PSRC Board of Education Work Session: 2/21/25

001e e e I would like to call this um board work session um to order for the public schools of Rober County on February the 21st first you know i' like to say um good afternoon to everybody and thank y'all for joining us on this Friday afternoon um we have we have um two people that's going to be absent um two board members that's going to be absent actually three we're going to have U Miss Melissa ocean uh Mr Henry Brewer and and Miss christe wandell um Mr Trey Brit and Miss U Fields they'll be joining us shortly so just want to point that out there so just like to thank y'all and thank y'all for taking the time out on this Friday evening to join us all right first on um first on the

002agenda we're gonna have um Dr wion right Dr car you plac a card at the board member site explain what that's for please good afternoon chairman leech um Dr Williamson and board members everybody has a card at their table we are asking that everybody place any questions or areas that they may want us to look at considering for the curriculum meeting on the 4th as topics so that those are placed on there so as we're developing our agenda all together that we have some um ideas of what people may want to address okay and so we'll collect these at the end of the meeting thank you all right we're going to have first we're going to have cell phone use and d u disruptions in school Mr Bobby lle good good afternoon chairman Le superintendent

003Williamson board members uh before we bring our guest speaker uh Mr Chris Johnson who's going to walk through a product that we are considering I just want to give you some background information as to the reason this is on our agenda and start the conversation um as early as we are for next year there are current ly two pieces of legislation that have been proposed one bill is in the house and one bill is in the Senate uh we have included those in your packet uh House Bill 87 and Senate Bill 55 and in both of these proposals that are in front of our legislators right now would require us to create or develop a salefree uh cell phone policy within the district so two pieces of legislation that would require us to limit or

004um require that students not have cell phones on our campuses or in our buildings so I did want to make you aware too what our current policy is and I've included that in your packet as well 4318 use of Wireless Communications so again we do not have we currently do not have a cell phone band policy within the district um we tie the usage of cell phones to our discipline Matrix and that's also been included in your packet as well uh cell phone use unauthorized can can be either a class one violation or a class two violation and can lead up to a student being suspended from our campuses depending on the severity and the number of times a student violates that policy uh some violations could be a teacher just simply ask the student

005to put it away and they refuse to other instances could be that uh they're actually videoing a fight and then U decide to send that fight out on social media so uh again just in preparation for what we believe are going to be two pieces of legislation that at some point the legislators are going to approve because as you know our neighbors in South Carolina approved the complete cell phone ban at all campuses across the state uh started in January so this point in time if you do not have any questions for me uh we'll turn it over to Mr Chris Johnson who is from Yonder and he will walk through an option that we are considering for next year all right Mr Johnson thank you for the warm introduction give me one second while

006I share my screen is everyone able to see my screen yes uh once again good afternoon uh my name is Chris Johnson and I am the district partnership director here at Yonder um I want to thank you all for taking the time to speak with me I know we got a little weather so I appreciate the accommodations for uh me to get with you guys today uh before I get going um I I I'd love to just do a quick question to get us in the mindset of understanding um what we deal with on The Daily when we talk about distractions in a phone free environment uh those that I spoke to already you have to set this one out um but I always ask on average how often does one person's phone ring or

007alert them on the daily those that are in attendance you can just throw out some numbers and whoever gets closest I'll be willing to send a $15 Starbucks card to I'm 75 I got 75 I can't hear you we got 75 we got 100 we got who who said 100 it's C that's that's it right on the head so on average right now just any regular average human being they're getting a 100 alerts a day and what that equates to is about once every 15 minutes the phone is going off and that's on average now when we talk about the the Youth of the day and you know saying our teenagers and our our middle schoolers and whatever it may be it could be quadruple that so it's Educators we've all seen the impact the

008cell phones have um with with the students being engaged in learning and focusing on their academics and just building healthy relationships so here at Yonder um we believe that there's just simply time times and places um within the schools and classrooms that the priority should just be on learning and being a student and not instant access to technology um a quick scan of the headlines I'm sure everyone has see it and that's why we're here today um the headlines just highlight what we all know students are facing a social psychological and just academic crisis as a result of just cell phone addiction um you'll see that uh there's so many negative impacts on cell phones on academics I mean the research is clear um lets us know that hey 20 minutes it takes 20 minutes

009for a student to regain Focus every time they're distracted by a cell phone so what do we just say we just said on average once every 15 minutes a phone is alerting a kid or there's going off or they're getting an alert so if it takes them 15 minutes it takes them 20 minutes to get re-engaged they get an alert once every 15 minutes how focused are they within our classrooms according to the US Surgeon General um average social media use is uh three hours per day I think that's a little light um but this just doubles the anxiety and depression risk amongst our youth when they're on social media they're trying to live up to a a stigma or a fake reality and it just leads to that you know like I said that

010depression and that social anxiety that goes on um distractions can lead to a 15o decrease in mathematics scores and just we know that 68% of the students actually report themselves they're actually reporting themselves that cell phones are a distracting uh uh tool in their education so the problem is just really clear um it's just W widespread and this constant smartphone access um it just leads like I said a social psychological and academic crisis um our Surgeon General even issued a warning about social media's impact on the mental health of our youth I let you know everyone can read and I let them read them for themselves but we're treating this almost like we're talking about the opioid addictions and things of that nature it is a true issue that our kids are facing in today's

011society uh just to let you know Educators like you worldwide um they're trying to tackle this program this problem every day so we know that one in seven countries have banned cell phones in school um you see what we're doing right now we're talking about legislation coming in North Carolina I'm just FYI I'm also uh the uh the uh District partner uh executive for South Carolina and Virginia both states which have adopted uh a cell phone uh a phone free education for the uh for their schools and we know that 75% of the public schools in the United States have some form form of restriction on cell phone use during school hours but what we have learned is phone BS are just simply not enough 77% of schools are B Bann cell phones um but

012the definition of baned is truly broad uh you know that can be hey you have it within uh the hallways you know you have to put it away you have to put it in your backpack but what we found to happen is that makes your teachers not be teachers they have to to become the phone wardens they have to you know saying they have to go and say hey they're losing time they're losing time of instruction because every time they come to class kids have to get told to put the phone away it's a point of contention um some teachers have a stricter policy than others there's not a uniform uh reality within the school system that says hey this is what's going on um we want to break down that barrier we want to

013break down that disconnect that makes your teachers have to worry about anything but teaching we want them to be able to just come in the kids are in once they check in the bill ring they're fully engaged um our methods have been honed um we've been here uh since 2014 over 11 years across all uh all 50 states uh millions of students so we've taken the feedback from Educators such as yourself board members such as yourself um to really Hest understand and figure out how to make a program a system uh that will be effective within the classroom uh you'll notice it's a quote right here we've tried phone buckets we tried boxes charging stations uh when you put a phone policy in the hands of the teachers you're setting up an act hey you

014just hey you're just going to ruin the relationship that you have with the students because they feel like you're the bad person that's taking away their phone um so we identified the problem what is the solution the solution is the Y program um we help Educators like you create phone free classrooms and campuses um we have a patented phone pouch comined with best-in-class uh support system that will really help your District hone in on policy procedures they really give your students a phone free education like I said since 2014 millions of students have benefited from our phone free education uh we're uh this is a little outdated so it says School Partners in 27 countries that's actually all um up to 35 now and we're in all 50 states I'm going to take a second

015um traditionally if I was there I would be able to uh show but I want you to watch this video of watching our program in action make sure Educators around the world are seeing the damaging effects of phones on student engagement Social Development and mental health cell phon cellones have been linked to many of the district's recent problems texting tweeting cases of anxiety and depression bullying staging fights and filming fights in an effort to crack down on cell phone usage the district piloted these Magnetic Locking bags called Yonder it's an easy solution for a generation in the midst of a mental health crisis Yonder is the established leader in creating phonefree schools for over 10 years our product and program has allowed students to experience the focus creativity and relief that comes from a phonefree

016school day as students enter school they Place their phone in their assigned Yonder pouch they close and secure their pouch keeping it with them throughout the day when leaving school students tap their pouch on an unlocking base to retrieve their [Music] phone Yonder is used by millions of students every day across 26 countries our school Partners report having more teaching time in the classroom improved student safety and wellness better student engagement student behavior and academic performance creating phone-free schools is the community initiative our comprehensive program provides support to our school Partners from start to finish with step-by-step guidance parent communication materials policy development and proven expertise to ensure everyone understands the difference of phonefree Education can make it's amazing to see kids come to school and not have to worry about that phone going off

017or them being bullied by someone else on social media it was kind of um annoying at first but then I saw like the difference between like my old school and this school I see more people like interacting rather than being on their phones like especially at lunchtime and break time they are way more engaged everyone's happier it's night and day I saw kids faces again [Music] so again with Yonder it's a partnership um we are here to partner with you to make this a system that works for your District uh many places will offer you a tool which is just a widget you know what I'm saying there's other pouches there's other options out there where kids can just get a pouch and you're left on your own um but we give you not only

018the equipment uh training uh wraparound support for your administrators Educators and staff through the school year uh why Yonder we like to say it's a proven product like I said since 2014 um we've been doing this with millions of students all across before the legislation came up in the United States and this became really prevalent um we've been doing this so like we talk about best practices uh we've been we we probably seen it you know what I'm saying we've been we've been all throughout the United States different countries um we really know how to say hey we want to take it off your plate if this is something that's coming through legislation or something that you're trying to adopt um we probably seen it and we want to help you like we said that

019in that video um we offer up the implementation team has uh will help you create the policy um that you want to put in place throughout the district um we have pre-written literature to help you sent out um obviously can be modified um however you would like uh to go out to your stakeholders so you know saying when you're trying to communicate with the parents to let them know what's going on when you're trying to communicate with your staff about what's going on when you want to to communicate with the students we have videos we have literature that will go out to help this go out and be a smooth true implementation we're not just going to say here go here's a tool and you're on your own we're going to walk you through step

020by step to make sure uh best-in class support uh when you partner with us not only do you get me you get a partner success manager that's going to work with the district they'll actually work with each and every school um to come up with a plan uh setup about the location of those bases that you seen within the video and like we also say uh immediate results um it is a true culture shift I know some of the points that you were was just the distractions and uh the the teachers having to you know saying police the phones or um kids setting up the fight clubs saying meet me in the bathroom to fight the recordings and then you have to sit there and have to deal with that digital imprint and that negative

021uh Association to the district um when these phones are locked up you don't have those issues uh everyone is away um there is no you know saying there's obviously we know things can happen with outside of the uh the school day but within those uh those hours there within your building everyone is engaged everyone is locked I'm a former RTI intervention specialist I know that an Engaged classroom is a Learning Classroom um we show those results because those kids have nothing else no other distractions they're now fully engaged in the lesson and just being students again uh the program is very simple as you see it's phone free equipment you will get this extra large pouch every single one we are the only company that has this locking mechanism right here so when the kids

022kids come in Daily they can power their phone off or they can put it on airplane mode they simply slide it in the pouch like the video showed you and they click this here and it is now locked every single pouch we are a tier one intervention so we assign a pouch to every single student every single pouch has this ID tag so you have the ability to either give them a name card or if you have like a dynasty system or a you know saying A system that uh like you do with your electronics where you notate who has what uh piece of equipment you can actually assign the pouch to every individual student so they're intrinsically motivated to actually take care of their uh of of their pouch because there is responsibility for

023them and the ownership of their individual pouch um the reason we do this is because we found that it's almost just a non-invasive type thing we uh we we did we we we didn't want to do uh collecting and add extra work for your your school and stuff like that uh we found that if we just give them and they all day take home they bring it to school they take it home with them it's simply the same as them bringing their textbooks or their notebooks they get used to it um they understand how to operate in a space where hey when I go to work I can't be on my phone all day same thing when we're at school we need to lock in and understand how to be focused and present within the

024moment uh just if FYI always bring this up just in case folks don't know um they bring up the medical reasons some folks have you know say medical issues how will they have access we have a a velco PR which is able to unsnap very strong you see right there they unsnap it and they can put it in so they if they have glucose or they want to monitor you know what I'm saying check on their situation they have the ability it looks exactly like the other pouches folks won't be able to sit there and say there's any differentiation um curriculum resources we give lesson plans we have phone- free activity guides uh we make sure that the teachers have a PD so there's a uniform policy and understanding of how to implement the program

025and instruct the kids uh within uh use of uh the phone free environment lastly um and I'm I'm I'm going to try to be very cognant of time because I wanted to make sure we had enough time for questions um we've just seen a upshift in student behavior um Student Connection uh student engagement college career Readiness and just mental health things that we've shown to go down depression social alienation cyber bullying uh you know what I'm saying like I said that's something that you know can we it might happen but it will happen outside of the uh of the school day and it's just less lik less likely to happen because you'll notice that the kids will actually start communicating more they're actually having conversations they're getting to know one another because they're not just

026sitting there at lunch or in the hallways with their face down in the phone they actually engag in conversations being able to have a one-on-one and Carry Out conversations and grow and Build Together uh just some data the support you see might saw some of it in the little video 86% of our partners have saw a positive impact on safety and wellness uh you know I said those those fights those those those incidents that occur because of the cell phone where people you know saying it's gossiping or starting things and then that's in the hallway and kids might not want to fight but but there's a there's a phone out there's a couple phones out and there no one wants to look like they're scared or they didn't want to engage and then you have

027an issue um because of this and because the phones are away a lot of those things get eliminated because they're just they're just not accessible they're just not an issue that can happen without the cell phone involved um 84% of uh our partners saw a positive change in student engagement and 68% saw an improvement in academic performance like say as a former RTI intervention specialist I'm always big on academic performance uh just a quick thing that I like to point out our student success rate we saw growth at all levels at the secondary level um but what I always like to point out is in the 11th and 12th grade when we're really talking about College and Career Readiness that's where we showed our biggest growth 78 to 84% 84 to 89% in those testable

028years um this study is the first of its kind in the United States and as you can see like I said our students experienced an incredible increase in academic success with the Y program uh lastly uh positive impact on behavior um like talking about those issues those disruptions those you know saying conflicts that may arise 33.72% uh downward swing in behavioral referrals and the 34.723061 is super easy uh to to to move forth with first we start out uh with planning that's going to be assessing and determine um the equipment needs we're going to set up like I said that implementation um plan uh I you your success manager will reach out we will be in talks me the success manager and whoever is the point of contact within the district um to really make

029sure that we have this laid out and we have the right plan of action then like I said that community outreach we want to make sure that we have exactly what you need um we have those customizable templates to make sure that uh your parents are informed the teachers the staff and the students are all prepared um within that in that planning and we talked about um that's when we help craft the policy and the procedures um that goes along with what you want to do with this phone free environment um then there's the implementation um we'll always share our best practices make sure everything is set up and ready to go and then lastly there's post implementation uh implementation support uh we don't just disappear once you purchase the product um it's not just

030hey here go be on your own um we have implementation check-ins quarterly half at the half year and at the end of the year to make sure everything is square as we roll into the next year as well um lastly I just want say a phone for Education makes all the difference uh as a parent I've seen this my kids are in phone free environment they've utilized this program I've seen the growth and just some of the things they said to us as a actual as an actual uh employee and working with my districts I've just seen the growth and just how the shift has gone in my partners that have adopted Yonder um they just have a more focused learning environment uh there's deeper engagement and they just have stronger connections within their students

031and Educators so I love to make a difference with you guys hope to create a phone free uh education system within your county I'm going to open it up now for any questions that anyone may have Mr CRA got a question oh okay I thought you had raise your hand no questions I supplied everyone with a uh with hopefully everyone has a FAQ which has a lot of information um I know I spew as a former educator I know the worst thing to do is to uh sit there and just talk for 30 minutes but um if if you have any questions um please share my information with [Music] anyone [Laughter] about a district uh Mr Johnson we do have a a question yes sir Dr [Music] hello I lost you guys can you hear

032me hello got you e for e now e e e short recess um Dr Emanuel um I know this could be a lengthy process if a district decided to uh adopt Yonder I'm just curious have you had any legal Kickback from parents or about uh a district taking the not taking but having the child to put the phone in the pouch maybe first amendment no uh nothing legal obviously you have the parents that you know I was one of those parents as well that did think about that I want to have constant access and availability uh to reach my uh child and like I said what we do while we set up the the policy and procedure um and we line it out most folks are fine um obviously you know saying you have some

033folks that have some issues um but we've never had anything legally um most kids actually after a week or so are actually in uh thrilled that their parents can't constantly check in while they're trying to focus in school um we always set up that if they have to have because the phone is gonna be on the kids person 247 so they come in they put it away they have it um we put in the policy that if they need to use the phone they can go to a administrator um they can go to you know whatever whatever the district sets up is that process they can go it gets unlocked they can make the phone call right there in front of that administrator teacher whoever it may be it goes back in the pouch and

034they continue on their day um so um they have the the kids will always have the ability to contact them and once you like I said when we iron out that policy and those things are communicated um 99% of the time it's it's not an issue like I said it's always the 1% that you might have some fuss but like I said once it's up and rolling and you're week or two in it just becomes second nature and it's not an issue anymore but no legal nothing legal ever thank you sir yes ma'am is that it with the questions we got what we got one more Mr Mr Craig Larry sir what's the uh responsibility of those pouches the district pays for the first when the kids are going to lose them who takes care

035of it after the kid loses that pouch is that a student responsibility or District pick it up or how's that hand great question so first and foremost uh within the uh the order we always put in a 15% buffer um to four uh four loss pouches for population gain four uh you know damages that man but what we do uh what we do when we talking about that implementation and we're building out that policy uh for you that is traditionally natural that is 100% normally the student it's just like damaging a laptop losing the textbook um we we would figure out what that fee that you would want it to be and we put that in the policy so when you're sending out that information about how this is going to look uh for the

036students to the parents that's actually included in that template I was talking I was talking about um loss or damag pouches we would figure out what you want to charge for it and that would actually go out on that letter head to the uh to to the parents about you know the implementation that's going on uh with the uh with the Yonder pouches so um that is not something that you would ever the only cost that you would incur again is uh is you know a couple years if you needed to add some because just normal wear and tear and you wanted to replace them um but uh it's not something that if the kid lost that you would have to come out of the district's pocket that's traditional like I said with the the

037parents um would be responsible for uh paying that fee for you guys thank you all right Dr W yes Chris uh if you were send us a reference list North Carolina base please and I'll share that with all the board members um and so do our to our board members our intent is to pick this conversation up again in April um as information and then we can go from there we did place at your site a price list just for for information we've already had conversations around do we go for 412 or 612 those kinds of things we would need to have a conversation on but the next step in my mind is for you to get that reference list and then we put it on our board agenda in April for information I can

038do that okay thanks all right thank you uh Mr Johnson appreciate it you guys have a wonderful evening you too um next we have immigration guidance for principles Ashley white all right Mr cry um is this something Dr Williamson that uh going forward are we gonna look at any more companies is anybody else doing this that we could compare companies to and then you know just throwing this out part of what Dr Manuel was saying if we run into the people just say no my kids's not doing this they're keeping their phone uh where you know where we at or what would we be with that because I there's going to be some of that and then also I just I always like to compare things is there another company we could at least look

039at or is this considered the best one now and head above everybody else uh they'll consider the best one they've been doing it longer than anybody those districts in in North Carolina this is the company that they use chadam County Hornet county is is um using it now and four or five schools but this seems to be the leader uh in terms of of the pouch but we can check and see if there's some additional cus and get a price list on that would it be possible for well Hornet is not that far away to to get a rep from there to come here and just speak to us about what's say they've had with it we we can or just send us information if they didn't want to come here right how it's been

040right and the reference list is going to help you with that be able to call but we'll take that step I know chadam Count's has tremendous amount of success with it and I'll set it up that that superintendent Tony Jackson and can be virtual with us in April because I def we need something because folks we we can go to any school next week especially high schools and if they're changing classes there's an administrator out in the hall or somewhere saying put your phone up I mean or in the classroom it's an ongoing problem we know it's a problem right we're we're hoping and we' be in most uh districts is that if either one of these bills pass it's going to be a problem just absolutely no phones so we're hoping that we'll have

041this option as a way of resolving that because again the push back is saying ban phones all together with that so we're going to work around that but again in April we we have all that set up for you all right thank you good afternoon um on February 5th we gave a presentation to principles regarding immigration enforcement in schools this is in light of a lot of recent changes in federal laws executive orders that kind of thing and it has an impact on school districts so here's kind of what we're going to talk about briefly um first I'm going to give you an overview of kind of real quick immigration basic so we know what we're talking about and the executive actions that have gone through I'm going to talk about the big thing that

042impacts y'all which is changes to the Department of Homeland Security's prior protected areas policy we'll talk about the right to a free appropriate public education that all students are entitled to that's regardless of immigration status that's where a lot of these issues come from and again a along with that the rights of all children to be enrolled in school that goes with access to schools and students for law enforcement um and access to student information that'll be our fura information that we'll provide and then kind of the big what if what if immigration officials come to your school what are we advising principles what do we want you guys to do or advise that you do in that um in that instance so why is this important to you there are 55,000 or so students

043who are immigrants in North Carolina's Public Schools we can't separate that between students who are undocumented and who are not because we don't ask that question but there are a lot of student immigrants in our schools in North Carolina and across the country so some quick immigration Basics there are three um agencies that fall under the Department of Homeland Security that's USCS they are United States citizenship and Immigration Services they're kind of your administrative Branch if you're going to get a green card in you know the proposal where they're going to do that interview and they're talking about getting marriage Green Card they're doing that at a USCIS office you got immigration Customs Enforcement that's more of your interior immigration enforcement within the United States and then you've got Customs and Border Patrol they're the

044ones who are sitting at the border watching for immigrants crossing our borders um USCIS you guys aren't really going to deal with unless you're having some teachers come in the what we're talking about here is CBP and ice and the main difference between those two is where physically they're enforcing those laws we live in North Carolina we don't live on a border it's unlikely we're going to deal with CBP but ice does our interior enforcement so we might deal with them so as you all know there have been some recent executive orders on lots of things today we're talking about the immigration related ones um the immigration related executive orders follow a declaration that President Trump made um he made two on January 20th and January 21st he issued a declaration of National Emergency and

045said we've got a big problem with immigration we're going to issue a lot of executive orders to address it um the goal enhanced vetting of Visa applicants those trying to apply for visas in the country border control Birthright citizenship um Asylum uh protocol and Refugee programs um president Trump cited his article two Authority along with a couple other um federal laws and his goal there was to identify state and local laws policies and activities that they said were inconsistent with their immigration initiatives so he's broadly stating this interest in reforming immigration policy and he's done some things to do that already we also got this um directive from the Department of Justice the office of the Deputy attorney general um again stating broadly the intent to have some different policies uh execution of the immigration

046laws and ensuring that we're again complying with the executive Branch's stated immigration initiatives these are kind of broadly some of the executive orders and other presidential actions we've got some proc here um I've got them live linked here you can go check them out I would encourage you to go read through them because they really detail what this administration's goals are in terms of immigration I'm not going to sit here and read through each of them with you um but these are kind of the big ones that we're talking about today and again I'd encourage you to go take a look again you got links to access each of them on that little red square so our former policy that we were going by was a protected areas policy policy that policy provided that there

047were certain locations that were off limits for immigration officers to go in and commit their enforcement actions it was previously an Obama era policy they called it sensitive locations President Biden kind of changed it a little bit to call it protected areas um regardless they were not allowed to go and do immigration enforcement actions and it was analysis of facts and judgment as to what a protected area was but really you can see the principle and the purpose here was to just think about what you're doing there what is the activity that's being done there what is the community value of that activity and then is there going to be some kind of chilling effect from people completing that activity participating in that activity if we're allowing immigration officers to come in and do their

048thing there so you got some examples here obviously relevant here is Schools bus stops again relevant here playgrounds churches I mean we're not going to have someone getting confirmed in this they're walking out the door and Isis coming in and conducting a raid that was kind of the purpose of having these protected areas hospitals your weddings kind of any big life event um funerals religious ceremonies and then your DSS um homeless Services office uh crisis centers DB centers stuff like that women shelters would fall under that as well these are kind of the examples of things that were previously protected areas so everything I just told you forget about it it doesn't exist anymore Benjamin Huffman is the acting Department of Homeland Security secretary he issued a directive that our protected areas are no longer

049going to exist it allows for immigration enforcement actions at school so they're not protected areas anymore but he specified this is not a directive for is agents to go into schools and churches and all the other places I just mentioned um he states that enforcement agents are Ed to use common sense again think about the circumstances I don't think we're going to see huge ice raids in schools um this is not going to be a wideband ability for ice agents to enter school grounds or churches or any of those other places there are still legal restrictions you cannot take an immigration enforcement action or another law enforcement actions without consent of the person or the person who owns the property or a valid judicial warrant we'll talk about what a Judicial warrant looks like more

050later um and then also we'll talk about the exent circumstances exception which applies so what are they per to do now they can carry out enforcement actions in areas that were considered previously protected with the restrictions I just mentioned what is an exent circumstance that's our exception here there are times when without a warrant or without a subpoena or a Judicial order ice or law enforcement officer can come in and do what they want get what they want subject to these circumstances so imminent risk of harm there's a risk of violence physical harm death to a person we've got an armed person in in our school grounds as an example Hot Pursuit um an individual who poses a public safety threat or is personally observed border Crosser again we don't live at a border I

051doubt you'd be in Hot Pursuit of a border Crosser if you're in North Carolina but if you come into that circumstance give us a call let us know evidence destruction there's a risk that evidence is related to a criminal case to be destroyed that's more in like a drug case if we're worried someone's flushing drugs down a toilet or something not going to apply as much here but I could see a scenario where it would a national security threat think a terrorist threat or something like that and then no safe alternative there is no safe alternative for the law enforcement agency to take that action so that's our ex uh ex those are our um in instances where we don't worry about there's a warrant there's a Judicial order there's a subpoena it's an exent

052circumstance we're going to allow them to take their action so now that the protected areas policy has been rescinded school officials still do retain the right to verify agents identities ask for their badge ask for their name ask for their badge number you should do that you should verify who they are and why they're there examine warrants ask for the paperwork that they're providing and you'll hear me say this several times take a picture of it send it to central office we made a joke during the principal's Workshop call Bobby always call Bobby he's the one that you send it to he'll talk to us if he needs to we said it probably 50 times um and then again follow your established board policies for visitors you also have a board policy for law enforcement

053agencies and I'll talk about a regulation we're going to recommend that details how you should deal with that um with a little bit more clarity so this was our lesson of the day this was our learning objective if you will when law enforcement officials are seeking to enforce immigration actions call Bobby we have told principles to call someone in central office who can call us we can look at the paperwork um exent circumstances is something we talked about I think there are very rare circumstances especially when it comes to Student Records where it's life or death you can almost always have someone take a look at the paperwork make sure it's okay before we go ahead and let someone onto school grounds and we'll talk about some circumstances where that's different too so this implicates

054our right to a free appropriate public uh public education you've got a United States Supreme Court case that addresses this uh pler was the superintendent of the Tyler Independent School District um the Texas legislature in 1975 had passed a law that allowed School districts to deny children not legally admitted to the United States enrollment in schools and in response the Tyler Independent School District adopted a policy that required students to pay $1,000 in tuition if they were not able to provide proof of their legal admission to the United States uh plaintiffs were a group of undocumented students who resided in Texas in this school district um they challenged the part policy and said it Vol hello SEC one second we got a question U Dr Emanuel yeah sure oh sorry you got it when you

055said for example if a school officials retain the right go back to page four four slide 14 okay and this is um a supposedly and I can see it happening they go into the school and they identify themselves and we verify the agent we examine the warrant and it says follow board policies and I'm not quite sure what they are they I probably could look it up or we have it and they want to make sure that I'm lendy Emmanuel and they want to see my school record are you saying that they have the right to look at a kid school folder to ascertain the parent and uh can they examine records those uh ice agents and that's a good question that's something probably encounter in circum in certain circumstances if they have a subpoena

056for those records we verified that it's a valid subpoena we're legally obligated that's a legal order to supply those records but again like I said especially in the record circumstance I can't see like anyone dying on the table while you wait for someone to call Bobby and call us to make sure that's valid to make sure that there's nothing un toward going on I mean that's a circumstance where we're going to consider really carefully before we go provide student information but like I said they are now allowed to go onto school campuses and take Le lawful action for their immigration immigration enforcement purposes getting Student Records could be one of those things and if they have a lawfully issued subpoena that's one thing that they could do all right Mr Bobby and so to add

057to Dr emanuel's comment we do have current board policy that outlines our relationship with law enforcement it is our intent to come up with a regulation to go beyond that to kind of give them specific on what those next steps need to be when that when law enforcement comes in and asks for specific things and we'll review that a little bit and we consider follow up Mr chair goad we consider the ice agents the same as law enforcement I'm assuming correct under the definition of your board policy they fall under it all right thank you anything else you're fine please do all right so we're talking about plyers this court case the Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the statute was unconstitutional it violated the equal protection clause and they rejected the policy that

058it would deter illegal immigration they said these students right to a free appropriate Public public education is the most important thing and we're going to honor that regardless of immigration status um So based on that decision schools may not deny enrollment status based on uh they may not deny enrollment based on immigration status and then they also cannot require documentation verifying such data St at the beginning when I said we've got 55,000 kids we don't know their immigration status because we can't ask here's some other non-discrimination laws that kind of have an effect here you've got um title four that is our segregation and discrimination prohibited in public schools Federal Law you've also got title six that prohibits discrimination based on race color national origin and federally funded programs you've got 115 C1 that is

059the very first Clause of our state statute for Education it provides that we have to provide a system of free public schools to all students in the district and it has to be an equal opportunity for all students obviously there we've got the equal educational opportunities act um and then we've got Title Nine which is the sexual uh the sex uh equality statute but again that has to be applied equally regardless of your immigration status regardless of your race color national origin and then you guys have policy 401 which provides equal opportunities for a sound basic education and no student can be excluded based on a protected characteristic so you provide for it in your board policy as well which I know you all know so kind of um relevant here is the mcken mckenny

060vento homeless assistance act this is relevant because as we see these immigration enforcement actions happen we're going to see more family separation and we're going to have some kids who are going to be homeless so we're going to need to deal with it there you guys are familiar with mckenny vento I'll give you a brief summary all homeless children have the same access to a free appropriate public education as any other student in the the district is kind of the short of it um they have to have access to educational and related services so that means they have to have the same access to uh educational evaluations IEPs a 504 plan stuff like that they cannot be separated from the mainstream School environment because of their homeless status here's our homeless uh definition under the

061mcken vento ACT I'm not going to go through each of these but it's a little different from what you might think of when you think the word homeless um you could have students who are living in trailers you could have students who are living in emergency shelter um students who we call in doubled up housing they're sharing housing with another family due to a financial need um living in cars living in abandoned buildings that bottom one's particularly relevant here students who are migratory children who qualify as homeless because they're in any of those living circumstances that are described above please do go through and read each of those and let me know you're welcome to contact me if you have any questions about those um so just like any other student you cannot discriminate um

062on a student who is homeless based on their race color national origin sex age disability um and that's because we're recipients of Federal funding so along that same vein students who are undocumented have the right to enroll in school and proof of citizenship is not required you shouldn't require a social security number or a green card or any other proof of citizenship from parents as part of the enrollment process typically you're looking for a student's name a student's date of birth and a student's address address um you may you may request proof of residency this could look like a bill this could look like um a tax document stuff like that this is not required for mckenny vento res students we're not going to require proof of residency um and there may be instances here

063where we're using enrollment affidavits to enroll students in school that's something we're developing for you guys right now um for instance if a student is currently living with their aunt because their parent has been deported there's that's not their C custodial guard Guardian at that point there's not a Judicial order making them their custodial Guardian so under your policy and state law they can't legally enroll that child but with the affidavit we're going to develop which comports with the exceptions laid out in 115c we'll be able to provide for that and you can use those F bits and we're working on those for a lot of our clients right now so what are our best practices when we're interacting with immigrant families always be clear in explaining what information you can accept uh collect multiple

064emergency contacts in the event that the first emergency contact probably the parent is not available be flexible about accepting different forms of valid ID for school entry and then always provide information about Support Services your access to food housing clothing and healthare so our recommendation which Bobby mentioned earlier is to go ahead and move forward with 55120 r this is a regulation um your cart board policy 5120 relationship with law enforcement uh provides basically that you have to comply with law enforcement and also maintain the you know educational environment not disrupt the educational environment 5120 R goes into a lot more detail about what procedures we use when law enforcement comes into school either when we're calling them in or when they're showing up what protections uh students have for their rights when they come

065and they try to contact a student at school or try to contact the school about getting Student Records um what precautions we should observe when they question or arrest students at school or come in wanting to question or arrest students at school and what requirements we have for notifying parents and getting parental consent and recording contact with law enforcement all of that is in this regulation our recommendation is that you adopt it so it's all laid out um your students have Fourth Amendment rights they retain at school that includes the right against unreasonable detentions um and that's a US constitutional right they are limited in school setting due to the need for maintaining order and safety but they do maintain those rights so here's some of your board policies that address some of it again

066we've got 5120 law enforcement um these school safety student Behavior policies instances of criminal behavior and student searches I'm not going to go over all of them but you know them you're the board you know your policies um but it's important to take away that a law enforcement officer cannot detain a student or prevent them from leaving campus or take them out of class for question questioning for a non-criminal immigration violation there's two different types of immigration violations if you have crossed the border without a any type of immigration paperwork that is a crime if you have a Visa and you overstay that Visa in this country that's a civil infraction right so if we've got a student who has had a Visa for whatever reason they overstate it that's a non-criminal immigration violation whatever

067they have whatever they come to you with the law enforcement officer can't come and demand to take that student off campus take the student out out of class to question them Etc Bobby if I may so our policy now is 5120 we're in the process of adopting or we make that recommendation for the regular RS right get the 120 off so we're working on that um so to Dr emanuel's question we've got access to student information and that's something you're going to see I think Dr Emanuel makes a good point if you want to go and find students parents you can go in their student records and you can find their address you can find their names and you can find a lot of information about students we've had some instances where agencies will come

068in and say Hey can I have you know the first and last names of all students from this country or can I have the information from all students with this last name so it's it's pertinent to this topic for sure um so you guys know fura this is uh 20 usc1 1232g provides the right of access to Student Records for parents and then students who are eligible students that's students who are above the age of 18 um that also provides the right to restrict access to those same folks of their records there are certain circumstances laid out in furpa where information is permitted to be shared without consent that's directory information if there's a subpoena or court order there's also the school official exception I won't go too in detail about that basically if someone's

069acting as a school official something that are as a district we would usually do we can give them permission to go in and get uh student information I think the one that's coming to my head right now is if there's some kind of truancy violation they're in they're taking a school related action in making sure kids come to school we'll give them relevant documentation for The Limited purpose of you know going through with that trcy case um and that's kind of our typical School official exception there's other ones uh I'm going to go ahead and say immigration enforcement is not a legitimate educational interest there is not a time when as a district we perform immigration enforcement actions um so I don't think we'd fall under the school official exception but I think it's important

070to mention so what is an education record this is a really broad definition it's any record file document video um anything that you can come up with really that contains information directly related to a student number one and number two which is maintained by the district or a party acting for the district they're not considered public records if we get a public records request we do not provide Student Records if there are student record information in a public record record that we are going to provide we redact it so it's not disclosed to the public uh this excludes some certain treatment records like psychologist records um some psychologist records sole possession records those that are kept for the sole possession of the maker um and then peer graded papers before collected that's a Supreme Court

071case where someone sued and said you violated my child's fer rights because you allowed peer grading and when my child handed off their paper to the other person because they were required a pure grade that violated their furer rights the Supreme Court said no we're going to let people peer grade so that is a specific exception to verpa and this is my again this is another lesson of the day if you want another um learning objected there's always time to consult with central office staff who can consult with us as needed for records requests nobody's dying on the table um if they come to you with something that they're trying to say sounds like uh it's an emergency they need it right now use your best judgment but like I said I I really can't

072think of a circumstance where they need it right this second so again these are kind of directly related to the student education records this is the definition that per fura provides their name um information about their parents or family members their address and their family's address personal identifiers that's their social security number or their school number um and then other indirect identifiers I always say that's anything if someone's looking at it they could use to figure out who this child is um and that's a good kind of thing to use to try to determine if it's an education record always if I look at it and I can use it to try to figure out what student we're talking about it's probably an education record and again a laner in combination can I use it

073to figure out what this student is um especially if that person already has personal knowledge of this student we know that they know them and they want this specific piece of information it's probably a student record um and that's our G uh bullet there personally identifiable information can I use it to figure out who this child is our board policy for this is 4700 it is consistent with furpa there are annual notification rights under fura required and that includes the notification of the right to opt out of the disclosure of directory information I'll talk a little bit more about directory information in a second but you may see more people opting out of the disclosure of directory information as a result of these executive orders um there are 13 identified circumstances in fper where records

074may be disclosed without consent from the parent or the eligible student here I think is the subpoena or court order and this is our emergency exception here um important to note that the emergency is determined by the superintendent so the principles don't have the power to determine if there's an emergency which requires the disclosure of Student Records again we're always going to recommend running it up the chain director information is in any information records data any of those Student Records that would not generally be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if they were to be disclosed this never includes a student social security number and it never includes their student ID number your policy lays out exactly what is director information you can look at that um again you have to offer parents and

075eligible students those are 18 the opportunity to opt out and that opt out can be exercised at any time again there's exemptions for students who are part of the address confidentiality program or homeless students in terms of whether their address or where they're living is going to be public and important here any request for release of director information must be submitted to the superintendent or superintendent sty for approval one thing we stress to the principles is just because there's a request for records and it falls under the directory information standard don't just go ahead and give it out then because you're smart and you listen to the presentation and you know what directory information is it still needs to again go up the ladder call Bobby make sure everything's good before we provide anything ask

076let me ask you a question sure so 18 and emancipated or 18 period emancipated is a different one I think at that point the parental rights including those legal rights to have access to education records have been revoked but we would want to look at the paperwork and that emancipation paper paperwork but yes I think it includes emancipated and then 18 or over good question all right and then finally we've got subpoenas and court orders for student information we already talked about this a little bit um without consent if it is a court order or valid subpoena court orders uh going to be one that's signed by a judge a valid subpoena is typically going to be signed by an attorney send it to us so we can determine whether it's a validly issued subpoena

077um again we're not dying on the table the district has to give under furpa a reasonable advance notice to that parent eligible or emancipated student before they disclose records or information pursuant to a court order or subpoena and that's typically interpreted by courts to be like 10 days so we have to send them a letter that says we've gotten this request for your records we're giving you notice that you could go object to this if want to um so we're not providing it right then anyway um there's exceptions to that notice requirement if the subpoena or court order in its language prohibits disclosure that's usually going to be for like a child abuse or neglect case um the parent probably not going to consent to us providing the records if they're being accused of child

078abuse or neglect um and then if there's a subpoena from an attorney General of the United States or a deputy attorney general and that's only in terrorism cases again please send it to us so we can take a look at it here's our important question what do we do if immigration officials come to our school and then again a big question can I conductor right at my school because our schools are no longer protected areas they are allowed they are you know they have power to go about their immigration enforcement actions in or near schools they do not however have unfettered access to schools my advice is to treat this like you would any other interaction with law enforcement like I said they fall under our definition of law enforcement um follow your policy 51

079120 if you adopt regulation 5120 R follow that regulation it really details what these folks should do if these folks come to their school um one thing I really impressed upon the administrators is don't try to physically block tackle do anything to these people if they are coming in and they are insistent and they're not letting you look at the paperwork they're bursting through the door um we're not going to advise them to stand in their way stand in the doorway physically block them from entering and we'll talk about scenario that kind of falls on the edge there in a second again this is your board policy 5120 it's pretty short in terms I think this is probably the only provision that really applies here our school administrators and employees are expected to cooperate in

080any criminal investigations but attempt to do so in a way that minimizes any disruptions to the educational environment that's pretty broad the regulation is going to give them a more kind of stepbystep tutorial on how to deal with any interactions they might have so what if ice comes with a warrant we talked about there's exceptions for warrants there's two different types of warrants one allows ice officials to take actions on school grounds one does not if they come with a Judicial warrant that is the only legal document which gives any immigration officials the right to enter a school it's typically going to be called an arrest warrant or a search and seizure warrant and it's going to be issued and signed by a judge or magistrate what you'll probably see ice come with is what's

081called an administrative warrant that is not issued by a judge that's issued by an immigration officer um it'll typically say something like warrant for arrest of an alien warrant for removal warrant for deportation they authorize only the detention and arrest of that person they do not authorize any entry to property they do not authorize searches or seizures they don't require school officials to do anything um that's they're not a part of the Fourth Amendment with which we must comply they don't have probable cause under those administrative warrants so if we see that we know that really all it does is if I see this person walking down the street and I have this administrative warrant to seize them I can do it you are not authorized to enter property under these again please not we

082have asked them to please notify an administrator immediately if an immigration official comes to school request name title credentials and again take pictures of anything that they provide ask for their documentation I provided an example here of each type of Warrant I think you've got the presentation where you can look a little more closely um please do review those um we've asked the principales to be familiar with those and then of course we'll always take a look at anything that the district receives and kind of our final takeaways um nobody in the district is required to report their knowledge of an undocumented immigrant to immigration officials that is not legally required of you you're not required to communicate or share any uh information with an immigration officer that falls outside of a lawful order again

083call Bobby contact your supervisor if you're approached by an immigration official important is that you cannot you prohibited by law to conceal hide Harbor or Shield an indoc on enrollment affid affidavits for student whose parents are deported they may still be able to enroll in school based on that affidavit so here's a couple of scenarios that we went through with our principles um I'll go through with them with you just to make sure you were paying attention our first scenario is a data manager at hardgrave high school an immigration enforcement officer runs into the school's front office and is very out of breath she states she's pursuing an undocumented immigrant who she personally witnessed crossing the US border without documentation she needs access to the school building she saw this man jump the fence near

084the school he was armed with a knife at the time um she shows you her credential she shows you her bad badge but she does not have a warrant or order from a judge what should you do you got C Mr Simmons we're gonna allow the officer to enter school grounds immediately and Institute lockdown procedures anybody not thank C everyone's got C I think C is the right answer we tricked them on this because we have been telling them call Bobby for two hours but this is the one exent circumstance where we know that there's probably somebody on campus with a knife we're gonna Institute our lockdown procedures if you want to get your sro's involved that's not a bad call as well but we're not going to wait until we can get someone in

085central office before we start taking action here here's our records um scenario you're the assistant principal at Evermore Academy called to the front office because an immigration enforcement official has asked for the cumulative records of a nth grade student named Antonio he says Antonio is not in any trouble and that he needs to review the records urgently for our meeting with Antonio's parents in an hour he tells you the parents gave him permission to access the records so he can help with their immigration case he hands you a document signed by his supervisor it cites a federal law and says that he has emergency authority to access records from units of local government what do you do B you like B yep anybody got anything different I think yeah this is what I've been saying

086no one's dying on the table um we can get if you were going to meet with the parents maybe we can get a release sign by the parents um you know maybe you get the parents here if you're meeting with them an hour and you know you're planning on seeing them anyway get them here and they can request the records but in the meantime we're going to contact central office and make sure all the documentation is what's necessary it doesn't sound like we have a subpoena here um some of the principales said a we're going to tell them to get lost and come back with a warrant that's one of those teacher answers where it's not necessarily the wrong answer but it's probably not the best answer um they it maybe that they have what

087you know we need and we don't know it so let's call somebody and have them review it and make sure that we're going about this the right way and we want to maintain a positive relationship with law enforcement officials and telling them to get lost is probably not the best way to do that so good job we we did a couple of variants of the hypotheticals here if you did it right um but then you've got this officer becoming increasingly agitated says he's never seen a delay like this before flashes you his badge says it's a federal crime to deny an order from an immigration officer we asked if the answer changes does it I don't think it does I don't think the answer changes I think we ask him to wait say Hey listen

088again you can start offering more options if you're meeting with the parents let's get them here maybe they can come ask for the records but we're not just going to provide you something because you said we should and we've got our last scenario you are the principal at Williamson Elementary School you are reviewing a student's IEP in preparation for a meeting when three immigration Enforcement Officers burst through your office door they State they urgently need to speak with a student named Julia who is a criminal they tell you they have a warrant you are surprised to hear this you know Julia is a good student she has a relatively clean discipline record um you say you're going to need to call someone in central office I gotta call Bobby but they tell you there's no

089time they show you the warrant which is signed by an immigration officer and says it is a warrant for arrest of alien what do you do any thoughts gotta be I'm gonna say d saying D I like d too I think you know we've got somebody who says that they've got a warrant we know because we listen to this presentation it's not the type of Warrant they need to enter school grounds but in the meantime we're going to take pictures of what they got um and wait to consult with central office staff here's one that I think was interesting um they go on instead they go on into school grounds anyway they're going to go open every you know door to every classroom until they find these folks um I think the answer there is

090exercise exercise your best judgment again we're not blocking these folks um if they seem particularly aggressive or if you're really worried that they're not there for a good reason I don't see any reason not to Institute lockdown procedures especially in the interest of maintaining the educational environment but on the other side of that if we're instituting lockdown procedures we are disrupting the educational environment um you could call your sro's to come talk to these folks but we also don't want a brawl breaking out between SRO and Ice officials on campus um exercise your best judgment call someone in central office as soon as you can hopefully we don't see a scenario like that but it's one that I thought we should contemplate for sure and then our final thing that we threw we threw wrench

091in here um instead of going into the school they decide to leave the school grounds and wait just off school grounds for Julia and get her when she gets out of school she's a walker they know she walks to and from school they're going to grab her when she leaves campus is there anything we can do scho they're off school grounds at that point there's nothing we can do there are certain circumstances where we may want to notify the parents I think the kid getting on the school bus is one um where we know they're going to be waiting to get off the bus and there maybe is a standoff where the kid refuses to get off the bus and the bus driver doesn't you know know what's going on I don't know if Bobby

092you wanted to address that or anything Mr Bobby no no Ashley my my point was just going to be after the meeting with the principles you and I spoke about PTA athletic events anything that occurs after the8 to three can you address that for I again I think if that's on school grounds we're goingon to have school officials address it if it's not um and it's not like a school sanctioned activity there's nothing we can do about that we're not going to ask PTA members to deal with that um I I guess we're thinking about a scenario where they come for the parents the PTA parents um if they've got a court order that's valid um if they've got that judicial type warrant we're again going to pass it up the chain um but at

093that point we're talking about District property not the folks who are inside um oh God turn it back home Mr C again I'm sorry so that's all I had for y'all wel any questions yep not really being funny but the one where the kid leaves campus uh this is a good kid on his campus never in any trouble principal says I'm gonna put you in my car and carry you home I mean that and that there's people would do that how much trouble can that principal get in doing that I mean like I said it to impede deceive a federal immigration officer to hide conceal or Harbor um an immigrant is a federal crime that okay yeah I think that does get into that if you're getting the point where you know these folks have

094the intention of arresting this student you put them in your car and take them away from campus I think that gets into that where I think it's a little more of a grayline is we're calling the parents and letting them know this is happening I think that probably doesn't fall under we're not actively deceiving we're just notifying the parents hey this is what's happening to your child so you're not sitting there waiting and your child never comes home type thing all right I think any other questions oh yes hold up we made it clear the principles don't allow anybody put pressure on you to give an answer or take action before you're ready and sure of what you're doing you have the right to say wait Dr that I'm got something okay this is affecting

095immigrants okay I get in my school I'm the principal I am uh a middle school okay let's say a middle school and and I get an immigrant and they can't speak a word of English okay and I said well this kid can't speak English I'm going to put put him down in second grade will you speak to the law or the ruling where we about placement of immigrants the age appropriate placement sure I mean it's the same age appropriate placement that would apply to anybody else and in terms of are they able to interact with the curriculum and stuff like that um you can't be making that decision arbitrarily because of their immigration status um we have elll programs that can help with that so I don't think just because they don't speak any English

096and they you know we can work with them on that and put them in the elll program um I can look into it a little bit more and get you more detailed guidance but I think the big takeaway is you cannot make a decision arbitrarily just based on a student's immigration status so you have to pretty well ask the kid I'm 14 and you you wouldn't put him in second grade because they can't speak English you try to place them age appropriate what you're saying yeah not right off the bat for sure we would try to look into different Alternatives and ways that we can I we had that was in the past instances where we had to work with the child work with the principal putting that child in an age appropriate placement yeah

097okay I just thought maybe you knew some law that addressed that yeah I think I don't think that there's been a court case that's directly addressed that incident I think that we want to avoid that scenario where we're putting a 14-year-old in a second grade class and we've got some fail safe options in place that can help try to avoid that but we're going to try to work through all of those Solutions before we consider a different grade placement for sure thank you Jennifer can you address that our staff we have not had any issues in terms of being able to interpret and all those things happen afternoon good afternoon good afternoon um no we've not had any cases we do have scenarios as Dr Emanuel has suggested we do have students coming in that

098are not bilingual and therefore we actually work with them based on placement and how that placement should look but we've had no incidences at all like that at this time and um we all know that we do have a a large uh immigrant population here um and we're just talk about scenarios that could happen we training our our principal stuff that's going to be at the school and my staff but to my knowledge and to uh to my knowledge that Isis have not been here in Robson County on our school grounds just make that you know I just make that clear that's correct all right thank you all very much thank you um Mr Erica s sir local funding current expenses um per pup allocation apprciate good afternoon chairman leech superintendent Dr Williamson and board

099members I have provided at your desk um a copy of the county Appropriations history um you'll see that up on the screen here the one at your desk actually includes the current year of 2425 to show the increase of the 1.3 we've been discussing that we've received from the county and how that impacts our current um per pupil local allocation I also included on the sheet at your desk to show how much we paid out to charter schools in 23 24 anytime we get an increase in local Appropriations that increase has to also be paid out to Charter Schools and I just had that for information there's also a second sheet that is from an independent third party that verifies some of the data we provided you it's from public school form and it's a

100local School Finance study that they have done every year since I've been here um and it shows our Appropriations this on the sheet from public school forum is based on the 2223 data that's uh shown at the top and you'll see it mirrors what we show for 2223 on the county Appropriations history of US receiving $653 per child in local funding and that we rank 100 out of 100 counties so we we rank the lowest out of all the counties it also shows total local preparations per student that I wanted to point out to everyone that in my opinion is misleading because the $1,612 that it shows includes low wealth funding and low wealth is State an estate allocation it does not come from our County but I did want you to have that information

101in case you're talking with any Commissioners and they may ask about that number because this is you know public information is released to all um major um stakeholders who need this information and it's updated every year but again even including our state allocation of low wealth we ranked 99th of all the other counties so I just wanted everyone to have access to that information as an independent Source um it also shows that the education budget for our County represents 25.9% of their total budget and that r 64th Erica if I may let's back up and and be clear because we're gonna ask you as board members to help us uh with the budget so that 1612 is is not a real dollar amount that we receive in terms of local current expense that's correct it

102is that 713 is what we received that 1612 represent a match or a 100% that gets us our low we which is constantly being cut as part of the low wealth funding formula which is about four pages long our county has to input what they give us in local Appropriations so the local Appropriations prior to this year that you see represented in that 653 number was 13, 36,800 they um that's part of the funding formula and if the county doesn't fund us enough it will allow us not to get 100% of our low wealth so that amount is enough for us to get 100% of our low wealth but then when they add the low wealth to it um I'm not sure why they're doing that because it is not a local appropriation that is

103a state fund while low wealth is the most flexible State allotment that we receive it is not as flexible as local you cannot use low wealth the same way you can use local dollars it has um much more restrictions to it than local dollars do and then I want to clarify and all of this is negotiation we need to work with each other but the County's ability current expense per child is 2593 and we receive 713 that's an important figure right any um questions oh I'm sorry Mr Terry then Mr CRA hey Miss ER so I see on here that um that we're ranked um for effort in that we're ranked 49th right on the bottom right of this sheet no that's the state comparison state to the National the funding effort we ranked 64th

104that's kind of where it says funding effort local Appropriations as percentage of Rue kind of towards the bottom right before the P graph uh the county ranks 64th for effort funding effort okay that's where we ranking the state correct so even though we we may be a hundredth in in the amount uh we're 64th in effort correct so that means okay and that that goes along with what we've always said that um property values are lower in Robinson County so the ability for the Commissioners to increase funding um is not the same as it is in other districts so um they always give the example of if there was a quarter cent raise in property tax in Wake County of how much revenue that would um generate but that quarter Cent here in Robinson would

105not because we don't have the same property values as other counties if um if I were a county commissioner or if I'm just Joe Q taxpayer I would be I would want to know um we're it seems like we're always asking for more and one of the questions that I would have is what what can we show them or how in what ways can we show them that that that what are we doing to reduce funding or what are we doing to reduce what we're putting out what uh efforts are in place um um that we're working toward in terms of um efficiency what are we doing more efficient now uh than we were 10 years ago in terms of how we're using our expenditures well there's a lot of things we've done we've closed

106some sites some school sites um we try to run each department tries to run as efficient as they can but there are some things that are outside of our control such as the increases in the hospital and retirement and fixed cost of salaries and the salaries represent about anywhere between any year 82 to 85% of a total budget so it's difficult to implement any kind of additional efficiencies when you have fixed costs that have to increase so our costs are going are rising faster than our efficiencies can keep up Cor Mr C hold on Mr H could just um reiterate again the money from the county how do we use it how how because that's the question that I get say well we're giving you this you're not spending it the right way which we've

107got a way that we use it and we got places it goes so we're do we spend this money so the majority of these funds go to support the maintenance um maintenance um and I forgive me I don't have the exact number but I believe the budget I just recently presented was 12 million a little over 12 million of that went to budget in the maintenance costs um then we have a host of other things in the local budget okay let me stop you there those maintenance cost do we get money anywhere else to pay for those no sir okay we get money nowhere else to pay for them no sir then when I say maintenance I mean the maintenance salaries and benefits I mean the utility costs um cost for supplies and materials um

108all of those things insurance premiums um all of those things are included um we run a print shop that's included as part of that technology cost are part of that um attorney cost the cost for the board members um Workshop expenses per DM costs and if I can follow up withc that's paying their Sals that's yeah main Sal and we're constantly losing maintenance workers to if it's do if it's uncp if it's wherever other state agencies we're constantly losing those folks because we can't compete with the Sal correct where more money would help us be more competitive with with those salaries to keep those people employed and that's just only one area is there is there another I know you mentioned all the print stuff is there another area that a lot of this local

109money goes to well that's the bulk of the 13 million that only leaves um about a million dollars I say we have the match for RTC we only get half of that back so we have to allocate for the other half of the RTC salaries um we have um part of that appropriation goes to pay the 1% at one point psrc uh teacher supplement was 5% as you'll see back in the 7 18 school year the county gave us $930 to increase that from 5% to 6% and that's still in effect so that money goes to pay that additional 1% increase the other five comes from low wealth funding so there's no way of taking a sizable chunk of this money and okay let's put it aside we're gonna build schools no we we not

110taking a million dollars amount how many years that would take but we can't take money and put us decide to do something later on because we need all the money right now that's correct that's why we need increases even though we do have the problem like you say uh half percent raise of tax this year is not going to be the same as it would be in Charlotte correct yes sir thank you right the we got so I want to go back to Terry's question that he asked so for example ability to pay again that dollar amount on this $ 2593 okay we receive 713 this year we asked for a $6 million increase over a two-year period of time that would bring us up to $1,000 per child we're all working together we need

111to be good partners so that's a th000 against to 2593 that's reasonable that it's that we still not raise us much in terms of from the bottom because the local state average is what do you know off top of your head the local state average is somewhere between 1800 and 2100 right I have to get based on this update here right right there's also a graphic on the public school Forum website that shows the lowest six counties which we're part of that for local Appropriations the lowest six counties if you combine all six of those counties together is still less per pupil than Orange County by itself Orange County gets over $6,000 per child and collectively the lowest six districts get less than Orange County so of that six million was said over a twoyear

112period of time we have so three million this year we received how much 1.3 1.3 that we received of that 3 million and again not complaining we got to be good partners that but the need is real we're seeing a reduction we're not sure about fow with money um Jennifer and I had a conversation this morning the impact of our federal dollars we're going to have to cut more off the top just to survive to survive and Erica when you and I talked last year we believe that the ,000 will hold us for two or three years correct yes sir yeah but again the the very first thing that um the very first email we received from the new state treasurer um indicated Hospital costs would go up now that may be a combination of

113to the employees but it may also include to the employers we've seen a steady increase in hospital cost we're over $88,000 now per person when I started it was less than three so that match for every person that has Hospital insurance with us we have to match that 8,000 um so we don't know we have not heard yet any numbers um moving forward with that but that's just one example of many things that impact um our budget Mr Trey um Miss Eric I got one quick question on as far as 23 and 24 paid to Charter Schools at 827 do you know what 24 and 25 is going to be it or is it gonna be around that number or it's gonna be higher than that be higher do you have an idea of how

114much higher I think we're going to get closer to a million dollars because of the increase in um at some of our locations that we're paying and the increase in the local Appropriations that we got this year we have to include that in our so I think it's we're going to be really close to a million dollars thank you ma'am okay may I add to C Trey's question we shared this morning some information of students and kids in Robertson County eligible to attend uh the public schools we're serving 88% of those eligible students which is High um for us but we're serving 88% that's that's pretty good the remaining 12% are broken down between Charter Schools private schools and home schools Miss christe Fields so I'm looking at these other school districts On and On

115average they serve about 500 students per school and I'm looking at our ADM which continues to decrease I just think we need to consider the fact that we may need to consolidate some of these schools and lessen our burden because we talk about the other schools and how much they're getting per student but they don't have the amount of schools open that we do would that not factor into the issue we have right now well most of the schools that get more funding per pupil um than we do have less sites but they're getting more money in their total budget than we are um for example um Scotland County I know I looked at today has a little over 5300 students but they get $10 million from the county so per pupil wise they're getting

116a lot more money than we do yes they have less sites but it it just breaks down to um the per pupil funding and being able to ate that because we'd still have the same number of students even if we had less sites so we wouldn't have the cost of the S correct that's correct we'd still have because the sites we've closed we still have to maintain utility costs because we don't want the buildings to completely you know degenerate or be in a position where we couldn't do something with them so we do still have utility costs there um we still have utilities at all of our buildings except West Lumberton is the only one we don't have anything running to there another facilities using Green Grove we use RB Dean for storage we're using

117Rolland middle for laps so we still have all those utility costs and upkeep Mr Bradley Phillips Dr Williamson you said that um if we got that $ thousand per people it would hold us for a couple years would that be able to incentivize more maintenance folks or or what will we be able to do to maintain there the the truth is that thousand would probably just allow us to maintain what we have and who we have in place um at this point yeah it wouldn't get us ahead in in terms of being able to add some positions that we do need uh just to maintain Where We Are Mr Terry Miss Miss um Erica what percent of our um current local funds would you say are fixed they're just going out every month for like

118utilities and salaries yes so salaries is the I've done it on the total budget it was I think 81% I have to look at the local portion but I'd say it's high 80s between all the fixed costs okay for sure because utility bills are going to come every month right and you know I don't know if I have personally experienced an increased utility cost since December and January our schools have seen the same thing so we've seen a a larger cost with the cold weather spells we've been having those bills have definitely increased and again I want this to be clear we are having to take money from some feral areas some State uh monies low weal student support all of that to offset that low 713 that's what we're doing and so we're having

119to reduce some programs and and those kinds of things so that's the real conversation our hope is and what we're going to ask you as board members to do is to pair off with the county commissioner and share this information and and have a one-on-one conversation um with Commissioners again we're not they have really supported us that's um not saying that and not because they are but we've got to have some support and increase that per people local allocation and and again Mr chair we're g to ask that you work with our board members and pair off and to sit down and have a one-on-one conversation um with Commissioners however you pair them off please all right I do that appreciate it any other questions from Mr Erica all right thank you so much thank

120you Mr Erica now we have um generative AI um implementation and cons U consideration by Mr Lisa Tom Dr Wendy dorsy car um Dr de Dallas good afternoon Dr Williamson chairman leech and board members my name is Lisa Felman and I'm a part of digital teaching and learning here with inside the curriculum and instruction Department today we're going to take a look at the graphic in front and it comes from portrait of a graduate and what the world economic forum is pushing out as of January of 2025 of what the core skills of our future employers and employees are going to need and some of those things that are listed there directly relate to the portrait of a graduate the adaptability collaboration communication critical thinking empathy the learner's mindset personal responsibility but when we're looking

121at those core skills we're really looking at analytical thinking leadership and social skills techn technological abilities curiosity and lifelong learning service orientation and customer service and the list can go on inside here we talk about a future which many things can be completed faster and perhaps better by artificial intelligence companies will value and seek after the durability transferable and human skills that focus in the North Carolina portrait of a graduate these are skills that cannot be replicated by Ai and they will be highly valued in addition to these durable human skills students will need to be AI literate and able to effectively work with AI as a partner think of it as a thought partner working hand inand using Ai and their educational Minds that they've received to truly prepare students for the world will

122graduate into whether they graduate in 2024 or in 2034 all these durable skills and AI literacy should be infused into the grade levels and all curriculum areas on the next slide we're talking about psrc has um created developed the geni literacy plan and in your packet today you should have that with you in the packet or in the actual plan we talk about some definitions so what is artificial intelligence excuse me if I use the word AI in the process the ability of a digital computer or computer controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with human int intelligent beings AI literacy the knowledge skills and attitudes associated with how artificial intelligence Works including its principles Concepts and applications as well as how to use artificial intelligence such it as its limitations implications and ethical considerations

123generative artificial intelligence gen AI is an artificial intelligence tool that responds to user input by generating new text images audio video or content-based inage training data public schools are Robinson County has developed a geni guideline and a geni literacy plan supporting North Carolina's digital learning plan and the North Carolina generative AI implementation recommendations and considerations the plan begins with us defining these items that I've just read out aloud AI literacy these two definitions are really specific for our staff and for our students the first one in the staff our staff AI literacy topics are based are based on AI principles and applications skills to recognize AI usage awareness of AI limitations and potential biases and practical and ethical and safe use of generative AI tools for our students student AI literacy topics are based on

124AI principles and applications skills to recognize AI usage awareness of AI limitations and potential biases in Practical une ethical and safe use of generative AI tools this graphic that we have here really brought together some of our concerns but at the same time how we want to lay some things out we've called it an AI literacy framework this is how in what we're going to be covering when we're doing professional development with our staff so the district provides continuous professional development for all our staff and students in compliance with the digital learning plan from the state and the state guidance of with generative AI the professional development will include time to practice and attain proficiency skills with the tools generative AI tools before extending them to our students it will equip Educators with the necessary

125knowledge to efficiently employ generative AI in their work while ensuring its safe and responsible in integration into the classroom instruction so in just listing the topics there hardware and software information and data literacy communication and collaboration content generation safety problem solving and career competencies when we look at the graphic in front we're talking about student AI literacy and the grade spans students can increase skills to boost AI literacy and learn about AI even if yet they can't yet learn with AI and the meaning of that is our elementary students I like to call them Littles may not be ready for a generative AI tool But the teacher May expose the tool in how they teach the littles for Middle School 68 and high school 913 will continue to expose as we teach our teachers and

126staff how those tools work in combination with the curriculum and instruction roles and responsibilities this does go back to our AI literacy plan as well for roles and responsibilities we have four targeted bullets there for district and school leadership responsibilities for providing resources guidance and support for implementing the guidance document as well as overseeing the use of AI systems within the district teachers responsibility for implementing AI in their classroom when relevant to instruction providing instruction on using AI Technologies and ensuring the proper utilization of AI tools in the classroom in compliance with District policies students responsibility for using AI Technologies with integrity and responsibility in compliance with District policies parents and Guardians responsible for supporting their children's use of AI Technologies in compliance with District policies on this next slide these are the policies that

127Genai is starting to evolve inside of the two today that we're going to be primarily focused on is policy 3220 technology in ed in the educational program the State Board of vet is also working on revisions to dedicate a strict AI policy inside there and policy 3225 4312 and 7320 technology responsible use State Board of Education and psrc policy updates on June 11 2024 policy 3 3220 technology and educational program The District should develop and maintain guidelines that detail the acceptable and responsible use of geni by school system employees and students that all student system employees should be AI literate and that we should develop a comprehensive AI literacy training strategy that involves training all employees and students in effective ethical and safe use of the AI policies how will we make sure that the

128plagiarism is not taking place what how was this designed to prevent or to to to monitor that we won't we won't so student Integrity is going to be a way where when we train and we're starting to train our principles at the top level and shifting down it's letting students understand that Integrity piece sure I'm a little bit older than Lisa so I remember when we went from card catalog to articles to citing to quoting and so when I think about the change to gen it's very similar like we have to teach kids to notate what they've used AI for same thing when the internet came out right now we have all of this information how do I know that they're just not like you said I'm just stealing the words so it's a lot

129of the same strategies so one of the techniques and I don't want to get into the weeds but what we teach kids how to use it say at the high school we want to know how did you use it so you might ask kids if they're responding to say a prompt show us your thread that you put into your artificial intelligence we want to see what you used make sure you cite it just like we had to site the internet so it's some of those kind of teaching practices that we had to learn when the internet came we have to teach and learn how to adapt to that when it comes to geni but like Miss thomman said it's going to rely on the Integrity your honor policy plagiarism cheating all of that is still

130there but it's very similar when I think back to how we had to adapt to the internet we have to teach kids to account for what they did so as a teacher I know where your words came from I know where your work came from and I can check that okay okay Mr chair if I may Terry how are yall dealing with that at the University Mr Terry thank you U for that question um Dr Williamson it's a challenge um I'm teaching a class I've I've been teaching a class for over the past few semesters and one of my assignments it's in the school of Ed and one of my assignments is for is for students to actually use AI I I want them to go into chat GPT or whatever and answer a prompt

131and just paste what chat gbt gives them and uh and we've got a tool um build into our our canvas system um it's called turn it in and with turn it in it's a plagiarism detection tool but anyway I would say that in response to miss miss Christie's question I would say that um it's a cat and mouse game so you've got a AI tool um that's trying to detect another AI tool and when this one gets ahead a little bit this one is behind and it's constantly moving so with like with the assignment that I gave um last semester um I I asked them to respond to that prompt and just paste what chat GPT gave them and out of out of about uh I think I have maybe 28 students I would say

132that the tool that we use only detected maybe like five of them but my purpose in that assignment was to show them that these tools were available and that they worked and it kind of just blew up I was like okay here we go so it's not really you can't solely rely on those tools for for detection they're not they're not trustworthy right now they're just not to that point and and I don't think um this the generative AIP piece is is something that's kind of that's kind of sneaking up on us and if you don't use it a lot um it's really I I I would like to see us like give a demonstration one of the challenges right now is it's becoming these tools are becoming so ubiquitous so like with the new

133version of PowerPoint that has co-pilot you can open up up PowerPoint and just say create a presentation about U cell division uh for eighth grade class uh 10 slides and it'll create the slides the notes and everything and these tools are like really becoming U becoming ubiquitous in such a way that you don't have to go out and actively search for them this being built in um to what they're already using so I would say that uh students are going to become uh the creative piece is always going to be there so like for example if you ask students to respond to a prompt um they they might become more more um in the role of a curator versus um somebody who's actually created so the the AI may come up with like two of

134three versions of it and they may may have to pick the best one um one of the skills that's going to be uh we're actually having a um you asked about the university I'm moderating AI debate we're having a like an academic debate in a couple of uh weeks and we've got uh some professors that that are going to be um on on teams and they're going to be responding to questions uh we've got like a four side for AI and against AI side but we're doing this as a thought exercise um in terms of policy I don't think that I don't think that it's that generative AI is being um explicitly mentioned in their policies anywhere uh we're we're using our general academic Integrity Pol policy to cover uh you know to cover it

135but um we we've got to start thinking about this generative AIP more than just um detection and trying to catch students because I would say you know in in the next five years this is almost like another Industrial Revolution um and it's coming after White Collar jobs 110% the world's going to change and there's uh the person that's successful in the future is going to be one that that knows uh how to use these tools and we've got to figure out how how can we set our students up for Success there's already um CEOs talking about talking about um the workforce in terms of um you got X number of people that work for you but you've also got X number of agents and so that's what the term that there using is AI agents

136so an agent is almost like an employee and I've built some of those some of those agents myself and these are actually um these are actually uh tools that can go out and do work on your behalf essentially that's what that's what an agent is and um I would also say that it's a it's a it's a complex it's a complex conversation it's very um nuanced and um it's it's complicated uh I really like to like to give a a demonstration just to show you how how easy it is to uh to just create something that looks like somebody sat down and typed it and it's it's not copying and pasting from the Internet it's actually creating something that's never been created so um we' we really start got to start thinking thinking about how

137these tools are going to impact our students in the in the long term and one of the things that we're you know we're discussing you know does does are these tools going to hinder um students ability to think critically in in the future and how is it impacting them but in our actuality right now you've got a imagine a situation where a teacher uses AI to create an assignment right a student use uses AI to do the assignment and then that teacher so they turn it in and then that student uses AI to graded that's happening that's happening so um it's a very interesting Dynamic and everybody's grappling with it thank you Mr Terry so to continue the conversation miss chrisy when we within this past month we had principles in and we started to

138show them how to prompt is what they call it and how to get generative AI or AI to work for them but at the end of the day it's a machine it's a robot it's someone who sits behind the machine and a lot of our AI across any of the platforms they're all machine driven based on the knowledge given and what I Tred to ensure to our principles and as we have conversations with teachers is that you are the educated one sitting there and your educational perspective is the most important because you're teaching our students so if we took generative AI or Ai and Ed it as a thought partner where in our curriculums would it allow us to teach how we can pull that information like instead of going to a library and a

139card catalog I am not that old I like the smell of a library still anyway but it's bringing that card catalog into a digital perspective of what our kids know but showing them how to do that research and pull it and then justify it so those threads that become and here's that thought piece and then the teacher saying well go check the re the American Revolution did that exist at the time that it told you AI is going to give an answer no matter what right wrong indiff that's the difference it's going to shoot out an answer to you it's going to be up to the teacher and the student to find that backup where where can you show me that really existed and that's where that education piece is still going to tie back

140in getting back to where we were so state board of education has their AI policy they are in the process of building it and so here is 3220 technology and education program and it's in its pending state where all school system employees and students should be AI literate the superintendent or design shall develop a comprehensive AI literacy training strategy that involves training all employees and students the training should equip employees with the necessary knowledge to effectively employ generative AI in their work while ensuring its safety responsible integ integration into the classroom that link that's right there on the bottom is inside your packet as well it gives you the full scope of the two policies that the State Board is working through in section F10 it is talking about generative AI professionally and to guide

141students effectively and ethically using generative AI as a learning partner we all know that everyone I say everyone very broadly cheating will always exist so AI is going to be no different there's always going to have that part however in trusting students and having students understand their integrity part is going to and honesty is going to be important December 10th we went through policy 3225 4312 7320 in the technology responsible use and I'll let you read that yellow area right there of what we're working through or the State Board is working through and this is our road map as we're moving forward ncdpi created a suggested road map for the responsible implementation of generative AI in the schools as noted right there it's infor steps we are at the establishing a foundation and this is

142where we began so ncdpi artificial intelligence collaborative was was uh selected to participate in the first cohort we started February 28th through June of 2024 we then moved into sending a team of five to attend The ncdpi aai Summit in May and over the summer last year is where we established a foundation and road map for generative AI our generative AI roll out to this day is where we started we started June 11th with the adopting of the policies in August we developed that generative AI guideline and gen AI literacy plan that is still a live document September 19th we started with principles and District staff professional development and continued that professional development October 18th December 10th we went ahead and adopted the new policy 3225 4312 7320 the technology responsible use and just recently

143January 20th through the 22nd Dr Anthony Barton and Mr Andrew Davis began their cohort with ncdpi digital teaching and learning artificial intelligence High School train the trainer cohort we continued with our principal and District staff geni professional development and then today introducing some of those works with you today in the near future March of 202 March 25th of 2025 we will continue our work with principles and District staff with the Genai professional development and of course through the spring we are going to be moving forward in establishing an AI implementation team and continue the professional development plan summer of 2025 we will be moving through the AI implementation team and out lining opportunities and generative AI tools for the classroom integration and then we are hoping come fall of 2025 we will start um intricate

144training with our dtl Tech coaches and media coordinators with Gen AI [Music] tools any questions any questions no thank you next we will have um high school diploma endorsement by uh Dr Wendy dorsy car so good afternoon um chairman leech Dr Williamson and board members um I wanted to turn it on one more second I wanted to review some of the endorsements that the state already offered for the high school but also talk about new endorsements that are coming in play um so students in North Carolina Public Schools may earn one or more endorsements on their high school diploma these endorsements indicate that students have completed specific courses concentrations preparing them for ready careers or college students may earn more than one diploma endorsement students are not not required to earn endorsement order to receive

145their diploma and all of this is based on the State Board education policy grad O7 you have a packet that looks like this in your um packet that you received we created this to help provide an overview of the endorsements that are available and so previous years we had four endorsements that already existed we had the career endorsement and if you want to see where they are paid three of that we had an career endorsement a college endorsement a college UNC endorsement and Global language endorsement and NC academic Scholars endorsement this year there are two no endorsements that have just started the Arts proficiency endorsement that specifically um follows and looks at Arts education and the NC citizenship proficiency endorsement so both of these endorsements are brand new for 2425 and so we have outlined

146a book that we're giving to every middle school and high school counselor every principle and every eighth grade student up so that they're aware of all the endorsements certifications and credentials that are available so as they're scheduling they can make sound choices of what courses they would like to take to ensure that they earn these opportunities is there any questions about the endorsements no questions than we good now we're g to um at this time we're going to take a recess we're going to take a uh 10 minute recess all right e e e from Recess now we have um Mr Bobby and we're going to have new student Information Systems um Infinite Campus good good afternoon again chairman Le superintendent Williamson board members uh want to spend a little bit of time talking about

147our new student information system that the state has transitioned to uh Infinite Campus so I always like when we get this out as we have transitions as to kind of give you a history and I guess I'm going to date myself and maybe a couple of other folks in this room that may remember some of these other syst I didn't say your name Dr Emanuel but many years ago uh the first system and I could not find a start date for this that uh the state used for student information was called Sims and it was school-based there was no connection between between one school and another school there was no Statewide database system and so each School kind of had their Standalone dos program if something needed to be extra extracted we had the floppy

148disc and then we moved to the small disc so again that kind of I remember it when I started so that was some 30 years ago um that was the original system that I can remember in 2009 the state transitioned to ncy and it was phased in and this became the first Statewide database system that housed all student information so with ncy when Robinson uh converted I remember we had to convert in the middle of the year it was one of those let's get operating I think we ended up converting sometime around November or December we had to get our P principal monthly reports to convert over and once we got that to happen then we were full ncwise so again that was another system that was phased in Statewide not all districts jumped on

149board at one time so we kept power school I mean I'm sorry ncy for about five years but during that fiveyear period between 2009 and 2014 Power School uh was owned by Pearson Pearson ended up buying ncy and so we just ended up making a seamless transition from Wise to power school and so as you can see we have been on this system since 2014 Statewide so imagine 10 plus years of student data in one place everybody's grown accustomed to it we know what we're doing when we log in every morning we know what we're going to get we know what it's going to spit out we know what we can put into it so last year on November was the no uh November 23 the State Board of education decided to uh opt for

150a new contract for student information system and they went with Infinite Campus um that was voted on in November of 2023 again with another phase roll out we had districts to come on board La this school year and then the remaining districts will come on board next school year so the current contract for Infinite Campus is going to be through it says November 20 202 8 But there again I'm not quite sure how we could well we have done it before drop one system and pick up another system in the middle of a school year so just to give you some timelines of what has happened since November 23 in the uh in the spring of 24 started having just started having General overview meetings of uh what Infinite Campus could do what the support

151was going to look like Statewide districtwide and also during that time also reaching out to school districts and saying hey would you like to be a pilot there are benefits to being one of the first and there are also downfalls of being one of the first when our team met we said let somebody else jump on this write it out the first year let them get all the Kinks and bugs out of it and then we will come on board in phase two so we are scheduled to come on board with Infinite Campus for the 20 5 26 school year so currently about half the districts in the State uh are currently on Infinite Campus so you know that does create some headaches for us uh in terms of keeping our data clean because the

152two systems are not communicating with one another but DPI has set up a website as students transition from a power school district to an infinite campus District to kind of keep that data SM um moving moving smoothly back and forth because as you're aware all data is tied to that one ID number that travels with a student from kindergarten on so again if we get a child that might move from Bladen Bladen is currently on Infinite Campus over here we definitely do not want to create another number for that child so we have to be aware of where those kids are coming from and have the ability to um to track them I also want to add here that based upon the information we have as I've already stated we've been on power school now

153for 10 plus years they are going to have the ability to um bring over seven plus years worth of data so anything outside of that seventh year uh we're going to work to uh try to house that data here within the district in case it's ever needed so what has what's next so in through throughout the training process Cole if you'll hit the next one so what has happened we had to designate a contact person for our district and of course that was Miss Angela Jones uh Miss Angela Jones has been through two of these and it was kind of amazing uh when we went when I met with our uh data managers right before Christmas amazing I think if I'm my mind's right there at least four that have been with us through all

154of these Transitions and they made it very clear to me this is they going to be their last transition so uh so hope hopefully they will stick around until we get the new school year up and running but it's amazing that we've had at least four individuals that have seen all four systems so uh Miss Angela Jones is our primary comp uh contact person we've gone through schedu in our first meeting kind of talk through the implementation process so uh during that process here um are key or key steps that took place in our conversation with DPI we have an implementation project manager that Miss Angela and the team and I'll share the team with you shortly are having sometimes weekly monthly conversations with about what does our data look like as we transition from

155Power School to Infinite Campus long discussion about the implementation process again the benefit of um being in phase two is that we have about half of our districts that have already done this so again we can learn from them luckily we have a good partnership with more County um more County went through last year and they're willing to share a lot of their documents and a lot of their knowledge with us um so as always one of the biggest things is ensuring all of our school information is correct we've uh we received our implementation guide uh with instructions to our implementation dashboard so again miss Angela is really doing two task uh her and the team at this time maintaining all of our current data in power school but also ensuring that that data is

156correct so that when we transition to Infinite Campus number one we don't won't lose anything but number most importantly is that that data that we currently have is clean and we not have an issue transitioning over so the biggest part and that is what we what we will spend the major the team will spend the majority of the spring working on getting ready for live implementation or live um becoming live July one so uh we have a dedicated team that works with us to include the project manager data conversion analysis CIS training specialist and business consultant so miss Angela and our folks here in the district are constantly meeting with these individuals to discuss uh our current data are we on schedule what do we need to work on in order to move over to

157Infinite Campus one miss Angela received her First Data drop I'm GNA say U last week and the team shared with her at this point based upon the size of the district uh that this is one of the cleanest datas that they've seen at this point in the conversion process so once we knew once we knew we were going to be in phase two Miss Angela started working with her folks to ensure cleanup to uh make the conversion a whole lot easier so as I've already shared with you in terms of data data conversion we're going to have at least seven years worth of data that's going to come over from U power school so any prior to that Miss Angeles working on a planning that could just be simply going in PDF and transcripts so

158if a student comes up and says I need a transcript from all the way back to 14 then we have the ability to pour that for them so and this is strange to me and uh one of the key pieces that Infinite Campus uses to match students is address so uh they determine households around that address so unlike power school where we can go in and we can identify families and we make that connection Infinite Campus will make connections based on addresses so even as we have employees or future employees if we're still with Infinite Campus and they come back as an employee from a student Infinite Campus is still going to tie back to that original address and make call connections from there so that's why it is essential that our data managers over

159the next uh or have already been working on it but moving forward to get all addresses correct and accurate in power in power school because they will pull that data and send it over uh working with our transportation department to ensure all roads are spelled correctly in the same across all schools we're also scheduling meetings in attendance areas like say middle Elementary Middle School and High School to sit down and say okay I've got Billy at the elementary school Susie's at the middle school Johnny's at the high school let's connect those three so that when we get to Infinite Campus that connections already made and it's one household same thing with contacts uh our schools are spending a lot of time to ensure we have accurate contacts in the system so that's going to mean

160we we not only do we have accurate contacts with correct phone numbers but we have the correct relationships sometimes our our schools may go in and put in a mother or father and not tie a relationship to it but in Infinite Campus that relationship is going to be key because again to make those connections between students and different attendance zones it's going to be that address in the contacts uh another thing that has kind of sped up the process this year uh Infinite Campus once we make that conversion as you all know we spend the spring registering students for High School courses then those courses at the end of what power school would call eoi would transfer over and we would have the kid schedules Infinite Campus because we are going through a conversion process

161we must schedule and commit our master schedule prior to the beginning of May so uh high schools have kind of uh in sped that process up I think by about two weeks um the key to this that is different from what we have um been used to in power school is our elementary schools have to do the same thing typically our elementary schools can come back in July create their master schedule plug everything in and keep going uh Infinite Campus will not allow us to do that so all of our schools must have a master schedule in place prior to uh this may conversion and I've already stated several times that Miss Angela is working on a way to keep to pull and Export that uh historical data so what's happening now in Robinson County

162our implementation team is uh Miss Angela Angela Jones she is the primary point of contact because she is our power school coordinator we have Miss Lisa thomman who is working through the digital technology and learning side of it um we have Dr Michael Rous who's working on the human resources part and of course Cole willings on the technology part so miss Angela has already started this as I stated we met all the way back in December she is scheduling monthly meetings with data managers away from their schools so if principles are complaining saying hey my data manager is not here they're gone two or three days out of the week uh there's a reason reason for that because data managers have to get in and ensure that data their data in the current system is

163clean and accurate in order for it to transfer over to Infinite Campus she's also scheduling meetings by school regions so as I've stated earlier it's vital that Elementary talks the middle middle talks the high and everybody's on the same page because there's connections between addresses contacts must be made in order for the system to work properly uh Infinite Campus has a suite of programs that are free to us uh we are working through those that we would like to bring on one of those is messaging from listening to that uh round one they've advised us do not use the messaging feature so we're going to continue with thrill share at least another year we have the ability they also have a learning management system we've made the decision to trans to continue with canvas for

164this school year um so there just just as power school has the parent portals uh Infinite Campus will have the same thing as well so I've linked here in the presentation a video that will explain the parent portals Cole can we see if that works we may not watch all of it but just to give you an idea because there was a link there was a problem with it the other day so just as our parents are able to log into power school they will have the same ability [Music] hello my name is Steve Simons and I'm an application specialist here with Infinite Campus today's video is going to focus on an overview of the parent and student portal we will focus on three primary areas for this demonstration we will first take a look

165at the home screen and navigation on the parent portal side we will then move into self-service features and then lastly we'll move over to the student portal and go through some of the features there including assignment submission with that said let's get started when parents first log in this is what they will see they can log in and see all of their students that have enrollments within the school district uh all together over here on the right we can see the announcements notification area for all of the schools that you have students that attend so District announcements there's the high school announcement and then there's even Elementary School announcements because of the enrollments that your children have here we have a snapshot of your inbox if you want to see all of your messages you

166just click those here most inbox messages can also be sent off to your email they may also be communicated through voice and text as as well if as a parent you need to contact a particular student uh student's teacher that's in here you can go in and click this contact list and it will pull up all of the information to find the specific teachers coaches or District school Personnel that is has been provided to you phone numbers email addresses are all listed depending on whether the school district is providing that information for for you another item that you can have on here is you can take a look at over on the menus over here and you can see things such as your grades so of a student so here we have Dylan's grades and

167you will notice as I scroll down here to US History we we have both standards based scoring and traditional term grades if I click into those term grades I can actually see all of the assignments that are listed and that's true for the assignments here for various standards as well other items that we have access to as parents is the ability to take a look and pay for fees that are on here here you'll see that Dylan has an art fee for that class I can add that to my cart I can click over to my cart and with one click I can pay for that fee and just like that I have a reference number I can print a receipt for it and that fee has been paid we ALS and so again that

168link will take you straight to the the video for the parent portal and it also has other information on there as well miss Christy Fields so how how will the teachers implement the GR into this system we is it going to be linked to their own computer so that it's siman simultanously or will it be additional work so teachers are going to just change the path and what they're used to doing so everyone um all staff or all teachers go through Rapid identity they'll click on an infinite campus button and then from there when they're inside they'll be um a main menu they'll click on forgive me instruction and then from instruction they'll click on Gradebook so when they do that they'll have their courses just like they do now in power school it's just

169going to look different and so when Mr Bobby talks about summer training that's where a part of my calendar and getting that all situated before July 1st so that we could have documentation and such that needs to be done prior to so will it be easier for them to implement grades in there than it is now because sometimes grades aren't in for whatever raise it it's just going to be different just different just the interface is just going to be different and so we want to be able to handhold a lot of our teachers to feel comfortable and understanding of what that looks like so for grades 31 13 they will have canvas where their grade book will do what's called grade Passback and it will just seamlessly move in and then for K2 they're

170still going to be doing standards based grading but again it's going to be the path or the breadcrumbs that are just going to be a little different but we want to be able to secure them with screenshots and video and such like that and then they'll also have their digital Tech coach and their data manager trained extensively prior to the opening of school and and so miss Christie that's a great lead into the last point so we included in your packet of information um our Infinite Campus professional development plan we do not have dates on this and there a couple of reasons why uh number one is uh we we know that some of this training is going to take place when staff are not on campus um but we also do not want them

171to eat up their teacher work days in training so we are currently working with Miss A could try to develop some type of some type of stien plan for them so that we're not just asking him to come into the building for free so what the team has put together is on page one uh I'm going to call this the June training and this is going to be training that definitely has to take place before we become I'm sorry it looks like you got it Dr Emanuel yeah so at the top it should say 2526 Infinite Campus professional development plan and so on page one these are the trainings that will take place in June after we've closed out the school year for individuals that are going to need to have the program up and

172running on July one so say for instance high school counselors we know that e as much work and his effort as we put into the registration and getting those eight classes right we know that there's going to be need to be some Cleanup in July and August so in June our expectation is that all high school counselors will come in for about a half a day to a day training U go over how to change schedules schedules inputting students and all of that so again you can see here what we will go over with those individuals prior to the site prior to Infinite Campus becoming live in July so then if you flip over our training will continue in July with principles again teaching our principles how just a basic navigations how to get in

173how to search how to look for different things within the system now keep in mind that our data managers are already receiving training on how to do all of this stuff so the data managers will already know this prior to the site becoming live July 1 so you can see again principales basic expectations and then we're going to ask them to go through training on grading reports attendance and behaviors scheduling and then in August this is where we're going to really have to get with Miss Eric and try to find some money to bring individuals back on a half a day or a day basis for that individual training because as someone who has gone through all four of the all four transitions sometimes train train the trainer does not work we need all the

174people sitting in front of us and holding their hand as we walk through uh so that is the reason that we've laid the plan out as it is now because of the importance of getting this right and ensuring on day one that our Stu that our staff's ready to implement Infinite Campus all right Mr Bob Mr Terry got a question for you Mr Bobby um I I I'm not sure everybody if you haven't gone through this process I'm not sure uh everybody appreciates uh how taxing this can be uh I'm I'm certain that um that this is not an easy uh undertaking and one of the one of the things about these sorts of databases is they've got to be set up right from the beginning you don't want to start use you don't want

175to start using it halfway through the years say I wish we would have done such and such quick question um what information about the student is is going to be in this system for example can we go in and and put things like Club affiliations teams and buses and yes it will have the same capabilities as power school and so in power school you could identify athletic teams um bus numbers Transportation all of that is in the system are there any tools that um that we're currently using that this could potentially replace other than power school no not to my knowledge team so it's not going to we're connect yeah so all of our not I don't want to say all we are working through our applications that are kind of stand of loan uh

176all all applications that we're currently using that use power school on the background where those are all going to transf transfer over as well and I think your question is going back to uh Infinite Campus messenger if it was up and running as it should we could have the possibility to say we don't want to use thrillshare anymore but because of our stories and everything we're hearing about uh messenger we do not want to move forward with that yet what system do we use for uh for for making calls that thrill share that's thrill share okay because um I hear from from people that you know they'll say I got I was started getting calls this morning at 6:30 about a bus that my child don't even ride so is there any way that we

177can filter that sort of thing out to say well just call the people that need to be called and that and that that would be the messenger yeah yeah okay extract thank you Mr B yes and Ju Just to remind everyone and I you know this is not a decision that was made by us remember this is a Statewide roll out uh again we just opted to go with phase two as opposed to phase one all right thank you thank you Mr Bobby thank you next we will have the program for the new CTE Center Dr Wendy dorsy car good afternoon chairman leech superintendent and board members we just wanted to review um the new career center programs that will be moving over to the new career center you should have a copy of the

178document that you see on the screen also in your packet um and so I'm just going to highlight the ones that are going in phase one so automotive technology um and you'll also see under Automotive all the certifications that students will be able to earn if they finish that pathway welding construction Academy which includes carpentry masonry Plumbing electrical EMT drafting engineering Computer Engineering network engineering and Adobe visual video design new programs that will occur over there are culinary arts drone technology metatronics and Industry Labs So currently this is what we're working on planning out for the new carear center based on what we've seen um based on our my future and seeing other reports that we're getting any questions about that Bobby we have scheduled to occupy that building when all right Mr Bobby so

179our our current um completion date is June 26 uh at the current time that does not include what area D SL Phase 2 so uh they have been promising me an updated uh completion schedule to include that area since Christmas so hopefully within hopefully at our next meeting which will be the first Thursday in March I'll have a a updated date on when the entire facility will be done but all of phase one uh areas a b and c uh complete date June 26 okay and that meeting would be March 10th is our next committee meetings we put a committee together to be prepared to occupy that building um and the next one is March March 10th is the next one at 8:30 um that the all the high school principls and other committee members

180will be here to continue planning for the career center all right um Dr Manu then we got Mr okay I just want to make a comment that this process of what courses have been chosen it wasn't done just by the central office this has been going on quite some time the needs and everybody and we voted as a board for was first priority second priority and we went through so it's been a long tedious process for those of you may be wondering well how did that get select and say but it's been a long process thank you thank you thank you for that Mr Dr Mary Mr Curry um since it's down the road do we have any businesses yet committed as far as where we were talking about those labs that businesses would come

181on has anybody said okay I will be there you provide me the space what we have is letters of interest and we have not made a commitment a commitment right okay and you're saying that part Mr Bobby is not included in what your latest completion date is does not include that right that that is correct but they have assured me if for what if for any reason area D Phase 2 looks like a a delayed completion outside of June 26 they will work to get us a CO for uh phase one rest so that we could get into the building uh and use the entire building just not get over into what is being called phase two okay thank you any any other questions for Dr car NOP thank thank you Dr car got anything

182again we place a card at your site uh we want to can't even talk collect those so that we can sit down with Terry and put together our cni curriculum committee meeting and then we also meet on the 10th with finance and construction um on that I do want to say thank you to the team it's evident every time that they present we have a powerful team of folks that understand the work and doing just great work for this district and our kids miss white you did a wonderful job in your presentation very clear and a lot of folks got the answers right that's evidence of good te and so thank you thank you what this um Mr CRA oh just a reminder it was email sent out that before the finance construction meeting if

183you have something you would like to get put on the list just for looking at right now for plans for Capital outlay project please get that to me by this coming Thursday I believe that's today well it was said February 27th I'm not sure I think that's the date that was put out but it was sent in an email just get it to me if you have questions about Capital outlay what it is and how it shoes please give Miss er a call she can clarify that and get us some things so we can get on the list because we did some projects earlier and it makes them go a lot better we got a list that we can constantly refer to so please get that to me please thank you Dr Manuel I was

184just I don't know did I hear Mr tur Mr T did you say we were having a meeting March the 4th did I dream that up should be March where did I he it March Yeah March the 4th at what time Mr T is it is it five March the 4th at five thank then the conr and finan is March the 10th at um it's at it's at 5 what time is that Mr cry it's at 52 it's at 5:00 pm also well this will um conclude our work session um thank y'all for coming out U thank my fellow board members and stuff and thank the cabinet for your presentation and for us better understanding what we have going on do I got a motion to adjourn second I got a moot Mr by Mr

185John Simmons and second a second by uh Mr Man you all in favor all oppos meeting the