NHCS Board of Ed. Legislative Committee Meeting | March 15th, 2023

001orders as uh as I'm still waiting on people walking back to their secret apologize for that um that I just want to welcome everybody here to the very first legislative committee meeting and I'm excited to be able to open dialogue conversation like I said before I know um the three of us that are on this committee um as Board of Education members are passionate to be able to express our needs up to a state level and I think in order to do that effectively we need to talk about what our needs look like here at a local level and so um with that being said yeah I'm excited to kick this off thank you foreign if you don't mind doing the um roll call good afternoon Josie Barnhart here Pat Bradford I am here and

002Stephanie Walker here thank you um the first item on the agenda is to approve the agenda do I hear the discussion I thought would be okay since it's our first meeting I just wanted to kind of go over um just the policy because it's very funny and just kind of discuss um perhaps souls or meeting friends or anything like that yeah do you want to do that um right before we jump into the calendar all right yeah um do you think of like a less than 10 minutes discussion okay I'm fine with that Ms Bradford do you have any feedback about that okay um so if we add that to the third in between two and three which it will be right now so with that suggestion um approve the amended agenda I'll second now

003all in favor aye aye any opposed and not patches three night zero so we'll open up just having a discussion for um the committee goals and Miss Walker if you've had put input first um well the only thing I was just one since this is a brand new meeting at our committee and it's our first meeting I know we really haven't had a chance to discuss in public or I guess amongst ourselves regarding you know the policy as it aligns or as it is described in our policy and perhaps regular meeting times um and you know I think there's a discussion about uh it also having a work liaison to the School Board Association I think that's outlined in our week here it says the purpose of this committee is the service of liaison between

004board and local and state elected officials so to enhance their awareness of issues as they pertain to our local education system the committee will be comprised of three board members preferably one from each party um one more member of this commute will also serve as a board liaison per policy 2650 with the school boards Association and follow the legislative the school board safety legislative and other activity reporting highlights so that's just what the policy says if if our chair would like to I don't discuss this openly or we can decide I guess um yeah I I'm I'm comfortable with opening that as a discussion um I know as far as meeting times and things um since this is a new committee I mean this is the first time that we're all coming together and so

005um my thought process was to be able to have something on a quarterly basis um and so I'm I'm kind of when we talk about future meetings I'm going to jump ahead a little bit on that but my idea and premise the general assembly is in session now and so being able to come together to talk about our immediate needs for next year was the intent of this discussion what I'd like to see happen as we move forward potentially on a quarterly basis again I don't think it's going to be a standard per se meeting time um but I'd like to see us evolve and have a discussion potentially with a regional discussion with Brett Pinder and Brunswick and Onslow of sorts so that we can come together to collectively see the needs of our

006surrounding area I think it will make a salad stronger when we talk to our elected officials as well as potentially allow them to come when we have a couple more meetings under our belt so that we can invite our representatives to have like a breakfast or luncheon and potentially an opportunity to have some legislative goals so as we move forward that's kind of the evolution that I kind of see us collectively doing but we're kind of in the midst of things it doesn't say anything about a meeting time so I mean we can set that definitely quarterly you believe it's probably better because of the way the legislature Works uh well that was just my initial thought so I'm welcome to hear feedback from you as committee members I know um I have picked up

007the phone and called many people and sent emails and had conversations and so that's I kind of anticipate is continuing doing that I participate if you're listening other board members I anticipate all of you doing that but um but for us that's kind of it's a little bit different Miss Bradford did you have any preference for um I know the effectiveness of what you're proposing years ago each Beach town going up and down would would do their own thing and advocate for themselves and they got together and became the beach towns and they had that much more Authority in doing it so if we can partner with printer and Brunswick on some of this that we want to do it'll it'll it'll help I know it'll help we even took a junket to Washington under

008Rick Catlin on a train it was terrible but we got a lot accomplished and so I I I I like that right now with budget coming I definitely don't want to do a monthly just because we got to get through budget and um yeah we gotta get through budget so maybe we start quarterly and then if things heat up we could go to I I'm open but right now the plate is full personally and I will um add and as we as we discussed kind of further this we can anticipate a quarterly meeting but if something comes up that we would need legislative input I I would hope that we could between the three well all of you guys too but between all of us we can look at our schedule to find a time

009to come together to meet if there's a specific state level need that word that works so can I um whoever's in the know about scheduling our meetings I know we have to give a certain amount of notice but then also we have to have an agenda so I don't what's the lead time on maybe if we were like hey we need an extra meeting beyond what we said as quarterly meetings like what we need two weeks notice um because I know on our regular board members we have that we have at least two or more weeks yeah and that would be something that we would we would be able to easily do okay so if we were doing qualities do we go ahead and set them now I know this our first meeting is obviously

010today it's March 15th I mean quarterly is per calendar year um yeah I mean I I am going to be a little bit hesitant about setting them because they if if we do kind of what some of my ideas are I would want to reach out to some of those outside people to kind of get on the radar so that we can have a highly effective meeting versus maybe a person hearing a person there but I think that would be kind of the goal so it's being at March now you know three months would be June so summer I mean but yeah so I'm thinking maybe maybe we do something closer to August or end of July as far as a timeline and then I would want to look at the um the general assembly

011when they come back for a short session and I would I would want to make sure we have the breakfast prior to them going back to session because many of them are up in Raleigh for that time um so those are kind of my initial thoughts so I would would not necessarily want to plan um a date right now because it would probably change knowing all those factors so I have a question if you and who knows what the calendar is like if any legislation because we're going to be talking about some bills here any legislation does it would be made by when is there I don't know the calendar I don't have the website calendar or anything like if they were to pass a bill that would need our attention between now and I

012know you're proposing perhaps late summer to do it um what we would need to probably come and talk about it yeah so would that be I mean do you know what the schedule is right now what is it I mean I think as as bills move through the Senate and the house and how quickly it gets picked up sometimes it gets tabled for the next session um so we can we can schedule just our kind of in District meeting for after sessions over by that time I would assume all the bills that whatever is going to go through is going to go through and then we will be able to have more informed discussion so I'll make I'm going to make a note of that to try to find a time after yes ma'am you

013can sign up for a legislative alert every day for both the house and the Senate and it'll tell you what they're hearing that day so it's really helpful to start to get in that Groove and see what they're up to and where it's moving it's going to get that many emails to it Ed but I found it to be very helpful well I can't I can't find one on here I don't think they come into this phone um but if you just go to the the ga website it'll it'll tell you if you need me to I can just forward you the link and you just they just pop up in your phone every day and tell you what they're up to and Mr Weber were you going to chime in there sorry yeah I

014was I was going to say you know under the open meetings law there would be a required 48 hours notice um so so let's say a piece of legislation came up or a bill came up and the committee decided it wanted to meet and discuss you know as long as there's 48 hours notice you know you'd be able to do that as things arise throughout the legislative session Mr Weber can I ask a question about agendas so in the meeting notice those 48 hours but there's any requirements for posting any agenda for the public um so the board has a policy on posting the meeting agenda for board meetings with board committees I'm looking at it now um the committee chair this is your policy 2230 we'll call meetings establish an agenda the superintendent or

015designee assists in ensuring that accurate and timely information is available to the committee so there's nothing specific around the agenda but um but under the open meetings law so with the 48 hours notice that would be noticed of the meeting date time location as well as the purpose of the meeting so so within that 48-hour window when the notice is posted it would have to include you know the particular bills that would be up for discussion minimum of 48 hours before the meeting as I so tentatively we're going to meet perhaps late summer which we haven't decided exactly the date yet um just so the public knows that's probably what what unless there is something you want to call for for us right and and then that would be um and up on the screen

016you can see the subscribe to the house and send it um calendars and so uh that is that's where you can go as a just a member of the public if you want to do that or if we also want to sign up to that I know Jason has done a good job about um forwarding some different things on the radar as far as build proposals and it's what is also helpful is there's typically a summary of the bills because I don't know if you uh have read through any of them but there's there's a lot of details so it's nice to kind of get a brief overview of this is what is supposed to be accomplished and achieved with that as well um but so yeah that would that would be the intent um

017but I I mean I do kind of echo Miss Bradford sentiment as far as like there's a lot going on right now that I think as we come together so I've made a note to look at the general assembly calendar maybe we can all come together after the session as finished and we can highlight some bills and the implementation of how how we're going to do things differently or what we've already covered and then again with the goals of moving forward to have a couple and I'll talk a little bit more about that down in the future meetings but to have some planned times we can come together and ultimately again what we discuss here if anything needs to come before the whole board this is this is a whole board discussion it's not just

018our three priority priorities going we're working on behalf of the board so so that's the last thing about the discussion on the legislative calendar because if they are we're going to be talking about some bills that perhaps will affect us and our policies and I know y'all were on policy too so I guess it's better of just keeping up and knowing what bills are passing or not passing and how it's going to affect you know what we do to us before we do the next school year because it's I think some of these bills are gonna well with the exception the calendar bill I mean I think we'll all welcome that but like you know could have some major implications for our policies so yeah the thing I've observed is this stuff grinds very very

019very slowly um so and that brings us to the first um really talking point as the calendar Bill and so um I attached here um this started off as a local Bill and for those listening local bills you're allowed up to 15 counties represented um and so we had you know as discussion as a board a lot of us were sort of reaching out to our reps and so there was one that um I was talking to I said can you get us on this bill as a local Bill and and so both Ted Davis and Charlie Miller were sponsors and then Deb Butler also jumped on this became a Statewide bill because there was so much excitement if you will to potentially allow this change and so for those that are listening um and

020we talked about this at our was it January or February board meeting um the potential change from August 26th and you can see the strikeout in line eight there to August 10th and so what that would do allow for the restrictions that were lifted during covid and allowed us that flexibility to have a shorter um a new start date that we could have better conveniently time semesters if you will and so that is um that is up right now and I had attached a copy of our resolution that we supported as a board one of the expectations of this committee I see us as being the voice and the piece of writing helping write these resolutions at the board it would come before the board to agree upon and so this was something that um

021I kind of adapted from another County that I had seen and I know it's something that we've also shared with other counties the chairman had reached out to me a couple of times for when he had talked to different County reps and they had shared it with other counties and again I think that is something that when we're talking about State legislation and the more buy-in we've had from different counties the more things that we can agree upon the more likely that things were going to happen and so um I'm excited to see that I'm excited to continue to share and I encourage all of us to to do that as we talked to other or um counties that are interested but I just want to say thank you to our Reps for you know

022signing on as all sponsors so it's wonderful yes ma'am um I would also like to add um well while I have a question about this but I would like to add and I had probably said this out and out loud too that I think anybody that is interested in having this past needs to contact their legislators um I know we're talking to local people here but I mean even if you're listening from Statewide this is very very important it's not just um to just local to us I've heard from a lot of people all over the state that want this flexibility so I think it's important that our legislature doesn't know how we feel about it and know how much you know puts us in a bind as a school board members to try and

023you know work a calendar that's going to be helpful to everyone um I think a second question is Barnhart or Miss Bradford knows this is where is this sitting is this in committee or is this on the calendar to be discussed openly in public and I'm gonna like default to Jason because he keeps up with this much um it's right so this has passed the house and it's currently in the Senate Rules Committee okay so this is house for those listening it's House Bill 86 so when you are reaching out to Representatives so please say that you are encouraging support for that um and for any of us that are going up to Raleigh and this is absolutely something that you can get and if you need a copy of the New Hanover County Schools

024the resolution that we passed I'm happy I think that is already out there it's on simply okay so you can get a copy if you're looking at the agenda here but um or you can reach out to any of us we're happy to give you the signed PDF that you can share with Representatives they're just saying that our our local officials have support for this so yes ma'am um so that now means that if you want to send emails or you want to make calls you want to you want to hit everyone in the Senate and I wouldn't just hit Michael Lee I would hit every Senator that you could come up with because it's going to take a lot of pressure on Senators to change the mind of the guy who leads the Senate

025and a lot do things go to the Senate rules committee to die so that's what we have to do is get it out of there and the only way to do that is with an enormous amount of public pressure absolutely and really highlight the benefits that it's going to be to our students and I think as we're as we're doing that with that focus in mind um to help paint the picture of why it is beneficial and I think in conversations that I've had at least with reps I think our eyes have been open during covid we were given flexibility um to say to to know about the learning loss and the time frame and so the calendar committee had some more flexibility that we could work through some things and parents and teachers alike

026have said we kind of like this and so then now why are we going backwards and so um I think that's where the question and concern became but again the resolution that we adopted that's on assembly has some great talking points of specific things as well as your personal stories of why it would be beneficial for our students yeah I would just say out loud that um so every here we're not asking for the moon and stars we're asking for a little flexibility to balance our semesters because you know we know the benefits everybody looked at our discussion you know what other districts are doing and I just think that um it's not we're not asking to you know severely shorten the summer or you know kind of hurt tourism and trade I just think

027that that we absolutely need this in the modern times that we're in because our high school students are taking we're doing requests and it's important to them and we want them to succeed so that's all we're doing we're not asking for we're not asking to ruin Summers yeah and this kind of bring brings us into I put on here topic four for remote learning days right now there is restrictions and so I'm kind of opening the discussion to say do we want to make an ass to our Representatives I know we're going to one-to-one devices um right now it we are purely limited to remote learning days for weather and bad weather um so if we wanted to make an ask I'm my questions that I'm gonna and I'm looking at my central office staff

028the questions to consider would be how many would you need to play with if you will because if we're if we when we talk to our Representatives if we want to Pilot something if we want to try something out we want to tell them what we want what we want to try why it would be beneficial and the end results what we want to see for that and so we are and we do have and we do have bad weather and hurricanes potentially but then also um you know it's an acknowledgment that we have college classes that are hybrid model and so it's like do we want to have that opportunity and so with that I'd love to kind of hear back from our staff and that's something that's a no dollar ask so um

029to just ask for that flexibility or Pilot a program what would that look like to you if there's even any interest I first want to apologize because I have not spoken to teachers so I would really love to hear what they their thoughts are okay and I have not um my first thought is we know we could not use them in place of instructional days as we talked about before because of the simple fact I would want to use many of those days I would say because the instruction we've seen that is not to the level that um is as beneficial for all of our students I do think I've seen some districts who do have some remote days in for teachers and I and for students and I think that there can be some

030room maybe for if we could do a combination something with some PD days I don't know how that looks because yet they're still having to do something so I don't know if we would say ace you know synchronous I mean asynchronous so I I think it's worth a discussion I do apologize I would love to know what the teachers and the principals and this is not this is not of today and now I'm going to call every Senator and saying this this is open for discussion to be able to explore some possible ideas yeah to pitch I I do want to say when when I was listening to you talk I don't think it's good for smaller children so if it was a discussion for remote learning I would like to see it purely for

031high school students I don't know if there's any other feedback um so to even look at that it would not be really on the table for our younger learner so it'd be um something flexible with high school yes ma'am um are we looking at remote learning days why are we looking at these remote learning do we want to help with the 16 days in the calendar that are problems because if we do that the younger Learners would have to be affected what is our goal of looking at remote learning days I saw um with us going to one-to-one devices and like I said with children changes in in high school to more of a hybrid model and a lot of Realms um I I just wanted to explore the discussion and the opportunity um and

032it could be that the answer is no and that's okay uh it's but if you're not willing to have a discussion of saying do we want to even look into this then we don't know how we're going to move forward so I guess I would agree it is better discussion for high school to learn over online class takers perhaps I I feel like our society now especially after covet has kind of gone the way of you know I know my own daughter has gotten the flexibility to do remote base at working from home because she has a computer and internet and you know direct connection to her bosses so um we're in a different kind of world now and I think it's it's worth the discussion for our high schoolers I'd say I would agree

033our younger ones maybe not so much and I don't know if it's a different discussion with teachers in their own work days I assume teachers physically want to be there sometimes to do things in their classroom but maybe they don't necessarily have to with some things like trainings I don't know but I don't know where the what direction you want to go into that or whether you should be asked asking teachers or you know what's the next steps here if we want to further discussion well and I guess my thought was if we ask because right now we cannot do it unless if it's a weather restriction so if we wanted to even ask to see what that would look like that's why I think that's where my thought was you guys had me thinking

034something that I've never thought but there again you know I would definitely want to talk to the principals and the teachers about this one but you said something I don't know which one of you ladies says something about the way we're going in the future and then the height and the and thinking about our high school students they're going to college and if we want to use a day or two or I don't know how many to help prepare them and to look at something different um and the whole purpose is to acquaint them more of what they might see in the post-secondary world uh I think that's that's the difference you know that that's interesting I just you know like I said there again I would definitely want to hear with the teachers and

035the principals think and the amount of days because um ultimately they're the ones who it affects the most along with the students yeah so are we looking at I mean we actually could take this out three ways we could look at it for remote days for students remote days for teachers and get feedback from teachers students and principals on how that would look because there's that's a neither or or it's a both if it was teachers and not students or teachers and students it's two different things in a way isn't it yeah I mean I I'm thinking I think it's mostly for students though as far as calendar days but we could have maybe some conjunction with PD days is kind of what yeah potential brainstorm might look like my other thought is as we're

036talking is um we know that some students are going to need more support than others so while remote days at home sound great for majority of our population would we want to afford students the opportunity of like a lab a Tech Lab so if you wanted to come to school and still work remotely we would have staff there to do hey I'm just throwing it out there but when you're talking about how it looks like an implementation um potentially but again I say all this to say I would not want the primary source to be remote learning days um I I would the number 10 sounds great no more than 10 days to be utilized for remote learning but as far as some of the questions to ask staff and say and they might say

037absolutely not you don't come back to me with this Dr Faison I don't ever want to consider that again and um and that's okay I will I will take that feedback to her and I'll say never mind we're not interested but I'm just curious okay another comment as a boss who has done this um when I guess it was a hurricane a 2018 hit we scattered because we were right on a deadline so I ended up in the mountains somebody else ended up in in even higher in the mountains than me somebody up in Maryland so we took our stuff and we went and we went back to work um and and and over the last 10 years when I'd say okay we're downsizing and there's not really an office for you so why don't

038you just work from home you never get that person to come back to work when you let them go home to work remember that's just a given from based on a lot of experience for me but what happens when you do the remote thing you get more productivity but you still have to come together with not a zoom meeting but but something like that a meet-up or whatever to where you collaborate so the idea of a lab or somewhere where they could have some some talking because you can't work in isolation like that you've got to be able to say hey what about this hey any Dr fishing what about this or hey teacher or you know you've got to have that opportunity so you got to think about this very carefully and look around

039the corner and see what the negatives are going to be once you let us have promote learning they may never want to come they may never want to come back I miss Prince and I saw you over there yeah I agree with Dr Clayson as far as you know getting information in terms of teachers and the students got to keep in mind that not all students have internet access at home or fast internet access and the other piece of it would be um we definitely need to do some additional training for our teachers okay to make sure that they're doing in a way that's the most effective for the students and I do remember at one time there was talk about possibly making it a requirement for high school students to have one course online

040so they get that experience of taking online courses good idea um whether it's a full course I'm not sure if I support that but at least something because it is different it's completely different it's the first time that they're taking the online course when they're in college where everything kind of matters at a different level you know are we setting them up for success and we don't want them to think that what they did during covet is what they're going to see in college and that's a good and I'll bring that up to see if that's something that's still being actively discussed as a requirement yes ma'am I would I would agree I feel like Trends are that you know more classes are online in college and I feel like it it takes the skill

041to self-regulate you know as far as you know what you do in the day if you're at home and you're in your P days doing work you know it's for some people it's crazy some people you just kind of like I need to regulate you're right I think it's a great idea to kind of discuss that I also would uh just add to the discussion on the calendar I mean I it did this is counter implications as far as common law too so I don't know that the law allows except for during you know it doesn't and that's and that's kind of where my initial spawn of the discussion came from but then the question becomes well how are we going to do it what does it look like where's the added benefit uh where

042is the catch-all like Miss Bradford saying of like the negatives that we um could see so if other districts are doing something somewhere maybe maybe that would be a good Next Step well I mean this would be an ask for us to Pilot it to say let's see what it looks like and so we would potentially be the Trailblazers to say um either it went really well really bad like that's like you know that's the blessing of the curse of like if we are asking for this of what it looks like we would have to have a plan going forward and even if it's not this year that we want to make that ask if it's next year if we want to have some more time to look into we're going to talk to the

043principal though we'll start with talking to the high school principals um about this and just kind of let them sit on it and talk with their teachers and we can see um the one thing that I definitely want to say is we cannot look at it as to supplement any type of instructional days to balance the semester to anything like that because the we've just found for research that the remote days do not compel compare to the quality of that teacher standing in front of the road so we cannot use it that way but I love it the fact of um thinking about getting our post-sec our kids ready for post-secondary but then miss Brinson brings up some some very good points about some things that we would have to have in place yes yeah

044and for those two points too I have a friend who served our country as a marine and then he became homeless and he lived in a storage unit with no no air conditioning in California and he used his phone and he went to college on his phone so preparing because there's there's that group of people out there that that may all and they give me to high school and that so she has a point about preparing them yeah if we did a pilot pilot you're done a pilot and anything here yeah we have a pilot yeah can you do it at just one school that would probably be a safer way yes you definitely I mean Dr Foust out and he's looking I don't know but we do regular powers in one school I don't

045know about this type of battle in one school the reason why I went to mute is because we're still healing from the wounds of asynchronous yeah and um it was tough but I'll it'll be interesting to see but the and like I said this is um I'd love to hear I know I'd love to I'd love to hear feedback because yeah and that's why like I said with one to one um I know that Esports was presented I I know as far as the technology side and the stem aspect there can be a lot done effectively there's also a lot of things that we have to prepare for so that it is effectively because this is different than send everybody home and now you're remote Forever This is the planned intentional instruction individualized opportunity um

046you know kids able to work at their own pace potentially being challenged Beyond to hire um engagement or reteaching opportunities if necessary so I see this as an opportunity that we could utilize in a very smart way if we wanted to um but again it comes with the ask I have a question success am I not correct in thinking that if this and I think this is why Dr Faison is repeating twice it cannot replace instructional days because the money comes I mean let's talk about it the money comes from instructional days so anything that touches that could be a major danger for it so you can't so we still have to have that um 1025 hours we still have to have that regardless so if you put in remote days then it's still anytime

047the kids are in school or it's on the calendar it has to be an instructional day and so someone has to be leading instruction in some type of way and so that's where we have to really look and make sure that yeah so if we go back and say it's a it's a lab I thoroughly understand the um some can't problem that we ran into and districts across across North Carolina ran into is that when left up to um a 15 to 18 year old they're going to choose no or they're going to procrastinate which that's just weird I mean that's that's appropriate for for them and so it wasn't as effective and you had those who were those who were not and then you had and teachers who were having to reach or give

048other more opportunities for students like a lot of office but they weren't there it's like what were they doing and sometimes kids choose to work on that day yeah and it's not do work but actually work for money yeah on those days it's like well that's not that was actually built for it so it's how do we get their undivided attention is my touching back on this a Community College University to do with our online programming and they use different methods of communication I know it's not just about see that's where we're a little bit different with public schools because you know we have all these rules and laws and statutes we have to abide by that they are a little different on you know they have black order they have slacker they have all

049these different ways to communicate they don't necessarily tie them to a screen at a certain amount of time and going back to miss for instance point about um internet I know the federal government is trying to you know do some things with internet connectivity and that is going to be rolling out so it's not happening right now so I'm glad that we're starting the discussion maybe we can plan maybe for some pilots and maybe next year maybe when we have more connectivity or I mean it's good to be one-to-one at the same time it doesn't do anything if you don't have internet you know to back that up and and support the students so let's I guess let's figure it out yeah so as we move forward I'll put on Dr fazen to be able

050to have an initial discussion and to gather feedback and kind of mull over what that might look like and even if it's not this coming year maybe as you move forward um and that brings us into the next discussion into high priority schools um the premise of this when I when I have sat down and had a lot of conversations and I know being on the campaign Trail and meeting people um the question that I asked our Representatives is how can we be most effective and more effective in our role as board members um and it came down to if I have an ask and I just I blanketed this question to a few of them I said if I haven't asked what do I need to do to communicate to you what that looks

051like and um in particular when it comes to money and so our priority schools I know when I look and I thank you Jared for being here um when I look at our priority schools 30 of our schools are high priority and so I want in particular for this conversation as we move as we um discuss today uh to be looking at our priority schools so that if there is a need for funding and Dr vason is going to talk to us about funding what that looks like with the outcome of what we want to see and if we would classify that as a pilot so for board members listening and here and they give us crabill for being here if we classify this as a pilot potentially the state could say yes and it

052build it into the budget and if we're successful it could potentially be an opportunity for the rest of our district to utilize that funding and state to utilize that funding so the with the goal of this model to be supporting our staff and our students at high priority schools first with the hope that would change how we fund schools so um with that I know we sat down Dr Faison and so I'll kind of let you go into so I um we had a very good conversation um Miss Barnhart and Miss Walker and myself about you know what could be some things maybe different than we're currently doing for priority schools and we came up with two proposals that we wanted to share with the committee I first want to say to the committee that

053these are just my notes so if any numbers are off or anything I just want to say that because but I wanted to give you something to see um did this really quickly because we literally just met I think Thursday or Friday but so the first proposal is to actually um if we were to bring in the teachers in our priority schools for five days or 10 days over the summer for some intense PD and this would be not District PD you know it would be PD that the teacher I mean the principal and their supervisor work together to say this is what we need at this school right so some of the days might be um the new curriculum for all of the schools but one school might say we need some restorative justice

054practice for discipline or we need some classroom management are we whatever that school needs but it's important to note that it's not cookie cutter Okay so you will find from me if I'm going to bring teachers in I think they should get paid they're some of the hardest working people in our country and we're going to pay them so we started with 250 a day for five days what would that look like and then we would do for the Tas half of that for five and then 10. so this would be for teachers to come in over the summer to get that intense PD that is tailored to their school and their school needs so that's the first proposal and I'll stop there and see if anybody wants to add anything or ask any questions

055before I go to the second Parts Walker [Music] or I know I asked Dr Facebook to bring up party schools that are discussion I think the initial discussion we had was at least two schools that were identified to have extra funding availability for maybe stuff like this and then I mean the rest of them that is probably where the legislative is where you want to endorse to take it up to a higher level to ask that would be important because we have budget I think we just discussed that we had 10 percent cut coming so I mean these are the initial numbers that you're providing that would be for the idea of additional PD in the summer for staff yes so this is and it's actually Ms Walker the money that the CSI schools receive

056remember we're trying to get that quality staff that highly effective staff to come so that money's off the table because we're trying to incentivize them so this is for all of them and we did it for all 12 priority schools even though we know we're going to have some schools we're going to speak it that are going to exit uh even though we still would do that right because you just don't say oh you've gotten better you're on your own if we did it for all 12 my rough numbers guys uh a little under 500 000. if we did it for all 12 for 10 days then you're looking at a little under a million and I love the conversation that we had because we started you know like I said I can only go

057by what I've seen successful and as a former turnaround principal this is one of the Staples for me is to get my staff in when they're fresh when they have time to do things and I can tell you we did 10 and two of those days were just for them to prepare their classroom and not feel stressed so when the parents came in in the beginning of the year we can do meeting and and working with our parents so it needs to be individualized um but yes that's what that's for those two numbers that that's not school district funds those are asked from the Legends yes yes that we'll be asking for and I mean I'll tell you I'm gonna be asking for that million dollars and selling that because just like what you talked

058about we want to First prepare our staff and equip our staff because if they're equipped then our students are going to be the result of what we want to see so when we're talking to legislators and I see your hand when we're talking to legislators we're going to talk about this ask with the end result to see that increase and I know the board just passed a goal to want to see increase by 10 so what we are doing and like as a as a board as board members to be able to ask for that so this would be considered a pilot program because this is just asking to say for these Target and there's 12 priorities yes 12 priority schools we would need a million dollars in order to do this so that with

059the with the end goal that they're better prepared and more equipped to teach yeah and I I see you I'm good Miss Bradford first I know how your hand up how many students are we talking about in 12 priority schools nice let's divide that into the million and see how much I'm talking about um we'll give that to you he's right now well well if we can't get into it GA a half a million dollars is nothing to them a million bucks yeah so if we do it on our per student basis of what we're gonna um and then we have to have some goal of you know where we're going to go this actually kind of ties into our good old ten percent it does and yeah but yeah yeah and we talked about

060looking at the exiting of because we want to look at the entire school and I'll be honest I kind of sprung this on her too because I said I want to have this discussion so um Mr Barnes um just one of the things that's nice about this because it would be a significant increase to what we pay normally for summer school teaching this helps incentivize people who are experiencing quality to say hey I'm the kind of person that's going to work all summer and do training it helps lean them towards these schools where we want them more experience too yeah yeah and I think this is I mean and like I said Miss Walker again I'll reiterate I'm happy to help in whatever way I can with the task force you're leading but I think

061that this is just gonna only amplify if we're able to even receive some of this so I know there's 12 schools listed I've I know that we are getting CSI funding for two of those 12 schools so if we had to knock off some I would say knock up I don't want to but I'm just saying remember those that money's gone I know so he's gone for those schools so those are the thing is like if if a legislator says yes but I'm not going to do it at a million dollars okay I'm gonna do it at 750. so then we'd have to look yeah and say okay who on this list are we going to knock off because we still want to take it well we'll see we'll see it's a collective poll we

062got to keep working hard all of us are going to have to keep working hard for this yes sir so on average you're looking at somewhere in the ballpark of 235 bucks per student I mean to be honest let's look at the selling points here the ga does this look how good they look and now we've got a pilot they can brag on I mean it just it just builds really nicely I'd also add we have we have really strong principal leaders leaders in the building that are already working at how they could do this kind of thing with or without the extra days I'll give you the example of Williston I met with some of their leaders yesterday and they were talking about the number of BTS that they have the number of younger

063teachers or the number of teachers that are there in their building for the first time and they are looking at a priority versus time inventory which is where they ask their teachers and their leaders in their building what are your priorities that you're working towards and now what is the actual time that you're spending in the building and it does it a lot are you spending time on the things that are your priorities and if not let's create some PD that can help realign priority to time that's going to be one of those end results of increased student growth proficiency traction towards Student Success can all start with oh I don't have to spend as much time on classroom management now I can spend it on real core instruction right and I mean obviously this

064too as an opportunity that maybe we do have some Target data data standards that we really are going to need to reteach prior to going into second grade or else none of these kids are going to get it and maybe this is an opportunity a retention data too because because these teachers what you are doing what I've found when you do this you're like taking the stress level down because they don't have to do all those beginning things I wish we could do it for all of our teachers really 100 yeah right yeah and yes ma'am so I would just say yeah this you know talking about our two kind of parallel discussions and you know goals um all rounding out to the 10 goal that we talked about which I know the superintendent says

065is doable we really kind of push everything we have behind it um this PD part is very important um you know I think what we're focusing on on the task force is the community component of it and the parent component but we need all of it so everything that we can get to help us reach our goals is what we need to do um and I think money is a big component of it and I think it just broken down some numbers that we can take to our legislatures to say get you know and you know these discussions can be had with others as well but like for the task force that we're working on I mean funding is a component of it too and how we're creative with it and perhaps how we can

066leverage Community you know what's out there in our community so and with that I'm gonna because there's a second part to this that's the second yes the second part of the ask because there um so I have to go back to the other one I think we should possibly kick it up even more okay if we really want to um be the model District um yes to that that works yes and yes and um in a previous District where I work we were recruited to do turnaround work I mean low performing students were um didn't have all the skills that were needed no problem our job is to make sure they get the skills we hire math tutors we had an individual who coached all math tutors they couldn't teach the same curriculum that the

067teachers were teaching they filled in the gaps so every fourth grader had a math tutor if they were not on grade level they had a math tutor that we pulled out of a could not be out of a court course and they had 45 minutes with the tutor it was a three to one scenario then and these were these were just not any tutor they were also they received a salary they were trained they had to take a math test to make sure that they could explain interpret do those things then we every sixth grader every sixth grader had a math tutor it was a three to one scenario so what we did is we took an elective out and pushed in the tutoring so it was built into their schedule and in high school

068which I mean we probably we don't have a high school there but every ninth grader that was taking math one had a tutor if you wanted to see change so in that scenario um we were able to I'll tell you my school where I was got 21 percentage points not percent percentage of growth we were the highest growing low performing School close the gap um and then if you went back over to the incentives that you were getting every math teacher six seven eight were deemed High performing and so they all so I had teachers getting ten thousand five hundred dollars for three years Non-Stop because once they got it takes up once they realized how it worked and teachers like oh this kid is no longer behind I teach when I go it was

069almost literally we started talking about um if you know anything about track the 4x100 that race is the fastest relay so that's what we're talking about when you are in middle school it's Oregon you need schools like past the time all right I've got it it's my turn I can do it so teachers are able to teach what they needed to teach on grade level kids took off and um our sixth grade numbers were probably the highest some of the highest in say we went to 91 proficient so your homework is Dr Foust to work with to work with Jared to come up with those numbers like looking at the data to look at that to help amplify this this is the initial kind of ass but if we were able to have it all

070what would it look like yes Miss gravo um you know I wanted to really I mean I I like the approach to that what Dr Faust just said but um it's been my experience in working with students um you know just as a substitute teacher and a parent volunteer and my own family is that that if you take away the things that they like like their electives then they may start to resent school and not want to do anything more so I'm looking at the whole child model a little bit on making sure that we don't take away the full child's stuff you know so they can take electives if they want you know so somehow we have to have a balance in that I mean I wouldn't address that yeah I was like I

071definitely think there needs to be a balance and what what my takeaway and correct me if I'm wrong is um looking at data it would just be for those specific Target data that these kids might be behind that they might need a little bit extra coaching not necessarily every day to your point like kids need to be kids um too but so that's why we can create this schedule so in sixth grade so you may get you're on the wheel so you have two electives we removed one elective you still got it it's going to say once you are not on grade level there's no picking up on your own and producing so you have to do something urgent so it's almost like going to the Intensive Care Unit you have to literally do something

072highly effective even though you want them to be um on this machine doing whatever they can't do it because the body's not going to do it so what I say to that is in this school where I was that had about 98 free and reduced we had 95 percent attendance rate every single day and I think that would be something Jared when you're working with these admin and stuff to be able to articulate that it's not it's not saying they're not allowed to have any fun at school but it is saying to have targeted Focus to bring them up to park so to that point one of the five things that we're focusing on especially over the last 50 days there's five components of this seventh inning stretch that a call with some of my

073principals one of the things that we're looking at is um part two there's a lot of baseball analogies in this so forgive me but uh it's knowing where the strike zone end is knowing where the home plate is baseball throwing astratic is all about location location what we really want to look at is where are the pieces of the puzzle that are not necessarily being used the way we could use them to increase student support so for instance when students walk into the building and they're grabbing a healthy lunch and they're on their way to their classroom is there anything that can be done there that's instructional what about students that might have to be on a double run are we taking opportunity to work with them on EOG review a lot of our schools

074have Incorporated enrichment times have Incorporated win times win stands for what I need uh and it's very specific to the student what big rocks does a student need to kick in their standards to achieve success and so what we can do is we can incorporate tutors into those times to really get the student teacher ratio down we can also use some of those enrichment and specialist times that we've talked about um in in here but there are a lot of places within a master schedule that we can work in further instruction and additional engagement between the student and the standards and that's something you know again we've talked a little bit about prescribed professional development based on the needs of that school we can do the same based on the master schedule of that school

075as well [Music] then you mentioned student support um and I know you're talking about you know supporting students and removing barriers to learning but one of the biggest psychological supports we can provide for our students is engaging instruction where they feel really successful and when they have that self-efficacy you can't turn them down from learning most often even our our students with the most significant disabilities in the area of emotional regulation they love to be really good at something they love to really be smart and those missed opportunities that hallway that seven minutes that you spend in the hallway how much are you learning in that and really for every tutor every classroom instruction to focus on those I love that win what I need what are those big rocks for that kid knowing them

076for the individual kids and incorporating them along the way that's the most engaging thing you can do and that's the best prevention you can have and I'll shout out because we I was at my kid's school and my son who is not as confident in math he went had to go through the door and had to answer a math question he came back around to answer another one and he got like extra high fives and like made his day so I I mean I see our teachers in admin working and utilizing something as simple as hey walking through the doorway answer math questions so it is working and it's being productive yes ma'am so I would oh gosh it's been so long since I was trying to I'm trying to keep it all in so

077I love this discussion and uh we're going to have more discussion with you when we have our discussion because all these ideas are all tied together and how we either get funding on how we engage the community because there are so many resources out there that can fill in these gaps and can help with things like what we are all talking about that doesn't necessarily tie to a dollar amount which you have brought up Dr Faison it's not always about the money it's also about the human and social capital and asking each individual school what they need because not every school is the same and they're all going to have different needs I will say one less thing about the funding part and I don't know why I haven't brought this up before but it's

078our first legislative meeting I don't know if there's anything we can do as a committee to try and ask about Leandro funding I know it's in the courts I understand that I know there's a lot of and I don't know when that's going to resolve itself but that is definitely an untapped resource potentially I know we're not going to get as much as maybe the rural schools that need it the most but we do are entitled to some of that money and I think that might be another Avenue to help if and when it comes but it is in the discussion phase I know I know if everybody's like oh it's here it's there it's everywhere well and that's why um I'm really excited for this discussion and I just let you know my I

079see my role along with our other board members is to advocate for this funding and so that's why I asked about having a conversation of what a pilot would look like what would success look like here in New Hanover County what could we do if we had this funding so that we can in turn Express that yes I know um two things one that I would say is when I I love Dr Faust and Jared's idea but what I would say is that ties strongly into our community task force because I don't know if we need funding for site for that as much as we need people so I would just say think about that when you do that because the community task force to have those people who are actually in the community now

080coming in and the kids can see the real life math come to life it's something we're working on now and it's hard to find the people um for a grant that we actually have for that so I'll just throw that out and uh but I wanted to say that because that's a great idea and then I'm going back to Patrice to see part two okay so yeah I um I just agree and just have to remind us that we have our those schools that are listed are as low as nine percent proficient yeah no we know and none higher than 54.4 percent we're gonna need to do a talking points so so when I when I talk about this and you know I have no problems talking with any of our legislators we know that

081there was an what they call the ISD that that's not been successful they've not had anyone who was able to turn schools around you're looking I mean honestly the the benefit now all too are we have two individuals who have been successful at turning schools around in both States this state and other states and so we be able to talk to the legislature I think this is a plan for Success because right again you that there's no training I'll be honest like there's no way you can go together this is how you're going to be able to do the to turn schools around and uh doc space and I always talk in the officer we laugh we act like weird well I tell them we're like two retired quarterbacks we've both been to the Super

082Bowl we just took different ways and different places to get there so she'll tell her way and I'll tell my way and but they both work and so when you're sitting down and you're looking at it there are a lot of ways and people will have a lot of information inside but I want you to understand have they done it and I appreciate that and so when you when we're talking to the legislatures or legislator or players we both have proof I mean those are things where it's like I can show you immediately right here here's the plan this is how it works you can show you the plan this is how it works the state um around in Lane County yeah November to March and got them all for the second I'm sorry I'm

083good yeah they took the time and with that I'm gonna let her take it over to Part Two for the second part because we got like 30 more minutes I just wanted to know what you're working with and that's why we're going to her as the experts I want her to be able to teach us and so we can in turn advocate for our district and so I appreciate Dr Faison is what you ladies did was you came and asked so teach your horns for that remember you came and you asked and I said this is what I've seen work before this is what I've done so teacher horns on that two are very excited and they've got a lot of ideas all right so when we think about any organization it is only as

084good as what the person at the top and the people I think it starts with leadership especially with the school or the weakest link so you have to start with how do we really really develop we've got good leaders for how do we it's a different type of thinking to change or turn around a school that is low performing it's just a different type of thinking right so how do we help our leaders and enhance this so we're calling this successful low-performing principles are used to mentors as mentors for current low performing principles we'll come up with a better name um type this just before this meeting these are my notes so first we're gonna ask this is the proposal current successful low performing principles principals who are doing the work now who have seen

085success so that means that they had they are in a school that is like this but they are seeing success we have one in our district right yeah Diego yes we could use him okay but we also know we had 12 schools Diego can't do all 12. right because the biggest thing is we have other principals who are successful but these principles need to be in a school that looks like theirs that is key because when I talk to you and you got the same challenges I have that's a different story and I listen a little different right so this is to identify principles across the state who are in low performing schools who are having success pay them a stipend of five thousand dollars plus their travel why five thousand dollars because the state

086is already paying these successful principals an extra 30 as much as an extra thirty thousand that's how in high demand they are they're not many of them right there's not many people who can do this work and be successful at it so we've got to pay them something to make them want to do it so Joe so when you hear these dollar amounts that's why the dollar amounts are there number two They will receive a stipend if the school exceeds growth if I Mentor Josie as the principal of Hanover Elementary and her school exceeds growth I receive a stipend the state is already going to take care of Josie as a principal okay she's gonna receive something if my school not only exceeds growth but my letter grade becomes a c ten thousand because that's

087a whole that's a that's a game changer for my letter grade to jump to a c then what are the responsibilities we're going to pay these mentors this this money to do these things what are they going to do the first thing they're going to do is they're going to sit down with uh District leaders and principal supervisors and make sure they know what the goal is and we tell them what we need and the principle of course they're going to do summer visit to the school and relationship building with the principal that you can't do anything without a relationship you guys know that two School visits per year okay so they need to go there two times a year during this time they don't have to take sick days they don't have to take

088annual days this is considered a PD day for them and their pay because remember again these principles are not a lot of them in the state so when we find them we got to incentivize them Wiggly Zoom check-in meetings for the first quarter we're getting that school off to start check-in meetings weekly principal Mentor Mentor mentee bi-weekly second quarter because remember these principals are running their own school and they can't let that ship um you know sink any and then monthly check-ins with District leaders principal supervisors so they check in with Mr Worthington so he can tell them what they need and what they need to adjust data check-ins with the district Benchmark timelines so they actually talk with the principals and analyze that data with them based on Benchmark timelines and make adjustments on

089the fly as needed then this is one that I thought about because one of the things that I've seen is when districts find these principals who do a great job a lot of times the principle The District the principal moves so how do we incentivize the district to keep this principle in place so some type of incentive for the district if the school leaves out of low performing three years and remains and I don't know what that looks like I don't know if it's extra money for the district to do PD for the uh or a salary uh for the principal I I don't know what that looks like but I do know we've got to find a way to keep these principles that are in schools like this in the school and definitely in

090the district because not only they're leaving the school these are the principles that are being promoted these are the principles I mean we're here yeah right so and you see the cost there and it it will be based on the incentive and of course the additional cost at the third um everything that I'm saying is for the legislature we don't have any money discounted you've made a very clear well I ask you to dream everybody I mean I mean about about extra money every extra money sorry we don't have any extra money for us to do this we're doing this as legislators so this last one you're talking about a district incentive to keep them from getting stolen yes yes thing you get somebody and it's working really well and somebody with more cash in

091their pocket's going to come along right exactly yeah yeah so I love this I actually um I scheduled a day on the 29th I'm gonna go up to Raleigh so I would love to get some hardcore numbers from you in your homework or assignment uh prior to are you going to be able to come too okay Miss Bradford is going to be able to come too um and so I'm gonna go out to an education committee and sit down with as many people that will take me in their office so yeah um but I would love to pitch this to them and to kind of share with the ask because it is budget season and so if we don't ask we don't know so I mean this is not necessarily guaranteed but this is um

092the premise to try and so that could I go back to the proposal one and ask one ad and I'll I can add that up there because all of this is legislative money we do not want to be using any of our funding we you know our current funding we're using it properly of course but we I think we might need to add something to the PD cost of the PD okay you know what I'm saying so because if they give us the money to pay the teachers then we got to pay the presenters to come in and do it so let me add a cost um for that as well and yeah and Jerry might be able to help better with Insight of what might that look like at intentional schools of saying this

093school is really struggling in this area well I'm just going to do a ballpark number because the schools would actually I'm just going to do a ballpark number for that yeah I don't want to try to figure out the PD I'm just going to throw a ballpark number up there so I'm not clear on I mean I can see which each proposal now we have a third one which is awesome I love it but understand how the two the first two here connect you don't so I mean yeah they're not overlapping they're separate they're separate right exactly so what would be asking now is putting it all together so you have one plan so it's PD it would be tutoring and it's principal mentor so it's all one pack three stages yes and then if

094we take it down to the proof student cost it's it's it's still not going to be yeah and it's right it's like we should flip it right it's like the first one the leader you start with the leader and and developing them okay and then the second one you start with how do we um increase the capacity of our teachers and then the third one is how do we drill down for the student so you do it that way hey babe um so I love this is there sorry did you have the largest adding to that these are some of these components are are in the I'm not going to just let read the Leandro plan but that is actually what they talk about when they meet when they see what will affect kids that

095the ask obviously ultimately is the money but in the plan it talks about you know incentivizing and supporting and having strong principles and staff so that's that is all I just think I think everybody knows that that's really part of the the component of this all it has to be part of it um you know there's different components that we can talk about later but these three are definitely priority things yeah and I was just saying um when I initially came to Dr Faust and Dr Faison I was like I want to talk about priority schools but I need you guys to be able to pitch a pilot that we can in turn take away to pitch to our legislators so that was my task to them and I was like and we're meeting next

096week so um when we sat down and like kind of brainstormed of what it looked like um I was like you guys need to help you are the experts in the field so you need to help educate me along with the rest of the board members so when we're talking with people to say this is the difference uh what it would look like and the last thing is I know at times what I would say if a legislator were to ask you why why these things because these are things that first of all I know personally works and I've seen work on others so we didn't just pull out two things right we know that giving teachers that leg up and we've got to pay we've got to pay them we can't we can't ask

097teachers to come in over the summer for a hundred dollars and think we're doing that's not right they're experts right we're asking them to come in we need to supplement them and then we've got to give principals those mentors that are in it with them they've got to be in it with them it's a huge difference to have someone who's in it with you and it looks your school looks like mine so there there is one option that we could consider in the meantime which is writing for the Federal Grant from the National Education Association for a community school model which is a pilot model not communities and schools a community school model the in the first pieces are built on strong and proven curriculum high quality teaching and Leadership that's inclusive it's this it

098is exactly this a round of funding ran in the fall but I'm hearing that another round of funding from the feds is opening up in April wow do we know how to we do not have a grant writer okay I was like I was like I was like you're like I've written a Federal grant um for Pinder and and we ran it for four years and it was wonderful and had great great outcomes but we would have to have a community partner for this to do this but this is exactly what this is that's where our yeah probably somebody like a partner-like communities in school that writes Federal projects can you let us what is that date that they need to I have only heard that there's extra funding and they are probably going to

099release an April um an April timeline so I have somebody watching for that can you let us know yeah absolutely yeah it'll be a quick turnaround and a big thing but it would give you the dollars to incentivize the teachers because it's specifically around that high quality teaching and that proven curriculum and Leadership because I'm glad you only brought that up because that is one of the things I think before you know in Dr face was getting her presentation together one of the things I mentioned but we didn't really talk about but that is definitely an option for at least a couple of our schools to to do and I know last year when we had one of the breakfasts with the um how to Commissioners one of the questions was what can we do

100to kind of support the community around the schools themselves because you know the way our district and model is right now a lot of our kids come from all the neighborhoods around each school and there seems to be some deeper support that is needed there I think that's where the Community Schools model comes into it that is looking at the school and what it needs and perhaps doing things a little differently and because it's evidence-based it would be evaluated to be able to Target exactly those proven right and everything and then we're doing the new I mean it's just perfect yeah is perfect though I think if we can get in front of it if we can get those legislators to understand this this is gold well that's going to be our parallel tracks yeah

101yeah I think that's I think it's like we could do both because this is 12 schools yeah we could do targeted yeah and this I mean there's still you know always increase of we want to see our teachers and our all of us have to be paid well I know there's other things going on with this but I I appreciate the three-pronged approach so that we can actually bring to look at like a pilot and the reality is if we can show that this works what we're doing is we're helping the state of North Carolina create a model that's going to show it works in other counties too and so that's what right what's up just a great idea so just imagine if we had no D's or F schools all of our schools were

102C above with the school yeah but the school district as large as hours yeah that would change the whole game for us so yeah I think um yeah I think being able to have conversations with the legislature I don't know how to get on the um to be able to talk to more than because we have it works um what we're seeing is work so there's not a school district now that um we'll brainstorm some names and maybe see if we can get in front of them okay so excuse me I'm sorry um to this last point about this the the buy-in from the community the political will are all parts of this and I think that if we're coming to themes behind it too and we're doing our own things as well I think

103it makes people want to buy into what we're trying to do here and I think that's a very positive thing so Jason I'm putting you um on the short or short brief um aspect because I know um there's two attached the parent Bill of Rights but one has made it through the Senate and so I'd love for you to kind of give us a brief overview but specifically targeting things that um are different from current legislation so that we can be aware of if and when this goes into effect uh the changes we might have to make sure I'd be happy to I know there's not a ton of time left so I'll um try to do just the instead of a 10 000 foot overview the hundred thousand foot um so right so the

104the they're they're two different bills making their way through the legislature right now three actually Senate Bill 49 the parents Bill of Rights uh originated in the Senate and it passed the Senate and is over in-house rules right now um there are two other companion bills called the parents Bill of Rights and students Bill rights but those are stuck in their respective Chambers so um so I think for today we can focus on Senate bill 49. um so this this bill was filed uh in January it's similar to legislation that was introduced last year that did not become law and there are three different parts to it um if it becomes law it would be effective July 1st of 2023 um Parts one and two apply to Public School units which means New Hanover County

105schools and there's a part three that applies to Health Care Providers but that term is defined so that it includes School nurses and other school staff um and and I can do a high level overview of each part before diving in or just go part by part whatever makes the most sense but but so part one creates a parents Bill of Rights and it includes things like the right to direct the Education and Care of a parent's child to review Student Records make Health Care decisions as you mentioned many of those rights are already contained in other laws for example the right to enroll your child in a public school that's already in state law United States statutes 115c 364 and 366. there's already you know one of these rights is the right to prohibit

106the creation sharing or storage of biometrics ends without parent consent that's already reflected in 115c 402.5 you know the right to review and inspect education records that's already in federal law FERPA and the right to review medical records that's already in federal law HIPAA there are in this part one there are some rights that it might not necessarily be new but they're just raised in a different way that um that gives them you know potentially a pretty broad scope including the right to direct Education and Care of their child and direct the upbringing and moral or religious training you know some of that flows down from U.S Supreme Court case law but in you know in case law there's a balancing of a parent's right to you know direct the education of their child with

107the state's right to an obligation to make reasonable regulations regarding the operation of schools there's really only a couple of rights that you know from my perspective are new there are are two towards the end the right to prohibit the creation of a video or voice recording of a child without the parents prior written consent except recordings related to court proceedings criminal investigations or when it's used solely for a safety demonstration academic or extra extracurricular activities classroom instruction photo ID cards so that that provision would expand on FERPA so FERPA you know applies to the disclosure of student records and it restricts um this this new right would restrict the creation of certain records so you know as it's written it could be interpreted to prevent classroom recordings that were for example created to assess

108teacher performance or for professional development purposes so kind of tying into your discussion earlier about mentors and things you know this provision might allow parents to prohibit videos that you know could be could have been intended to be used to record you know high quality you know well-performing teacher for sharing with um other staff for PD and there's another another writing here that it's their creation sharing or storage of blood or DNA without written consent so um so that's that's part one you know one thing I know is Barnhart you'd asked me to do was to try and highlight where you know where there are things that are exist where things are new and what kinds of policies might be impacted so you know looking at part one um in each of these rights you

109know I think I think you know if this bill became law the board and the policy committee would need to look at their Student Records policy and probably their technology responsible use policy specifically around the prohibition on video and voice recordings and there could certainly be others that would be impacted but those are the two that come to mind and before moving on to part two I'll just pause there and see if there's discussion or questions um stuff for their national boards it it might I mean that's another good point you know there's this this term in their classroom instruction um you know I don't know to what extent that could be you know that phrase could be a hook for recordings made for PD or to your point for an individual's you know I

110guess that Paul is sort of under PD but for their own um uh you know licensing and those types of circumstances it certainly could any other questions move on to part two Jason okay um and sorry one other thing for part one the the that section also creates penalties uh disciplinary action for any employee who encourages or coerces or attempts to encourage or coerce a child from withholding information from his or her parent so part two um is extensive um I'll try and hit the high points that's a huge point I I don't know I don't know if they Define penalties and I don't know how that plays into HR and our role as a board to have hearings I think it's important to talk about it I don't know what implications are from policies

111could you talk about that I'm sorry I didn't mean to stop you but that was you no no that's okay I mean I mean you're you're you're correct and that there's not there's not um there's not Direction in the bill itself as to what those particular penalties might be um and that would be something um you know there are certain statutory obligations uh you know staff are expected to comply with them whether it would fall under existing processes for HR whether there would be a need for something um separate but it could be that that would just fall under um existing procedures or that could be like I mean we would potentially create a new policy of sorts to outline our regulation like so that there's not so it would essentially leave it up because

112I feel like a lot of this this uh policy is kind of taken away a little bit of the elected position that we have as local boards to do things um but then it would also put pressure on us to figure out how to communalize people and I don't know if that's going to come up as a legal problem or I mean there's so many unanswered questions to this bill in parts that I just I worry is going to put us down a slippery slope of of contentious issues that bleed into HR and bleed into our role is hearing people that hear things and then we will leave you the punishers of people I don't I guess y'all can't answer that because we don't know that so Dr Barnes do you have any questions I

113mean I don't know if you've looked at this bill I've heard I mean we've read Jason's synopsis I know I printed it out it's a very good one very thorough have you thought about simple potential implications it's so hard to tell yeah okay sorry yeah no no that's okay and I'll say you know throughout this and in the you know my more detail written analysis you know try to highlight were there are areas where there is some broad language that would require interpretation whether that's through you know additional detail that comes through board policy or you know hope it doesn't come to it but you know sometimes that clarification and interpretation comes through litigation um but but you're right there there are some some Provisions in here that um that would require either the board

114to you know provide more uh Clarity uh and be more specific in its own policies and and really anywhere where there would be a you know a change in policy or a need for a new policy you know that's also something the school boards Association looks at you know they have an army of lawyers and that's where many of their policy updates come from uh for members of their policy service you know they study these things very closely and they have lawyers who turn around policies fairly quickly with that should I jump into part two yeah okay exactly I just would say things maybe we can consult with the School Board Association and see what their thoughts are on potential maybe pitfalls or I don't know danger always danger because I don't want to be

115negative yet but they would probably have studied this with their lawyers as well and could help us guide us a little bit I made a note too um like again that this would hasn't been an effect yet but to be able to say um we would definitely need to look at that so we could have some consistency and definitely be outreaching to people for guidance on that thank you so part two Jason so um part two there's a lot there um it um so it requires Public School units to provide parents with information regarding those rights so that's that includes the rights in part one and also additional rights it also requires school districts to develop and provide parents with guides to student achievement um which you know as written would be a guide for

116each specific student requires districts to develop policies to increase parental involvement in schools and then creates certain tight timelines by which principles are required to provide information that's requested by parents and then a process for appeals up to the superintendent and to the board if there's a delay or a denial of information that parents request the the information that's required to be provided to parents includes information about Charter Schools non-public schools in the county the availability of private school vouchers um parents or principals would also be required to provide parents with information about and access to textbooks and supplementary instructional materials and explain the process for objecting to textbooks and educational materials under board policy some of that again is reflected in existing policies right regarding an existing law regarding parental access to instructional materials

117and objections part two also requires annual and ongoing notifications to parents about their child's physical or mental health including a request to change name or pronoun use and it prohibits school districts from including instruction on gender identity sexual activity and sexuality and the curriculum for grades K4 and then the the last thing that part two does it creates a process for um remedy parent concerns about a District's provision of either any of the notices that are included in part two um and or the uh prohibition on instruction and uh in each of those areas and again it creates timelines for responding to those uh complaints and uh and appeals that go actually to the State Board of Education that directs the State Board of Education to appoint hearing officers and from the State Board of

118that hearing process it gives parents the ability to file uh lawsuits in state court and seek injunctive relief and attorneys fees part two also touches on a number of different existing board policies you know some of those would be the board's curriculum development policy and the selection of instructional materials and parental inspection of an objection to materials policies specifically with regards to the timelines that are required by the bill for providing parents with information um with the the right to receive information about their specific child again some of that's reflected in existing law like FERPA where parents have a right to request uh education records but under FERPA there's a 45-day timeline for responding and under this bill that timeline would be 10 days so there would need to be a change in the Student

119Records policy the section on uh request to change names or pronouns you know that might require a change to the student reference policy I would need to look at that further and just for further Clarity on that I mean the way it's drafted it would be for any students who have a student names you know named William wants to be called will the school district would need to or the school would need to notify the parents before making that change in the student record system and um I'm just looking through some of my notes Here the um the the different dispute resolution processes in the bill would would you know they might require the need to develop a new grievance or complaint policy and process um and finally with um there's a section of the

120bill on protected information surveys that kind of dovetails with the policy committee's discussion yesterday where this bill um would create kind of a parallel protection of people right people rights that's the the federal law where there would be certain protected topics that would require an opt-in for students to participate and um and this would extend to uh surveys that are funded by not just Federal but also State dollars I'll uh pause there that's a very very general and quick overview there's much more detail to it as well of course [Music] yes ma'am the um so should we expect that ncsba will change their template and update us if this passes in July so we should excuse me hold off on changing things until we know absolutely yeah right um ncsba part of their service again

121they've got an army of lawyers who track different bills and when they become law they work to review existing policies or draft new policies as needed Jason do you know whether this any of this potentially could have any conflicts with our federal laws I know there were supposed to be some updates from the federal government coming up that address some of these issues perhaps and I you know obviously Federal is the top the top law that we follow so do you anticipate or heard anything or what if the bill passes and then there is a conflict what would we do well if there's a conflict the you know federal law prevails and that's where you know there are certain Provisions that are either already reflected in federal law and others that build on so so

122some of that again might might come through implementation or it might come through the need for um you know I'm not saying new Ann Arbor County Schools but you know there could potentially be litigation around you know where the differences might lie um but but there's there's certainly language that um is broadened up that it would require some more fine-tuning I mean okay I just have a follow-up it's not about the federal part but I guess I I I've read it I've read your synopsis I I think I'm concerned for some very good reasons um I understand that the need to or you know to maybe want to have something like this which you've already said if you already have in other forms um I think what worries me is it opens up some dangers

123to some of our students and I don't know how we would deal with that I feel like we have got policies on bullying we've got policies on things that help protect our students and I don't know if some of this would open up that part of it to some of them because we don't know it's not passed so we don't have to worry about it right this minute but there are concerns and I've read the concerns and it would affect you know the obvious kids it would affect would be our lgbtq plus kids that we know exists that we know that need protection so I don't know if if there's a danger there this bill would have I mean I assume it would if if teachers are put in a position where they're they're having

124to I don't know I mean I hate to use the word tell on students um and they're obligated to but yet we don't know the penalties yet um I don't would it open up lawsuits potentially in other directions I know that's where your realm is and I would love to hear your thoughts on that um so I mean that's a difficult question to answer in this context um yeah just in terms of uh you know potential legal exposure to the school district if this becomes law on the district is required to implement it um you know I know there are a couple Provisions in here that are getting quite a bit of attention in the media and you know it's it's an extensive bill in other ways as well um but you know one you

125know if this bill were to become law and there were changes to school district policy um you know I think that is certainly a discussion I could have with the board in closed session in terms of implementation and potential uh legal exposure depending on uh how it's implemented foreign [Applause] active we're gonna have to make changes and so what that looks like for us to have those discussions and so that was the premise I know we are a little bit of time do we want to take a short vote to say to extend for 10 more minutes and wrap up no later than 220 or do we want to put this conversation on pause ladies I'm looking at my committee members all right 10 more minutes right yeah um so make a motion to um

126extend it till 2 20 today second all in favor aye um any opposed no that passes so Jason wrap this up with part three and then I'll fill this up part three uh creates a new part in um chapter 90 of the general statutes that prohibits Healthcare practitioners from providing medical treatment to minors without parental consent and it's defined to include Health Care practitioners defined to include a registered licensed school nurse or any other School District staff who are licensed certified or authorized to provide health care services and treatment is defined to include any medical procedure or treatment including x-rays administration of drugs blood transfusions anesthetics or diagnostic procedures and and that I mean that's that's essentially what it does the um the the you know one potential issue with the language is that it

127may it may prevent Public School nurses from providing emergency health care so um there's an exception uh or um medical professionals meaning you know doctors when there's uh emergency Health Care needed but it doesn't clearly extend that to School nurses or other school district Personnel so that's one potential issue um if it passes um and there's also a state statute that currently authorizes teachers and other Public School Employees to provide at least some level of medical care so so it's a little unclear from this language how it would impact some of the existing Authority that teachers and others have when it comes to medical care provided to students well with it with our district um partner with the health department would they would that be an issue for us with other people too like Coastal

128Horizons and the what Clinic yeah the our counselors so I don't I mean since technically they're not school board officials yeah I don't know if that that would maybe something to look into Jason I'll give you homework too like to look in to see if that would if they would be affected by that so right and the exception applies to positions providing treatment uh when delay would endanger the life of the minor so depend on whether the you know County staff or other contracted staff would be considered positions so I have a follow-up to that question in the health department I know when I was in high school I think there was agreements with people like the health department to provide such things you know as a student might need and not have to inform

129their parents and I think as the older students I guess I'm thinking about mostly because that is where the conversations are had and that's what Clinic work has done are there any um are there any privacy implications for students that need to go to a nurse and I mean would it obligate perhaps the nurse to have to tell the parent that the student's talking about X Y or Z or I think I worry about that part of it too with their their own privacy you know I'm talking really mostly the high school students I'm thinking about yeah I'm sorry is that a question for for me it's hard to tell with the screen no okay right um well I mean well this part applies to treatment not necessarily to uh information that's shared with parents

130so um so so treatment here is defined as medical procedures including x-rays so it doesn't clearly address uh notification requirements covered under part two then because I guess if a school nurse is school nurse they're what about the health department correct and so I I don't know I guess there's just a lot of questions that we have about this bill that I guess we don't have answers to and I guess Jason putting him on the spots not right because I think we're all kind of trying to interpret what perhaps the implications will be yeah I understand it can change like a million times before it actually were to be passed I hope so stuff could be added and stuff could be taken away that's the fluidity rule but that's what it's good to have this

131conversation because when we're talking to our Representatives we can bring up some of these concerns and ask for some of those Clarity questions that was like the intent behind going through this I know that this created a lot of Buzz for a lot of different reasons but I think um to hammer out some of those details and ask those questions are important to do so and your point is very well taken because you know I think you're going to do a trip to Raleigh photographs may do that and I certainly have conversations with people that you know I have contact with to ask clarification questions because they're important that they are asked in that moment I don't know how many other districts are perhaps they're probably having the same discussions we are and maybe sorry

132um but um that's that's the whole point of this legislation is too great to talk about these and ask important questions because if your right is rapper and it's in rules and hopefully some of that stuff can change it I wonder what Peril is going to put a lot of different reasons not just what our roles are and what our policies are but like our role is is care kind of takers for children that we are responsible for yeah I mean stuff comes in and out and I'm a happy person it's yeah who writes that yeah I think personal conversations are essential but thank you Jason for walking us through that and let us asking you questions and giving you more homework to look into and that means that as we move forward we kind

133of discuss this at the beginning of the meeting um but maybe we can get together after the general assembly is concluded and then two of my personal goals is to have a form of sorts that we can bring together surrounding counties and maybe superintendent and maybe other districts have legislative Liaisons that they can send that we can have just kind of an open Roundtable discussion so that we can hear what the needs are of our different communities and I we're probably going to Echo some of those I know we give our staff surveys to kind of get the feedback of what's going on in our community so we can utilize that as some of our talking points whenever we meet with that but that would be one of my goals and then after that happens

134to be able to have like a legislative breakfast with different legislators and I don't know where that's at yeah but hopefully you can reach out to some of our Community Partners and have a just a great representation and good conversation for our staff and our students here so um with that I will move to adjourn second all in favor aye any opposed that passes 3-0 thank you everyone for your time thank you [Music] three minutes early from a 17 minute discussion it has a good discussion