NHCS Board of Ed. Regular Meeting | Dec. 5th 2023

001take your seats please thank you for being here this evening welcome to the December Board of Education meeting we are glad you are all here and there's a lot of folks here um before we begin I'd like to share a few reminders please keep the aisles clear during the meeting to allow members of our school system and the sheriff's department to be able to move about also except for when honoring our flag our opening prayer and when participating uh in the C audience remain seated during the meeting we hope to have a productive and efficient meeting and as usual your help is greatly appreciated so thank you for all being here for everybody being here um Miss Buie would you please call the role good evening Pete wior present Pat Bradford I am here Josie

002Barnhart here Stephanie crille here Melissa Mason here he mcmanis here and Stephanie Walker she and Melissa Mason me again oh I'm sorry other two of you no well again thank you for being here today uh our next motion or our next uh bit of business is approval of the agenda before we begin uh our uh assistant superintendent has shared with me we need to pull consensus item a consideration of bids for Hol tree uh HVAC replacement so please cross through that board members we'll be pulling that um Mr chairman yes ma'am M Bradford I move that we open the agenda to have an info discussion about Mosley school okay we have a motion to uh discuss Mosley school is there a second we have a second for Miss W I think that was Miss second

003yeah I'm sorry yeah we have a second M Walker discussion no discussion uh all in favor please yes ma'am so um what did we intend on getting from this discussion given um just information that we have received over the past couple days Mr Bradford um I would think that the people who have come here tonight would like to hear what's going on with Mosley and how it came about and and and give them some comfort on the questions that they had have I can't give it to them because I I didn't I didn't know it so I'm hoping that that we can as a board can help them get to a better place tonight okay thank you why don't we allow uh 10 minutes first off let's see if we vote all in favor please

004signify by saying I I I and thumbs up over there and I passes 70 uh let's put that under new business and we'll loot 10 minutes for that Miss Mason um I'd like to make a motion to to add EDI committee to new business as was voted in the agenda review meeting on 10:30 23 okay is there a second second from Miss Barnhart discussion Miss graville so um under new business is appropriate also under committee reports is appropriate but um the EDI committee met last night and voted to not um to keep the committee alive and to keep it in committee to talk and get more questions answered so um I don't think it's appropriate for us to deny their voice um and have the discussion at this point okay all right we have a

005motion we have a second uh any other discussion if not we're going to go ahead and do a roll call please miss Buie Miss Bradford I miss Barnhart yes Mr mcmanis yes Mr wildor yes Miss Mason yes Miss Walker no was that a no okay thank you m Miss Crill no that passes five to two so we will add that as Item B under new business uh also allotting 10 minutes for that okay any other yes additions Miss Grey bill um I'd like to add policy 2315 invocation policy before board meetings to the agenda under policy policy okay 23:15 is there a second is that a second okay I got I I'm sorry I it will take me a little bit to get used to yes second we have a first and second any discussion

006Miss Bradford Mr chair this is a personal attack on me and um it's the third time it's come before the board and I protest largely that we would hear this again okay just FYI I didn't say anybody's name you did not you did not any other discussion if not not uh Miss buy would you please call the rooll this is to add policy 2315 invocation policy to our policy just for is this for discussion only it would it would actually it would be under a motion yes ma'am M crille yeah the the point there miss masim was that when we had this discussion several times and we took out line five in its entirety the um my bad I forgot to my motion should have been in the absence of someone signed up then we

007will observe a moment of silence and because we discussed it I was just thinking I'd said it um so what we did was take out the whole line and I am looking for us to put the line back in that says if no one signs up for to to talk then we would have a moment of silence and the reason for that is because if we don't have any words in there we are silent on the action and we could easily be discri accused of discrimin ating against um people in the audience or offending people in our Audience by having one of us give an invocation and I'm trying to avoid that litigation thank you m grael any other discussion if not miss buy please call the role Miss Bradford no Miss Barnhart no Mr

008mcmanis yes Mr wbore no Miss Mason no Miss Walker that yes am I and Miss crayo yes that is defeated four to three so we will not be adding that any other discussion or any other motions if not Mr chairman yes ma'am I want to reference the email that I sent out to the board with policy 1310 402 parental involvement um I forgot to bring that up at the agenda review that we would have to have a specially called meeting so when I was prepping for the the policy committee meeting this week Dr F and staff had said they would feel comfortable bringing it before the board for a vote if we wanted it to personally I am in favor of having a specially calleded meeting but I wanted it to be the will of

009the board if we wanted to add it to this night's meeting and approve the recommendations from ncsba and you did say policy 1310 correct okay second we have a first and second any discussion what was the motion again to add uh policy 1310 to discussion under policy can we can I amend that motion to say and and decide at the time whether we're going to vote I mean I mean I something to that effect because um everybody just got it and I don't know that everybody read it um and understands what's in it so I think that we should probably have a chance to digest it a little bit Mr chair Mr what say I think it's it's a motion to add an item to the the agenda that's second it I don't really understand

010uh a proposed a motion to am amend to hold off on voting until a later time discuss well the motion would be uh the item would be under policy so it's a matter that you know could be voted on at this meeting at the time that it comes up assuming it makes it to the agenda you could always move to postponed to a to a later date okay so is that Jermaine or uh no okay all right yes sir so if we don't add it tonight vote then we've got to have another meeting before the 15th yeah I understand thank you but that means I would need to get everyone's calendar before and I'll be honest before we make um before you vote on this we would need to check your calendars because we would

011have to we have toact I mean part of it is already enacted there's like three ver three not three three or four bullets that we've added okay I guess I'm just kind of annoyed that the policy committee didn't see this earlier my question is when's the next policy meeting again and this is going to be discussed at the policy meeting you're going to break it down corre and be have it be broken down step by step what needs to happen when it needs to happen and that's happening at the next policy meeting correct well a couple things so the policy committee we we did speak with the the chair um prior to all the seasonal events that are going on um we were going to have a a special call meeting it's December um we

012had written all of the the policies that are that need to be in it uh not policies all of the lines that need to be in it um what we'll be doing at the policy meeting is going over the um the website that will go into effect um we'll be talking through more of how parents go through it but the policies the majority of the policies are already in place now that we're doing they're just about three or four bullets that we added to it and so it was honestly just to um respectful of everyone's sign that's all it was M Bradford and as I understand it we're doing this so that we can be compliant with the law so I am going to vote to do it tonight okay any other we need we

013we shouldn't be much longer so yeah all right uh all in favor of adding policy 1310 please signify by saying I I I any opposed no yes we have 6 to one and you're up 6 to1 okay so we add 1310 to the policy area any others if not hearing none uh Mr chairman I move that we adopt the amended agenda okay do we I'll second that all in favor please signify by saying I I I all opposed no passes again I did not hear Miss barnhard I I so that passes six to one we will carry on with the uh invocation uh I would invite uh Gail Taber senior pastor of salt and inclusive Methodist community church to provide our invocation this evening Pastor Holy One Today We Gather to do the work of

014providing for the education of all children in new han County we pause to remember at this time to be grateful and as we go into this season of Hanukkah Yule Christmas and Kwanza may we find love and respect as our guide in all that we do and all that we say we give thanks for the absolute joy that there is in living in this beautiful place called new han County and we give you thanks for the beauty of creation and for our mandate to care for all that you have made especially our children who are often the least among us we pray for the safety of all of our students and all of our teachers and all of our administrators guide us as we Face times of uncertainty and fear that our choices and our

015vision will ever be toward all and especially to those who are most vulnerable May our decisions be made here to be inclusive and Equitable even when we have differences of opinion give us a Unity of spirit help us to not listen as others to not just listen as others share their point of view but to hold them in full regard for their for our shared Humanity Aid this body to work as a unified team as they lead new hanter County schools and may every child and every family know their worth and their value to this body and to the community at large in our Ever Changing world we pray for these board members for all the various level of official and staff who serve new han County we pray your blessings on this body and

016their decisions that they would benei benefit all who work all who tend and all for all Childs and person children and persons whom are cared for by new han County schools in all the names of the one we call Holy amen thank you uh the Ashley High School uh NJ RC Color Guard unit will provide the presentation of colors it's under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Ry and master chief Matthew Champs principal Michael Perez and our national anthem will be um performed tonight by the Willison Middle School band um they will do the national anthem under the direction of Austin Hinson principal Miss Joe McDonald [Music] n [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] this time we ask our um Board member Miss Mason to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance pled alance to the flag

017of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right turn AR I'd like to ask the color guard to come back when they get a chance and also if you would introduce your your wonderful group here all right thank you hi uh thank you so much my name is Austin Hinson uh I'm the band teacher at Williston Middle School um and I would just like to thank the uh the school board for having us us here uh it's a great opportunity to be here um in front of you guys we have six of uh my most dedicated eighth grade students we have Shelby Blake playing the flute Brena Kavanaugh playing the flute uh Christian favors playing the clarinet Madrid

018shorts playing the trumpet Sawyer burrow playing the trumpet and Andrew Whittington playing the trombone um these kids have worked very hard we've actually been um thank you and um they've dedicated a lot of time um outside of school to try to make this happen so I'm very thankful to be working with them and to be here tonight thank you guys so much thank you thank you so much thank you so much and if the color guard would introduce themselves please thank you for being here thank you thank you um I'm kadet Kendall mamera I am a junior I'm Cadet Sophia beey and I a junior I'm Cadet ree Ingram I'm a freshman I'm Cadet Kelsey mcnamer and I'm a I'm a freshman thank you all for being here thank you thank you Mr chair yes

019ma'am report that the mic are too low and Jie's too okay can we uh if we could uh rectify that please our mics are too low and uh Miss barnhard is too loud all right we're going to carry on uh next we have student voice so if our student voice folks would like to come forward please welcome welcome good evening board members my name is Lan r and I'm a junior at new Handover I'm a part of L Paula and I'm a junior at hogard it's great to see all of you and as always thank you so much for the opportunity to speak and collaborate with you all we sincerely appreciate all that the work that you do to support and advocate for students in our meeting this month our team has undergone training for

020public speaking levels of educational decision- making and how and why to invite in conversations with people of different backgrounds and perspectives recently we split into small groups of three or four to research topics that students are passionate about with discussing at student board meetings or projects and ideas for groups to take on students research overcrowding in schools student mental health and current topics of discussion like book Banning and policy 7205 two research topics our group was specifically passionate about have been ban books and the implications of policy 7205 as students who are directly impacted by these decisions we believe that it's crucial to offer our perspective so over the coming month our Focus will be on an extensive information gathering initiative that encompasses all of the schools within our group this effort in includes engaging

021both teachers and students to ensure a broad range of perspectives we are currently developing a systematic approach for this data collection process which will be carefully designed to capture a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the issues at hand our goal is to not only provide a thorough analysis of the current situation but also to propose potential solutions for further discussion as we go along with this research process uh we have a few requests uh firstly would it be possible for us to sit in on the next uh policy meeting where policy 7205 is being discussed so we can take notes and additionally we would greatly appreciate if you could provide us with resources research or materials that you guys have previously used in your policy discussions for this thank you for your time consideration we

022eagerly anticipate the opportunity to share our findings and engage in meaningful discussions with you in the near future thank you you yeah so those were our two questions um as we're researching these um topics that our group was passionate about just bringing lots of student perspectives to you as you're making these decisions um so yeah our questions that smon said um were um if we if it's possible for us to sit in at the next policy meeting where um policy 7205 is being discussed so that's our first question I guess we'll ask well that you know the policy meetings are all open to the public but I believe you're in school at that time so concern is it the next one it's every like two week in in the month right so we may be

023it may be a teacher work day that day is what we were thinking if it was no there's also several of us that have don't have classes um like we have free period or an online class where we could come um not our whole team but we just want a few of us to be there to be able to take notes and see it as it's happening well I would also uh not you know let you remind you that it is available online so you could definitely if you did have free period you could maybe go to the library and and pull it up and and you know not I'm not trying to disuade you from being there but school is I mean kind kind of comes first uh Dr Fest do you want to

024speak to that what what are your thoughts well that I was leaving it to the board okay um I don't have a I mean I I meet with them so I know exactly um you know how we rock and roll and but definitely you know if if it's the will of the board for them to be there we will um more than like I mean we more in defly welcome them just um given the fact that we don't normally talk to the call of the audience people so don't all of you come up and ask for just to answer a question please but um the policy committee was on a teacher work day and it got moved so it is next Tuesday and um you're always welcome at any meeting online or in person um

025and it's up to you as the growingup students that you are to make those arrangements as appropriate for your schedule Mr mcmanis give the valuable Arena that these students put their time and their effort and really try to to to understand and to work with everyone and make sense of a lot of what we can't make sense up here sometimes I would definitely support them being able to go to that meeting I think that would be a a a very educational opportunity for you because that is where every single policy begins absolutely and Miss Walker also is letting you know that she supports that I would like you I he well we will um would someone like to make a motion maybe because I think it is a situation there are in school so I'll

026make a motion I don't think we should make a motion on that topic because it's not up to us to to say they can come and dictate to their principal or their teacher that they're out of school so I think they should just make that choice that call on their own and be any like a member of the public and come like any member of the public you you manage your schedule and handle any of the consequences that come from management of schedule that might not have been appropriate okay but Mr mcmanis but superintendent said that he would he would agree with the the will of the board which I appreciate so again I I think be great opportunity for you to attend okay all right well thank you so much we're super excited this

027month to research these topics get lots of student perspectives and teachers perspectives I'm utilizing all the students on our team to interview a lot of students and figure out um what a lot of people feel about this so we're excited to bring this back to you in January um all of our research and yeah thank you so much thank you thank you for all you're doing next we have teacher voice [Applause] and next we have our teacher voice so welcome welcome thank for good evening hope everyone is well my name is Courtney malayas and I teach first grade at Anderson Elementary before this I taught eight years at Snipes Academy of Arts and Design I was the new hord County school elementary teacher of the year during the 202 2022 school year today I want

028to share with all of you what it means to be a teacher and how vital it is to lead by focusing on the student first and having a growth mindset not only for the student but for yourself as an educator teaching involves so much more than just standards and our curriculum I am sure you have heard that teachers wear a lot of hats and it's true I am absolutely the CEO of my classroom I am a psychologist I am a nurse I am many other things but the most important hat that I put on each day is the How Will I respond hat how will I respond to a child who comes off the bus and is angry and wants everyone to know it how will I respond when two children are arguing over a

029pencil how will I respond when children use unkind words these are situations out of our control when our control where our control comes in is how will I respond listening seeking to understand and using language like you were hoping or you were disappointed because helps the child to be able to express their needs asking them is it helpful or hurtful to our class family giving two Positive Choices instead of one positive and one negative always helps them I'm at my fourth Elementary School in my 15th year as an educator I spent um at two schools I was a par educator and at two schools I I am a teacher before that I owned and operated my own restaurant for 20 years and I really thought I knew how to respond I dealt with customers employees

030and I dealt with my husband who was my partner so I really thought that I had a handle on how to respond but when I became a teacher I truly realized that responding to Children takes a lot more Focus you have to help them believe in themselves they are watching your response to them through your body language and the words that you use and these things matter teaching at a high poverty school with a high population of children who come from trauma made me dive deep down into myself I needed to figure out a different way punishment consequences are not effective I found the adult first trauma informed program called conscious discipline and things started changing in a really big way I started studying our brain and how complicated and miraculous it is I started

031incorporating this mindset daily into my teachings having a quiet time time to glitter our brains teaching the children about their brain and how important selft talk is I found a book that has become a mainstate Mainstay called the bubblegum brain by Julia cook the children really get it there is a boy that has a brick brain fixed mindset and a boy that has a bubble gum brain stretches his thinking and changes his thoughts by changing his cans to I can't yet the boy with the brick brain realizes with the help of his friend that he can just peel off the wrapper and voila there is his bubble gum brain how do you peel it off by changing the thoughts you tell yourself and this got me really thinking so I created a ladder of success

032in my classroom with the bottom ring labeled I can't do it to the top ring saying I did it each rung is the color of the rainbow and the children refer to it daily I teach them that there will be times that you may fall off the ladder but the important thing is what do you need to get back on what tools do you need breathing is always helpful as our posit postive affirmations and forgiveness for their negative thoughts that creep in I have a quick story about how this came into play very recently during open house I had given each child a small jeweled pineapple my theme is persistent pineapples we never give up and the children really connect to it during a math lesson a child who always gets her exit tickets right

033was really struggling during this one lesson she was extremely upset that she did not get her exit ticket she needed some guidance on how to handle her struggle after using our distract your brain method she was ready to breathe and keep trying the next morning when she came into school I noticed the jeweled pineapple was on her name tag I asked about it curious as to why it was there she said well yesterday I was on The Struggle Bus miss m and I almost fell off the ladder so today I brought in my pineapple which I keep on my nightstand to remind me to stay persistent wow she really stretched her brain if I can impart the importance of mindset in a six-year-old then I have truly done my job we want our youth to

034be independent thinkers and problem solvers if they can find the awareness to self-regulate when their emotions go astray then they can change their thoughts to help them become more successful in the classroom and out in the world how we respond to situations and to the children during their learning is imperative as like in an an an airplane emergency we have to put our mask on first telling ourselves that we can handle this and breathing before responding has changed my teacher practices a child's brain struggles to learn if they're operating from the lower part of their brain so I swoop in and glitter their brain with all these practices so that they can receive what I need them to it is a win-win because life is all about our mindset we can change our thinking and

035I believe in all of you thank you thank you that's I always warms my heart to hear a great teacher talking about a great classroom uh and speaking of great things let's talk about our recognitions good evening um before I begin I wanted to welcome from our community partner the Carousel Center Rebecca Jackson and Amy Fe who asked to be here tonight to make an important announcement about our district good evening thank you so much for having us here tonight uh my name is Rebecca Martin I work uh with the Carousel Center we started a prevention and education initiative last year and I wanted to highlight the achievements um that we have been able to accomplish as a community very much um elevated by the efforts that you all have put in through new han

036County Schools district so we are very very proud to announce that new Handover County schools has officially been recognized as a partner in prevention becoming the only District in North Carolina to hold this distinction District leadership has made a very bold commitment to eliminating opportunities for abuse to occur within their schools by providing stewards of children child sexual abuse prevention training to all faculty and staff members they also conducted environmental scans of their facilities to assess for risk and they ensured that their child protection policies incorporate all of the best practices but New Hanover County Schools not only empowered its professionals to Champion safer environments for children they also integrated this very training into their newly launched Parent Academy this Innovative approach ensures that parents and caregivers gain easy access to the same highquality education

037and resources fostering a community that is committed to the well-being of children the CEO of Darkness to light wanted to reach out and highlight this accomplishment she stated we are delighted to welcome new Handover County School District as Darkness to light's newest partner in prevention to date new Hover County School District is the largest school district in North Carolina to achieve this partner in prevention designation 45 schools and over 2,800 dedicated employees have committed to building a prevention oriented community that will keep children safe these remarkable leaders in education have been trained to prevent to recognize and to react responsibly to child sexual abuse this outstanding effort will undoubtedly pave the way for creating safe environments in new Hover County for generations to come the Ripple effects from this accomplishment have already been seen locally

038your staff members who have been trained have taken this training and this information into all the Realms of their influence because they're not just Educators they're not just new Handover County school districts professionals their parents their family members their mentors their safe adults their leaders and they have promoted this training and they've opened the door for us to get in to train adults in so many other sectors that we otherwise wouldn't have reached so I want to take a moment and just really express our sincere gratitude for that invaluable work um that you have undertaken within our school system again not only for the students that you serve but also the exemplary standard that you are setting for other educational institutions and youth serving organizations to emulate new Handover County School's investment in child sexual

039abuse prevention education is already generating positive impacts I have been contacted by leaders throughout the state I've con been contacted by leaders in other uh other states in our nation we are now working on a framework to unify efforts across uh child advocacy centers in North Carolina and the work that y'all have done and the commitment you have made has helped to elevate that so we want to sincerely thank you for that commitment we also have a plaque to present to you to represent this commitment and welcome you officially as a partner in [Applause] prevention thank you so much our first recognition is um tied to what you just heard Rebecca speak about uh Tanya Jordan has spent her career protecting kids and safeguarding their mental health and as she prepares for retirement we're honored

040to present her with this NE next recognition Miss Jordan led the effort for new han County Schools to be named the largest District in North Carolina to receive partner and prevention status which trains adults in recognizing and preventing child sexual abuse in partnership with the Carousel Center Miss Jordan assured that staff members at every one of our schools completed this intensive in-person training it is not an easy subject to face but Miss Jordan was determined that we face it with thorough and Fidelity and in a way that will change children's lives in our community she said in the school system we are our children's people being able to respond appropriately makes all the difference and whether or not that child gets Justice it's important that we say I believe you I'm here for you I'm

041going to get you the help that you need thank you to Tanya Jordan for your service to our district and its children and your commitment to Justice healing and prevention please come forward to get your [Applause] recognition thank you all right we've been on a rooll celebrating academic Excellence this fall and we're excited to share that recently we learned that we had six schools recognized in the top 100 schools in the state of North Carolina by US News and World Report they earn this recognition for showing High proficiency on state test scores being high achieving and succeeding at educating all of their students these six schools are building cultures of Excellence where students receive the support they need to reach their full potential congratulations to the principes and all staff at these exemplary schools first

042is rightful Beach [Applause] Elementary yeah Mr Norville had a holiday PTA party this evening and I said that sounded like a little more fun so thank you for being here in his stad congratulations next up is Ogden [Applause] Elementary all right Eaton [Applause] [Music] Elementary congratulations Holly Tree [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Elementary why don't we all just yeah just shift this way a bit congratulations codington [Applause] [Music] Elementary congratulations and Noble Middle [Applause] [Music] School Right congratulations to you [Applause] all last month Miss V Keller dressed for her 90th birthday as she does every weekday morning in a Flor ENT yellow reflective vest ready to provide safe passage for wesboro elementary students across Castle hanne Road as a longtime crossing guard Miss Keller made a point makes a point to know everything about the kids

043she crosses and their mamas she is the smiling face that first greets them at each school day the guardian with a stop sign in hand letting them know that they are welcome cared for and that someone's got their back she might not technically be our employee but we are very proud to call her our own thank you Miss Keller for your service to our kids and your commitment to your post please come forward to accept your [Music] recognition thank you thank you so much next up is Cindy Hancock Cindy's husband once accused her of getting paid to have fun at work as an O I heard the OTS laughing in the back as an occupational therapist for the last 34 years her job might look like all fun in games if you just see her

044pinching Play-Doh with kids but in fact that's her tricky way of helping students develop the fine motor skills in their hands so they can eventually hold a pencil and write and share their voice with the world occupational therapy gives students access to the full breadth of their education Cindy says and from there they can go anywhere Cindy recently received the award for outstanding practice in the area of Developmental Disabilities from the North Carolina Occupational Therapy Association in recognition of her passion and energy for her work her mentorship of her team and her leadership in the field and while Cindy says that she was surprised and honored by the recognition she added that it's hard to compete with the joy of seeing a student hold a pencil for the very first time thank you Cindy for

045your service to your students and for imparting parting them with the skills they need to learn with Independence and pride and experience the success that every student deserves and I think Cindy might have brought posi tonight Cindy come on up to accept your recognition [Applause] [Music] [Applause] please [Applause] parental involvement often drops off in middle school but tras PTA president Allison Childs has only doubled down whether she's dressing up the their mascot Lloyd the bear to attend a Schoolboard meeting and you can find Lloyd seated adjacent to miss Walker and Mr mcmanis tonight sending free pies home with every single staff member before Thanksgiving or bringing in guest speakers and donations Allison is all in for teachers and for that school principal Kim Clark shared that under Allison's leadership PTA membership has grown from just

046six parents a few years ago to nearly 100 today Miss Clark says not only does Allison contribute to the success of our school but she also brings Joy to the entire building wor words cannot express how grateful I am for everything Allison does this is Allison's last year with a middle school student but her Legacy at tras will carry on in everything from the trees she helped plant to the way she made the staff there feel celebrated supported and valued thank you Allison for being the kind of parent every school cherishes please come accept your [Applause] [Music] recognition [Music] she's my sister-in-law [Applause] is all all right this is great right here on three one two [Applause] three I was going to say there's no crying at recognitions but that's a lie I cry all

047the time at recognitions um at last month's meeting we recognized the winners of our Board of Ed and superintendent Choice art Awards but with the change of the meeting date winner Bella Dello was unable to make it so we wanted to celebrate her here tonight Bella's vibrant multimedia piece showing an elephant against an African Sunset is on display just outside of dodg F's office so I'm one of the people lucky enough to be uplifted and inspired by it every day at work Bella we hope this is just the beginning of your artistic Journey thank you for sharing your gifts with us please come forward to accept your [Applause] [Music] recognition thank thanks for bringing that [Applause] next we have the uh administrative introductions none okay so we'll skip over that uh superintendent's report is next

048exit stage right yes good evening um congratulations to hogard High School varsity football team they will play they will be playing on Saturday December 9th for the state championship at Carter Finley Stadium in Raleigh also congratulations to hogard High School varsity cheerleaders they plac third in the state at the North Carolina High School Association cheer competition on Saturday December 2nd of course we recognized them but I just wanted to reach iterate um congratulations to the five elementary schools are in the top 100 for North Carolina rightful Beach Ogden Eden holly tree cottington Noble made of course the top 100 for North Carina middle schools back in November we hosted the north col State superintendent Katherine Truitt at the newly opened spark NC lab um over at CC she observes students gaining Hands-On experiences and exploring

049ing stem careers new han County Schools showcase the Innovative CTE opportunities available last week I attended the north Carina school superintendent Association Winter conference and presented on focus on the focus um the North Carolina School Association for superintendent winter conference was an opportunity for North Carolina School superintendents to gather and share innovative ideas and practices receive timely updates regarding education policies and expand their network with fellow superintendents in September Bellamy Elementary School was named the National Blue Ribbon School by the Department of Education this award this was awarded to only eight schools in North Carolina principal Kirk Bert Kil Patrick sorry assistant principal Jennifer Rouser and I were um in DC on the 17th of November to accept the honor on behalf of new Hanford County schools and Bellamy we will also be traveling to

050um Raleigh on Thursday um for DPI to receive the state recognition letter from um our state superintendent so congratulations to all of the great things that are going on in our schools and that concludes my report thank you Dr fa uh next we'll have the board Chairman's uh report uh first off merry Christmas happy Hanukkah happy K Quanza Happy New Year to one and all hope you enjoy this season I send my best wishes and good luck to our hogard Vikings football team and Coach Underwood bring home the big trophy we are very proud of you all thanks to the board and to Dr f for recent leadership training in Goldsboro excuse me Greensboro be in the right place uh five of our board members were able to attend the training which was extremely beneficial

051we have one more day of training coming up and we hope that all the board members uh will be able to attend that meeting uh big shout out uh to Bellamy Elementary School and being uh selected and recognized as a National Blue Ribbon Award winner congratulations to the faculty Administration students and parents I look forward to the town hall and social media safety which will be right here on December 11th finally everyone on this Das uh took an oath to to uphold the United States Constitution I take this oath very seriously I didn't put my hand on the Bible uh lightly and I was privileged to join all elected officials all law enforcement officers including both my daughter and son-in-law and all members of our Armed Forces who all promis to uphold the Constitution of

052the United States of America many of them risking their lives each and every day interestingly a wonderful local member of the North Carolina bar recently pointed out that the US Constitution which is a wonderful document is a living document which is shown by the 27 amendments to it it is the backbone of our wonderful country which I thank God for which is the land of the free and the home of the brave thank you very much uh we will continue thank you we will continue with our call to audience Miss Bradford good evening if you're new to the call to audience on these screens are going to be the list in the order that you come we have a full list tonight um if someone's not here I will Circle back and get them at

053the end you do not have have to wait on me to call you you can go ahead and you know move in that direction and we're going to start off with Joe Conway so that clock's a real thing we use it yeah it's already started well good evening uh new an County board members and Dr F our school superintendent um thank you so much for allowing me to speak so I'll be as brief as 1 minute and 45 seconds um I just want to let you know what I witnessed here tonight was outstanding from A diversity equity and inclusion standpoint the title of what I was going to talk about tonight is called the inclusion dividend I would ask that you read the book it's written by Kaplan and Donovan it has to do with

054corporate or corporations but I think there's some applications for Academia as well and I could go through those illustrations but it's probably better if you read the book and then call me what I really want to do tonight is just tell you a little bit about what Equity actually is and what equality is so all of us have homes that we came up out of right all of us had siblings all of us had those wonderful things called parents um and inside of that home when it came to an equality standpoint they gave us the same things food clothing shelter those types of things in order to actually survive and thrive and live but then there was those other things called brothers and sisters right and as we had those brothers and sisters we couldn't

055treat them all the right the same I have four boys I definitely could not treat them all the same they all had different qualities and different capabilities and so I had to treat them in a more Equitable manner so how is it that we can learn that in our homes but we kind of forget it when we become adults there are communities that are not as advantaged as other communities some that have systemic barriers some that have challenges and how do we just like in our own homes as we watch our siblings and our parents provide for us treat them equitably because we understand that not every child needs the same thing thank youca TR Rebecca traml Rea TRL good evening everyone the Board of Education could vote tonight about dismantling the equity diversity and

056inclusion board level committee they are ignoring data showing actionable disparities in discretionary discipline blatant inequality in facilities and gross gaps in academic performance right now the doj is involved due to the obvious divestment in new han High School's athletic facilities there's a $5 million sanction against the new New Hanover County schools from the federal government this is not ignorance this is a deliberate denial of the persistent documented injustices that impact black students specifically I have asked our community to sign an open letter starting today I already have 50 L names and I'll continue to get them because in 2018 I began Community conversations I started coming here every single month to talk about the inequities in our schools the segregation of our schools and I had to cry out for something different in 2019 we

057actually launched Community conversations when a black child was the only child in her class not to receive a gift from her teacher at the Holiday party I've come to you before with action with horrible situations where children have been called names where children have been slapped in the face and the the thought was well maybe this could be a learning experience well you know who does that work EDI we need to learn proactively we need to learn preventatively and we need to mitigate the impacts of structural systemic violence that are not a figment of our imagination they are hardcore facts black people in this country have like white people in this country have 10 times less 10 times more the wealth of the average black family black children are eight times more likely to be

058suspended than a white child performance disparities are real there are in all four high schools the average performance grade for a white student was a B for a black student it was out of time Robert [Music] Bellamy Robert Bellamy Mr Bellamy are you here Rocky Jeter [Applause] web before I start I just want to say this the speech is rated CT for critical thought compliance she my face on my almost stressing logical questions and critical thinking throughout the three fth rule for counting slaves is often misunderstood when the Constitutional Convention debated the issue of how to count population for the purposes of representation the southern delegates to the convention would have been pleased if non voting slaves had been counted as full persons that way the southern states would have had a greater representation in

059the House of Representatives in contrast some Northern delegates resist accounting slaves at all why asked Elber Jerry should the blacks who wear property in the South be in the rule of representation more than the cattle and Horses of the north among other things counting slaves provideed an incentive to import still more slaves nor was the 35ths rule new at the convention it was derived from a mechanism adopted in 1783 to abortion requisitions the national governments only Revenue Source under the Articles of Confederation among the states that rule was intended to provide rough equality between the North and the South and when the idea first appeared at the convention no one suggested that another fraction would be more appropriate indeed the rule was included in a June 11th motion made by James Wilson of Pennsylvania and

060seconded by Charles pikney of South Carolina suggesting that a compromise had already ured behind the scenes by itself however the 3- F compromise for representation was not enough facing deadlock at the convention Governor Morris representing Pennsylvania moved on July 12th to add a Proviso that taxation shall be in proportion to representation they are limited to direct taxation the purpose of which wrote James Madison was to L Mr Jeter web you're out of time thank you Merry Christmas Jan landies my name is Jan Landis and I'm a grandmother of two new Hover County school children they are not just my future they're my here and my now that's why I moved to Wilmington from Pennsylvania I want to thank you for welcoming the thoughts and ideas of your constituents your task of creating policy that guides

061our children to a comprehensive and excellent education is not easy but it's very important that's why I'm here as you can see from my toic I'm interested in your meeting schedule for Citizens like me who wish to attend both City Council meetings and Schoolboard meetings it's an important and almost impossible aspiration when both meetings are scheduled for the same day and time of month I desire to know what the leaders who represent us in these important Community leadership positions are doing to imp the well-being of all of our families I'm not satisfied getting this information secondhand I want to see and hear your spirits in action the energy in the room is important to me and it speaks volumes as to what is and isn't being attended to it also helps me connect to other

062engaged citizens in my community so in light of that I would really appreciate if you will consider moving your meeting to the second or fourth Tuesday of the month that will make it possible for me and others in the county and City to attend and witness first hand both organizations meetings thank you for considering this request removing this barrier to citizen access to both meetings in person will be a welcom to action I look forward to hearing from you thank you Cynthia MERS Cynthia how do you say your last name Munos thank you good afternoon members of the board and good afternoon students thank you for joining us um today you stand to vote on dismantling the EDI committee it's no secret that Nan county has a history of oppressing people of color and the

063lgbtq community in dismantling this committee you will effectively be telling every student and staff member that there is no equality no diversity no inclusion and that and that they do not have a home in our community this body once again seeks to further oppress a marginalized Community only to uplift themselves but even though our community has lost faith in this governing body I do have faith that these upcoming Generations will be incentivized to unite against the body that seeks to oppress them and deny them equality thank you Veronica muren Brown Veronica for the last eight months love our children has been asking you to revise short-term suspension policy 4351 our simple request give 56 and seveny old children the right to have a parent participate in the discussion with the principle before a determination is

064made to suspend a child we have yet to have a single speaker step up to this microphone and demand that fire five six and seveny old children be denied the right to have a parent present at their pre-suspension hearings so why are some of you so against changing policy 4031 it does not take any power or authority away from the principal they still will make the final determination it does not require any extra time of the principal principales currently contact a a parent after the child has been suspended we're simply asking that a phone call be made before the child is suspended and since out of school suspensions are only used as a last resort we know that the principal may have already spoken to a parent about their child's Behavior Chang in policy policy

0654131 51 would also support policy 40002 which explicitly acknowledges is the importance of meaningful two-way communication between Educators and parents so again we ask why are you against changing policy 4351 it just seems insane for a school system to have a policy that contains the phrase parents have no right revised policy 4351 support a policy that promotes parental involvement is logical and evidencebased do your job thank you Jamie [Applause] P good evening I recently heard in the news that this evening the board will be discussing potentially disbanding the equity diversity and inclusion committee and I would like to encourage you to keep this committee intact this committee is needed to to address the inequities that are present within New Hanover County Schools not too long ago New Hanover County was federally sanctioned for disproportionate rate

066of suspending black students with disabilities why would you want to disband a committee that should be trying to fix this issue having a districtwide committee allows for reviewing the patterns and Trends happening with the new han County schools and to help ensure fair and Equitable treatment of students and allocation of resources getting rid of this committee would assume that new H County schools has completely addressed the racial and economic disparities that exist within and between schools and they have not if we want to make sure that all students have the resources they need to succeed and that all schools are addressing the inequities that are present within them we need to have an oversight and committee devoted to assessing and reviewing these School initiatives addressing inequities within schools is not a one anddone process especially

067for a County that has our history or for a county that continues to ignore the voices of our community as they identify and speak out against these issues I'm not sure if you will choose to listen to me or others on this issue since it seems like many of you are here to move forward with your own agenda rather than seek input think critically and then make a sound judge judgment based on reason and evidence again I would like to encourage you to keep the EDI committee thank you thank you Nan Kavanagh good evening I was denied the Fulfillment of my public records request for an accounting of the time and money spent on the temporary book ban of stamped this should have been easy if the dollars spent are being monitored if they're not

068then I have no idea how the board could possibly be considering changing the policy to allow any joeo off the street to demand books be pulled off the shelves in our schools between the book band and policy 7205 you're considering opening a financial Floodgate that data shows will cost the school system hundreds of thousands of dollars is this the highest and best use of our taxpayer dollars given so many of our children are struggling with the basics academically which students in our community are struggling I've seen the data here presented to this board and it is the students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds many of whom are people of color and yet you feel it's appropriate when all your data shows you otherwise to disband your Dei committee if you understood the value of equity you'd

069know how incredibly valuable a Dei committee is to supporting the goal of Education here's a visual for you you have a short kid and a tall kid they're both standing at a fence trying to look over the tall kid is no problem but the short kid has to jump to see and no matter how high he jumps he can't catch a glimpse Equity is providing that little guy a stool to stand on and education is a stool itself education is the most important thing a society can provide to give children that cannot see brighter future for themselves because of the situation they were born into a chance to see over that fence students born disabilities and those living in underresourced neighborhoods those are the people that Dei support our students need the support the Dei

070committee and I really hope you consider not disbanding it thank you thank you Sandy [Applause] Al in Fall 2021 a new Hanner High new Hanner County School principal told me my child's needs were outside of her wheelhouse two years later when speaking about disabled students Miss Barnhart said we're going to have some needs that are very much outside the scope of the school realm Miss Barnhart unfortunately for you and for that principal federal law makes every educational need of disabled children the responsibility of our Public Schools Ida was a revolutionary in granting disabled children like mine the right to access their education because people who believed as Miss Barnhart does denied them their right to learn stop blaming children for the challenges our district faces because you don't want to educate and support them Dr

071F you also said when describing disability needs and I quote whether it is speech impaired to the most expensive disability stop defining a disabled child's value to learn by how much it costs to educate them my child is not defined by a monetary value she's a human being also our district just announced they are shutting down Mosley's high school program 35% of these students have an IEP is it being shut down because the $866,000 grant will run out Dr f are these children too expensive to educate this program has supported children for at least a decade by removing barriers present in their District school allowing them to access their education and graduate but now the program is too expensive and suddenly new han County Schools does not believe these children are worth this investment stop

072telling us that our children are not worth the expense to educate and that they are a burden on the system my child every child are worthy of a quality and Equitable education shame on any of you who deny any child access to their education because you believe they are too great a burden or expense thank you Gil [Applause] [Music] terer I have been a member of the EDI committee since 2019 for the for all of that time with the exception of the last year this committee has been robust and productive it is a stated purpose of this board to increase the test scores in new han County and yet what is being proposed is which is to dissolve the EDI committee and its efforts debunks over 40 years of national res research which conclusively demonstrates

073the academic and social benefits of equity and inclusion in schools this erodes the quality of all of our students education to dissolve this committee this is a huge disservice to not only our most vulnerable children to not support EDI but it is also unconscionable to destroy this environment of learning for all of our children new han County Schools already is diverting money from exceptional children because of federal sanctions that have been imposed upon this school board this school system because of discriminatory disciplinary practices the unequitable practices are already creating difficulties and this board is proposing to make it worse according to the Port City Daily News 15% of funding from the district that the district received pered as being diverted toward addressing this Federal mandate 15% that is 15% that is being diverted away from

074children in need and each of these children represents a human being person that belong to families and each of those families deserve a good education a quality education and they deserve to be included equitably new han County Schools is the 12th largest school district in New in North Carol you you're out of [Music] time [Applause] Chris last month I stood here and asked that you all become the biggest cheerleaders for the school system so the residents of New Hanover County will see the benefits of investing in our schools then I watched the policy meeting agenda meeting and EDI committee meeting wow all were disturbing to see and hear students in new han County need people who are advocating for all of them not just Niche groups teachers and other employees need a board who is

075going to advocate for them and not continue pushing pushing unproven theories Laden with buzzwords here is an example from the policy meeting of how not to be an advocate for all a board member indicated that some parents believe students are being taught certain Topics in Family Life Class and as a result was questioning the class itself in the ages it's for this is a situation where instead of instantly believing the parents the board member could read through the local curriculum themselves or forward the curriculum to the concerned parents or and this is the crazy thought speak to the teachers who teach the subject something that I rarely hear happening instead it's discussed in a meeting when it could likely have been handled by a few minutes of research another example at last night's cedi committee

076meeting the chair indicated that she'd surveyed families about whether the committee is needed or not a member of the committee indicated that neither She nor anyone she knew was part of the survey group and without a good cross-section data can be inaccurate it's dangerous to act on skewed data as the effects could be negative and far-reaching I'd originally planned on saying more about media literacy as the issues I'm hearing from board members play into this but I decided to focus more this month on inequities in the school system facts are facts sometimes facts make us happy and other times they disturb us or make us sad but you know what we can't do we can't change facts just cuz we don't like them again you represent all new han County students and teachers not just

077the ones who think like you every child in this county is a living breathing individual who deserves the best education possible be professional and do your job represent all thank you second I had the pleasure of watching the policy committee meeting um it was interesting to see Dr fa um Dr F if you could listen while I speak he'll be right please appreciate you um it was interesting to see you interrupt a board member to state that the constitution wasn't written with you in mind um not going to insult your intelligence by explaining the history behind the Constitution and the way it is evolved over time to expand protections to all Americans I think it's better instead um to just leave it at this um which do you think is better for some of our

078children to hear that the Constitution wasn't written with them in mind or teach them about the journey and struggle for change that led to the protections that are afforded to them today how about we teach our children the value of different amendments and teach them to defend these protections at all costs get them to understand the sacrifices made by Americans to secure these protections so they understand why they are so lucky to be American Teach our children to fix and mend things are not always done perfect the first time in short Dr fa I think your comment missed the mark it is a disj Justice and quite frankly it could be a slap in the face to some of those who sacrificed Decades of their lives fighting for the level of constitutional equality equality we

079have today um just got got some times left Dr f i I've really struggling here man because the thing is like we've brought multiple issues to you before under the previous board that we felt were constitutional violations and you never even discussed them you never even contacted us for a brief discussion about it and then when you say something like that it kind of makes some of us wonder about your stance on the Constitution as a whole I hope you think about what I say and take it to heart because legitimately I I think that we could do better as a as a role model for our children if we're getting them to understand what we've grown on like I I guess the best way to say it I've got 10 seconds left we've we've

080changed a lot as a nation nothing's done right the first time but like I mean the Constitution now is looking out for you it's looking out for every single one of us and our children need to be taught that instead of you know having a negative thank you Mr Sutton you're out of [Applause] time thank you board for proposing guard rails to maintain classroom neutrality via policy 7205 letter Z the equality and education bill has similar verbage and has passed the NC house and is in Committee in the Senate so while it appears Dr fa phas and and Miss crel are a bit F clumped and distressed about these guidelines and about the Constitution we may soon see this verbiage mandated for schools by law Dr fa you make about $230,000 a year thanks to

081the equality afforded to you by God secured by our founding documents and capitalism yet you feel victimized as a black man since it was upsetting that policy 7205 would allow for no race to be superior to another by logical default that means you believe One race should be be superior to another so I ask what race then do you think we should teach as a superior race if you deem any race or class of Citizen Superior to another the equality protected in our Declaration of Independence and by our government becomes irrelevant you said that the Constitution doesn't apply to you sir you have a preeminent position over 26,000 impressionable students in New Hanover County you don't get to pick and choose what you like and dislike about the constitution based on feelings or Impressions the

082Constitution is the foundation of Liberty in this nation many of us would benefit from studying the breadth of our US history and to highlight incredible black Patriots who were free who could read and write and who fought zealously for America's Freedom those like Wentworth cheswell who was elected to office in 1768 and served in public office for 49 years who also did a midnight ride similar to Paul rer how about James armistad who spy in intelligence helped win the Battle of Yorktown and ultimately the Revolutionary War we do all have a lot to learn thanking his GES Michael [Applause] Sheridan good evening I'm Dr Michael Sheridan and I'm here to share some facts with you Based on data from the federal individual with disabilities Education Act we know that black children with disabilities in new

083Hover County receive 4.5 times more out of school suspensions than their white peers because of this the federal sanction against New Hanover County schools now in its sixth year has cost our special education program about $5.4 million this wouldn't be the case if the school Board address the inequities in resources and Personnel across schools more counselors more social workers and more teaching assistance are needed why have so many of those positions been cut multi-tiered system of support or mtss coordinators must be supported in our elementary schools it would be a mistake to start cutting them and as in school suspensions increase in the elementary schools in school suspension teachers are needed to help keep our children learning when will those positions be created simply put disparities and out of school suspensions are created by inequities

084love our children supports the continuation of the board's Equity diversity and inclusion committee love our children supports Malcolm Johnson and his work as the district's Chief Equity diversity and inclusion officer love our children supports the goals outcome comes in strategies of the 2022 to 2027 strategic plan supporting Equity means supporting all of our children thank you thank you all right Cassie Grand please tell me how to pronounce your last name Cassie yes hi did you ask me a question I ask you to pronounce your last name for me well that's a good question because sometimes I change it it's rimple rimple thank you uh and thank you to the board I am Cassie rimple I am one of the co-founders of the Han Advocates and we are an advocacy group for New Hanover High School

085and first and foremost I want to thank each of you for your service that you're doing and for all of you that are here Eddie Anderson of course and to all of the staff um it's important that we all thank you for all that you're doing for all of the students in our County I'm also here to talk about New Hanover High School and it's very fitting that we happen to have a lot of people talking about Equity tonight because there is a great disparity between the facilities at New Hanover High School and at the other three traditional high schools and it's because yes new han high school is over a hundred years old it's one of the oldest buildings in North Carolina that's continuously being used but that can no longer be a reason

086as to why we don't invest in the school we must find the money whether it's a Schoolboard Bond whether it's something else we need to find the money to make these schools Equitable and what's more is that when you find the money to invest in New Hanover High School you help the entire County because there is some overcrowding issues at the other high schools but there's also something at New Hanover well new han County and that all of the families that attend high school can elect which high schools they go to because of the specialty programs that each of the traditional high schools have and so when you invest in New Hanover High School you are investing in the county because it will solve some of the overcrowding issues at the other high schools because

087people are self- electing to go to other schools because of what the conditions are at new Hanmer thank you so much Rachel [Applause] ladic hello my name is Rachel helic and my son is a Mosley scholar I'm here to tell you from our experience what the career Readiness Academy at Mosley means to us my husband and I are graduates of Newan schools my son has been Newan County school since kindergarten but he learns differently than me where I had zero difficulties in middle and high school he has struggled he is bright and kind but has a different learning style he has had IEP since kindergarten with ADHD in disg graphia and I'm a mental health professional so let me tell you we've done all the behavior-based therapy can do I'm so sorry kid um and

088the stimulate medications all the evidence-based practices for ADHD and gone to all the specialist all the genetic testing you name it his IEP accommodations have supported been supported him but he does better in a smaller set setting like Mosley he is a freshman and he has transitioned perfectly and he's excelling his report card is the best has ever been like we literally like thought he was like cheating or something like seriously Stellar um if you take those support away from him we are very much thinking that he'll regress the next semester he'll be in honors English that's first for us um I think the smallest stud of the school and what this means to these kids they are not academically gifted they cannot get into this signature programs or the specialty schools most of them

089I know my k mosy was our option for these kids and I have lived the Alternative High School Lan by the way my student is not a behavior problem but he's also not gifted and he will not get the attention he needs to prosper please take this into consideration when making decisions regarding these children's future thank [Applause] you Angela [Applause] this board seems to exhaust every Avenue to silence the public and avoid the conversation that revolves around safety Equity or Title Nine it's mind-blowing that after the sexual assault cases were settled in June you immediately hired a conservative law firm in Bogle that meant losing our title n coordinator unless of course he was willing to conduct reprehensible acts of blatantly refusing to follow federal law for a political agenda everything that has been built

090has been destroyed with regard to Title 9 and we've moved backwards instead of forwards you've forgotten that a key piece of the settlement and at the Forefront for the survivors was to put prevention parameters in place so that this never happens again the victims of those crimes obviously care more than elected officials as they refuse to bargain on that piece of the settlement their goal is to ensure that students are safe from pedophiles despite the board's retaliation and ret traumatizing them our schools are far from safe your negligence and lack of integrity call us our coordinator and then attack the title N9 committee stting that their work is done and it's no longer needed you are aware that the list of Title 9 complaints in need of Investigation continues to be long and was already

091in need of an additional investigator before you lost our coordinator even then you tried to hide it under EDI which you're conveniently now trying to dissolve as well every single concern raised on the title 9 survey that you work so hard to go against us has been annoyed or ignored this survey can indicat that 34s of students who have been sexually assaulted and harassed do not even report it because of the toxic culture that exists in our schools that normalizes sexual abuse and shames victims through the board's abuse of power the survey results painted a clear picture as to how Decades of abuse was allowed to happen and how it will continue on this path without the prevention piece outlined in the settlement our students are at risk and let us not forget that there

092are remaining victims of Michael Kelly that could come forward at any time who have yet to have their day in court and once again highlight the incompetence of New Hanover County schools and keeping students safe I'd say the work of Title 9 committee is thank you [Applause] Paul I'd like to begin with a moment of silence for the countless number of Americans that have died and are still dying to ensure Dr fa up there is able to enjoy all the blessings and Liberties afforded to him under our United States Constitution I have no patience for B Bourgeois Democrats complaining and lecturing us about the history of our founding sir your comments on November 21st were revealing of your contempt for our constitution in this country allow me to educate you on exactly what some of

093those men said set around that table in August of 1787 Oliver Ellsworth from Connecticut said if slavery was to be considered an immoral light we ought to go further and free those already in the country provision is already made in Connecticut for abolishing it and abolition has already taken place in Massachusetts George Mason said every master of slaves is born a petty Tyrant Hugh Williamson from North Carolina said that in both opinion and practice he was against slavery Democrats like Mr fa hold so much contempt for this Constitution and yet it is the Democrat Party that has been responsible for the worst racial atrocities that in our country's history it was the Democrats that were responsible for Jim Crow blocking School doorways segregating the Civil Service under woodro Wilson the KKK was the militant arm

094of the Democrat Party Robert bird a former Clansman himself was a Democrat Senator until 2010 it was the Republican Party formed in the 1850s that fulfilled the promises of our founding against the wishes of Democrats this is the history that's being hidden from our kids you sir have no business being seated at that dis you have no business being in charge of our schools and you have absolutely no business being anywhere near the next generation of Americans thank you thank you m Natasha too I couldn't have said it better myself amen it seems that many of us here are confused about the definition of equity and equality allow me to clear this up Equity is the equal outcome for all despite what effort you give equality is equal opportunity for all get that right outcome

095with equality is actually represented by the effort you put in but I'm sure many of you wouldn't repres understand that over the last 45 years this school district county and City Administration have been Have Spent A significant amount of money on this H what what do you call it the Dei what have we gotten from that what are the results I look at our our school performance we've got what 60% of our kids that are not proficient at math one 40 40% not proficient in reading so this is where it's gotten us as a parent I believe it would be more beneficial to focus on teaching Civics and history content that prepares our student students for Life After School it would certainly be more productive to teach our children using material that recognizes the importance

096of facts and acknowledges the periods in history where Americans have fallen far short of our ideals and the principles that our country was founded on yes we have fallen fall short but this country is founded by men imperfect men in an imperfect World striving to be better and that is what allowed all of us all of you to sit in the position that you sit today Americans have failed to live up to their ideals and the founding principles while not allowing PR periods to demon demonize our national character deconstruct our culture of freedom and equality under the law and turn Americans of different backgrounds against one another thank you you're out we are one thank you you're out of all Americans r at your April town hall meeting I asked would you consider having the

097policy committee review policy 4351 and revise it to allow apparent the right to be present at an informal hearing for their five six or seveny old child either in in person over the phone or on Zoom so what happened well the following month the policy committee met and talked about short-term suspension policy however the committee never discussed love our children's proposal rather they discussed a different proposal that proposal was about all students prek through 12 instead of just five six and seveny olds and it required it required a parent to be present during any meeting instead of giving them the right and therefore the option to be present at their child's informal hearing and that proposal was about what happens after a short-term suspension is imposed rather than before before a principal makes a determination

098to suspend a child well after 25 minutes no action was taken other than to check the box that the committee had talked about the policy and that was eight months ago tonight again love our children asks that the board direct the policy committee to take a thoughtful look at our recommendations for revising ing policy 4351 at their December meeting delaying action will mean that parents will continue to be shut out from participating in an important part of their young child's education thank you thank you Loretta stack [Applause] house one call that is all we're asking asking for before a five six or seven year- old child is kicked out of school have the principal make one call to a parent the parent can get information about their child's behavior and then ask three important questions

099one which Positive Behavior Support Alternatives have been used with my child two is the out of school suspension being used as a last resort three are there any other Positive Behavior Support Alternatives that could be tried the principal will still H has the final say as to whether or not the child is suspended love our children is asking that you revise shortterm policy short-term suspension policy 4351 let five six and seveny old children have the right to have a parent or other representative participate in the discussion with the principal before a determination is made to suspend a child stop treating our youngest Learners like they're criminals their parents love them let them be a part of the conversation parents deserve the opportunity to ask the questions and get the answers before their children are kicked

100out of school that one phone call can make a big difference in a child life love our children and revise policy 4351 and since I have a few seconds suspending stamped didn't stop the book Netflix now has a documentary you don't have to read it anymore you can watch it thank you Miss D house Ley posy Mr wildor point of order would you please remind our audience that they are not allowed to make comments in between speakers or during speakers talks thank you thank you Mr gille U please remember we do not need to have comments let the speaker speak but please do not make comments you can clap afterwards but please uh allow them to speak thank you very much good evening I want to touch briefly on several subjects regard regarding elimination and

101the Constitution did you know that in the early 1990s the North Carolina legislature passed a law requiring that a second language be taught in all grades K12 New Hanover had a great program developing but when the state money ran out the program was quickly eliminated several years ago the district received a grant to start Mosley Academy this amazing program serves kids who need small classes and a specialized environment yet after a brief discussion at the agenda review meeting an assistant superintendent and a couple of board members were able to eliminate the program apparently without any public notice or input from the whole board interesting that this happened just as the grant ran out now there are plans to eliminate the equity diversity and inclusion committee this time it's not about money but politics Miss Mason

102said at the start of the yesterday's meeting that this has been her goal since joining the board actually she's simply parting an idea that has been the goal of one party for years since the district no longer has a title 9 trained attorney I assume you see this is the easiest time to eliminate EDI this affirms to me that your goal is schools that are equal illegally inequitable and exclusive kind of like the schools in the 1930s 40s and 50s I guess you want to follow py versus Ferguson instead of Brown versus the Board of Education is a two or three tier system school system your goal because it certainly sounds like it and one last thing at the policy committee meeting a comment was made that separation of church and state is not in

103the Constitution if I might quote James Madison the author of the Bill of Rights the purpose of the separation of church and state is to keep forever from these Shores the ceaseless Strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries I guess that means if the words aren't there or if you can eliminate them it's the board's intention to return our district to when you think America was great again thank you you're out of time Tim mer thank you good evening a question what is the opposite of equity in Ro's The Source we find dishonesty partiality and Injustice now I understand that the word Equity has taken on a very powerful political symbolism and you may feel compelled to push back against that term on a partisan basis but Equity isn't just

104a word it's not a box to be checked and students and families that are served by New Hanover County Schools don't deserve to be Pawns in anyone's political posturing so many families already struggle daily with the injustices of our system the lack of safety in schools the economic and racial disparities sexual harassment and support for disabilities their needs are not being met they are not being treated equitably during your policy committee last week it was said that your work around EDI was concluded well there are $4.5 million that dispute that claim during the board's strategic planning where Equity was a major concern for parents the board did a swad analysis in which a threat to the success of the EDI program was identified many people people do not understand what Equity means the question is

105do you because if you disband the EDI committee it tells the community that you stand for dishonesty partiality and Injustice please show the community that you stand with us by fully empowering the EDI committee and Title 9 thank you for the opportunity to address this vitally important disc uh topic thank you Mr Merck David Perry hopefully I won't chop my head off in the video tonight hi I'm David Perry I'm soon going to be a candidate for this school board I'll be declaring on Monday but I'm here tonight in support of Mrs Mason's uh uh motion to get rid of the diversity equity and inclusion committee um one of the things that I want to get to First however is I listened to some of what went on in yesterday's committee meeting it was Despicable

106most of the people including Mr mcmanis owe you a big apology but I'm not here for that I'm actually here to tell you a story in 2022 I was in Warsaw Poland on a work assignment it was Easter time so I was looking for a place to go to a service and since my polish is limited to Jean dobre and a couple other words I was looking for an english- speaking service and I found one and I went and one of the things that impressed me right off the bat was the diversity of the congregation there there were people from all over the world there were actually far more Asians Indians Africans and Hispanics there than white people it was actually kind of refreshing but that diversity didn't come from a Dei program or a

107checklist it came naturally through a shared belief that we are all as individuals created in the image of God and that he loves us all equally now I have a 7-year-old grandson who attends Cotton Elementary go cougars and uh you know I don't want him growing up to learn that he is part of some white privileged group oppressor group just because of the color of his skin and I don't want his classmates who might be students of color thinking that they are victims or members of some oppressed plan neither is true when are we going to get to the point that we at least treat our children by the content of their character not the color of their skin I say the time is now I stand with Miss Lisa Mason thank you thank you

108Mr bar Robert bamy Robert Bellamy are you here last call if not then Karen Clark the word of the Lord the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach Good Tidings to the poor he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted to Proclaim Liberty to the captives and the opening of prison doors to those who are bound to comfort all who mourn to give them Beauty for ashes the oil of joy for mourning the Garment of Praise for the spirit of heaviness that they may be called Trees of Righteousness and they shall rebuild the old ruins they shall raise up the former desolations of many generations strangers shall stand and feed your flocks but you shall be named the priests of the Lord they shall call you

109the Servants of our Our God instead of your shame you shall have double honor and instead of confusion you shall rejoice Everlasting Joy shall be yours for I the Lord love Justice I will direct your work in truth all who see you shall acknowledge you that you are the posterity whom the Lord has blessed I will greatly rejoice in the Lord for he is close me with the garments of Salvation and covered me with the robe of righteousness for as the Earth brings forth its Bud as the garden causes the things that are swn in it to Spring forth so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to Spring forth before all nations the word of the Lord thank you Miss Clark um that con includes our call to the audience those of you

110who signed up as alternates we're out of we're out of time and space very very sorry unless no Pat's cutting them off right now but we're we're at 25 that's not in our rules we're we're at discuss are you sure sure that's we either that or we make a motion to allow them to speak Mr I would like to make a motion to allow um the Mosley students to speak um all sign by saying I I all oppos okay 70 Gerald Chavez good evening members good evening members of the Board of Education I want to express my sincere gratitude for giving me the opportunity to address to you today my name is Gerald Chavez and I'm representing I can't hear you oh sorry I want to express my sincere gratitude for giving me the opportunity

111to address you today my name is Gerald Chavis and I'm here to represent a group of students who share a deep concern for the future of our love C at mosle a few days ago we received the BR news of the closure of uh our school was made I went to start by sharing a bit of story of our institution a story of the transform and grow what was on a destinate of school for trouble students mostly has turned into a safe and welcoming space for 70 students includ including myself sorry the cultural diversity of the characters of our school is something that we take pride we come so different corners of the world and this mix of culture were not enrich uh our education experience but also create a unique environmental where we feel

112accepted and understood the news of of the the closer of our school was deeply deeply affected us for many of us cr8 is not just a place for study it's our second home thank [Applause] [Music] you good afternoon my name is Alex Finley and I am a student at CRA I am here today because the decision to close my school is very upsetting not to mention just to me but the other 70 students at the Academy the reason I had to transfer to the school the school was not a good one so I'll make it brief at my districted high school in my freshman year I was sexually assaulted I developed PTSD for my assault and could not bring myself to go my grade suffered greatly I went from an AB Honor Roll student to

113C's and D's I wasn't going to graduate I didn't want to induce my grades I wasn't going to I I didn't feel safe anywhere I gave up on my future however that changed whenever I started going to the career Readiness Academy I felt like I had a safe space I could be myself and I could Thrive for the first time since what happened to me I felt safe my grades drastically increased and I can proudly say that I am starting a college class in the spring semester there are teachers at Mosley that are unlike any other that I have ever had they truly believe in me they treat me with respect and help me however they can I can say with confidence the only reason I have a chance at graduating is because of this

114school this isn't just a school you are shutting down it's a second home to not just me but many others the people here at CRA are not just my friends or my teachers they are my family they have helped me in more ways than they know and I am a functioning member of society because of them I want to be a teacher when I'm older because of the teachers I had there Miss Myers Mr Motley Miss tacket Knox Mr Chandler Miss Reed and Miss Pape have helped me sometimes things that are small like CRA have the biggest impact on people's lives thank you thank you good evening everybody my name is Jeremiah Castillo I'm a junior at Mosley and I've been going there for all three years of high school at first when I was

115in eighth grade I wanted to go to a big high school really bad because I wanted to be with my friends and stuff I didn't really care about school or grades and I didn't really put to mind of what I actually wanted to be when I grow up I didn't actually think about what's after high school and stuff and when I came to Mosley it was kind of the same I didn't like school still it was all just I did everything I wanted at school and I was just a overall bad kid the teachers there made me realize that there's more to life than just having fun you have to work hard to play hard and over there they taught me that uh I can ask for help asking for help is really important because

116sometimes you might not want to but it's what you need and at school it was really hard for me asking for help but I got to overcome it and I got to ask for help and it helped me a lot from going from C's and D's to A's and B's the adversity at Mosley is amazing we have all sorts of countries from Asia to Central America to here in the states we have Brazilian kids we have Jamaican kids we have Caribbean we have Asian kids we have everything there and everybody there feels so comfortable with each other it's a safe haven for everybody here or for everybody there and everybody feels like they can get along good I always liked the school because it was small I don't really like the big schools just because

117there's so much and from what I hear with my friend at that go to the big schools the grading there is I mean so much more harder cuz you don't get as much as attention as you do there at mosle if you don't understand it's so easy to ask for help instead of just going the whole class without understanding what's going on and with that I'd like to conclude everything thank you guys for hearing me thank you hi I am Lacy and I am a sophomore at Career vness Academy and I have concerns about CRA closing next year I feel that we should speak up and have a voice and let you know how much CRA has helped us all C may may be a small as well as others who are small in our

118County but we are all unique in VI variety ways students who struggle with social anxiety may need help and only one and only oneon-one support can help Elevate the problem that problem Mosley always prepared to provide what is needed to handle the this concern and many others immediately larger schools like CAU New Hanover Laney and ashy are so big that these teens may not get one-on-one help as soon as needed because the teachers can't stop what they are doing to help one kid out of 25 to 30 kids in the class but at CRA the wonderful teachers and counselors can do that for us I like it when we need help with some of our work they will sit next to us and help to the fullest they can and when we are having anxiety

119struggling and when we get frustrated we can take take a 5 minute break and that's problem helpful in a regular high school they don't understand that some of us have other mental health problems that we face and we do not do need that extra help thank you thank [Music] you good evening Board of Education members my name is Maria castrop pass and today I'm here representing my peers and myself the students of C at mosy first and foremost most I would like to express my gratitude for giving me the opportunity to speak before you on the matter that deeply affects all of us recently we learned the news that this the decision to close our school it was already made this decision caught us by surprise that we were not given the chance to have

120a voice we're not consulted on how we felt about it I would like to emphasize that our school has undergone a significant transformation in recent years we started as a school helping students with various challenges but over time we have evolved into into a safer and more welcoming environment currently we have around 70 students and though we are small in number this very feature is what makes our school special the small number of students provide us with the opportunity for a more personalized education with smaller classrooms our teachers can focus on each of us individually creating more effective learning environment many of us have faced challenges in other schools and have found in this community a place where we can feel comfortable and safe I didn't feel that in other schools we understand that there

121may be a specific reasons for considering enclosure but we would like to ask you to take into account our experiences and positive impact in this school um we would like the opportunity to have a voice in our opinions and work together to find solutions to benefit others in summary c as at mostly is not a place is not just a place of education for us it is a home where we feel supported and valued we urge you to consider the importance of keeping our school open and listen to the voices of those directly affected thank you for your time and consideration thank [Music] [Applause] you thank you uh that was very brave of you all and I do appreciate each one of you getting up here and speaking uh board members do we need to

122take a quick uh break or yeah maybe a f minute break could we please I have bathro I'm sorry yes yes yes okay I thought you were saying no I have uh 657 let's be back at 702 please uh ladies ladies ladies ladies ladies good to see you okay I got 703 so if I could get uh board members come on back please board members if you'll make your way back please some instruction on how this works CU I can't remember last all right if anyone would take their seats please I'm sorry two two okay all right uh next order of business is the election of board chairperson and vice chair so I will turn the gavl over to our superintendent Dr F Dr F good you I'll go home in a moment I will

123call for nominations for the office of chair of the new han County Board of Education nominations do not require a second if more than one person is nominated the board will vote on nominees in the order of nominations the first person to receive a majority of board members present is elected chair nominations are in the order are in order for the office of board chair are there any nominations I nominate Pete wwor for the next chairman are there any other nominations if not nominations for the board chair are closed we will now vote on nominees or the nominee in the order of the nomination for those in favor of Pete wior as chair say I I those oos say no no Pete wbore is elected Chair by a vote of I'm Sorry Miss um Walker

124I didn't okay didn't vot okay so I'm going to have to have um Miss uh buy do a roll call so that I can put this down in the minutes Miss br Bradford yes Miss Barnhart yes Mr mcmanis yes Mr wbore yes Miss Mason yes Miss Walker and Miss crille no Pete w war is elected Chair by a vote of six to one I now pass the gavl to Mr wildor congratulations thank you sir thank you and before we get to next uh section which is the election of the vice Cher for I would would like to thank my fellow board members for your faith in me and uh I'm going to continue to try to do my very very best uh as I said a year ago uh I'm far from perfect but I

125will try to um do what's right number one by the students of new han County students schools excuse me uh also by all of our faculties our parents uh and by you so hopefully I'll make you proud in the next year and again thank you very much for uh this um the situation in this this nomination at this point uh we I'm going to do as Dr F did read the script and then we'll we'll open up our uh election for vice chair um nominations are in order uh for the office of Vice chair um we will go through we will list out all the nominations which is a little different than we did last year uh at the end of that we will vote in the order that they were listed um and then

126we will continue until there are uh a majority of votes for a person uh and then we will close the nominations at that point uh are there any nominations nominate Stephanie Walker okay we have I heard here first um point of order I Nom J 19 of our handbook it says in order to make a motion you stand to be recognized and I'm the only one standing thank you for that uh Miss Bradford I nominate Josie Barnhart okay Barnhart I heard second Miss Prill we don't have to second no no no I heard your nomination second I stood up first but just yes you did you were quick on understanding um Miss Walker uh also miss Mason I'd like to nominate myself Miss Mason are there other nominations so again right now uh we have

127Miss barnhard Miss Walker and Miss Mason again last call for any other nominations if there are no other nominations the uh nominations for the office of Vice chair is closed um we will go through and uh Miss buoy if you would please call the rooll uh the first is those in favor of Miss Barnhart as Vice chair please call the role wa give me one second let me get my paper ready start there we go go ahead please this is for Miss barnhard Miss raford yes Miss barnhard yes Mr mcmanis no Mr wior yes Miss Mason no Miss Walker and Miss Crill no so that does not pass next we have Miss Walker um so read it so I say it properly those in favor of Miss Walker as Vice chair please say I when

128Miss Buie calls your name Miss Bradford no Miss barnhard yes Mr mcmanis I apologize no no okay all right we'll start over Miss Bradford we'll start again miss Bradford yes no no okay Miss Bradford this is again let let me let's start the whole thing over again because we're kind of confused those in favor of Miss Stephanie Walker as Vice chair please say I I think we need to point of water I think we need to do a roll call on we we're doing that I'm just I'm reading this whole thing again please call I uh when called by Miss buoy I wonder who we vote for this is for Miss Walker one more time this uh right now we are going through nomination for Miss Walker as Vice chair if you say I then

129it's yes and no is no it's not we're going to start with Miss buoy please call the rooll Miss Bradford no Miss Barnhart no Mr mcmanis yes Mr wildor no Miss Mason no Miss Walker yes yes and Miss crille in nonpartisan fashion yes one two one two three okay so that's three that still is not the majority so next we have um those in favor of Miss Melissa Mason as Vice chair please say I those opposed saying no When Miss Buie calls the role Miss Bradford yes Miss barnhard no Mr mcmanis no Mr wior no Miss Mason yes Miss Walker I'm sorry yes and Miss crille no so again that's one two one two three so we go back again we'll start with U Miss Barnhart again let me read the things Mr chair yes

130sir I might suggest that you ask for nominations open the nominations re open the nominations I nominate Stephanie Walker okay it does say here by our thing that we we continue until the nomin is approved by majority so okay we're following the rules as provided here thank you Dr fa so we will start with Miss barnhard uh Second Time Around Miss buy Miss Bradford yes Miss Barnhart yes Mr mcmanis no Mr wior yes Miss Mason no Miss Walker and Miss kille no okay that does not pass uh Miss Walker room here Miss Walker again those in favor Miss Walker as Vice chair please say I those Theos say no Miss Miss Graford no Miss Barnhart no Mr mcmanis yes Mr wbore no Miss Mason no Miss Walker yes yes and Miss Crill yes in nonpartisan

131fashion thank you all right so again we have three votes there those in favor of Miss Mason as Vice chair please say I those opposed say no When Miss Buie calls the role Miss Bradford yes Miss Barnhart no Mr mcmanis no Mr wbor yes Miss Mason yes Miss Walker and Miss crille no and I'm sorry I did not hear Miss Walker no so that's one two three votes again so what's one to to a next round so we'll have Miss Barnhart uh those in favor of Miss barnhard as Vice chair please say I those who oppose say no M Bradford Miss Bradford yes Miss Barnhart yes Mr mcmanis no Mr wilbore yes m Mason no Miss Walker no and Miss kyil no okay again one two three so next will be Miss Walker Miss Bradford

132no Miss barnhard no Mr mcmanis yes Mr wbor no Miss Mason no Miss Walker yes and Miss kill yes in nonpartisan fashion thank you all right uh we will go on to miss Mason so those that are in favor of Miss Mason Vice Chair say I those opposed say no Miss buoy Miss Bradford yes Miss barnhard no Mr mcmanis no Mr wwor yes Miss Mason yes Miss Walker and Miss crille no no and no okay see my paper here all right let's try one more round and then we will take a break and uh Mr will order um how many times do we have to do this is there something in Robert's Rules of Order I wasn't able to find that and Mr Bogle appears to be looking in his manual I know that at

133the end of the day we do not have to come out with a vice vice chair today then I make a motion that we suspend um elections right now and we go with no Vice chair okay there's a motion to suspend is there a second hearing none we will carry on she miss Miss Walker is trying I'm sorry did you second that okay give me like a thumbs or something okay thank you we have a first and second to suspend the vote for vice chair is there any discussion hearing none uh Miss Buie would you call the roll on the motion to suspend the vote for vice chair Miss Bradford no Miss Barnhart no Mr mcmanis yes Mr wbore no Miss Mason no Miss Walker yes and Miss crille yes I can stay all night

134we can all okay so um I am not exactly sure where we were Let's see we got three there so we are on to you said take a vote and you said take a break let's go let's let's go a couple more times so we are m barard is that right Miss barnhard Miss Barnhart so those in favor Miss Barnhart as Vice chair please say I those opposed say no Miss buy working at those vocal cords today sorry U Mr chair yes ma'am point of order um we only allowed 10 minutes for this discussion and we are now at um 13 so um I make a motion that we suspend again according to time okay that's what we always want to do so make a substitute motion to extend the discussion by five minutes we

135have substitute motion sure just so we have first and second to to add five minutes why was I not allowed to make a substitute motion earlier I was called yeah Mr vogo ruled on it it was I don't know anyway we have a motion in front of us to to add five minutes to the discussion all in favor please raise your hand to make it easy for us one two three okay 1 two 3 four there you go so we had five minutes starting now I have 7:18 so we'll be done at 7:23 we have Miss barnhard in front of us those in favor of Miss barnhard as Vice chair please say I those opposed say no Miss buoy Miss Bradford yes Miss barnhard yes Mr mcmanis no Mr wilbor yes Miss Mason no Miss

136Walker no and Miss Crill no okay next we will have those in favor of Miss Walker as Vice chair please say I those opposed say no buy Miss Bradford no Miss Barnhart no Mr mcmanis yes Mr wior no Miss Mason no Miss Walker yes and Miss crille yes okay again nonpartisan fashion sorry yes thank you for sharing that with us again uh those in favor of Miss Mason as Vice chair please say I those opposed say no Miss buoy Miss Bradford yes Miss barnhard yes Mr mcmanis no Mr wbore yes Miss Mason yes Miss Walker no and Miss Crill no Miss Mason congratulations uh that is a 4-3 vote uh Miss Mason is elected vice chair of new Haner County Board of Education at by a vote of 4 to3 congratulations um Miss Mason we're

137going to return to the agenda for the meeting uh we will take a brief break uh to be able to reconfigure so let's take a three minute break if we can do it in three minutes to reconfigure quickly need sh your candy with me thank for being here I got you e spe thank you foring so dently on that our next item of business is consensus item we will be voting on everything the exception of item I and we'll vote on Section I separately Mr McManus is having an eye issue Mr World appoint Mr chair why we're waiting for Miss Walker um can I make a brief announcement oh she's not coming back okay then can I still make a brief announcement um would like to extend a very happy I don't know how old

138birthday um to Mr mcmanis I still got thank you call maturity yeah mature more M mure second first and second any discussion M Prill yes I would like to ask a question about the approval of school Improvement plans based on something we're going to have to talk about tonight so I want to get that question in so I'd like to pull that off okay and that is k k k off also we have I and I all I'll I'll answer that so Theseus for student interns are processed and created as the request for an internship comes in and we would not have any school psychology um interns through Cape Fear Community College and we don't have any current request for school psychology internships hi um yeah thank you um Miss barart sent us an email

139that said um that would that gave us a heads up on policy 1310 that we were going to be talking about today and I'm trying to find the words in her email she mentioned that they had to be we wanted to make sure that they were included in school Improvement plans and um so that's why I want wanted to hold it back and send it to back to the um the I'm I'm reading it because it was in here the um they didn't have districtwide we allow bringing the policy they had the bill you to walk through and okay hold on speaking still reading oh it says as as chair per she didn't mention School Improvement plans that says as policy chair and as I stated I didn't want to pass a policy prior to

140being able to share the operational parts and then in that policy when we F in the policy that we're going to be reading it says that they this parent involvement plan has to be part of the school Improvement plan and so um when I read through the school Improvement plans I didn't look closely for that and I'm just asking the question for clarity um I'm assuming that our executive directors and um our chief academic officer did review those and make sure that there was an adequate parent involvement plan in there I just wanted to make that clear or make that clear to all of us um Miss Crill correct and we're actually um talking with our principles now on weaving in um more items with the school Improvement plan this would not stop us for

141approving the school Improvement plan because if you keep in mind it is a living document tonight what we're doing is were approving the low performing School Improvement plans after having them on the website for feedback from the public and we have not received any so by Statute now we have to um approve them but we are working with our principles to incorporate um parent involvement in the school Improvement plan okay thank you and so I guess that's what my point was when um Miss barnhard had stated that she didn't want to go ahead until the school had had the opp schools and the central office staff had the opportunity to make sure that was happening so um that's what I'm just okay just trying to get a handle on is that are we putting the

142cart before the Apple C the no you whatever that is horse before the apple cart sorry a cart before the horse yes the and so the the school Improvement plan is intrical just like our strategic plans are intrical and I'm sure I mean I know you guys have done a lot a lot of training and updating of our of our principles so I'm guessing that when they um because our school Improvement plans are living documents that they have gone back and put into place so that's what I just want to hear out loud so what we're doing is we do have involvement with school plans but the parent bill right want to even we want to make that stronger so we are actually going through and working with the principles got some information in their

143leadership update to do that with their leadership team it will not approving this policy will not um change anything with that we're asking them to beef up the school Improvement plans parent involvement more in the school Improvement plans that they currently have but as a again the plans living breathing document so this will not Chang anything this is just per statute we have to approve these low performing plans tonight by the date even if they do not have a an adequate parent involvement plan even yes they have to be approved tonight to be in compliance with the law and they do have components of parent involvement um but it's not to the level that we think it should be because a lot of our schools have parent involvement plans that are not W um put

144in Improvement plan so some of them have them separate and we're going to weave it in together so which law is more important the school Improvement plan improve um um approval law or the parental involvement get the wording right law so I can answer that we have to have we have to have the um parent Bill of Rights correct okay and so we continue to work throughout the year in in our school Improvement um uh plans um what we have to understand is that every school looks different final involvement looks different some schools will have more um some schools will have adopted parents who are supported and so I mean you can write it on paper in there but they're not enacting it but what we want to make sure is that they do have

145app parent section in the school um Improvement plan and we come back and we we fill in the blanks later we have to make sure as as it's going because you don't want to overcommit and they don't do it so we have to the the school Improvement plans are that's not a district um it's a school a school and each school will continue to work to get the parent involvement in there um all of these schools um and I should they all the schools the majority of those schools that are listed are title one so they also have a title one plan so they have to have the title One Nights they have to do those things so they have as as Dr facon was saying they will have plans on another um another plan

146that also involves parental involvement so the two mesh so when we bring them together you'll see um a title one plan and you'll also see the school Improvement plan okay I understand that part it doesn't really get to my question but I understand that part the um I'm I'm just kind of looking at do does the do the words really matter because if the words really matter then we have other policies that we're going to get to where words really matter so I'm just trying to figure that part out so what would you like to see in the school Improvement plan no I what I would like to see when it's when it's ready to happen is what the schools are actually going to do I mean I'm not opposed to that at all I

147mean and I'm just asking when when our EDS and our chief academic officer when they review that you know are they reviewing those plans because this is very critical um for the parent um parental rights act I mean they are telling us exactly what we got to do and if we're and um and if we don't do it somebody's in trouble so I don't want our principles to be in trouble I don't want our executive directors to be in trouble you know Dr fac Andor you or us that we have because we essentially are approving these and by approving these we're saying that we agree with everything that's in them and if everything is in them is not accurate um then um I just I'm having a little bit of AA with that but I

148just want somebody to say that somebody's looking at them so we do look at clarify they are accurate they are we don't put this in Fr I'm sorry yeah sorry sorry Dr fac um we do these are accurate this is what's going on and they have to if you'll look by you'll see the dates there dates on there they update those so I don't want us to I want to dispel that these aren't accurate or we're just fudging on it that's not what we're doing and we would never do that no and and I am not I'm not suggesting that we are I was just asking what was the level of review and Mr MCM had a question comment for Simplicity it's a working document that means that you can change it every day you

149can look at it anytime so and and that's the advantage of being a strong document is that you can change nothing is locked in so just thought I'd shared it I'm good with that thank you I'm good thank you okay so we uh at this point uh all we have a I'll make a motion to approve uh item K approve approval of student um approvement M approval of school Improvement plans thank you have a second uh on any other discussion not all in favor please signify by saying I I I all opposed passes 60 moving on to policies we did add policy 1310 we'll do that after uh we do have the policy amendments as provided miss barnhard Mr wber form our discussion and the agenda review I do recall um members wanting to pull

150off 4,300 but I would make a recommendation at this time to pass the policies as presented with the exception of 4,300 so pulling pulling 4,300 uh all the others as provided we have a first and a second any discussion Miss crille yes I want to I made the told you I was going to make the motion that I want to pull it off because we either discuss it here we either hold it until later in the meeting after we've had the EDI discussion or we pull it off and discuss it because um Equitable the the words in there um are not appropriate that that we the words that we are striking are not appropriate to ensure an equitable treatment of all students um Miss barnhard I don't know why she is now saying to push

151it through when she said she would change the words to be ensure dignity respect and fair treatment and point of order I said I to to approve the policies except 4,300 is what the motion 300 off so so we'll discuss it you said no that I made a motion and you said all right that I misunderstood okay so we're going to everything except for 4300 uh is we have a motion I'll second that first and second I think Miss Bradford's already already second it so we have first and second all is there any other discussion if not all in favor of passing all policies with the exception of 4300 uh as provided here please signify by saying I I I all opposed okay that passes 60 we will now discuss 4300 this um Mr crille

152yeah the um I I'll say it again is that I am opposed and I think that our Board needs to discuss the um the item in 4300 which states that we want to strike the words um a ensuring A system that A system that ensures Equitable treatment of all students I'm in favor of every of the other changes presented to us by ncsba and um I just don't think that we want to go down that route of taking out that's why I was trying to get a little bit um specific if words don't really matter then why take these words out okay other discussion on that topic so we're talking about the first paragraph uh what is uh at least the my copy is blue uh sorry yes ma'am Mr chairman I had sent the

153board an email after some conversations with members of being uncomfortable with my suggestion of the insure Equitable treatment I sent an email to the full board and I said I would be willing to add proposed language if it's the will of the board to add ensure dignity respect and fair treatment of all students rather than just simply strike to replace with those verbage and so if that's the will of the board to do that um but I I went into detail in our policy committee meeting when discussing uring Equitable treatment and what does that look like and it came down to a discussion of metrics how do we measure it and the reality is when you look at discipline metrics it comes down to outcome I've been very vocal about we need to be proactive

154and talk about the inputs that we're doing for our students but we've had multiple discussions not just on this Di and work sessions with staff that discipline is a concern and so for me to sit here and say say I know that providing that language is how we get judged by that is the data the outcome data it has nothing to do with the with the input that we're doing with students the interventions the different things that is working on um I had feedback from different staff members one just said looking at how you are consistently implementing discipline it does not take that into account it is it's all about just that end up demographic and so um for me that's where I was coming from if the language of adding those words in what

155I just said ensure dignity respect and fair treatment of all students um helps the Board understand I do believe we're on the same page but knowing that that metric and how that metric is measured of discipline and correlating it to outcome I have a hard time keeping it in there can you say those words one more time please was you proposed ensure dignity respect and fair treatment of all students respect and fair treatment okay is there a second to we have a first and second discussion Miss crille yes so I am drawing a blank and rather than embarrass myself again because I couldn't remember um we had this discussion earlier when we were I think it was talking about maybe the counseling program or another program where Miss barnhard had suggested instead of the word

156Equitable that we put fair and consistent and the board voted that down so why would we now change our mind that um fair and consistent and dignity respect and fair um they're the same thing and I guess I just would like and maybe this comes up in our conversation later but I don't understand the fear of the word equity and what some people on our board our thinking is wrong with meeting students where they are it's our dang mission statement and we're going to go against that just because we don't like these words I mean we're going to have to change so many things you know we have to change our mission our vision our strategic plan just to take out the word Equitable that's like oh my God it's going to go into the

157bad word category you know that if our kid says it you know then they're going to be in trouble I just am having a hard time discipline metrics how do we measure consistent implementation I'm just wondering what staff member told you that it's a that we discipline is about all about the demographic maybe I heard you say that wrong but I can't imagine one person on our staff saying anything about the demographics when considering what discipline is appropriate for a student any other discussion if now we have a motion to uh add the following words to that to policy 4300 ensure dignity respect and fair treatment for all students uh motion and second uh Mr will point of order I just so that we don't make the same mistake again the the motion should be

158strike those words in blue and add these words instead because I messed up and I wasn't given a chance to correct that on policy 23:15 okay so to be correct uh to strike as so I I'm making a motion to change her motion make it more specific and she can do it if she wants strike section the blue section uh number two and then add the words I just read Miss buy would you please call the RO would you please read the words I will read the words one more time absolutely so we're going to strike a system that ensures Equitable treatment of all students and insert ensure dignity respect and fair treatment for all students is that correct M Barnard yes sir thank you we have a first and second uh Miss boy would

159you please call the role Miss Bradford yes Miss Barnhart yes yes Mr mcmanis yes Mr wior yes Miss Mason yes Miss Walker she's not here yeah and Miss crille no so that passes 5 to one now we have to vote on the whole motion which is to accept policy 4300 as amended I'll make that motion second we have a first and second any discussion if not all favor please say I I I all opposed no that passes 5 to one we move on to policy uh 1310 and and I'm happy to lead this discussion to start um Mr wbore policy 402 I had forward it to okay it's up there Perfect When I Was preparing for the policy committee meeting like I said earlier um we had discussed that in our last policy committee meeting

160why it was not on the agenda is that our staff was not ready to roll out and walk through the roll out of everything and so there was a discussion and the committee decided to not bring this policy forth before the board because our staff was not ready to WHL out and we wanted an opportunity to bring it forth when looking at the scheduling as Dr F said he said if this gets on the policy or not not policy the regular agenda 1310 402 then we would not have to have a specially call meeting the plan is still in the policy meeting in December to work through all the mechanics to go through this policy in great detail it'll be the primary focus of the policy meeting in December but this if the board wants

161to gives an opportunity to pass it and be in compliance with the law because the law of the parent spill of Rights says as January 1 we just have to have the policy adopted technically it doesn't say we have to have all all the mechanics implemented we could have passed this policy three months ago and had nothing of the sort so um I personally don't want to do that and I said that I was one of the two committee votes to not bring it forth before policy however I understand with the holiday time there is not nothing in there that I object to I've looked it over in great detail but I would just like the opportunity for our staff to walk through it so that everybody's on the same page so I do think

162this is a little bit backwards but I do respect the suggestion and wanted to bring it forth to you board members tonight for the final say do we have a motion to move forward policy or to accept policy 1310 second no no they need a first we we need a first okay we have a motion to accept policy 13 okay so Bradford with a motion is there a second hearing none that's defeated um so that will stay in policy so we will be calling a meeting special meeting yes Miss crille the um can I just ask before this comes back to the policy committee meeting um and I haven't compared it word for word the are all the things that we're seeing in blue those that are required of us by the bill or are

163any of those words are anything extra added by us we'll go through all of that in policy can we just can we just answer yes or no I I have forwarded the CBA edits to our team and the feedback from them the policy that I shared today everybody's in favor with so to my knowledge I don't know if they might have added a few words here or there but to my knowledge everybody is on the same page and Dr f is confirm agreeing that they're before yes and um Miss vnum and um uh Dr fa and are both um a part of the policy um if either of you want to jump in and share Insight um I have after they speak I have something I want to ask yeah so I'll I'll just share

164um and to kind of clarify for example the parental involvement planning part um the policy as it's as it's written is of course to comply with the um collection of Rights and responsibilities under the parents Bill of Rights and it does say for example in the parent involvement section that the board d directs each principal to ensure that a school Improvement plan um is developed um or develops a plan for the school's parental involvement program so it says you know the board is directing this to be done not that the board is assuring this has already been completed so this is about um future work to be put into place between now and the timelines that come forward in the next um either in um the beginning of 2024 or at the beginning of the

165next school year and for that reason um as a a whole um senior leadership team we have worked through different areas and have built this into our implementation plan for the parents Bill of Rights so I would say this is ready to for us to be um held in compliance I will just um ditto what said and um it just goes back to what we were talking about the school Improvement plans when we were reviewing this policy we wanted to make sure we realized that we wanted to go back and even tighten up our school Improvement plans so everything is fine the way they are it is now but uh we have time to actually do those things and the policy is ready um I don't see a reason why we would hold it because

166we are already in a policy meeting we will be sharing with you the parent um Bill of Rights and overview of the website and the things that we we've done so we feel very comfortable what that we're meeting the requirements more than meeting them M Bradford um Mr chair point of information I think that we defeated talking about it tonight Dr Fon said earlier if we didn't do it tonight then we had to come up with a date I have an extreme problem with those dates in that week can we do this in a zoom meeting rather than an inperson meeting other than that you know you're going to put me in a real F Mr just be so before he speaks before I just need for the board to give us we need to

167we can't walk away without a date okay um and the and sorry and the reason why is so today is the 5th it's got to be done I'm working by the 15th 12 the the six um tomorrow we have um I have one-on ones with board members um we have superintendent advisory committee um on the 7th um I'll be in Raleigh um on the 8th um have one ones we have we're going over the Bill of Rights we have Department budget meetings that's with the staff um and then the next week on the 11th um because remember this is a tight month I have one-on-one with board members um things that we have to do we have the doj town hall um other meetings then I have more one-on ones we have the policy committee

168on the 12th um the the 13 well the the problem is um I mean it can be but my question is what's going to change Mr chair I I make a motion to reconsider um voting on policy 13 1042 is there a second second okay so we have a first and second to reconsider voting 1310 Miss crille so a couple things nobody has said yes or no on did we add any extra words they've just said they're happy with it and I'm okay with that but I did not add any extra words to 1310 thank you so okay so she Julie has Miss baram has gone on record of saying that um and Dr fa I haven't heard her say that but I did hear her say I did not add anything to 1310 as

169well okay thank you um my next point was I did hear Dr fac say I thought I heard Dr facon say that when we talked about this policy um at the policy committee meeting then we would be hearing a plan or hearing an overview and I would like to hear that overview um before I vote on a policy that is even though it's the law I want to hear about it to make sure that we all hear about it um with that so if I misunderstood Dr fac that there's going to be more information provided to us on how we are going to get there then um I want to hear that and if it's ready tonight I'm I will make a motion to extend our time if it's not ready tonight then I want

170to hear it at policy so at at policy what we plan to do is show the website and walk you through the website not the policy um unless the policy is not accepted but the this is the North Car School Board Association po that was adapted and it works this way works all we're doing is going through and the board will have to vote um on a date um to an act is it July not July 1 if it's January 1 there are some acceptance that we have to do that's the only other thing that we have badford um Mr chair is there let me throw out an option here is there any reason why we can't adopt this tonight if we had the votes if it was the pleasure of the board and then

171also put it on the 12 committee meeting to tweak it if necessary and then we can go through all those steps on the 12th but we we're legally compliant tonight okay so we do have a motion second to reconsider uh approving 1310 we've had discussion uh so this is to reconsider to pass 1310 um all those in favor uh please say I I I all those opposed passes 60 it is passed new business uh well M Mr chair Sor I a I think technically you passed the motion to reconsider it and now it's time for you to reconsider it okay I'm sorry yes sir you are correct correct so now we have in front of us the policy 1310 um all those we had do we have a motion to pass that I would make

172a motion to pass policy 1310 42 with the understanding that we will be going through it in depth and the policy committee will have an opportunity to present further details um or questions of concerns and bring it back before the board if necessary okay so there a motions or a second second first and second other discussion if not all in favor please signify by saying I I I all opposed passes 60 new business uh 20242 budget calendar Miss Sutton good evening everyone good evening um I've provided the budget calendar to you for your review um for informational purposes as you know know this is another living document that will adjust as need be um I did want to draw your attention to um in February there is a budget work session that we'll have to

173schedule and so I'll get together with Mr wiar and we'll schedule a time for that um and I'm here to answer any questions if you had questions about the calendar as it is now board members any questions okay thank you none that was easy thank you okay Mr U just when you're about to sit down are the County Commissioners have we we're going to go through a process of meeting so you're still including that potential annual lack of I'm sorry one more time can you say that question again I said we can change or adjust after we meet with the County Commissioners depending on what transpires yes so yes so this document at any point if the um board would like to make adjustments we can do that any other questions board members if not

174move on to Item B under new business which is the career Readiness Academy at Mosley uh I don't know if Dr F or uh Dr facon gonna lead that Dr fac so first I want to make sure that um I start with saying I apologize for any confusion with the presentation at the agenda review um I wish I had done the two separate but um I did not want to um share anything with our parents without sharing with the board that when we looked at our data and the discussion and looked at um mosle when I say data I'm talking about the number of students and um we have tried in the past to actually increase the number that the best thing we felt was to develop individualized plans for the 52 students that would

175be left there and make sure that they we could work with a counselor and the schools are special small schools to see if they could go that route um and I did not make that clear at the agenda review and I AP for that that has nothing to do with the newcomer school that is still hypothetical and depending on a number of things but when we look at um our students and go back and at the history of the school we felt it was for these students um to be able to get some other opportunities and just best overall for the district so I want to apologize with that and I'll ask answer any questions we had spoken with the teachers we do have a plan I spoke actually had a chance to speak with

176Miss Wooten today um about the opportunities for some of the students to um have the opportunity to go to wax we have already spoken um with our other specialty schools and we want to make sure we give these students a preference and um to this because we know that they um benefit from that small environment we will also be meeting with parents um individually Miss G PA who is the Innovative supervisor of specialty programs she is working with the teachers and the students there to make Transition plans we are really try we do individual planning for each and every student to make sure they land in the best place for them I'm going to start now go to someone else I'm I'm still a little confused because you know we talked about last week we're

177going to have this other school that's going to be there possibly and all a sudden within a week all a sudden it's happening and we're you know this kind of thing so I'm confused um exactly you know when are you going to present to the board or are you going to present to the board a full plan you know because these students are very important uh all our students are but these students are very very important uh and I think I'm not speaking for everyone in the board but I'm speaking for myself my heart went out to them today for sure I I I don't think there's anybody that would disagree with maybe there would be um but I think we need to have a consent a full Plan before we start deciding to close

178schools and and that kind of thing I think that needs to be brought to the board um but stford thank you Mr chairman um I've joted three notes as a board member I did not know about this I was not consulted and I made no vote I want to make that clear some speaker said tonight three board members did such and such I didn't know and I and I believe that my fellow board members didn't know either um second we heard on Tuesday a suggestion and at some point between Tuesday and Thursday parents got letters that said very coldly your school was closing and you were going to be relocated the com lack of compassion in that I apologize for it I really do you guys um it wasn't what I would have liked to

179have seen happen if we had voted to close your school so um I I I hope we you know we talk we talk all about inclusivity all the time but it wasn't very inclusive that letter that you got that said we're closing your school sorry it didn't even say sorry um and number three I would ask central office staff is there any other option than we heard from five students tonight who were extremely upset I know out of 60 that's not a a huge number but they're extremely upset and and I'd like to know is there any other option in what you're planning it kind kind of look like you've been planning this for quite some time and I just want to make sure that this is the only way you can possibly do this

180and that these kids are taken care of I can tell you miss I'm sorry I oh saying something I can tell you miss Bradford that the students we really want to work with each and every student again I apologize olog because I think I thought today that we were sharing that for our the recommendation and where we were moving forward with that I think the confusion with newcomers got into that so that was the intent um as far as an other option that is why we want to work with the students and get them to like I said the other specialty that we have that have that small feel as much as possible Miss Mason um as a parent I had a hard time listening to the mom who was here who was expressing her

181concerns and it really actually just very much reminded me of my own experience when my children were redistricted and I don't want that for these kids because it was a difficult thing for my family and I'm sure it would be a difficult thing for them as as well other board members I just wanted to add that um Dr F explain to us what happened wasn't happy about it that's not my decision that's his um I do want to seek alternatives for our Mosley students to be placed in a school where they can succeed and Thrive and um so whatever that looks like I will support but um it is going to come at a cost and I I know we we've heard that what how much is too much but I I I really just

182want those students to be where they should be um to be successful I was a part of communities in schools when the CR with the career Readiness Academy was brought to Mosley in 2008 um in conjunction with grant money from the Bill Gates Foundation and um it was operated you know in partnership with communities and schools until 2015 when the school district um decided that um that we didn't need communities and schools there anymore because they had enough supports and that was fine so I just um I my heart goes out for these kids um Equitable treatment we have some of us up here saying that they wouldn't want that for their kids well there's a lot of things that um we're about to dissolve um that we I don't want those for any kids

183so I don't think we can have it you know both ways we're going to have to just figure out what is best for this student population and I trust that the school system is going to do that and look at Alternatives you know at Tech maybe at new Handover in their own special area um we created this school for a reason and now we're we're giving it up and I I hate to say that I mean I I I read everything that Dr F told us and I understand it I absorbed it but when it comes right down to it you know I thought of the Williston example where those kids weren't given the opportunity to graduate from their high school we just moved them and this kind of felt like that the um I'm

184just wondering why we took in a freshman class knowing that the school wasn't was considered to be not viable um maybe there's something we can do but we're going to have to do um and this Miss Bradford in your in your finance committee discussions you know and and our talks with um oneon-one with the senior staff and do well Dr fa you know we're going to have to um we're going to have to weigh some things figure out how best it fits in m missart m MCM Mr chairman I I don't know if this is a maybe this is appropriate question that is not really going to be answered tonight but something that can look in and then the board can be better informed but it it came up a few months ago about the

185Rise program and how can we duplicate that at different schools and I've when I've talked to different admins um they've they've talked about you know sometimes it would be a great idea even if there was a school within a school and so if um I understand the feasibility and transportation and stuff like that but when we're looking at the development plan I wonder if there's you know when you're when you guys are looking for ideas and suggestions to be able to present to us to kind of have that kind of roll out of potentially a school within a school that's maybe I might look different on location to location and I don't I don't know if this a is a directive but but um when when we're brainstorming and trying to problem solve and I

186understand um you know we we were given certain teacher ratios and things we have to do with the best of our abilities but that was one um feedback and really interesting conversation that I had with the principal to say is there a way that we can do that so that they can be responsive to the needs of their students and so um hearing the conversation tonight I value it I just I would like the board maybe just to have a consensus to say I'd like to look into that and see what you guys come up with because we have a team of really hardworking staff and so to be cognizant of being responsive to the needs of students and what does that look like with the budget that we're given I think is one way

187we can move forward thank you m barart Mr mcmanis it appears to me that discuss have somehow budget and finan I remember I read this went from where we received $150,000 year gr and so when it's switched over lost we still receive some federal money it's a different pot of money but we still receive some money um specific to that school may I ask how much it is we're receiving compared to what we were rece it's still around 150,000 okay um but that Grant is getting ready to end at the end of this year too so so am I understanding that losing that grant mean we'd have to find $150,000 it's actually 350 sorry 350,000 3 this year yes approximately okay well I Bard we probably need to have a discussion about all this I'd

188like to make you know so we have everything that we can to there's a lot of stuff out there I don't think we all grasping right now i' would like to make a suggestion or a motion that we uh put this on our January um meeting Workshop work session no not work session our our meeting so we can re so it doesn't you know go out of our minds well we can readdress exactly how you know we are looking at um you know taking care of the students uh from Mosley second we have a first to put this back was that a motion or a suggestion that was a motion okay motion to um keep the career Readiness Academy at Mosley discussion uh to pick it up in the January meeting and we have a

189first and second any discussion Miss barard my only discussion I mean going off of what I just talked to M Mr mcmanis so potentially exploring the options if you were to look at a variety of things would you be prepared for a January to really have some quality suggestions so so I'm just going to jump in um we're continually discussing how to address the prioritized needs of our students across the board and when we are aware of prioritized needs we have to figure out how to balance and we would love for that not to include budget and finance I'm not going to look at Ashley when I say that we would love for it not to include that because we would love to think and to and to know that we're funded to be able

190to do everything that we believe is important for every single student so I I want to issue a commitment openly for our students that we will do everything possible to match them with the programs that also still provide them supports but we also have to realize that it's not about necessarily removing a program it's about understanding there's a prioriti there's a priority need or a more substantial need or an equally important need maybe more important need for students such as a newcomer School such as students with extreme um challenging um extensive not expensive but extensive disabilities that need programs and we have to balance all of that and those are really tough discussions they're tough decisions and we know they they impact individual student lives individual students families so that dialogue matching that support to

191every student is going to be extremely important and um this has been you know discussion over time and how to match student needs with the services and resources that we have so given that we we don't have endless resources it's about matching and and um of course we'll be ready to talk about and I'm going to speak for my team um and Dr fac and Dr F and the rest that we'll be ready to talk about what we know about our student needs um but we also want to make sure we're having those conversations with our students their teachers the staff the families to make sure that that match happens okay M just because I'm trying to put it all perspective and I hate to throw you in the bus um the charter school Arena

192which has been expanded now from the latest legislation um what amount of money did was taken out of our funds this past year for the charter school because we have to pay for it if you're domiciled in our County it was a little over 7 million so we spent $7 million last year for the charter school Arena as my understanding correct the year that the bunnies almost doubled it will be higher this year um I depending on income Bud expanded to income Arena right because in the past virtual Charter Schools received a lower amount um it was just 790 um per student and now they get the same allocation as traditional charter schools so that's going to go up quite a bit so we can consider those million that we could use to keep whatever

193school and who passed that legislation I'm not trying to be smart I'm just trying to be let you know what's going on that money comes from us every single child that's domiciled can go to school in Texas and we have to pay for it if they done us out here so just just so people understand some again how finances Force our hand or don't give us the opportunity to force our hand okay we have a motion in second in front of us to uh move the career or to keep the career Readiness Academy at Mosley discussion uh and move it to Old business in January um I think it's postponed the words you're looking for well no because we're going to we're just going to do it again so we want to hear what's what's

194going to happen so it's not to postpone where we've had the discussion we want to do it again so it's to redo I guess is the proper one um all in favor please signify by saying I iOS Z we move down to uh letter C Equity diversity inclusion committee start can we have everyone mute their mic feed if you're speaking then turn your mic on if not um please mute it it's giv feedback all righty that's what was in my ear okay at this point uh we have our Equity diversity inclusion committee discussion Miss Mason um I'd like to make a motion to dissolve the EDI committee as of January during the agenda review meeting I believe it was October we discussed the Ed EDI committee at length and at that meeting sorry at that

195meeting an invitation was extended to the board members who are not on the committee to come and see what was um going on in that committee to come and understand and even though many of us who aren't on that committee watch it online um there was an invitation laid down come almost like a challenge so I came last night and immediately upon arriving before I could even put my things down I was disrespected by someone here a School employee in addition no single committee me member or my fellow board members who had invited me to be there were welcoming there was no professionalism or control of self on display last night except for the sole central office representative Dr Barnes who was present from the committee the only exception to this was a solitary Committee

196Member who had an exchange a pleasant exchange with me shook my hand at the end of the meeting it was a dis graceful display of temper tantrum uh my comments are on record from the October meeting I said if we are going to keep the committee it needed to be reorganized to be more inclusive of our multi language students ml students for those who keep up with their AC acronyms military family students homeless students immigrant students I.E all students so I came and I saw I was very disappointed I was appalled I saw no appreciation of diversity of thought I saw no inclusion I saw a great deal of hate Vice chair Mason is due an apology after what I saw and heard last night I am not in favor of continuing this committee I

197will vote to disband it and if I could hear anyone speak in favor of keeping EDI M graville you first okay so well first of all I may have to step out for a minute my heart is palpitating right now and um so I'm I'm just going to try and and break I'm going to try if I could leave my yeah hands to yourself on your own microphone um so miss Bradford was there and she was on her phone the whole time didn't even make eye contact with anybody during the meeting no Miss Bradford poo point of order on you let me just talk oh my God God sorry I apologize but I can I keep going miss Mason refused to acknowledge why she wanted the EDI committee why she even ran on the platform

198of not having EDI when asked several times she said that the committee is not doing anything the Strategic plan we only have one goal and it has been accomplished we have no forward momentum I don't want to waste people's time when several committee members there was no hate in that room and there was no disrespect and anybody can go back and watch the people on that committee were very respectful in the way they presented their topics one of the one topic was one Counterpoint to that that was brought up was so are we saying that if if if a committee doesn't work and it didn't meet its goal then we're getting rid of it and we're just striking it out of a strategic plan um do we do we did we say that just because

199we've met our goal now we take our eye off of it um we talked about EC disproportionality and least restrictive environment um we talked about well I shouldn't say we I was The Listener I was invited and I sat in the audience like we do at other board committee meetings like policy you know people don't come we we can sit up here on the dis but at one point several people asked Miss Mason to step down from her committee because if she wasn't happy with the way the committee was going why didn't she lead us in a better Direction the um somebody said oh miss Mason said we need an audit to identify all the inaccuracies in local data and she was asked what inaccuracies are you talking about and she didn't want to answer

200that the um she said that she had interviewed people and the words came to mind who was your authoritative source that you went to for feedback the um another board member I mean another Committee Member who is not a school system employee had done research and showed that the top 12 schools in our district I mean in our state all have EDI officers um they may not have a committee because they may not need a committee but when asked also where do you see us going what is the alternative if we get rid of EDI committee do you see us having a school advisory do you see us having any other um Avenue for these voices to be heard and especially if the board votes and decides in our budget that we are not going

201to have an office of of EDI anymore so then who's in charge the the beauty of the title 9 committee is that we do we have a title 9 coordinator whose job specifically it is to manage and oversee this and make recommendations to the superintendent if we take away the EDI board committee there's nobody to advise and if we take away our chief Equity office officer there's nobody to advise um actually there's a lot of people to advise but nobody has the the buck stops and the buck will stop with our superintendent I also just want to make the point that we have heard so many even of our agenda items about where equity and diversity and inclusion are important and it's work we're already doing we want to bring a newcomer school that has

202Equity diversity and incl inclusion written all over it we we we talk about we have great programs for recruiting and retaining teachers um trying to make sure that our teachers students have teachers that look like them and they can relate to so I am happy that we're doing that but um there are just so many I mean you have to listen I was writing notes you know as fast as I could write notes the um about that so it was just I I think the committee made all very good points they even and you can see it at your desk and it was even emailed to us this morning that the questions that the committee brought forth and the community had given input to the members of the committee and I don't even see us

203even taking the time to discuss those so um I I'm I'm just having like a real hard time with us saying that we want what's best for all of our students every student no matter what demographic you fall into whether we report to this the state or the feds or not it's the right thing to do miss vnum just said that that we were going to make it make it work for our students in whatever capacity we can and to I'm not saying that we we that disbanding this committee would be the end all Beall but we have to have a plan in place and I think it's just very short sided of us to and for all the people out there listening that are thinking my voice is now not going to be heard

204and my voice and my opinions don't matter where are we on time as as far as this goes well we right ahead so with that being said I'd like to make a motion to continue discussion okay for 10 more minutes 10 more minutes all second first and second all in favor of bring 10 minutes at this point 10 minutes I I I all oppos We'll add 10 minutes to this Miss Mason so I have two rules here um the meeting last night was discussed so I will take that role uh first um I attended that meeting I'm not really going to discuss um how it went um [Music] I did not feel respected but despite that I sat and I listened and I took notes and I did what I've been doing for the past

205year I listened and I took notes um there were two motions made throughout the entirety of our my my tenure on that board um and the two motions were made last night the two motions were the board recommends to keep EDI active and engaged and the um committee I'm sorry the committee recommends to keep EDI active and engaged and the committee uh recommends that we answer questions posed by the committee the list the questions that I passed out this evening are updated the highlighted questions were added um later in the day on that it is discussed that we have they're willing to um let us do research and to um find out more information up for up to six months so in that message um we don't have to answer these questions tonight they asked

206for them to be answered by the end of the school year taking that hat off and sitting as an individual on this particular board there is an overlap of the committee work between the EDI committee and other committees within the district EC committee addresses our exceptional kids AIG committee addresses our AIG students we have services and support for military families I receive emails and um information about military support because I am a military family we re there are there is support for um our multi- language learner families and for our underserved populations we have support for that and the question has been raised to me where is the accountability going to come from well we do already have things in place that do hold our district accountable we have an HR department that brings any

207and all concerns to us as a board when they arise and we have ethics 360 for our students as well so we do have the ability to make sure that our students are treated fairly and that they are receiving what they need um I just don't see a need for the overlap thank you first let me address Miss Bradford since she she's going to claim a point of order and I'm going to claim a point of order back because she opened the door for this conversation by saying that she history three board members here ran and were elected they ran to do away with the EDI committee they've admitted that I've actually shared that here at the board with the GOP message if you go back and search what they ran on and that was

208their choice and they got elected but it just didn't happen it just wasn't because of one or two or three incidents this was planned from the beginning when I've been on point of order point of order back you can't talk about our motive okay well the fact is well they rule and put me out three board members ran against it there's four they're going to vote against it it's the done deal and when somebody surprises and said something when they've been in the leadership position for a full year and really has never discussed and I won't go into the rest of it but if you want to know about it you can watch watched last night and and judge for yourself what you believe what you don't which I did watch from home uh we

209have six goals or pillars in our strategic plan we have one board member that talks about and I think it is uh very important the Strategic plan we only have one board level committee currently from the six goals in our strategic plan much like the US Constitution is the backbone of our of our society we need to follow strategic plan or we need to change it three as a member mentioned last meeting EDI was ranked as high as fourth but in the past years we have adopted strategic plan student safety supportive environment and academic performance have constantly and consistently ranked higher but we have no board level meeting for uh board level committee for any of them and you think about it you know there was a murder uh not anywhere in New hver County

210but you know not not too far 2 hours up the road we had guns on our campuses last year we had a shooting on our campus but we don't have a school level a board level uh Safety Committee two boards two boards ago we had several work sessions led by one of our current members um we had discussions about all the board level committees they were all looked at and the legislative committee was actually developed and if you will remember um you know that in the 2020 budget our superintendent passed a budget that did not have any Chief EDI officer but was redirected to submit a budget that did contain that and to speak to uh a moot or a comment that was made last night and then again just I took some time today

211and look through Big 12 uh pit County does not have an EDI committee anzo County which is the closest of the Big 12 to us no Robertson County I don't believe so B County no cabis no Gaston County no pck County under construction uh aridell no Harnet no uh Davidson no Kataba no so uh the comment that the lady made last night I'm not sure if that was factual or not that the top of the big F the Big 12 actually do that could be but uh out of the Big 12 the ones that are closest to us in size do not have an EDI committee so just to let you know you know I'm just presenting the facts on that one miss crille point of order I hav spok oh I'm sorry I'm sorry

212I did not know yes ma'am you speak and then Mr gra speaks second time thank you Mr chairman I have brought up concerns from the beginning and have been vocal about the concern about the focus on the outcome versus input um when I asked to have a work session discussion I openly said there are things when we discuss Equitable opportunities that we can do with or without using the word that I have supported one of the things that I believe it's this just from memory that are board passed but we unanimously said that we were going to write it into policy to ensure that we had multiple language access to every single translation of text and email and calls that were going out so that was something that we were cognizant of and it's because

213the awareness of our populations that we serve and I agree with that we have said mulp times that the work is being done by people already in charge so Dr fa has a principal Round Table classified staff he's got a student counsel now a par parental involvement advisory committee that he gets and gleans input from that these people help make decisions that run our school district so I I understand the sentiment because there was a lot of passion in 2020 2019 when this committee was created um in the heavy emphasis on race and sexuality I mean if we back up to the Inception of where we were I openly Express frustration with that narrow Focus two months ago I brought up saying after hearing a demonstration from our staff this is what we are required

214to submit to the state and federal I said in my mind that is the scope and lens that we need to be evaluating how we are doing things and looking at those demographics I expressed that and was openly criticized and questioned by it the reality is because we have not been able to work together and to have conversations this is why we're at the point here of making a decision tonight um so I do support I'm going to be open about this realigning the Strategic plan and I'm asking for the boardon to consider having Dr F and team reevaluate based on those demographics that we have to submit to the state and federal level and if there's anything that there is a recommendation of changing I think it should be brought forth before the board

215as well than M crille and just to let you know we have two minutes left I can get this in a minute um the first thing um I just want to make a note when this committee was started in 2019 Lisa eastep Republican David Wartman Republican um Janette Nichols Republican bill Ryan Republican um Lisa and David were chair and vice chair at that time Nelson Buller and Judy Justice were also on the committee there was it it was a unanimous vote that we needed to put some concentration on it we weren't talking about sexuality we were talking about sexual misconduct at that time and I also too just want to to bring forth is that our board protocol says that our board committees are advisory and therefore they have no um they have no Authority

216but we have upheld within this board the sanctity of that that we listen to the recommendation of committees and we act upon them so miss Mason is bringing forth her own personal recommendation she's not bringing forth a recommendation from the committee and I just want us to think about that if we're going to if we're going to seek advisory seek information in advisory capacity then we owe it to the people to at least listen and part of that is answer the questions um as best we can um perhaps not all the details we probably we don't have all of those we don't have to create reports to satisfy you know um people's people's requests but we do I think owe it to committees to discuss things with them all right we have a motion and

217a second in front of us to disband the EDI committee uh Miss buy would you please call the role Mr chair before she does sir just as a matter of clarification because uh policy 2230 called board committees lists the EDI committee as one of the standing committees it it wasn't mentioned in Miss Mason's motion but is the motion understood to change the language and that policy yes yes sir point of order yes ma'am is our attorney part of this board no he cannot make those recommendations he can talk to us in close session but I don't believe that that was an appropriate comment Mr I think he was advising me so that we have this properly done he was advising Miss Mason to change her motion he was said he I'm not argue thank you

218we have a motion in a second in front of us would you read it absolutely motion is to dissolve the EDI committee as of January 1st 2024 and to change the language in are you adding that Miss Mason that's not part of her motion I'd like to amend my motion thank you to change policy as it pertains to this2 could you read your motion again with all of that written please hold my motion to add as a whole I make a motion to dissolve the EDI committee as of January 1st 20124 with the change to policy 2230 to be made at the next policy meeting second you have a first and second on that so I guess let me ask Mr vogle uh we would need to um discuss discuss the amendment and then the

219thing or just as a whole she made a motion it was to amend it's been seconded so the discussion is on the amendment on the amend very good thank you m crille I would like to amend the motion to say that we table the vote on the EDI committee until such time as the policy committee reviews policy on board committees okay there's a motions there a second okay we have a first and a second any discussion of that if not miss bu so this is to uh Miss kill's motion to table this motion until as she provided uh the policy committee can uh change I have one point of discussion Mr chairman that was not brought up at all when the title 9 committee was brought forth per U my board memb request to do

220that and so I don't understand why this is similar fashion other discussion yeah the um I brought it up for discussion I didn't bring it up for a vote and we tabled the discussion and you told me it was going to be on this agenda and it was not and I asked you and Dr fa twice could we have a report so that we could talk about it because I know that we have to change that policy and so I never asked for a vote I gave I talked I wanted to talk about it so that is not equal and it's not the same Miss Buie would you this is again on the the uh motion to table please call the role Miss Bradford no Miss barnhard no Mr mcmanis Mr wbore no Miss Mason

221no and Miss kill no oh wait a minute yes table sorry table okay voting no that that fails um four to two so we will carry on with the other motion that's in front of us would you want me to read it you read it go ahead okay this is the amendment um to change policy 2230 to be made at next policy meeting any discussion if that wasn't the motion the motion was the whole big long thing but this is we're talking about the amendment the amendment separate so um M you Mr pleas yes sir Mr CH can I just ask for clarification the the the amendment Miss Mason's Amendment to the to the main motion is to do what to policy 2230 to with the change to Pol with uh with the change to

222policy 2230 to be made at the next policy meeting so basically to change the policy that is directly tied to policy to but it doesn't say that it doesn't say that it does say it right here she didn't say she said to look at the policy she didn't say what to do with it no we have to be specific on this because we're taking away one of the most important things that we do thank you Mr V Mr I'm I I personally I'm having trouble understanding because is is is the intent to change the policy language today or is the intent to not change the policy language today Mason to my understanding the process is that it goes through policy I may be incorrect so I was referring it to the policy committee so that

223they can make the necessary changes that reflect the motion okay I think I understand Mr chairman that the that the motion to amend the main motion the main motion said to dissolve the EDI committee and the amendment would be and with respect to policy 2300 to put it on the policy committee's next agenda right that's what I'm thank you y okay can I ask a question to that Mr vogle so let's just say it comes to policy and we don't approve it but we've already approved this so the we're again we're putting the cart before the horse and we and one of our policy says I don't have time to look it up I don't have my mouse and I'm not good with my hand thing but one of our policies says that we are

224not allowed to um change policies when we add it to the agenda it has to be noticed so if we are going to again we're back at trying to approve something before it's written down so I object to that added motion I think that the um we'll have to just address that separately barard I'd like to speak to that point Mr chairman we are not changing the policy on the dis in the motion the interpretation is to bring that policy to committee at which time we and a policy committee will take care of that so it is not changing the policy right now I do I do agree with my colleague that we are not allowed to put something on the agenda and and change the policy at the same time that is not what

225is happening there has been a motion to terminate a committee and then also in turn update the policy in a future meeting all right so we have a motion and a second in front of us to uh I'll read the whole motion again I make a motion to disolve or motions made to disolve the EDI committee as of January 1st 2024 with a change to policy 20230 to be made at the next policy meeting we have a first and second Miss buoy would you please call the role Miss Bradford yes Miss barnhard yes Mr mcmanis no Mr wbore yes Miss Mason yes and Miss crille no not following passes to2 um that is passed yeah that was the whole thing Mr chair I think I think now you take up the main motion because that

226that was a motion to amend M motion to amend all right so let's go through that again so the whole motion as I read uh the motion is made to dissolve the EDI committee as of Jan anary 1st 2024 with the change to policy 2230 to be made at the next policy meeting boo would you please call the role Miss Bradford yes Miss barnhard yes Mr mcmanis no Mr ww war yes Miss Mason yes and Miss kille no okay again passes for to two we will carry on with old business seeing we have none uh correspondence anyone have any correspondence to share Miss Bradford I mean Miss Barnhart excuse me I have one I just want to say thank you um there were School meals for all had extended an invitation to us to come

227to uh paint and advocacy night and so I was able to attend and speak with the directors there we actually have two School ambassadors one at Laney and one at new hanor high school um they're both in the process of doing a food drive but I just want to say thank you again for the invitation I'm proud of our students for that M gra see your hand up yes um I wanted to take time to thank every everybody um in the community who has taken their time um and to provide us with their insights on many of the things that we have been discussing of late in particular um their voice on equity in diversity and inclusion I wanted to um say congratulations to our new officers and encourage them to take the nonpartisan board

228Officers Training Academy that the ncn ncsba is offering on January the 18th and I also want to commend our School District um ananya Jordan I think I think she's still an employee but if she's not she's listening um the with um for taking the lead on getting the darkness to light class um I attended that class at one of our high schools um it was very informative and I would hope that um the board would reconsider my request to have us all sit through that training and any of the other trainings that our staff are taking in order to make the our students lives better thank you Miss Grille M Bradford I I don't know if Dr faon is still on but perhaps Dr F can help us we have some specialty school um open

229house coming and the the date it's in January but I just wanted to to to put that out there um Dr fac are you still on does anyone else in the district have that information I just can't pull it up I'm sorry I was trying to I'm still on um the specialty school information of the date and and what's happening with the what is it eight different schools yeah so we actually have a specialty fair for our specialty schools our year round school Tech and those specialy schools and is January the 20th it will be at the Boe from 10 to 1 for all of our parents to come out and the wonderful op that we have thank you Dr fa yes um I I have one more thing um this is our last board

230meeting before the end of the year and I just have three little words of wisdom the mouth should have three gate Keepers is it true is it kind and is it necessary NE okay thank you anybody else if not uh some announcements the curriculum uh committee will be be held on Monday December 11th uh 2023 at 3:45 in the Board of Education Center the general public will have an option to view remotely on the new han county TV YouTube policy committee will be meeting on Tuesday December 12th 2023 at 1:00 at the Board of Education Center again the general public will have the option to view remotely uh on the new han county TV YouTube and there's also the networking legislative lunch on the 13th as well the networking legislative lunch on 13th here at

231the Board of Education anything else if not um because of time we will not have a closed session today we will have to put the postpone that until next month and have to vote on that since it's on the agenda and we approved it but it said is if it says if needed we do okay no yeah I was not in my head I agree with you it says if needed thank you okay um so at that point I will entertain a motion moved is there a second second first and second any discussion if not all in favor please signify by saying I I we are adjourned