001ask question how are you it's only in the things you thought he welcome everyone this evening uh very glad you are here uh joining us for our town hall this evening we uh want to thank everyone for coming want to thank our central office staff for all their hard work and getting putting this together want to thank our uh students and also our uh faculty members uh after a long day coming out here and joining us so thank you thank you thank you I'm looking forward to a wonderful evening um we will actually ask for the call uh a roll call at this point please Stephanie Walker here Hugh mcmanis here Melissa Mason here Pete wior present Josie Barnhart here Stephanie crel here all right at this time I've asked Mr mcmanis to lead us
002in the Pledge of Allegiance Mr mcmanis aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you uh next our next uh point of uh business is is the approval of the agenda do I hear a motion to approve the agenda I move we approve the agenda we have a first second we have a first and second any discussion if not all in favor please signify by saying I I I all opposed passes six to zero um our MC for this evening is Mr Cala um I'll turn it over to you at this time thank you sir hey good evening everybody I'm Sal Cardella I'm the chief Communications officer for new Handover County Schools we
003had a slight delay at the the door there's still people coming in but okay this is going to be fairly easy um on behalf of new Handover County School Board welcome and thank you for your interest and active involvement in tonight's Roundtable discussions on school culture and creating a supportive environment for teachers students and staff now the format tonight is made up of a diverse blend of school personnel and interested members of the community and is an invaluable opportunity to share success provide feedback and offer solutions for improvement now there are two sessions so that means 54 seats 27 seats per session available to the community members uh we had 34 online sign up it doesn't mean that they'll show up but they did sign up and we're going to do our best as people
004start trickling in to fill all these empty seats now in addition to the signup the second session there'll be a sign up sheet at the door for that second session so anybody that shows up they can sign up for that and participate and if there's enough seats available for those who participated in the first session you're more than welcome to stay for the second one uh there are three tables and uh to facilitate focused and productive dialogue we have organized the three tables each with nine available seats for community members this Arrangement has been specifically designed to maintain and by arrangement I mean you know the physical proximity of these tables so that way we can optimize the effectiveness of each group's dialogue while minimizing the background noise and that's crucial because you'll notice at
005the tables there are microphones and if you didn't know uh they've been on this whole time so whatever you're talking about we got you all right throughout the event our board members will circulate among the tables dedicating 15 minutes each so these all right right hello there will be okay well we did that did the bear sign up that's that's pretty cool bear won't see fine okay um let me get back to it so 15 minutes per table so the board members will circulate for those 15 minutes and that way you you will all have an opportunity to speak to each one of the board members but it's for a very short time um all other attendees you're expected to remain at the table so while the board members are moving around um and and
006of course you know if you need to take care of business go right ahead um the second session same exact thing so if you want to stay for the second session and there's available seats it's going to be the same ground rules the insights and perspectives shared during these discussions are of immense value to the school board as they contribute sign significantly to the Strategic goals and the betterment of the district so what you talk about here tonight is very important and we definitely appreciate you being here I'm willing to talk about it's important to keep to the time limit set the discussions at each table as noted they will be recorded and those recordings will be made available on our YouTube channel so you know shortly after if not tonight by tomorrow morning they'll
007be available each each table labeled um okay so here's some ground rules that I must go over we kindly request that all attendees observe respectful behavior in accordance with the New Hanover County Board of Education call to the audience procedures and rules of decorum so silence all cell phones during the discussions you can have them on just just need to have them silenced remain respectful and courteous to all in attendance refrain from using language that is lewd or obscene shouting calling out Andor making disrupted noises during discussions that that's prohibited and keep the discussions focused on school culture and to create a supportive environment for teachers and student staff which is one of our strategic goals for the district now the list should be on the screens so it looks like we've got all tables
008do we have any empty seats at this time there's okay that one of those seats is mock okay so we have one there's one two one so and three so do we have anybody in the audience that would like to take that the bear also can speak for itself okay well if that's the case thanks again for your participation the 50-minute clock will start now thank you so we began do do we want to introduce everyone who a good idea yes okay um I guess I'll go ahead and start since I opened my mouth I'm Stephanie Walker School Board member we'll go this way Tim Merck Carolina beach Ashley Sutton Chief Financial Officer Reginal Park retired in N County Schools Christina Merc retired teacher Britney candella was a teacher but this is my first year
009as a librarian at Porter neck ra to retired teacher Linda Higgins par Courtney Mo qu Elementary car chair of the national brle show jard board member I'm Chris bares I work with the HR department Amy woodcot Gil tabber I'm a pastor and concerned citizen Romy wheeler principal eating Elementary Sandy is parent well I I brought some kind of starter questions I don't know how you guys want to proceed or whether you want to pick a certain topic that interest you it' probably be better this this is a back and forth but we really want to hear from you guys so um what I've got on my list here is first question is what is the absolute best thing about County Schools does anybody want to start with that the kids the oh absolutely they are
010that's why I go to work every morning is because our kids are awesome kids are aw and I would say the teachers cuz you had Hazel and um I seriously though my um my girls teachers have been amazing awesome okay I I want to guess that if we made the effort to come here we probably have specific concerns and maybe specific questions and I love your idea of questions but maybe we would get more of of uh the local concerns if we just open up to questions that be okay yeah these are kind of just warmup starter questions I mean we can go I guess we just don't want chaos so I guess if someone has a question they can just say hey I got a question or I'd like to talk about something so
011and the table is a blend of citizens and also staff members from different schools we have eaten Porter's Neck and Murray middle that are here tonight with us as well fantastic and I'm just going to ask to please speak up I'm a little hard of hearing and I'm sorry for saying so it's okay I am too this one absolutely yeah I I want to ask a question about I I've been to the meetings and I've seen This concerns about we're talking about school culture here and I've seen the concerns about overcrowding and how we might redistrict or you know kind of change some boundaries I'm very concerned and have been very concerned about what happened you know 13 15 years ago in terms of the segregation of our schools and oh I'm sorry neighborhood schools
012and so uh what is being done to re desegregate our schools through this it seems like a perfect opportunity and the changing culture would be amazing so you're tying in the overcrowding aspect with what happened about a decade ago well it's opportunity I think it's an opportunity for us to at least begin to Red desegregate that's a funny word integrate well I would just I would say from my as a board member it takes it takes a board to do that to to because I think before I got on the board we did a round of redistricting um and I I know we just had a utilization study done which basically tells us that our schools are full are at capacity and they're going to keep growing especially in the north side of County and
013the south side of the county so these are good discussions to have because I am well aware that we have some schools that are very underused underutilized if that's the right word um and that's one of the reasons I wanted to bring up magnet schools I've since found out we technically don't have magnet schools because they they have to be federally acknowledges magnet schools and the whole idea was to theme them in order to to cuz what happened a decade ago was the redistricting for neighborhood schools which you know but at the same time we need to have the conversation of why some of our schools are under utilized or you know under capacity that's a better word carlet did you have something you wanted to I asked she asked I thought you had magnet
014schools we we've been calling them magnet magnet schools and I have since been told that in order to be considered magnet schools you have to pay the you have to do it through the federal you have to pay into the Federal funding for that or something like that Dr F isn't here so he knew that he told me the answer that and I don't have it in front of me but there is a process and a policy on open enrollment which means if there's room at a certain school you can petition to go to those schools I think your concern is and I think that there's evidence to show that over the course of a decade schools will tend to resegregate themselves partially due to demographics partially due to uh real estate and and some
015other options so keeping if we have to do it again keeping an eye on that I think is what your what your point is yeah and I don't think it was really just by accident that we got here but that's not this board's fault so let's let's let's get yeah and and as we talk about how to reutilize the schools to be able to um diversify all of the schools um you know one of the things that strikes me every time I come to board meetings is we never have the anthem from a predominantly black school The Anthem is always from one of the white schools when you say when you say Anthem you mean sing when we have a choir group come in to do the national anthem refering to the black national anthem
016no school that come to do it at the board meeting regular National it's always the white kids who come it's always the white kids who come oh the white okay I'm not understanding that I guess I just that's good thing I'm talking to you about can you explain that to me we always show I think what she's saying is schools from downtown aren't usually represented during the ceremony part of the school Bo very much I appreciate it or are the invocations from different religions and different backgrounds so you mean at the the the monthly board meetings there are representation okay I'm sorry I'm thinking show us that the children to be showcased are not from our Title One School are not from our downtown schools you hear um last month with a student that was
017highlighted and he received um a CTE award I mean that's great but he's one kid and he's look and he seemed like a great kid but he is just one kid and I'm glad that we took the time to have I mean I do I too just want I wanted to make that aware of that so I'll take your point especially the that Snipes is an Arts the music school I mean you all said magnet I almost did it's still on her website my she almost said magnet which is what she said before a few years ago mag I mean I don't know if they still do it I would assume that they do they had this amazing um showcase um basketball trick team oh yeah and because they were even in best put forward
018back in the best forward days and I heard they were awesome I didn't get a chance to see them perform but um yeah but that's good feedback because sometimes when we're living inside the bubble it's hard to see what it looks like from outside so whether or not obviously intentionality is not the case but I would have never thought about that if someone had a b i that's that makes sense at the risk of even even JC row has some things that can be done and for the record on a lot of things it still says JC Row Elementary School not JC row Center except like on the street signs and stuff I think one of the things that I think that our district struggles with the most with culture is trust I think there's
019a lack of trust from parents I think there's a lack of trust with staff um and I I find it really difficult to sit at board meetings and listening to board members disparage staff from the Das um and accuse them of grooming children um not trusting them not respecting them um I also get really frustrated when I see that decisions are made from the Das but then staff are not empowered to um uphold that expectation for the new policy and I think a perfect example is seclusion um new han County Schools got rid of the seclusion rooms but I haven't seen anything come through that has empowered staff with other tools so I think if we're going to talk about culture we've got to talk about trust and I think trust is so broken in
020this District that it's got to start from the board and Dr F and central office and work its way down and I find it really frustrating that it seems that parents and staff often times are budding heads when the problem is coming from the decision makers who control the money and we don't have any control over that so trust I think is a really big issue that we need to address in my poll sorry no you're fine in my poll of teachers and administrators today in anticipation of coming to this um that is the biggest feedback that I heard is that um the teachers and the staff are not being trusted to do their job as they have been trained to do their job and instead are being in some ways micromanaged or kept from
021doing and teaching as as they know how to do um and I think that that's a big problem and I mean I'll just speak for me personally it irritates the crap out of me that teachers are being asked to sign something that says that they only work 7 and 1/2 hours a day when God knows they're working more and um if you make them fraud sign this thing that says that's all they work I think that's all they should work and let them go home when it's done um because if you're going to force them to sign that then that should be the way that it is right take their real hours or don't take any hours at all just a question um just to clarify do youing the contract or is there something else
022that you're speaking no there's another thing that they're being asked to sign on a daily basis she she's referring to timekeeper and all they're doing is approving if the leave is keyed correctly they're not approving how many hours they work they're just approving that is not the understanding of the of those in the workforce is that they are approving that they worked 7 and 1/2 hours of that day and they may have worked 10 15 hours that day but they're not putting an accurate time of what they have worked um and and that to me and to others uh delineates that you don't trust them to have worked their minimum when they're working the maximum right and unless you're letting them put in what they are working I think that's an issue and it it's
023it's just that feeling of distrust and that's an important thing right the way that people feel is a very important factor in how they they do their job and how well they feel about their job when they're done well and I get that the teachers are all showing up because they love the kids they're not showing up because they love this Administration or they love the school board or they love the county they're showing up because they love the kids they're also spending a lot of their own money absolutely in schools and that's a big problem uh you know we heard the fuer all last month about $20,000 for a celebration of of accomplishment and the teachers are like why isn't that money coming into my classroom because I'm bringing it out of my own
024pocket cuz I mean that's a part of the personal budget right how much is going to their job we're running a little low on time and I want to make sure that folks from schools have a chance to jump in so did you have anything like that I just wanted to add to these two I mean I I'm a teacher and I reached out to teachers from around my school and just said hey like here's what they want us to come talk about and every single person started their email back to me with not that anybody's going to listen but like this email I printed off it said first off I would like to say the fact that I do not truly believe that any of our input will actually be considered speaks volumes to
025the current culture in our County teachers and staff do not feel as though we have a voice we feel as though we are asked for our thoughts and input just for a show or to check some box because the decisions that are made seem to be completely contradiction a complete contradiction to of the ideas that we share so maybe we should start by proving that District leaders are actually listening to us and that's not only this year either that's been going on for a while and that's a good point I mean it's excellent I mean because that's where I felt before we was coming out of retirement before I was going into retirement I was asked to do exit and I said I'd rather sit down and discuss it never got an email back to
026come in for a date never did and I really wanted to sit down and have a conversation because to me it was very important because it's was hinging on academics you can talk about any schools you go to if you can't handle I'm EC teer if you can modify those classrooms or that courses for those students you're going to always have frustrations and you're going to need police officers because that's what it has that's what frustration brings they can't express themselves they get very frustrated I know and they're asked to do something if you reading on the third grade level and you telling somebody to do something on the 10th grade level and you have modifications and you have people in other schools cuz I was that alternative people from other schools say when they
027must complete it's like they can't handle this they they just not reading that that term and you don't give a teacher to modify it especially ET teacher time to modify it you're going to have chaos and that's what's been going on for can I jump in and ask so what does that does that look like an mtss specialist so what does that for e no mtss no no that's that's that's the teacher teacher trying to modify something and going again not being trusted to say or going to the department trans look this is not working for the students too much and the case loads exactly like you can't expect a teacher an EC teacher to manage the case load of 25 students that all need differentiated education like you guys are constantly cutting staff and
028it is incredibly frustrating I have a child with an IEP I feel you because I'm constantly advocating for her and it's not the teachers fault when they can't meet our needs it's because you guys haven't given them what they need and and a lot of a lot of the teachers don't even get a protected planning period or lunch or don't get a protected majority of AC teachers are not provided a protected planning period or lunch because they say they have mandated curriculum and that's a problem they say that they have a um TA in there so they can step out if they need to but that's not the case I mean my last several years I didn't have a um planning period I had a launch that I had to fight for one year they
029forgot to schedule it so my lunch we was at 10 am. you at know the okay folks it is that time I know 15 minutes goes fast the conversation just gets going but hold that thought and um as the board members go to their next tables continue the discussion please do you know what school has that kind of cuz I know I staff is different I mean look at schools like Anderson that have iscs and they've only got like four EC teachers or I don't know the exact number but they are serving so many kids I can tell you when my daughter was at Mary C Williams that case Lo was insane and they could not meet the needs of my child I had to fight so hard I finally got it because I know
030the law and I know how to do it but my child never should have missed almost a year of Education new H County school should not have offered my child compensatory Services because they knew that they had messed up like like if you had just had the staff and if you had staff that with the right training they could have met my child's needs like it's it's not rocket science you just have to have the body do it I mean with the staff with the staff thing we've done there aren't any case of 25 so I'm trying to figure out there's a school I mean the thing is I don't think that there is a Max case load for EC teachers so um but last year I believe Anderson there were some staff members that
031had a case load of 25 students yeah thank you I just need check yeah yeah yeah it's just like it's so frustrating to me sorry it's like my soap so if I'm if I like well the the um thank you for allowing us to join your table and if we I know this is is eating up a little bit of time but if you could just go around the room and tell me and and Mr McMahon I'm Stephanie crille and H Mcmahon is who you are so we kind of know you know who we're talking to or or listening to not talking to listening to so how about here in the corner you want to start I'm Linda hiin I'm a parent um and okay I'm Courtney MZ Porter NE Elementary PTA yay Carl GED
032um chair of new Hover County National you man said she introduced me Bo former high school princip I'm the same guy I was a minute ago I'm Amy woodcott C Middle School okay I'm Gail tabber I'm a pastor and a Community member thank you Romy wheeler principal here okay to mer concerned citizen thank you asy think we've met okay Christina Mercier retired teacher Britney candella librarian Porter SEC yay Rafael Toro a retired teacher from the state of New York a former Marine officer who've been living in wilington for eight years and I'm very happy to be here thank you and we should talk going to come on back going come back work we were basically when you guys came in we were basically talking about sort of the balance of resources okay and making sure
033that you know when there's a funding concern okay where do you balance that against making sure there are people in the building with students is that Prett accurate is that CL that trust trusting staff trusting staff so did you guys get this question um did you get to talk about this so is there one thing I'm looking at I don't see any students at our table because this is Elementary so we don't have them but is there anything from our our teacher staff and our school support staff that the that is like holding you back um from moving our students forward you know academically emotionally socially behaviorally yeah go ahead um one of the things I'm language arts Middle School okay and so we just got a new curriculum and it has been shared with
034us that we have to do da you know stick to the program cannot deviate this is what you're doing and I understand the I understand trying to bring everybody on the same page totally get that not arguing but I feel that because I have 20 years of experience and I I have an AIG certification I have like a reading Master Masters in Reading I bring so much more to the classroom than a curriculum that somebody put together and looking at the curriculum there's gaps and there's things that my students will no longer get and so as much as I appreciate trying to bring up everybody to the same level I don't think that should look like bringing down students because I'm no longer allowed to do what I do best and what I've been doing
035for 20 years have a master's degree in have I've been educated this is my job I know what's best for my kids I don't mind supplementing I don't mind using the program most of the time but to be handcuffed to a program that I do not think has the rigor that is necessary for my students is infuriating because that's just not that's not what we're looking for that's not what we were I don't think that's what we were anybody was hoping for I think we were looking to bring up teachers you know that were still struggling with curriculum or make sure everybody's on the same page but I worry that we're just going to bring the ceiling down instead creativity too one interesting thing that we heard at this table were the middle school students
036um the one Young lady said that she's looking for more creative and Innovative approaches to teaching um so that the teachers don't have to do it all and motivational speakers so I'm like that was pretty out there for a seventh grader to notice that so thank you those kind of like they they jive and this new program scripted well I heard and I heard that from high school teachers as well who were complaining that like a lot of times what they're teaching isn't covered and it doesn't allow them to bring in any kind of news story or anything that's happening real time to the classroom because it's so scripted yeah and I en rules and I still have um me I have a lot of teachers who still reach out to me um who are
037afraid for their voice to be heard and I mean I know like at the elementary it's not just the um reading program it's science I believe as well or social studies and to do it with Fidelity there 3 hours a night at home in in homework you mean yeah in practicing for themselves to prepare the teachers the teachers are doing sorry the teachers are doing three hours plus how do you differentiate when you have a scripted curriculum we're not we were told we're not allowed to like our versus an EC stent teach all the same okay so the new program does have some differentiation for esls but that's the only based on student a lot of the times it's up to the teacher to like really plan ahead of time look at the lesson and
038figure out how to differentiate it but again that requires time and that is three hours at home exactly that and the thing is that I I have a kid in the school system and and a middle schooler and the thing is that when you use a scripted curriculum then the only time teachers have to make relationship with kids is outside of class because you don't make relationships with a script you make relationships with a person we're making our teachers into technicians yes and they're not and they're not they have a special gift to offer and they need to be able to offer that they've been trained to do so and teaching is an art issue and teaching is an art as much as it is a science it's always been that balance I mean you
039could even go back a hundred years and the art was different but it's the same idea and well the science was different too but there's yeah and the children are not robots and they're not Trum you know if they're not and there if they're not interested and they feel like the person up there is also a robot it's not a good situation I heard too from another teacher just last week about teachers are like Craftsmen and I thought oh my gosh I've not really you know ever heard it that way before and it's not just the CTE Craftsman you know it's like the art of teaching like the art of reading the science of that so I appreciate that that input yeah go can I ask is this do you feel this is a strong
040feeling among second my second question is are the principles bringing this to the superintendent how you feel and and some of those questions which I think really appreciate you saying that so one of the things that was said before you got to the table was the one that moved everybody else she and I moved okay but before you came to the table was that the teachers feel like they when they are asked to give feedback it is to check a box and not to be listened to and I think that is what they feel I hope that's we havep we havep all the teachers I talked to said that we have programs and so there is always sort of a balance between a program and what it offers and then a teacher individual skill level
041um I think the the reason why the district has these programs is to ensure Equity kind of up maybe in a different way right so that we know that children who are maybe in some of our Title One schools are going to be exposed to and taught the same things that children who are in our more affluent schools so I think you know we have to look at the goal and the reason why these programs have been chosen and this is our first year with one of them with our our language arts at least for the elementary school and so with the first year we just need to make sure that everybody knows all aspects of what this program has to offer before necessarily breaking out like I kind of think about Picasso like his
042artwork is really you know kind of looks wild and like doesn't he understand about you know perspective or anything like that well he he showed that he knew all that in his early years like he was classically bra or could produce classical types of art so I think that this year is probably not the best year to ask about are you do you have a lot of freedom because the answer is not really no because these these materials have been purchased and we do they have been created by people who you know have research behind what they've done and so we just want teach to give it the best shot ask question I think I know the answer but I want to make sure in fun of you my understanding if we heard correctly or
043if I heard correctly is that what was selected was the the teachers voted on it yes yes and out of our choices I'm not saying that I'm not being I'm saying the teachers let me pull back out of the choices that were provided to us let's go back two choices yes we were only given two choices and we kind of picked the better of the two yeah we had a couple more and and I'll go back and I'll restate I don't think the program overall is bad I think that there's great aspects to it I do you know I mentioned before I think it robs teachers of their creativity and I think it's more beneficial to like beginner teachers who really need something that's scripted to help them move along but for teachers that have
044been doing it for really long time it kind of sucks the fun out of it it does because a big part of what we do is take something and like create it and like get to present it to the kids in a really fun and creative way and when you're just handed a script it just kind of like H I got to do this I got to what you're saying of course I was a hospital principal all my life but I don't care how you get it done just let me do it my way I mean I no no I mean as a postive yeah individual teacher own we've worried for years about the potential backside of standardized testing right we know that we want to make sure we want accountability but standardized testing produces
045some problems we end up teaching to a test and right now what I'm hearing you say is we're having standardized teaching yes that's not that's teaching this is why indiv this is why freedom is important my first year at JC roow I had a eighth grader um I had two eighth graders um and one was there and one was sometimes there and um for the Poetry unit I brought in um The Rose That Grew From Concrete from Tupac Shakur and she looked down she looked up at me she looked she goes why is this poetry I said you're telling me that's not poetry she you know she'd always gotten level ones on her reading eogs we did it she got level four because she could do it and she had something she finally something yeah
046that all the and I think that engagement challenge is being felt throughout schools as well yeah you know that level of Engagement has is we're struggling with I think would it be appropriate to say that you're feeling less investment from the kids than you may have felt in the past yes but I got I think relationship so if they think the teachers are reading a script and they know when it's scripted the kids aren't going to invest in the script well and I think the other part of this is this book Banning has had a huge impact on ELA teachers and social soci teachers and my own daughter is frustrated because she's not able to read books that past students have been able to read Because teachers are afraid that if they read that book
047that parents are going to come after them some select parents are going to eyeball um and I just think it's really unfair to take that creativity and freedom away from teachers I mean I I know miss you got married Miss CL and absolutely loved Ela and now she can't read books that she used to read and actually I did hear from a parent um at Murray Middle School whose daughter was frustrated that they weren't able to read a book think in seventh grade that they have traditionally been able to read and I just if we're going to talk about culture and we're going to talk about curriculum and we're going to talk about trust I just definitely kids are feeling it but as we speak there's been another request that's right for the books at
048the other three high schools right absolutely and also the two middle schools well yeah that that request has been both levels of English filled we'll put it that way and you know I know that you weren't a part of that but you know where what ownership will the board take well here the procedure they're only going to take own to be book book if it fits their they'll have hearing then have to vote so okay that that one that that is I'm glad that you all have weighed in on that but we've already kind of made that initial decision which well I think what the board can do though that's what I was getting at is what what can the board do to build this trust back or to um um be more of a
049help than a perceived hindrance um to instruction um at the school so walls have to come down and when teachers teachers have to be consulted more and they have to be actually listened to and I'm not talking about just one representative teacher I'm glad you're here you know you guys um but I mean I'm saying go into a school you know talk to a teacher for 5 minutes you know if they have a planning period or at the beginning beginning of this is there's no perfect time to go in honestly because everyone's really busy because they're well they're teaching or they're trying rela not rela but do something in their per you know when I was in Pender County Schools I'd be sitting there during my planning period you know like typing something and I
050feel like someone was behind me and one of the school board members would be there and they were always popping in and just asking me a question or two and then something I said in the first round that I would love for both of you to hear is when decisions are made from the Das make sure you've empowered teachers that expectation round two is officially over if we can just finish up your thoughts board members to move to the next table to continue these great conversations we having there's no alternative well thank you all for I call this speed dating and I hate that we have to that we that we have to move um because it's kind of disruptive to the flow but any questions that you have not gotten answered or you have
051not been able to voice your opinion you have one more opportunity you know for the last two people but I so appreciate you all being here and being candid because there's you know if we're not candid then we can't even move it all so thank you Educators for being here and for doing what you do you know day in day out and um thank you community for continuing to engage with us so um will there be any action items from this meeting what we did last time was we got a a list and of comments but I'm not certain we did anything taking notes yeah no actually table is taking notes anybody actually yeah no we're supposed to each T we compile them but that's the goal problem M merer I want to just take
052a shot in the dark I've been working the last couple years to make sure people don't feel retali when they come you know I know you know I mean I've even talked to the principes about it I've talked to individual teachers about it if you could tell me privately who's feeling that way so I can address that I think part of it is it's still part of the general culture but it's definitely individual principles who either have that belief themselves or I mean I actually stood on a chair you were there right I mean I obviously I I can tell you I guarantee I have never retaliated against anybody coming this well I I know you haven't so I need your help if someone else has what I'm saying if someone can share that with
053me privately I don't want to dump it on the table but I don't think the bo rality against anybody I didn't even know they I mean that's a you better move but that's a really thank you the other thing that they said about I think you should invite the teachers to put their real time whatever that and I don't want to I don't want to jump into that too deeply but that's actually I I think it's a question of making sure people understand what that is is because it's a day it's a day teachers are blocked by pay for a day and I think that's where the question is is that teachers are exempt from hourly assignments because they are in the fair labor standards that makes them exempt they are coded as a s
054and a half hour because that's what they earn in leave balances but it's not supposed to be a record of what they work in a day it's just how the system is coding their off but if people don't have that perception we need to fix that understanding because I mean I was a principal for years I know that 7 and 1/2 hours is not 7 and 1/2 hours we know that but it's what the state says right well well and I I heard it compared to another County I believe it was Pender County where they were inviting their teachers to put like we know this is what you get paid for but put in your real time how much your work so that we know how much time you're really put in exactly because put
055in your real time see what you're really getting for your dollar well and that's another thing we talked about well that's the other thing we talked about principles about too is making sure that we were organizing things so that people weren't working eight or higher hours a day you know that's just not reasonable and 7 and a half really isn't what's happening either but there are some State requirement things that are in the way of that that we need to community 10 to 12 but you're having them say they're working s exactly and partly the reason that there's 10 to 12 is the extra uh ask that has been put on I mean it was usually a lot even before the new programs but it's definitely it's snowballed in the last say five years but
056my point is we need to do a better job of communicating that if that's the thing that it is because if you feel that way that's that's just not what it is and it's that far off we didn't do a very good job of communicating all right this is your last round folks it get him no one of things that's been brought to the table is how are we going to see action from well the first first and you know I I'll be honest the first thing that I've asked for is for us to take very good notes bring it through the superintendent through the central office staff and bring it down to the principles because bottom line is that's where the that's where the action can happen you know we can sit up here
057and talk about a thousand things but unless it happens in the schools you know it's just talk so I think that that's that's a huge part is to be able to communicate you know and get feedback that's why we've asked for principales to be here tonight and teachers to be here because you know we all have our opinions on how things are going in the schools but you know they're the ones that are you know that are in there and actually are working rolling up their sleeves and getting things done so I think it's really important to not only hear from the community but also hear from teachers we have we have students was just exception I hear you saying that you know you're going to get it to the principles and you know this
058there are dozens of different types of principles and different principles have different relationships and school cultures there will be some schools where that information you give the principles will get right to the teachers and and the entire staff and there will be some that will never see it and and one theme that's been going on this evening is you know um there's a lack of trust a lack of communication not giving necessarily giving teachers what they need and some of that not all of it but some of it could very well be that those specific schools are not disseminating the information like they should so maybe some maybe someone did say hey guess what we're going to do this for the teachers and schools A and B get that information immediately and school C doesn't
059get it and then the teachers are frustrated they're wondering why they're getting and they're not you know like what's the thing so I [Music] mean if from the central office an email is sent to the entire staff then it's on that staff member to open up the email everyone gets the same chance to get that information and you know we've been talking a lot about trust in general and I want to bring something up from a parent perspective you know as parents when we email the school district with concern and we don't get responses back it does break trust um you know when I emailed the school district about a public records request and student information was released to the public Mr W didn't respond um the board has not acknowledged it and I think
060one of the best ways to build trust is acknowledge when we mess up when the board messes up what you're going to do to fix it and as a parent right now I've been given zero information about what records about my child will be releasing in the future so that's a big problem this coverup culture in this District it's really got to stop it happened with sexual assault but it's happening with things like a simple request can you outline the responsibility new han County schools has to protect student privacy and for you not to respond Mr W abore is really really frustrating to me and it's not fair and that that happens with so many different problems that are brought to the board or brought to Dr fa they're not answered whether it's from a
061teacher from parent you've got to acknowledge the problems that we have and give us Solutions that's how you build trust Not By ignoring it and it's okay to mess up acknowledging it fix it and move on I mean we all do that and you ignore it and pretend it didn't happen that breaks trust right well and to be honest U and I can't speak for Miss but I can speak for myself I read every single email he didn't respond respond I finish if I responded every single email that's what about a fura concern this was a federal violation that I believe happened and not a single person from New hanor County Schools could tell me what your responsibility is to protect student privacy that's a problem well when we I'll be honest we're going through
062the attorney right now to discuss that so and he's you know the expert in that area so um it shouldn't take over a month I'm just L he's also the one that was hired to be an expert and he's the one who actually did disclose private information so and I don't want to harp on the fura concern that I have but I think it's a really good example of problems being brought to the district and not being acknowledged or addressed or solved whether it's bullying whether it is teacher concerns for their safety they're not acknowledged and they're not solved it's frustrating and it breaks trust I think at the core of it that's what our point is is actionable ways that we can improve that trusting relationship now and and some of that is true
063acknowledging mistakes that have been made in the past and we're moving it Forward right and Trust doesn't turn overnight but things like this where there's an I mean as much as I'm trying to filter it this is an unfiltered dialogue with with everybody which I think is healthy especially because you know we just recently did this kind of conversation with our princi principl and our assistant principles what needs to be doing what needs to be done better I just don't want to run out of time there are certain folks who've been sort of radio silent in this I just wanted to make sure that you guys didn't miss a chance to say something you guys thought or waiting that we can start working with some I have one thing which is that in the context
064of I watch way too many board meetings whether I'm here or at home watching it's worse when you're here in person I I I do both I do both okay um so one of my great concerns is that you had this uh study on how all the buildings were over utilized or utilized um with no discussion of the buildings that need to be fixed or need to be replaced you can't plan I mean okay I ran 200 year old churches I know what that means when a church building is 100 years old or 90 years old and you're trying to keep it going okay that is not a healthy building um and so you you can't look at the buildings and what needs to be done without looking at the buildings you have and what
065needs to be done to separate those two things and not look at them together was just crazy well I I think and Eddie's not here tonight but I think in looking at that we looked at the first step is to look at the the utilization and then the next step is to you know obviously we have some buildings that really need a lot of work um we'll be working through a bond eventually hopefully soon new hand over High has to have some major I it's already putting money into there at this point is kind of silly you know I I think I think new hanor is very much like and I'll say this my my uh aunt and uncle went through there when it was first opened and I think that you know it's one
066of those things that if if somebody said well we're going to R it and start all over again well I tell you talk about some protests there would be some huge protests and I mean we have to look at what's best for students and that's that's the beginning in the end of of the discussion well they just finished the major Renovations there about what 12 13 years ago yeah I think believe so and they just you of course brogen Hall was was sinking into the into the Earth actually and it's been you know fixed and stuff but I mean I mean I think that's also uh got a lot of you know a lot of people's hearts I mean so that's that's part of it I mean exact same thing happened in Pender County where
067kend Lee uh you know was was a building that that people had loved and loved and you know grandparents and great-grandparents and all had gone through there um you know very much like Handover and you know they they found a way to R you know to re to redo it but still keep the basics of it so we're definitely open to discussions on that and coming up with the best possible solution all of those Solutions as we said before open the door so that we can red desegregate these schools and re do them so that all of our kids are getting an education not not having segregated schools I mean I live on the east side I know what schools my kids go to and what the difference between the schools that my kids go
068to and the ones that get all the glory I mean no matter how um populated new Hover County gets it's still small in square footage so therefore it is um with a little creativity you can definitely um make School District Lines better without requiring someone to go from Front Street to rville beach which actually in the late 1980s that was one of the um things but no one's going to be on a bus for 3 hours one way um if we get the rest of the traffic off the roads that would be I get it I get it but that in the grand scheme of things sometimes you cannot say oh well the traffic the traffic traffic that's why we have neighborhood schools when we don't cleverly Define what a neighborhood is where we could
069definitely have a better balance well and and a great way to measure it and this has been a perennial discussion is when we look at the percentage of children who have uh School voucher lunch vouchers or or have some sort of you know help with their lunch that's a measurement that's been used and it's been said again and again that the well at first it was we have a we have a target of 50% no more than 50% of kids in any school are going to have vouchers right and it's just a way of trying to create Equity around uh economic scale but we're nowhere close to that like what's Williston MD does anyone have numbers for that or or some of the other school % of yeah but not counting Theory kids we have
070to do something about this and this idea that we're overcrowded this is the perfect time I'm sorry I already said that once but I'm very concerned about integrating our schools well the kids notice the difference when the kids from new han High School go to hogard they see the difference and that doesn't help morale I'm very concerned about overcrowded overpopulation I'm the precinct chair to the a area marville and uh up there and right now they stuck a highway right down the middle and we are growing we are the fastest precin in the county and I only have three schools around my corner how do i k how do my kids get there today I had an ambulance go around in circle trying to get across that Highway with the lights on they couldn't figure
071out how to cross the highway to get from one side to the next right buses are going to be slow parents are going to be slow all right and schools going to get overcrowded where are we going to fit all these kids up in the northern part of the county that is my main concern I mean I'm at Porter stack which is right down the road and it's our fourth year being open we're already at 600 160 students are principles in a conference room that's how like much space is being utilized right now and I was a teacher I'm now in the specialist role which is a completely different world I see over 720 of those kids every week because sometimes I have to see them twice and there's only four Specialists but second grade
072has eight eight teachers so you do the math on how many kids I have to see in a class what can you actually get done like managing every single class's behav avior it's just and that's only our fourth year being open ites a safety issue as well because when you are that over crowded the kids feel it they respond to it you know and it's a safety issue and that impacts culture and I mean you think about Porter's Neck My my youngest son is 23 they started planning Porter Nick Elementary School when he was in second grade in fact it was originally planned that they might have to spend fifth grade they you know like at the new Porters Neck Elementary you know because they're playing Hokey Pokey he is 23 well we've also got
073to think about the fact that that would require a bond going I know well I mean there's a lot of moving Parts but but yeah more people in is a continual issue right more and more people keep come to New H trees s down going up and no schools are being built we're not F and if you go to any of the planning board meetings they will tell you this this thousand houses is only going to produce five more kids I'm like in what world does that FKS that is the end of the first session we get community members who participating in the first session go ahead make your way away from the table so we can get the second session going um once again you're more than welcome to hang out because we have
074approximately 20 seats available for the next session for those who may want to stay and keep participating so if we can get the community members to go ahead who came at my request thank you guys for coming I appreciate you guys you've done your tour Dy you're more than welcome to stay for everyone else I think you're wel to stay as well as as thank you very much was very [Music] thank you thank you oh thank you so much good to see you again ack ofing for coming jum maybe not we have to let the next people [Music] come we'll see what we can do lady that was [Music] s if we have any community members out there that did not participate in the first session that would like to participate in the second session
075go ahead and take a [Music] seat hi [Music] she [Music] standing hi how are you doing oh yeah but I wasss is whats got have char [Music] back hey how are you I apologize all right folks if we can settle in we're going to get this uh session going here Hugh is trying to come to my table and uh that's fine I don't have a problem with that but he's going to me mess up cloth huh there are available seats for those who are staying that would like to participate in the second session you're more than welcome to sit in I was telling Hugh he got to pick another table where's your your buddy where's your partner huh where's your board B partner you got to find your buddy P people oh that's right I
076don't care if you say shoot that's fin meting usually before we have a meeting Josie ordered all the food it was late I did I said you don't need to eat anymore um so I'm Josie Barnhart I'm on the school board here going to go around and say introductions but thank you guys for being here all right folks well thank you once again for being here tonight I am s Cardell I am the uh New Hanover County Schools Chief Communications officer and on behalf of the New Hanover County School Board welcome and thank you for your interest and active involvement in tonight's Round Table discussion on school culture and creating a supportive environment for teachers and students and staff looks like everybody settled in so I'm going to get right to the ground rules so
077we can kick this off the we kindly request that all attendees observe respectful behavior in accordance with the new Handover County Board of Education call to audience procedures and rules of Decor please at this time silence all cell phones and keep them silen during the discussion you can have them on just have them silen please remain respectful and courteous to all in attendance refrain from using language that is lewd or obscene shouting calling out and making disruptive noises during discussions is prohibited and keep the discussion focused on school culture and creating a supportive environment for teachers students and staff um you are being recorded this whole time these recordings will be made available on our YouTube channel and that could be as soon as uh later tonight or as late as tomorrow but they will
078be available um this is table one over here to my left table two over here and table three so that way if you're looking for your particular discussion you can find it very easily um okay so it looks like uh we're all set we're ready to go the 15minute clock starts now thank you okay Allison you were the last one you're next I'm Wendy Doan I'm a TA this year at Sunset Park but 20 years of teaching before that I'm Olivia Irvin I'm a second grade teacher at Sunset Park awesome step Walker School Board Sunset Park I'm Ashley Sutton School Fest we got a lot of teachers here on the state I'm excited yeah oh and you've got this guy what your name what's your name sir oh I'm a concerned citizen I'm Chris Barnes
079I work with the HR department this I just remind you you're being recorded on this so we don't want you to get it's never a good idea so do we I think when when we first started I read one of the questions but do we want to go ahead and just start does anything have any particular top of mind you want to talk about to start the discussion Little Match question exactly that's exactly what I said Here let us have it I don't have okay no it's okay I just you know last time I asked the question first and then we're like you just ask question let you guys ask the school system's been through a lot in the last five or six years really the goal is okay if we want to build trust
080if we want to increase uh the feeling of satisfaction with our employees what are things that the board or or the central office staff could do to make things feel right for you guys in the schools at the ground level or parents and that's going to got our you're comfortable with and I think that's I mean we want to hear really from you trust me you couldn't be as candidate as last week I've seen some emerging themes I can throw some out um need more people in the classrooms helping out uh trust I mean there was definitely some topics about feeling communication too that things happen you're like what just happened M yeah resources but that's such a broad term um like human human people in the people do you guys have reading buddies that
081are at your school because that was one of the initiatives that we tried to do as a district to say let's try this to get Volunteers in so I don't know if your school has some is that first GR we do yeah and so how many have signed up I'm just I'm just curious to know the kind of success or not sucess right now we have because our front desk um receptionist takes care of that she's to be the volunteer coordinator we have right now 25 parents that have signed up and that have their level two um volunteers and I think that's one of the biggest things to get these parents to do the background check do all the stuff to be a level two volunteer um when I to take the test they don't
082want to do that um I've been my kids my twins are in college now but they started at Castle H and kindergarten and I was a volunteer coordinator then was part of the PTA and we would get a lot of volunteers because you didn't require so much from them I feel like sometimes when you require so much from parents they were hesitant to come in and they're like why do I need this why do I have to pick you know so that's but I will say I think P your back in what you're saying the requirements of being a level two I think for safety in the building I get that I think is important so we do have two levels like I guess the first level yeah level one is and it really has
083to do with the supervision level of the Vol that's what I was getting at yeah with those readers and that's what we've tried to stress now the readers can come in with a level one because there's a teacher and there are the media coordinator that's doing during their so you're saying basically we we could do a better job communicating with the public at large about how to get in the see that's where I feel like we're we are dropping the ball like if you go on our website I don't know where you can where can you easily find the volunteer button I want a big one no but I want a big one on the front page to say volunteer I want to get involved and then maybe have some kind of web form to
084say where you would like to volunteer and you know what level do you want to volunteer and then someone get back to you someone to reach out the community engagement I feel like that so you you said volunteer coordinator and that was with the PTA but do the schools do we have volunteer quars anyo any no not any ask mom over here we used to have a family liaison position that was at our school that was paid but now that's gone away but when I did she was parttime yeah she did she work 20 hours but I did it I wasn't working then so that's how I got my foot in cast I did it and that easily can be a full-time you know trying to get volunteers good volunteers that would come in school
085and do make a huge difference can you s you're a parent I'm the president of the PTA at TR at TR okay thank you but I volunteer at Winter Park she definitely knows the challenges though yeah with getting out it's hard to get people to yeah I mean I have to beg you know I mean I'll be per honest with you I mean if I throw an event and and it requires you know people to come you know parents they don't want to you know do anything they just want to show up at the event I mean I have to call and beg people to come and help me make money for the school to you know give the kids stuff you know to treat the staff like they should do you know it's not
086fun in games to try and ask people to do things when they're like I took that test maybe a couple of years ago it's no big deal right I'm like you got to take it every year well who's going to know well you know I'm going to know and that's you know on me if you get in trouble it's on me right you mentioned the website last week last week the Wilmington Wilmington leaders that came around the schools they were they came to Castle Han and we were talking about that and that was one of the things that they said as a owner of a company or businesses or just business people that they would like to see on school websites a spot that said volunteers are things that are needed whether you know do
087you need tangible need in volunteer but like on on individual school websites like um we may have a need for little kids clothes or we may have a need for an event coming up or you know just so they can send their people to look and say this is what they need I would say generally either people want to get involved with their kids the the school their kids are at or that's closest to them geographically I imagine just to make it easier to be able to volunteer but I know with the task force that's what we were we're trying to figure out how to do that how to because we really looking at the community at large and there's so much out there so many resources out there there's so many untapped segments of
088the community that want to know how to get involved but just don't know how I think half the battle is just letting people know how and like what people need cuz every school's going to need different things right and starts early but then you get to Middle School most of the kids don't want their parents to be involved that's not true that's not true you hear that and people say that and I can guarant dag on tee you that every parent that I proudly serve with their children know them they are proud to serve beside them my son is there at 7 every morning to help me good he's a very good staff members how can we help with the disconnect because I I'm very passionate I agree with Miss Walker here tangible needs and
089volunteer needs are kind of the two main things but at a district level how can we help support you guys at a school level because the PTO involvement is going to look different at your school at your school so you have school have n there nonexistent ones and we don't want to just do something and say oh look we did something oh cool but like what is what are some of the needs that you see that we can help from the district level say Hey you know at Sunset I really heard they had a need for interpreters or whatever it is what does that look like and I'm genely asking and it might not be a succinct answer but those are the kind of questions that when we brainstorm and try to problem solve we
090need to know where the target focus is I would say before you answer that do you feel like you don't you not allowed to ask for certain things or I mean you feel like if you wanted if someone was to ask you what do you need whether it's uh I don't know wipes tissues whatever you're not stopped from doing that right are you okay yeah we as for that so if you have a need how do you communicate that need to people parents you're right the vehicle first before it doesn't make difference but they're asking for if you don't have the delivery system access so where do you suggest how do you you know how do we what can the board do to support like an Amazon wish list we tried to get it on
091the I was told that could do that wish has well I guess they do I know Al works really hard at trash she's got me going out there I've been out there but it's amazing how much work you have to put in oh it's a lot and and there's validity in what everybody said some kids don't a lot of that's because of you because you've made it work but a lot of kids the older you gets the less they want their parents but I need the less we need a vehicle so that that's true they feel their job as job is there you know another thing getting backun back when when I was doing it we also could from the high schools to help at a lower level and now things have been blocked with
092this volunteer stuff they've got to be 18 they can't and it it's a disservice I feel to the community and to the school cuz my children were in National arm society and they were required to have volunteer hours well now the county has set up that you these kids can't come into school and help pull small groups like I used to be her ta before we change jobs and we had high school kids come in do flash cards in the morning with the kindergarteners and now tell tell me what is there a policy change there's a policy change with the volunteer whoever's over volunteers now has told our principal May fought this because my girls would come out there like my daughter last year was the president of the national arm Society at Laney and
093she had everybody come out to the school to do the beautification day that was fine then we would get small groups to come help and the an extra resource for the teachers these kids that get out of school ear those duy enrolled these are smart kids they can come help these elementary kids they can't in the school now they have to be 18 so that is a disservice to the younger schools that need help and also to the high schools where these kids need these hours because now where are they going get these a local policy that I'm not aware of or is that IL legal before my time because I don't remember that just recently it just recently changed where did it come from I guess I mean I I remember that change in
094policy that talked about 18 and up so I I would I would presume is that a state is that a I would presume that was a general statute change Ian I've it wrote down there's a difference between um somebody off the street and someone from the high school up the street I think I think that needs to be communicated because we've been told that the high school kids can't come in and like not have a junior now my daughter Lila and her friends they all need hours and when you talk about having extra hands in the classroom these kids that need these volunteer hours why can't they come in and read and do small group and problem with these kids and I'm sure some of it is a travel issue well you have Lany and
095TR okay you have will Gregory and then yeah just right there well there needs to be an age distinction NE but I think place to start would be looking at the policy the policy is now is that a policy driven thing and why is it a procedure that be picked up and why find out why Z they got and most of the kids that want to do like they're duy enrolled like all my kids are duy enrolled so they're already traveling we have I and like the different yeah all the different programs that require the volunteer hour so that's a great it makes total sense if somebody from the district could fle them to schools that don't have um a PTA like I remember doing a the trip for you guys at a pumpkin patch
096because you didn't have anybody go and you guys I wonder if ptas could kind of band together and help the ones that don't I know you did but you know um kind of is kind of um because it's a you want for your school but you also yeah yeah have ptas and ptso I mean it's all like a different entity right yeah I know that's true so I like the solution so to follow it's we need to look at with policy and the procedure specifically around under 18 volunteers um so I'm going to basetball came last year my name's Kelly okay did you remember and she's Angela the basketball the basketball team and it's more than just one time coming and Mak it a splash and has should be a consistency thing that you know
097these kids know that they can count on you know their reading buddies to show up you know that they can count on their person that's going to come from Lany to help them with math you know I and then plus the kids that aren't being challenged you know they could that's challenging to try and help someone else and for the younger ones look at these kids I you know well we do that and my my elementary school does that the fifth graders come and read to the first graders and create that mentorship school I I like to the Cross connection too I never heard that I'm glad you said one thing about having like oh let's take the basketball team like last year and let's bring them and it was a lot of cutting up
098like I'm just going through the hallways and so at some point and this is I'm a BT so like this is like stuff that like is scary to me it's like time is so valuable with these kids cuz we have so many ml students and so many Reds and so many yellows and it's like that needs to be an actual like intervention like that needs to be people that actually want to come in and um like are devoted to actually helping the kids learn how to read I wonder if we can push it through the student voice initiative too the leaders in all the schools because I think that would a great project for them to take on to figure out if they can get if we can work out the policy or whatever the
099issue is maybe they can lead on we got to see if we have the power to adjust the policy it's not a St law but then like to train the people like if you sign up to be a reading Budd to help you there you have to have a little bit more Direction than to show up every 127 that's what I was going to say like so did you guys have okay you're coming for this intervention so there was something planned for we already had planned out what they were going to do yeah and we would give them a group of three like a child a student would come in they would have three kids Angela already had a plan for them they just read off you're going to flash these cards and you're going
100to use this 100's chart to go over their numbers with them so all right thank you everyone round one has concluded we're on to round two so board members could please go ahead and move on to their next tables to start round two then go from there what the need is in the classroom right and set up what you guys have yall need a volunteer coordinator yeah don't we have one of those those I mean I the teacher putting input in because they know what so they're going to say here's what I want you to work when you come in today this is what I need you to do yeah okay cool aw very good at that but they are we rotating thank you I'm technically a one but I worked last year I just
101graduated youever said yeah I was a longterm saw that Park and theno hired me I like whism I'm like one of the few people that love they used to be like are you enjoying it not to jump in you say you like do you like it I'm an instructional coach so I'm trying to read like three really read levels I think what I've noticed is younger teachers really like it and older teachers are struggl this this year we're building the wit wizm foundation will experience teachers be able to sort of build a different looking house than everybody else I think the SCP he know it once you get the basics down are you going to be able to diversify at all I think you'll be able I think you'll be able to provide scaffolds for
102the children okay which I think is the same thing right so how do you differentiate better okay and it it has scaffolds in the book yeah it does but people have to take the time to who going to be working for wisdom in a couple of years I think I'm just like a nerd oh I totally was too but I think the kids are enjoying it I my kids love it and we have fun I have fun with them but I'm also a Los and like all I do is read curriculum sh you don't say that no cuz you are doing all the like leaves in the fall SE and I will say I'm second grade and second grade has seemed a lot more fun than some of the other grade levels that I've like
103just gone and like pee that but I don't know I'm I don't know for sure I think kindergarten is pretty fun I would say yeah there there's fun about it but my concern is that with a Time chunk for K and one is the priority part to me needs to be on like reading foundational skills like they need to learn how to read and write and not spend 90 minutes of understanding a book I'd rather be spending yeah at just kind of the time so that's one of the things we've been talking about at our school is like we've all majority of us have taken the letters training and like there's two Bridges to the rope and there's the vocab and that type of stuff and then there's the um the learning to read like
104The F and stuff and so a lot of our teachers are saying that the kids really aren't learning to read during this section of wisdom and it is 90 minutes but then if we look at like our schedule we have 45 minutes for foundations and then we have 30 minutes for geod so then you have that other chunk that that's the Reading part that's the teaching to read part 70% we don't have a Geo chunk and our foundation schedule just it's wacky and can I just jump in for so tell me what school you're from um par Sunset Park and Sunset Park TR we know that one we're at castle castle hne okay we're castle and I recognize your faces but I just couldn't get you placed at the right school so we we modified
105our master schedule to make sure we had 30 minutes for geod and then we because I think the program for foundations is 30 but we went ahead based on like School data and made it 45 minutes to give them more time Foundation say that and then how long is your W wisdom it's 90 minutes and it's still 90 minutes minutes do you have math math math is about and do you have like that mtss like do you have um chunk intervention times this year we took out the big chunk of intervention and so it's kind of um like each grade level's kind of got 15 minutes at the end of reading so if you're doing reading intervention you just do it after reading and if you do it math you do it kind of at
106the end of math well if it's if it's a concern about scaffolding couldn't you break the kids up in first grade and reform them in ability groups so that you can but that's not how weight and wisdom is delivered I mean you have to so it's not a question of acceleration no okay no got you and it's it's meant to where cuz I'm kind of where you are I'm liking it um I'm not teaching it but I'm liting it um but I've noticed with the kids and not know this is off topic what we're supposed to be talking about but um like I can be in a classroom of second graders and I can't tell through the conversation who's the EC students and is not because it's all everybody's kind of listening to the same
107information they're learning all the same things about the chameleon book the other day and so like the little girl that is e I mean I know who she is but if somebody else didn't know like you wouldn't really be able to tell because she's able to understand the story because they read it for 5 days to where like when I used to teach kindergarten sometimes bless us we would read the story one day and like okay now tell us all the story elements now retell the story like all the things just on one reading but it says they can read it five times or sometimes it's longer um I think the kids really get to know the story and what I've noticed about Whit widom too is um it really breaks it down to like
108one day you're doing story elements and then the next day you're picking up something more about the problem and solution yeah it does build and it has good repetition and it's I do like it but I still can tell the difference of like my students who are definitely not getting it but yeah definitely and I've had to you know make my own like scaffolds and you know I pull my small group back and I let others work together if it's supposed to be a partner I'll stick one with the partner group and I say you just listen to them re and follow it along but I still really like it and I think they enjoy it and there there are parts that everybody can like contribute and um do well I think the hardest part
109that I hear from our teachers about wi wism if youall want to know um is just the amount of time it takes it's very cuz I sat on Sunday and I did first grade so I could be a part of our PLC day it took me about 3 hours to read it and then I had to type it up because I have a book I was doing it off the computer to type my notes on it takes a long time to plan it and to really like absorb what's happening and now that we're like almost through the first module you could see and you are a little bit ahead of us you the year round of the restart restart are you all back to normal Sun back to normal we're back to normal yeah we're
110traditional so the do were you going to say something okay so I'm hearing a lot about your curriculum the um is there anything else that comes to mind that the school board um could do for you because I don't know what we can do about your curriculum you know but and that's okay because I mean it has to come out somewhere you know so it's good for us to hear and have that base but is there is there anything else that you feel like our school board could be doing more to help you be successful in your class rooms or be successful in imparting all of your knowledge not just like academically but socially or emotionally to your students I I think um any way you can protect an advocate for time like you said
111to do a quality lesson for that absolutely you can do it but it takes you thoroughly looking at it you know adjusting it scaffolding it it t is very time intensive for every single lesson and it works the same for Eureka Math it's for all of it it's very planning if you're an Effective Teacher the planning really needs to be extensive what one thing would help that that we could do less paperwork an like support like support yeah well like mtss paperwork and tracking for mtss support we don't have an interventionist you know so teachers and did you used to have one last year okay so now we we've lost that okay yes so those kind of support positions are very important cuz they help carry the burden um substitutes yeah sorry just substitutes because
112when there's no substitute everyone's covering who you like if I'm supposed to be helping Olivia then I'm doing my pencil catch yeah good then I'm cover like everybody spreads th because we're always covering for everything so that has dramatically changed that did not used to be an issue four years ago yes it's never come back and it has a serious impact and then the teachers aren't available to meet and well and especially this year cuz I know it's not supposed to be school specific but you know we've had some behaviors that we didn't really have last year and it's just like anything can throw it off if anything's off routine and every day something's off routine yeah which you know we can adapt to but we need more resources and more people and um just
113like we just have this huge ml population and have three ml teachers like we need more and the kids need more time they need more time than just the 30 minutes they're full today right so if she's planning a lesson it takes extra time for one you're translating everything you're doing you're translating everything to parent you're translating everything and to scaffold their writing and you know what's usually turn and talk you it's easy well it's not easy when half of them don't speak English so you it just it just a lot challeng English but then there's also six different levels of ml so some speak a little and some so for instance I had to take some an informative writing paragraph that's what the kids were expected to write in the Whit n wisdom curriculum
114and I have okay two or three that I could do that then I had some fill in the blank and then I had some doe sentence frames and then then I had some tell me what to write and then I had some draw a picture but that took me time that's why she's a great teacher but that took me time and on top you know we have letters training we have tier two paperwork do we have report cards do and it's just a lot yeah yeah I hear you I I can't I yeah letters training for the last two years and we had like one teacher work day for each marking period which usually you're doing your report cards you know and meeting or whatever um and was letters training and then in addition to
115the letters training you did at home the last two years the the time is simply I've been teaching for 20 years my heart and soul is in this job I left I'm a TA this year because I can't do it anymore right it's it's and that breaks my heart I mean I want to cry about about every day but I have my weekend back I'm not working all weekend I'm not at school till 5:00 every night and I'm not losing sleep over the things I can't fix one constant among everybody has been we have to ease up on our staff it's just yeah you the people that care the most you're losing because if you really if you're really doing your job to Olivia's caliber you know to meet all of those needs and to
116contact parents and call them when do you do that you do that after school I me we got to make sure we have the right priorities so what's the priority for our teachers what's the most important thing that they do stud students working with students that's the most important thing yes but see we get these new programs and then you got to be trained on them and then that take then you have all these meetings and then you have like you say I I thought our substitute was better we have and you guys have a fulltime permanent sub right yeah but they're taking a spot for someone who's out on eternity league so we have got oh what tell Joseph to call me because that's not the way it's supposed to work I can see
117him right over there yeah um our has improved about 15 points okay I'm sorry in the last two years so we when I got here you know guys know a couple years ago is in 58 now it's it's oh gosh I don't remember what last month it was I don't want to I don't want to say it wrong it went up five years five points last year and then another five points the year before that it's getting better and the school specific Subs are helping but that only helps when you don't have you know the it's funny usually it may have been Christiana or it may have been Maria Madison Maria Madison would say that's not a school sub that's my sub that I'm going to assign every day when there's a hole we have
118Subs who can go in and fill in for maternity leads to free that personality well that's not sorry I was we have a maternity sub and we have a building sub oh but it there's a question and I wonder how we could communicate better because there's a law of diminishing returns you know there is only so much money like your interventionist Title One cut a whole bunch of our money this year our enrollment has dipped almost 1,500 kids in the last three years so there's less money but how do we communicate that better because we're all working with less but that is fortunately or unfortunately depending on where you said the same schools where the growth is taking place where they're part and the houses are going through the ceiling right so that's our en
119from here to Hamstead and here Carol you guys are out some schools so many people know that as well and then by the same token I'm trying to say okay I have this many positions I can give out mhm well you guys have I think I your fifth grade is really high isn't it I think it's your fifth grade your fifth grade yeah and I've got another position that's going to come to there but I it's it has to balance every year and it's hard because sometimes you don't even have space yeah we're running out space well what great you I believe I'm the data manager I wasn't what he can I know he does I know yeah I know and it's like you know but we need to hear this is such hard stuff
120to talk about because it's we have all like I don't know the solutions to I know the problems but we are interested if you guys have suggestions for Solutions I mean all you like your school Improvement team Elevate that and have your principal elevated up because the thinking out of the box is what we need to do because you Dr Barnes can only hire what we think we need you know so see you're enthusi we need an intervention well it's terrible and I don't want to say it's terrible but we burned you out you know what I mean and somewhere between this and this we have to do better in between cuz we are losing because of the burnout and we great I mean we would be a great pair if we were on a
121team but I work with other young people and it it's that's your Prime you know because you have experience and and then you have the enthusiasm and the fresh and Technology I mean you need them both you don't need just I sometimes think I'm a grandma entrapped in a 23y old body because you're going home reading curriculum but at the same time like that burden for her me at 23 it's still a burden for me like the paperwork and everything it's still exhausting like I still like have to prioritize my mental health cuz if I don't I I freak out like in this job and I don't want to do that and that's something that younger people do better about making sure their mental health is a factor cuz I I would bet that you
122were told to go to work sick when you were grown up you go to work sick and just power through it right right but somewhere somehow we need all right folks that's the end of round two on to the final round so if the board members can go ahead and move to the next table and start the next round to stay here we locked out with this table I'm loving this table the first table was very challenging yeah I'm stopping loving this table feeling that feeling's going away like I've applied to be a s but I was told that I put a s because I was the president of the PTS wrong I'm sorry I'll let her answer oh sorry no feel free sorry no I I will defer my met you at because I
123was pres oh here's what it is no no no no here's what it is is that presidents of ptas cannot be school system employees and if you are a substitute you are school system employee so if you did not want to be the PTA president but wanted to be on your board then you're absolutely you fit into that category see you have the balance you but you can't do anything with the money you can't sign contracts right so I will defer all of my HR knowledge back to to Dr bar thank you sorry thank you all yall are really good I really appreciate it oh no to [Laughter] [Music] you come back you're right there is a lot of stuff and some days it feels okay did you have an intervention last year that's part
124of the if you had that person that do that paperwork and help you with that but then also as our interventionist do just they just go in and do the behavior intervention our schol and I did all that paperwor allend you're like and TSS staff is obviously but like we had a really good Staff last year that was probably extra helpful I don't know because I'm new but as a BT like I don't even know how to do and like I'm expected to do it on top of otherss ROM a lot of people are new to our school she so that little you know down here I couldn't hear anybody oh there you go I like no the conversation is the same thing to hear well miss Mason do you want to question sit down
125first literally just sat down that's fine hey how are you how are you it sounds like having like some good discussion about what's what the struggles are um this is all about building trust improving the climate so what are some ways that the school district the school board the superintendent can rebuild or build trust with the stakeholders the individuals within this community just being transparent um and letting people know why are happening like the why you know why last year did we have mate does a really good job at letting us know like last year we had this position we don't now because I don't want G but I mean just making sure everybody understands why or that it's put out there and if you don't know just be honest and say you don't know
126but you'll find the answer out and then you know be accountable for that answer right maybe acknowledging and and celebrating more than test scores I mean we know test scores are important but there are a lot of other things that are really important kids loving school kids trusting their teachers teachers trusting and working they're so like celebrating the little things when it's just about that and for a teacher in the end like a test score the teacher accountable for that but there's nothing that says if a student missed 40 days of school was tardy 50 days didn't eat never did any help like all the accountability is on the teacher for things that are out of their control or just the kid who came in two years behind but they're still not showing up at
127proficient but they have made so much you've gotten this much but it's defeating because in the end you know they're they're in the R like who can swim celebrate learn how get credit how hard somebody has worked to still and not still be proficient because at the end for the teacher you feel like you've failed them you know when you've given I think one thing that you know in the state is looking at this hopefully they'll get to it you know when I was a principal they were looking at it and still got to it I I think you know the growth is to me is so much more important than proficiency proficiency is good that's important but the growth you know if you if you have a child that's here and you get up
128to here that's that's wonderful even if the line is up here if your child was here right yeah you I mean as as you know back in my day they talked about you know some kids are proficient before the te you know you could stay home and watch TV and and they still be proficient so you know what what is what is proficiency it is important but is that should not be the end all be all you know the 8020 thing I mean if anything to me it should be the other way around or 50/50 you know so I us to call their school dependent children and school independent children some kids are going to learn some kids are only going to learn because the teacher invested it's and the other thing that goes with
129that proficiency is I worked with special needs kids for my the entirety of my teaching career and they're not going to necessarily make that so you know being a teacher of of kids that may not ever make that Prof is a lot of bur they're always their own little curve right they've got their own little and and it was interesting some of um the coolest accomplishments were the kids that were like 15 years old that had dual diagnosis that finally and that was like we celebrated that that was a small school but we celebrated that but having those opportuni to celebrate those small successes which are not really small success for them that is mind monstress trying to combine it tired and when you're talking about creating like a positive School environment that starts from
130the admin and then it trickles on down like that's why I brought Lloyd a bear because um the principal TR Kim Clark she's done a book club just for staff and then there's also book A book club that the kids are all reading one book and she's great for and so she has incorporated that into the whole school because every school year there's a model and it's aim high and so when somebody works hard then you see the teachers work hard then it all trickles down and it's not just that I had you 25 kids in my class that scored a five on the EOG it's you know I enjoy coming to work it might be a pain in my neck a lot of times but I work for a really good person that sees
131me as a person and not what I can machine and but y'all need to see that y'all need to go out there and investigate and say listen what are you doing can I sit in on this you know there's so much important things because they're human beings behind the policies that y'all are passing and it affects everybody I I was address two weeks ago yeah I mean I I don't we see him often yeah but seeing and sitting down because everybody's going to have their game face because their boss is there you know that's just life but if you sit down and actually you know say what can I help do you know can I make copies can I do this can I sit and see that but club meeting I mean you know and
132see these people you know I'll be more than happy you know cuz I have taken people and shown them you know what these teachers can do because I'm so proud of them and y'all need to be too oh AB not saying that you're not but I mean it needs to be recognized you know we recognize kids and we recognize and stakeholders want to see what we're paying our taxes for you know and what we're doing and if you're not recognizing these people then you know what are you doing you're bitching and Ming and arguing and that doesn't solve anything you're my new favorite but I think the the thing of it is we don't struggle to find good teachers as much as some places to but there's 3500 teacher vacancies across the state so some
133of this is not a new Handover counting problem it's a state issue it's a national issue and when you see National National turnover is around 16% and finding that 8% of the people go out of teaching all together right because it's just changed and we have to acknowledge that teaching is not the same as it was being in principal now is different than it was 8 years ago 10 years ago when it did it's just a different environment and it's much more challenging because the needs have grown and the yeser funding was great but the thought was the extra money would come in with the needs coming back and then the needs would come down and the money would go down needs are still going and the money ising and that's a real challenge for
134us you know we're lucky at the class sites we're have we're lucky to have the things we do have but it's still it's I mean it's a you see kids now the behaviors I've seen and I've in schools are just different than the needs that children to meet you can't expect teachers to change if you don't pay them to but then I think sometimes the behaviors the teachers can't handle teaching and then I've got all these behaviors I'm having to deal with too so that goes into having more Personnel but we don't have the money to support that like we had a behavior position I the first year we had it I was the behavior specialist and we kept it with 3 years but then we lost the money because Title One made such a
135big cut but some of these schools need that extra person that can go in and be extra set of hands when you're trying to teach a lesson and you've got Sally Joe over here having a meltdown for some reason and it's just like the kids have changed everything Chang Reon happened outside of the school has nothing to do with the school but they yeah such a challenging thing to think about too because even say if we had money to spend on getting new Personnel it's like what do we pick do we pick someone to come in and handle behaviors or do we pick another ml teacher that can come help these kids learn Eng you never know so yeah you have to adapt as a teacher and I said I learned this year like nothing
136surprises me anymore you and that has helped me a lot um but it's crazy this is so interesting surprised you yeah know um I used to say the only thing that surprises me is I still get surprised by things yeah exactly I agree cuz this is this is how we get better we have to L and that's why I appreciate you guys coming and I know it's late but coming just to make sure we can hear what it's like and the dayto day is really important for us because a lot of times like all of my folks in HR are going out and doing reading BS because I want them to remember that they can also eat lunch when they're hungry they can also go to the bathroom when they need to a lot of
137teachers don't have that lunch but when does the listening and hearing the conversation move from thoughts and prayers you know I mean that's you that's a that's the question what do we do with this now there's no simple answer and so it's going to take time and it's going to take work it's going to take a lot of discussion I think that there's a lot of behind the scenes conversations at least on some of the Committees that I'm heard of that are happening that are going to benefit our kids and are going to benefit our teachers that'll provide that support um I can't really go into detail because it's not my idea it was a students idea but um just some great things that are coming from our kids and and and how they feel
138we can all support the teachers and take some of the burden off because and we're doing this sort of thing with our principles sitting and listening what need because I remember when I was a principal I used to say I don't care what the answer is as long as it's the same answer for everybody as long as I get one I think some of the places where we fall down is we don't necessarily communicate the why some of these things have to happen it sounds like Christian of course does like oh we lost this and here's why we lost this and whatever but if we can do a better job of communica to you folks these are the resources we have here's how we're spending them here's the best way we can organize it at
139least then you go okay I get it right I may not none of us are going be happy with that but but at least we understand why and I think that's one place that we could improve is doing a better job with the why and having conversations like this and I think that's a threat I've heard throughout all the tables this communication communication communication and you know that's the thing is is as a principal I always said bring me your concerns but also bring me Solutions you know so it's not just like hey can you I want to pay you know I wish I could pay every teacher triple with they really but you know uh but you know actually you know boots on the ground what what can we do to improve or or
140how can we change things or you know some things we can do and some things you know we just can't do unfortunately well where there are shortages of positions or people like looking at what things are keeping them like substitutes like there was a simple one right there so what are some of the things that are keeping us from you know reping our substitute pool I know one thing that's different now from my understanding for substitutes when you're getting a job you don't know what grade you're going into you used to know because I substitute a long time ago like I know I was going into second grade CET Park and I wanted to go to second grade maybe I didn't want to go to fifth grade so so if we would have more substitutes
141if they knew where they were going like then can we fix that I mean answer the call because it'd be better to have one somewhere than than nowhere is that consistent across the district I thought when teachers put in they like leave like I put leave Angela Hayden kindergarten and it goes out to the sub they would see it's ing CL so here look at me explain something so here's what happened so used to be that when you would go into our system you would be a first grade teacher a second grade teacher a third grade teacher a kindergart teacher but then every time the principal shifted a grade level with somebody over the course of the summer all of our data would get wrong right that's kind of the email pops up that I'm
142a fifth grade teacher right so what we have to do and I think this is a part of that communication thing when you're putting in a sub job in the notes put what grade level you want right so then it pops yeah we've all just figured that out and half the people haven't though so I mean that was like a real simple communication thing that nobody really knew that that's what you and that's the thing is we don't know where that communication Trail broke down but that's why things like this are good cuz I can go okay now I can fix that because a lot of times it's just hard to keep our data accurate and your lure does K through six right high school you have to have subject and that's different but in
143in the K5 L we have really taken away you're just a teacher teacher teacher teacher right so we have to build some way to make sure that Subs know they teachers together and of course most of you guys are going to build relationships with your best subs anyway and call them ah a time all retired now when you guys get I'm sorry to take over 5 Seconds 5 Seconds talking that thank you all right folks thank you for your participation that ends session two so we're going to close this out leave this up to the board members thank you I think when the TA go wi they get if a TA I think ta go in and so many hours yeah but so you ever take like half the second grade from another teacher and
144take try hard not TR just pull I have heard you know from other schools Middle School especially where you know it's like and it's not even like hey would you it's like you you need to yeah we don't have sub we don't have sub so you need to take you know and that's I mean that I mean I I'll be honest I remember when you know jeans I could not have believed how much jeans made you know a big impact with teachers oh my goodness you you get jean day on Friday my goodness you are the best principal that's what makes us excited you think of like the business world yeah my husband's not cheering for but you know that you know those those kind of things but I think you know and and planning
145periods are I mean that that is something needs to be if we can possibly do a protected because you know you you may have like 15 things you got to do during that planning period and then for somebody to come up and say hey we need you to go down that classroom it's like but I you know it could even be you know parent contacts or something you know we do have time to do that because there are so babies yeah and then teachers dependent needing their ta we would run into that all the time I'll be there you and then somebody's out and I would have to go teach the other class and then you have to show up here from 6 to seven yeah that curriculum ain't going to read itself I'm telling
146you many issues it's like well that's not the answer for this school was W no I was huh one fell did take a lot of the time didn't he yeah but he does all guys thank you for listen and turn our thoughts and prayers into action anded I mean sadly some of our things that we need are more financial let me know you know those anwers I don't what do you do we need more people like we don't have a population like you we've gotten quite a few just being able to use all the time there's only so many using Louisa but like we need a Louisa at our school at all time I had your phone number at one time I mean and we do a lot with Kelly she register kids we're on
147the phone I'm going to take a with enr I can talk to them I pretty much know what's going on yeah ideally a half day Wednesday a month would be amazing but it can't be taken up by meeting we have to have money we have the teacher workday once a month whatever I'm a BT I have every single one of them I'm like do want to take a moment thank you everyone for coming this evening it has been very enlightning very uh good we got four all right I would entertain a motion to adjourn all right do we have a second second we have two seconds all right all in favor please signify by saying I I I will oppos passes 1 2 3 4 zero we are adjourned thank you I love doing that
148I still have my pictures of the field trip that I did at the pumpkin for