001all right we'd like to call the July 11th regular board meeting into order like I said one board member count coming up um this boy would you please call the roll good afternoon Pete wildebear present Pat Bradford Josie Barnhart Stephanie craville here Melissa Mason here Hugh McManus president Stephanie Walker here and Pat Bradford here well all right we are all here thank you board members for being here uh we will continue with the approval of the agenda to hear a motion to approve the agenda we have a motion from Stratford do we hear a second second for Miss Mason any discussion if not all in favor of approving agenda please signify by saying aye aye all opposed passes seven zero we'll have our invocation this morning uh that will be provided for us by Pastor
002Tim Reeves from the Pine Valley Methodist Church Pastor Reeves thank you for being here this evening thank you for having me let us stand at a professor at Duke Divinity School that would sometimes start his prayer with a little song like this let us pray I need thee Oh I need thee every hour I need thee oh bless me now oh save your I come to thee Lord we need you gracious and loving God we praise you and thank you for today and for this Gathering of the New Hanover Board of Education of our school superintendent Dr Faust County school officials and concerned parents and citizens Lord we need you we pray for all the students the teachers the school staff and administration we pray for their safety and their well-being Lord we need you
003as our board meets tonight Lord we pray that everyone here will show Grace to one another that even when there are passionate pleas or discussions Lord help us to show mutual respect to each other and Lord we prayed at the decisions that are made tonight will transcend agendas or ideologies but that they will be what is best to protect the innocence and the lives of our children Lord we need you lead this group tonight with your spirit oh God Father Son and Holy Spirit help us to do what we need to do and to do our part to make this world and this County and our schools a better place Lord we need you and we pray this in the mighty name of Jesus and all God's people said amen amen thank you Reverend uh
004we will ask now for Jake Yates the music teacher at Snipes Academy and Jake will be performing the national anthem for us foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] I've asked board member Hugh McManus to lead the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge of the United States of America under God indivisible with liberty and justice for us thank you very much you may be seated next on our uh approvals will be approval of the minutes do I hear a motion to approve the minutes fats are approved motions to approve the minutes is your second second Seth Barnhart thank you any discussion yeah we have um okay it wasn't all the minutes with those um just a couple of them would you put your mic on please yeah I'm sorry put her on all right
005it's coming okay so here we go in the um the where do we put this is for um the minutes for the 626 agenda review and we spent quite a bit of time talking about the work session there where do we capture those discussions that's a good question do we need separate minutes for that meeting we really didn't we really kind of included it all in the agenda review but we did have a pretty significant discussion on narrowing down our focus and getting it so that Miss Farnham you know was going to lead us and um that kind of stuff so I just wanted to include that somewhere and um wherever you think it's appropriate okay maybe we can put it at a addendum at uh Mr Vogel do you have any suggestions it may
006be an addendum at the end and to say if it was discussed during that meeting it should be in the minutes of that meeting whether you wanted to make it an addendum or insert it somewhere in the middle is the discretion of the board okay well why don't we why don't we put it in at the end as an addendum uh so we have a page four um so do we want to hold off on this one can we hold off on that one and then you can work with Miss Bowie um about you know what actually to say I mean and then other than that I don't have any other okay so with the exception of the 626 agenda meeting we have a first and the second is there any other uh discussion if
007not all in favor of approving the um minutes for the other ones we have first second all favor please signify by saying aye aye aye all opposed that's the seven zero we will get them for for our next meeting uh at this point we I believe it's who's going to be coming up for the recognitions serious okay I didn't see her so we have our July recognitions foreign Vice chair and members of the Board of Education I am pleased to be able to bring you your July recognitions this month during this Academic Year the New Hanover County School student Support Division had the opportunity to conduct stewards of children Darkness to light training for all secondary staff members to prevent child sexual abuse we are pleased to announce that we have successfully trained 1 239
008staff members thanks to the remarkable turnout our secondary schools have attained partner in prevention status we thank the principals and their schools for their leadership and dedication to safeguarding our students in maintaining a secure School environment at this time I would like to welcome the following secondary schools up to get their recognition certificates Laney High School Mosley career ready Readiness Academy at Mosley Murray Middle School c tech Wilmington Early College High School Isaac bear New Hanover High School Ashley High School hoggart High School Lake Forest Academy Myrtle Grove Middle School Williston Middle School Mr Madden we'll just have you come back up and accept for Williston as well [Laughter] Noble Middle School Holly Shelter Middle JC Rue Roland Grise Mr Broadfoot you can just come back in line too and Trask Middle School we'd like
009to give all these principals a round of applause for their commitment to safety and care for their students [Applause] oh principals don't leave just yet the cares well you can go have a seat but the Carousel Center also has plaques for your schools as well which brings me to our next recognition of the evening we couldn't have achieved partner in prevention status without the dedication and effort of our student support team which includes Lisa Brenner Tanya Jordan Donna Hudson and Dr Veronica Edge and if any of those are here if they could please come up front we're also [Applause] we are also grateful to be able to support for the support and collaboration of our partners at the Carousel Center we want to take this opportunity to acknowledge and honor the Carousel Center and its
010staff compromising up comprising of Amy Faith Rebecca Martin Brianna Bedell Kelly Grisby and Jordan Chapman They will receive the student support partnership award for their exceptional work this evening [Applause] thank you that concludes our recognitions for the evening [Applause] foreign Dr Barnes I believe is next with the administrative introductions Dr Barnes good evening I feel kind of like Captain America assembling my new team of Avengers here so there are a lot of folks we're going to introduce for you tonight I like you when you guys names are called to come on up and join me up here at the front and say hello and uh get our picture taken all together as a group uh there are several folks who are unable to be here tonight so I'd like to introduce them anyway and they'll
011come back for another hello at another time first off our new Chief Communications officer his name's Salvador Cardella most recently he has served with the defense agencies initiative with the Marine Corps and has also prior to his retirement from the Marine Corps been the communication strategy and operations Chief public affairs Chief and public affairs manager he also has his bachelor's degree in communication from Bridgewater and his master's degree from National University in Chicago [Music] also not with us tonight assistant principal of Laney High School Jacob Valentino previously Mr Valentino served as a world history Civics American history teacher he's also been a JV basketball and baseball coach as well as getting his bachelor's degree in telecommunications from Bowling Green State University his Masters in East Carolina and he'll be the new assistant principal at Laney
012High School also not able to be here tonight but his principal is you can wave that as uh Miss Morsi she's back there the new principal assistant principal of JC Rowe is John Heil he has previously served as the dean of students from Noble Middle School High School phys Ed and health teacher with Pender County schools and also work with Kansas Public Kansas Public Schools as well all right starting our lineup tonight we want to introduce the principal of Ashley High School Mike Perez Express most recently he served as a principal at grassville high school principal of Owens Middle School all in Chesapeake Virginia he has a master's degree from Old Dominion in Norfolk Virginia so say hello [Applause] and Mr Mr Prez is going to begin working at Ashley High School next uh do
013we have uh Jennifer Angel are you here okay she is she's Landing as we speak you know sometimes the Avengers fly in a little late um handbags waiting for her as well okay you guys were a little faster than I expected I told not to show up right until a little bit after five and you guys got a little ahead of me um Mr pazar okay uh Miss Faison Michelle come on Michelle all right Michelle Faison is the principal at Wrightsboro Elementary School previously she was at Laney High School as the assistant principal she's also been the dean of students at Laney and an assistant principal at Holly Shelter and Trask [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right Kelly Crowley come on Kelly Miss Crowley uh served as the multi-tier student support team coordinator interventionist instructional coach
014and teacher at Pine Valley Elementary her bachelor's is in elementary Ed and she has her master's degree in curriculum instruction and supervision and School administration from UNC Wilmington [Music] [Applause] all right next up I've seen her earlier assistant principal at Freeman Elementary is Kim Fuller Miss Fuller served as a principal intern at Alderman Elementary School and Mentor at Freeman Elementary and she's just recently completed her master's degree in school administration from East Carolina [Applause] [Music] next up the assistant principal the new assistant principal at Snipes Academy of Arts and Design is Maura omahony previously she served as an interim AP instructional coach mtss coordinator intercession administrator third and fourth grade teacher and a third grade teacher at Penney Road Elementary in Cary so congratulations to you Miss Moore [Music] [Applause] and she is another UNC
015Wilmington grad all right all right next up on the docket is Kendra Harrison the assistant principal at Wrightsboro Elementary Kendra there she is uh previously Miss Harrison served as an instructional coach at Forest Hills Global and an AIG coordinator of math science at Roland Grace she has also got her add-on licensure from UNC Wilmington as well [Applause] [Music] next up is Joanna Souza Miss Souza is the new executive director of special education for the district um previously she served as an interim special ed and related Services director specialist and behavior support team leader Middle School liaison and has worked in Guilford County Schools Liberty Elementary School in Randolph County and has gotten her master's degree from High Point so methusa say hello to them and to everybody receiver [Applause] I'm going to really slowly give
016the next couple of introductions they'll come in and wave when they get here Jennifer Angel is the new principal at Carolina Beach Elementary previously Miss Angel served as a principal of South Topsail Elementary Burgaw Elementary Cape Fear Elementary and malpas Corner Elementary with Pender County Schools she has her licensure from UNC Wilmington and her bachelor's degree in master's degree as well so she will wave when she gets in and the last one Pamela Biggs previously served as the principal of Lincoln Elementary in Brunswick County and she will be the new principal at Coddington Elementary and Joseph pazar is from all the way in big old Nevada Mr pazar served as a principal and assistant principal at Libby Booth Elementary School in Washoe County School District in Nevada and he has his degree from University of
017Nevada in Reno in both he and his wife have come here to work with us in New Hanover County Schools so this by the way is Jennifer Angel look she's flailed right in and it is nicely done so to the community as well to all of you we are happy to have you here you're the best of the best and we're pleased that you're a part of our school system okay thank you I'll introduce the other ones [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you all right Avengers disassembled all right at this point uh we'll turn it over to our superintendent for his superintendent's report Dr Foust the 2223 school year will begin tomorrow um there's much and this is for our year-round school sorry not for no hard times for our year-round schools um there's much to
018be excited about and we are eager to welcome them back for our year-round students at Coddington Eden Elementary we are thrilled to embark on a new chapter of learning and growth with our students and our dedicated staff and supported families the district remains steadfast in using our strategic plan as a guiding compass with that in mind we're determined to achieve 90 of our students written on grade level by the end of third grade the 2023-23 2024 school year holds great promise as we welcome back our that's I just read I've said that before um next week marks the highly anticipated administrators Leadership Retreat for our district leaders focus on the theme of Peak Performing Educators for two days our dedicated building and division leaders will come together for valuable opportunity for networking collaboration and professional
019development the peaking performing Educators theme underscores our commitment to cultivating excellence in teaching and learning throughout the retreat our leaders will explore strategies and approaches to maximize their potential and that of their teams we anticipate transformative outcomes of our leaders and the district as a whole our leaders will be equipped to foster a high performance culture of elevating our students and their teens experience Transportation reminder bus requests for the school year will carry over to the new year and Community stops will be assigned if your child needs a new community bus stop or you were given a stop as an exception please make Transportation requests at least three weeks before the first day of school the deadlines are as following for new requests July 19th 2023 ctac wax Isaac Bayer July 20th 2023 Freeman and
020Snipes August 7 2023 traditional schools August 15 2023 for pre-k families can contact their school's main office to request a bus stop bus stop request submitted after the deadline will be processed will not be processed until two weeks after the school year started thank you very much Dr Barnes I see you're still standing so would you like to come on back this is a guy from Nevada I was telling you about so Mr pazar is taking over as principal of Sunset Elementary so we are glad to have you I'm so excited to be here thank you hello it's wonderful to be here uh I'm beyond excited I'm in my second week at Sunset Park and I I feel like I won the lottery so I couldn't be happier what a beautiful School beautiful community and
021uh if we're not in my zone or our Zone we are really close to it so we're I'm still learning my geography was driving the Zone the other day and one of these days I'll be able to do it without the maps on my on my phone I couldn't be more excited to be here thank you very much thank you welcome welcome we'll carry on with the board chairperson's report oh I'm sorry we have one more I'm sorry I didn't look up I apologize [Music] thank you um I just want to say thank you for this opportunity um I've taught school in Hanover County for 14 years and I'm thrilled to be back in New Hanover County and Coddington has been wonderful I've been there three days and it's truly my dream job and I'm
022happy to be there great welcome I'm glad you're here thank you now if Dr Barnes will allow I'll continue with my board chairperson's uh report just have a few quick notes I hope you're having a great summer and it's going well extremely excited about next school year I know that everyone is I guess we start very soon it's very very exciting um we there as Dr Faust mentioned we'll have a leadership conference next week it's a two-day conference getting ready for next school year it will be very exciting and very informative I want to thank Dr Faust Ms Farnham the principals as well as our board members central office and community members who attended our work session on student behavior and discipline right before this meeting we all know that we need to keep our
023students safe is a definite priority for the board so thank you for being there and taking part in that I think it was the first of many but I think it was very very important I also want to thank the faculty of Ashley High School central office board members and parents and students who attended the round table at Ashley High School on June 22nd it was very informative and one and worthwhile meeting we hope to have future Roundtable meetings focused on safety at all of our high schools and speaking of high schools it was exciting to participate at the Williston at Williston for the 1969 and 1970 graduates from Wilson High School that ends my report thank you very much uh we will continue on with our call to audience we're going to do it
024in the same format as we have in the past so miss uh Barnard some Mr Bradford excuse me good evening our first Speaker Christina Mercier good evening I'm here tonight to talk about punitive discipline and why it does not work I will start by saying that I believe teachers and other staff should feel safe at their workplace and should not be allowed to be either verbally or physically abused by students the best way to have that happen is to have fair and consistent rules applied uniformly across schools and grade levels but as the retired Middle School short-term suspension teacher at JC Rowe I know this is not the case in the 21-22 school year 55 percent of the referrals I received were for African-American students even though they only make up about 16 percent of
025the school system's enrollment white students did make up 24 of the referrals but they make up about 58 percent of the enrollment and Hispanic referrals were about 17 percent with most from one school don't these numbers seem odd you may be thinking that certainly if a student did something bad enough to be suspended for between five and ten days then they deserved it right of course that is the case sometimes but just as often certain students get harsher punishments consider this example I had a group of five Hispanic boys who were suspended the week before the EOG so they must have done something really bad what they actually did was during recess have another student take pictures of them doing things like putting traffic cones on their heads this is a silly but typical Middle
026School situation and it happens but they were sent to row and the photographer who was white got no consequences at all I can tell you that all these repeated suspensions have a negative impact on these kids and on the way they feel about school they feel like targets I've seen more than one student become the so-called bad kid the systemic seemed to expect them to be we know that the best way to address student behavior is to find the root of it what trauma has the child experience that is causing them to act out we know that teachers staff and administrators can be trained to identify issues and use de-escalation to minimize issues Zero Tolerance policies aren't the answer to the current issues what New Hanover County Schools needs is a culture shift where all
027students are dealt with equally when they've broken a rule instead of seeing black and brown students misdeeds through a stricter lens thank you foreign good evening many of you have been convinced that children should not be learning social and emotional skills at school I would like to introduce you to one of the finest Educators in this skills Reverend Fred Rogers I'm sure you're familiar with for 40 years taught social and emotional skills social and emotional skills need to be taught just like reading and math some of us had the Good Fortune to have Mr Rogers help teach us these skills along with our parents and teachers the kids today don't have Mr Rogers and many of them are not learning these schools at home for a variety of reasons so it falls on the schools
028teach kids to be nice to each other that everyone is important ways to deal with your own and other people's emotions for a lot of kids these skills have to be taught I would like to share with you a couple of thoughts from Mr Rogers we live in a world in which we need to share responsibility it's easy to say it's not my child not my community not my world not my problem then there are those who see the need and respond I consider those people Heroes in appreciating our neighbor we're participating in something truly sacred there are three ways to ultimately to Ultimate success the first way is to be kind the second way is to be kind the third way is to be kind if you could only sense how important you are
029to the lives of those you meet how important you can be to people you may never even dream of there is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person so are you always being kind are you leaving something good about yourself at every meeting are you seeing the needs and response and responding or are you the one saying not my child not my community not my problem to Rogers thank you how you're doing your jobs thank you foreign as I've watched the board these past few months have been filled with an overwhelming sense of sadness for years I've encouraged the board to embrace neuroscience-based best practices for supporting our children's behavioral and learning needs I asked you to empower our staff with tools that we so that we could abandon seclusion
030you ban seclusion rooms but you left staff to fend for themselves this is cruel to children and the adults who work with them I am saddened by your cruelty I have implored the sport to invest in support for our children with disabilities so that they can learn inclusively with their peers in return I have listened to a board member repeatedly prioritize the rest of the class over the needs of our disabled children this board member has not shown a concern for the disabled child who struggles instead she cherishes The Good Children who do not need intensive support I am sadded by your ostracism and the parable of the sheep Jesus shares how the shepherd leaves the flock of 99 and searches for the one who has lost and in need why because the one who
031was lost is valued and needs love guidance and protection in the parable the shepherd doesn't punish the one who has lost he doesn't seclude them restrain them or suspend them instead he rejoices compassionately and so and compassionately surrounds them with the love and acceptance of the flock the child in the class who is struggling needs the same compassion so that they can learn with their peers not be separated and left for lost we are called to prioritize support for the ones who need the most not the 99 what will be your legacy will you continue to build one of Cruelty that ostracizes the one or will your legacy be that of the shepherd language [Applause] they believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny too they hope the Tooth Fairy leaves them money for their tooth
032why can't they have the right to have a parent at the hearing where the principal can kick them out of school they're five years old in kindergarten six in the first grade at second grade they're seven they love recess every day why can't they have the right to have a parent at the hearing where the principal can kick them out of school [Music] welcome parents in person or by title of phone or even with a zoom before there's a consequence young kids deserve the right to have a parent in the room a parent can ask questions about what's been tried before and make sure the suspensions used as the last resort why can't they have the right to have a parent at the hearing where the principal can kick them out of school [Music] welcome
033parents in person or by title of phone or even with a zoom before there's a consequence young kids deserve the right to have a parent in the room little kids need parents when it's time to tie their shoes and sometimes they need extra help to learn the Golden Rule why can't they have the right to have a parent at the hearing where the principal can kick them out of school where the principal can kick them out of school true Elizabeth McLeod good evening my name is Elizabeth McLeod when the policy committee met in May Dr Faust took the opportunity to describe what typically happens after there is a disruptive incident in school first the administrator does what's called due process it begins by asking a student their side of the story next the student writes
034down their story they can list Witnesses too then the administrator gets the witnesses and has them right their side of the story next the administrator compares the written stories if they match up the student is told which school board policy they have broken then referring to the student handbook the student is told which violation level it is and the consequence They will receive finally the administrator calls the student's parent to to inform them of the incident the violation and the consequence love our children is asking that short-term suspension policy 4351 be changed for five six and seven year olds we believe that our youngest Learners should have the right to have a parent present before the consequence is determined so that they can review the Positive Behavior Support Alternatives that have been tried with their
035child and ensure that an out of school suspension is only used as a last resort young kids deserve the right to have a parent in the room thank you Judy Justice oh hi good to see everybody up there okay if you want real Student Success for a New Hanover County Schools you need to listen and do the following stop focusing on the current cultural Wars Behavior coming out of your political beliefs and start focusing on our students academic needs allow two teachers to use effective engaging and Innovative curriculum taught by experienced staff not the current canned curriculum taught by the current inexperienced emergency hires and other new teachers we need to respect and pay experienced teachers properly we have laws probably around 500 staff members this year for a reason address our superintendent's weaknesses including
036his treatment of our staff his leadership style and lack of educational expertise are some of the main reasons many of our experienced staff members have left environment matters fix the facilities properly balance the school's population using socioeconomic factors through targeted redistricting hiring more black teachers and administrators who have left our district in record numbers since our current superintendent has come on board work with the public and County Commissioners to get the 1.5 billion dollars promised to our public schools with with the sale of our County Hospital work with the public and the North Carolina legislature to get those legislate chores to release the six billion dollars currently in a state slush fund that should have been used for our state schools for those 10 years we are 48th in the nation in providing resources to
037our public schools because instead of supporting Public Schools those same legislatures have been denying proper funding for over a decade while putting that money that should have gone to our kids education in their slush fund in other words stop ignoring the obvious and start doing the job you were all elected to do Tiffany Salter [Applause] yes Whoever has got their cell phone going if you would please silence that thank you hi recently my son and I read are you there God it's me Margaret the book by Judy Bloom centers around a young girl who's going through puberty and is questioning religion the book has appeared on numerous banned lists since it was published in 1970 due to its Frank discussion of sexuality puberty and skepticism of organized religion some might say it's strange to read
038a book that was seemingly written for girls to a pre-teen boy I would disagree I wanted my son who's typical in many ways to understand better understand the experience of a typical girl his same age that's called perspective taking I learned that term when I was in school for elementary education perspective taking is the ability to look beyond your own point of view to consider how someone else may think or feel about something it's a common literary technique but its usefulness reaches far beyond books research tells us that understanding others perspectives is an important social skill that we need in order to make and sustain relationships to facilitate emotional regulation to increase complex reasoning and problem solving and it reduces bias incident incidentally the book stamp that you're discussing later has that same goal my
039point is we are not a monolithic Christian voice much to the ire of some we are diverse in our makeup and in our belief systems you are not representing one type of family in our district you took an oath to represent all of us the booking question has already been reviewed by the appropriate committees using the policies already in place and the parent who questioned the book was provided an alternative for their child's assignment removing a book because it is rejected or feared by a guardian or group gives that guardian or group control to make decisions for all households for all students that's infringing upon the rights of Others Stop wasting our time talking about reviewing books and leave that to the trained professionals start being an advocate for our schools to get the funding
040we need as we are severely understaffed and underserved Gail Tabor last call Gail Tabor next up Chris Sutton I wanted to start off by saying that I believe that we need to always address our checkered history with racism especially our local racism with 1898 Massacre and everything else I do believe that needs to be taught uh historically it needs to be fact-based and that is honestly my concern with stamped especially being taught in an English class now I understand what the reasoning was I've read I've looked at everything everyone's posted and realistically at the end of the day there was just too many inaccuracies in that book for me to to really feel okay with it and not just that but correct me if I'm wrong but we had a discussion multiple times in here
041about critical race Theory and I understand that it's looking at our laws and looking at our institutions through a racial lens and I mean I guess the best way to say it is everyone denied that it was in our schools but yet now we're here having a conversation of whether this book should be allowed or not and now personally I believe it should be allowed in the library I do now there are certain books that I believe should not be allowed in our library I think that some of them are sexually explicit to the point that we need to come up with some type of rating system like a gpg PG-13 style rating system and some of these books are it's truly sexually explicit multiple chapters inside of there that just were sex scenes and
042most of them are heterosexual it has nothing to do with lgbtq a lot of them I mean I long story short we've got issues and I I hope y'all don't spend all of our prob our time in this community dealing with these issues I hope that we can find something better because realistically this is this is getting rough and I'm Gonna Leave You with this like I mean in that book it falsely blamed Braden economic Reagan's economic policies for the Skyrocket unemployment which is factually untrue it called the movie Rocky racist like there was a lot of things in there that really rubbed me wrong and I think if it was one thing if we talked about the different institutional racism Parts as part of History fact face but unfortunately we missed the mark with
043this y'all have a nice night thank you Mr Sutton Jamie pond [Applause] really tall person than really short person good evening a few weeks ago I asked the board if you were here to understand others or to be understood and this evening I would like the board to consider that the history that you learned in school isn't the same history kids learned today and that's a good thing today we have more and more African-American and black historians and authors who have been working to fill a gap of information which includes a time when black and individuals were intentionally barred from learning to read and write as such one must understand the United States history has excluded others who are kept from challenging the power structure and Dynamics within our society power is rarely given up
044from those who have it instead when this power may it be ideas that have become institutionalized rather than supported with facts when this power is challenged people often respond defensively Chris's own uncomfortableness I'm just gonna mention that because he was just up here talking about the same thing they responded they typically people respond defensively respond by doubling down on how they were raised and what they learned and who they are and this is called the backfire effect people get extra defensive being critical of our history is often viewed as a threat to our Legacy and past things that many people hold dear especially as it relate to their own identity and values including the voices of black authors and experts like candy does challenge our understanding of the past as it has been written primarily
045by white individuals and this challenge to our past thinking should be challenged as historians have sought greater understanding they have unconferred more evidence and experiences to help us understand the richness of our history history's complex is complicated and it's not always comforting to learn things that challenge your world view but this doesn't mean the facts presented are inaccurate I would like to encourage you to continue to allow students to read books by experts in the field including black historians rather than take these books off the shelves and out of the class thank you Miss Pond your time is up thank you yeah Carrie Snook couldn't hear you all she's coming hi um I don't think I'll need the whole time I just wanted to say thank you all for allowing the call to audience and
046allowing folks to um say what they mean um and I'm uh I have a little bit of a I don't like public speaking so but I felt strongly enough that to even be considering Banning books is concerning enough for me that I felt I needed to say that so I will yield my time thank you James Fisher [Applause] good evening I'm James Fisher I too am going to talk about policy four three five one but I do not sing um so love our children is respectfully asking the policy committee to revise short-term suspension policy 4351 with a single sentence and that sentence would be students under the age of eight or under grade 3 have the right to have a parent or other representative present at the informal hearing children under the age of age
047or under the uh under grade three are typically uh five six and seven years old as you know and giving those young children the right to have a parent present mean that means that the president the parent could either attend in person or by phone call or by video conference uh they may choose not to be present parents are not required to attend the informal hearing is where a principal can decide whether or not to suspend a child from school for up to 10 days and policy 4351 states that quote School administrators will utilize Positive Behavior Support alternatives to suspensions and only use out of school suspensions as a last resort having a parent present gives them an opportunity to review that positive behavioral support that has been used with their child and to make
048sure that Auto School suspensions are only used as a last resort before the decision is made the school principal still of course has the authority to decide if the five six or seven year old will be suspended therefore I we urge you to add the sentence students under the age of eight or under grade 3 have the right to have a parent or other representative present at the informal hearing and adding that to policy 4351 thank you thank you Miss Davidson Ms Davidson last name's Davidson thank you uh Michael Davidson sorry Michael I can't read today excuse me you're good thank you okay uh yeah my name is Michael Davidson I want to talk about two emails that I sent to uh the school one I sent to the school board concerning the book uh
049stamped I only got responses from two board members that was kind of disappointing I think that if I'm going to make the effort to reach out to you with my concern at least a response acknowledging you received my email the second email I sent to the superintendent about the collection agency that you were thinking of hiring I got a response back and thank you very much again your response back I was referred to uh Miss Sutton and I'm actually sitting down in Miss Sutton on Thursday at 12 o'clock to look at alternatives to hiring an outside agency that's going to charge us 28.6 of all money brought in I think we do a better job than that if any board member like to join me again 12 o'clock with Miss Sutton on Thursday let's come
050up with a better idea than hiring an outside agency thank you thank you Karen Clark oh wait I skipped Loretta Stackhouse forgive me my glasses are in the shop y'all see as well as I'd like to good evening the short-term suspension policy 4351 states that before a student receives an out of school suspension the student has the right to be present at the informal hearing but does not have the right to have a parent or other representative present that may be appropriate for teenagers in high school but it is inappropriate for children in kindergarten first and second grade there are only five six and seven years old love our children is asking that you vote to change policy 4351 so that our youngest Learners can have a parent present at the informal hearing before a
051principal kiss the model School this is a serious matter because an out of school suspension is the most severe consequence of five six seven-year-old child can receive when they receive a suspension they can't see their friends they can't learn with their classmates they can't play outside in recess read books in the library or sing songs in the music room while they're out of school they receive no support from their classroom teacher or the school counselor and they miss out on good morning from the school bus driver and the way from the custodian in the hallway a young child's right to have a parent present means that the Positive Behavior Support or Alternatives that they've already been tried with that child that we reviewed and other Alternatives can be considered before a final decision is made
052by the principal to kick him out of school little kids can make big mistakes let them have the right to have a parent present in the room thank you thank you foreign Robert hunt declared over Cape Henry we dedicate this land and ourselves to reach the people within these Shores with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to raise up Godly Generations after us and with these Generations take the kingdom of God to all the Earth may this Covenant of dedication remain to all generations as long as the Earth remains may all remember what we have done here train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it evil wants to destroy our children our school's plant seeds which grow and produce results we reap
053what we sow I pray in Jesus name that no one intimidates you in their attempt to lead you away from the word of God with empty philosophies that come from Human thinking and the spiritual powers of this world that you don't just listen to truth and not respond for that is self-deception I pray that each of you do what is pleasing in the Lord's sight that you act in accordance with Godly principles that you keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real honorable and admirable beautiful and respectful pure and holy merciful and kind I declare in Jesus name New Hanover County shall remember and call the words spoken at Cape Henry forward as the city of light on the hill that cannot be hidden amen thank you Veronica McLane Brown thank
054you when the policy committee met on May 16th the discussion on short-term suspension policy 4351 included misinformation no data and no problem solving for example the proposed policy change said parents would be required to be present during any appeal after a short-term suspension had been imposed however there is a North Carolina General statute that states a student is not allowed to appeal the principal's decision also an elementary principal at the meeting said I quote we don't do suspensions unless it's seriously extenuating circumstances and then not until they're in fourth or fifth grade in the quote as of April there have been 62 suspensions in kindergarten first grade and second grade there was a discussion of how to meet with two sets of angry parents at the exact same time no one at the meeting suggested
055any ideas on how to solve that problem because the discussion of policy 4351 in May included misinformation no data and no problem solving love our children is asking the policy committee to revisit policy 4351 in September give four five six and seven-year-olds the right to have a parent present during the informal short-term suspension hearing give the four five six and seven-year-olds the right to have a parent present we also would like to invite you to attend a listen and learn Workshop entitled know your rights about short-term suspensions on August 5th sponsored by love our children North Carolina and legal aid of North Carolina we will email an invitation to all of you and hope thank you Miss Brown you're out of time Miss Sheridan foreign good evening I am Dr Michael Sheridan and I'm also
056here to talk about policy 4351 when Dr Faust was at the policy committee meeting in may he spoke about the out-of-school suspension policy he described what an elementary school principal would do if a child was crying in the office during the due process he said quote you just don't keep going asking questions you are an adult you are a human too so you give them the tissue you stop you say would you like to share with your teacher would you like to share with a counselor who can help who would you like to talk with end quote love our children with like five six and seven-year-old children to have the right to talk and share with a parent before they receive an out of school suspension that's the person they want to talk to the
057most the parent can be present in person or by telephone or even using Zoom having a child talk and share with a parent does not take any power away from the principle the principal still has the authority to decide if a child will receive a suspension the student handbook States when teachers and or administrators consider corrective responses restorative practices or disciplinary action the following factors should be considered including the student's age developmental level and grade and the student's prior Behavior patterns and responses to interventions we are simply urging you to change the short-term suspension policy 4351 and give our youngest students the right to have a parent present thank you thank you Teresa Maples [Applause] Theresa Maples good evening the U.S military at West Point is committed to teach the cadets the values of duty
058honor and Country preparing them to live a life of Excellence the cadets learn to live honorably lead honorably and demonstrate Excellence by having a moral ethical character living with Integrity their ideals are loyalty Duty respect selfless service honor integrity and personal courage they have very high standards they also have the fear of the Lord and they know they need God's wisdom I pray you also fear the lord and seek his wisdom I also pray West Point cadet's prayer over each one of you the only modification is I added school board members oh God our Father Searcher of human hearts help our school board members to draw near to you in sincerity and truth so strengthen and increase their admiration for honest dealing and clean thinking and made that hatred for hypocrisy and pretense never diminish
059encourage them in their Endeavor to live above the common level of Life make them choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong and never be content with the half truth when a whole could be one endow them with courage that is born of loyalty to all that is noble and worthy that scorns compromise with Vice and Injustice and knows no fear when truth and right are in Jeopardy no fear when truth and right are in Jeopardy guard them against flippancy and irreverence in the sacred things of Life help them to maintain honor in their lives and doing their duty to God our nation and our County in the name of Jesus Proverbs 3 7 8 says do not be wise in your own eyes fear the lord and depart from Evil it will be
060Health to your flesh and strength to your bones thank you thank you Miss Maples Delhi [Music] good evening last month of our children shared questions we had for Mrs Barnum we want to better understand how the New Hanover County Schools got sanctioned by the federal government individual with Disability Act for the past five years the district was thank you for the significant disproportionality of out-of-school suspension for black special education students they received suspensions at four and a half times the rate of their peers as a result fifteen percent of the money that our special education programs were to receive each year was set aside to address the disproportionality earlier Ms Vernon reported that 4.5 million that should have gone to our special education students did that's 4.5 million of law special education services and support
061over the past five years it's shameful to take from the disadvantage is shameful this is yet another reason to revisit the short-term policy fish 4351 so again here are questions how was the public notified about the sanctions during the past five years with services and programs were not provided to our special education students during the past five years who is mandated on the mandated review team that must review The District's policies practices and procedures related to suspensions where the review team report be made public get the answers you use the data revise short-term suspensions policy 4351 so that it support all of our students they deserve nothing less thank you thank you Katie Gates [Music] good evening board I've been speaking for two years at meetings with the goal of relating agenda items back to
062U.S history and our founding documents I remain concerned over the infiltration of socialistic principles the Fulfillment of communistic goals that I see permeating the schools and that promote a divisive and anti-American sentiment though I may not be able to attend as many school board meetings going forward it is my hope that the school board will pursue policy accountability and Social Studies English and U.S history curriculums teaching the whole history from diverse perspectives and not people's feelings about history in place of Truth choose books that teach both the dark parts of human history of which we have many and our incredible progress as a nation so that our kids can comprehensively understand our complete history choose books that are not race-baiting and divisive thankfully sb49 will likely be enacted into law this summer and our state
063government will lead in supporting parent rights and more scrutiny on the books chosen for the classroom the beauty of Living in America is that we are a nation which is incredibly diverse yet whose people share the same values or they should as it says on all of our coins we are one nation under God with liberty and a motto of e pluribus unum which means out of many become one these themes were historically taught and ought to be reinstated at all education levels and they should resonate in the hearts and the minds of our children dividing ourselves according to skin color turning schools into a social experiment instead of educational institutions doesn't really reflect the guiding principles of the nation so I encourage that we teach our children gratitude teach them that we are the
064freest Nation on Earth and how we got to be this way blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord Psalm 33 may God bless America and have mercy on us thank you very much Yolanda Hernandez good afternoon now that the 2223 school year has come to a close love our children looks forward to the superintendent's annual report of disciplined data school policy 4303 fair and consistent policy Administration States annually the superintendent shall provide to the board a report of discipline data submitted to the North Carolina Department of Public instruct instrument instruction the data must be reported both in sis both system-wide and separately for each school and must be disaggregated on the basis of race ethnicity gender disability English language learner status and or such other bases as the board May specify policy 4303
065goes on to state if the data provided to the board reveals a pattern of discipline or disciplinary practices within or cross schools that affects students disproportionately due to inconsistent discipline or disciplinary practices based on race gender ethnicity disability English learner English English language learner status or other personal characteristic the superintendent shall present to the board any recommendations for changes to power discipline policies or practices to reduce the potential for unjustifiable disproportionate outcomes in may miss Varney reported to the New Hanover County Schools that have been reported that think that New Hanover about a little new behind thank you County schools once your time is up um thank you how about for a handicap thank you Robert Bellamy Robert Bellamy no he's here how y'all doing today um I'm here in support of our children and
066changing policy 4351 I really have nothing to say because Peter said it all in his song nice song um but uh what is right but people already know what is right and what is wrong this world will need people who will just do the right thing I have seen and live so much wrong in my life and today I can admit that what I do know is people need basic common sense no one has to be a genius to act like to act with a conscious mind you know the facts especially if someone of the system puts you in a position to make a change you know the facts you know you have a choice to make the right decision it's up to you if you really want things to be better to get better
067and to make it better or a better life for those who depend on you so make the right choice that's why you are here that's why you are who you are we know you make I know some decisions are very hard but you are taught to drive if either hand if you if you really have to we just need you to put both hands on the steering wheel both hands on the steering wheel when you're driving for the kids thank you very much thank you Mr Bellamy good evening I just have a suggestion for the person who's calling the names to please speak with understanding because it appears as though those who are waiting to come up here and speak most of us can't hear our names I don't know if it's intentional but most
068of us can't hear standing at this Podium feels more like 1963. because the behaviors that are happening to folks who look like me I stand for all children and that's a fact that this is a racist system and a disproportionate amount of students being suspended without their parents is black policy 4351 it's time for it to be undone we come here month after month pleading with a board that was elected to make changes for our children and instead we meet blank stares that put on their best poker faces I just have a few quotes here one is by Malcolm X how can anyone be against love I represent Love by children but I don't feel any love coming from these cold stairs especially with what needs to be changed is not being changed also to
069those listening out there get your children out of these schools as a collective we can teach our children better than what's being done right now because we see what's being done absolutely nothing Malcolm X says that only a fool will allow for his enemy to teach his children wake up Black America get our kids out thank you Kelly Kidwell I sent each of you yesterday outlining my concerns with removing stamps or any book from classrooms and libraries and I will highlight two important points from that letter first and most importantly parents should have a choice in the education of their children and a seat at the table and decisions regarding their child's care and nurture however that position should be limited to their family one or two parents should not be deciding what thousands of
070children have access to in schools and libraries for the entire time I've been a teacher a new parent who objected to a particular text for their child has always been offered an alternate assignment this is the reasonable and correct course of action why are we entering entertaining a new course doing this so infringes on the rights of all parents further this course ignores the voice of trained Educators the members of the school and County Mt mtac committees who reviewed that text represented hundreds of years of experience and expertise Additionally the College Board takes academic Integrity seriously entertaining arbitrary and careless whims of parents who may object to certain texts or ideologies flies in the face of the stance they State quote as the AP program engages students in college level work this may include perspectives
071that could be considered controversial this requires students to have the level of maturity and the skill of to thoughtfully consider and analyze diverse perspectives AP is animated by a deep respect for the intellectual freedom of teachers and students alike if a school bans required topics from their AP courses the AP program removes the AP designation from that course and its inclusion in the AP course Ledger provided to colleges and universities it is important to understand that if the school board decides to engage in censorship and banning of books and texts the whole County could lose designation for AP courses being offered I have thought a minute for many months as I've watched this process unfold to its inevitable conclusion with a school board decision what is motivating and driving the various parties in contention I
072am being driven by my passion to see intellectual Freedom open conversation and engagement with thought-provoking questions and topics as the only way to have authentic learning in schools it is my sincere hope that we can be unified in the goal and in honoring of individual parents making decisions for individual children [Music] thank you [Applause] foreign thank you to all the speakers tonight thank you very much for your time and uh for your passionate um discussions uh we at the board as a whole have heard it and we'll listen very intently to everything that was said at this point I would like to move on to our next um uh next agenda item thank you very much here we go uh which is closed session let me read this very quickly the board I call for
073a motion to enter in a closed session pursuant to North Carolina General statute 143-318 11 A 1 3 and 6 to consider personal matters and maintain the confidentiality of personnel records under North Carolina General statute [Music] 115c-319-321 and consult the board's attorney and preserve the attorney-client privilege and to consult the board's attorney okay that says that twice in connection with the book review appeal John does 114 1-14 versus New Hanover County School Board of Education at all 19 CBS 2 2745 and Jane does one and two versus New Hanover County Board of Education at all 20 CVS 1395 and Jane Doe three versus New Hanover County Board of Education at all 21 CVS 4707 Consolidated matters do I hear such a motion Mason and we have a first and second any discussion if not all
074in favor please signify by saying aye aye all opposed we are in closed session engagement relationship we're gonna go ahead and knock it back out [Music] okay all right one two three one two three four okay we are back in Open Session uh hopefully that did not take too long we're gonna go ahead and carry on with our information click over here Dr Faison will be leading off for us with the E Academy Dr Faison hello um so I want to just share that with the E Academy we will be making just the minor change if you the e-academy is where our students are actually doing full-time virtual instruction and they have been going to Mosley to get their orientation pick up their devices and when there are times that they need some support they've
075been going to Mosley and the teachers that Mosley have been trying to provide that support and I say trying because some of our students in the e-academy are also middle school students so what we have decided for the e-academy is to have those students do those things at their home school so our e-academy students again are about 54 at this time virtual students and instead of them going to the e-academy they will go to their home schools to get the orientation pick up your device and those check-ins and when they need some support they will receive them from their home school we will do the initial District um intake for the e-academy as a district so it won't be um if I go to Hoggard or if I go to Hanover I send my application
076there the applications will still be done at the district level this just allows us to do that connection and keep that connection with the school and they do the support and the pickup at their home school so we're going to start that educate and inform our parents about that minor change and this way we feel like our students will stay connected to their school and get better support and I'll take any questions any questions board members all right Dr Faison thank you very much thank you and next we'll have Dr Faison um standardizing the instructional all right so I share with you guys um during our agenda um review that um as a reminder we had a couple of choices that we could do to make sure we were in line with our state guidelines
077because we were a few minutes short because we do not include recess as part of our instructional day that's what the board decides so we had basically the option of um not following our own State and guidelines board guidelines or the state law or a plan recess which the board said they did not want to do that with teachers or what we've decided to do to add 15 minutes of instruction to most of our elementary schools and standardize the day so every Elementary School will go from 7 40 to 235 so that will give us 6 hours and 55 minutes 30 minutes for recess and 25 minutes for the required lunch which leaves us with a total of six instructional hours and I will take and it does not change the teacher day our teacher
078is on average reporting to work from 7 to 7 15 each day so that will have no bearing on the time that they report to work or their time so I will take any questions that you may have board members any questions for Dr Faison Miss crabill it'll be a minimal impact because currently we're dropping off at most elementary schools as early as 7 15. do if they have double routes or they may be doing double routes at that school or another route at another elementary school so you know just minimal impact at the most yeah we're right now we're evaluating that and uh but I don't see that I don't see morning stop times changing that much middle school high school that's what we're more concerned with and we've identified a few schools that
079were you know going to try to troubleshoot make sure we can still make our secondary runs on time um thank you for that clarification Dr Mason that our staff is not required any more time like our stuff will still be there just for clarification for our parents listening are students going to be allowed into the buildings earlier um do you want that answer or is that a school related issue that will be a school by school issue but I'm pretty sure most of our students our schools open the doors about 7 15. so um that most parents I would assume will still drop off about there the main thing we were concerned was to make sure our teachers did not have to do anything extra and if they themselves have to drop their own kids
080off we're making sure each principal is working with them because we don't want it to impact them that way as well sales board members if not thank you Dr Faison actually it's list you next too I'm not sure uh Pre-K District data it should be Shannon I believe this is actually miss miles we'll be taking um good evening board members and superintendent Dr Faust gives me great pleasure to have the space to share with you our last year's data this is District Pre-K data um from this previous year so to get started out we are a three and four year old program we have nine Public School sites and 10 private sites we are serving 1047 students so two years ago we were serving 918 children eight years ago we were serving 415 children and
081now today we are serving over a thousand students due to the partnership with our counties for allowing us the funding to grow as a program in the space now we have over a thousand students accessing preschool with high quality education in early intervention services and how that happens is that starts with the board's support and Senior leader support and Dr Foust allowing us Pre-K to be a grade level and Equitable access as K-12 it starts with the community support it takes all of us to collaborate include in support and provide tools to our teachers and our administrators to grow these children so we are a comprehensive program what does that mean that's great news for your community because we have one point of entry application for New Hanover County so we in bed and see
082Pre-K we are the Contracting administrator for the county which means we manage that we are County funded slots due to our amazing partnership and we are the grantee for the federal program for Head Start and we also apply for supplemental funds from a Smart Start Grant to make this happen we are curriculum driven we are required by the state to use an approved evidence-based curriculum which is creative curriculum and it is in alignment with the North Carolina standard course of studies it's comprehensive it's comprehensive it's content Rich age appropriate and rigorous alongside with social emotional and cognitive development we also use enhancement tools due to the support of our school district letters required by the state for literacy fundations hegerty literacy support provided by our school district along with Eureka Math which makes us in
083alignment with our K friends we also Implement conscious discipline strategies to help with those social emotional children to help self-regulate with challenging behaviors in alignment with an evidence-based curriculum we have a formative assessment that matches the objectives of creative curriculum so this allows us to do data collection and progress monitoring of our students from the beginning to the end of the year we are mandated by six learning domains as you see social emotional physical language cognitive literacy mathematics so this data from this formative assessment that is connected to your curriculum what does it do it shows us what children can do and what skills are missing it informs instruction it provides steps to Mastery growth for new skills informs professional development and plcs I am proud to present to you the overall wide expectations data
084and as you can see by the purple that's good news in alignment with New Hanover County School strategic plan we held ourselves accountable to increase the number of pre-K students meeting or exceeding age expectations in teaching strategies objectives formative assessment with North Carolina Early Learning inventory to 75 percent the North Carolina Early Learning inventories entry for kindergarten and I'm so proud to share with you and happy we're doing it as you can see beginning of the year middle of the year and end of the year what our children look like coming into the year in the middle of the year and when they leave us the objectives are found at the bottom so manages feelings follows limits expectations responds to emotional cues interacts with peers problem solves so self-regulation knowing simple directions responding and playing
085well with our friends we have another learning domain cognitive approaches to learning with physical okay again meeting or exceeding our 75 percent goal in our strategic plan so what does that look like so for with cognitive um and um approaches to learning so very curious they're ready to learn they contribute to conversations with their friends they talk among each other during play during Center time and then when you look at uses fingers and hands we can cut straight lines okay we can unbutton our jackets our zippers very important with youngest Learners in New Hanover County Schools language and literacy again very promising data so what does that look like for our first objective they can follow simple directions important in kindergarten they can retell a story with details very impressive they can fill in missing
086rhyming words it's amazing to see if you want to see it in action please come see us so words begin with the same letters my name begins with the same letter as my friend um so we know features of the book the front the back left to right authors how to hold the book cognitive and Mathematics counting you can count to 20. we know that numbers have have a quantity so that 3 means something we know more and less we know patterns we are connecting the numbers to quantities I have six buttons and I need four more to make ten buttons that's what we're doing looking forward and moving on what we're going to do is even better we are going to enhance our support systems we are going to increase our data dies we've
087scheduled administrative meetings one-on-one site levels within principles meetings and we're providing PD focused on the data based on our survey results of what the needs are we know literacy and math we can grow we're going to focus on authentic assessments with fidelity letting this happen naturally and organically and measuring those and more frequency not right before the checkpoint due dates and we're going to support our Core Curriculum we need to see our core come alive in order to continue to grow these Young Learners any questions or comments board members any questions Mr Walker thank you very much for that I had a question um about demand and we've got a 1047 filled so when people apply whether to where there are not enough slots for people applying okay so excellent questions so we are an
088eligibility program so you have to be age three and four and meet those risk factors we have limited slots because our state is not Universal preschool as of yet so we are maintaining a wait list for this upcoming school year we're asking for grace and patience we have a new team a dynamite team and we're making that happen right now but we're receiving acceptance letters ongoing and filling those slots okay this is the wait list a lot so last year we ended with 80. now as a program director that was alarming to me because um I had to look closer at the data and it's mainly three-year-olds and a lot of them over income why do we put over income on a waitlist because we want to keep them close to us because as you
089saw at the beginning of the slide we have multiple programs so we want to keep them in our pockets hopefully they get placed in a four-year-old program this upcoming year it's Mason um I just had a question about those social emotional uh data with the meeting or exceeding expectations um having a child with autism I know that some of these things are really challenging for even kids this age are those students if you have any that have even a propensity for autism are those students also making progress in these in these goals well I'm glad to share with you that our standard course of study and our curriculum in bed strategies for students of those special needs and we have over 30 percent program wide with IEPs early intervention is happening all right um thank
090you Miss miles my question is just because we've had awesome conversations and I just wanted to share with the board um you and I have talked about our priority preschools are our elementary sites so can you share with the board what we're doing to not only support our Pre-K centers but also the expansion of those courses of those classes on throughout our district at the different elementary schools and what we're doing to help support those staff okay so we have three large Pre-K centers and what Miss Barn is referencing is the last two years we've increased our population in our elementary schools so what we see are administrators with a Pre-K 5 case load not just a preschool caseload so what we are doing is we're individualizing and looking at our survey data for those
091Elementary principles and teachers and also partnering up and collaborating with plcs and getting some investment and building that capacity among those elementary schools increasing our site visits and increasing our request for support um certainly how many kids do we have in a class do we have limits like we do in you know K one two yes in New Hanover County Schools preschool we are very high quality we do not put any more than 18 students per classroom the younger the less so we average between 15 to 17 for our three-year-olds four-year-olds will not exceed 18. the other question board members it's not Ms miles thank you very much for that great presentation thank you so much for your continued support thank you have a great afternoon at this point uh we will call um just
092for a change Dr Faison international school at Gregory another update so Gregory is our Spanish Immersion School of course and what we want to do is to actually look at how do we make sure our students are leaving there fluently in Spanish and with our elementary program it is 50 50. so they receive part of their instruction in Spanish and 50 and 50 in English but in our middle school the only time that you actually get the Spanish is during the electives so what we will be doing this year is we have um we're going to have the students who are there take the electives in Spanish Let me back up the sixth and 8th graders have been allowed to choose electives and they can go to Williston to take Alexis so they can not
093have Spanish electives and not be receiving Spanish so what we will be doing the seventh and eighth grade parents have been told they were told last year that we will continue to allow that for those parents those parents will still be able to allow their children to go to Williston to receive music and it was basically music for additional elective but after this I mean after that the sixth graders that we currently have will remain at Gregory to do the electives that they have because that way they will have some electives in Spanish so at Gregory they have are PE and CTE but they also have two electives Global Studies and connections and those electives are taught fully in Spanish so instead of those middle schoolers not receiving Spanish instruction during their middle school years
094they will still remain engrossed in the Spanish classes so again I just want to repeat that our seventh and eighth graders we're going to continue because we told those parents that but starting with our sixth graders they're going to understand the parents are going to be informed that we're truly going to move to the emerging model and make sure that their children have Spanish in middle school as well as in English now we do have any um parents who choose not to remain we will give them those options of going back to their home school but we do not have a lot of students who do music we had about 12 students in sixth grade and none that elected to do it in seven and eight so we're not talking a lot of students but
095the impact of what they can gain is great and the last thing we will also be making sure that they take the Apple test which is the language test and when they take that test they will get a high school credit for the Spanish and they can get as much as Spanish 1 and Spanish two we have about 27 students who receive that credit this year and we hope to have more to get Spanish one and even more more to get something to get Spanish too because they'll be getting Spanish more in the middle school I know I've said a lot so I'll take some questions if you have any questions okay nope thank you Dr Faison all right thank you I appreciate it next we have Zelo uh Dr Edge and Mr Nixon please
096welcome good evening I'm Demarcus nits and I'm the work based learning coordinator for Career and Technical education and tonight it's a privilege to be able to speak to you all about Zello a platform that we've been using in the district for College and Career Readiness um hi my name is supervisor of secondary school council and student records from here County Schools presentation America is the school board we are excited about sharing how we're currently utilizing Zillow within our school district and our plans to implement it extensively for grades six through eight next year so a brief introduction of Zelo Zello is previously known as Career Cruising it's a software-based platform where students use it as a valuable tool for career exploration and planning through this platform students explore various College and Career options while developing
097a comprehensive career development plan in our district students have access to Zello through single sign-on using the nced cloud portal and by having this reset resource within our district we experience several advantages firstly it enhances student support by streamlining processes and procedures secondly Zello enables us to better align our College and Career Readiness goals ensuring that our students are well prepared for their future endeavors and lastly it equips our students with essential skills and knowledge necessary for achieving success in the future there's three key areas that Zello support for our students and that's Career Development work based learning and course planning in the career development sector of Zello students in grades 6 through 12 will develop a comprehensive career development plan by using interactive lessons and assessments and they will gain better understanding of their
098unique interests skills and strengths the work based learning platform is specific to CTE students where CTE students will be able to Explore work-based Learning opportunities such as internships job shadows and field trips they will have easy access to local company profiles and opportunities that are available locally foreign course planning students will use a Zello to create a four-year course plan which serves as an actionable roadmap that combines career and academic options to develop personalized plans this plan provides parents and students with a clear path for their future goals outlining their courses needed for graduation and course planning information Zello Works in conjunction with PowerSchool which is our informational technology system but PowerSchool is an authoritative Source allowing students and parents to view their completed graduation requirements and see their remaining courses were shared some demo
099accounts but we're just going to walk you through the student experience for Zello so the first part of that is the career development platform so students will utilize this platform to complete their comprehensive Career Development plans they will complete this by grade seven and then it will be updated in grades 10. as part of the process students will engage in interactive lessons and assessments and the first assessment that students will take is called Matchmaker and this assessment consists of 39 questions like the one shown on the screen and it prompts students to think critically about their interests and rank them on a scale ranging from light very much to dislike very much these questions are then evaluated to Output their career matches some sample questions may be like the students like working outside or they
100like certain subjects in school Etc but after the students complete the Matchmaker assessment they gain access to an array of career and college options all of which are aligned to their assessment results the second assessment that students will take is a personality Styles assessment this assessment will allow students to gain insights into their personality traits is based on the Holland model and there's 28 questions similar to the previous assessment where students rank their prompts from like very much to dislike very much and then the final assessment is called missions complete it's a 49 question assessment that's thought-provoking questions that delve further into the students interests and questions are designed to provoke reflection and exploration of the students passions and aspirations so once the students complete those assessments they then have access to Broad a broader
101range of College and Career options available available for them to explore and this slide just shows how students can save top career choices that will be uploaded to their digital portfolio that will be shareable for them when at the end of their career development plannings in course planners students students and make future future plans by being enrolled enlisted or employed we want to help students solidify their e so when they graduate from New Hanover County Schools we'll be with the end in mind in addition this can also they can also set personal goals short term or long-term goals for themselves to increase their successful outcome the course planner shows a student's parents students and parents the courses students have completed including a grade in the credit they've earned in addition it allows the students to
102plan their future courses for the remaining of their High School career this is also a great tool for school counselors Career Development coordinators students and parents alike as we are all collaborating Partners to ensure that students graduate successfully and on time the drop down shows the credits that the students have earned and the remaining credits that the student needs to graduate per the graduation requirements so the CTE program in collaboration with student support we developed a scope and sequence that will be shared with school staff students and parents at the beginning of the school year we will be meeting with secondary school principals at the Leadership Institute to decide on a school-wide implementation plan for each individual school on professional development is going to be offered for school staff during the fall semester parents will
103receive information about the Zello family portal during fall open house and additional training resources such as Zello Academy and YouTube channel is accessible for anyone via the CTE website as well as New Hanover County Schools website Zillow provides resources as students educate how they can best use and understand how we can help students whether they for their future plans to ensure that they are enrolled enlisted and employed and do you have any questions for us board members any questions Mr Barnhart I just want to say I'm very excited about this when I first got on on the board I know I wanted to help out with the district career fair and I started talking about how we need to have some vertical alignment and then accessibility to our parents so that they're informed of all
104the options that New Hanover County Schools offer but also they're equipped with how to prepare their students to get into a career field that they are passionate about that we have courses for and so I think this is awesome I'm glad that it's already in our budget so we're paying for it and that we're going to be able to better utilize this to able to support our parents but with the partnership of having a progress for our kids so thank you for the hard work you're doing and I'm excited to continue UC real well thank you Miss Walker so thank you for this I I think you said it was new or was not new but I like the look of it because as a person that has a planner and likes to be organized
105I have to see it and I think um when I went through college it was a it was a very big task to figure out what I needed to take next and what would fit with the degree I was going for and I remember as a kid in New Hanover County we used to do some stuff like this probably early on where and it made you feel like okay I'm figuring out what I want to do and it kind of saves time with I wouldn't say wasting time because it's never a waste of time but sometimes we don't really know what our personality is suited for so I think this is is very very helpful tool and I appreciate you guys bringing it to us thank you Miss welcome Miss cuevo yeah I had a
106couple questions for you guys of course so um I I heard you say that the CTE only the CTE students are going to be eligible for internships is there a reason why we wouldn't want any of our students to be able to get internships so the work-based learning component of it so CTE students get a CT internship credit so that's how we have it in New Hanover County schools that CTE students get the internship credit so that's why the work-based learning component is only available for CTE students okay the um is there I didn't see in here that I I thought we had had talked about at one point is there a place for students to upload their accolades their their and I where in in as I'm going in and learning more where would
107I find that so in your about me there's a strip that's called like the timeline okay then you can upload all your awards and achievements yeah so that because kids when they're ready for college they're that you know a mom will pull out her folder and say that you remember when you did that the yeah so and the other thing too is this um something that Zello can be part of the parent Academy you know just even though there's a parent compliment on here you know I can see it as part of the parent Academy you know in the in the beautiful room that we have to do that so that parents can learn more and follow along and um yeah be an active part of that thank you this is awesome I love this
108my question is once they've taken this assessment and we know kids they change their minds and maybe they get into this course of study and they decide this is not what I want to do do they retake the assessment how does that all work so in the scope and sequence they do have opportunities whether whether students can go in and update their assessment results and get new new results and so with that then the counselor and career development Coordinator would sit down with those students to work out their four-year plan or adjust their four-year plan it's just a plan it's not authoritative um I'm just going to ask about the counselors had access to this so when they were talking with students they could bring this in immediately the Hillsborough members I want to thank
109you both for this it was great uh very exciting very very exciting thank you very much uh we're going to continue with New Hanover County beginning teacher support plan uh Dr Barnes and Dr O'Brien good evening board chair and board Vice chair Dr Faust and other board members we're here tonight to share with you updates on the New Hanover County Schools beginning teacher Support Program plan for your approval you saw at the agenda review the state requires us to have a plan that provides support for our beginning teachers in the first three years of employment as you can see we've got a comprehensive plan with multiple layers of support for all of our beginning teachers we serve approximately 300 teachers right now in their first three years I'd like to introduce Dr Kim O'Bryant who
110is the wonderful supporter of our beginning teacher Support Program good evening it is a delightful time to be able to share with you tonight about our beginning teacher support program the state requires us as Dr Barnes says to have a plan and this plan was originally approved in 2020. the revisions that we want to make is that we are seeing evidence of a change in our beginning teacher population we are seeing more teachers that are working and being hired with untraditional licensure and so they come in with an expertise but yet they have not gone through a traditional educational background program so they are in the process of taking courses or becoming getting their gpas up so that they are in the process of becoming licensed in education as well so what we are trying
111to do in the addendums that we've made to this program this plan is that we want to continue to increase that support adding an additional layer for that population of teachers we had 21 percent of our beginning teachers last year that were teaching with a specialized license so this new structure and how we've made these revisions to our plan will allow us to support them with some teaching practices best teaching practices as well as with the curriculum So currently we have 15 Pre-K teachers that are working in this licensure program 20 Middle School teachers and 25 High School teachers so in past we had seen it more at the secondary level but we're now seeing it Pre-K 12. so we just we know that investing in our beginning teachers really definitely impacts student learning so
112we want to make sure that they have all the levels of support that they have hey they need any questions about the plan this will probably continue to increase rather than it's a short-term solving a problem so thank you for what you're doing thank you exactly um so the beginning teacher is one through three years correct and are our beginning teachers all still assigned a mentor you know to help them get other than someone from central office they have like in their building someone is assigned to them to help them do what we have are three beginning support coordinators who also go out to the schools and provide additional support and help a new teacher filter all the information they're getting they check them on licensure make sure they're completing their assignments and helping them
113through the beginning teacher program which is required for them to get a continuing license at the end another questions no thank you Dr O'Brien thank you Dr Barnes that we teachers we have retained more than 85 percent of our beginning teachers last year who returned this year that's how you fix a concern about retention is you train them up correctly you give them the support they need so I'd like to say that that's a real alkalite for them as well one last question about how many students I mean teachers do we have with uh back with us in the ilt the beginning teacher program that are from the scholarships okay it's not a lot we don't give out that many but it's interesting we actually had um a second year scholarship recipient who had just
114finished your first year coming back and do some training with our first year people coming in new with our year-round we just started their bet one orientation and we had a board scholar that came back and presented to them great presentation so a great model for them to learn from okay next we have uh North Carolina General Assembly legislative long session overview Mr Vogel yes ma'am Mr chairman if I will I'd like to make a motion to postpone this discussion until after session has ceased at the state level and the legislative committee is able to meet um I've already and I'll wait for a second before I go okay so your motion is to to postpone this discussion until after session is open legislative committee has an opportunity to meet I'll second that in the
115first and second I do believe that takes a two-thirds vote to change at this point correct it's a majority okay so majority so we have a first uh to postpone the discussion of the North Carolina General Assembly legislative long session overview for first a second and now at this point we would entertain any uh discussion Mr Scrabble yeah um I was interested in having this because um July 1st was kind of our our drop dead day at the ncsba conference Michael Lee came and gave us some updates and the ncsba gave us some updates so I would just like to see where we are now um so that we can like start doing you know putting our arms around what's happening in there so I don't think there's any reason for us to postpone it
116till we're done I mean it's just an update on where we are another discussion Mr Walker um I guess I didn't see this originally on our agenda but I I agree I would be happy to hear an update I mean I read it in the news but we're supposed to get legal updates I especially on bills that are going to substantially potentially change a lot and I don't know why we have to put it off what are we waiting for veto overrides I don't I don't know I mean I think there are updates that we should be aware of right now any other discussion uh Miss Barnard I mean I will add that that I I overhaul on the crossover Bill and even in there they said this is all still even though it's passed
117through the Senate and it's on to the house or vice versa it's not a finalized document so we're going to sit here with an overview of things that may or may not happen when we can wait a month and be in actually informed of the changes that are actually happening versus speculating about them so that's why you know the discussion and I would agree with Miss Barnhart it is extremely fluid right now and there's just I mean it'd be a snapshot for this minute but tomorrow everything could change a lot of things could change so we really need to wait till they're done doing their job so then we see what we have to work with and just miss crabill I'll just use my second time the um I'm going to use the budget as
118an example if we sat around and waited for the budget to get approved before we talked about what the budget might look like then we would still be sitting you know a year later so you know to use that analogy you know that is I think is inappropriate but just wanted to talk nothing else all right so we have a first and second to delay the discussion postponed went postpone it until okay and what date is session over do we know that is the magic question okay that's a magic question okay all right so we don't know what it would be there's no certain date no certain date okay so we have a first and second um Miss Bowie would you please call the roll because it seems like it's going to be one of
119those discussions Miss Barnhart no Miss Walker no Mr McManus yes Miss Mason yes Miss Bradford yes and Mr boldibor yes so it is delayed we will carry on that passes five two consideration so next we have consensus items uh that is a through S I think we had a couple we had to pull did we postpone that did we table that or it was postponed okay so postpone what does that mean it's postponed to a definite time and the definite time was in the motion to when the session is concluded okay okay I believe we had some that as I remember I could be wrong that we had a couple that we needed to pull out off with the consensus item is that correct you have any of those yes Miss Mason um I need
120to pull off I and I had a question about Q and the question about Q is um my question about Q I was looking through it and I may have missed it on the other one um I saw that there were individualized plans I wanted to just confirm they were separate from IEPs and that parental involvement was there and that those were shared with staff those are definitely separate from IEPs those are individualized education plans for Disabilities and these Services don't correlate to Disability Services and they are definitely shared with parents parents have to consent to those being created to answer your question with uh qrns Miss Farnham are you able to tell us the effectiveness of those programs so I'm looking online is it it's p q and r you are an s so
121s is different I'm looking at not on our Channel oh yes yes of course United so data analysis is underway and we've had many Community collaboration discussions between the agencies regarding the effectiveness being that the data has been collected for a partial year of implementation that's going to be really important to progress monitor to determine overall effectiveness when did it begin so um the the funding and hiring can gonna it was in place um just after the beginning of the 22-23 school year and um the mousse were being put into place so the partnership sort of evolved and the the tasks and the um the roles of the staff evolved into the 22-23 school year so the analysis would be moving forward with we've got Baseline information and now looking at progress monitoring so when
122do you think um I would like I would like um to be able to look at progress monitoring data in the next couple of months as an analysis of the 22-23 school year and I can say that we've already had really good collaboration with Port City United on different ways to refer students who referrals come through and the types of characteristics we're looking for in the referrals so we have already been engaging in some continuous Improvement efforts collaboratively thank you all right Miss Walker I just I just had a comment because I I know Port City United is a division of the the county government so I mean we should be collaborating with them anyway um and I know it's still fairly new and I know they're still trying to work things out so I
123think this was already on our agenda the agenda review or no where's this stuff already on here well then we probably should just asked questions then and we still can and I think we can access them on the phone as well right Miss Walker they weren't posted at the gender review they were they weren't all posted they the wrong versions I was wondering if these were inadvertently I thought it was there okay uh can I ask one quick clarifying question for us with the Wilmington chamber of career and leadership development accounting does our mou allow for growth of that program as it's written because currently we serve about 40 students in our seventh grade in the academy through the partnership with the chamber I'm asking if how the mou is written allows for growth to
124serve more than decisions we're currently serving we are planning to do all of our students um starting the summer of this year I would actually have to go back and make sure it doesn't say anything about not allowing for expansion because we are expanding this year because last year we only did one cohort and this year we're doing two So the plan has always been to grow the program so we can actually serve all the students in the district all right at this point I'm going to make a motion too I have to pull myself I think we have to vote I can't vote on which one letter p p the for the mou with Port City United and communities and schools it's Q on ours on on online no no it's p it's yeah
125in the paper maybe but I don't think it's p all right so we'll pull I and P I will make a motion that we accept all the consensus items with the exceptions of imp second we have a second chairman did uh Ms Mason has to pull Q as well no no imp only thank you yes thank you sir discussion if not all in favor please signify by saying aye aye I further make a motion we accept I and well I said we just waved them separately so we'll do it separately yeah I um do I hear a second second a second um Barnhart uh any discussion not all in favor say aye aye back passes six zero and then um I also make a motion we accept p is our second second second thank you
126I'm sorry sorry okay yep uh all in favor please signify by saying uh any discussion do right okay if not uh all in favor please signify by saying aye aye again passes six zero moving on we have the policy amendments Miss Barnhart um Mr chairman I make a motion that we accept the policy amendments as presented second we have a first and second discussion if not all in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye all opposed passes seven zero we carry on with a new business a book review appeal process for stamped Mr chairman I make a motion to hear the gate stamp book appeal we have a we have a motion to accept or to hear the gates um appeal to hear a second second for Miss Mason discussion sorry Banning a book
127and am I correct we've had one individual that has raised the question to ban a book we're talking about it at the AP class fans placement the kids who most likely will be the leaders of the immediate future who need to know how other people feel and how to write how to document we don't have to agree there are many books that I don't agree with or would like for my family to read but we don't need to start a president to ban books I don't want to be a member of a group that agrees to ban books which will affect our AP teachers across the whole system and then filter down to honor classes and filter down towards part of what we do every day is expose kids to everything so they can make
128good mature decisions they get older so I disagree and hope that that will not pass this is Monumental I hope monumental thank you Mr McMahon Smith Mason um this vote is on actually just hearing the appeal this is not on actually doing anything with the book but hearing the appeal and I honestly need to have more information um I read through the book I read the entire book cover to cover all of it um there were things I definitely disagreed with there were things that I had issue with but I'm not basing what I'm saying on this and you can believe me or not believe me but I did some more research other than that I looked at the syllabus and I looked actually online at other AP syllabuses across the country just to see
129what the standard is because the reading level of that book is actually Middle School to high school if this is an AP course we want to raise the standard for our kids we can have differing opinions and still hear varying authors but this particular and some of the other ones I actually did look into some of the other books on the list as well they are also at a middle school through High School reading level so when I went through and looked to um the other syllabuses that are available online what I noticed was that there were much more rigorous um content in there including but not limited to um George Orwell um even hang on Malcolm X um was in some of it so I'm not against having differing viewpoints but I am against
130having lower standards for our kids and if the reading level is not at the standard that our kids need it to be at um we're not doing the best for them Miss Walker so this is obviously not about agreeing or disagreeing with the content we should be trusting our professionals first of all and second of all we this has gone through two layers third of all and probably fourth fifth and sixth is the student was given an exception no student was forced to read this book but at some point we have to as a board back up our district and the decisions they make and if we which I think is a foregone conclusion I mean we can have little semantic arguments about whether we think the syllabus is good or whether we think that
131it's um you know on grade level or whatever but the fact is if we have a hearing on this book and it gets banned this is a very bad precedence that we start in this County and I will add also that we already have a county in South Carolina's getting sued over removing this book so I think we need to be very very careful about how we deal with this situation going forward I don't think it warns us having a hearing over it I do not think that you know I don't think that we are at a point where we we want to have a circus and pull apart a book in our teachers in front of everyone because that's what's going to happen if we hold a hearing thank you Miss Walker when the
132idea and concept of discussing curriculum selection which is our job that's ultimately what we approve is our job and as a district we have gone to streamlining curriculum and content we just approved the new reading curriculum um when this book first came to me it was an AP college course so I said okay you know Josie this is what you got to do when you're looking at this through the lens of that okay do you know where my book came from Castle Hayne Elementary School so when I was looking at the procedures in the process of how we select things how can a book that's college level be the same in our district as how would it how are procedures and policies are written be the same as a kindergarten content I think that's there's
133discrepancies there so as I was reflecting on this book and the content not here to decide that because when you look at a scope and sequence of a class it's about well-rounded viewpoints so whatever you point this is then the teacher would have another alternative Viewpoint as well that's part of how you build your curriculum that's how to build your structure but to me I have concerns with how we're building the selection process in general if indeed this is a college level course and an elementary book so I have issues from questioning whether our procedures are where they should be at this point and that's where my thought process to hear the appeal is coming from because they can't be the same Scrabble thank you yeah so um we're here to decide should we hear
134the appeal so comments made about other books you know should not even be part of the discussion um I don't feel um with that the I have taken college-level English classes where we do talk about very simple books because you're looking at the way things are written you're looking at the underlying you know Dr Seuss you know we had to take away some of his books or some people think we have to take away some of his books there's a lot of books that are not written at a college level that you can still study in a college level English class So to that point but back to miss Walker's point is we go through a very rigorous hiring process looking for the best teachers and um and we promote people from within who rise
135to our standards and if we are going to not appreciate their um their wisdom their expertise the college classes that they took in order to get where they are um in favor of some community members who think that they know more than our Educators know um I'm having I'm having a problem with that you know and same with Mr McManus we're allowing we we could be allowing one parent whose child didn't even read the book the the opportunity to deny the experience from 8 900 other high school students um equal number of middle school students and there might be some fifth graders who are very interested in this you know because their families are interested in it and they read it together as a family you know so who are we to decide so I
136don't even think huh the school system should have a variety of books available to all students at the and parents get to choose what their kids read we don't get to choose what every student reads I don't believe that is in our purview of doing that so I don't think that we need to have a hearing we need to trust the people that we hired to do the work Dr Faust all the way down you know to his classroom teachers I think we need to entrust their integrity their expertise um their willingness to broaden students minds and let them make their own choices on these kind of things you know who are we to make those choices for for all parents I just don't think that we should thank you in the seven to eight
137months I've been on this board every appeal that we've been presented with we've heard it's what we do back there in that room sometimes we're hearing Appeals regardless of the matter we voted to hear both sides of the argument presented to us as a board and we made a decision to either uphold the decision of the school district or not this case is no different a parent's request is working itself through due process like all those other appeals we should hear this one and then make a decision based on the arguments presented during that appeal Mr McManus I would remind all of us that our Librarians and our if I remember correctly those who go through the different levels starting at the bottom I went through the schools going through all of the schools approved
138and supported this book because once you start Banning then the you'll be asked to ban more once you do it no matter what and that's I'm not agreeing with the book or disagree with the book I'm against Banning books and once you start you can't stop it and everyone has a right to be educated if they so choose to read other than what individual board members think they should thank you all right we have a first oh sorry I didn't see your hand up I didn't see you end up sorry that's okay I will I will just oh my icon for me I would just say also this is we do have appeals and hearings but they are typically personnel and they are typically you know student related um this is a discretionary appeal we
139do not have to hear this this is unprecedented in this County as far as I'm aware and if anybody knows different please tell me but I don't think that we need to hear this this is not a have to here Banning books in my opinion is an Un-American thing to do we have a constitution we all took an O2 and I will say it again because I've said it more than once sitting up here about what we swore to when we took this office we should not be doing this this is not our job our job is top level it's policy it's it's whatever but it's not doing this and so if we even if a small group of us we do this hearing and we decide in a majority to in a book that
140is wrong and we should not be doing it so I disagree that we should have this hearing okay we have a first and then we'll check one more time okay first and second uh Miss Bowie would you again the motion in front of us is to Grant Miss Gates's uh appeal or hearing excuse me um uh would you please call the roll Miss Grayfield no Miss Walker no Mr McManus no Miss Mason yes Bradford yes Mr wildebear yes and Miss Barnhart yes passes 4-3 so now we have our second discussion which is how to have the hearing whether we want to do a book assuming a uh document review or if we want to do a full hearing Mr waterboard yeah um I'd like to make a motion that the hearing be on the documents
141that Dr Faust has already shared with us which include the report from the school-based mtac and the district mtac here we have a motion for MS crabill to your second second that's Miss Walker for a second discussion Bedford I respectfully disagree um every appeal I've heard had two people two sides whether it was an attorney or whatever or the school district we had the arguments presented to us in person and we made a decision based on that we all can read documents but to hear the presentation from the school district as to why they made this decision and to hear from Ms Gates as to why she's making this appeal would be important to me in addition to providing due process for her I look forward to better understanding the stool District's committee's process for
142a book because right now I don't really understand it exactly who's in there who's doing what and how it's done and so what happened before the appeal stage I'd like to better understand it so that's why I'd like to see us do it not with the free-for-all of five different people speaking on each side but one no more than two people speaking for each side so that we have all the information and then we make a informed decision based on that Miss Walker thank thank you Mr chair I think we all as board members can call up the appropriate divisions and ask them how the process works we don't need a hearing for that what's going to happen is it's going to this is what seems to me like this is going to be a
143circus it's going to be let's show how much New Hanover County um you know wants to hear one person's idea of why they don't want to book in this district and I don't believe that is what this hearing is meant to do if we are looking at the evidence that the district is is we're going to present to us about why they decided to uphold keeping the book then I think that is the appropriate way we do it we don't turn it into a free-for-all and everybody this is not a this is not a a courtroom this is the Board of Education and we are making a decision on whether to ban a book or not that's exactly what it comes down to and I feel like this perhaps is something that that some people
144want to see and I don't want to see it obviously I voted against it in the first place thank you man Square bill um I'd like to ask Mr Vogel a question so to miss Bradford's point that she wants to learn more about the process that's not what we're here to decide is that correct Mr chairman I Rise to question privilege are you going to let her attack me I'm not I'm asking a question based on a comment that you made are we allowed that's my question Mr chair well I think that if there were to be a live hearing that the presentations would probably include a summary of what happened at the school level how the decision was made what happened at the district level how the decision was made so I think there
145likely would be an explanation or summary a recitation of the process and how we got to where we are today that's that's likely but that would be up to the individuals who are presenting all right we have a first and second uh Miss Billy would you please again the motion in front of us is to hear the document only um and not a full hearing Miss uh would you please call the roll Miss Walker um yes Mr McManus yes Miss Mason now miss Bradford no Mr boldibor no Miss Barnhart no Ms crabill yes so that is defeated uh three to four Mr chairman yes ma'am I make a motion that we thank you that we hear the appeal with both sides presenting um I I don't want to say one person each side but no
146more than two and we hear it in person we have a motion yes can I am in that to make a time limit to oh yes please I mean or if you want to amend it just um yes I actually had that in there for each side to have no more than say 20 minutes to present their sides I would second that we have a first and a second I would like to see if you will event that to um one person I don't think we need to have two or more I'm fine with that okay so one person from each could you could you read that again what word but not here I'll make a motion that we with one person presenting for each side to presumably Miss Brinson and Miss Gates or if
147Miss Gates chooses an attorney um and we limit the time to 20 minutes each side okay and we have a first and a second on that any discussion if not miss Bowie would you please call the roll um so Miss Bradford had made a point on um if Miss Gates chooses to bring legal counsel so do we need to put that in the motion so that if one side brings legal counsel then the other side um has legal counsel Mr Vogel no I don't think that's required for the motion I mean that those could be in procedures that uh you as a board and me as a representative will make clear to both Mrs Gates and the school district that they're in this case is entitled to to have Council and provide us notice uh
148provide the school district notice in a number of days before the hearing so that the school district can choose to have counsel if it wants to have okay so then I would like to amend the motion to include everything that Ms Bradford said and that you said but that we have a procedure lined up before we go into the hearing I mean that would I'm gonna go back to Mr Vogel but I believe that's that was what do you just said we would have we would we would necessarily have a procedure before going to the hearing in other words there would be a letter or email from me saying this is how the hearing is going to go we know from the motion that it'll be one speaker it'll be luck per side live it'll
149be 20 minutes per side and then there'll be you know other formalities or Logistics of if you choose to have a lawyer represent you let us know three days four days ahead of time that type of thing so they won't necessarily be that communication prior to the hearing okay and because I only asked that question because I had asked the question before and one of the ants was it will be at the board the board's discretion or the board chairs discretion and I would feel much more comfortable if we must have this hearing with testimony that we have it already lined out not at if it's our if it's at our discretion we need to discretion it and write it out before we before we do it um and then and to have the whole
150board get to decide and not at the board chairs decision that's that's all I'm was making the clarification because we had I thought I had heard you tell us that it would be at the board's choosing and so we're not choosing that right now we're just saying if this if that that's why I wanted to kind of clarify a little bit if I make it yes sir I'm not sure there's a lot of ifs or uh ambiguity um the school board has had hearings before the superintendent of the school district have you know set procedures of you know how this goes in the communications that go out to the folks who are involved in the appeal hearing we will follow that that template we won't deviate okay Mr chair yes ma'am just to that point
151that's not entirely accurate I don't think we've ever had a hearing this is a public hearing this is not a private hearing so we might have some procedures but this is unprecedented so I would honestly be more comfortable not that I'm going to vote to do it but um more comfortable knowing what we're going to do and what the public expects out of this board when it comes to this hearing it's only fair I think we haven't even set a date we don't I mean we might have some things that we've done in the bag you know as far as hearing procedure but we've never done this before um I think the board would have would be given both sides so the board would be given a board packet of documents that both sides will
152have an opportunity to uh to submit both sides will have an opportunity to be represented by Council and will ask for notice I think these are just Logistics but if you want to choose to move to amend the motion to add those types of logistics into the motion you are free to do so on a motion to amend I think Ms crabill tried to do that that's what I was doing yeah yeah that she was trying to do it because like is it a public hearing so you're mended motion my amended motion was to include the procedures of this public hearing because we have not had a public hearing before this is discretionary hearing and we've not had the only public hearing that some people on this board have had is Accenture and a vote
153of no confidence those are the only public hearings that four of us have been involved with and there were specific guidelines on what we had to do and what we could say and not say I and I don't mean to disagree but we did have one other one with a parent that recently a public one yes we do yeah yeah sure did oh sorry unprecedented missiles sorry yeah I'll retract that statement I'm sorry I'll track that statement okay all right fine we have an amended motion I believe you seconded second yes ma'am so we have Amendment uh second to have all the specifics we could say it again one more time please yeah I would like to have if we are going to vote to do it I would like to have to know what
154the procedures are before we agree to have the hearing okay and I will have a discussion on that I think that my my point is I think that we've we've had a things before we've never done that we've never had to have it all in an emotion so but let's unless there's other discussion on that we'll this is on the amendment Miss crabill's amended motion amendment seconded by Ms Walker yeah I know Mr McManus Miss Mason no Miss Bradford no Mr wildebor no Miss Barnhart no Miss cray Bill yes and Miss Walker yes that amendment is defeated four to three um at this point we will call the question that Miss Bradford's motion was to have a hearing with one person being able to speak from both sides Miss Bowie if you would please call
155the roll and 20 minutes aside 20 minutes I'm sorry yes each side Miss Mason yes Miss Bradford yes Miss worldborn yes Miss Barnhart yes Miss crabill no Miss Walker no and Mr McManus nope that passes four three so we will have a hearing with the stipulations as we said 20 minutes and one person speak each time I would like to set the date on that today or would we rather do that afterwards what's the will of the board we have we have a I would like to make a motion then we have a a meeting already scheduled for the 24th at 10 o'clock we could come after that at say one o'clock for that again wood is will the board we set the meeting right now or would we rather set out some dates and
156how much prep time does the school district need too fast are we ready to roll the school system enough time um since there's only gonna be one of them to present an argument okay Mr Whittle I think that we should just send out a meeting notice to try to collaborate our calendars within the next month to have this appeal okay is that the Wilder board I think so okay we will send out a meeting notice we will let Miss Gates and also the school system know on that we'll carry on to our next bit of business which is a board professional development training that would be Miss craville I said maybe Scrabble is actually yes ma'am yep um everybody um at your seat I gave you a packet of information that I have pulled together
157I did want to make a note that um with short ones on the agenda there we go sorry thank you um so you everybody should have a um a packet from the Carousel Center which we'll talk about and a packet of information from me that I have put together for our discussion purposes and then um they also too wanted to call attention under main points um where it said Board of Education will discuss professional development training opportunities and auctions and trainings including CL and there's no reason why that is there that doesn't get any more Credence um from that and that was basically added after our agenda review so I just wanted to point that out the so you'll see on your top it is it's right there including the ca that wasn't part of
158our board agenda review I have it so she did bring it up she did bring it up but what I'm saying is it doesn't have any more there's no reason why we why that is there we did I could have put instead including ncsba including blah blah blah so that is just another one that's added on there so if you look at this it's on the the front page is called the Board of Education professional development and training opportunities so what I did was I listed some of the things that um I have been thinking about that we needed and I asked every one of the board members you know to tell me the kinds of things that you want to do and I got some information from Ms Barnhart and I got some information
159from Ms Walkers and those are included in here so I'll just start at the top so you can see what we have first is ncsba they have three kinds of training they have in-person Video subscription service and customized training so you'll see in your packet the video library and I didn't type them all out so I wanted to try and get this on one page for us to talk you'll see the video library and the current it looks like this it has all the things listed there the um so it has that one and then right behind these are the video subscription that we I I thought that we had subscribed to but was told we do not subscribe to this it's fifteen hundred dollars a year for us to have unlimited access to all
160of these video trainings that we can watch at our Leisure um we can watch together as a group um so I I will be talking about that a little bit on the other the the video subscription renewal it it this one just sort of puts it in um the one that has the dots this puts it in the order of when um they're having in-person trainings that match the online trainings if we needed to have more of that um in the custom section their Master board training that four of us have been to before where it is over the course of several months where someone from ncsba usually a contractor comes in and we learn how to work together as a board what the board's jobs are reaffirming our board Norms reaffirming reaffirming or starting
161any standard operating procedures how we work with our superintendent so that is a that is a really good one that we as a board have not done yet next on the next in your packet um is before we move on it has a front and this one with dots is supposed to have a back I just realized it didn't have a back but if there's only two um there's only like two dots you know I mean there's only one more dot that plastic's missing the other one is the 2324 training events and events these are other ones that we can get from ncsba their conferences and Caspa which is the Consortium of State School boards associations which our ncsba belongs to so these are the trainings and events that we can also attend so I've
162got those are all from the ncsba that are um included in a lot of our you know materials next on here is um it's the last page of your of our the packet I gave you was information from the Carolinas academic leadership Network and um so the only they don't have any trainings or anything lined up yet they do have categories on where they do have training and this was um rolled out on July the 3rd at a meeting in Charlotte where um the and the Carolina academic leadership network is a Consortium from the John Locke foundation and the Palmetto promise Institute both of which are the John John Locke Foundation is a conservative think tank based in North Carolina and Palmetto promise Institute is a conservative think tank in South Carolina so that's um
163the the information that Ms Barnhart had brought to us but we had also all gotten an email on but there is nothing more to for me to put out there that they're offering yet it just says the kinds of things policy networking governance crisis response assistance leadership professional development and legislative Outreach um so but there's no there's no stuff yet I think there is I think there's something in September I think it has to do with Robert's Rules of Order but it could be wrong there is something coming up with September but there was nothing listed on I mean I went all throughout their website and um yeah so the um if you signed up for it or you became a member of this then you would have gotten that but the um there's nothing
164in you know set in stone on that one yet but it is an option you know of training for us because uh just a question um so we heard how much uh NC you know thank you and csba is how much is there I could find no information I searched you know through all around the website for the Carolinas academic leadership Network and the only thing I got this from was a picture that was on the website um and it was the same picture that you sent me when I asked what is Caln because I didn't know what it was um so they don't have anything yet they don't have prices set you know they they do have people assigned to do these things but they haven't done anything yet it's brand new I can
165answer that question it's free it's free it's free so the um okay so that's good thank you for that all right so moving on down the line um so that's ncsba um that's the first thing on the list and the last thing on the list um next are some things that I thought would be helpful for our group as we are setting policy and that and we are listening to our principles and listening to our teachers and the work session that we had I was pleased to hear that all the things that they talked to us about were things that I had included on this list of um ideas that were might be important to us to decide one of them is training it's a three hour training on the community resiliency model um that
166the New Hanover County resiliency task force can do for us three hours it's a trauma-sensitive trauma-informed training and which includes discussion on Aces and that was what Miss Walker had asked me to look into some training for that um what date is that I'm sorry no they I don't have any dates on these because we these are all ones that we can pick a date and then we can get these facilitators come and talk to us about um Darkness to light stewards of children that said um Carousel Center program that they can lead or New Hanover County schools has some trained facilitators that they can work together with us it's a two and a half hour class it's required for all School staff anyway so I thought that um and it's about you knew um
167um sexual abuse prevention and how to recognize you know different things I thought that if all of our staff had that then we would we would want to know what our staff is getting um student facing staff is that right Miss Barnum okay um so the the other two right in below it she said yes yeah yeah sorry I'm sorry huh all staff that's what you know the um all staff so um bringing in and oh and we just saw that we had some awards you know to the school the secondary schools that went through that and if we went through that as a board then we would be the only District in the state of North Carolina that had all of our schools and our board you know um on board with that so
168that program is in is outlined in here in the packet that they thought they were making a presentation tonight um and they were not um so they gave us this this handout so this is what you know we can look through um at our leisure um next on the list is bringing in the bystander and shifting boundaries and those are two classes that are taught in bringing in the bystander is taught by Coastal Horizons in our ninth grade health and PE classes when they get it it is over three days 90 minute days I'm not you know saying that we need to have that same level of training but they can do a synopsis for us on what what they're teaching in in that class the and we can also have you know Joelle Newman
169come and talk to us about you know she's our lead Pet Health and PE teacher can talk the next one is Shifting boundaries and that is taught in the Middle School it's also a coastal Horizons program but it's taught by the middle school health and PE teachers and the shifting boundaries is the one that where the students identified hot spots in their schools you know places that they felt most comfortable most uncomfortable um and so that the individual schools can start to address those issues one of the questions that you had asked you know of the principles the next on the list down is mental health first aid that is a program that you know pretty much um many of us have already had because it's been around for a long time it's a full
170day class and it's pretty intense so the recommendation was to do community resilience model and darkness to light first before you get into the mental health first aid but again you know we can you know look to our professional staff you know to help guide us on the order and helping us get facilitators yeah who would be leading that or teaching that Mental Health First Aid Miss Barnum do we have people who can do that or is that yes we have trainers okay so yeah the um this has been around I know that the New Hanover County government you know pretty much all of their employees you know have had this training when it first came out what was it like 10 years ago almost that um most of the schools participated in some way
171shape or form you know in that class it's pretty intense it's all day um but again it helps us understand where our student population is and where some of our our teaching population is um next out on the list was I just called it you know how poverty affects the brain um because we have to get a handle on some of our principals mention that in there you know we have to meet our kids where they are um and um so I was thinking after talking with you know some um folks about this that UNCW could help lead it Cape Fear Community College has staff that could help lead it I brought one book that um I was reading um called teaching with poverty in mind that a lot of our schools have have used
172and our counselors have used so that is another option for us just to get ourself in the same mind frame as some of our students next a Title IX overview that we again this is one of the ones where we could hold off until the new regulations are issued they should be expected out they're expect they were expected out in April then it got pushed to June and now it's out to October so and just a thought you know and maybe we want to do it together which makes sense too but we do have you know next week at the leadership conference there'll be a session on Title IX that we could attend the probably and then I can ask Jarrell what um you know I can well we can ask you we can ask
173Dr Faust what what are we talking about in there I mean is it an overview or is it talking about like reporting and that kind of stuff okay well we'll be doing this for school right or advisors no I don't think that's what the board wants I think that the Board needs the understanding of what the law actually is and what the regulations actually are because I don't think that we as a board understand that the law and how it applies to sexual and um gender harassment as well as Athletics because Title IX has two parts and and so I just want us to have more of a working knowledge of the the regulation as a whole not how do we report because that's what the schools do so that might not be I mean
174you're welcome to listen in on that beat but it wouldn't be what I'm what I was talking about here but again this is for the board to decide what we what we think we need I was just throwing things out so um that's all I had and um if anybody's got any other things I'm happy to update the spreadsheet and if you look here what what my plan was was um we have everybody's name and on the back you'll see the rest of the names that our board clerk you know can can help us keep track of um trainings that we've been to either as a whole or individually um so and just as a tool for us so we that we are making the best decisions we can because we are not the Professionals
175in any of these areas and I'm having a hard time making policy on things that we just don't know enough about right yeah um in talking about the Title IX don't we have attorneys that could do absolutely we I mean this I didn't put down who I mean we've got you know you've got people that can train um yeah so this I didn't I only put down the ones that when we when we already have outside agencies that have trained us um or who do the training for us but you know certainly that you know that was on your on your resume that you know you can do some of this um you know Terry you know is is well versed in that so um anyway so yeah so I didn't say who necessarily some
176of the ones I did say who was because that's who does the program I didn't put dates because we need to decide what would we like to do first and then I can go you know try and set that up or get some dates and send it out um I'm not even suggesting that we run through this you know all in three days you know we can spread it out you know what do we think we need first um if if I were to say anything I would think that we should do the darkness to light because that's what you know all of our staff is doing um and it's a program that that is pretty eye-opening and pretty important since we all are mandatory reporters so I think that that would be a good
177one and then followed second by the community resiliency model you know Aces so that we understand a lot of our students I think Mr Barnhart had a question for you is one of the things as we're rolling out when our acknowledging where those discrepancies hand and how to utilize technology in the classroom and so where where because being a one-to-one district is going to help us operate realize my mic is off I'm sorry to help us operate better and more effectively and so to have training on that to ensure that we're meeting our students at our different levels with the appropriate technology use in the classroom and optimizing learning time and the whole point and I said this in the agenda review was discussing the Carolina academic leadership Network and Miss Bradford thank you for
178mentioning that they were a zero cost to be a member in our board policy when we travel for trainings we have a stipend we all do um that that are approved and in the policy it says by ncsba unless otherwise board approved so with this organization offering different trainings if this is something we want to allow to be used that our stipend would be able to use for to travel to go to Raleigh or or Charlotte like you said um this if we included that in the policy so I would make that motion to allow Carolina academic leadership Network as one of the sources that we would be able to train under and I'll make a motion for that and I would second that um we're making money I don't know what that is I
179think should be in policy meeting so if we could hold that discussion until policy instead of here because this wasn't really um supposed to be a business a vote other than we agree we want a training but um can I ask Mr we'll clarify is that are we allowed to make a motion under old business yes thank you so we have a motion in a second discussion discussion Mr Walker I mean I don't know what this organization is I know before we give approved NES School Board Association I can't even say right and UNC School of government and as far as I know that's about it so I don't even know what this organization is can someone explain to me what this says wait yeah I was if you look on here and I have
180some handouts I can email the um what I did was I googled this organization and it says the collaborative brainchild of three non-profit organizations the John Locke foundation in Raleigh North Carolina and South Carolina's Palmetto promise Institute and the South Carolina policy Council Clan is dedicated to supporting School boards in their mission to focus academic excellence in our communities our organization is committed to offering non-ideological opportunities that equip board members with the essential skills and knowledge needed to be effective leaders in education when just as you're Googling this yourself if you type this in it's going to redirect you back to the John Locke foundation and it's going to give the the um the key people who are involved so you have to go and look like under Wikipedia or you have to look up
181these individual organizations on your own and I can share I've done that homework I can share that with you or you can look them up yourself but it's um this is brand new I mean it just started so the um I would say I agree that we may want to just before we add it to the list we want to just you know attend some trainings to see but the um it doesn't matter you know to me if it's something we think it that will help us agree I can speak to that I actually went to that launch I had a window between root canal or no root canal and I went and um they had it's North Carolina and South Carolina so it's a lot of resources from two states but this the superintendent
182of schools for the state of South Carolina taught a class he taught a training and school budgets and finance I was very interested in it and um he did the data for South Carolina he did the data for North Carolina in terms of How It's spent in um pers per classroom per child it was very informative I was quite impressed with the little level of the training there were two congressmen or congresswoman and congressman and their sedate senator they all spoke um so we were we were we were interacting with people at the federal level um on that are in education which was was quite amazing um I they they allowed it's free and they had a reimbursement for your gas in your hotel but I would like to be able to put in for
183that to count towards my training if I'm going to go and I'm impressed with what they've done enough to go to one to another one so so did I hear correctly this is a conservative organization is that what I heard do you say Miss craville that's that is what they they say on their web pages and then it also says something that um like the John Locke Foundation sinks a better balance between public sector and private institution a family faith community and Enterprise they talk a little bit about libertarian in there um the the same statements were on the Palmetto promise Institute um in it's a conservative and libertarian group as part of their state policy Network the um and then there were some newspaper articles one from the Carolina Journal one from just regular
184old news um in there so just regular old news can we lay this on the table and add it to our 24th 10 o'clock meeting or come in early because we allowed a lot allotted 10 minutes we've been talking over 30. and we're still talking and we're not going to resolve a solving thing tonight okay so you're making you're amending the motion to lay it on the table correct until between the 24th to further discuss this agree to what we might want to do definitely for a second two years okay walk for a second yeah Mrs Walker excuse me back in we have a first and second lay it on the table manage with the first until when until the 20 would you say Mr McMahon 24th we already have a meeting at 10. yeah
185but that's that's to we can meet at 9 30 then or four to ten that's what okay if we're going to talk another 35 minutes okay so 9 30 on the 24th you said okay we have a first and the second the other discussion about the motion the amended motion play it on the table person second it's Billy would you please call the roll are we voting to lay on the table okay yes this is the first and second to lay it on the table Miss Bradford it take less time to just vote on the motion so I'm gonna say no um Barnhart now Miss crabill to lay it on the table yes thank you Miss Walker yes Mr McManus yes but I think I'm busted and misunderstood I'll talk about the discussion for professional
186development not the rest of the meeting okay so we have a yes go ahead I'm sorry um Miss Mason yes just laid on the table we will just pick it up at 9 30 on the 24th and we'll pick it up with the motion in a second yes okay that's where we're at okay so we're going to carry on with the um board agenda review process we've given 20 minutes for that I won't start my watch this time all right it is so we will be done shortly after nine I miss Bradford I thought about it and quite aware that our meetings take way too long Mr chairman I'm going to make a motion that you appoint an ad hoc committee to discuss why the agenda briefing is not working for our board when it
187works so effectively for New Hanover County Commissioners and the city council and two to identify what steps we as a board can take to make it work a second okay we have a first we have a second Mr McManus any discussion Miss craville yes so before we um the board chair puts this um committee together hopefully um and I didn't hear how many people that Miss Bradford was suggesting she said three okay so I wanted to um throw this out for the board for that committee if we approve it what are we actually supposed to be doing at hear about and discuss at the at the agenda review that is I think one of the key things that the County Commissioners do differently than we do are we talking are we supposed to be hearing
188consensus items policy consensus item information items closed session items and I'm going to tell you that I kept track of the time and so the time that we spent in during that meeting we spent 25 minutes on information and we spent 25 minutes on information here consensus items um took us we didn't we took 10 minutes at the agenda review but that's because we didn't have all of the items you know to look at um so and then we have to decide are we voting on items because that was one thing that got thrown in a monkey wrench um we can't vote on things if we don't put it over here and give board members and the public upfront knowledge that we are going to be voting on something um we have 11 days before
189the agenda review meeting which is actually 18 days before the board meeting to submit stuff so um maybe we need to review policy 2330 board meeting agenda because that's a lot of a lot of lead time out there some of the items that we put on the agenda review are not posted until right before the agenda review so we don't have a chance to look at them so we can't be prepared and then and our closed session lasts a long time sometimes because that's what it's designed to do so that the people here don't have to have sit here while we're waiting for that so that is a lengthy thing and then my last one was we frequently have other meetings tagged on the front and the back end of a supposed two-hour agenda review
190meeting and it can morph into four to five hours so those are considerations that may be why it's not working that I think some of us we could just we could agree right here but I don't have a problem with with the committee I just want to say that prior to us starting the agenda review what would happen is Select board members would be able to go to an agenda review it was closed to the public on central office I like that we're able to come together and openly discuss and have the staff share with the community because it is streamed I believe that it is transparent and I value that I do think it can be streamlined and maybe some of the suggestions of the procedures with the subcommittee but I like having the
191opportunity to come and openly discuss and it's an opportunity for the public to see and hear the justification why that's okay my thought real quickly is just a reminder we have we used to have two very long night meetings so we were here until sometimes 11 30 two long nights and then I say last week we need to finalize the agenda at the meeting but I think that maybe having this thing I this subcommittee would be a great idea Miss Walker so the whole idea was to shorten our meetings and has not happened so whatever this ad hoc committee does and hopefully it's full of members that can have debate on things and not just pass it whatever I think that it would be helpful to have those discussions that Ms crabill just brought up
192at this ad hoc committee or whatever it looks like and we figure out I don't have a problem I like the fact that it is open I think that is a good plus but if it's not saving us time it's just we're just having two meetings and I agree things need to be timely they shouldn't be things popping up on the agenda that we did not have at Agenda review either so I mean if we need to study what the County Commissioners do and and emulate that let's do that but um I I just don't like having a meeting that's almost as long as another meeting and then I just don't know why because I mean if we can change it to where say maybe we can have all the information at the agenda review
193and then we can just come vote on things then that's great but I do like I'm as far as that I like the fact that it is open I like that okay at this point uh we'll take the vote we have a motion second to to form an ad hoc committee to study the board agenda review process would you please call the roll Miss Barnhart MS crabill yes Miss Walker yes Mr McManus absolutely Miss Bradford yes and Mr wildebear yes and I will name that committee now I was thinking at this time uh Mr McManus would you serve on that committee hey box hell in it thank you Mr McManus thank you sir Miss Mason would you serve on that committee and Miss Bradford since you made the motion would you serve on that committee
194please that committee is formed uh we will look for your discussion and review as soon as possible Mr McMahon would you chair that committee please all right you're telling me to come home as much as I love cheers discussion oh professional and you taught for 35 minutes all right this is Bradford would you would you share that yes all right Miss Bradford Sharon I kept going on to committee reports thank you board members I look forward to that report uh Head Start that would be Miss Barnhart yes and so what you have before you is the May um Head Start report and with that I mean you can see the highlights they had some great Field Days the parents were very excited to have the opportunity to come in and share um just end-of-year celebrations
195and graduations and some of the Head Start committee is moving on up to kindergarten so there's going to be some a few new members of council but with that if there's any questions I'm happy to answer them any questions yes ma'am I have one quick comment um if you run down the line when you get the single parent um 183 I continue to see these high single parent numbers and I think that I'm just going to throw this out here until we start to address fatherlessness in our school district I don't think we're going to go anywhere we've got to put more of our effort towards families that have been broken apart we just have to yeah travel I just want to throw out I mean that that is an alarming statistic and it has
196been around for quite some time but what I'm hearing from a lot of people in the community and a lot of people on this board is that we don't want government interference so why are we now going to try and legislate um or address families that don't have fathers because there's all kinds of reasons that we might not understand so some of our trainings might help us get to that point Mr chairman I'm happy to take Miss Bradford's question and ask about the wraparound supports that we offer for our Pre-K children but as of now we don't have an answer for the problem that Miss Bradford suggests so I agree we need any other questions if not we'll move on to the legislative committee um so the legislative committee I had reached out to um
197to schedule it hoping to get it on the radar for the end of July but right as of right now session is still not wrapped up yet so hopefully they'll be wrapped up soon I have reached out to the regional Pender in Brunswick County as well that's something that we discussed in our first meeting to hopefully set a date for sometime in September that we can hopefully host and then in October to host a luncheon October November that's dependent on when they go back to session or not so but the the goal is to meet at the end of this month with being able to wrap up and give an overview of the legislative things that have passed the budgets things and to talk about some of um legislative agenda initiatives that we can advocate
198for on behalf of our County so any questions from board members if not looking forward to the turnabout turn around excuse me uh it's getting late uh turn around Task Force update Miss Walker it's only nine o'clock um well that's true this is early for us [Music] thank you Mr chair um as we discussed in my last last briefing on the task force we had our introductory meeting in May with members and we drilled on into our whys first meeting Dr fayson went over the data on our high priority schools and gave an overview of growth versus proficiency and we really stressed the need for a community part of our success I went on to discuss my why which opened the conversation on Aces including a lot about my own um well stressing that success
199with our students must address the effects of trauma and poverty on how our students learn we then discussed developing a framework for this community task force and got feedback on our mission and vision statements and also asked for suggestions for a principal survey and only reason I'm giving you an update on the one because it was so long ago so I just wanted to update as for our second meeting it was held on the 25th of June it focused on the importance of successful leadership and supporting them in their schools we had a brief intro into our task force man number wise as well Dr fayson presented research which included best practices we then had a couple outstanding principals come and give brief overviews of their experiences and what they felt helped make them successful
200including building great team in the building and holding students as their main focus there was an opportunity for members of the task force to ask them questions in real time and get some very candid answers and it was a very great conversation we then went over the principal survey picked out emerging themes which we then turn into three main subcommittees as our initial Focus these themes included improving the mental health of students teachers and staff turnaround leadership and school Community environment and finally we nailed down our mission and vision statements the vision is all schools in New Hanover County are high performing and our students are thriving and the mission is to Smart spark community-based best practices with our low performing schools to enable all students in New Hanover County to succeed our next meeting
201is going to be the end of September September 27th awesome just a question is that is it open to the general public or is it is it closed we have meetings here um you know it's not a publicly noticed meeting there aren't like a majority of board members there um I think the both the meetings we've had so far have been really successful and the environment has been very relaxed enough where we can really share and and strategize about what we're doing um I know there's been some interest in you know some board members coming and I'm happy to to talk to the members about that um but it's not what you would call I think a lot of Developmental training stuff I don't think is necessarily open to the public so I'm just going
202to just put that there I don't I don't know if Dr face you have anything to add to that or I don't want to put you on the spot well right now we're working um mostly in our subcommittee so it might be harder to to do that not to say we're doing anything in secret but we are trying to break off because we want to make sure we work in our subcommittees I don't know if I heard you speak about we do have um our next meeting will be our principals will be doing a Roundtable discussion and some speed dating with our committee members so we can definitely look at um something like that but we are trying to do more in our subcommittees and the subcommittees then come together and Report out to the
203main the main committee well I think this is a first of all I want to thank you both for for putting this together I think this is an outstanding uh committee um and I would I'll be honest I'm gonna you know I'm gonna be kind of truthful here I'd love to come and just you know not every time but I'd love to come at least see it and then be part of it at least one time Miss Barnhart well yeah and I have a passion for priority schools I first came on and what we were doing to help support our schools um I was actually told by a board member though when I was talking about priority schools to get in my lane and so I'm just curious what your idea is to include all
204board members because I believe it's the job of all seven of us to make sure that our priority schools are of Top Notch and so I want to make sure I just want to see what the plan looks like to make sure that we're included to help fulfill the vision of whatever this task force is I'm not really sure what Miss Barnhart is talking about and she's addressing me personally or I don't know what she's talking about but I have no idea about staying and laying comments or whatever I don't think I ever said that to her and I don't know why she's coming at me with that so Mr chair if you want to control this I would appreciate it I have no idea what she's talking about absolutely the um question for you
205um on the on the task force I haven't had a chance to look and see who's on that task force um do we have any um teachers or principals um a part a part of the task force or is it basically just community members and some of our central office staff so I think I'm not sure if Dr Faison did you want to take that so what we decided um and when I say we as a task force when we first came together we did not want to do the normal practice of one principal speaks for all so we have what we call the principles voice so we will always have different principles coming to visit and share their insight and what they need and as I shared our next meeting will actually be a
206round table discussion with the 12 principals and some speed dating and um that way we can hear from all the principals and then we'll have principals coming and sharing their input because it's about individual needs for the schools and we did not want one set of principals speaking for everyone we are also considering and we've thrown about how to get our parents in these and parents and teachers in these groups and doing something to that nature we're at the beginning stages and we're kind of creating this and as it comes along but it's definitely our intentions to involve all of the stakeholders we just don't want one group speaking for all 12 schools and can I add to that as well um to Dr Faison's point this is something new this is something that is
207a pillar of our strategic plan and it's something that is very much needed so there should be no opposition no problem we're working really well together the survey results are good and I think the plan that we have coming that's coming is going to be very helpful to our schools and that is the main point of the whole thing so um you know I think Dr Faison did stress that you know every school is different you know you're not going to have college party the same as Freeman Etc so that is why it's important to have principal's voice and ask them what they actually need and so that survey was very very well um I think answered if that's the right way to say it there has been some reporting on it as well that
208has shared all the data so if anybody's curious about that it's out there here all right well carry on thank you again Mr walker uh we'll carry on with our EDI committee and that will be Miss Mason hopefully we can keep this one short um we didn't have a meeting in July for the EDI committee um but in June we met and we began discussion of the committee's role as it pertains to strategic plan in looking through the Strategic plan looking under the EDI umbrella I noticed that the the goal that was directly aligned with the committee had been achieved and so I wanted to go through and find what the purpose of the committee was at this point so we had a lot of great discussion um as as to the role of the
209committee and we acknowledged that the document itself is a living document and we started talking about possibly developing um proposed changes that they would then we would then bring to the board to approve we didn't come close to finishing the discussion there's lots of talking lots of ideas um lots of feedback so we will be having more discussion on that at our next meeting in August all right thank you yes ma'am may I ask Miss Mason have a question about that because and I appreciate you bringing that up because when I had looked at the streets of teaching plan I had noticed that the EDI committee had fulfilled its goal and so is it your recommendation to continue this committee as of right now I want to make sure that we've covered all the bases
210once we get to that point that'll be a discussion point that we have as a group but as of right now we're looking through the Strategic plan making sure that there is all the bases are covered uh any correspondence yeah the um yeah so uh two things um but one I'm just gonna skip one but the the one I wanted to talk about first was the summer Institute and I wanted to give kudos to um the HR department and the training um the PD you know and Dr O'Brien and her whole entire team that um they had some really good sessions I was able to attend one about exercise in the brain in the classroom and I was happy to see that that's going to be in the Leadership Institute um I also attended um
211the program called building authentic family Partnerships that was run by some people in our student support and some teachers and that was an awesome ask me about folding towels and I will um fill you in on why we why folding towels is important and then the other one that and Mr Phillips I mean Mr Sutton alluded to about um thinking differently you know and how we build relationships in the schools so I just wanted to give kudos for that and if you guys ever have a chance to attend that next summer to to do the other thing is part of Correspondence that I was going to give you an update on the um the ncsba conference but what I think I'm going to do is I've already sent you guys the um I sent it
212to you the agenda before I went and nobody had any questions or things for me to ask but I can send you all these stuff that we got in the Dropbox it's not the same reading the slides without having the conversation but I'm happy to you know have updated conversations um but I did one thing that left me when Michael Lee was there and he talked for a good amount of time one of the things he said in one of his comments was we've done a horrible job with mental health in North Carolina so um I think you know that speaks to one of our strategic plan things that we are trying to work on and that he says we need to have more K-12 interaction with our community colleges which we do very well
213so and I just I wanted to brag on us a little bit because a lot of the things that we we learned about there we are doing and we are doing well and um we still got quoted you know it still got used as an example in one of the negative areas but we are not the the negative on in every category anymore so it was it that was also nice to hear that we were mentioned but in in a very positive light very good very good anything else yes sir Manson I'd like to as soon as Donald Brinson and her staff I've heard so many who raised for the coding I mean I've heard I've heard it before but not like I've had I've heard it sounds awesome and I'd also like to thank
214Dr Arnold for that meeting today with the Roundtable responsible for the staff makes it a long day that we need to do more of that absolutely I felt really relaxed today and I thought it was just a good interchange listening to principal talk absolutely good I better work good and thank you again um we'll carry on to the announcements but the announcements here are the old ones so we will skip over those because we're not having a July board meeting we actually are right now um so we're having that uh we do not need a closed session unless you guys really want one nobody okay we'll pass over that uh so I will entertain a motion to adjourn Mr wildebeard um do we have since we have already you need we've tabled the agenda review
215discussion until the ad hoc um when are we planning on having our next agenda review I would say after the ad hoc committee or um I would say we probably would go ahead and keep that on the on the books for this month the 25th at two o'clock yes ma'am and then we will see you know the ad hoc give me maybe can even help us with that at that point Mr McManus one time you said you thought we might be doing it since we did it on a Monday before every probably every Tuesday of the month does that still hold on the Tuesday that last Tuesday of the month right it's when we typically we moved it one time to a Monday yeah so okay um so we have did I hear a motion
216to return Yes I thought I did we hear a second okay we have a first and second uh all in favor please stand up and leave all favor say aye aye aye opposed we are adjourned oh