variable that makes the difference is impossible so when we look at some of these other districts there they have more instructional folks in the building they have more financial resources there are just different things that impact what the operations of a school that's why it is left up to each Lea or PSU to determine the calendar that works best for them all right um thank you any more question from Mr Bobby uh Mr Curry I'm sorry um this is just for whatever it's worth is kind of reiterating some things that I think different people said uh M Monroe to to your question as far as what is the difference and I'm not sure it's the difference for everybody but the the the difference and whether it matters on how they end up being final
028grades is the amount of time students are in class first semester second semester on the two calendars and you're in class 11 10 or 11 days less let's just say 10 days less the first semester and you would be the second semester on using the cuming County calendar um for some I think that's not an issue for others it's uh just say kid a is getting 10 days less of chemistry the first semester and that kid is making getting the second semester now is that going to affect the test scores of that child I don't no but they going to get 10 days less of information that's what it amounts to okay if I add the part of bus drivers and Caper workers they're just goingon to get paid less if they got if they're
029going to work 167 days instead of 180 they're not goingon to make as much money um and 30 years ago part of my job was doing salaries and contracts for bus drivers and when you take it it might not sound like much but when you have a turnaround here and it gives you a dollar and you do it five times in a week that's $5 don't sound like much but it's a lot to those folks that are riding a bus or driving a bus and you're looking at taking away some days from that for whatever it's worth uh the other point and I made a note here and I might have missed it but the days and the bus track cafeteria workers too we've also talked about them you know losing days so does the
030test make a difference if we get give it before or after uh I still go back to my big premise is the days that kids lose of instruction I forget what I'm gonna forget what they make on the test they're just going to lose some instruction days if we go from it's 177 days to 167 or whatever 10 or 11 days whatever it amounts to they're going to lose days and for me that just bothers me and I will say this as far as calar committee and you know I can't remember the law if there's not a policy but and not saying it makes it right because you've done it this long but we've done calendar committees I know since the 90s because I served on them in the 90s so I know since the
03190s or since it became public school there's been calendar committees that put together one whether we had a policy or not as a group that come together took what the law said you had to do for example or Veterans Day and then developed the calendar sent out sometimes it was two calendars sometimes it was one calendar but that's how a calendar over the years just for history that's how a calendar has been developed for the school system um my final point is and I think Bobby hit on this somewhat uh Mr Phillips and Miss Monroe and maybe others Express the fact that uh the basic thing they're going to do when they come back is review that's not necessarily correct because just keep in mind now they haven't finished teaching the concepts the objectives those
032teachers have to teach brand new material when they come back because they haven't finished they may do some reviewing quite naturally but they're not going to just review review they have to really teach because they haven't finished teaching the concept so I just wanted to bring that point out thank you Crystal I just um wna with the 11 days even I know the Cumberland County schedule the one that Terry had about like ending school on the 25th of May but we could have still kept it in June and kind of worked around it so they wouldn't be losing the 11 days because if you think about it a lot of them days if you go back to May 25th when the kids would get out that's where you're losing 1 two 3 four five six
033seven8 n that's where you're losing your 11 days at so it's not I get where you're saying they're losing some instructural time back in December they're going to lose a week because they're not going to be learning they're going to be preparing for the testing before Christmas but the 11 days that they are losing is at the end of the year so it's not saying we could still go to June 29th I think our biggest thing is that the kids and the teachers want the testing Before Christmas at the end of the day it's not so much changing the whole calendar M uh Mr Schwarz you you can't go to June 29th I mean not June I'm sorry June 9th okay that's right I'm sorry June 9th M Mr chair if I may yes so
034so Mr Monroe I think what you're saying so again as I stated earlier testing prior to Christmas truly only impacts high schools so there's 11 days if we were just to attack on to the end of the year would then create an inequity in second semester that we would have a 100 day semester so we would have first semester would be 77 second semester would be a 100 days she turn it off you good all right any any more for Mr Bobby all right next we have U Mr Terry you guys anything about the come to County calendar I really don't have a whole lot to say say about the the calendar that I proposed um you know that's a that's a detailed conversation that I think is left up to the district to to
035sort of figure out I mean if y'all wanted to really determine what celand county was doing or what these other counties were doing to make it successful I feel like you should have reached out to them you didn't mind reaching out to them when it came to getting letters and videos and everything else when you wanted us to when you're pushing for us to get those Yonder bags so I going let y'all um deal with that when when the time comes all right thank you Mr Terry um let's let's go ahead and bring this thing to a vote anybody want to make a motion or anything anybody got a motion Mr Terry I'll make a motion that we um uh that we move forward with the uh calendar where students can take exams before they
036get out for Christmas motion being made by Mr Terry take it okay motion been made in a second now Mr Melissa I make a substitute motion that we accept the calendar as um presented by the C by the cabinet um there's been a secretary motion on the table by Miss Melissa do we have a second uh second been made by DR man all in favor say all in favor say I all oppose let's go by the hands show hands all right we got it all in favor all in favor by the show raise the hands of the calendar that's presented that's calendar that's presented by Dr uh by Mr Bob lotl all show raise your hands all in favor of that calendar and we're going to be testing Before Christmas sobody raise the hands oh
037I've tested after Chris I'm sorry the motion was to accept the calendar as presented by the Committee of administration correct yes yes that's on the mo vot I'm so sorry all oppose okay hell long tell your micro Mr Henry go ahead I think we we're going through a evolution of change we um we adopted a curriculum we all resented that now we're into the calendar the calendars come up every year as discussion I talked to Senator Brit this morning he's telling me that every senator in the state of North Carolina has presented a bill in the Senate and the majority whip Mr fiberg has shot it down um even Senator britz an agreement that testing Before Christmas is probably the right thing to do I've talked with um M Dr Williamson if you don't mind
038me saying have talked briefly he's in agreement too but the but the thing is we got to be able to meet the rest of the guidelines that's stated by the state and the federal government and this possibly affects Federal grant monies so I'm I'm at the point that my colleagues or or people I've been flooded with phone calls to vote against the regular calendar so in support of my voters and I'm going I'm going to have to go against the the regular calendar but we going to have to work it out we're going to have to figure it out it's just it's going to take some work if we can't we can't all right so it's it's um so right now it's 55 [Laughter] is that correct correct or 65 all right by the show
039favors uh by the show who's voting with the calendar with the calendar that's presented who's vote with the calendar that was presented by Mr Bobby the current calendar got um it's not they got um one two three four five they got six they have six5 if m hry going against they have six5 all in all opposed by the show raise the hands it's still it's still five5 Mr h no um no vote the the motion The Substitute motion by Miss ocean fails on a 55 vote yep so now you're up to the main motion that was made by Mr laer and seconded by Miss fields to move forward with the calendar where we have uh exams Before Christmas to move forward with a calendar where we have exams Before Christmas all right that was not
040as I understand your your motion Mr ller it was not to approve the calendar that you presented but to move forward with the calendar where we would have exams Before Christmas is that correct all right so all in favor of the having the exams Before Christmas do by the show hands all in favors all oppos wait can we can we see those again I go we got to record the vote sorry same score okay all in favor wait a minute so hold on a second that's Mr Brewer's voting here now yeah Mr Miss Fields U Bradley M Terry Miss Moro okay so that's six yeah vote against I vote against so the motion passes yeah the motion passes all right do we have a a a motion to adjourn H up question all right let's
041go Mr CRA question now we voted do exams before Christmas we didn't vote on the calendar correct are we going to vote on using the calendar Mr Bobby presented or we going to vote on using the calendar Mr Terry presented or we gonna come back now with another calendar because we didn't vote yeah on calendar right may I got okay so so I think that's the question we cannot afford to penalize KH schools 11 days and and so to your question M Craig I think then that we put a third calendar on the table and that is that Ka use the calendar presented by the calendar committee and high schools use the cing County calendar that ter you need to work out okay all right follow up all right Mr Dr Manel then we're gonna
042have Miss Melissa then we're gonna have Mr Craig in that order okay am I first yes all right now say that one more time what you propose superintendent okay okay so the K schools cannot afford to lose 11 instructional days yes sir so my prop proposal would be that Ka adopt the calendar presented by the calendar committee and then um 65 says that the high schools will have to use coming and County calar okay good now my question is so it won't be a problem is there any place that EC transportation and or K8 Transportation do they depend on the high school in any way for any transportation would there be a conflict I'm speaking of EC transportation and all of that bobie can probably better answer that question yes yes what yes there will
043be a conflict in EC Transportation U all right hold up Miss Melissa ocean then you then you Mr Henry she was hands up raised first I'm sorry go ahead I guess my question is so now we're going to split the district we're going to have k38 on one schedule High School on another schedule but everybody's in the same place so now when high school we have these bad weather days how are we going to build all this into that calendar that doesn't cover any of this St that's correct if we have enough weather days our only option would be after Christmas is to cut spring break that's the only option what we get out of Christmas and into second semester the only place is spring break so if we have a year like we had
044this year where there's three days of bad weather there spring the high school kids have no spring break we have to cut it make those days to me this is this is absolutely it's it's ludicrous that a that a calendar hasn't been drugg on been we've been dragging it this long none of us educate at this currently we don't we're not in the schools and this does not seem to be in the best interest of our children this is seem like somebody standing on principal or somebody calling you and telling you what they want done and then you're coming in here and and passing down to these kids it just doesn't seem fair to me it does not Mr Henry Mr chair um I really haven't heard any conversation about um anything other than adop
045in somebody else's calendar uh what if we had a word workshop and I've had suggestions made to me like what happened to co going to school on Saturdays a half a day what about cutting out um teacher half day work days or whatever they're saying what I'm being told is that that we need to get rid of the extras and work it into the legal time of of giving in instructional time and narrow it down uh I don't know if we can do that or not um Mr Mr Terry I just got one comment about the um the survey that was done with uh with principles there's a there's a concept called manufactured consent and through manufactured consent um leaders can use uh Leverage The to gain consent from individuals and I'm not suggesting uh
046that these principles can't think on their own but I am suggesting that um if my if I know you know as an employee if I know my boss wants to go a certain way I'm gonna figure out how to go that certain way with him him or her so um just I'm just going to keep that in mind when is the last time you heard of 35 or 36 adults agreeing on something you can't even get that in church so I'll just leave that right there all right um yes U May am I own Mr Terry now do you think that was fair because you weren't there that was just not fair thank you Mr Craig um let's see say now we're going to come back it's not necessarily using the calendar they have from
047cumin County for high schools we're gonna develop a calendar or we gonna use the high school from cumin we're goingon use cuming couny okay so so a modified calendar the calendar law and general statute has been read to us correct over note and so that's the board's calendar or at least six board members calendar okay the the that law the calendar from cin County if we're gonna use that from the for the high schools and this might be Dr Williamson or Mr Bobby does that calendar as it is we testing Before Christmas does this meet all the 11 components of the law that we had read to start with now if it doesn't put it down somewhere in record today that Craig Lowry is not going to supported if it does not I'm not going
048to knowingly sit here and vote for something that is not complying to the laws of this state with DPI or whoever irregardless of what other people say so that's the reason I want to know is it this calendar or we going to develop a new Cal because the one that we going to put out that I'm going to support is going to have to comply to the law as it exist if it doesn't I won't support it and I want to clearly noted that I didn't support it so the calendar that we see on the board does comply with um General Statute in terms of school calendar law okay ever think this Ste does comply yes okay and Mr chair if I may add I think to m mro's point is that this the other
049proposed calendar and this is very crucial does not have the opportunity for Bank days if we or Miss ocean I'm sorry if we have inclement weather that calendar does not allow us the opportunity like we've had this year to kind of say kids we're GNA eat those days in terms of you have enough time that calendar does not allow us to bank days Mr chairman Mr cry okay hold on Mr chairman what bank days has done it's eliminated over the years of Saturday school yes going to school during Christmas vacation or Easter vacation uh there was one other that we used to have to do all teacher work days you took teacher work days those three things was always a part of if you miss school days the bank days over the last several years
050has eliminated that and folks everybody in here knows Saturday school is a joke um you made up a day that's that's what you did you made up a day but you know half a day it was a joke uh coming in taking the other vacation days you know people's got used to that but without bank days if we have bad weather days that's what's gonna happen M Chris Mor um I just to go on the bank days and the weather days um s Co we've been doing a lot of online and virtual so I feel like if there we were in them cases it could be virtual like we have been doing um I'm just saying hypothetically my only concern through all this was that the kids test before Christmas I mean I've had a
051lot of students when I was in Greensboro there was students there that were on the stage and they asked questions and that was their biggest thing was taking the test before Christmas and that's the reason why I am going with that I just want to make that known that as far as the calendar we could have agreed and made a calendar where it goes to June and makes it and move dates around for the semesters and I feel like everybody would have been happy but it just doesn't seem like that is trying to be done right at this point but I just want to that like I appreciate everything but I that is where I stand with that so Mr chair if I may so uh since Co we have to submit a remote learning
052plan and we are only allowed to obligate five days to remote learning throughout the school year so anything beyond those five days uh we will be breaking the law Mr Harry Mr chair I know I voted but the thing is um if we don't meet the state requirements in whatever calendar comes up I'm not going to uh stick with that I we we've got to meet the state requirements we can't chance fedal funds Mr Terry Mr Schwarz have we are do any of these two calendars violate the school law in federal or state no okay and also I'm I'm still trying to figure out why we need two different calendars why why can't we have the same calendar for high school and Elementary why should why should the elementary school kids suffer they don't take
053tests before Christmas and have their days taken those kids are more prone to be sick or or need days off they're smaller kids so I don't understand why none of this affects them anyway this is only about high school things AR changing and and so if I may Mr CH to answer Mr Terry's question as Dr Williamson stated earlier our K schools cannot sacrifice losing 11 instructional days that is the reason that we are requesting a high school calendar that's been proposed or test occur before Christmas and then that we allow our K8 schools to remain on this calendar do districts do that have two different calendars one for high school and one for we already have two different calendar to start off with Early College got a calendar that they follow and high school
054got a calendar that they follow and before Miss um Mr Trey brick read um read that General statue and it said that we can come up with different calendars and that's what Mr Richard stated um before we start discussing this you can State you can have as many as every school could have their own calendar if you wanted to as far as the um the the bank days or as far as the the adverse weather days I don't know I mean you really can't plan for that because sometimes you have snow in the the spring hurricanes in the fall so um that's just something we'll have to contend with when uh when it gets here yes but having I think also having days and stuff Bank it also helps it prevent stuff from preventing them
055for doing different stuff from coming to school taking kids Easter break or taking kids days away from Christmas time or like you said coming to school on Saturday which I I say this is a joke and I don't think nobody's gonna send their kid to school on the Saturday I don't not this day and time Mr Bradley Phillips it just feels like it just feels like so much confusion has been created it a calendar was presented it was not approved it was brought up again this very same calendar nothing changed and it weren't approved again and here we here we set discussing the calendar we don't know the best way to create a calendar we don't know you all these guidelines that has to be built in I feel like you guys should have built
056a calendar to show us what it would have looked like to test before Christmas and it would eliminated all this confusion here we set diversed and confused and it it doesn't make sense Mr did you d man you got h on with confused about Mr Bradley tell tell tell us what the confusion is I'm not confused but tell me what the confusion is Mr BR maybe maybe I should be confused explain to me I guess confusion could come from our now we're talking about three possible calendars when it could have been laid out to begin with we wouldn't even have to sit here and discuss all this stuff we don't know the ends and I say we I've never Ted in a building I know how to run a business I don't know exactly how
057many days or how instructional hours has to be put in the calendar until we sit here and read it it's the job of central office that could have provided us a separate option and we wouldn't even have to sit here and bounce different thoughts around if this is going to line up with federal funds if this is going to affect this person or if it's going to affect that person so I feel like there's some confusion in the room maybe you're not confused but maybe some of us are okay thank you D wish yes so again now 11 loss instructional days 11 days of loss pay because that's what's going to happen so we need to be clear so Mr schs how can we can I put a motion for a K8 calendar or how
058can we do that because again I do not see penalizing K8 schools 11 law instruction to days can't penalizing clear conscience I'm not going to support taking 11 days of pay from certif from our employees not and then we open ourselves up to because when that's happened in other districts for for instance col County right parents filed and they had to go back and change the calendar and and so if we can avoid all that but in clear conscience and those principles are instructionals leaders they support the calendar because they understand the loss of 11 instructional days they understand the loss of pay 11 days for our employees they understand that so why force them to do anything all right we're gonna have Miss chrisy Fields then uh Miss Christ Monroe so let's speak clear
059the reason that we're even starting at the time we are in August is because businesses did not want to lose Revenue that's really why we're starting at the end of August and we don't have that flexibility anymore additionally again to Mr Bradley's point we voted down the first calendar we weren't presented with an alter alternative and now we're trying to make this look like a whole big issue when at the end of the day it is not central office is able to come up with an alternative C calendar we are not here to make people's lives difficult we can all work together to make that happen Miss uh Christ Monroe the only thing that I'm with do what Dr Williamson just said about the 11 instructural date so technically from the Cumberland County it's um
060what 166 and we're 177 so if you go back and you go from May 26 to June 9th that's your 11 days that we could just put back on the calendar or that's not going to work so because that would be the 177 days and now I get what you're saying at the beginning because of the the first semester like that's where I'm just trying have a hard time understanding so Mr chair yes so what in essence that does that does include back the 11 lost instructional days but it creates an inequity in the fact that first semester for high school kids would only be 77 days yes second semester would then turn around and be a 100 days 20 something days so so as Mr Craig spoke earlier about there would be a chemistry
061class where kids would get 77 days of instruction then there would be a second chemistry class in the spring where kids would get a 100 days of instruction I may Dr uh Dr car on Dr Dallas our summer school is scheduled for when got everything I'm sorry okay June 16th through June 27th that becomes important now because course credit grade promotion graduate all that's tied to summer school that if we have to carry that over into new fiscal year and a new school year you're going to see retentions go up and some other issues go up if we have to go into July right and I'm not the best in math but you say the 100 days is that two semesters together because like when I'm counting like I have 40 in the first semester
06248 the 2 41 and 50 that's what I'm counting right now with what you guys are presenting am I wrong is that am I not getting the numbers so so you're counting nine weeks I'm just counting every nine weeks yes so that because I'm going by the testing because they're going to test before Christmas so to speak which would be after there's the first semester in October and then that so that's what I was going to say so I'm just looking at the difference in the the days yes so on on the calendar that came from the calendar committee that you see here uh we tried to equally divide those semesters so first semester is 88 days second semester is 89 days on the modified calendar that came from cuman County first semester was 77
063second semester was 89 so if we took those 11 loss days from first semester and put them into second semester you now have a second semester that is a 100 days also Mr Bobby I want to how do uh how else do that affect some of the stuff that we um already have playing like uh like our big shootout and all kind offf stuff like that because I know you can't when doing testing and stuff we cannot play I think there rule that we cannot play or they cannot play sports and stuff doing test no that is correct so anytime exams are scheduled we cancel all athletic events for that time there are no after school activities during that time so if the shootout would be scheduled starting and I think we've tried to do
064that to help protect principal's break uh anytime during that week of December 5th 15th through the 19th uh shootout will be moved back because we do not allow Athletics during uh exam time okay Mr chairman yes the motion that passed was to move forward with a calendar where we could have exams Before Christmas that's the motion there's not a calendar that's been passed it's the Cumberland County calendar has been passed superintendent recommended now two different calendars the board could give three different calendars three different because because we already got one for right for um the the board could give parameters to the administration with a request to come forward at the April board meeting with proposed calendars that meet whatever parameters the board wants to be considered in addition to all the parameters are required
065by the school calendar which are extensive unless you're ready to approve calendars based on what you have in front of you now Mr Harry Mr chair i' like to make a motion that we uh extend the opportunity back to uh the superintendent and and uh the calendar committee or whomever to work in the guidelines by the state in a way that we can uh have some options to look at that will possibly give us the opportunity to test before Christmas and bring it back to the next um call meeting or regular meeting do we have a second all right a motion met on the floor that U by Mr Henry Breo that we give the superintendent and the cabinet and the C um and the calendar committee um the to produce the calendar to set
066by parameters of the state that we will test be before Christmas make sure we follow all the guidelines that represented by the state that we can test before Christmas and the second was by Mr chrisal Monro um do you got a question Mr CRA now is that calendar going to just be for the high schools and then we're going to need another motion to adopt the calendar that's been presented for K through 8 so is this motion just dealing for coming with the new one is it just one Mr Henry dealing with high schools Mr Henry that's on that's it yes dealing with the high schools go ahead Mr chair why don't we wait till that committee comes back because they may incorporate something that's going to work for all levels the um the superintendent
067already um said that if we have a he's not going to miss level incription of days for K so he already said if we adopt the new calendar that we test before he will need to have a separate calendar for KA okay then that will go back to high school all right so this only dealing with high school we only all um all in favor say I so so the the motion now is modified Mr Brewer to ask the administration to bring back to the board recommendations to the board that would meet the School cend of Law and allow for testing before exams for grades 912 and need to to verify the second on that Mr Monro all in favor say I all oppose can you call for the vote again all in favor say
068I allose unanimous yes we got now do we Mr CRA do you and um I'll make a motion that we adopt the calendar presented by the uh cabinet for K8 for the 2526 school year all right a motion is been on the floor by Mr Craig L to adopt the the calendar presented for K8 um and it been the second by dran all in favor say I I all oppose you know again okay all right do we you got anything else M Mr chair I made for clarity so parameters for the high school calendar test before Christmas so those the only parameters that the committee needs to deal with yes test before Christmas as long as follow the state the guideline the state guidelin stuff that's it all right do we got a motion to
069adjourn that motion to adjourn by Miss Chris Monro do I got a second second by Mr H BR all the favor say I joh all