NHCS Board of Education Regular Meeting | October 3, 2023 | REUPLOAD

001e e e for IM see last yes ma'am I didn't want to send1 good evening welcome to the October regular Board of Education meeting we are glad that you are here before we begin we'd like to share a few reminders please keep the aisles clear during our meeting to allow members of the school system and Sheriff's Department to be able to move about also accept when honoring the flag and the opening prayer if you choose when participating in call the audience please remain seated during our meeting we hope to have a productive and efficient meeting and your help is greatly appreciated a further note we uh we have all mentioned in our meetings that they are very long actually some people have said very long and as Mr mcmanis has correctly pointed out we don't

002play very well after 5 hours I agree and would like to thank Miss crel for keeping the time recorded in the agenda review her calculations show us at 5 hours exactly for this meeting which with no breaks would have our meeting ending today at 10 p.m i'm pledging to the board to try and do a better job of following time allotments the board has agreed upon at last week's agenda meeting before anyone gets concerned about limiting speech at all the board can always vote to extend the discussion time with that in mind I also will do my best to sure that each member will have an opportunity to speak if they wish on each topic Miss barnhard has volunteered to be our unofficial timekeeper meaning that she will let us know when the allotted time

003is at an end i' would also like to remind members to address the chair during any debates thank you and just a reminder to all board members we will have a short closed session at the end uh at this point Miss Buie would you please call the role good evening wior present Pat Bradford I am here Jayy Barnhart here Stephanie kille here oh sorry Melissa Mason here Hugh mcmanis yes ma'am my mayor and Stephanie Walker here all right thank you board members thank you m Miss Buie uh at this point we will have our invitation uh that will be provided for us this evening by Joshua Riley pastor of the long leaf Baptist Church Pastor join with me as we go the Lord in prayer father God we love you Lord we thank you and

004praise you for this day Lord I Thank You for Your many many blessings you are so good and father God right now I I'm encouraged and I just I just want to praise you for the fact that I got a call that the new Hanner County Board of Education starts their meetings in prayer Lord we need you Lord every day I am reminded I desperately need you Lord our teachers my wife one of them in this system they need you or they need encouragement Lord I pray for our children and Lord my heart does hurt as we call out in prayer at this meeting Lord open the doors to be able to call out in prayer in this great nation to our children at school Lord more than anything our children need you our teachers

005need you our leadership needs you we desperately need you so right now as we enter into this meeting I I want to lift up our Board of new han County School System our super superintendent the staff all the leadership I I pray for them they've got a a difficult job but I pray more than anything they want to rely on you Lord help them to look to you for guidance and for direction I know Lord in your word you tell us in Isaiah 58:11 and the Lord shall guide thee continually we have our minds and all these gifts the way you've designed us but more than anything we got to rely on you and Lord I pray for this meeting today um I pray for Unity Lord I'm sure that we come together for meetings

006and our flesh can come out it's so easy that when we disagree arguing and dissension can arise but you tell us in your word walk by the spirit not by the flesh Lord I pray you help everybody in this room today walk by the spirit we need your help to do that cuz we are flawed we need your help God I pray for the decisions that are made today Lord I I pray those decisions are made only after just seeking after you and you guiding us and I pray they are the decisions that will benefit Our Youth and Lord most of all that they would be made in a way that brings you honor and that brings you glory or most of all I want to thank you for salvation and most of all Lord

007I want to pray for anybody that is within the sound of my voice Lord if they've never surrendered their life to you Jesus Christ they would know how much you love them they would know that you sent your son Jesus Christ down from heaven to this old Fallen Earth and you sent them with a purpose you sent him to die so that anybody who truly believes in Jesus as Lord and as Savior will be saved for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life but we love you we thank you for the promise of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ I thank you that although we're sinful and although we're flawed you will forgive us of our sins when

008we ask you to and we trust in you Jesus as Lord and as Savior Lord right now I lift up the leadership I lift up this meeting I lift up these parents and those in the community what a blessing they're here to show their support and care I just lift up this meeting to you and I pray that all that's done all that's said it brings you honor it brings you glory it's in the name above all names the name of our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ we pray and all God's people said amen thank you Pastor at this time we will have our uh presentation of colors uh that is uh the hogard high school uh NJ r o t c color guard under the direction of Commander David Everett and our national

009anthem will be done by colon leak a Myrtle Grove Middle School student will perform the national anthem under the direction of Jacob Stevens band teacher and Cindy Bliss principal [Music] the [Music] the [Music] [Applause] h forward March at this time we've asked Miss Mason to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance Miss Mason alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you you may be seated at this time I'd like to see if we can get the color guard to come up forward as well as good evening everyone I am kid at long I am a kette lieutenant Junior grade and I am in 12th grade hello my name is p officer first

010CL I'm command see as we yes Hog's here um so yes it's been an honor being here hello I'm uh Zachary Brooks and at a Cadet I'm a Cadet at hogard high school petty officer third class it's an honor to be here and thank you I'm Cadet mcgiff I'm a P3 and I'm from hogri high school thank you I'm Colton leak I'm in eighth grade at Myrtle Grove Middle School thank you [Applause] oh skip that okay uh let's go back to I'm sorry I did it again we need to approve the agenda um before we do that u m c I think you have something you'd like to add to the agenda yes the um ncsba has an opening on their board of directors that members of throughout the state are allowed to apply for

011and um I would like to be considered for that the um but it requires board approval okay so I wanted to add that to the agenda somewhere what that I believe that would be new business uh so you're making that motion I will second that is there any discussion with no discussion seen or heard uh all in favor please signify by saying I I I all opposed okay no uh that's 70 uh so with that the amended agenda is there a motion to approve the amended agenda so moved we have a motion is there a second second we have a second any discussion if not all in favor please signify by saying I I all opposed again carries 70 so we do have an amended agenda adding in um that under new business so we're

012going to skip down our next is approval of minutes is there a motion to approve the minutes so moved we have a motion is there a second second we have a first and a second any discussion if not yes no okay all in favor of approving the minutes as provided please signify by saying I I all opposed again carries 70 uh at this point we will have student voice welcome good afternoon everyone we hope you are doing well and enjoying the first few weeks of fall uh we have all had a great start to the school year and those of us on our on our team who attend hogard high school had our homecoming game and dance last weekend which was a blast our very own sawon Bond was crowned homecoming Prince on his birthday

013so it was it was an amazing and happy birthday yes um miles is going to give you guys some updates from our team yeah um so we're very excited that we are in the process of selecting our student ambassador team which will be announced in mid October we received 64 applications across all high schools and most middle schools in our County we are currently sorting through the applications as a team to select a diverse group of students two from each school to be student ambassadors that will collaborate with District leaders such as yourselves and bring forth our perspectives and ideas on current points of discussion at the monthly board meetings for the students who are not selected for the student ambassador team we will be pointing them to the student engagement teams at their schools

014previously named the student Equity teams so that they can still be involved in student Voice work but on an individual School level we will be collaborating with the engagement teams to gather more perspectives and inputs on the current topics of disc discuss throughout the year uh thank you so much uh for your support for our team uh we're very excited to finally be emerging uh from the planning phase and now begin sharing student voices perspectives and ideas with you as representatives of new anver County schools and we sincerely appreciate your time PTI patience and the incredible work you guys do to support us so thank you thank you Mr can can I ask them a question before they sit down come on back yeah I'm sorry I had a couple quick questions for you um

015so that's a awesome accomplishment of getting 64 um are you guys working on a plan on how to make sure that this the information from the student Equity teams gets back to you guys yes there'll be a Lea on there yes we're yes we're working um planning to meet with Miss Nobles and Mr Jones soon from the engagement teams and we will be working on just how we can um the plan right now is to meet with a representative from each of the engagement teams so that we can um get their perspective on whatever issues we're talking about currently okay and one last question so um any more details for us about your upcoming October 31st Halloween Summit not so far yet we are still working we were working on it with Miss CLE um

016before she moved on to another department so we are still in the planning phase of that but it will be still happening on October 31st is the plan costumes optional okay okay that's a good idea I I yes costumes are uh invited yes thank you appreciate it any other questions thank you so much for your time [Applause] have voice I speak to yester she sent me a message 2022 2023 this we will move on to our good evening everybody it's always such a privilege to uh recognize our rock stars so we're going to start with uh Christy Johnson please come up there you are come on up okay for more than a quarter Century Christy Johnson has served as a special educations teacher a job that calls on her to serve our most vulnerable students

017and meet their exceptional needs she does so with enthusiasm and a megawatt smile even in the most challenging of circumstances christe is a pro at individualizing instruction for her students meeting them where they're at and challenging them to grow while being enveloped in love and support she understands how important it is to foster a sense of community and inclusivity regardless of ability level that's why Christie supports her students outside of the classroom as they participate with their peers and school activities and community events she is her students greatest champion and they know that and their families do too as the New Hanover County school special ed educator of Excellence she represents our district with care dedication passion and skill we are proud to send Christy Johnson as our representative to the office of exceptional children's

018conference later this month [Applause] okay this next one is for Dwight Finley who uh couldn't be here today uh to accept the award he's the hogard soccer coach and he's trying to lead his team to Victory against the wild cats at Legion Stadium right now so that's why he isn't able to be here but coach Finley's reputation for excellence precedes him his program goal he has said is not just to be a high school soccer team but to be positive leaders in the school and in the community his players volunteer in the school they help out other teams when they need it and they refer to themselves as a Brotherhood who were there for each other through the highs and lows of the tumultuous last few years coach Finley teaches his players the values of

019resilience and grit and he encourages them to exercise leadership on the pitch and off his technique speaks for itself last year's Vikings record was 232 and one this year they are off to another Stellar start with an 111 and one record so far maybe we'll make that 12 tonight and while we're here tonight to honor coach Finley for his 100th career win with the hogard Vikings we also want to thank him for modeling teamwork sportsmanship and Community for our student athletes today and every day okay tran dhy come on down all right the young man we're about to honor next is a community hero and he hasn't even graduated high school yet Tron D worked his way through every firefighting and Emergency Services class that New Hanover High School had to offer and he excelled

020tremendously in all of them and that's according to his teacher Michelle Whitaker then as a junior in high school he made a decision that few students his age would he enlisted at Cape Fear Community College to become a certified EMT that course in exam is one of the most challenging in career and tech ed many adults fail it the first time on top of that tram was still in high school and working part time but he studied hard with his mom who is a certified nursing assistant and he paid for the exam cost with his own money and at the end of August he passed and became a certified EMT and firefighter [Applause] [Music] [Applause] well deserved a senior in high school he is now working 12-hour shifts at the union rescue station in Willard

021before driving to Handover for morning classes Miss Whitaker a retired fire firefighter says trean represented exact ly the kind of Honor Pride integrity and respect you'd want on your crew Tran said he always thought he'd be a psychologist because people tend to come to him with their problems and he's empathetic listener and a steady hand and he gives good advice now those things are happening in the back of an ambulance and he says Emergency Services is where I belong thank you Tran for your dedication and service to Country okay is Chris Madden here come on up Chris hogri high school again hogri High School was one of our 18 schools that exceeded growth last year meaning their students showed even more growth and achievement than the DBI could have anticipated and on the heels of

022that announcement we got even more good news hogard was named one of the top 100 high schools in the state of North Carolina by US News and World Report oh but there's more they earned this recognition based on their exemplary performance on on state required tests their strong graduation rate and how well they prepared students for college and while hogard is here tonight to accept recognition for this ranking I also wanted to point out two other recognitions the school earned recently they received National Banner recognition as a Special Olympics unified Champion school for their work in bringing students with and without disabilities to learn and participate together they also their athletic department earned recognition as an ejection free school for the North Carolina High School Athletic Association meaning they did not have one player ejected

023from a game across all sports for 2022 23 school year clearly hogard is building a culture of Excellence where students are supported and expected to reach their full potential congratul ulations to principal Chris Madden and the entire hogard team [Applause] congratulations [Applause] okay I get to do all the good stuff Bert Kilpatrick and Jennifer Rosser please come on up Bellamy Elementary was named a National Blue Ribbon School by the Department of Education and honor just eight schools in the state received for their academic excellence in progress in closing achievement gaps principal Bert Kilpatrick and assistant principal Jennifer Rosser led a team of remarkably experienced teachers their certified staff have a spent an average of 20 years in education they seamlessly run their classrooms collaborate in lesson planning and have free reign from school leaders to

024innovate instruction that approach has paid off with huge dividends Bellamy has exceeded growth by state standards every year since 2014 the only School in the county to do so that means that students across the Spectrum regardless of if they are in exceptional student or an AI IG or getting the instruction they need to learn and grow at bellany Mr Kilpatrick sets the ex excuse me the expectation that they exceed growth every year and has become a badge of Pride among teachers to make it happen they extend those high expectations to their students who rise and meet them Mr Kilpatrick said it's a mentality of trying to improve ourselves so that we can improve the students every year congratul ulations to Mr Kilpatrick Miss Rosser and the entire Bellamy team for this well-deserved honor and thank

025you for serving our students with such diligence and Excellence thank [Applause] you okay this next one's for uh Jay Campbell he could not be here tonight either because he's also coaching Jay Campbell was named one of the 24 finalists for North Carolina as a Career and Technical education teacher of the year Mr Campbell teaches digital design and animation and game Art and Design at haret high school merging technical expertise and creativity in a way that ushers students into the 21st Century Learning the workforce in addition to serving as a National Technical Honor Society adviser and the heads the head men's tennis coach at hogard Mr Campbell also helped launch an esport program in the district last year after noting that many students who play video games were not as involved in the school Community he

026said Esports in schools can transport those kids from the solidarity world of digital gaming into the common space of the school community Through the library or computer labs these otherwise uninvolved students join the ranks of their successfully involved pairs more likely to be engaged during classes more likely to graduate more likely to Aspire to higher education Mr Campbell will head to the State enat Convention later this month to join other talented Educators for professional develop we thank him for bringing his Innovation inclusion and inspiration to our students all right Magnolia mlan are you here I think you are come on [Applause] up Magnolia mlan is a legendary volunteer in our schools 95 years ago Magnolia was born she was born on a South Carolina cotton Farm in a Jim Crow world to a dad who

027taught in a one room Schoolhouse when at age 45 she was widowed with eight kids she decided it was a great time to go back to school and get her high school diploma she has spent every day since serving children in our community and she earned her college degree in the meantime she founded the first integrated daycare in Wilmington and eventually owned four child care centers and when she retired she began volunteering in our district classrooms through the New Hanover County foster grandparents program at 95 years young you can find her every day in our schools playing on the playground with students helping them read and write comforting them when they need it her approach leans on patience positivity love and respect the kids call her grandma Magnolia because that's just the kind of affection

028they have for her she shows us that learning is a lifelong Endeavor and that contribution knows no age limit thank you for being such an important part of our schools [Applause] Dr we have our administrative good evening everyone I wish we could introduce every one of our new employees this way but we have a couple we'd like to highlight for you first I'd like to call John Henry up previously John Henry was our Title 9 investigator with new han County Schools he retired as a colonel with the U US Marine Corps serving from 89 to 2020 and prior to his retirement he served as a Staff Judge Advocate and he is now our new executive director of title line investigations and employee relations so it's a it's a pleasure to serve thank you very much

029stage stage thank you and we're keeping John very busy next I'd like to highlight our final principal hire of the school year the principal of Holly treat Elementary Dr Mary Jones Mary can you come on up previously Dr Jones served as a principal at Southern Nash middle school and B Elementary School of course Southern ntion achieving high growth again this year um and now she received her doctorate from NC State University and we are very happy to have her here at Holly Tree thank you it's an honor to serve thank you so much welcome welcome thank you sir also want to mention we do have our new principal at Mary C Williams uh is a current employee Janet lenon is transferred over from uh the College Road early career Early Childhood Center over to Williams

030thank you awesome thank you Dr bar uh at this point we will continue with our superintendent's report Dr F good evening first we want to start off with our celebration of success uh last week the district held a celebration of success event to honor district schools and staff members who achieved Great accomplishments during the 2223 school year it was appropriate to take the time and recognize these amazing accomplishments and celebrate our teachers and staff for their hard work and dedication and providing our students with the opportunity for superb education um just for everyone to understand that we are now ranked number 15 academically in the state of North Carolina out of 115 school districts our entire staff is doing an amazing job because it's almost like a chain um everyone has a part in making

031our district what it is so it's I would be I mean I I can't name just one person and so we're going to talk about it and I can't wait for um Dr Murray to do her um presentation so she's going to go a little more in depth um but also um a couple of achievements was Holly Shelter was number five in the state overall number one in the title one as a title one school so in the state they're number one as a title one school and number five overall in the state um we had 18 schools to exceed growth um and 14 Schools increased a letter grade so we are an 18 of our schools also um met growth so we are far beyond um where we were several years ago we've never

032achieved this this is what's historic about it in addition to that is the the fact that when we talk about um exceeding growth so exceeding growth and proficiency are two different things and Dr um Murray is going to share that information with you but what I've always shared with all of our staff is that our goal is to exceed growth because growth then turns into proficiency and so we have to understand that we are um exceeding growth in 13 out of 20 areas that the state has um aligned every school in the district and that doesn't mean that we didn't um meet growth in the others but just to say that we've exceeded that's oh my gosh that's I don't even know how to explain you have to be in education to know what that

033means um this is like the um what we had last week was like the educational Emy awards that we gave out and so um it's a big deal for school districts and to be able to celebrate our staff with that now not only are we celebrating them on that side of it um and we're also proud that we have two Holly Shelter students a seventh and an eighth grader who were selected for the north con honors course out of more than 12200 students across the state only 20 singers per voice um make it and so congratulations this month is also National principles month so we'll be celebrating our principles this month the other part that I'm sure all employees want to hear about is budget so our budget for the state was passed and just

034for a couple of high lights um our teachers and instructional support staff um will have an average increase of 4% beginning teachers with a bachelor's um first year or we call them beginners teachers um those increase from 37,000 to 39,000 starting pay That's not including our supplement so that's different um there will be an increase range from 2% to 7.7% depending on the range of your of your years of experience for principles the salary increase will um 4% and then there's some other added addins for that for ADM and so that's your annual daily membership and I'm getting a little bit down into weeds for you but that's how we actually calculate it for assistant principes there will be an average increase 4% for their salary and um for our non-certified individuals it's a 4%

035increase um except for bus drivers bus drivers will have a 16% increase absolutely [Applause] our goal is to be the the top paying District paying bus drivers and so we're going to be looking at somewhere around $26 an hour for bus drivers our central office staff will receive a 4% increase bonuses for teachers as um those go in in depth with where you were and what the state put you on um the other part that we want to make sure that everyone understands and this was really good for us is that we were awarded um in the state budget um $3,200,000 for artificial intelligence pilot for that is for a pilot to implement a school safety system that integrates AI technology into existing access controls alerting protocols and intercom systems we're also awarded uh New

036Hanover County authorized to participate in the advanced teaching roles and so we are still working with the State on how much money we'll get other districts were also awarded so we will be talking with um individuals to um share near uh schools that were in that Grant so we have to abide by the Grant and so that will basically provide funding to develop and support highly effective teachers also to increase the access to effective and highly effective teachers for students in low achieving and high poverty schools related uh relative to their High achieving and low poverty peers mentoring bonuses will be provided to Master Teachers participating in the program we also received um over at ctec um we were awarded $78,200 for spark and C A pilot for High-Tech learning accelerator credit um we were

037also awarded um and thanks I'll say thank you to Senator Lee and thank you to um representative Ted Davis uh we rewarded $210,000 for low performing School tutors and those tutors that grant money will go to Forest Hills and Freeman Elementary and we will be tutoring in fourth grade math um we were also awarded 2.9 Million 2.8 million from representative Miller and so that is going to work with all of our seventh graders in their uh Career Development it's a leadership program that we currently work with with the chamber and so that money will be funneled through say funnel it will be um put into the educational endowment at the chamber and so that was something that we had gone to Raleigh back in the spring and I um along with uh three other board

038members we met and we spoke with individuals and we were able to become a pilot there so our district is doing some great things and we were awarded a lot of money in the state budget so we're going to continue with the great um opportunities for all of our students and we're going to continue to um require excellence and making sure that we're holding everyone accountable for um academic success so we aren't forgetting um loving on our kids and making sure that they're comfortable but it's something different when our kids can read on grade level and do math on grade level and so that is the thing that we push and so when individuals are really saying that oh you're just pushing test grades you're just pushing test it's actually not true we're pushing that

039kids can read on grade level that is our goal to make sure that our kids can read on grade level and be successful citizens in our um communities because it does change the lives and the economic development for everyone so when individuals are saying that oh all they're thinking about are test scores folks we're thinking about academic achievement for our kids and so we know that there are um roadblocks that get in their way but when they come into our buildings we want to make sure that we're offering nothing but Excellence so I know that was longer than what we we had we had a lot to celebrate this month um so thank you all for listening for me I wasn't rambling this time um but we had a lot of money that um came

040into our district so thank you thank [Applause] you mine's not going to be quite as long as this but close um it has been a very busy and rewarding month uh in kind of reverse order today I was joined by four other members of the board um and many many I I've heard the number being around 9 50 10th graders at the Wilmington Jewish Film Festival for their presentation of Fanny's journey I want to thank the other board members and everyone involved with that uh I'd like to thank all the students and the faculties the teachers who were there for their wonderful Behavior I'd also like to thank the Wilmington Jewish Film Festival for once again sponsoring this and I think it's appropriate this time to wish all those who celebrate the Feast of soote

041a wonderful holiday last week two uh of the board members two of our board members attended the Carolina academic leadership Network training while two others attended virtually as I did I found it to be very worthwhile and informative the two main topics were and I don't think this is exactly what it was but it was basically uh speaking with the press and a deep dive into Robert's Rules of Order another event that I was invited to is a turnaround task force uh thank you to everyone involved and a special thanks to Miss Walker thank you Miss Walker for inviting me and for all her hard work on the committee I felt like there were a great number of caring people around the tables with a keen focus on helping our low performing schools to make

042huge strides improving I also want to uh join Dr fa and cele and highlight the celebration we set as our number one strategic goal last year uh you know academic Improvement and we have seen the fruit of those labors 18 high growth schools a national BL Blue Ribbon School uh we celebrated again today 18 schools that made expected growth five schools moving off the low performing uh list and Miss Walker task force said that they still are going to be supported which is wonderful I think that's a great idea all wonderful things to celebrate additionally many school many individuals were recognized for their service to the school system I want to thank the schools that I had the privilege to uh visit this past month I saw well some awesome students and teachers working very

043hard thanks also to all those to support the learning whether that be front office folks whether that be cafeteria uh folks whether that be bus drivers um also to the principles and again a huge shout out for this month as it is principal uh appreciation month also a quick shout out to Hendrick's Motorsports and Driver K Kyle Larson for the amazing program and donation to the auto shop program at new han High School I received a followup from them asking for additional ways to support that progam program and since we were talking about CTE it was brought to my attention that we have two openings on the CTE board to join Miss crille I have named Miss barnhard and myself to fill those roles I would like to thank or to to ask Dr fa

044Dr fac Miss Futrell as well as others that Dr fa feels that should join those conversations to join that conversation we'll set that meeting up very soon and as we stay in that area a huge huge congratulations to ctec and Dr Skipper and her faculty and students for the ribbon cut ribbon cutting ceremony for their spark lab it was a fabulous event and celebration and once again it did was clearly shown that I have little or no ability to play Guitar Hero that's one of my faults uh but seriously it was a great opportunity for all of our students at that school um also want to highlight reading buddies I think Dr fa how are we close to filling all the slots or do we need some more we can always accept some more our

045goal is to make sure we have at least five to 10 reading buddies um per school I think we're a little ambitious by saying all of our first graders but we can always accept some more reading buddies for anyone who would like to join us thank you and again I want to thank uh Miss Walker she pointed out to me that our next month's meeting actually falls on Election Day so we do need a board to discuss what we're going to do whether we're going to meet on that day or whether we want to push up possibly one day uh but we'll talk about that at uh later and we'll get that out to everyone so that ends my report at this time we will continue uh with our um call audience good evening for

046those of you who are new we're going to go in order the first 20 and then we have five more people that signed up at the door um if someone is not here Miss buoy do we have alternates tonight okay so there are none okay um your name's going to be on these screens so you can follow along don't feel like I have to call your name you can go ahead and get ready I will call your name but don't feel like you have to wait on me and Miss posie is our first person good evening there are many of you on the board who are very proud of being Christian I'm also Christian at least if you consider episcopalians Christian in the spirit of our shared faith I want to offer a story and

047some thoughts from Mark's gospel one of the teachers of the law came and asked him of all the Commandments which is the most important the most important one answered Jesus Is This Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength and the second is this love your neighbor as yourself there are no Commandments greater than these so I want to share with you a message I think some of you have chosen to ignore when you die God isn't going to ask you about someone else he won't ask you about the two men down the street who got married he won't ask you about the girl who got an abortion he won't ask you about the atheist who lives on the

048corner he won't ask you about the woman who feels more comfortable as a man man he won't ask you about the kids who need books to understand this complicated world he will ask you how you love those people as he called you to do some of you don't Alicia Elli Alicia Ogen Deli okay Tracy Bannon hi I want to talk about grownup professionals something Miss crra strongly emphasized in the last school board meeting Miss krabill do you believe a school board member attending a nonprofit event for kids and talking negatively about a fellow School Board member attending the same event as being a grownup professional Miss Krab do you believe a school board member attending a nonprofit event for kids and talking to a total stranger about another volunteer in attendance at this event is

049being a grownup fessional someone you do not know that would be me your statement regarding the library bus was fine I took no offense we just have differing views and I really did not mind your comment about the old library downtown it wasn't Republicans fusionists or populist who slaughtered up to 300 blacks in the streets of Wilmington leaving their bodies to be eaten by buzzards on the streets in Wilmington in 1898 forbidding anyone to move them your comment regarding Mrs Barnhart snatching books from kids hands did not go unnoticed and me please know that these nonprofits work very diligently to keep their organizations apolitical it is not appreciated for anyone to bring it into their house one last thing the next time you decide to talk to a total stranger you need to make sure

050you are not talking to the daughter of that total stranger thank you please give this to her thank you Katie Gates good evening I'm sure many of you are familiar with the scriptural adage that says the foolish man built his house upon the shifting Sands and when the storm came it collapsed ibram X kendi formerly known as Henry Rogers co-authored the book stamped I commend the board for reviewing the educational suitability of the book it was evident that kendi blasted to stardom in 2020 without a firm foundation Miss Mason was wise to point out that the book was ordered in New Hanover County shortly after its release which truly wasn't enough time to vet the book for its merits multiple Source inaccuracies in stamped further put the book into question as well as the legitimacy

051of its content the objective proof presented at the hearing included examples of kendi twisting truth mixing it with opinion redefinition with some facts this should bring into question its classification as non-fiction kendi established an anti-racist Center for research at Boston University also in 2020 they had received over $45 million in funding and had hired 45 staff currently Kendy Center is under investigation by be as they had to lay off over half their staff and can't trace where all the monies were spent only two research papers were published in three years this lack of credibility and apparent shifting Sans of his business model and authorship should cause us to question kend's Integrity as you consider the status of his books in our schools I thank you all for providing oversight of our schools closing loopholes in

052policy monitoring instructional materials so that students can become successful as critical thinkers and members of society thank you Mark Whitehead good evening I'm going to tell you why teachers quit and this is my 25th year in new han County um right here is a email that we got back from a CTE teacher technical teacher on the first day of classes back in August she sent the email um and she organized all the emails we got from our administrators in the previous six days she put it in one nice package as you can see it covers both sides of the page and some of the third page too there are 33 different emails we got in six days before school started 33 different things we had to click on go and basically teach ourselves this is

053an Abomination for two reasons the first is simple that it's too much stuff for God's sakes stop giving us stuff to do my job is not to justify the job of someone at central office if you give us something new then take something away it's not rocket science it's called balance secondly it's absolutely shameful that it took a teacher to produce this and it didn't come from the administrators yet they expect us to have a syllabus ready for 18 weeks for our students on the same day that this came out no one blames our new principal at Ashley he rightfully expected the school would be better organized and why shouldn't he this is what happens at a professional development meeting people an administrator will read a few slides then expect us to sign a form

054saying we've been trained no one's going to sign that form this year I'll tell you that the this County continually heaps new responsibilities on us they say do this do that but they never tell us how I'd love to learn some fancy games from my students on the computer but I never get a decent training and I certainly am not left with the time to do it when we do have questions about the crappy training we get the same responses snippety little emails telling us to look at the PowerPoint when I ask four people from different departments a question about our training and nobody knows the answer then it's not us it's you give us an agenda at least so we know where to look up the stuff we also need a admin ministrators who

055possess the intellectual and emotional fortitude to deal deal with high school students if you want to be their friend give them a treat and send them back to class after they cussed us out please get out of high school and move to elementary school ad thank you Lisa Williams I'm not a perfect teacher but I am perfecting most of us are I work between 60 and 80 hours weekly I teach three preps advis the yearbooks that on the mtac and graduation committees organize school pictures work lunch duty twice a week and sub when we are short-handed I go to meetings for 50 4S IEPs eoc's PDS and plc's I do these things because I believe in public education and I understand the people in the trenches have to make things go forward no matter what

056more than ever before I wake up in the morning and wonder why I'm still a teacher your decision-making regarding the recent book challenge your suggested mtac curriculum committee checklists and your proposed policy 7205 deepen my concern I wonder how it might be that you see yourself as supportive of the employees in this District when you trust trust us to put ourselves between a bullet and a student yet you don't trust us to make decisions about the materials we use in our classrooms I wonder how it might be that you want to hold all staff to an ambiguous standard of personal character and conduct at all times but almost all of you have escaped reporting your campaign finances to the Board of Elections most of all I wonder how it might be that you should make

057decisions that profoundly affect our day-to-day curriculum when you rarely set foot in our classroom it seems to me that you would want to see uh you would want to be sure that you're making informed decisions and part of that comes from seeing it for yourself and trust me I can't even begin to scratch the surface of what I have to say to you in two minutes time I realize that I am 100% Expendable to you and You' have shown me quite clearly that you will enable parents with possible super pack backing to publicly harass your teachers not only that you will do so at Great expense to the taxpayers quite frankly I don't wonder much about whether I'll be here next year or even next semester but you should wonder about how your campaign promise

058to root out the bad teachers will rip away the good ones in the [Applause] process Stacy Torres hi my name is Slim my pronouns are they them and I am a proud parent of two students in new han County Schools the board has done a fantastic job at giving ample time to bigotry and whitewashing our nation's history and given power to those who wish to see diversity and Equity erased from our future as well but I digress my two minutes today my two minutes here today are to give time and power to a different group The lgbtqia plus youth our country's Mental Health Services for students in school is a sad State of Affairs and hearing the phrases like par parents rights is terrifying as a parent of a queer kid I can assure you

059that if you are doing your job as a parent your a child will feel safe and secure enough to tell you their pronouns and their sexuality bringing the idea of teachers outing kids to their parents isn't just scary according to a Trevor Project 2023 survey two out of three queer youth stated that it made their mental health worse and that's on top of the already staggering statistic that 41% of queer youth had seriously considered suicide our schools are supposed to have resources that help our children grow as humans resources to help them find their own power in school children are supposed to find their footing in the world and create their own Social Circles away from their parents a child's Social Circle is their safe space and being outed to others be it peers family

060and yes even parents is detrimental to their mental health and physical safety outing a child also puts them a risk for being homeless only one in three queer kids feel like their home is safe and affirming when a child or adolescent comes out to their friends it's by their own power when they are outed especially by adults that are that they are supposed to trust like teachers all of their power is taken away I hope that the board is able to pull their ears away from hate groups like moms for liberty or the proud boys and listen to the parents and Educators that have children that actually need your protection the Board needs to realize that unless they step up the mental anguish and blood of these queer children are on their hands drth Mar

061Timothy Merck good evening my name is Dr Timothy am I'm from Carolina beach and tonight I want to talk about fiscal responsibility at your Roundtable event this summer you told me the reason our ratio of students to counselors was so dismal was because of a lack of funding our children are not getting the support they need because you lack money and yet tonight you plan on voting to extend Mr vogel's contract after he charged you $32,000 in July and I hear Pat Bradford wants to guarantee him $28,000 each month that would be a minimum of $330,000 a year meanwhile the Raleigh Board of Education which is just a budget over twice our size uh they paid their lawyer last year $98,000 meanwhile so the cost of the overpayment to this Law Firm that that can't

062even keep our children's files confidential one that leaves us vulnerable to a lawsuit under the family uh education rights and Privacy Act if we took away that overpayment we could hire five more school counselors you can support our children or you can support your cronies but you cannot do both because I say no to fiscal manag management and I say no to nepotism I hope that you will join me and say no to the Vogal Law Firm thank you Jamie [Applause] P good evening as you are aware I have been attending school board meetings speaking fairly regularly during the call or audience portion of the night and emailing you about how you shouldn't ban books I'll also note that the majority of those who have spoken about banning books have been against it even recent

063polls indicate that 50% of Republicans are against book banss according to NPR I mentioned this in part because I have come to learn that the majority of you are not open to listening to reason facts or your constituents but instead want to make decisions based on ideology and your own political base I find it absurd that when y'all decided to have a hearing you decided not to have any curriculum experts speak I have taught English composition courses for a variety of universities over the years so I thought you may want my perspective on this topic though it's probably not the one you want to hear um first there are four types of non-fiction including argument which is what stamped is it's an argument and that's why it's a suitable book for an AP composition of

064course it is not a history book nor is it trying to be it's making an argument even if it appears one-sided it's designed to get readers to evaluate the argument The credibility potentially of the source of the authors of the and formula a response based on that that's what arguments are supposed to do you make the students think all of that these are skills needed to be a successful college student composition students are asked to grapple with content because they are kind of looking at that argument and how it's presented this book's argument is presented to have students question history they've been taught before more specifically is challenging them to think outside the box you are elected officials not composition experts you are hired you hire teachers to be the experts let them make the

065decisions for their classrooms Garrett October is dyslexic and ADHD Awareness Month aiming to support those with learning difficulties dyslexia is a language-based disorder affecting one in five people these students make up 80% of our exceptional children in our district many of whom struggle in classes undi noosed dyslexia causes problems with writing reading and spelling these students are smart and hardworking but they have trouble connecting the letters they see to the sounds those letters make the term dyslexia is not new in fact it's been around since 1877 first used as the word word blindness in 1905 the first reports were published in the US in 1930 the word dyslexia is commonly used in 1985 the first state dyslexia law in Texas passed making School testing for students and assisting accordingly however the first law in North

066Carolina to address dyslexia was in 2017 I helped Advocate with many others for House Bill 149 to the Act was to require the State Board of Education and local Boards of Education to excuse me to provide tools to ensure identification of students with dyslexia so my question to the board is how are you working to ensure this law your strategic plan is not designed to close the gap it is missing identification teacher support and the right curriculum for all grades the issue is not singular to ELA students and the my nonprofit is committed to continuing to provide specialized resources however it's the New Hanover County School that must do everything to support the one in five with dyslexia to reach their full potential thank [Applause] you on September 5th Mr vogle shared that he leads

067his firm's efforts in supporting public records requests for our district this support includes withholding or redacting records as required by privacy laws which makes me wonder why multiple emails containing personally identifiable information about students was released to the public Portal 2 days later on September 7th Mr vogle do you understand Federal furpa and student privacy laws if so why was the public given access to a child's class placement academic performance test scores and parent contact parent contact information and why were we given access to an email from a parent outlining the conditions under which their child could meet with a school counselor I sent four emails notifying the district about this potential furpa violation and I have yet to receive a response the documents remained on the public portal for at least 11 days and

068were not removed until I copied the Department of Education on my final email on September 18 should parents expect the emails containing our children's private educational information will now be subject for public release I believe this release was negligent for $32,000 a month taxpayers should expect the attorney will at the very least uphold Federal furpa and student privacy laws and not subject us to a risk of litigation Miss Bradford Miss Barnhart you have been on a rampage about Stu teacher accountability neither of you responded to my emails and it appears accountability will not apply to your GOP buddy as tonight both of you will most likely vote to extend his contract Miss Bradford I don't ever want to hear you make another accusation about partisan politics from the from the dis when you you are

069choosing to put Children at Risk while aligning vogel's Pockets with taxpayer money if you truly value accountability vogel's contract should be terminated now David [Applause] Harry you don't make these things High Enough For Me hi I'm David Perry and tonight I'm here here to defend the Fourth Amendment rights of our students this last February with no public hearings or input the school district implemented an online surveillance system called light speed AI apparently we're going to get 3.2 more million to do that some more this system monitors every activity of our student on every District computer that's handed out that the kids can take home it monitors everything 247 365 and then alerts the uh a expert team if there's a potential safety hazard it doesn't alert parents but at this point uh we would told

070that the AI does not track uh student usage data but this cannot be true I'm a longtime software engineer I know for a fact that AI requires continually updated data to learn and to make Intelligent Decisions I urge the board and parents to visit the light speed systems website to find out more about how this data is being used don't Bu The Hype ask the tough questions the fourth amendment protects our right to be free from warrantless surveillance programs like this now since 9/11 the fourth amendment has taken a beating our federal government is collecting all kinds of info on us because instead of treating us like citizens it treats us like potential terrorists but now we want to do treat our students the same way that's despicable and it's a civics lesson that we

071should not be teaching our young students I urge the school board to review the use of this big brother technology in committee as soon as possible review the economic disparity rich kids with smartphones can opt out where poor kids have to agree to this so they have a computer and we view it's effected this I bet you there's not one or two incidents have been inverted because of this software you're going to find out that it's just a red herring a feel-good measure it simply tramples on the rights of our students thank you thank you [Applause] [Music] R based on our recent conversation with Miss farum and Mr Lacher love our children is asking the board to revise short-term suspension policy 4351 and give five six and seven-year-old children the right to have a parent

072to participate in the discussion with the principal before a determination is made to give the child an out of school suspension here are some of the important questions that should be raised during that discussion which Positive Behavior Support Alternatives have been used with the child is the out of school suspension being used as the last resort are there any other Positive Behavior Support Alternatives that could be tried If the child has an individualized education program or IEP the parent should ask was the child's Behavior caused by their disability and is the child's IEP being fully implemented can you imagine a five six or seven year-old asking any of those questions to a principal and if they did would they be discipline for showing disrespect to an adult that's why a parent should be part of

073the suspension discussion love our children's goal is to keep our youngest Learners in school by using positive behavior support Alternatives and programs help our children to learn and thrive in school revise policy 4351 thank you thank bar [Applause] a US commission transmitted their report Beyond suspensions examining School discipline policies through the Trump Administration in July 2019 this investigation focused on the connection between school discipline and the school to prison pipeline from practices and policies impacting students of color with disabilities including rates of exclusionary discipline and researched whether and wonder what circumstances School discipline policies unfairly and or unlawfully Target students of color with disabilities this study found that students of color with disabilities face exclusionary discipline pushing them into the school to prison pipeline at much higher rates than their peers with disability ities key

074findings students of colors as well as by individual race group do not commit more disciplinary offenses than their white peers but black Latino and Native American students in the agregate receive substantially more school disciplines than their white peers and receive harsher and longer punishments than their white peers receive for similar offenses students with disabilities are approximately twice as likely to be suspended throughout each School level compar compared to students without disabilities you are aware we have this problem here in New Handover County in 2122 there were 73 K through 2 grade students of out of school suspensions of these 44% were white 40% were black and 70% all of of all had IEP or were special ed students during 22 23 there were 71 for the same age group 31% were white children 63% were

075black children and 56 children had IEPs the study found that one solution helps a problem it is to place more experiened teachers in schools located in higher poverty areas as they seem to be able to turn disciplinary issues into teachable moment children in school you're out of time Michael [Applause] Davidson uh by the way way welcome to band Book week uh my name is Michael Davidson I sent many emails to you on various subjects over the past months most have never even acknowledged these emails you're elected officials it should be your easy for you to respond to your emails I would love to have a dialogue with you we can't happen at these call to audiences respond to my emails let's have a dialogue about things uh I also wonder if you ignored the emails

076from Miss Gates as she pressed for the Banning of stamped uh what is the next culture War action that you afflict to harm our schools teachers and students the actions of Mrs gates are reported by the media of asking for every school English teachers syllabus and targeting specific middle schools teachers is proof that you're opening a pandar box that's threatens to destroy any hope for men education for our 25,000 students uh where uh Miss Gates might call this due diligence I'm calling it a Witch Hunt uh parents have rights but so do teachers what are you doing to protect our teachers and allow them to do what they have trained to do the action of school boards of this school board will drive teachers out of the school y school school room and into the

077private sector denying Public School System destroying the public school system that has served our country so well for the last 388 years I can only imagine what you will for forbid next being taught in the name of making whites not feeling bad themselves would you teach when you teach about Thanksgiving will ignore the fact that we wiped out the culture of Native Americans some seed of s s SE and they're teaching WW2 would you not mention the 125,000 Japanese Americans forcibly inated in interment centers would you not allow to ask the question why we're not Germans and Italians also than Davidson you're out of time thank [Applause] you greetings and salutations my name is Renegade Cherokee and I am a man in word deed and form I come today to speak about proliferation of the

078books pertaining to the lgbtqia p+ community and is filing in City's agenda this community and this agenda is against children this community and its agenda is anti-child this agenda and its literature and its books are not for children they should not be in un County Public Schools at all whatsoever in any way shape form or fashion children should not be sexualized at all children are precious they need to stay that way but how can they stay that way when there's filth all around them in these books therefore I urge the board to ban all books pertaining to the LGBT community forth with and most expeditiously this is my treaties this is my I emplore you to do this because if not our children will be polluted they'll be sexualized and they'll be turned into perverts

079for them to become men and women so this is something that must be done right away we cannot have this community shoving their filth down our throats this must be put to a cease in closing boom bye-bye and the b boy Ed who now promote the him half dead sell Lisa go thank you for all your hard work influencers everybody wants to be an influencer we all have influence but who is influencing Us by whose authority do we speak influences affect our perspectives I want to know the influencers of of our curriculum what are the thirdparty agendas it should be easy to find and understand but it's not last month Melissa mentioned transparency we all want that discernment is a learn skill that children don't Master until they are out of school influence thank you

080for protecting them I pray there is no falsehood in you to be and not to seem implies no deception may your light be put where all can see and benefit and the things you do be commendable thank you Nan Reeves Kavanaugh my middle name my name is Nan Kavanaugh and I'm here today to encourage you to say no to policy 7205 as a descendant of colonist and plantation owners such as confederate general William Hardy and Joseph Eve who invented the cotton Jin years before Eli Whitney I'm here to ask you not to censor the hard truths about my white history as an American in C curriculum like many Americans with this type of History it is documented that my family enslaved people hunted women with dogs cut the ears off of the enslaved for seeking

081food when starving my children know their messy history they are strong no less dignified and do not need to be protected from it because they are not white white snowflakes my daughters one at hogard and one at Roland Grace also know their powerful history of survivorship as American Jews thinking of clause six of this policy I can tell you now that they will have great discomfort in any effort to White whitewash the Holocaust in the classroom I understand parents like Mrs Gates want to protect their sensitive white children from the hard truth of my history and I respect that you already have policy and place to support her in that choice she has rights and I have my rights too I'm asking you today to respect my right to raise Brave strong American women not

082snowflakes children with big intellects and deep critical thinking skills children that can face down hard truths about the fight for Equal justice for all and are better citizens for it I'm no stranger to litigation when it comes to protecting my children at school as I said in my email to you I suggest you count how many lawsuits in Florida is in Bo in right now before you vote Yes on this policy as a former high school English teacher I ask you to stand by the people you employ and trusty experts in their fields to do their jobs I ask that you do not dumb down curriculum for our children to support certain white families preferences and their white children sensitivities or maybe this is really about playing politics towards our children which makes a lot

083more sense either way I suggest you think long and hard given the history of this city before you put our children at the center of this culture War this is a moment for Wilmington to stand the right side of History thank you thank you Stephen Sten [Applause] last Wednesday new han County Schools celebrated the hard work of our talented teachers 90% of our schools met or exceeded growth last year our teachers deserve to be celebrated they worked miracles while facing an incredibly hostile work environment I have to admit though I was shocked that the two-hour celebration at Minnie Evans CA cost almost $220,000 15,000 of that went towards illuminated letters light displays and other props and decorations it's hard to reconcile how the district had $20,000 in the budget while teachers are struggling under staff

084and budget cuts our schools are buckling fights happen daily in our high schools we've replaced counselors with SRO and drug sniffing dogs classrooms and Halls are overcrowded teachers are so stretched they can't give students the attention need to feel safe connected and valued special ed teachers have incredibly large case loads and are drowning in paperwork how can Dr fa justify a $20,000 celebration while ignoring the needs in the classroom this feels like another way New Hanover County Schools gas lights their staff and the community just stare into the $115,000 light display and forget about the fact that teachers are doing jobs of multiple professionals keep your eyes on the lights and don't worry about the lack of supplies and your classrooms yes our teachers deserve to be celebrated but maybe the best way to celebrate

085them is to solve the problems they face each day versus trying to distract us with bright lights that only last a couple of hours $20,000 is a lot of money unfortunately none of it was used to empower teachers teachers don't want a light display they want solutions for their [Applause] classrooms [Applause] Lind hello my name is Linda baret I'm a a longtime New Hanover County resident and all three of my children who are almost 30 now um went to school and graduated here um I'm very concerned that the board is leaning towards um allowing ideology to distract them from their real Duty which is education of children um for example spending five hours discussing a complaint of one parent about a book in an AP English class is a diservice to all the young children

086who are trying to learn to read let's spend five hours discussing ways to help children who are SC struggling to read let's talk about how to support support and encourage teachers we heard that some of the things that they struggle with they hardly even got a raise I mean as a nurse I can relate to teachers I mean that what what they make and earn you know they have a college degree it just horrifies me um let's talk about how to help children in low performing schools like really like some of the things people were talking about reading buddies and and the things they were talking about in terms of their um the policy to take little kids out you know I mean it's just like horrifying really to hear some of this stuff um

087the Schoolboard time and resources are taxpayer funded and they also are quite limited as we've heard from oop sorry the discussion here please don't use our limited budget to further some misguided ideological agenda using our kids the kids of people in this room and in the county as pwns thank you Senor [Applause] here do you know how many witches were put to death during the Salem Witch Trials zero 20 people died but not one of them was actually a witch they were all victims of extremist targeted because perhaps they deviated some from their society's strict norms and then eventually because of mass hysteria you have allowed a parent to become powerful because you have acquiesced to her extremist beliefs and in doing so you've created a Witch Hunt instead of being satisfied that she succeeded

088she has expanding her hunt and targeting every traditional high school English teacher in the county and most of the language arts teachers at two middle schools and the great part is she's not even doing her own research she's entered a public records request so a new han County School employee can gather all the information for her what a great use of time and resources like I cautioned months ago your actions have given her more power than the superintendent or anyone on the school board yet monthly I hear you talking about how teachers don't get the chance to come and address the board my question to you is why would they none of the teachers in the public records request have ever spoken out publicly except for the Ashley AP teacher yet they're being targeted why

089would teachers come and speak and make themselves easier targets the point is you cannot have it both ways you cannot insist you value teachers voices while at the same time cow to community extremists whose mission is to dismantle public education as we know it if you want Educators to speak honestly and frankly about teaching then first you must move to advocate for them in their best interests in the same way you are supposed to be advocating for all our students teaching has always been a demanding profession and it's only getting more difficult the staff you have are there because they enjoy their students but you cannot take for granted that these educators will never change careers it's time for everyone the board the superintendent of the central office staff and administration to treat Educators with

090the respect they deserve as professionals and to stop outside forces from attacking them and keeping them from just teaching after all it's your job thank you Thea stack house [Applause] in June I asked the board some questions about the school district being sanctioned by the federal government's individuals with Disability Act for the past 5 years for the significant disproportionality of our outer school suspension for black special education students at a 4.5 times the rate of their peers why didn't someone from the board invite Miss farum to publicly answer those questions this is the sixth year of the sanction and about $5.4 million has been withheld from our special education students seeing how the majority in the general assembly are giving away our public education dollars to PR to private schools I'm not surprised that most

091of this majority board here doesn't care about losing 4.5 million of our for our needest children one of the original questions was how was the public notified about the sanctions during the past five years now since when Miss Vara met with love our children she gave us the answer a public notice was published in the Star news for two days it's understandable if you missed it it's only 1 and 3/4 in by 3 and 1/4 in there's not enough time left to read it but I can tell you the public notice never mentioned the federal sanction or the $5.4 million of services that have been withheld from our special education students Revis policy 4351 in the disproportionality do it with transparency please thank you Veronica [Applause] Brown love our children North Carolina recently met with

092members of the central office staff to increase our understanding of the recent K2 out of school suspension data we learned some important facts principles categorize student behaviors with labels such as possession of weapon assault on a student or communicating a threat before deciding on an out of school suspension this past school year 71 5 six and S year old children were suspended out of school 58 of the 71 or 82% 82% were incorrectly labeled for offenses not related to short-term suspension policy 4351 we also learned that in elementary schools principles have discussions not informal hearings with young children the children do not write down their version of what happened because ele Elementary principles have discussions rather than informal hearings with our youngest children love our children is updating its ask we are now asking the

093board to revise short-term suspension policy 4351 and give five six and seven year old children the right to have a parent or their representative participate in the discussion the discussion with the principal before a termination determination is made to give the child an out of school suspension the opening sentence of policy 1310 says the board recognized the critical role of parents in the education of children Brown Anderson good evening my name is Crawford Anderson I'm a student at hogard high school I left my AP Lane class the other day hoping to find a bathroom stocked with toilet paper and paper towels a rare combination only to find the boy's bathroom blocked off with caution tape and a trash can blocking the entrance frustrated I made my way to the bathroom on the first floor where

094a group of students were vaping in the rear stall and it had filled the air with the unmistakable Aroma of cotton candy I returned to my class dismayed by the lack of a toilet in the entire rear building eagerly awaiting my next opportunity to Rel myself this bathroom situation is just one of the many issues afflicting our schools today alongside other debacles like parking for students long classes with little to no breaks and pathetic lunch food initially I believ that the school board's primary responsibility was to oversee our school and others in the county and Empower them through policies to create a decent learning environment after attending my first board meeting last month I witnessed the passionate outrage of parents and political Rivals all regarding the book stamped which explores context complex history of racism

095and anti-racism in America in a style of writing tailored to middle schoolers what surprised me even more was that some of the individuals voicing their opinions weren't even parents of students they had driven for hours to participate in our local board meeting further heightening my astonishment was the Revelation that removing the book from the curriculum had already been extensively debated during a special session the week prior consuming over five hours of discussion there was no me mention of the disaster zones that are our bathrooms or any other issues facing the students the boards responsible for the book stamp continues to be available in school libraries for anyone like me to read I do not hold the leadership of hogard responsible for challenges like the bathroom it is their job to carry out the rules and

096policies created by our school board to all school board members left right and Center stop using valuable resources and time on issues that affect the very few and please start fixing the problems that affect all of us after all everyone uses the bathrooms if they're lucky enough to find one stocked and empty of dis of disrupted students thank you [Music] Alicia Deli good evening I remember when Miss baram used to be invited to the board to give regular updates on suspension and seclusion data why has that stopped are you uncomfortable with the data last school year there was 71 out of school suspension for four five six and seven year old children 63 of those suspensions were for black children even though black children represent only 16% of student population I wish you were uncomfortable

097with those numbers then maybe you'll do something about it also we are now in the sixth year of federal sanctions against the new hanal County schools for dis proportionality of out of school suspension for black students with disability black special education children are being suspended at 4.5 times the rate of their peirs if too many black children getting kicked out of school doesn't make you uncomfortable maybe the loss of Revenue will miss bom reported after 5 years of our special education children lost 4.5 million in funding now in six year we will we have lost about 4 .4 million that should have been used for educating our neediest students based on what I've seen most of you just don't care most of you are uncomfortable more with the books about racism than you are about

098the racism that continues in our schools Revis policy 4351 use the data stop suspending so many black children I'd appreciate that I'm sure the parents will also thank you thank you than concludes our call to audience all right next on our agenda is information board members do we need to take a break or can we carry on carry on good to carry on you want a break let's go let's let's take let's take a five minute break yeah I was going to say if at least let us have a break after the ne the soils and water because we're going into a 40min okay well why don't we why don't we go ahead and do that why don't we hold off we'll do the soil and water and then we'll take a break that sounds

099good so if we could have the representatives from the soil and water come forward please good afternoon welcome evening whatever time it is it's not morning um I will do my best to keep you less than 15 minutes because I too answer to a public body and understand what it means to have to take a break my name is Drew Harrison and I'm the director for the new Handover Soil and Water Conservation District and we wanted to talk about and and expose you guys to some of the programs that we offer for new hanare County students a little bit about who and what soil and water does it was created in the 1930s they stretch all across the nation they started in North Carolina and they are governed by General statute 139 so our direction

100is Guided by the general legislature our mission is to protect and enhance Soil and Water and new Hover County and we know a very important part of that is education and Outreach to let folks know what kind of resources that they do have the way a Sol and water board works is there are five supervisors three are elected two are appointed they are a nonpartisan position so this is the last thing you vote for on your ballot every even year we also have associate supervisors assoc associate supervisors are really important to us because they provide us insight and help but they don't have the stress of having to vote on issues this is an area we'd really like to partner with the school board with and have a liaison from the school system so we

101can improve our programs and serve New Hanover County students better so all of our programming is free to anybody in new Handover County um and it aligns with the standard course of study we realize that teachers time is valuable and so we want to help them achieve better scores on their test but maybe not through the typical learning style our learning is Hands-On and tactile um one example of that is we partner with capfi Riverwatch and the city of Wilmington to to deliver what is called an enviroscape presentation it is part of the hydrologic unit which is onethird of the eighth grade science curriculum and on average New Hanover County students score three to four points higher in this area across compared to their peers across the state we'd like to believe it's because of

102our interaction with the students we offer a competition called Environ it's similar to Science Olympiad there are five areas of study soils Aquatics forestry wildlife and current environmental issues it's for middle and high school students um we have had an active team from hogard since my tenur at the District which is about 20 years and we've had students from Isaac beay as well as students middle school students participating in a 4 Club these students participate regionally in Newburn and then if they place in the top six they go to the state competition in Burlington the district supports them financially to do so because we know it is difficult for those students to come up with that money by themselves we also have a contest every year for third through 12th grade students as you can

103see on the slide that is the the different contest poster essay speeech and computer design slideshow and what grades they apply to this year's theme is the living soil these themes rotate every five years so there's a standard five themes that rotate every five years we have had participation mostly in the poster contest in the past but we have also had um speech contestants place up to second place place at the state level there are prizes for teachers and students at the local Regional and state level if they choose to participate in this as well another um opportunity we have is called the resource conservation Workshop this is specifically for high school students it is for upcoming Juniors for sophomore juniors and seniors and it is held at NC State for a week the district

104also financially sponsors student to go to that so it's free for the student to go they learn about the same five areas as Environ we try to help Prep students for Environ and this Workshop by offering what we called environmental field days if it's an elementary school we go to the school and do the station if it's a middle or high school we make it a field trip to Greenfield Lake or some other area that has a body of water that we can physically do water quality sampling and our final um activity that we work with students on is school Gardens we previously called them outdoor environmental Learning Centers it is in the district strategic plan to have some type of school garden at every school again we have funding to provide the school the

105resources to install these our latest one was at Roland Grace we got the shop class involved and so the shop class built the raised beds and we provided all the materials and then the special education class planed planted the fruits vegetables as well as flowers in those raised bed boxes um we partner with the program garbage to Gardens we're one of the partners with that and that ties dovetails in really well if they're making compost at the school and then we provide them with a garden they have a place to use that compost that they're generating from reducing waste at their school see I told you I'd be quick does any anybody have any questions board members any questions Miss Mason I am so excited about this I love gardening um you said there are

106nine Gardens in the schools do you know how many of those nine are maintained and who maintains them is it the school themselves or is it we leave it up to the responsibility of the leader at that school sometimes it's a teacher sometimes it's PTA however we do recognize there is a deficit right now with the ability to maintain them especially in the summertime or if it's not a year round school different things like that and so we're trying to problem solve to see how we can keep it going um it really is a team effort we have to have the principal on board to do this and one lead teacher that we stay in contact with in order to do this as well the picture you saw on the last one was at Johnston

107Elementary School or prek and the Master Gardener uh volunteers help keep that maintained we're trying to work with possibly with um Cooperative Extension to extend that to other schools M graille yeah this is a great um great program and in addition we obviously we have to check it out through our curriculum Department to see how that works but I had a question for you um with the garbage to Gardens program um one of the I mean there's a lot of schools that want to do it but it's prohibitive for us because of the um extra fees you know for the recycling fees um are there any um grants or anything that you could help us out with that so we actually just wrote a grant to hire an employee to manage that program it was

108being managed by volunteer right so we had this employee for two years and part of her workload is looking for money to expand that program okay and and the same with um um it would help if you if we could get some grants for um the irrigation to expanding our irrigation systems because often times where our Gardens are placed are not close by to our irrig irrigation system so um Soil and Water also offers several programs that we call Cost share where we will pay anywhere from 50 to 100% depending on which Watershed the school is in and a Cy turn is one of the things that we will help pay for gotcha okay thank you m Bradford thank you Miss Harrison do does Soil and Water allow volunteers and if so how do they

109get involved so right now we use volunteers at Earth Day we are a big part of planning the local Earth Day event that happens out at long leaf Park every April um and it's not a glorious job it is setting up tables and guiding vendors and making sure people understand what the difference between trash Recycling and compost is um we are getting ready to employ a new program coordinator who is the person that leads our education programs she does have experience with volunteers and so if that's something that we had enough interest in we could definitely create that or partner we we love partnering with other organizations because we're a very small group um and I would I would be a Miss if I didn't um introduce Brian dadson he's our resource conservationist he's stepping

110in and helping with education right now until we get the program coordinator going and then Tom Boland he is one of the Su appointed supervisors on the board great Bart thank you very much you all of you for being here tonight um the board had decided to not take a vote on this per se but as far as when we're coming together to talk about the partnership what you guys are thinking would be beneficial because you want to continue to help education and partner with us is for us to consider having a liaz on however many individuals is to sit on your board so that we are informed and then can in turn share that information so just to understand that's what the hope is it is and I I'll give you kind of an

111example of that when I started I was the education person and we used to do a teacher Workshop every year but we would have to call central office six months in advance and say can you predict what kind of credits continuing education credits teachers need so we can incorporate that into our Workshop whether it's language arts technology we knew that they could get the science credits we wanted to offer science with technology or science with language art so we were interweaving curriculums and providing what they needed as well um it got really hard to get people to show up just because there is so much to do and so much on people's plate so we we want an expert that's what we have on our board is experts in different areas that we touch and

112right now we don't have an educator on our for formal educator on our board with the exception we have a professor from UNCW but college is much different than kindergarten so we need somebody who is connected to K through 12 as well Miss Walker thank you um yeah there's been a lot of interest in the gardens I think Miss Mason brought it up months ago and of course I do that as well I've talked to Evan as well in in length um I guess what I'm trying to figure out is you do a lot already and I guess what you're telling us is you have a hard time time is are you having a hard time enacting things like I guess what would that what would a board liaison be able to help you with

113so I think it gives us a way to navigate we had to learn the hard way you have to get approval from central office to publicize anything into the school right or um more like how our policy aligns with Schoolboard policy so it's easier for both of us and we're not having to reinvent the wheel go ahead well I guess that would be the next question because I know Soil and Water is an elected position and are you your jurisdiction is the county itself or your your separate entity uh the we our jurisdiction is the entire County okay you don't think there will be any um logistical things that would need to be approved from the Commissioners to because I know we do we do liaison with the legion stadium and parks and Gardens so

114is that what you're looking for yes so the difference between what you're thinking about though is the Commissioners do not have any control over who's on my board so that's why I don't have to ask for them to appoint aais on my board points the Lea's on do you know what you get when you mix Soil and Water together mud and I know it's about as clear as mud sometimes um but I welcome any questions Miss burnhard has my email address if any of you need to contact me directly you think of something or you have an idea I I welcome your input there yes ma'am okay I'm not a doctor either they already had a de Harrison so let me make that abundantly clear yeah I I I don't have the money or at

115all become a doctor well thank you very much we will discuss it uh and we will let you know thank you so much for your time tonight thank you for your time thank you uh board members we had decided to take a 5 minutes to break it this time so um my watch is 52 652 we will be back at 657 right at the 15 minute mark e e e back we got all right we're back in session we do have four board members on the Das thank you board members for coming back and now we have five and six and seven all right we're going to carry on with the 2022 23 new han County Schools annual uh accountability report uh and Dr faon and Dr Murray are going to be heading this up

116so come on down well she's already here thank you thank you welcome good evening Mr chairman uh board members Dr fa I am pleased to share the um 2022 2023 academic accountability data um this is a a different presentation than we've had in in several years and um I am excited to share this information with you um just to kind of refocus um on some of our strategic goals for the 22 through 27 school years that all of our students will excuse me demonstrate Readiness for productive citizenship as well as higher education opportunities or meaningful employment and in North Carolina we have several measures that we use to monitor those that I will be sharing with you this evening and then specifically we have several um strategies that we are uh monitoring from year to

117year based on academic performance and so I will be bringing some uh highlights and information on those this evening so we're going to first focus on the every student succeeds act known as ES s SAA this uh replaces No Child Left Behind which was enacted in 2002 the first year for the Essa School accountability model in North Carolina was 201516 and that's when we began our school performance grade model so the model for the every student succeeds accountability Act includ includes multiple components and it differs between elementary middle schools and high schools so what we have here um shows that the the largest piece of the accountability comes from performance or achievement that being in the form of end of grade test end of course test and in high school they have several additional measures

118that they uh monitor for for the uh High School such as graduation rate math course rigor um work keys which is our career Readiness Assessment Act which is our college readiness assessment um so as you can see on the left the elementary and middle school model we focus primarily on the end of grade test in reading and math in science and then uh also we monitor the progress of our multilanguage students and then the remaining 20% comes from growth and Dr fa has shared already this evening some uh some celebrations around our growth similarly on the right we have the high school model which again um lays out the various components that make up the 80% of the score and again 20% achievement or 20% growth and that's just based on English 2 and and

119math one and math three end of course tests so there are two main components in the uh accountability measures and and again performance is one that carries the most weight in North Carolina we look at Proficiency in terms of achievement levels we have four achievement levels that's different than we have had in the past we used to have five now we have levels three four and five which are considered proficient and then the fourth level is non-proficient we used to have a level one and a level two but anything below level three is just considered non-proficient so in North Carolina we get credit for um scores that are levels three four and five and that's called grade level proficiency there is another measure based on levels four and five and that's more what the federal

120government looks at it's called Career and college readiness um but in terms of what we were discussing tonight we're going to be talking about achievement levels three four and five and then the second component is growth which is an indication of the progress that students made during the school year growth is um kind of a strange animal you can't predict it there's no formula for growth um but the thing about growth is that every student can achieve it and we've seen that this past year in the fact that 90% of our schools met or exceeded the growth expectation um different than proficiency not all students can become proficient in one academic year but every student can can show growth and show that they are meeting the expectations um one of the best explanations I've seen

121in in the last several days is our Communications Department interviewed students on what it means to exceed growth if you haven't seen that clip take a minute to look at it but I think it's the second young lady that speaks she says it just means we did better than they thought we would it's exactly what it means we did better than they thought we would um in terms of what growth means for school accountability and and Dr F likes to use the golf analogy um if you think about golfers in tournaments they play in flights they play against players who are similar in ability to them and that's how growth is measured we think about cohorts of students who perform similarly they start at the same place the expectation is that the students learn the

122standard course of study we measure them again at the end of the year using the same assessment end of grade test and then we just look at how that group did did the group do we look at the group as a whole and then individuals compared to the group so did the individual do as well as the group not as well as the group better than the group and that is literally the way growth is determined um it also means that if an individual does better than the group next year they're going to in terms of golf they're going to move up a flight or down I don't know which way that goes but they're going to move into um a different flight where they're compared to students who are performing higher so the expectation

123will be increased for them so I want to stop for just a minute and see if there are any questions about the accountability measures or how schools are measured in North Carolina because it's it's a lot yes sir Miss Walker I just had a question I know that that D State just did a survey on maybe reworking this model is that anywhere close to being done or do you know anything about that update it it is um between the North Carolina State Legislature and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction there is uh engagement in revamping the school performance grade uh configuration and accountability measur I don't have a timeline for that what will happen is once North Carolina agrees on on what we believe the measures should be it will have to be approved

124by the federal government so that it aligns with Essa so we'll see but there are discussions presently going on across the state lots of um Community input and looking at at different variables that aren't maybe as focused on academic performance but but maybe some other some other areas that would indicate School achievement any other questions if not thank you car on okay so again um Elementary and we're going to focus on these individually um Elementary is uh the end of grade test in reading and math and grade five science same for Middle School Elementary I'm sorry reading in math and grade eight science and then for middle schools if students take an end of course test that also counts in their accountability for the middle schools so all middle schools now offer math one um

125that also counts as a part of their accountability um again the access for English Learners test that is the measure of progress for our um El students and then again the 20% growth is grades three through eight reading grades 4 through eight math and grades five and eight science the reason we don't have third grade math as a part of that growth model is because we don't have a beginning of grade test in third grade for math we only have a beginning of grade test for reading in third grade High School is a a bit more complex um they have several measures to focus on throughout the year again the end of course assessments and in North Carolina we take those in English to biology North Carolina math 1 and North Carolina math 3 we

126also monitor cohort graduation rate and that is the percentage of students who graduate in four years years or less so it's not necessarily all the students that walk across the stage on the night of graduation it's any student who entered this past year was um I believe they entered in 1920 and graduated in 2223 so that is uh what our graduation rate is comprised of uh another measure is math course rigor and that is the percentage of students in 12th grade that pass North Carolina math 3 that is considered um a rigorous course of study in North Carolina students have to have four maths as a part of their graduation requirements but math three is the marker for math course riger we also have the ACT which is the percentage of grade 12 students who

127are meeting the minimum entry requirements for the UNCC system of colleges and universities and that score is now 19 19 or higher so we look at the percentage of 12th grade students who have achieved that score work keys again is our measure of career Readiness and um the students that take the work keys assessment are the Career and Technical education concentrators which means they have taken a certain pathway and have had several courses that allow them to um take the work keys assessment where they have the opportunity to earn workplace credentials that will help them um further when when they're applying for jobs so that again is the 12th grade students who earn a level silver gold or bronze and then finally similar to elementary and middle we have the uh e progress which is

128again measured by the access test back up okay are there any questions before I move into the school performance grades Walker no you good so part of the performance 80% is the El progress yes do we know what the how the district is doing that because I think we we learned from some of our task me there are a lot of English language Learners in our district more than I think I ever knew so I don't even know how that affects our grades it it does um and interestingly it affects our grades differently at different schools and I'm going to talk a little later about subgroups but a school has to have a subgroup for it to be a part of their school performance grade um so some of our schools that have a larger

129population of of um multi- language learners have that as a part of their school performance grade they have to have at least 30 El students in grades 3 through five or in grades six through eight and then in high school the eel uh marker is only measured with the E students in grade 10 so most of our high schools do not have that as a part of their school performance grade and that is um part of the federal government requirements the Essa they say we have to test um English or or language arts one time in high school we have to test science one time in high school we have to test math once in high school and we have to report the measure of el progress one time in high school and that's why

130the 10th graders are selected for that test and to answer your question um currently about 25% of our students are meeting their annual progress measure and or exiting the program M crille so how do we measure progress like I'm thinking of pre-test to post test um if we only measure one time so um the measurement is taken from that group of students the students test every year yes so when they come in and are identified as um an student the the first measure is actually their screener and based on their screener it helps determine the level of service that the students will receive it also sets their trajectory for exiting the program so uh the intent is to exit within five years and each year there's a Target score that each student is expected to

131make or exceed and and so for instance the 10th grade in in high school they have taken the test as depending on when they came to our schools usually as ninth graders and 10th graders so it it is a measure of progress thank you um and you had mentioned that you were going to go into subgroups I'd really just like to know the layout of what we're accountable to the state and what those sub groups specifically are for each of those grade levels so if you're going to cover that later then that's my question okay so now we get to share some great news in terms of our school performance grades um school performance grades are based on a 15o scale so different than you know grades we're used to our students receiving it's a

132it's a 15-point scale and the distribution for New Hanover County Schools is that we had five schools that received an a which is outstanding um and then 16 schools with a B 16 schools received a c three schools received a d and one two school three schools I'm sorry four schools received a d three schools received an f and if we look at that compared to the state we can see that roughly 52% of our schools or or 21 of our schools out of 40 um received A's or B's that's double the number of A's and B's across the state um if we add C's into that 82.5 of our perc of our schools received a letter grade of a b or c and then we can see that we are far below the the

133state percentage for schools that received a d and and slightly below for f so this is the way we would rather see our graph with the high bars for A's B's and C's um we did have 14 Schools move a letter grade in the positive direction um we had Ogden Elementary move from a b to an a we had Castle hanne holly tree Murrayville Winter Park and Roland Grace to move from a c to a b we had Alderman Gregory Blair Sunset Park Holly Shelter and Myrtle Grove moved from a grade of D to a grade of c and then we had Snipes and wesboro move from an F to a d so we had lots of movement over the 22 23 school year in terms of school performance grade and I will share a

134great part of that was the growth even though it's only 20% of the grade when you learn what some of our schools did in terms of growth you can understand how they moved a letter grade and so we'll talk about growth and the next three slides kind of highlight the importance of growth we've said several times tonight that 90% of our schools met or exceeded the growth expectation um that's 36 out of 40 that's really Quite a feat um we had and that's compared to the previous year 2122 we had 27 out of 40 or 67.5% so again growth is an attainable measure for every student and we can see that we have focused on growth for each child and it it is uh impacting our school performance grades but even more so it's impacting

135our students as they progress towards that proficiency marker um we had several schools that moved in terms of growth we had uh Pine Valley wesboro Roland Grace and Ashley move from the not metet category to the Met category we had Bradley Creek Anderson Porter's Neck Gregory Masonboro and Winter Park move from the Met to to the exceeded category and these are the ones that just stand out we had Holly Tree tras Myrtle Grove hogard and Holly Shelter move from not meeting the expectations to exceeding the expectations and I I think Dr F has shared um Holly shelter's success this year in terms of growth I've never seen a growth index at 14 point something it is I the first thing I did when the state data came out is I filtered and looked and said

136oh my gracious they're fifth in the state they're the highest growth for Title One schools in the state they're the third highest for middle schools in the state wow um and and several of other schools exhibited quite an improvement in the growth and also in terms of growth um this is just a two-year comparison but we can see in in almost every area that we went from not meeting the growth expectation to exceeding the growth expectation here we're not really concerned about you know where the dot is we look at colors so in 2122 for math reading and science 8 we were not meeting the expectation 22 23 we've seen a great Improvement in that such that now we are exceeding the growth expectation fifth grade science was exceeding it remained at the exceeding stage

137in high school we um have a couple of focus areas we have uh in biology we did move from uh not meeting to meeting the expectations so we we know we're on the the right track there English two also showed an improvement math one which is a part of our strategic goals looking at the percentage of students who are able to um successfully complete math one by the end of grade nine the students went from not meeting growth to exceeding growth and that's a quite a big deal and uh math three we are not meeting the expectation however our students are proficient and that's one thing I failed to mention when we were talking about growth when we said every student can achieve growth but not every student can achieve proficiency we have students that

138are proficient but they don't meet their growth expectations each year so perhaps they were a level four in math last year and this year they may have dropped to a level three in math they're still proficient so they still count in that number for us but they're not always meeting their growth expectations and again this is also monitored by subgroup so these are the schools that exceeded growth last year 18 and we are certainly proud of each and every one of them their students their staff the parents that support them and then we have also some low performing schools um if you were with us last year or have listened we last year had the highest number of low performing schools we've had in quite some time which was not um dissimilar from the state

139we had 12 and this past year we were able to cut that number from 12 to 7 so low performing schools have a letter grade of D or F and either a growth status of not met or met this year we don't have any schools that um had a letter grade of D or F and exceeded growth that would have kept them off the list and we have seen that in the past um this year we did not have any schools with a D or an F that exceeded growth so these are um the seven low performing schools I do want to mention that we had five come out of low performing School status those are Alderman Blair Gregory Holly Shelter and Myrtle Grove again I think you can understand you saw some of those

140names on the exceed growth expectation list that just again goes to um show that growth even though only 20% of the model really makes a difference so I want to stop at this point and ask question questions before we kind of get into some proficiency data we've been talking about growth we've been talking about school performance grades are there any questions on those topics before we move into proficiency board members any questions if not carry that you wait okay okay I'm sorry I so um we want to round out by talking about how we compare to the state and how we compare to the 12 largest districts and surrounding districts and then also a bit about subgroup data some highlights from this year and I think Dr F mentioned this also we are 15th in

141the state in terms of overall grade level proficiency so that's combining all of our uh eogs and eoc's and that is up from I believe 17th last year or maybe even further 204th 20th 20th yes um we are 10th in the state in terms of overall Proficiency in our eogs and 15th in the state in terms of our overall end of course test for high schools as we look at grade level proficiency Trends um we look back to 201819 that was our prepandemic year and the red line represents how we are recovering based on those prepandemic um proficiency markers so you can see you can certainly tell where the dip happened after the pandemic and we are slowly recovering and we're recovering at about the same rate as the state now we'll see um by

142subject some areas where we have actually exceeded where we were before the pandemic this is uh the grade 3 through eight reading and English to um one thing to remember about particularly the third graders last year the 22 23 third graders this year's current fourth graders they were in kindergarten the year of the pandemic so last year was the first year they had had a kind of a normal school year um and so we're seeing that recovery at a slower rate um also along with that we are seeing that teachers in the upper grades are having to teach remedial reading skills and that's not always what they were trained to do um so we do see that recovery and we're glad to see that uh this the line for new han County Schools is at

143a higher rate last year than the state rate and we expect that to continue um English too we're almost back to pre-pandemic levels and the majority of those students had a solid reading Foundation before the pandemic this is one of my favorites I was a math teacher in math we have actually exceeded where we were before the pandemic and that's that's great news um math one we are almost back to the level about 40% um proficiency and then science is an area that we also are seeing a slower recovery again that's related very closely to the reading skills comprehension skills things like that um and that is definitely an area of focus for our um School District our curriculum instruction team and then finally our cohort graduation rate we in um 2122 we had our

144highest rate ever we dipped just a tiny bit last year again the students that were part of the 2223 cohort were freshman the year of Co and um we we really heard some unique stories from those students in terms of their experiences and uh again though we do expect to see this recover as we move forward and then finally uh some subgroup information so accountability data is reported in terms of subgroups and there are 10 federally reported subgroups and they're listed there for you and these are the federal designations there are additional subgroups that are not reported um and they are primarily ones that Congress and legislature are interested in tracking such as homeless uh military families um migrant not economically disadvantaged subgroups like that um but these are the reportable subgroups based on Essa

145it takes a minimum of 30 students in a particular tested area so for instance um every student is a part of the all subgroup and then some students are a part they're all a part of a second subgroup based on race and then some are a part of even more subgroups based on um if they students with disabilities if they're e if they are economically disadvantaged so some students count as many as five times in our accountability model yes and so that's the importance of knowing your subgroup data um Barbara who works with me in the testing and accountability office CS them multiple shirt wearers because they uh contribute quite a bit to uh the the way the accountability falls out um not every school has all 10 subgroups in fact no schools in the

146district have an American Indian or an Asian subgroup how however the district overall has an Asian subgroup so that means at none of our 40 schools that report accountability there are not 30 Asian students in tested areas all combined so if we take a look yes yes go ahead um so with the um the influx of our immigrant population here in New Hanover County um do is there where does that Fallen as a subgroup or does it it doesn't it's just based on their ethnicity okay but I guess what I was looking at is the um would that would they be like probably English learner students um for for classification because some of our schools you know some some of our um migrant families or you know immigrant families tend to go to the same

147school because they go and live next you know where their friends live yes um so does that so most of those students will count in the all subgroup in their uh race subgroup and then potentially in the uh English Lear student subgroup okay thank you Mr badford one other subgroup I failed to mention that is monitored but not reported is AIG Mr Bradford um thank you what does particularly tested area mean you mentioned that yes so for instance um grade five science some schools will not have 30 students that are English language students so they would not have a subgroup for science or they I don't know that any school has 30 students with disabilities in grade five so they would not have a subgroup for that particular test however all of those students contribute

148to the overall score gonna get in one one on the next slide having read ahead of you um the subgroup data eogs like it says all 60.8 is that 60.8 students or is that a percentage that is 60.8% of our students in grades 3 through eight that are scoring levels 3 four five on reading math and science and of grade tests more questions M Walker I don't know if you can answer this for me but I'm looking at this data here and I'm wondering how do we reach our students with disabilities better and our black students because it just seems to me like I've not looked at the data over time but it's very concerning and I don't know how you feel well you don't have to tell me how you feel but I mean

149what can we do is there anything as a district we can do to help because it's that um so what we actually do and I have another sheet is that we exceeded growth in those areas so often times when a student has a disability in order for them to qualify typically they will not be proficient in the area and so our goal is to get them to grow the student and eventually they become proficient so with all of those subgroups that are exceeding growth I don't know if they were a level not if it was non-proficient which it I'm assuming it's non-proficient how do we get them to a level three so it will take some time so if we use the term of of years to parity based on the growth status of what

150we are we'll get closer than they'll meet their growth model or become proficient quicker than um not meeting the growth standard and that's a I don't think I explain that well to non-educators but um basically what I'm saying is that they have a better chance here in our district of being proficient um versus ones where I know that like in there's 21.8% who are proficient and then we have to take about think about how many of those what's the denominator for that number um so but when we look at the growth indicator they exceeded growth so our goal first is to get them to exceed growth and then that continues to leading to proficiency so if we think about what our students said they're doing better than we expected them to do and that just

151accelerates their rate towards proficiency any other question members yes okay just back to M Bradford's question just an example of of what you were asking about grades five and eight Science Under the American Indian subgroup there's an asteris that means there are not 30 students in grades five and eight across our district to make that subgroup so if I run that same line over to economically disadvantaged there's 60.3% of our students in Science grades five and8 that are economically disadvantaged 60.3 of our economically disadvantaged students scored a proficient level on the science EOG I was missing that that little link there thank you very much yes yes so again yes these are in terms of the the percent of students who scored proficient in each of the subgroups and then with our high school accountability

152measures we have the the same data um again these are based on on certain grade levels for instance graduation obviously is grade 12 but we do have 11th graders graduate um work keys and act again is based on grade 12 enrollment um and then the others are obviously course enrollment and so these vary every year and even by school um some years some schools will have a a particular subgroup some years they won't and so that's something that we work with them to understand is to monitor the students and and which groups they may impact they may have 26 students which would not be a subgroup they may have 31 which would be a subgroup are there questions about subgroups before we look at some comparison to larger districts and surrounding districts um it's not

153NE necessarily a question but it brings up a topic that I think I'd like to potentially discuss at another meeting these are the subgroups that we're accountable to yes as a district and so I have um expressed frustration in the past with our EDI representation and I feel like um we should have a discussion about ensuring that our EDI aligns specifically with these subgroups with our definitions strategic plan and with the committee work and so I would like for that just to be on the radar that we can openly have a discussion about that okay I'm not sure I understand that EDI question there a question do we have a question I do um going back to that slide there I can't see it last line on graduation so if I'm understanding this right that

154our English learner students only 58% of them were Prof am I reading it right only 58% of them graduated in four or less Years thank you yes I'm sorry so graduation act work keys and graduation are um percent meeting the Standard Act is that uh score of composite score of 19 so the numbers across there represent the percent of students that met that marker of a composite score of 19 for ACT worked Keys um the numbers across that row are the percentage of students by subgroup that scored a silver gold or platinum on that test which gives them um credentials to enter the workforce and then graduation rate is the percent of students in each subgroup that graduated in four or less years no more you have a question sir okay okay at the end

155okay if you would carry on please and finally just some comparisons um we we like to know how we compare with districts um across the state so one comparison that we always look at are the 12 largest school districts in North Carolina uh we are the 12th and you can see uh that among those in in terms of the overall proficiency for eogs and and um well for eogs we are third in comparison with some of the large school districts and again with eoc's and then graduation rate and then finally in our surrounding counties you can see that uh we perform very well in in terms of our eogs uh third in eoc's and fourth in graduation rate that is the information I have to share with you this evening um again I'll be glad

156to answer any additional questions I'm G to start with Mr mcmanis because he had some before Mr mcmanis I got a lot of questions I'm just not sure I can get them all out um first absolute app Applause to our staff both our central office staff and our teachers who bear so much of the responsibility for the success let's let's but I will agree with the gentleman who spoke tonight that we're already starting off trying to kill them and that's one thing we need to do is back off and let teachers teach school so that's all I'll say about that quickly when I go to the subgroups I'm a firm believer that the the three success theories of any school are first your socio economic of the school let's be honest number two your staff

157I don't care how good a principal you are if you're good you can't lead a bad staff if you're a bad principal a good staff can keep the school alive and I believe Mr Wilder boo I've discussed that I hired him gave him his first job I'm still having having to think about that did yes he did but I truly believe it's your staff it is leadership it's support from the central office it's all the things that we do it's all the newe work the teachers which I fa Dr fac and applaud because we've instituted a lot of programs they all been healthy but we still have to consider the staff their health because you it gets harder and harder we're lucky new han County Schools our count is a destination people are moving in

158here I went to a school the other day which I will not dulge and I said what is the average price of a house in your school district and they said close over $400,000 who do you think's moving into that school district so what does that do to your scores so it is a socioeconomic that has a lot to do now I don't understand and I've brought this up but I'm going to beat it to death till I'm not on the board we all know that in summer school students lose lose a lot of what they left with in May June as most teachers they'll tell you particularly in high school that they're repeating three or four weeks to get back in the mood the mo the mood mode excuse me why do we not

159consider summer school for nothing else but reading I know we've had it but it's volunteer so to speak why don't we expect students to come to summer school why don't we take the lower performing schools and make them year round because there are four breaks during those breaks the kids could take trips to increase what I call peripheral education which helps students want to improve themselves and so we've got to get out of the box again and do things summer school well I don't know we we make we should we send Busters I mean we can spend $3.5 million doar on AI let's I mean let's do something for these kids to to bring them up because if you look at the subgroups I'm looking at Al OG G's 38 but then reading and math

160and it looks great for all but when you break it down into the lower socioeconomic subgroups these kids are going into high school and they're not reading so what are we going to do about it and so for the first time we're talking about what we can do to help kids education and not politics or religion so I want to take this opportunity to say we have to take the next step and you know I beat you to death about it Dr F we should have summer school these kids should have to come we have to run buses if they can't come take it to their schools we've got to do something different we need to look at year round education for these kids with the intercessions and those could be advantageous as well and

161each quarter you could take a quarter of the students in a small high school like freemen they need to see the world they need to go places they've never been I mean we just don't let's walk it let's don't talk it and this is our chance so God I love it we're talking about education but I'm afraid it's going to get worse when we get to the next part of the agenda so I'm taking but anyhow I had to say it and so I hope that all of us can agree that we've got to do something about increasing our educational Arena because these kids come back and no one's had expectations for them for almost three months and how do you expect them to rise to the occasion but you give them three months off

162every year so if we're if we're genuine about helping these kids all kids I I want the top to have everything don't misread me but let's don't sacrifice it at the bottom and we don't sacrifice the bottom for the top so we've got to have Equitable support for students at all levels okay I'll hush for now and just to let uh board members know number one uh we are actually out of time for this but we can extend as I said before we can extend our time if we take a motion and vote on it we are at our 40 minute limit um do we want to extend or do we want to go on I would need a motion to extend okay well thank you very much for your time then thank you very

163very much thank you for closing us out Mr mcmanis um next we will have advanced Pathways and special speciality program Dr fa good evening good evening so I have the opportunity to speak with you about our advanced placement and especially programs in the district and as you know in our district we have some wonderful opportunities for our students and parents and choices so tonight we will talk about the ones that that are marked our advanced placement our dual enrollment and our specialty programs so I'll begin with our advaned placement what exactly is AP AP is a way for students to pursue college level courses while they're still in high school that is one way they can do that and that's the purpose of AP how does a teacher teach AP how do how do we

164get certified in AP so there are a number of Pathways but all of them go through the route that the administrator has to submit either a syllabus that the teacher created a syllabus that they adapt it for someone else a unit guide or actually a sample from AP themselves so they have to submit that to get approval from AP what is ap's big is focus when they're looking at that they are looking to see that the standards for that course are there and that the exam um questions are in practice are also there so those are the main things that they're looking at when they're looking at that's making sure that the teacher is teaching the standards for AP and um understands the way the students will um be tested so last year we realized

165that we needed to put some things in place to support our teachers so we did a number of things last year to enhance our AP um support professional development for our teachers and one of the basic things we did was we actually requested the data from AP for the district level and it wasn't as easy as you think to get that data because they were actually sending it to the schools but we thought we have to have this data at the district to be able to support our schools individually and as a district we also joined the um North Carolina advanced placement partnership and through that partnership we're getting different resources and I'll share that with you in in just a moment and you see the districtwide professional development that that partnership um offers and

166we created plcs for our AP teachers so our AP teachers can actually talk to each other often they're silos you you don't often have two AP um calculus teachers you you just don't so they're often silos but they can talk to each other about the course and the content the learning process so um and then we also do districtwide um professional development I mean I'm sorry um plc so they can talk to others at the different schools we still wanted to make it even more robust so this year we actually had a back to school professional development session for our AP teachers we have a colloquium that they will be able to attend with that partnership in October and some Regional seminars and what they have the AP um College Board what they have done

167is they're actually doing using the data from our area to actually determine what the the um the different seminars will be on so they're going to be looking at that data to determine where they need a hone in so this will be very beneficial for our teachers also teacher mentorships because we all can grow and and love to collaborate with each other and another thing that we've done and and is actually in our strategic plan as well is we are committed to making sure that when a teacher teaches a new AP course that they actually receive the training in that course so that is something that we've committed within that two years and I'll tell you um it speaks a lot for our district most of our teachers this is this has already been happening

168this is a lot for them they're already this is this is pretty much the norm for our district and then of course the district wild plc's that we've talked about and we have our AIG coordinators who actually lead the plc's in their buildings and actually support them and as you know we've you we're trying to do we want to do a AP round table with our district leaders and you the board we want to learn more how to support them and learn more about their craft and lastly on this slide we're creating a district repository so we can actually have teachers to share the resources the syllabus that they have so we'll be able to have that and share that with them AP is scored from one to five so anything above a three is

169counted for a college credit in the UNCC system so our students are actually getting credit for that and you can see if they score a level five they would actually have probably had an a A+ in the high school and so forth so what are the benefits for AP especially for those students who may not score a level three we know um that any student who takes the E AP course they are research says they are doing better in school in college when they go to college so it's an overall benefit a while back I would say maybe 15 years ago our state really had this push of getting as many kids in AP courses for this Factor because regardless of what they score there's a benefit to it they're getting that knowledge base they're

170being exposed to college level rigor our current um last year our students scored 54% um passing rate on the AP exam we also had an increase of the number of students who took the AP exam so our College Board representative made a note and he wanted to make sure um that he share this with us we are one of the few counties in the state where our participation increased and our achievement increase normally when your participation increase your achievement goes down so we're very proud of that and it just says um it's just a testament to what our the work that our teachers are doing and our students now you asked me to survey our teachers about should all students take the AP exam so as you can see they were pretty close on this

171one question and uh the teachers who said no they shared a couple things they shared that sometimes a student takes a AP course to see how ready they are for college another thing some of our students take a AP course and realize whoa this is harder than what I thought so that is why they thought that it would um they voted no I will highlight for you we are over 91% of our students are already taking the exam without anything being done we don't have an exact number because there are courses like your Calculus um ab and BC where if you take AB you don't take the exam then you wait until you take B if you're going to do it so we anticipate that our um number of students enrolled in AP is closer

172to about 95% but that's why we cannot give you an exact number now I'm going to stop because I have three different parts to this um presentation and I wanted to answer questions um behind each so I'll move into the next part after if there are any questions about AP Miss Mason um I'm looking at slide 10 and it shows um the number of AP courses the number of ncvps AP courses so I wasn't sure about that and then the number of teachers and one thing that I noticed was the number of teachers at Laney hogard and new Handover is higher than the number of AP courses can you kind of explain that a little bit so that means we do have some teachers teaching the same thing because of the number of students who

173are actually teaching it and when it says ncvps basically you have kids who actually want to take maybe as Chinese or some some of the really um high level or or specialized um ncvp I mean AP courses that maybe our teachers um we don't have the teacher staff to offer or maybe their schedule does not allow them to get in the the course that is actually at the school B Dr fa I don't know if you're going to have this answer um right now but I'm wondering as far as the results that we see on the exam how does that correlate to the classroom grade level are we seeing that consistency that you had showed us in slide seven that says five would be an A plus or an a four would be an A

174minus B plus or B and then qualified would be B minus C plus or C or do we see an overinflation in our classrooms and I don't know if you have the answer right now but it's a question that when I was going through I want I thought about and I wanted to ask you yeah and Miss bar that's a very good question I can definitely get you of the answers to that I would tell you from my experience if you score a level five on an AP test most likely you scoring a level a in a classroom I mean that it I would assume that that is very correlated um maybe when our kids who are at the two in one I would think that our teachers are actually working with those kids and

175making sure maybe give them some extra assistance so you might have some discre frequency there but above the three I would think it's very aligned but I can get that materi that information and I'll share it with the board M yeah um so could you just um clarify for the folks who are listening that um students still have to take an end of grade test in an AP Class A teacher made end of grade test yes they still have to take the the the test the normal test this is this is the college board exam and that would be part of their grade yes yes thank you if you would carry on thank you any more question okay all right so our next um part of this is our dual enrollment so we have AP

176and that allows our students to actually take college courses but they also have the college career promise where they can actually go to cfcc and take some courses so for our students to go to cfcc they have to have a 2.8 GPA and they also have to demonstrate um Readiness in the course skills that you see here so what are they taking when they go we have 1,700 students that are taking courses at cfcc they're taking over 363 courses but the top 10 courses that they take are on the left here so we wanted you to um actually see that we are actually working with c FCC for those top 10 courses to see as you know with the Community College there's a staggered enrollment so some kids will start a couple of weeks behind

177other kids so they are looking at making sure that these top K these top K 10 courses are part of that staggered enrollment so our students will have that choice as well so if they don't want that overlap they would not have to have that overlap harther grates as you see here from the different schools the majority of our students no matter where they go to school they are doing over 70% of our students are doing successfully they're successful with the um courses that they take at cfcc now when we look at at the district level we still we have some students who are not being successful we this um grade distribution shows that we do have some D's and F and some students who are withdrawing so we have to address that and we

178realize that one of the main things when a student takes a college course at the University whether it be cfcc or UNCW they are beginning their college transcript that's huge so because of that we are working with cfcc and we are putting some initiatives in place and the first major initiative is the work that our liaison does with our students to actually provide some individual support when needed and also to make sure that our counselors are getting those reports for the particular school that they serve another thing that we will be doing is if you make a c in a CFC course we're going to put you on an academic probation or maybe a warning and and and um you have to bring that course up you have to bring your grades up to a

179b and remember why these kids are starting their college transcript there is no do over they're starting this transcript so of course if you fail or if you withdraw without your counselor's um permission you will be losing that privilege now we do have students who attend UNCW as well those students have to have a weighted GPA of 3.5 or meet and meet one of the following criteria on the screen we have 143 students at UNCW that take 330 to 330 courses and you see the top courses that they um took last year as well the majority of those students are at Isaac bear and as you can see most of our students are doing well we do have some students at Isaac bear that have some courses that they were not successful in UNCW and

180um principal Vines they already have a system in place that addresses this for these students cuz remember our early college students they do two years at the school and then they do two years at UNCW so it's a different format there but there is a a um a process in place to support them and even if they cannot handle this there's a process in place to get them graduated any questions so a couple questions for you Dr fac so do we keep any statistics or data about um the subgroups that that are dual enrolled and and I'm looking specifically for the kids that um might not have transportation to classes that they want to take um we currently I do not have any subgroup data I can tell you that that is something that at

181the senior leadership level that we are looking at is how do we address that um that gap of Transportation so that is something um that we are talking with and actually we're talking with cfcc as well to see if we can partner somehow and both absorb that cost that it will be so that is something that we're looking into but I do not have the subgroup data M Bradford Dr fac I'm looking at slide 16 and I'm curious there are no C's whatsoever across that board and then on the D's and F if I add those two together it's 19% 18% 24% 39% 33% and 23% are making dent F how come nobody has a se you know we looked at that I mean we looked at that again and again because it's just weird

182um we we couldn't the only thing that we could think of is that the grading skill that they had have maybe you know the 75 it was a lot of 75s or not I shouldn't say 75s a lot of um 85s or 95s Miss Bradford we don't have the answer but but we asked that same question but we looked at this data over and over again that is what they're receiving Miss Mason um as it relates to miss kill's question regarding Transportation um I know that that I currently teach in asynchronous class how many of those are still available to our students for dual enrollment because that would that would solve some of the transportation issues yeah and the thing of it is is is we are working we have to get that information from

183cfcc now we'll tell you that one of the things that we're looking at is actually how do we get more classes on our campus because that would also solve that issue so and not only get it on our campus but we have some Dynamic teachers who could also teach those courses who had their masters who's interested in that and and how do we do that so that is something that we're looking at as well Dr F we've we've also had um conversations with the Community College about um their seveno scale or eight point I think it's eight point scale which also um interferes not say interferes with our students so 90 to 100 is an A on our campus and also at UNCW however um a 92 to a 100 there so when we're looking

184specifically and that's what we've had really deep conversations about is the GPA is a difference um for the students which can set kids up again for when you're looking at anal Aid in scholarships um where a 90 for us or UNCW would be an A and when they go there to the Community College if they get a 90 that's a that's a b so it could knock them out of some running so they're looking at what they're doing and they can't do anything this year but looking at the next year also on those terms as Dr um facon was talking about um looking and having our our teachers um meeting with our teachers who have master's degrees and who have I think it's 21 credits towards a degree to see if there's interest to go

185an interest um with them because I will say that oftentimes when high school students go on a college campus they're sometimes expected to be adults and they're 16 year olds or they 17y olds and they don't understand the um they're not there I mean they may be there academically but they don't understand that they're only four tests and they're not going to allow you to redo a test and so if you bomb that test the first time so sometimes not saying that we need to give our kids multiple chances and we understand as I shared with the um the you the Community College we understand we're not asking you to break the rules for our students but we also have 5,820 students that are taking um courses there so we are providing a lot of

186students for them and so um we're still in conversation about um we have a a huge population that supports them and so we just ask for sometimes the instructors to give a little more grace to high school students or all students I won't say just High School all students because um they may get in a course and not realize the detriment and they'll say well I won't turn this in when I go to college but when it pulls um from the system it pulls that grade so they have to pull it and they don't realize it so there are just some eye openening things that we want to make sure that um parents know and that students know before they actually take a course we're not trying to discourage them but we're trying to actually

187help students understand and help the university know yeah and let me just say Miss Barum and Miss um Brenson and I have been working on the CF um ccou and we are actually um putting language in and about the grading scale there because it really if a student leaves cfcc and they go and they apply for NC State and they leave um they go to another um Community College across the state and the grades are the same both have a 90 one's going to be a a and one's going to be a b and our students are not going to have the the a so that we're really having that conversation and miss vum and her team are working with this brochure sure to make sure that our parents and our students understand all of

188these pieces because it's great to get this information it's great to get this heads up but they need to understand the importance of getting the right grade and being ready for this challenge Miss Walker I have like a double question first of all do D's give them credit for the course do we know this yeah it will depend it depends on the University right I mean okay okay and and I guess second part of that is what does that look like on the transcript I mean they get um one quality point one quality Point well for the D but I mean that it depends on the grade they get in the class right so if they get a d it will show up on your transcript that's a d and it'll start so if you're

189you take that one class and you go to um a university that D transfers over so your GPA starts with a one point something do many students audit their classes or are they allowed they cannot we ask that question they don't have um well I shouldn't say that the question the class that we ask about that our students um had an issue with they did not allow auditing so I'm not saying they don't allow it for all class I mean some classes but they don't have it for all crille uh yeah another question for you is kind of along those same lines is it's interesting because when my daughter took a class at capap fear it was opposite um New Hanover County Schools was a 93 grade and so she made an A in college

190but a b in high school and that um presented a couple you know issues but my real question my my my question was in high school when kids are failing um the teacher it's Inc coming upon the teacher to call a parent and um but when they're at a C cfcc Class that college professor does not call a parent um no matter what the age is because that's they can't they're not allowed um so Dr F sort of started to talk about it but um What fail safes do we have if any um other than our our school liaison you know following every kid because there there's nothing worse than one of our kids being kicked out of a class which I had heard happened um without us knowing about it because it didn't meet

191cfcc standards but um if it's on their campus can they kick and they can still kick people out and then do we have to be notified and do they get a they don't even get it a am Mullan you know if we're using golf analogies yeah it it is a college right is that the college so we don't get um receive um we we do get receed if they're withdraw if they've been put out let me let me get that but um and we do get great alerts so they do give us great alerts that is part of our mou that they give us that information but just because you told us that you put this student out in October what do we I mean we have state laws we just can't put them in

192another course in October so um we are working with cfcc and with the Liaisons and they have tutoring and they have things in place is what we're being told and we really need to make sure that our students are being connected to that because honestly at this point in time a lot of the weight has been on our counselors yeah a lot of the weight spend on our counselors and they can do but so much because they're relying on the information to come from the liaison and so we are like I said we're working with rting this theou now and this is a a partnership and really our Liaisons need to really be doing some things with those great alerts contacting as well because they have that information before anybody else they have to give

193it to us um my question is more to Dr fa your had said one time well over a month maybe two months ago maybe even in policy um something about we've got to do something about the students that get an f and then they take it again and they get an F have we done anything about that that's that's what we're working on now yeah so that is that um the the initiatives that we have that that would no longer be able to happen um we actually unfortunately we we've had students repeat the courses over and over again and that is that is not in the best interest of students so we we consider this to be ways to put that in place to make sure we support our students because they are students right

194so they're still going to do it and a lot of times our parents don't think about it as well about that the ramifications of them doing that so that's why we are putting these things in place Miss Barnhart thank you Mr chairman my question was kind of along those lines so when we're looking at the C is the Line in the Sand are we saying that students no longer have the opportunity to participate in subjects that align with that that they're they're not doing well in or do they still have that Flex that flexibility to say while I'm acing my English and my history class it's just the math that I'm getting a D in so they would not be allowed to do math and still allowed to do others or is it as soon

195as you make one C in any of the subjects you no longer have the privilege at all well what we' said is to make sure because we want to make sure we give the students as much opportunity but but protect them so when you have a SE like you're on an academic probation you have to pull that grade up now if it's below usy no we we can't allow you to go and and start your future in a negative light basically you know so you know to see you're in an academic probation and we are also looking at our students before they even go what are their grades at the high school what are the grades of the high school are we sending kids who are going to be successful because it's not about just

196being cool to go to take the college campus because they don't know those things they don't know the the things that follow them but we do Miss Walker I just want to Circle back to something Dr F said I think the last time or a couple months ago the cost like Hur County Schools we don't pay for the classes or we do pay for the classes does that come out of our budget like where does that come from so we are providing money from the state for our cccp um courses so if Patrice takes three courses and she fails them three times than we pay for them that's less money that for other things that we can do so the state does provide us the money to do that but um yes okay why don't

197we carry on okay we're over yeah we have about five minutes so our okay so our LA and this is short so our last um section is the specialty program and I'll go through that pretty quick um so we have a number of offerings here for our students to have some options in our district so as you can see here these are the options the number that you see below them are the number of students currently in that path or that program and for example for Lum you see you see 145 so they started with 145 I mean 145 students in preum but when we get there we see the natural well we see some matriculation when students do not continue in the program so that's what you're seeing for the preib and the preum

198and the um Elementary those are just the students basically enrolled in those schools so how do you get in the the schools for our signature programs in our early colleges we want to make sure that it is transparent and we have Equitable um options so basically it's a common application and the students either do a video an essay each School makes a decision but they're scored on a rubric at the district level and for our Elementary programs Gregory of course is strictly Lottery and that is at the kindergarten level because of the makeup of the program you need to enter that school as a kindergarten Rachel Freeman and Snipes they are Lottery and Zone and then Forest Hill is strictly zone so here what you have is the number of students at the ninth grade

199so you know most of our students apply for these programs in the ninth grade we do have some that um come and and and join us in different um grades but most of the application process are nth grade future nth graders trying to start a program in college so what you see is the number of applications for these schools and then you see the number of students who actually are seated in those programs a lot of times we have students who apply for all the programs so that's why you see some and then we have students who maybe they got in this program and they really want to be in the other but they apply for all of them they don't go so that is some of what you're seeing you're also seeing that the

200number at hogard and wax decrease that was intentional because of space the applications is not is not an application thing WX needed to bring their numbers down because of the movement in the sizes of the facility and hog also due to their enrollment do we have that that slide I don't see that in my deck okay that's what I think okay that's an updated okay yeah I was trying to follow along on my screen and oh it's not oh it is I'm sorry it isn't updated I apologize and then um the Elementary programs so with the Elementary programs you see the capacity and I know Miss Walker has spoke about this so you see the capacity and then you see the number of students enroll and then you see the number of students that are

201there based on the lottery and I'll move forward so this is our last slide and I just want to highlight one of the biggest things because we really want to enhance our programs that is one of our initiatives this year and one of the biggest things that we've done is we've revamped a position so last year we had a supervisor of virtual learning this year we've changed that title and we made um the title a supervisor of innovative programs and Specialty programs because we also need to be able to support our specialty programs at the high school and the elementary level and you can see the different things that she is doing to enhance that and we are actually working behind the scenes and looking at some ways how do we actually take our programs

202to the next level in this area and the last thing that I will point out up here is we're also asking the question is there a benefit from magnet and I can tell you right now we are not really sure what we're seeing so we're still investigating but we do want you to know this is part of our Focus um this year is really um putting some energy back into our um specialty programs and I'll take questions questions M Walker first of all Dr fa and I want to thank you for putting this together that was a lot of work I I can see how much work you put into that um um I I'm hoping we can Circle back I don't know how long you guys want to look at the current initiatives and

203you know but I would love to Circle back especially for the elementes because I think that was one of the reasons I wanted to talk about it because I think for years we assumed our schools were magnet schools and they weren't I know and a lot of the stuff we look at it says magnet but we've since learned they're technically not magnet but I would like to get that status back um I know and originally when they went away from busing to Neighborhood schools um this was kind of a way to get you know maybe other folks don't want to come to the the schools that were considered magnets and it it clearly hasn't worked and we know that because they're under enrolled I mean by a lot so I think anything we do to

204enhance any of our magnet programs whatever you want to call it I hope you know I hope we end up going back to Magnet or whatever equivalent um we can um attract more maybe families that want to go to these schools and I think we have a unique opportunity with a relationship that you guys have with the chamber and a lot of the other you know we have an engineering school we have an arts school and I think we have a lot of local we can do with that so I would love to Circle back I don't know maybe in a couple months or three months whatever you think yeah and and I would say right now we're actually meeting with the principles in the coordinators um I I I don't know but I definitely

205can say we will definitely be bringing it back because we want to share with you some of the things that we're going to come up with I I don't know a month right now because I really want to make sure we get it right um and it's going to take us a little bit more time but um I think you're going to first see it with in the Showcase it's going to be different you're going to see it there because it really will be a showcase Miss Mason and then miss krael and then we're out of time um along the EC lines um I've had Parents ask if there are any schools in our district and I I know the answer to this but I want to share with the rest of the community are

206there any schools that specialize in students with um autism spectrum disorder well we serve our students in all of our schools so we have specialty teachers in all of them but I don't know if Mrs Ron want to add anything yeah so we do have Regional programs in our Elementary uh middle and then every one of our high schools our Traditional High Schools serves um any student with disabilities and so they they don't have to be regionally based but with regard to Specialty programs and and additional programs like that um there is no reason why students with disabilities can't apply and move through that process we actually encouraged them to apply absolutely graille yeah I've got um two questions for you so I was looking at um the Laney um designation and it says stem

207um when did we change that from Allied Health because it was all it was kind of stem Allied Health um focus so I since I've been here I know I've Been Told that Laney is stem and that's the focus that has been I can look into and see um but the stem the stem and the engineering is um been the main focus there we do have some I Health classes but when we um the pathway that a number of students apply for is the Sim program so that that's a question for me that I you'll be helping me with that okay um the next the the next question was so if in these schools these Innovative schools that have you know like you stem Marine Science IB um what kind of training do the teachers

208and the staff get to support their thematic Focus I know in a magnet school there is special training so that you you learn clearly how to integrate um cross-curricula you know in how to use the Arts in and language arts and and in you know science so what kind of trainings are we looking at do we do for our thematic schools and it's really um I I talked to a vendor today um actually about this so there is specialized training for the teachers I actually taught to um participate because they will be supporting our um Forest um Hills Global and we that is part of when we're looking at this is what training do our teachers need because one of the things too though and what I share with him is we have to be

209careful because we can't put too much on our teachers um so we're looking at the time frame and the planning but there are specialized training and programs for I can tell you with the one that I was talking to the vendor today we are planning this out and going to be working with the principal to identify some teachers who feel like they can go ahead and start really amping up the training and they kind of take the init itive because we don't want to throw anything on anyone right now but we are planning on what does that look like for next year and how do we plan them is it some summer things into that nature so very good question well thank you very much we are out of time for this one so I

210appreciate Dr fac we're going to carry on with our next uh item of business consensus items um do I hear a motion to uh accept the consensus items or move the consensus items uh as provided so moved if motion is there second second first and second is there any discussion we consession uh consensus items uh is this number 15 is this where we pull the ones we want to discuss I think that was policy wasn't it oh consensus consens yes ma'am I'm sorry it's okay we're getting close to late thank you three and half hours all right so uh is there's no discussion all favor of accepting the consensus items or uh passing the consensus items please signify by saying I I I all opposed that passes 70 we will now carry on to cons

211cons policy consensus uh I will pass it the Baton over to miss Barnhart uh policy chair thank you Mr chairman um I I'm going to make two motions the first is to be to put policy 3210 back into policy and then the second will be to U move to pass the following other policies okay so so let me make sure I understood that right 3210 you want to 3210 to bring back in policy 3210 and then to pass all the other ones is that correct all the consensus all the this is consensus correct okay so we have we have a motion to send 3210 back to policy committee and then to pass all the remaining uh policies uh listed there and we have a first is z a second I'll second that first and second

212discussion Miss crille okay so I would um like to make an amendment to that motion since we're allowed to do one um I would like to pull off 2300 and 3460 um I'm looking here at where it says 2120 2310 2330 and 3460 all right and I'm going to have to ask you to say that one more time cuz my pen just died so one more time please 2120 23 2330 23 23 10 4 60 and we already had 20 3210 okay so that's a motion to amend that requires a second okay so is there a second to second okay so that again is 2120 2330 2310 3460 and just pull them off or to send them back to policy no I'd like to just pull them off and have a discussion because they keep

213going back to policy with no changes okay and then 3210 back to policy um we have a first and second discussion on that point any discussion on the amendment right on the amendment correct is there any discussion on that no we just had Okay no Okay I don't have any discussion I just all right all right so all in favor of the amendment which is to pull 30 2120 2330 2310 3460 uh for discussion and 3210 for um that's the original motion yeah okay all right so no discussion all in favor of that uh Miss buy would you please call the roll Melissa Mason yes Q mcmanis yes Pete wildor yes Stephanie Walker yes Jessie Barnhart yes Stephanie crille yes and Pat Bradford yes okay St passes 70 so those will be pulled for discussion

214um so at this point we can vote on the rest of them is that correct well the so the so the main motion now is to have those pulled off right those four have 3210 go back to the policy committee and that the rest of them are passed passed on the consensus right so again everything except for 2120 2330 2310 3460 which would all be discussed and 3210 which be move back to policy all the remaining policies we have a first and second all in favor please signify of the passing them please signify by saying I I I I all opposed pass to 70 um so why don't we take one at a time 2120 which is the code of ethics for school board members M crille that was your motion yeah I'll I'll go

215ahead and go first on that the um so I was not at the um policy committee meeting and I apologize I was on vacation um but I did watch it and I did provide comments to um the committee chair um before the meeting and I just am having a real hard time with the whole board decided at the meeting that we would send it back to policy to we would we wanted them to take out the last paragraph a board memb will will fill failure to discharge duties may result in criminal charges and um the members of the policy committee who heard that did not even discuss that at all and then um the other one that we had asked them to look at was um taking out the word subcommittees and that wasn't taken

216out either so those are two of the main ones that um this board gave that direction to the policy committee and it wasn't discussed um so the other comments that I have on that one is I am not above accountability and I am all for that I am a for I am not for accountability in um where we are we are basically threatening each other on who can say what who who can talk about their political motives or their religious motives um we're going to talk about that a little bit later um in in the legal services but political you know um is that's one of the one of the the uh letters that that we're talking about about we are not supposed to be you doing you know partisan issues and yet you know

217we are so um I think that we should just leave it like it was there is there's no need to be doing any of this um and and I I I want to kind of just go back into um the Roberts rules training that several of us attended and one of the things that the the trainer said that Robert's Rules is supposed to be there to protect the voice of the minority and Robert's Rules is not supposed to be used in an intimidating way and so I'm I'm just real concerned that we continue to want to have a checklist to get people and this this happens to be the checklist to get fellow board members thank you Miss Mason um I did a little digging to see if we have any of this information in

218any of the rest of our policy manual and I found 2210 talks about duties of officers policy 2660 talks about board appoint appointment policy 2116 talks about removal from office and we actually do have a policy that talks about Robert's Rules of Order so after having conversations with several board members um I would like to make a motion to strike the last three paragraphs and replace them with the board will adhere to the disciplinary process outlined in Robert's Rules of Order so just to make sure I'm understanding you're talking about the the red section on page three or four is that correct ma'am correct okay I'll second that we have a first and a second so um to do that I'm going to let everybody talk once first and then then so we have first

219and second discussion yes I Melissa could and Miss Mason um correct last names um would you you please make sure you through the chair Mr chair would you please clarify the numbers on our policy that she is talking about because there is a whole lot of red paragraphs on here so if are we looking at number 23 proposed 23 and proposed 24 or are we look and or are we looking at where the last three paragraphs where the board chair gets to decide if we've done something wrong my understanding from and please tell me kind woman if I if I'm incorrect uh she stated the last three paragraphs which would start with in the words in the event and would end removal from office is that correct okay Mr thank you for the clarification you're

220welcome I'm having a extreme difficulty understanding well no that's not true I do understand we're back where we I don't like to be as candid as I can be and as honest as I'm trying to be there is an attempt to silence those who disagree in principle politically and or and I'm an elected official as are all of us by law I have a right as you do which I support to express your opinion and then you pay the piper when it comes to being voted on when you run again but we've left out what has been said and I have still copies of the original policy which frightens me because it for stated I'm somewhere in here I'm afraid it's going to still be alive and I think it was uh Miss Bradford that

221the four members chairman point of order the member to my right is violating decorum he's calling me out and he's speaking about personal issues um let me read what Robert's Rules of Order says a motion 40 debate must be confined to the merits of the pending question speakers must address the remarks to the chair maintain a courteous tone especially in reference any to any Divergence of opinion and avoid interjecting a personal note in the debate to that end they must never attack or make any illusion to the motives of members as already noted speakers should refer to officers only by title and should avoid the mention of others names as much as possible Mr point of order point of order to the point of order we have a point of order I don't think we

222can we have two points of order I think the chair should rule on the first point okay so uh Mr mcmanis uh and this I will uh the chair rules at the point of order is well taken please ref refrain from Talking specifically about a person um you can talk the the the objective in front of us is talk about this policy so please uh if you would please not do not use other people's names yes sir Mr chair point of order to that point of order ma'am um you I sent you an email or a text after that training and suggested that we not try and invoke everything that we heard um that four of us only heard at that board training tonight at this meeting and yes those are in Robert's Rules we

223do not have any standing Robert's Rules and I thought that we did but all I have no we do not have standing rules on Robert's Rules of we have the policy I agree and you're not allowed to interject um if we're going by Miss Miss Bradford's so so I'm I'm still continuing the um and you said that would be fine so we need to go back and take a look at all of these nuances because there are a lot of them and that the the speaker at our training also suggested that we have standing rules on how we are going to apply Robert's Rules of Order for Boards of 12 or less and we are allowed to not follow some of them if our board decides so I would like for you to rule on

224that point of order before you start calling us all out okay um the chair rules um in this situation that it that your motion is well taken we do need to look at as a whole I've asked Dr fa to purchase books for each and every member we have these well that's a Min that's a that's a that's not the whole book I I found that out I am this is what the guy talked about in training no ma'am no it's not it's a it's a lot bigger book it's also have you know the discipline policy which we also are talking about so though I did uh find you know that we do need to take baby steps in this area uh but I do you know it's it's right here it's on the sheet

225here that we've had for how many months not everything she said oh pardon me Mr chair not everything that she said no but but the she read out a whole bunch of stuff but it is under you can take a point of order uh so we will be moving forward on that what we have in front of us right now now is we have the um three three paragraphs we have a first and a second so let us go back to that discussion uh Mr mcmanis you have the you have the floor we are discussing the the last three paragraphs whether to remove them or to leave them Mr MCM I am discouraged by the fact that I feel they members of the board who would like to silence those of us who disagree about

226something mostly some of the policies also the way we express ourselves so as I was saying I was elected by the public I have a right short of cursing at you or any board member or threatening you of of any board member to voice my opinion the fact that I they disagree with a board member or they disagree with me is left up to the interpretation of the majority of the board and so I believe there is already an understood majority of the board and so I feel threatened that you take away my rights as an elected official if you want to go there and that's what they want to do and I guess we'll have to play it out at Great expense for one or more but as a board member you have a

227right to voice your opinion and again I say unless I am using profane language you're threatening to bodily harm I can disagree and I can say I think it's a terrible idea or what idiot would think that I mean whatever I want to say I have a right to say it and I fear that this policy is going to feed the monster that threatens our ability to express our feelings support or lack of other discussion than Mr chairman um when looking over this policy and I had spoken to a few others after that training with Robert's Rules there is disciplinary procedures outlined in Robert's Rules so with the replacement that is being suggested and potentially being considered um this board would adhere to those and some of that is losing speaking privileges in the event

228that you are going to intentionally disparage board members um motives and things like that and so I think that if this change is what we vote on then I think that as a board it would behoove us to look over that training to understand that there are limits within Robert's Rules of allowing to speak your mind without doing it to antagonize another fellow board member because I agree um we need to hear from everyone in a way that's going to be respectful so with that I just want to bring that to the attention that is part of the consideration here with the reassertion of taking those paragraphs out applying Robert rules does still allow for disciplinary measures and Miss Walker if I could just I have a quick question to ask him and then I

229will let you speak after that U have the books been ordered because I think it is you know to the clerk on yesterday okay perfect thank you Miss Walker take you some some people already I don't have the biger book myself Miss Walker I'm I'm thinking how to approach this this policy was sent back twice and sent back to us exactly the same so what that says to me is that our opinions don't matter and so I'm just going to go ahead and just say it I don't think there was anything wrong with the way it was before I think we've seen examples of the the County Commission and they definitely don't take it this deep although I think they try a lot harder to get along and communicate with each other so I think

230that might be one of the reasons but that is just my opinion I don't I I I think as far as Miss Mason's um Mr chair Miss Mason's um asking to take out the three I do agree with that but honestly I feel like we should take out all these changes because I will agree with what my colleague to the left said that you know there are things that are up to interpretation and if there are board members I guess in a certain number that feel like they want to retaliate or they don't like something someone says they're going to use it I really Mr chairman that goes to the motives of a fellow board member and can you please let someone speak it's not your turn and when it's your turn call a point

231of order well she interrupted me so I'm just saying allowed to do that cherry breaking the rules too so well no no actually point of order does stop the discussion so okay point of order can she not interrupt me point of order it does not stop the discussion you have to rule on it and you have to tell Miss Miss Walker that she's out of line okay you're out of order at this point because it does stop the discussion it does right here it says let's look her up point right here you look her up you go ahead and do that but you're out of order at this point Thank you thank you for welcome um again please we just need we need I need to rule on the point of order and at that

232point with the point of order we do need to remind ourselves to try to talk about what's in stand up it's right here it says chair stands when ruling okay you're still out order um so uh Mr Walker again please talk about the bill in front of us not the idea or not the bill excuse me the policy in front of us thank you Mr chair ma'am well this is exactly what I'm talking about because I don't think I can get much out of my mouth without a point of order being thrown at me and in case in point this whole policy that has been written up by I guess the policy committee and maybe our attorney to punish for accountability reasons this is already laying it down here and so this recent point of

233order that just happened is a is a prime example of trying to silence me and I I'm try I try very hard not to do it we've had this discussion I've had this with you Mr chair that you know I try very hard to not be disparaging it is very difficult when we're looking at a policy we've sent back twice now that we have to go round and round on and it's just clear that honestly like if you're not going to if the policy committee is not going to take out or willing to take out these things that say willful fail discharge Duty may result in criminal charges that tells me that that certain folks don't care and I don't think that we need to go down this road because if we do it could

234get a lot worse we're not going to get along and just a reminder that the motion in front of us now is to remove that so that those those three out I'm sorry if I wasn't clear I I do agree with that but I would like to just go back to the original I know I haven't made a motion but I'm just telling you my feelings on it okay yes okay Mr graville um Mr chair um I would like to address Miss Walker um go back to the beginning some of these changes were from the ncsba so they do have to be included and um for points of clarity um I would like to show you that it is letter B number five okay um th those were in there from ncsba so we do

235have to leave those and um number 17 number 17 um about um not um have you know hiring employees that that you benefit us so those one oh the the conflict of interest so those do have to be in but 23 and 24 were added by um either Miss barnhard um as chair or Miss Bradford as a member um they just showed up so um but also to that point is we can take out those last paragraphs and do what Miss Mason had said but um I think we will find when we all read the big thick book and we look at the recording from the training was that we are allowed to adopt Robert's Rules of Order to fit our board so um I was hoping that Miss Mason might want to amend her

236motion to say and follow Robert's Rules of Order with our an develop standing rules for how we're going to follow Robert's Rules of Order because they there a lot of them in there that aren't specific to um Boards of 12 or less Miss Mason um Mr chair just to speak to that point um I wouldn't want to put that necessarily in policy because I believe that's more of a procedural thing and if that's something that we would like to do as a procedural thing I think that that's something we should set up a work session to do um but I don't want to add any of that that additional setting up that those those parameters um in this policy okay so we now have a motion and second to uh adopt this policy with striking

237the last four assuming last three I'll say it properly last three paragraphs Miss Mason would you repeat what you said I did not have an opportunity to write that down as far as what you'd like to add in in place it with the board will adhere to the disciplinary process outlined in Robert's Rules of Order okay and I'd like to make it Mr chair yes make an amendment to that motion and also to strike number 23 and 24 okay uh there's a amend we allowed to do one one more Amendment so that's it right there yeah that's it um second I will second that okay we have first yes sir Mr chair yes sir so what we're asking is to delete what we agree on but and also that approves the policy automatically or well

238if we we have to we voting to delete these and then come back to the we make sure we're understood yes sir good question all right so we have let's see that was crille made that motion with a second from Miss Walker very good all right so the uh amendment is a discussion on the amendment uh which is to strike additionally uh numbers 23 and 24 we got we got to First a second we just didn't know if there's any discussion all right so we'll vote on that um that Amendment then we'll vote on the amendment from Miss Mason and then we'll vote on the main message main motion excuse me I apologize um Miss buoy would you please please call the role this is again just be totally clear on Miss kill's Second Amendment

239which is to strike uh chap uh not chapters but numbers 23 and 24 Miss Mason yes Mr mcmanis yes Mr wbor no Miss Walker yes Miss Barnhart no Miss kille yes and Miss Bradford no so that Amendment passes 4 to three so that numbers 23 and 24 will be struck will be taken out better way to say at this time of night all right so now we have the motion in front of us to strike we've already struck out 23 and 24 but then to strike out the last three paragraphs and to replace them with the wording that Miss Mason has uh discussed Mr chair this would include the whole thing including the strike 2324 and strike the last three paragraphs and replace the last three paragraphs with that sentence that Miss Mason read the

240whole thing okay um Miss buy again would you please call the role Miss Mason yes Mr mcmanis yes Mr wior yes Miss Walker yes Miss Barnhart yes Miss crille yes and Miss Bradford yes so that passes 70 we have now we I I am correct we do not have to go back and vote on this one again correct do have to vote on right itself Miss Mason I I don't think Miss Mason's was an amendment I think it was a motion so I think we're all set okay very good all right so that passes with as amended getting back into here where did I write it down here it is next we have 2330 2333 [Music] 32330 uh M Crable you also requested to pull this off yes so I um again this this was

241talked about um at the agenda I mean at the the policy committee meeting which I was not at um and one of the comments made by one of the board members said that we are going to we're recommending these changes be so that they can adhere to the ad hoc committee's recommendation which has not been approved so I take I take offense to that but I also want to call the attention to um letter a suggested guidance to take the word of take the place of template not a big deal um one thing that is kind of being snuck in there in is moving um the the time frame to place an item on the agenda from four two meetings to 4 which essentially sends us out a whole quarter um if the majority of

242the board does not want to hear a topic and then the other thing um that would show up in here oh and they want to take out correspondence as a um a item that we put on um and we did hear at the agenda review is because we don't get mail anymore so we can't have correspondence but we do get emails um we do have the opportunity for board members to be able to make announcements such as you know happy National bullying prevention week you know and those kind of comments would be taken out because one of the the people on the committee feel like um it adds too much minutes is time okay just let you know we are at 25 minutes at this point on this discussion um so are you making a

243motion there ma'am yes I'm making a mo I'm making a motion to um strike the proposed change of removing correspondents and strike the proposed change of going from two to four meetings okay is there yeah second we have a motion and second motion from Miss crille second from Walker like I said with five minutes but let's we will have to add some time if we have to yes ma'am thank you Mr chairman um the discussion of adding from two to four meetings we do not need to have six-hour meetings and so the having the flexibility of saying as long as we are able to cover it within four meetings is an opportunity to condense that that so what this is saying you as the chairman you are still able to set the agenda and you

244can have as long of a meeting as you want but this would give for flexibility with that um and just to clarify you're not you're not um concerned about the suggested guidance you're okay with that being Chang talk to okay I was Mr chairman the clar the clarification is keeping the suggested Guidance just not okay with eliminating correspondence and not okay with the flexibility of four board meetings that was what my motion was to take out those two things thank you again please everything comes from me yes Miss Mason um just a quick question the prior board wasn't there a wasn't there a discussion about this in the past where it was to or it was for and it got moved to or was that a different topic uh I I I'll address that um

245before there was no limit it was you could do it as as I remember anyway maybe I've but uh it was as many times as you know the chair basically could put on whatever they wanted and there were certain times that the chair basically at in my remembrance did not put it on for quite a while and that's why the vote was taken and it was moved to two Miss Walker thank you Mr chair um that's that exactly correct Mr chair um from the previous board we had an issue with things getting on the agenda and I um I will agree that four is too long I think two is reasonable and I feel like you know as as elected folks that you know sometimes we have things that that are more pressing than others

246but at the same time we are hopefully bringing something to the table when we have something on the agenda I know um we have all done it and I just think the reason we had two was because we were having a problem and so I really think four is way too long I think we should leave it as two because that gives to chair the flexibility to go okay well maybe not this month but maybe month after beyond that it's too far it's just too far okay Miss Bradford um Mr chair I move an amendment to change that from two two to three instead of four to three so we meet in the mum I'd second that we have a first and second on New Motion all right so there's motion and a second okay

247discussion on the amendment which is now three which is a compromise miss crille the um it's still an attempt to silence the minority so I would say no okay Mr J M Walker um I will agree with that because I feel like I mean I'm trying very hard to be careful when I say this but as a person that has been victim to this before the whole reason to put to is is so there is protection there there are protections for folks that that because we clearly are elected people we have a voice and then we also have things that we feel are time sensitive three is still too long I think two was fair and I believe I was part of that motion the last time and so I think two if we don't

248keep it it too it is in my opinion it is silencing people okay so we have a motion we have a second uh Miss bully again this motion at this point is to go to uh keep the uh board meeting agenda as is except for going to three uh instead of two Miss buy would you please for you know having the chairperson adding them on um Miss buy please call the rooll Miss Mason no Mr mcmanis no Mr wior yes Miss wer no Miss Barnhart yes Miss Crill no and Miss Bradford yes that's defeated four to three so we're back to the main motion excuse me the the motion that Miss cral brought forth which was to uh go back to two and to reinsert correspondence is that correct yes okay uh Miss Bo I'm

249sorry 30es okay we are pass the time so let's take the vote on this and then we will discuss whether we want to put the rest on uh on for next month or or if we want to keep going miss buoy uh again this motion now is to add correspondents back in point of Mr chair yes ma'am apologize I just yes we voted there was a motion to make it four three instead of four but wasn't there an original motion to not have four at all go two go back to two that's yeah that's what I said that's what we're voting on that's what we're voting on right now okay so we're okay two two and correspond back everyone it's okay and I apologize if I was clear two this what we're voting on right

250now is to take this right in front of us and go back to two thank you sir appr and adding correspondence back okay that right that's correct very good Miss buy please call the role all right Miss Mason yes Mr mcmanis yes Mr I I did not hear that yes yes okay I'm sorry I didn't hear you um Mr yes Miss Walker yes Miss Barnhart no Miss crille yes and Miss Bradford no that is pass uh 5- 2 uh so we are at uh our time limit for this Mr chair yes ma'am I move that we take the remainder of these and and and move them out till next month it's 9:00 okay so we have a motion to take uh the two remaining policies and move them out to next month which is 2310

251and 3460 is there a second I'll second that we have a first and second uh so they would be brought back uh as policy consensus for next month uh any discussion because we are past our time correct terms I think is postponed postponed yes um we're not tbling them because not an emergency we are postponing them postponing them to a definite time that's exactly correct I just want a clarification on which ones we were proposing again we we voted on the first two so the other two was 2310 3460 we've already passed everything else okay all in favor sign so again to put postpone no not to postpone to Mo to postpone yeah I was right postpone to a definite time which will be next month all in favor please signify by saying I I

252I all opposed they are postponed till next month they will be taken up at that time policies for first reading Miss barnhard so the there are two policies for the board to consider for first reading um the fraternization policy and then 7205 is standards of professional conduct okay uh do you have a motion it's my understanding that un yes first I'm sorry what the board has okay um yes M crille so um before we vote on this um as a second reading I would like to make sure that we give the fraternization policy 6081 the proposed fraternization policy um its correct number in the 7,000 series I speak to that yes ma'am and I can speak to that Mr chairman I had reached out to ncsba so there was a couple options that she had

253given me to consider and we'll consider that in policy the relabeling of that because that was taken from agenda review okay but I don't think this needs to go back to policy for that we just need to change the number it's just a semantic correct Mr wbore I yeah I I really don't think he needs to go back to policy I think we can discuss it and um you know and look why you know Mr vogle do you have any insight on that um the suggestion was to just change the number so that it goes in the correct series I agree that it would go in the 7,000 series and that it doesn't have to go back to the policy committee for the board to make that okay very minor very good what what what

254uh what number would you suggest oh you just want why don't you you want to get back to her Mr chair I would just suggest that Miss Barnhart continues her conversations with um the ncsba and they will give us a number and we put it in and then she just brings it forth next next month with the correct number that's all I'm asking very good any objections to that if not we'll carry on with our policies for second reading Miss barnhard policy excuse me not policies um there are two to consider I'm toggling back and forth um for policies for second reading there are two to consider or just one um I my apologies I had left off the 5008 and so at the agenda review I said I'll bring that back to the board

255for second reading in November so then the policy to consider is the in invocations and uh point of order we skipped the discussion on 7205 it it it is for first reading but I do I want to make a motion that this goes back into policy um because we have to discuss letter z letter Z is completely unnecessary for this policy and it's based on a bill that hasn't even been approved um so I don't I would like to make a motion that we send policy 7205 back to policy committee okay we have a motion from M Crill is there a second well initially Mr chair she made a point of order that you had moved on without discussing it so maybe you should rule on her point of order all right um I do

256find that your point of order is well taken so we will go back and discuss it thank you chair you're welcome and you're making a motion now to uh send 7205 standard of Professional Standards excuse me of professional conduct back to policy committee is there a second there's a second for me Walker Mr Walker second all right discussion oh no I'm I'm done discussing I just I just think we need to have a more thorough conversation about that and give board members the opportunity to um make official comments before we move on to the second reading in November because this is a big one it's a it's a um it's a compilation of policies that we already have which I'm not opposed to um putting them all in one place but I am opposed um

257and I or I think I'm opposed and I think the rest of the board who was not sitting in on that policy committee meeting um needs to take a closer look okay so we have a motion of second um if there's no other discussion Miss buy would you please call the role Mr chair just to be clear this is a motion to refer policy 7205 back to the policy committee that is correct yes sir all right Miss Mason yes Mr mcmanis yes Mr w or no Miss Walker yes Miss barnhard yes Miss Crill yes and Miss Bradford no uh it will be put back to policy committee on a 5-2 vote um thank you for catching that Miss uh Crill we will carry on with our policies for or policy once again I I corrected

258policy for second reading Miss barnhard thank you Mr chairman um this policy the reason when we were looking into creating this policy I wanted to bring forth before the board what the laws were um this came from a from months ago and discussion and so I know there was some conversation about ex striking one of the language and in good faith I could not bring forth a policy knowing that researching the law this is what the law says and to strike that so the will of the board um I believe it's number five number five in is it B yes okay number five and B so if that's the will of the board to strike that and pass it then that's it but I I could not good faith bring a policy knowing that we

259were not abiding by the law which was the whole point of creating this policy so that's why it's brought forth the way is okay we need to at this point we need to have a motion before we can discuss so I did oh I will make a motion that um that we strike um B number five from the policy and that we add in a legal reference lond versus Rowan from the fourth circuit which says that um County Commission one of the things it says is that County Commissioners um will not give invocations from the Das and so that was my reasoning for adding that in okay so we have a motion versus Rowan I brought brought that up at the last meeting so we have a motion to strike B5 and to add I'm

260sorry say that again add the lond versus rowand case from the fourth circuit um Mr Vogel knows what that is and could easily insert that for us okay all right so we have a motion is there a second I'll second all right Miss Mason will second just all right so crra is Miss M Crable has a motion and Miss Mason has a second Miss discussion Miss Bradford um Mr chair I would like to ask the attorney a question about the Lun versus Rowan and why it wasn't included in this um just for clarification please since it's supposed to go through me let me ask Mr vog can you explain why lond versus ran was not added in this please there's no EXC Mr chair there's no requirement to include certain cases and not other cases

261the lond case is a decision of the US court of appeals of the fourth circuit it is precedent over our jurisdiction North Carolina it it can be excluded because there's no requirement to include that case or it can be included um I just want to note that uh uh the board member to to my right gave a a a description of what the board member thought the holding was in that case uh I gave uh advice at the policy committee's request on what that case uh stood for would you mind sharing that with us yes the uh the lond case uh provides uh an interpretation of the circumstances under which a board can uh have invocations at the start of a meeting uh in that case the board had a requirement that only board members

262can give the invocation and the four circuit was trouble by that as well as some other things and decided that the invocations that were given by that particular board did not comport were not compliant with the First Amendment but the court uh expressly stated that it was not saying that there was some outright prohibition under all circumstances for board members to give the invocation rather there might be circumstances where board members could give the invocation thank you sir M Crill um so I thank you for that clarification went back and listened again that wasn't quite what I remembered but you know you are the attorney so we'll go with that but um this policy came from a compilation of other policies that you got from the ncsba and two of the other ones from districts

263that are similar to ours referenced that so I thought that that was um if it was good enough for the the other counties that we model um such as cabis County or other larger ones then it is it is it is good for us as well okay Miss Walker so I guess I only thing I have to add to that is we're getting I guess a little bit of a disagreement but I feel like if it if it's not going to be out of place there then why would we not add it I mean if it if it's used in other districts like that um I'm okay with putting that in okay so in front of us now thank you Mr Walker um in front of us we have a motion to take policy 2350

26415 to strike the fifth um the number number five and and move that everything up and then to add a legal reference at the bottom um Miss buy would you please call the role Miss Mason yes Mr mcmanis yes Mr wbore yes Miss Walker yes Miss barnhard yes Miss cranville yes and Miss Bradford no that passes 5 to1 excuse me my math is failing me I do apologize for that 6 to one uh that was close yeah all right um that was the end of that so we will carry on to new business uh the discussion is now for the ncsba board directors Miss crille um yes sir Mr wior um the um I found out about this opportunity last year but they only take um the ncsba only takes nominations in the odd years

265so I was waiting for um I was waiting for the the announcement to come out and found out just recently that the announcement came out to the board chair and the superintendent not to all board members so um we have already miss the deadline for me to do that but ncsba um person who's in charge of this gave me the opportunity to bring it to my board and let them discuss it has to be approved but basically what it is is serving on the board of directors and they like to have a good representation from across the state and presently the the southeast area of um the state is not included on the board of directors so I thought that I would be a good fit um some of the areas that they um that

266they and some of the Committees that they have include um strategic planning event organizing um policy making um and all of which I have experience on this board in doing so I think I would be a good representative for the Southeast region and for our County so I respectfully um request that this board um approve my um request to nominate myself for that position okay Mr chair um we have Miss Barnhart next Please Mr chair I'm very taken aback by this discussion tonight because we've been talking about procedure and how we add things to the agenda and inform others um so for for me to make a decision on not being provided any information um not being considered any anybody on this board but just one I don't think it is right to do so

267um I appreciate uh my board member to the left bring up the opportunity but I do not think that it is a wise thing for us to be doing okay and I did I failed to ask for Miss U krael did make a motion is there a second to that I don't think she did I didn't make a motion I was directly requested so I will respectfully now make a motion that um I received the endorsement of our board to um apply for the the ncsba board of directors opening okay and is there a second a second okay M Walker will second that now we're in the proper place to have that discussion M Bradford I don't understand Mr chairman how in one moment we can say don't surprise us and in the next moment

268we bring surprises before the board um I can't support this because I didn't know about it and it's 9:15 at night and I know nothing about it and so I am not going to Ru not going to vote in favor of this because it's a surprise it was added to the agenda at the last minute with no notice and it just if we're if rules for the but not for me U we we can't go there please yes let's keep that Miss crille yes and um with all due respect this letter did come out to the board chair at the beginning of August to the board chair and the superintendent and it was not shared with the rest of the board so that is why no one knows about it and when I inquired um

269on September 29th when this would be coming out um that's when the email was shared with me again that the board chair and the superintendent um had already gotten this letter so I asked you know did that mean I was out or does that mean that the board chair did not think that um I was suitable candidate for this or did he just forget to send it out you know and wasn't and just it was an oversight on his part and that is what I am assuming that it was an oversight um and that so that is why it is a surprise it was not a surprise to the board chair because I brought it to his attention um immediately and I'm grateful that he um recognized that and gave me the opportunity to ask

270my fellow colleagues for support in representing our our district and our region okay Mr mcmah is there anyone else that's interested in that position I might be interested in the opportunity but the de has already passed and so it sounds like this I'm sorry Mr chairman yes ma'am it sounds like Miss Crable received special permission to create an application so um okay Miss walk Miss Walker I I'm a little bit confused I know we talked about surprises but to me this isn't rise to the level of surprise I feel like one colleague is asking the rest of her colleagues whether she can have permission to apply for something that will benefit us all and I don't I'm not honestly seeing the downside at this moment um and I don't see why I would not vote

271to uphold that as I would probably do for others okay Miss Buie would you please call the role and again the motion here is to allow Miss krael to uh pursue the North Carolina School boards Association board of directors position Miss Mason yes Mr mcmanis yes Mr wildor yes Miss Walker yes Miss barnhard no Miss crille yes and Miss Bradford no that passes 52 thank you to my colleagues good luck good luck yes sir Mr mcmanis have a sorry all right we're going to carry on ad hoc review U I'm going to turn this over to miss Bradford um I believe she's got a way to carry us through this discussion we have four things to consider I'm going to take them by topic so the first one on your list it's on your screen

272topic number three I move that we adopt those recommendation one two and three as written 1 two three excuse me 1 two 3 four as written is there a second I'll second that all right M Bradford motion second Miss barart give me one second to look it over one more time okay any discussion Miss crille um yes I'd like to amend that motion that we take each one of these topics one at the time and decide upon that this is a big chunk of information and I think we need to um discuss them separately so I my motion is to to amend is to review topic three topic four and topic oh I'm sorry I missed the first one topic three topic four and oh wait and topic six Mr chair porn of order point

273of order I ask that we consider topic three and I made a motion about topic three and topic three only that I I then I misunderstood you said to take it as presented so basically let me clarify from my understanding topic three recommendation 1 2 3 4 that would be what we vote on okay I will I will retract my motion okay thank you all right um is there any so we have a motion we do have a second is there any discussion Miss Mason um I know that this was discussed with um the ad hoc committee as I was on it and one of the concerns that I had about recommendation three was pulling was um pulling them pulling the M off for the agenda review and then the chair would then recognize that

274those were pulled off for the regular meeting um my concern is that there are individuals who don't watch the agenda review and even if the chair were to say it I just want to make sure that I am covering my bases because I know that there are times that I have to pull things off um due to conflict of interest and so that would be my only concern um I I do like one two and four Mr chairman two four you may respond uh recommendation number three four lines down it says um recusals to be identified and noted on the monthly business meeting agenda beside an item and recusals to be restated by the chair prior to the vote the whole point here is to have the chair say for example um Miss Mason is

275recusing herself because of Miss krabble is Rec in herself because of rather than have to raise your hand make a motion take a vote the whole point of this is to take time it wasn't it states right there that you would it would be very clear who was Voting and who was not in recommendation number three okay Mr mcmanis I've F this committee we we've met we we've been as thorough as we possibly can be and if we got to be a little tougher you know we we've gone from well we have five and a half hours um what we need to do is we've got to tighten we've got to discuss more things bring more things to the agenda meeting because now we're spending as much time in an agenda meeting as we are

276in a regular meeting and you see how many people are here at this time of night um so what I don't want to lose but I want to make sure that we everybody is involved in this and so TimeWise is that we bring if permiss if allowed from the the chair items can be brought to the agenda meeting for instance rather than keeping our our assistant superintendents and directors here till 10 11 at night and they've been at work all day things that are not really public related we can do those they can present information and that's also recorded and it's also available so it's not like that it's something in secret but I think we do need hopefully to keep cutting away at these meetings and somewhere they've got to go somewhere and it

277would be less formal it'd be a lot easier okay thank you Miss bu would you please call the rooll and again this is to topic number three only recommendations one two three and four Mr yes ma'am I'm sorry Mr graille okay so I had a couple questions about this um in recommendation number one under number three um we there's no verbiage in there that talks about if we were going to vote on items so I want to be very clear on if we are voting and on things at the agenda review or if we are just going to discuss what we need and then vote on them at policy and then when we're talking about there must be clear consistent consistent expectations for senior staff of what information needs to be presented by them there

278also needs to be clear um consistent expectations of what board members um are expected to talk about so I don't know how I'm used to seeing a a procedure that actually lists down what we're going to do so if if we're going to Wordsmith this again to put it into you know a a step by step then we do need to include board members needing to see that and if we're going to vote um I'm concerned in recommendation number two that only new items brought forward or subst or substantive Corrections would be open to board member questions um the um again I'm thinking that that's silencing board members and um the policy recommendation number three to pull a consent item for discussion during board business would require a super majority vote um I don't know

279that this is a Rule of Order I have um rule so I haven't had a chance to look at that but again that's sounding to me a lot like trying to silence people to make you know the super majority say that we can't pull things off and maybe something came to light um I'm wondering if that means if we're doing consensus items are we going to be discussing policy consensus um at at the agenda review or are we going to leave policy consensus for the regular meeting and then um board chair to call each member you knew um that really wouldn't go into policy I don't believe so th those are my concerns and to Mr mcmanus' Point our agenda review meeting last week you know um was four hours so really all we're doing

280is replacing the long having two long meetings or replacing this long meeting with that long meeting because there's items that we do have to discuss M Bradford Mr chairman it's well established that we can vote on items at the agenda meeting so there was no point in being redundant by adding it in here into recommendation number one and tonight I added it up it's here somewhere but I added up all of the information items that we went through and it was an hour and 75 minutes that we would not be sitting here at this time if we had already adopted this it was an hour and 75 minutes very great information I would prefer to be in the afternoon where I'm in learning mode versus in this mode at 9:00 when I hear all this

281great stuff that you're bringing that you've done and the statistics and so on it would just it's it's a much more appropriate place to do it so those two things um Mr chairman I would offer to amend can I can I ask Mr vogle can can I amend my own motion Mr V I can't remember I can yes okay um recommendation number three to pull a consent item for discussion during the board business meeting would require a St majority I've changed my mind on that let's just make it a majority okay is there a second to that changing it to a majority yeah I I will second taking it just take out the last sentence because we already know it needs a majority are you okay with that is that true yes you know anytime

282we do okay strike that sentence and then Mr board yes M crille I am I'm not opposed to hearing the um information stuff at at the um at the agenda review not opposed to that and I'm not really I'm not opposed to anything in here except for I want to be clear if we can vote because if the public is if we are expected to vote and it's not it doesn't show up in the description then I'm going to call foul that we should not be voting so um and one of the things that the ad hoc committee had brought forth I thought I heard them say is we're only oh it's oh I read it um the board meeting we're only doing business of the board and agenda review information full discussion all questions

283and concerns are asked and answered it does not say um we we will vote and so that is not been clearly established that we will vote board meeting to me business of the board is voting agenda review information full discussion questions does not include voting and I want it to be I suggest that we consider where either going to vote or not vote at that meeting because it's only one week later we had a lotted 15 minutes for this we're five minutes in uh at this point we have a motion we need to vote on which is to uh was Miss uh Amendment Miss Bradford's uh Amendment uh and second by Miss kill to strike that line so let's discuss that and then we can go back to the main motion which is actually what

284we were just discussing um so the moot the amendment the amended motion is to pull consense item for discussion during the uh the board business meeting would require a super majority to strike to strike that whole line um Miss buy would you please call the role Miss Mason yes Mr mcmanis yes Mr wildor yes Miss Walker yes Miss bar Hart yes Miss kille yes and Miss Bradford yes okay so that passes 70 that will be struck uh we have our main Motion in front of us to uh to pass topic three with that amended Mr M I haven't spoken yetor are we getting ready to vote because I I haven't had a chance to speak yet okay I'm sorry yes you have not I know I've been quiet that's weird um are these going into

285any um type of document or are these just what we're going to adopt and they're not going to go into I didn't know if they were going in any kind of official document anywhere no I don't think so no and and I would say that you know this is and again this is not something that is locked in stone forever and ever and ever we can look at it in a couple months and we can bring it back up and say hey we need to look at this again well then I just had one comment well then I won't there was a little tyo but I'm not going to worry about that if it's not going any official document but I I would say for recommendation number one um definitely we need to work on

286that because I think when we get to our agenda review meetings I feel like there's sometimes not the information that we need to ask the questions and so I really hope we take that one extra seriously and and I will just say to um M Kel's point about no voting I agree I think we should not be regularly voting at Agenda review meetings if we're trying to move all our information there I think that's a great idea I'm all for that I just think official business should be on the evening of our meeting our regular board meeting okay Miss Buie would you please call the role how come we're not finishing discussion was there more well I'm because we're already at uh we're at we have two minutes left in the 15 minutes so we

287can if we want to continue to discuss we can continue to discuss all right so point of order for you so if we want to add no voting in on this and it's not there do we vote no that's what you to adopting topic three as presented that's correct okay just making sure okay F yeah that exactly what we're voting we're voting on everything in front of you on topic number three with the exception we have voted to to strike the third the last line of recommendation number three to pull a consense item that is crossed out everything else is as written Miss buy okay Miss Mason yes Mr mcmanis yes Mr wildor yes Miss Walker yes Miss barnhard yes Miss crille no and Miss Bradford yes that passes 621 this Bradford carry on please

288topic number four informational presentations we've talked about this we've discussed this in the previous one but this is the part where we talk about information um so we've already had the discussion Mr chairman I move to adopt all three recommendations under topic for information presentations okay okay so we have a motion is there a second second we have a first and a second discussion Mr chair Miss Walker um didn't we just the correspondence thing I think that we didn't strike that with the last policy I'm sorry did you say the the recommendation number three is says to drop correspondents I think we just fixed that in the other policy where we we changed that to leave it in there right and that's that's policy which would supersede this recommendation that's a good point so would

289you like to make an amendment I mean do I need yes Mr chairman I will make Amendment you can make amendment I was meaning I move to adopt recommendation number one and recommendation number two under topic number four informational presentations okay so we have that changed Miss Crill yes um I the it's not a recommendation but I don't know where the informational stuff um I mean I don't know what that first paragraph means but I am opposed to limiting our agenda item headings I think that is a is an arbitrary and not accurate um description of what we're doing so if we are limiting our headings then we're g I'm going to have to vote no but it I don't see it in the rest of the um I don't see it in recommendation one

290or two so um I'm respectfully asking for a clarification on that um we are out of time so what I would recommend what i' would like to do right now is to take a motion make a motion that we extend this discussion for another 10 minutes can I get a second on that please a second we have we have a second first uh is there any discussion on that we will add well again we have to vote on it but again my recommendation is to add 10 minutes to discussion all in favor please signify by saying I I I all opposed we will add 10 minutes to discussion thank you very much um yes Mr fford Clarity this work can I I asked for clarification yeah and that's what she doing that's what I this

291it's really two pages it's divided into four sections one is topic three that it deals with agenda items on the agenda we've dealt with that now but we had a lot of discussion about all these other parts we're now talking about topic number four informational presentations so we're only talking about recommendation one recommendation two under topic number four topic number four recommendation number one recommendation number two there's no time limit there in that in that section it's not there and looking at my chart uh we had an amendment and we did not get a second so I will go ahead and second that so that we can carry on this conversation she had deleted number three so just to clarify for everybody that uh Miss Bradford not she but miss Bradford declared or deleted recommendation

292number three we had the motion there was not a second so let's let's go ahead and vote on that and then we can get back to the primary motion um the motion in front of us again is to delete recommendation number three all in favor please signify by saying I I I all opposed carries 70 that U recommendation three is deleted we're now discussing uh the motion in front of us to uh adopt recommendations one and two Miss Mason uh my only concern with recommendation number two is that um some of the Committees that I'm on meet like the day after or the they meet between the agenda review and the actual meeting and so I don't want to limit how much we are able to talk about because I know that there are events

293that some of the Committees plan out I know that some of our other some of the other board members have really promoted some of the events um like the curriculum um event and so I want to still be able to do that would like to to leave that the committee reports on there miss Bart Mr chairman can I I I would I would think that that would be able to go under announcements like I think that's a good point to bring up and make and so um but the committee report itself if I'm reading this correctly then that would allow for it to be at the next agenda review but the announcement can still be made for different events and I think they should be at the regular board meeting as well so Mr McMahon

294you can also consider adding those reports that were ready at that time and then some might not be ready other discussion if not let's go ahead one more time nope all right so in front of us is are to accept uh topic number four recommendations one and two Miss Buie would you please call the role Miss Mason yes Mr mcmanis yes Mr World War yes Miss Walker yes Miss Barnhart yes Miss crille yes and Miss Bradford yes I passes 70 Miss Bradford okay topic number six Clos sessions and agenda review and board meetings we are only talking about topic number six topic number six there are two three recommendations uh Mr chair I move that we approve all three recommendations recommendation number one recommendation number two recommendation number three under topic number six second motion

295is there a second second we have a first and a second discussion Miss crille see I'm I maybe I'm reading this wrong but number recommendation number one seems to be a little bit redundant because we are already doing Personnel report at the agenda review close session and that is the only thing that we vote on because it makes it to the agenda so I'm thinking that recommendation number one is redundant um because we're already doing it and um or unless this is just you know solidifying what we're doing and then um yeah okay Miss Walker um I I guess my question for number recommendation number three is um the optional close session at the end with a super majority vote I feel like I don't think we should dictate what we have to talk about

296legally and I feel like we shouldn't I think if we need one we just need one at the end I don't think we should have to have a super majority vote for that because at times we might actually have to I mean that we what would stop that from happening with a super majority vote I don't know what we would say no to that for I guess that's my question M Bradford to address those two concerns this ad hoc committee has been in force for three or four months now and before we started doing this we had the Personnel reports in the board meetings but since we've been working as an ad hoc committee we've already made recommendation number one sort of start but this sort of just sort of makes it real that that's

297the way we're doing it and um to speak to recommendation number three I don't think any board member here would not vote on some legality of something that we had to do like tonight no one's going to vote that when this finally ends we're going to have a closed session but if on occasion a board member had it in their heart that they just wanted a Clos session because they wanted one this would make it go to a majority vote I mean excuse me a super majority vote um it would just it would just take one more board member to say yeah okay we're going to go into close session on this that wasn't advertised it wasn't this it wasn't that we'll we'll go do that that's what it that's what it was about Mr

298mcmanis in retrospect maybe we just need to eliminate that I don't really remember us ever having any animosity towards an additional close session because we all realized it will support It Whatever the subject matter it might be you make a motion or Amendment sir I will yes sir just take out the super majority vote Yes just take out that whole thing we have a first and a second this is to take out the super majority section of uh can I for amendment to that no you're only allowed to make one no no okay so we have a first and a second um please call the r you repeat what we're voting on repeat what we're voting on yes ma'am uh we are voting on removing from uh section topic six excuse me uh recommendation three

299optional additional closed session at the end of monthly board meetings would not occur except for by a majority vote is that correct or you want you want to take the whole thing out Mr MC right Mr mcmanis to take the whole did I well I might not have understood you clearly I'm talking about exclude the entire recommendation but I'm under six number three you you want to take the whole six I'm sorry I make that clear yes sir 63 the whole recommendation number three did you still one second I still one a second yes that's what I thought you said all right so we have a first and a second is there any other discussion on that I'm looking twice no Miss buy please call the role this is to exclude or to eliminate recommendation

300three under six Miss Mason yes Mr mcmanis yes Miss Mr wbor yes Miss Walker yes Miss barart yes Miss crille yes and Miss Bradford yes all right that passes 70 we'll just so now we are going back to discuss only recommendations one and two we're about out of our 10 minutes but is there any discussion if not can I2 a point of clarification yes ma'am topic six says close sessions at Agenda review and board meetings um was this ad hoc committee not put together just for um agenda reviews or was it supposed to include all because otherwise we're we're jumping into um policy um 2330 that we just voted on so I'm the which which recommendation are you under I'm on number six where it says close session at Agenda review and board meetings and

301it was my impression that this ad hoc committee was just for agenda reviews so um I just wanted to make sure that we were clear that um the agenda review um is that we're only talking about the agenda review for agenda review meetings closed sessions at Agenda review meetings yes ma'am Miss Walker I think it applies to both honestly because if you're removing from one then you're affecting the other that's just I'm just making that point because so I think it's for both thank you ma'am Miss buly so we have in front of us recommendations topic six recommendation one and two Miss buy please call the role Miss Mason yes Mr mcmanis yes Mr wior yes Miss Walker yes Miss Barnhart yes Miss kille yes and Miss Bradford yes passes 70 thank you to the

302ad hoc committee for all their hard work got one more oh we have one more topic two number two make it fast it has three recommendations um all of them set to shrink the time that we're here now we're approaching 9 we're 9:45 and we haven't gotten to Old business yet um I'll just read them out recommendation number one firmly establish the length of the monthly board meeting to not exceed 4 hours we're already done that recomend recation number two time for each item should be kep by a timekeeper without a majority vote to extend the time when the time is up discussion ends or is tabled we've already adopted that but this would just sort of codify it recommendation number three limit the number of items on the monthly board business meeting agenda to

303no more than 12 and the time allotted for each not open-ended for example somewhere in here it says we had we had 23 items on whenever this started cuz that's where I used it I don't know how many We Have Tonight somebody can look but it's just they're just too long um so that the time allotted for each item will not be open-ended we're already starting to do that items that have not been addressed are tabled and are not tabled but postponed till the next meeting sorry okay and Mr chairman I move that we adopt recommendation number one recommendation number two and recommendation number three as written okay is there a second is there a second no second okay is there a motion then is there another motion I make a substitute motion Mr chairman

304I um make a motion to adopt recommendation one and two as presented under topic two okay so there's a motion to accept uh topic two recommendations one and two is there a second to that I'll second we have a first motion and a second to Mr mcmanis any discussion yes M okay M Walker it doesn't matter you can go first I always go to the right I guess my question would be um if we're going to establish four hours which I'm not entirely opposed to I think we need to make sure that whatever we do that's time sensitive and most important gets done earlier that way I mean because if we set ourselves to a hard four hours I mean I mean I don't want us to go forever trust me but I I feel

305like if we set we're going to have to make sure that we are our agendas are timely I don't know does that make sense it's late sorry thank you ma'am M yeah so um the tonight we we had a an unofficial timekeeper and um who was doing a good job of trying to pay attention and keep time but we went over on several things and we didn't call time so one of the things that I we did hear in the Roberts Rules of Order training was that if you don't do it consistently then we're in violation so that would be something that we need to um really think about when we're asking someone to keep the time um and then so I'm asking then what about if a staff member underestimates the time um that

306they need um the yeah so that's what was my biggest concern there and we are and speaking of time we are out of time for this discussion um so we either need a motion to extend or we need to vote so what's the vote the vote is on uh what's the motion well the mo the motion right now is to one and two one and two so we can either take it Mr can you to extend for five more minutes I had one more point to make I apologize would you like to add five minutes yes sir okay you have a motion to accept uh to extend five minutes is a second no one second okay first and second uh 15 minutes all I'm sorry we have to vote on that first and then then

307we'll go back to it but all in favor of adding 5 minutes to this discussion please sign sign ify by saying I I all opposed no okay so that's passes 6 to one and we will carry on with Miss Walker so I I I guess good Lord hold on a second um I think what okay here's my followup I just remembered it I'm sorry it's really late so if we don't if we cut it 4 hours what will happen to the rest of the meeting will it go on to the next regular board meeting or will it go to on the agenda review because number two read number two table to the next meeting postponed yeah it says next meeting but it doesn't say which meeting because next meeting technically will be an agenda review

308meeting right it'll be the next next regular board meeting so it would be okay so I just want to clarify that because you know I just want to make sure if we're voting on this we're doing it I understand that it's going to be at the exra regular board meeting was that Amendment do you want to amend it to add that word I mean if you wouldn't mind I would love to amend it to put regular board meeting just so we're clear so we have a motion to amendment to second to make that uh regular board meeting have a second any discussion if not let's all signify by saying I I any opposed carry 70 now any other discussion on if not our main motion is to topic two recommendations one and two Miss buy

309please call the role Miss Mason yes Mr mcmanis yes Mr wildbore yes Miss Walker yes Miss barnhard yes Miss crille yes and Miss Bradford yes passes 70 again uh thank you to the committee for their hard work um I appreciate that we're going to carry on with our next Mr chairman um um I can't remember how you do it but we need a break just two minutes we need a break all right let's take a two-minute break a what two two break we'll be back at 9:55 whose clock are we looking at cuz my computer says 952 and my watch says 952 mine says 953 said 2 minute break it's 9:53 off oh my gosh all right thank for getting that for me probably e e e oh two you know what that was my

310dinner go it it's just a protein part oh that's true it's thing well we can I guess we I'm joining you in Sugar this is so good cookies and but this has the you know what I mean my opinion you're not a candy corn person are you not at all candy cor you want some candy oh no no some people think it's disgusting all right board members we are back so sweet we have just about all our board members back uh we will carry on with Item B under old business legal services uh Miss Mason you brought this up so I'm going to let you start the conversation um really this was brought up because um I felt like we needed to get more information um be able to look at some of the documentation

311and really be able to have questions um related to that uh answered um and so that was really why I wanted to bring it up okay is there to go forth whether we need a motion do you have a motion you'd like to make or I'd like to make a motion to extend the contract for Vogal second until June 20 20 what is it June 202 June 24 okay we have a motion Mr M seconds discussion this is again to extend Mr vogel's contract from um which would expire in uh the end of December now to June of 2024 so basically the the full physical year that again have misunderstood she made a motion to extend she made a motion to extend Mr vogel's contract till the till June of 2024 until December which was

312yeah so from from December I do not second I'm sorry oh you do not second okay I'll second all right hold on for a second I got to start racing stuff all right we have a second from Miss Bradford um because of the this discussion we have 15 minutes allotted uh so and again we can always extend that but uh let's go through I'm going to have kind of an order with that way there we can gives everybody an opportunity to speak Miss Mason uh since you brought the motion up would you please speak first um I looked through um and did a comparison between um our previous law firm and the current and um just noted different things um based on cost um the cost for a previous for so what I did was

313I took the two months that we had with vogle which were um dated August and September um and then I took the corresponding months um that we had had thanington Smith and I kind of did a comparison that way um just to see cost-wise um how it was how we were utilizing the legal services um and um the biggest point that I saw was that uh the inton Smith at least for the um August invoice um was 45,000 uh compared to our August invoice of 32,000 um I know that there are concerns that people have uh and I guess there would need to be some sort of stipulation I think that the concern is that um the board as a whole needs all of the information um and so I I would like to request

314that if we do this that with every board member inquiry that there's like a summary from the law firm sent to all members of the board so that we can all be on the same page and we can all have the same information okay thank you Mr mmis do you have anything to say no no okay uh I also have nothing to say at this point Mr Walker I'm going down my list okay yes ma'am well as we've heard there are clear problems um you know I got to look obviously I was here for the last few years so I know how much more work it was the last few years than it should be now I don't think um and we haven't even discussed money I assume and we're still doing hourly which you

315know honestly um I have a lot of questions about what we're being charged I mean I I I'm just concerned that you know I personally am concerned because I don't feel I don't feel the trust and there are a few reasons for that but we had the concerns with the furpa violation um other things I just if we're going to get um summaries are we going to be charged for that too you know I just feel like if someone get advice then we should all get it and I don't think I don't think we should be charged extra for that like cuz I really want to make sure that we're being good stewards of our taxpayer money here and I don't feel like so far that is the case so I I don't really feel

316I mean there's a lot more I could say but I don't want to and to I think I have made it known what my concerns are I mean definitely the furpa violation is a problem for me um I would like to know I like to a guarantee that that won't happen again because I feel and especially if the district says we feel this is a violation and that should be listened to and it should be done in a timely manner I think that's a a very big concern for me also um last thing I'll say about the bill you know I I I feel that's a lot of money to to have someone come to our meetings um I mean you talk about a a what three and a half hour drive both ways it's

317it's a big concern I I think what we we should have waited till December honestly because that way we could have really kind of had a look at you know how we are you know using our money and maybe had looked at other options that are closer for us so and I I will just say this La well I said the last thing I have one more last thing which is basically I don't appreciate the emails that we get politically for this Law Firm I feel like the you know email we got originally from Mr White was very very that crossed the line for me big time and and I don't appreciate getting sent things to me that that pressure is on for conservative members to vote and I'm not being personal I just know

318I've seen that and I've shared that with you all I think that is really against our ethics policy to be doing that kind of stuff which is very partisan and um I try hard not to be that way and I really don't think there's a place for it in the Board of Education you know for this for our County for any County but I will just speak on our behalf um and I don't want to see that anymore I don't know if I can about that which I don't think I can but I'm voicing my opposition right now to that kind of behavior I mean the statement here I mean I I've sent it to you guys so you've seen it so I would appreciate no more of that because I need some trust too

319and I don't have that with his particular firm um so that's my all right thank you m Walker next is Miss Barnhart I'm good you're good okay Barnhart uh Miss crille um yes thank you Mr chair um so this discussion for me is not just about the money um I do have a lot of prepared remarks and I did want to um use this opportunity to um point out some of the reasons why I don't think that this Law Firm is appropriate for us that um first of all they started out um telling us that they were still in the running for their um cabis board um attorney when in the minutes from the cabis board meeting on January the 9th it stated clearly that the contract with harsel and white and vogle was terminated

320and so they started out wrong um on the wrong foot um with us they have only been and Mr vogle was only um and if I and you can correct me if I am wrong but it looked like the RFQ for the Vogal law firm in 2021 um so they've only been were only the the board counsel there for less than two years um so he they they touted themselves as a Unique Boutique um organization that could provide us with all kinds of services and yet we just heard um at our last meeting that they were going to um contract with someone um locally that is um who had it had tried to get us to um hire them in the first place so that to me was um the board chair should have should

321have known and the board attorney should have known that um part of the contract says that um under assignment Bogle should not assign subcontract or otherwise transfer any interest in this contract without the prior written approval of the board um it did not happen um so thankfully but the board um attorney should have known that um at his first official exposure to our district he instructed our leader ship and principles to violate one of our policies um and specifically policy 405 the rights of separated or divorced parents um which could have led to a huge safety violation with that that has since been corrected but when I asked him about it his remarks were he said he was unaware of our policy um so our our board attorney not being aware of our policies before

322making statements to the whole um the whole school system is I felt like the superintendent of valum evaluation process was a big um confusion um he didn't appear to understand um our policy and how to use that um he also it bothers me that we only have several board members that get Comm regular communication that being the board chair and the vice chair and the um chair of the policy committee chair of the ad hoc committee which are pretty much all the same people the I've only received 23 email emails from um Mr vogle either to me personally or to the whole board and yet I didn't count them all up but they're the whole the whole thing on on July and August has emails to the board chair and board Vice chair one of

323the things included um an ACLU complaint um which prompted one of our policies and none of us even knew about that um how the policy committee chair um got a hold of that information I don't know but I'm on that committee and I was not aware of that um when Mr vogle did make a um an email about policy and important correspondence about the parents Bill of Rights um only miss Bradford and Miss barnhard were included in that um so I was I took offense to that um the objection to the instructional hearing cost US $ 3243 with many many emails between the board chair and the board Vice chair including up to the day of several um the day before several emails um our hearing binder probably the most important document that we will

324ever review um Pages weren't numbered we had no idea how to find everything in there quickly and succinctly um policy 3200 um the selection of course materials would not included in the background information and yet it was what most of the deliberation hinged on so I thought our our board attorney should have been a little more relevant to that um and I'm I noted that um Mr sink um also in the Vogal Law Firm is here with us tonight and noted that he was having um sidebar conversations with Miss Gates which only leads more to my suspicion that there was um a lot more talking going on than we knew about the the policy committee cost us $3,055 um with that and I don't really feel like I saw any of the um the benefits

325of that so I also wanted to call the attention that um that um we that we we can ask him at any time to review his records including those if he offers Health Care um to his employees I don't know if that if small boutique companies um law firms do that um and I'm also very concerned about the fura violation um if Mr vogle is the primary um reviewer of the redactions then that should not have ever happened for the length of time that it did so there is a steep learning curve um for um these kind of jobs I do understand that but in the Steep learning curve time is not when you extend contracts the the Steep learning curve was supposed to be addressed in the first six months and um so I

326am adamantly vehemently opposed um to that oh one one other comment about the public records request the um I forgot to write down how much that cost but you know we've had a $2,934 just this month $181 um last month and we still have the mistakes in there um and when I was ask he made a comment um and I'm not quite certain when he made it Mr we have one minute left and I want to take it I'm not done well know we we have one one more person to speak so if you want to make a motion to extend the time I make a motion to extend my time to finish my comments second okay first and second all in favor of uh extending what do for how long Mr krao say five

327more minutes I only need like two I only need two minutes but I think we should we need to leave at least 10 more minutes to discuss this thoroughly that's with than 10 minutes okay we have a first and a second all uh please call the roll Miss buy Sorry Miss Mason yes m r Manis yes M Mr wildor yes Miss Walker yes Miss Barnhart yes Miss greyville yes and Miss Bradford yes okay that passes 70 so um when he was talking to us that there been an uptick in public records requests um the um that there was a there was some sort of error in um in the preparation of one of them and the comment was it's okay this this happens well we can't have this happens when we're talking about um public

328records requests and potentially um confidential information thank you so the so in point I I don't think that we should be comparing directly month toon durington and Smith and Bogle because the what is happening in our school district um although at certain months is similar it is not the same so it is not a fair comparison the um he had promised us that he could offer us all the services um he cannot because he's having to go out and find new find other people in order to save costs um he had originally said 225 and then made a mention to us that you know perhaps um if we' have gone with the retainer then we wouldn't be complaining about all the travel well that is that was that's for us to decide and not to

329be um and not to be considered for you point of reference but I'm just really concerned that um Mr Vogel is providing advice only to a few people on the board and not to the whole entire board and that is not what um it says in his contract and it's not what our um what our policies indicate and dictate um that the board chair cannot make decisions on his own and the board Vice chair has no duties other than to fill in for the superintendent I mean fill in for the board chair and so I don't know why the vice chair gets copied on everything and why and why even emails to me have to be copied back to um the vice chair and the chair so that there's a lot of things in here

330that I think that they need to continue to prove their worth and to prove um their expertise and they I don't think that they've done it thank you ma'am M Bradford is the last one and then I'll go around to anybody that needs to speak one more time or anybody that has not spoken excuse me thank you Mr chairman um I'm GNA say my couple of points but I would really appreciate it if you would explain the um concept of chair and vice chair and how if the chair is somehow incapacitated that the chair the vice chair would then have to take over and without being informed of everything that's going on they would be completely in the dark um for members who don't speak to the attorney um I always ask Mr chairman for

331permission before I call an email um I have no control over the information coming out but if if it's silly if you're not asking for the things that you need clarification on it's it's just absolutely silly that that you know that it's just silly um but as a point a couple of points here U Miss Mason did a great job of checking out the math but I also looked and somebody said tonight about the highest Bill November 2022 there were four public records request only four and the bill for thanington Smiths was $ 51,3 15 and 92 $51,000 um this last month well actually in the the first month that Mr vogle has been billing us he had 27 public records requests um to me that's that that's that's a lot um but we have

332this for The public's information we have this board portal where we can ask a question and everybody gets the answer um at the same time and it's supposed to kind of cut down on time and I've been off of it because I had computer issues but I noticed this week ticket 477 filed on 923 was asking for unredacted vocal invoices and it cost our staff eight hours for one person and one hour nine hours a total paying our staff to answer that request made by the board member to my far right so that she could find out a piece of information left FYI what um and then there's a second ticket out there that's unfulfilled that's probably going to cost us another nine hours of taking a a central office staff worker who's desperately needed

333at their job to to to to go down this trail of I gotcha so um I'm in favor of doing this I think we need to put this to rest it has been I'm just in favor of it thank you and I'm going to go around to those that have not had an opportunity to speak uh the first one would be Mr mcmanis okay thank you you're welcome um if if I'm out of line please let me know I don't think I am I received an email uh dated August 23rd of 23 and this was when three members of the president board uh were responding to the goop um after a yell out at one of the meetings about not doing what they were elected to do and there were 20 items listed of what

334they had done number four said hir an unbiased and highly experienced legal counsel um today I received an email I do not know where it came from but it says Board of Education to action I think this also was well it is it was to the GOP about the voal law firm is the only conservative law firm in the state and has been under attack by democrats I'm not sure that's unbiased and that's why I hesitate if we need to wait till December to see where we are or where we aren't but to me this clearly indicates that there is biasness thank you Mr chair thank you uh M barnhard do you have anything you like to share well I'm partially considering extending this discussion for another 51 minutes because I did think this is

335going to take an hour and 16 minutes for proper discussion um this is October and the contract is set to end in December so as a board if we waited for a discussion to be in December then we would potentially be without Council because we would have to take a few months to even have that into consideration and so while as a board we agreed on the contract time I think it's fair to consider an extension or a transition out here in October I was already in favor of this last month and I'm still in favor of okay we have just over a minute left we've heard from everyone at this point um the motion in front of us and with a second is to extend Mr Vogal or EXC me the Vogal Law Firm

336PC um which is uh now to end in uh December through the end of June uh Miss buy would you please call the role are we at point of order are we at the end of our um 10 minutes that I asked for I don't think people talk we actually have two minutes left okay then I would like to request that we go back around I I haven't had an opportunity to speak yet so I will take my time to speak um this is a very interesting and as I said before everyone gets an opportunity to speak I have not spoken on this and since we have just a little bit of time um I am going to discuss um you know this is a very difficult situation um I think it is I was

337the one if you remember that uh kep uh the votes were there last time for a year contract fact I was the one that said we had said it would be 6 months and uh so we it was a 4-3 vote that kept it to a 4-3 vote um to a six-month um situation I think that's very uh important to to remember uh we've never had an attorney to my knowledge that we've ever had a six-month um term for um and I think it is a situation uh as I shared with one of my fellow board members uh the other day uh in a discussion that that um you know if we are going to move to a different Law Firm now is the time to start doing that because we need to look at

338that opportunity to find a new law firm if that's the CH the will of the board so with that in mind I think it is important that um we do give that extra time to do that as my fellow board member just mentioned if we wait till December at the end of December we vote uh the vote is 43 to go to a Law Firm then what do we do do we extend the you know do we you know we we're scrambling at that point so I think it was uh a smart idea to do this a little bit before so that we do have that opportunity to look at um what we want to do as a board if we choose to stay with the vocal Law Firm then we then we choose that

339if we choose on the other hand not to do that if we choose to go to a new law firm then we do need some time to go ahead and I I don't know that we' be able to get an RFP out in time anyway but um you know that's that's what I was thinking about the whole situation it is going to be you know it's going to be a tough vote um I mean there's definitely some room for growth there's no doubt in my mind on that but we do need to uh you know figure out what we want to do and then go you because we do need uh a good strong legal um firm to be able to do it uh I'm not going to go into individual uh you know accusations

340on you know Mr White or anybody like that I mean that's uh in my mind you know we we never went to thanington Smith and told thanington Smith that they uh could vote they could hire somebody or they couldn't hire somebody so uh with that being said uh Miss buy would you please call the role Miss Mason yes Mr mcmanis no Mr wildor yes Miss Walker no Miss barnhard yes Miss crille no and Miss Bradford yes okay that passes 43 we will continue with our budget resolution I make a motion to adopt The Bu budget resolution second well she's got to tell us what it's about first we don't care come on I've been looking at Miss we do it so I just everyone um I just wanted to give um just a little bit

341of information Dr F gave a really good update earlier so I won't go back through all the information that was previously shared but I just wanted to confirm with you in case you were wondering um the budget plan that we brought to you in April um the state budget that was passed was in line with this with the 4% raise that we had included in our budget document um the only difference was the bus driver raise was more but we have state funding available for that so that's not going to impact our local budget so I just wanted you guys to know that um we can go move forward with the plan that's already been presented and that's what the resolution is before you tonight so I'm just request your approval all right do I

342hear a motion I make a motion to adopt the budget amendment as presented okay we have a first and second there any discussion or any questions does the does this budget resolution hinge on the athletic sing schedule or we talk about that separately so that was included in the original budget plan from April um it's the same um the only changes to the athletic stiens was the 4% increase that we talked about and we were adding the Esports and also adding the girl swim coach the high schools I ask a question yes please so wondering why the Middle School athletic directors um less coaches and why the High School athletic directors make less than um some of the coaches it's based on how long the seasons are and how many games are in a week

343so but the athletic director coordinator it goes all year long okay so um you're talking about the middle school middle school and high school I mean they're the Middle School athletic directors make 280 and that is less than um all the coaches except for the cheerleaders so I mean they have year round duties and um and require I mean and some of them like at Middle School well yeah they all teach they all have regular jobs too so um and then at the high school level they make 440 a year and we've got like our head football coach making almost 1,200 and we have our summer weight trainer they actually don't they don't make more their that's through the season annual amount if you go back up to the Middle School the athletic director is

34410 months that's $2,800 and then the baseball coach is the 1140 because it's a season the annual amount is higher yeah they make more per month but not okay thank you okay we have a motion and a second in front of us any question is that hand up yes sir just St please anyone who's ever worked with coaches be in Middle High School the hours that they put in this is zero they deserve every bit of it they influence our children they make them behave some of them follow them everywhere they go they call them they take them out they they are so key to development of our kids in middle for high school so you can't pay them enough so I hope we just keep right on pushing it up just like teachers they

345deserve it they are teachers yes sir agree with you 100% uh all in favor of the motion in front of us to accept this please signify by saying I I I all opposed passes 70 thank you very much committee reports Head Start committee sure board members before you have before you the um September 2023 and it's the enrollment data for our August and Head Start I and I was talking with Miss miles about since we have an encompassing program that has both Head Start and ncpr and we have local classes so moving forward we're going to be looking at showing you not only the Head Start liaison but then kind of encompassing the other prek classes so that you're aware of all those but um I had forwarded a few of the um letters of

346approval and support of the Head Start grant that we just had to reapply for if the application is due on November 6 and so that's going to be in the process and in the works and we're meeting together as a committee um this month again so if there's any specific questions question from Miss barnhard Miss Walker why does it say zero weight list is that just because that's for this current year I know we got a report that there were a lot on the weight list so specifically for the Head Start program we've filled all the slots in the Head Start program is how I would translate that I'm getting a knot over there so any other questions if not we'll carry on with AC's report Miss Mason um I am excited to announce the

347new han County Schools advisory Council for exceptional students is presenting a parent and caregiver virtual Forum um they want parents to join for a Q&A Forum to engage about topics regarding special education in New Hanover County schools on Monday October 16th from 630 to 8 um there are Flyers that I believe are being handed out I've also seen posts of this on social media where they where parents can register um and you can ask for um whatever translation interpreting Services you need um those will be worked out as well excellent thank you Miss Mason legislative committee um Miss barard yes Mr chairman the legislative committee met and we were discussing um a few networking opportunities when this first started this is a new committee for New Hanover County and we were discussing two two networking

348events one with Pender and brenwick County because we'd like for our superintendent as as boards and County Commissioners to come together um to kind of see where the overlap of needs are uh because how on the state level how some different local bills and pilot programs would work is when you have multiple counties in support you have more likelihood of something passing so that discussion and we're trying to figure out some dates some things that were thrown out whereas in December for that and then we're also planning a networking opportunity for state representatives prior to them going back into short session which right now they're up in Raleigh um drawing maps and stuff so we were talking in the um January February time frame to do that event as well but those are in the

349works right now we had discussed the idea of a legislative agenda and in the conversation from the committee it came out since the Strategic plan is the will of the board and the priorities of the board that will be the premise of the conversations when that is concerned that being said we know in December we reallocate and readjust the Strategic plan so that will give us an opportunity to kind of tailor some questions prior going into that June um not June excuse me January February meeting with our state legislators to kind of rep prioritize the board's priority and get some questions that are going to be direct focus of that so but with that we're looking forward to some networking opportunities and some working together with our surrounding counties great thank you any questions from

350M barart if not uh any correspondent M graille um yes I'd like to um welcome everybody to band Book Week um sponsored by the American Library Association go out and read yourself some some band books um in case that you see them on our list also wanted to um make a note and a shout out to our social workers and our counselors um and all of our teachers at school um for the national mental health month and also the national bullying prevention month um and um just to note that um I will be attending the fall law conference um the ncsba fall law Conference next week along with three of my other um board colleagues so we are prepared to bring you back some good information awesome thank you very much um as we move

351into announcements um I would like to take just a moment to ask the board what their will is for the uh November meeting uh there's been a suggestion made to me uh that we move it just one day ahead to the um 7th no 6th from the 7th uh is that would that mean Mr chairman that our agenda briefing would be on the 30th it is on the 30th already it's already plann for 30 that's true okay yeah is um so I'll make a motion that we move our uh regular our November meeting from the 7th to the 6th is there a second second first and second any discussion yes ma'am um to get back on a regular schedule the EDI committee is trying to meet the day before a board meeting so that would

352conflict with the EDI committee meeting is there a possibility for them well we can go to another day but yeah is that is that possible yes ma'am is there a conf can we still do I know it's election day but are we still able to do it that day or you just saying for preference wise legally we could but it's at the will of the board I mean legally we could just meet that day well it's just it's just City it's the City municipal so it's not the county so we're not talking about everybody but I mean I wouldn't want anybody to have to choose if they really want to listen to us and and vote but this is not a polling site so we we could um or we could look at maybe the

353Wednesday and not the Tuesday I mean not the Monday do that too again will the board any other suggestions you know this is kind of a little bit more I would prefer to do it the Monday we can reschedule the EDI committee meeting you can reschedule that Monday okay well then I my motion still here is there a second to move it to Monday I think I second it you second it first and second any discussion if not all in favor please signify by saying I I I all opposed okay M the meeting will be moved to that Monday uh as I mentioned before we do have a need for a short close session uh I call for a motion to enter into closed session pursuant to North Carolina General statute 43- 3181 a13 and

3546 to consider personal matters and maintain the confidentiality of personnel records North Carolina statute 115c 319 through 321 to prevent disclosure of Student Records rendered confidential under the uh family educational rights and Privacy Act uh 20 USC 232 and to consult with the attorney employed or retained by the public body in order to preserve the attorney client privilege do I hear such a motion so moved do we hear a second I'll second all in favor please signify by saying I I all opposed we are in closed session e e e of the um moving of the um Regular board meeting I did not read all the rest of the announcements so the calendar committee will meet on Wednesday October 4th at um 4:00 in the Board of Education Center audience seeing capacity is 150 general

355public will have an option to view remotely on the new han County YouTube uh tv YouTube the equity diversity and inclusion committee will meet on Thursday October 5th at 5:00 p.m in the Board of Education Center the audience capacity is 150 the the general public will have the option to view remotely on the uh new hver county TV YouTube the policy Mee policy committee meeting excuse me will meet on Tuesday October 17th at 10:00 a.m in Board of Education Center um the general public will have the option to view remotely on our TV on our YouTube the Board of Education will host the town hall on Tuesday October 17th at 5:00 P p.m in the G in the Board of Education general public will have the option to view remotely on the new H county

356TV YouTube and the Board of Education will hold an agenda review meeting on Monday October 30th 2 pm at the Board of Education Center the uh general public will have the option to view remotely on the new han county TV YouTu at this point I would uh entertain a motion to adjourn so moved we have a motion is there second second second all in favor say I I I we are adjourned e e