001foreign thank you good evening welcome to the February 7th New Hanover County Board of Education regular meeting Ms Bowie would you call the roll please good evening Pete wildebear present Pat Bradford I Josie Barnhart here Stephanie craybill Melissa Mason here he McManus see and Stephanie Walker here thank you board members for being here uh our next line item is approval of the agenda uh before we do that I would like to uh just say something very quickly due to a limitation of the current sign up system it allowed 19 more people to sign up for the 30 allotted slots by policy 2310 so I hereby move that we waived the policy limiting to 30 sign ups at this time and only for this time allowing the elect the uh extra 19 to speak we are
002looking into that limitation to try to fix that uh do we have a second we have a second is there any uh discussion MS crabill um I respectfully think that it is not a good idea to waive our policy on this one because it will come up again you know this might come up again and we're already four hours into the meeting and from what I'm saying pretty much everybody on this board um is going to add something new to the agenda um so I don't feel like we need to do that thank you Mr crabill smart heart I'd just like to add I have outwardly said I think that the call to audience is broken and we can do better with it and this is one of those very evident things that it should
003be happening so it's frustrating but per the old board and as we stood now this is the rule and so part of it is this is the rule now I'd like for us to put it on the March agenda to do something to adjust so that this doesn't become an issue I know that we have um varying viewpoints of conversations of what's being presented tonight and I don't want this to become the sitting issue for how people get to speak to us thank you Ms Barnhart so are you four or against it well we'll get to that Chris Miss Walker so I'm just going to say that I know this isn't the norm and this was you know accidental and this is on us so I think I'm always in favor of letting people speak
004and I've always had that history so I'm in favor of it okay Mr McManus I have mixed emotions uh Mr waterboard is going to be on the gavel we have 50 people speak they got one minute a piece I've I've been in meetings where it was really difficult I just hope we're not putting ourselves in a bind I just do want to clarify that I didn't make a motion to reduce the time to yeah it was still too that's the only way you could do it if we unless we're going to stay here till two o'clock in the morning it's amazing um I am all for letting people speak um I know that I think it's important that we hear what the community has to say class everywhere I am going to offer an amendment
005we have one hour for people to speak and right now we have at least 55 people signed up so if we could do one minute we could all get you in other than that I would suggest we put it to the end of that we could put it to the end of the meeting and run the whole two of the two hours it's going to take but we have business to do this is a business meeting and we have to be about the people's business as well as hear from you so those were my two suggestions all right thank you so we do have a Amendment do we have a second for that did you that was a motion correct yes okay we have a second second second to change the time limit to one
006minute for 55 is there any discussion on that I personally don't think that is a fair alternative for the folks here who have practiced their speeches down to the nanosecond to get into the two minutes um I don't think that's appropriate to cut the time thank you Mr thank you I agree it was in the Scrabble on this um I obviously for people speaking but I'm also for not cutting their time because they have practiced their speech so motion does anyone else like to speak on this if not miss Bowie would you call the roll this again the motion in front of us is to reduce the time to here all 55 people but to reduce the time to one minute correct just the amendment to reduce time to one minute Ms Billy Miss Bradford
007yes Miss Barnhart no Miss crabill no Miss Mason no Mr McManus no Miss Walker no and Mr world of war no so that is defeated uh one to six so we do have the Motions in front of us still to hear everyone everyone has spoken on that so again this motion now is to hear the entire 55 waive the policy only for this day for this meeting um Mr Bradford do you have an additional comment if we're going to do that I I would like to amend that we move it to the end of the meeting that much time out of the middle of our meeting will put up all of our business really late we try very hard not to legislate at 11 o'clock at night okay we have we have a set so
008we have a motion to move the whole thing or half the thing to the end Mr chair can she restate her motion Amendment please we could move the 20 odd to the end I just want to give them the right to speak I want everyone to have an opportunity to speak so if we um are looking at our policy it says that um the maximum amount of time for public comment will be one hour speakers remaining at the end of one hour period may be recognized at the end of the board's agenda so we don't even have to waive our policy we can we can stay with our policy I know it's not ideal for those of you um affected by that but that is you know pretty much the only fair way to do
009it without having to waive our policies in a non-emergency situation so your motion again is to what she just said okay to wave and put the uh the end uh so we don't actually need a motion for that because that's already in policy so okay we go back to my original motion which is to hear the entire 55 um Miss Bowie would you please call the roll ing okay let me just clarify one more time it is to hear the entire 55 app to call the audience at the beginning it wasn't to hear that the entitled the 55 at the beginning it was to hear 30 up to one hour in the beginning and all the rest to the end I think that is what the motion was I don't believe that was that's what
010Miss Bradford just said what I said okay but that one but your motion okay we'll vote on that Amendment that's fine one out okay so Mr chair yes I'm sorry um you said you're you're in that case I would like to a minute to let everybody go ahead and just speak because I just think waiting to the end is gonna it's gonna be a long time and I don't think it's fair so Mr Webber I think you were was there a second to Ms Bradford's amendment was there a second uh Miss crabill I believe secondary well I don't even know what your amendment was I forgot hour for 30 odd people and the rest moved to the end of the meeting so we can hear everybody in the same night but not break our calls
011yes I I will second that again the motion in front of us now is to split the call audience and and not in half but 30 participants at uh the regular call the audience and the rest at the end uh would you call the roll please Miss Barnhart yes Miss Craig build yes Miss Mason no Mr McManus yes Miss Walker no Mr wildebear no and Miss Bradford yes that passes 4-3 so that's what we will do we go back to original motion which is to hear everyone um Miss Bowie would you please call the roll that the original motion was to hear all 55 people so so now that the amen Mr chair now that the amendment has passed now that the amendment has passed the board is now voting on your original proposal as
012amended by Ms Bradford right exactly right so that would result in 30 individuals speaking during the regularly scheduled public comment time and the additional individuals speaking at the end of the meeting and again that's for the two minute as we've had Mr chair yes ma'am I'd like to clarify normally what we do is 30 people online plus five sign up I don't think that the five people that signed up should be penalized till the end of the meeting because they followed our procedure so it really would be 30 plus the five so one of you two I'm sure has the list of who the five are so um I I don't know if I need to amend the motion again but I think that we should be clear on I think you just clarified that
013okay yeah we'll just clear so it's the 30 plus five um Miss Bowie foreign so we're going to have 30 plus 5 at the beginning and then the additional folks will be heard later on in the meeting Miss Bowie Ms crabill yes Miss Mason yes Mr McManus yes Miss Walker yes Mr wildeborg yes Miss Bradford yes and Miss Barnhart yes that Pastor 7-0 we will continue on with the approval of the agenda I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda Miss Mason um I'd like to make a motion to add seclusion and suspension data under information as letter c letter c [Music] okay do you have a second yes I'm seconding Miss Walker so this is under information you said yes is this any discussion Mr Bradford I would like is there a second
014there was a second we have it first in a second yes ma'am so we're discussing Miss Mason's uh okay oh wait is there any other discussion if not Miss Bowie well we can probably do it all in favor please signify by saying yes yes yes all opposed passes 7-0 now miss Bradford I would like to pull something from the consent agenda can I do that now or do I wait until the consent agenda typically we wait till the end but we could do it now if you'd like to okay I would like to pull policy 3620 from the consent agenda and have it for discussion okay how's your second second Barnhart any discussion um I don't think we have to do that we normally do it at the the time but right we said we
015could do it either way Mr Uber on that okay all in favor please signify by saying yes yes yes yes any opposed okay I would again uh Miss crabill um I have two things that I'd like to add um one is letter I guess now it'll be D since we just made C the seclusion um Head Start was left off of the agenda and we agreed to that at the agenda review um Head Start update under information okay and I will second that is there any discussion all in favor say aye aye Mr Scrabble your second and the second one was I'd like to add um a closed session the as needed immediately before um the policy consensus is there a second for a cler for attorney-client privilege discussion if we need it for a
016second I I was second I'm sorry she would like to add a closed session before the um the consensus item consensus policies policy consensus I'll get right one time is there a second I seconded that Mr chair I did Walker if needed Ms gravel said if needed right you can say any any discussion on that yeah if not uh all in favor please seek over saying aye aye any opposed no can I please call the roll Miss Mason yes Mr McManus Miss Walker yes Mr wildebear yes Miss Bradford no Miss Barnhart no and Miss crabill yes passes five two because he had that anything else to add to the agenda if uh sorry the um this is an ad this is a change the under new business we have the third grade literacy information and
017I would respectfully ask that we move that up under information so that those employees who are here to do the presentation will not have to wait till 10 o'clock to do their presentation Mr chair can I ask whether or not that's something we have to vote on and if it's not I would be okay with that according to the agenda that we have in front of us there is no um vote it's it's information okay I will second that then you're talking about uh a under new business a under new business the third grade literacy okay we have a first and second uh any discussion if not all in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed cancel 7-0 and I will now entertain a motion to accept the amended agenda as presented agenda second
018second we have a first and a second any discussion if not please signify by saying I if you are in favor any opposed passes 7-0 at this time we will have our invocation please stand if you would like to the Reverend Dr Terry L Henry of Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church will provide our invocation this evening you are our Lord [Music] while we're waiting I will point out that Delaney High School uh afrotc Color Guard which will provide the presentation to college afterwards is under direction of Colonel Thomas Smith and major Sergeant Bruce say principal is Danny little sovereign hello my face resent colors national anthem this evening will be sung by the New Hanover High School chorus director uh Hannah James and nope it will be the course [Music] you have it twice [Music] foreign
019[Music] uh our own Miss Walker to lead the Pledge of Allegiance the United States one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice forever please remain standing for the immigration over are you God you are our Lord and the keeper of our universe your word reminds us we are your people and the Sheep of your pastor today as the board Begins the meeting for the betterment of our schools thank you for the leadership for every teacher every faculty and staff member and particularly for our students we pray for your continued protection over every campus and all of our students we pray specifically that you will grant this board Direction wisdom and Clarity in their decision making so that whatever decisions they make will be for the Improvement and betterment of our schools we thank you
020for your Guardians and your loving kindness may we forever give your name praise amen thank you may be seated would like to uh ask the many you know our in your ROTC Color Guard come back and as they are uh maybe you can get a microphones up to move there I do uh want to make a quick comment uh it was known that Cadet carpenter has received her appointment to West Point so uh if you would introduce yourselves please my name is Cadet Major Anthony beckworth and I am a senior in high school thank you for having us thank you I am Cadet senior Math Sergeant gnat I am a Junior at Lenny High School hi I'm Cadet first lieutenant Logan Reese um thank you for having us I am a sophomore yeah I am
021Cadet Colonel Carpenter the group commander of NC high school and I'm a senior thank you thank you for being here [Applause] the New Hanover High School course to come back and introduce themselves please I think they left did they leave yeah caress going to talk okay okay well thank you very much we have now our recognitions and introductions I don't know who's going to be doing that for us today Chris is going to be doing it for us terrific evening board chair Vice chair members of the Board of Education and Dr Faust I have your recognitions for the month of February the national Federation of State High School honor roll is a national recognition program designed to promote professional development for High School coaches by completing specific online education courses courses through the nfhs Learning
022Center in earning level one status more than 90 percent of the coaches completed the court the core course fundamentals of coaching along with three of the learning Center's most significant courses concussion in sports sudden cardiac and rest and protecting students from abuse and as we saw in the NFL these classes are extremely important these four courses will ensure our coaches have the tools to handle the daily challenges in High School athletics we applaud the following three schools for their commitment to student safety on the field in the gyms around the tracks beneath the water and everywhere else our student athletes perform John T hoggart High School led by Mary Paul Bell New Hanover High School led by Philip Sutton and Ashley Eugene High School led by Patrick McCarty foreign [Applause] Mets we would like to
023recognize Marcy mcanich Marcy graduated from the North Carolina Association of school business officers Academy earning a school business manager certification this program is focused on NC School finance and certification requires the completion of 21 course hours with an assessment of each the curriculum consists of courses in accounting financial management law including legal responsibilities and business office operations please welcome and congratulate join me in congratulating Marcy mcanich [Applause] [Music] foreign the NC General Assembly house page program offers high school students the opportunity to participate in our state's legislative cup process it's a four day experience that allows high high school students in 10th 11th and 12th grade to observe firsthand how our laws are made it provides them the unique privilege of working in the house chamber and land legislative action house pages are important to
024the operation of the general assembly as they assist the members and staff of the house during the legislation legislative session we would like to congratulate the following students who have been selected for the program this year all five students are from New Hanover High School Brownlee King Parker King Emery Radford Colin Egan and Isabella hooker [Applause] [Music] Mr Sutton would you like to come up and get a picture with your students okay laughs you got the orange tie on I know congratulations powered by college students to empower high school students the University of North Carolina Catalyst conference connects North Carolina's next generation of catalysts for positive change during a weekend at UNC Chapel Hill students develop leadership skills and awareness of issues impacting today's society the following nhcs students will be attending Marley linkner foreign
025[Applause] is a student at Laney High School Anna Hayes Pearson and Isabella Hawker both students at New Hanover High School Mr little would you care to come get in the picture with Marley um thank you our following recognition I'm not seeing the two students but I'll share it with the board as well the North Carolina Hobie leadership seminar is a three-day three-day leadership program for approximately 140 Rising High School juniors held each June in Raleigh Hobie ambassadors have an opportunity to develop their critical thinking skills learn about their leadership styles and form an appreciation for community service they attend panel sessions featuring prominent speakers from our government businesses media and educational communities they participate in leadership development workshops and activities when these students return they serve as ambassadors to their school populations eager to impact
026their schools positively congratulations to Kylie Cantor of Laney High School and Isabella Hawker of New Hanover High School [Applause] that concludes our recognitions for the evening as Visa board we also have our classified recognition program for this evening as well where we are recognizing two of our classified staff for the quarter so I'll introduce Jen Geller to do that as well good evening it's my privilege again to be here to recognize our Excellence exemplified classified employees for the second quarter so with that I'm going to ask that Miss Courtney Campbell come on up here and join me just as a reminder nominations can really come they can come from anywhere you can stand right here anywhere you look great anywhere um but in order to be selected truly for this honor there are a few
027criteria that um are um recipients you know must meet so just a quick reminder um those criteria are demonstrated proven excellence in the work that they do daily that they have earned the respect and admiration of their peers through collaboration and the inclusion of students parents and the school school Community around them and that their work is connected to improving student achievement so with that I'd like to recognize first Miss Courtney Campbell and Deb Calvert you want to come on up and join us for principal here So Courtney has been described by her peers and and the individual that nominated her uh Miss Campbell is an amazing educator as a teaching assistant in the EC Department she works with our SDA students providing them with appropriate instruction to help them meet their goals she treats
028each shoot with respect and helps them to be and helps them begin to gain independence within the classroom one of her many strengths is knowing each student's needs and how to best work with each student she is a trusted member of the community attending family nights and other school events to be visible for the community she enjoys participating in professional development and considers herself a lifelong learner and her work is aligned with the district's initiatives and priorities she is exemplary and most deserving of this recognition congratulations [Applause] every picture and then um if I could ask Miss Amy OOTS principal of Mary Sue Williams Elementary she is going to be accepting um the award on behalf of her employee her employee Miss adamar Richardson Miss adamar Richardson is a data manager at Mary C Williams
029so you've gotten your face that's wonderful um as our bilingual data manager Addie readily accepts all challenges and works hard to help achieve the district's goals she has exhibited patience and kindness throughout the years to all of her students and parents she shows pride in her work and seeks solutions to challenges making her a leader among her peers other data managers were too routinely seek her knowledge and expertise and she extends her assistance to help all members of our school Community whenever and wherever she can her reports and files are accurate evidenced by District Audits and is persistent with obtaining Student Records because she understands how important this information can be to a student's success Addie is a dedicated employee and chose excellence in her daily work and is most deserving of such a recognition
030so again congratulations adamir Richardson ID is had surgery last week and she's so disappointed that she can't be here and we suggested to zoom her in and then she said no no I'm on painkillers so we love ID thank you so much we'll give this to you and then we will do you want to hold on hold her face up yeah Amy hold her face up hold her face up there you go foreign our meeting I do want to mention there's a lot of people standing there we have plenty of seats up here so if you'd like to come in and sit down please feel you know welcome to do so uh we will continue uh with our next item of business approval of the minutes do I hear a motion a motion do I
031have a second no because Mr Barn Dr Barnes still has something to do okay oh I'm sorry Dr Barnes I'm sorry I apologize 100 I apologize jumping ahead sir I get ignored at home too don't worry about it we do want to recognize and welcome all of our new employees this month we do want to recognize one administrative addition to our staff as well if I can ask Miss trafton to come forward Miss trafton has been serving as our interim director of Transportation last month you guys saw uh the Good Fortune to have her as our transportation director so we are glad to have you she most recently served um as the assistant director of transportation and also she worked in the HR department as the supervisor of talent management and then I she met
032me and then immediately went over to Transportation she's received her bachelor's degree in political science as well as a master degree in Spanish and Latin studies at American University in Washington DC so Deb we are glad to have you here thank you thank you very much I just want to re um remind everybody that next week is love the bus week this is the month that we dedicate to our bus drivers and I welcome and invite any member of the board to come on out really anyone to come on out to our bus garage we'll put you on a bus you can experience the fun ride home we'll make sure you get home safely but thank you and we look forward to getting to know you better oh and one other shout out to the
033Carousel Center for donating an office full of books today for our book drive where we are starting an Initiative for books from your bus and it's a reward program for students K through fifth grade our drivers will recognize students who are modeling good behavior on bus for others and the gift is the gift of reading so it will tie in with literacy we're really excited about it so anyone interested contact me thank you very much and I do apologize for jumping ahead but at this point uh we have I believe I'll start again with uh we need to prove the minutes and we have a move we have a motion do we have a second second Miss Mason oh do we have any discussion at one point of discussion Mr chairman I noticed that um
034our priorities were not listed on the meeting minutes and so I'd like for those to be added because that's how our strategic plan is compartmentalized and so I think it's good just for transparency for the public to see where we prioritized everything okay awesome if that's the case I don't know if we need to hold off until March to be able to approve these minutes I mean it's if it's the will of the board that would be my suggestion as well okay why don't we just hold off on these uh minutes and we will move them to the March meeting at this point we're excited to welcome our student voice participants student voice doesn't have a report for this month okay all right we will move on then uh we will ask our superintendent to
035share his report with us please sure good evening everyone um as we enter the budget season I'd like to update you on some steps we're taking to start every central office your vision has been directed to reduce budgets by a minimum of 10 this reduction is not optional we understand the importance of being responsible towards our taxpayer dollars we're committed to finding a solution that balances our budget while maintaining the high quality education that our students deserve will present the full budget proposal to the board in the upcoming weeks and are working tirelessly to ensure that our budget is balanced and sustainable students will remain at the Forefront of our budget decisions and will ensure that the proposed budget aligns with the board's strategic priorities which you voted on last month thank you for your
036support and this concludes my report thank you to our wonderful Superintendent at this time we will go on to the board chairperson's report board Chairman's report first off I would like to share that I attended the Rookie of the Year notification and that was sponsored by the Rotary Club it was a great great great to visit five rock star teachers and their schools and they were at different levels Dr Faust and some other board of education members joined and boy I tell you that was a great day and a great way to spend that day recently I went to the Johnson Pre-K app speed event 300 seedling this is the Pre-K again 300 seedling devices the program aims to improve assessment outcomes and Literacy for children entering kindergarten so we're very very excited about that
037uh we did hold our first open Agenda meeting uh last week which went very well but we will continue to improve those meetings we'll continue to tweak and improve those meetings uh lastly we met this morning with some County Commissioners the vice chairman myself Dr Faust as we start the budget process so that was a good time and I will be reaching out to more board members to join us in those discussions in the days and weeks to come and finally I would like to share that Miss Walker Miss crabill and Ms Barnhart and Dr Faust went to the inner city leadership visit at Fort Lauderdale and I've actually asked anyone but I'd like to start with Miss Barnhart if you would like to just share just a little bit about what happened um sure
038Mr Woodward thank you for this opportunity I was delighted to be engaged with our community members and I think going out and talking about ways that we can Empower our Workforce here in Wilmington and just having that collaborate hub for us because we're the education piece we got to talk about our CTE programs and different things how we can make it better here so I'm excited for what's coming don't worry um and I'm going to need you to tell us what you need so we can in turn tell our community what we need because we're your Advocates here so to be intentional with meaningful conversations with everybody at the table was really powerful because we were able to come across issues and then find a solution at the same time and so I don't think
039that there's a dollar amount that we can put on bipartisanship and so I was grateful to go with Miss Walker and Ms crabill and Dr Faust because we were able to engage in some great conversations and it is one of our strategic plan goals to have Community Partnerships and I think that we need to continue to work with that we know that it takes four board members to accomplish anything so the fact that we were all there together being able to ask questions follow up and have some really good Insight I hope that we can continue to share with the rest of the board who was unable to make it so that we can have some really meaningful powerful programs with our CTE and we can plug our kids in from our community directly into
040jobs and so it was super exciting and I'm excited to talk about later tonight awesome yes welcome would great to share yeah sure um I will agree with Miss Barnhart we actually learned a lot on our trip we got to see what they are doing in collaboration with their community colleges and their technical classes that they do especially the nursing we have a big shortage of nurses and teachers but they showed us what they do and I think that's something that's very doable here and I think we already have the foundation for it but we've got to see how they are doing this successful Partnerships not only that we got to collaborate with people in the community we can't do it all on our own and it's good to see that we have Partners out
041there that really want to work with the schools to help us with our CTE programs like I said especially the nursing program thank you Miss welcome um yeah the um the visit was very eye-opening the Fort Lauderdale has a lot of programs that we might like as far as you know different modes of transportation which not only get people to their jobs but could also be used to get our students to schools and to Cape Fear Community College classes so that was good one of my biggest takeaways from that was the the person that we talked to at the um the magnet high school for the CTE program that she was also a former chamber president and she said that you know she likes to take her Chambers on these kind of visits you know
042for people to learn about best practices that are happening across the country where we could go and search and reapply you know steal shamelessly you know from other you know places but what she also said was that these visits are also very affirming um should be very affirming to our groups that the when we're seeing what others do and we see the good things that we're doing um it it just feels good and it shows that we're in the right direction because other people have forged that path before us or are forging that path alongside of us so um and the other thing that I was very um very impressed to see that the The Business Leaders in our community that were on the trip that they were very informed about what is going on
043in our schools and we're spoke very highly of Dr Faust and his interaction with the business Community letting them know what we're doing the initiatives that we're trying to put forth from our CTE program so we'll get to hear about that but um a lot of good things coming you know grants and um scholarships and it's just I get goosebumps even talking about it because they are ready to not only you know give us you know dollars to help us with this program but they're interested in giving us their time and their talent and I've had the opportunity to visit some of the classrooms in CTE where our business partners are in there and some of these people were on the trip so it's just it's a wonderful you know collaboration you know thank you
044to you know Natalie English if you're watching and the Chamber of Commerce and your board and all of the Business Leaders that were on that trip and the ones that weren't who are very supportive of our schools well I want to thank you three lu4 for going and uh representing us thank you so much we will continue now with our call to audience um again as we have done in the past Ms Bradford will be calling the names and we'll be uh we would ask you to come forward quickly and again if at all possible I know there's going to be some cheering that kind of thing but if we keep it to a minimum because we do have a lot of people who would like to to be able to hear from tonight Mr
045wildebear can I make one comment before we get started um there are going to be some interesting commentary I'm sure about several of our policies and I would just like to remind us all in the audience that some of these policies really are directly involving our children our 11 and 12 year olds and 13 year old students and some of them are in the audience some of them may be watching from home so I would ask that you be as positive as you can in in your comments so that we don't offend any of our students okay for those of you who are new for those of you who are new I'm gonna call your name twice you can see on the board we're going to go between 1 and 35 so it's going to
046go between Nevin Carr and Dorian Cromartie for this round just pay attention to the board and just plan to come on up and let's see if we can't get this thing knocked out in an hour so Nevin Carr Nevin and just in case anyone does not know the timer will be right there for you foreign stood up here about a year ago it was my first school board meeting and at the time I told the democrat-controlled board that my presence was not a very good political sign for them it gives me tremendous pleasure to now be addressing the new Republican majority tonight and say it's a great political sign that we're all here to support you our community made a resounding statement in the last election that we will not tolerate Democrats abusing our kids
047through the policies of this board whether it's forced masking whether it's racial indoctrination or this bizarre obsession with radical gender ideology you four were elected to get this garbage out of our school system and out of our community I don't care how you do it use the same procedural tactics your Democrat predecessors use to force these policies through in the first place you see as conservatives we stay pretty busy trying to live fulfilling lives we work hard we spend time with our families we cherish our free time and we're not able to attend every school board meeting and speak out on every issue but don't think for a second that you don't have the full weight and support of this community behind you not a single Democrat was elected to this board in 2022 not
048a single one so the issue on the table is that the Democrats want to have so the issue on the table is that Democrats want boys to have the option to take away sports opportunities from girls I mean it's so ridiculous it's not even a thoughtful issue we've all seen the videos of that swimmer Leah Thomas if boys want to play girls Sports we already have a category for that it's called coed Sports there are some things that are just so obvious we refer to them as being self-evident like what makes a boy and what makes a girl Democrats have always seemed to struggle with self-evident truths I encourage you to tune out all the malcontents and stay focused on what this community elected you all to do you have our full support foreign [Music]
049New Hanover County Schools understood that when they affirmed the existence of our trans and non-binary middle school students when the board passed policy 3620 but here we are again the sport is chosen to Target middle schoolers 11 12 and 13 year olds who are not only trying to navigate Middle School in puberty but also confronting their gender by attempting to repeal policy 3620 you are infringing on the civil rights of these children gender is one of the protected classes in the United States so by setting different standards for some sports participants but not all you are creating issues when there should be none how would you feel if someone said that whites and African Americans had to have different teams or the Catholic and Jewish students could not be on the same team and if
050you aren't Catholic or Jewish you have to choose one team but not both or how about requiring a separate team for students who are undocumented immigrants or indicating that students with autism cannot participate on the same team as neurotypical peers if my suggestions made you cringe good they should have because they address more of the classes protected from discrimination in the U.S race national origin religion and disability but gender is also protected it makes no sense to be appalled at treating children differently because of religion race or disability but then be fine with discriminating because their gender doesn't fit neatly into two options perhaps you're targeting this policy because it does not align with your personal beliefs that's a problem because you weren't elected to make or repeal policies based on your personal beliefs you
051were elected to represent all the students in New Hanover County I would like you to leave policy 3620 as it was passed in 2021 but at the very least I'm asking that you familiarize yourself with gender diversity using unbiased resources as well as being trained in Title IX and protected civil rights classes only then can you make an informed rather than an emotional decision when you know better you do better thank you [Music] a lot of water Steven Isles last week we learned a six-year-old little girl was handcuffed in our district people were surprised even though our school system did exactly what it was designed to do our system is designed to handcuff and criminalize six-year-olds lock up five-year-olds in closets replace counselors with cops feed the school prison pipeline fail our teachers and to
052allow chaos and conflict to rain why because it benefits some District level administrators system allows the district to blame children teachers and parents it allows the district to reflect deflect responsibility and accountability it allows them to make excuses and for them to be the victim if the district wanted to replace seclusion with proactive solutions they would if the district wanted to prohibit handcuffing children they would if the district wanted to protect black disabled and lgbtqia students they would if the district wanted to bring Justice for sexual assault victims they would if the district wanted to respect staff they would the district wanted to fix our toxic culture they would but they choose not to because it works for them why would the district want to fix this system when it is designed to protect our
053administrators from accountability and responsibility it allows them to deflect their own responsibility when things go terribly wrong like when little children are locked in closets or handcuffed the system is working exactly as it was designed to and certainly was not designed to support our children thank you thank you [Applause] hey good evening my name is Caroline Morin my pronouns are she her I'm the executive director of the lgbtq center of the Cape Fear Coast I'm here to address the proposed amendments to policy 3620 over the last few weeks we've given you a lot of information you've been told that Title IX prohibits sex discrimination including against trans students you've been told that every reliable medical body supports age-appropriate gender affirming care for Trans kids including the American Medical Association and the Academy of Pediatrics we've
054talked to you about the petition signed by over 70 Faith leaders including Bishops rabbis and children's ministers in support of our trans students and although I've heard a lot from you all about parents rights you've mostly refused to hear directly from the parents of children who will be affected by this policy just so we're clear lgbtq people have existed across Millennia we are not going anywhere we are just trying to make our way in life like y'all generations of our queer ancestors trans people like Marsha P Johnson Paulie Murray and Sylvia Rivera have bravely walked this path before us while we are part of a legacy of resistance and strength we don't have an agenda we are not a part of some radical threat to you we just want freedom Liberty and safety like y'all
055claim you want for yourselves to the students and families who are being impacted by the choices tonight I wish we could protect you more I'm sorry that we can't but I do have unconditional love for you and a vision of the future where our children are not defined by how they look or who you think they are supposed to be as queer people our struggles do not determine our destiny and this possible this policy does not have to limit our possibilities queer people are divinely equipped to face whatever y'all throw at us but our story does not end tonight board members I ask you to consider your vote on this policy very carefully please ensure that New Hanover County Schools remain safe and inclusive for all students every kid deserves to play thank you [Applause]
056I'm here today to speak in support of maintaining policy 3620 in its current state a policy that applies to children just 11 to 13 years old the children just want to play it's simple let them play together you are the ones complicating things and the adults are the ones sexualizing the issue I read Miss Mason's recent blog post it's filled with inaccuracies and scare tactics the same type of scaretastic tactics that are being used across the country to whitewash American history to ban books and to handcuff children but I'll save that for another night before Title IX women and girls were virtually excluded from most athletic activities thankfully things change because participation in sports is beneficial to all students I asked each of you if you would receive training on Title IX to ensure your
057awareness that the action that you're considering is in fact discriminatory and jeopardizes our access to federal funds my question remains unanswered the email I did get back from one of you was nonsensical and jumbled Crystal Clear however was the thinly veiled transphobia mislabeled as a quote difference of opinion on a complex issue this phrase may sound harmless but I hear the dangerous invalidation of a person's existence in that for all here tonight in support of trans and non-binary kids I just want to acknowledge the progress is painfully slow but Time Marches forward and we cannot turn back the tides of change in this I am choosing to find Hope because it means that even though some here many here support a hate-filled agenda that attempts to divide and oppress our young people they will not
058succeed in the end they will not in fact they've already lost the most important piece the kids to the board the kids don't want your narrow worldview they reject it and they reject you they have access to the big wonderful rainbow hewed world around them they won't they will not [Applause] hearing about sros putting handcuffs on students in New Hanover County is nothing new I wore these in April of 2021 when I spoke about some high school students who were handcuffed and suspended for three days two of them had been tussling outside of the school building a third student was trying to separate the fighting students there were no weapons involved no serious injuries no flight risks I asked why did an SRO handcuff those students as criminals for a minor violation that was almost
059two years ago we never got an answer thanks to WECT and the excellent reporting today from Port City Daily we learned about a six-year-old girl who was put in handcuffs by an SRO it only lasted for two minutes because when the principal found out she told the staff to remove them she was quoted as saying it was not proper procedure I would add six-year-olds never need to be put in handcuffs never in the time it took the SRO to put the handcuffs on the young girl someone could have hugged her all children even children in crisis who jump up and down on tables throw things or hit an adult deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and love thank you [Applause] good evening members of the board and Dr Faust I appreciate you taking
060the time to listen with Open Hearts and open minds I'm here to talk about transparency safety priorities as a school system charged with the care and instruction of all students I ask you to clearly consider what problem are we trying to solve with revisiting policy 3620 if you are concerned about safety and consistency for all children let us focus on the wreck that is our transportation system I'm specifically referring to the unreasonable tardy overcrowded and unsafe system we submit children to daily before their instructional day begins I frequently field calls from parents trying to figure out why their kid wasn't picked up why they're getting home so late and what we can do about the bullying on these buses why we are pretending why are we pretending to care about the alignment of middle and
061high school athletic policies if the reason is safety if undoing these protections provided in 3620 is about something else please just say it if I'm doing if sorry know that limiting this policy will cause direct harm to a group of children who are living their best lives this is an abstract these are people's children that will be harmed if they're kicked out of the sports they've been participating in this year if you choose to adjust this policy please be clear that nhcs does not value these children's safety do we want to be a school system who advances any political agenda or do we want to take a breath and work together to make the school safer and more joyous for all learners please let us as a group of capable intelligent and empathetic Educators choose
062decency over the facade of consistency please acknowledge that changing this policy deliberately creates barriers for athletes please don't hide behind your motives please do the right thing thank you thank you [Music] [Applause] hi my name is Laurie Janus I use she her pronouns I'm the parent of two graduates of New Hanover County Public School System I'm also an attorney I'm here today to urge the school board to keep policy 3620 as it currently stands as an attorney I wish to remind the school board of two key legal Provisions that apply in this situation the first is the concept of separation of church and state which protects the rights of our students from having religious tenants imposed upon them I fear that the proposed changes to policy 3620 may be rooted in the religious beliefs of
063certain board members let me remind all of you that such an imposition is in direct violation of the First Amendment the second provision is Title IX which prohibits federally funded schools from discrimination based on sex the courts have held that Title IX includes gender discrimination and the Department of Justice has stated that federally funded schools like ours must respect transgender students gender identity I caution each of you to separate your own personal beliefs about gender and keep policy 3620 as it currently stands the proposed changes are not only against the best interests of our trans students but are also in clear violation of the laws of our country and I suspect that if you make any changes you're going to end up in a lawsuit thank you [Applause] Phoenix yeah Phoenix Ferris last call Betsy
064Albright good evening board I'm speaking in regard to the proposed changes to policy 60 3620 I have a few questions for this board I emailed you this and I didn't get any replies have all of you and the entire board received any Title IX training regarding transgendered student civil rights before proposing changes to the text of the policy the second question is have you consulted Darrell Lewis New Hanover County Schools Title IX director before proposing changes to the text the third question is have you consulted your general counsel Jason Weber before proposing changes to the text have you await availed the board of the technical assistance that the department of education's office of civil rights offers organizations such as New Hanover County Schools if any of the answers to this or no I suggest you
065pause right now the entire Board needs training in Title IX federal law specifically in transgendered students rights rather than just a small handful on a small committee these proposed changes could open up the school system to lawsuits which could threaten Federal funding and take away resources from current students and staff insurance companies are not likely to pay out either if due diligence was not completed do your due diligence take time to study Title IX first you have a lot of homework to do first thank you [Applause] I don't I'm waiting for my name to be called I called it oh I'm sorry hello I hope this finds you all well um this is a heated issue and everyone has an opinion about it including me I don't understand what's so difficult to understand about the
066fact that the weaponization of Title IX pursuant to allowing minors aged 11 to 14 to participate in sports who identify as transgender I don't mind that there is a codified protocol in place for students who are older I think that mirroring that policy is a mistake and I think that it is like the last person who spoke um short-sighted to not do your due diligence on Title IX when Title IX was first formed in 1972 it was put there to protect women in sports and what I'm finding is that the issue has been polarized into a dialectical inversion that puts two things against one another are we going to protect the rights of women or are we going to protect the rights of those who identify as transgendered and I would like to say that
067that's a bad Diamond deal do you want the yellow one or do you want the one with the black spot no your job as school board members behind that dice is to serve at our pleasure within the parameters of the law and that means that you have to protect the rights of children right children so it's not about what someone at central office wants it's not about what the ngos and the non-profits and all of the people pulling the strings from the U.N UNESCO and all the way down and I can speak with a little bit of authority about UNESCO I was the Executive Vice President of the board of directors of UNESCO in the first ever State independent state chapter in the history of the U.S Federation so I know what I'm talking about
068please please please do your due diligence I agree with what the last person said but do not do it at the expense of our children your time is it thank you here Aubry Tull t-u-e-l-l Aubry Toole are you here I don't see Aubry Diane Z EE good afternoon everybody and I just want to say thank you to all the board members there is a lot of contention in this room tonight now the heat is on and congratulations to the four newly elected board members we're happy to see your smiling faces sitting on this board you guys have a tough job ahead of you and this is a very tough situation you know and as as we lead through this we need to take into account that our county has been under a sexual cases for
069decades now we have had children assaulted and we have had molestation done and we've had terrible things go on inside our school system we have to protect the children and I have said since day one when we started showing up and trying to support what's going on in this room and the kids that the people should come together over the children I don't care if you're Republican or you're Democrat we are one nation under God and God created boys and God created girls if this isn't against transgenderism this is about protecting the children in the school I'm a mother I would not let my daughter play sports if there were boys in the locker room we have to protect the masses nobody's against gay people nobody's against transgenderism but we have to protect the children
070and that's why we're here I want the four of you the seven of you to think about that when you move forward with this decision there is a reason that if we change this policy it has to go to the high school level and not the Middle School Athletic Association there is no account for gender at the middle school level there are 11 to 14 years old and if we send them to the State High School that requires them to take permanent altering medication that is non-reversible [Applause] foreign Title IX protects students from being excluded from participation in denied the benefits of or subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance the board does not dictate federal law and therefore cannot fail to uphold it regardless of how you feel
071personally failure to uphold Title IX risk losing Federal funding and invites more legal action to seek Justice denying the right for Trans athletes to play sport option three is withholding equal opportunity I encourage these students denied this access to contact the Department of Education Office of the Civil Rights and I'll support them in that process yes we have trans athletes in this County successful contributors to their middle school teams they are there's not been one complaint from anyone associated with these teams and all seven Middle School athletic directors unanimously support their students and this policy as it is written our Title IX coordinator supports the current policy as well and was consulted when the policy was originally lawfully written option three defies that law option two isn't realistic because we cannot access the North Carolina
072High School Athletic Association panel to give permission to trans students to be trans therefore funding and assembling our own invasive and inappropriate panel and process where there is none would be costly and time consuming the willful ignorance and negligence of New Hanover County schools with regard to Title IX as cost our students dearly many of you claim that you're newcomers and not responsible for these transgressions of those before you some claim ignorance on the subject entirely but you can't say you don't know anymore because you do now and what you do shows if you remain complicit in the abuse or not the consequences of your action determines life or death suicide rates and self-harm for Trans youth are contingent on people like you who want to keep these kids invisible if I could recount the
073number of times a grieving adult has expressed regret in the aftermath perhaps I could change your mind your job is to act in the best best interest of all students not just the ones you choose to see and protect [Music] good evening I'm asking the members of this board to avoid the policy change made in 2021 to policy 3620 and request the board require middle school students to play on sports teams that are in accordance to the sex listed on their birth certificate students who identify as transgender deserve the same educational opportunities and resources as their peers and should be treated with respect and compassion a compassionate response however should not mean denying the fact that there are real physical differences between the Sexes that necessitate different treatment especially in the situations where these differences
074impact privacy and fair play girls deserve equal opportunities to experience the thrill of victory to be rewarded for their commitment and sacrifices in achieving athletic Excellence allowing males to compete in girls Sports destroys Fair competition and women's athletic opportunities Title IX was designed to stop discrimination and create equal athletic opportunities for women for long and women fought long and hard for equal rights in sports allowing males to compete in girl Sports not only reverses nearly 50 years of advances for women but it also puts our young females at risk when we ignore biological reality girls get hurt and Athletics girls are being injured losing Metals Podium Sports public recognition and opportunities to compete today in Connecticut two males now hold 15 women's state championship titles once held by nine different women only last year in
075North Carolina 2022 a trans female biological male from Cherokee County's Highlands High injured a female volleyball player after spiking a ball into the girl's face this biological female player suffered severe neck and head injuries vision problems a concussion and long-term concussion problems and Mel's belief about his gender doesn't erase his physical advantages over female athletes and every male on the podium displaces a deserving girl males have larger Hearts lungs denser bones and stronger muscles no amount of hormone therapy can undo all those advantages foreign [Applause] student and a PTA parent as well as formerly the policy Council chairperson for Johnson Pre-K and a board member for Smart Start in Hanover County but I'm also the sister of a transgendered sibling whom I've watched suffer with depression anxiety and suicidal behavior for her entire life I've
076witnessed firsthand the multiple perspectives on the issue of policy 3620 being reconsidered and frankly I am disappointed to be having to waste time reminding the members of our school board once again that they were elected to protect all students not just the ones that they deem Worthy to take a policy directed at high school age children and expect it to pertain to those aged 11-13 without thoroughly considering the significant social emotional and physical developmental differences between these two groups is purely neglectful not to mention that some of the actual requisites simply do not translate to prepubescent children and would undoubtedly only inflict further trauma trans kids face enough challenges as they grapple with a lack of acceptance oppressive policies and unsafe learning environments I can't imagine how you could justify making their lives even more
077difficult when the only thing truly at stake here is the well-being of these pre-teen trans athletes these children are not playing for scholarships or recruit recruitments they are playing to enjoy a game and engage in a sense of community with their peers I would like to reiterate that your position is one with far-reaching effects and it is not your job to impose your own personal beliefs onto the children in our school system it is to make sure that they are safe enough to receive the best education and growing experience that we can offer your choice to further stigmatize an already marginalized group and at an even earlier age we'll send a clear message that you lack both empathy and understanding in which case you do not deserve to be sitting before me foreign hi um
078first off just letting y'all know that the camera angle for the YouTube live stream feed is now wide pinned where if someone comes up here from either side of the argument they cannot be seen by anyone at TV um same thing with this life back in my hand which that's a great little transition remember I brought this in here for you all and showed it to you and said hey it'd be x amount of money what if I told you we lost more children since then in the United States to choking deaths there's a preschooler down in Texas there was another one in Indiana it's going to continue to happen I've spoke to several board members thank you all for reaching out to me and everything and hopefully at the next one we can get
079that taken care of next we worked on seclusion rooms I was one of the people against it as well we really need to have a conversation about what just happened with the handcuffs obviously we won't be privileged to the conversation but something something went wrong we need to get the teachers training I know that it got passed back in December I believe I don't believe they've had that training but that teacher should have had a better check down than to look at deputy and confirmed to put someone in handcuffs and again everything's here say you just read the articles another thing we had a teacher resign under the last board that he had he had been accused of some inappropriate relationships with a child he had some things he was allowed to resign I am
080requesting that the board consider creating a policy that anytime someone is terminated or resigns for something that is of a sexual nature then it needs to come in front of the board and potentially go to try and take their state accreditations because that man jumped across the bridge to Brunswick County and he tried to get a job over there I'm asking y'all to help keep these children safe I know that we always say that that's a big pivotal part please consider that because I mean it's continuing to happen because of our checkered history we need to look into it um let's see here uh the trans policy yeah please do me a favor if y'all are going to manipulate the policy tonight please at least let it go through the end of the season because
081you only got like a month left for these children personally I think you'll need to kick it back to policy committee and have a conversation about legalities regarding cottonline thank you foreign good evening I'm speaking with you today as an lgbtq student in our school I'm a transgender male recently certain members of this board have argued that board policy 3620 should be amended it is my fear that this is a first step by members of the board who are targeting lgbtq students and wish to remove policies in place that protect us from harm these protections are critical for the well-being of lgbtq students according to the Trevor Project lgbtq students are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers 59 of transgender students considered suicide within the past year and sadly 22 percent
082of transgender students actually attempted to take their own lives one in every five a major factor contributing to these statistics is bullying for many lgbtq students bullying is a daily occurrence with extremely harmful effects on Mental Health Mrs Mason your campaign website states that you want your children to be kept safe and get a useful education at school the fear you express for children is the fear I a transgender student face every single day I ask you as an elected official shouldn't you have the same level of worry for all students are your children more important or better than students like me your website also states that children cannot learn if they are in fear in December I was harassed for being trans I was called the effler repeatedly and the person went as far
083as the touch and grabbed my head it is not stopped I was petrified every single morning of getting on the school bus and going to school for the fear of treatment policies like 3620 provide students with opportunity access and protection it helps create a more welcome and inclusive atmosphere in our schools our lgbtq students deserve a place to feel seen supported in most of all protected room safe from bigotry before you take the step forward ending these protections I invite you to visit wilmingtontranscommunity.com and take a moment to learn about us before you regulate us to a second class student status thank you for your time thank you Amanda Sands Amanda Sands last call Justina their last name I'm ready go ahead sir okay what is this really about trans kids or the mentally ill
084adults in this room this isn't complicated we need to protect all children we need to protect children from pedophiles grooming them the mentally ill-abusing them and from criminals using them as political pawns and efforts to push their sick and twisted agendas what we shouldn't do is allow the mentally ill criminals criminals and pedophiles to mentally emotionally and physically abuse children and then play along with it and change the rules to fit their delusions and crimes being complicit with child abuse is Criminal immoral it's just it's despicable have you heard of Munchausen Syndrome by proxy induced illness by caretaker it's a mental illness and child abuse the caretaker of a child most often a mother either makes up of fake symptoms or causes real symptoms to make it look like the child is sick this is
085a crime now let's change some words the caretaker of a child most often a mother or teacher figure either makes up fake symptoms or feelings or causes real symptoms to make it look like the child is the opposite gender this is is Criminal it's evil do not allow pedophiles and child abusers to intimidate you allowing boys and girls Sports and vice versa is being complicit in child abuse and allows more doors to open for pedophiles and child abusers it's really simple just don't do that [Applause] folks I I'm going to ask one more time we need to have an order so we can get these people up here please thank you Josh order Barbara it's awesome [Music] well hello board I'm here today to talk about policy 3620 and my support of amending that policy
086and honestly I don't know if this should be said but it really needs to be said biological males have no place in female forms that's the truth they have no place in female sports and to say that there are no differences between biological meals and biological females is observed there will always be physical advantages always and will never be fair to a biological female girls will lose and they don't deserve to lose I personally don't care what someone wants to be called by their friends or family or what they want to do in their own time or in their own space but when it comes to me addressing someone differently or someone wanting to use a different locker room or bathroom or play in a different sport than that of your biological gender that's where
087I draw the line decisions like that affect me and other people in a substantial way and listen if you if you as an individual won't to be someone else than you that that's okay honestly because you as an individual can make those decisions but biological males have no place in female sports thank you Karen Clark I speak shalom shalom peace on everyone in the room inside please buy a place our founding fathers built a government based on biblical principles warning us failure would come to our Republic if ever we strayed from those biblical values I solemnly urge you to stand on the word of God no matter what for in the last days people will be boastful and proud scoffing at God disobedient to their parents and ungrateful they will consider nothing sacred they will
088slander others and have no self-control they will be cruel and hate what is good they will be Reckless and love pleasure rather than God they will reject truth Our Father May the glory of your name be the center on which our life turns may your Holy Spirit come upon us and cleanse us manifest Your Kingdom on the Earth and give us bread for the coming day forgive our sins as we release forgiveness to those who have wronged us and rescue us every time we Face tribulation in Jesus name May New Hanover just a minute May New Hanover County be the city of light on the hill [Music] [Applause] I'm going to pick up where uh Karen left off foreign I want to read from the word of God Genesis chapter 5 verse 2. it says
089[Music] God made a mistake when he created male and female so he decided to let male and female decide what gender they identify with oh wait he doesn't say that does it it actually says male and female created he them and blessed them and called their name Adam in the day when they were created you notice there's no exception not at all none zero okay as a matter of fact the word of God says to identify yourself as one gender that you were not born with is an Abomination and I have all the scriptures as a matter of fact I emailed each one of you earlier today all the many of the verses and there's a lot more bye please I didn't write this God did so your complaint isn't with me it's with God
090placing a male in a woman's Sports as you've already heard is unfair to the women because Man was created with stronger bone mass um with they're just stronger and that's why God created them they identify as a male from birth they don't wait to their in Middle School to identify they identify it right then on birth I've read the three options you're about to vote on and the only one that is biblical is option number three the other two the option two is a watered-down version of option one with a smoke screen that if if they're denied um right into the sport they can just pill it and still get in that sport I urge you to vote for option three thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] I have great empathy and compassion for young people
091today and myself having grandchildren just coming into the schools I'm sensitive to the unending pressures to Define who you are at an earlier and earlier age many of these pressures intensify at the middle school level just when children go through the most intense period of change in their own bodies emotional and physical health I believe children need time to grow mature before making decisions that will be life-altering or body changing our culture wisely imposes limits on when children can vote Drive watch an R-rated movie or served on are armed forces these activities require responsibility and maturity policy 3620 states that a high school athlete may only participate on a team consistent with the gender on their birth certificate unless all otherwise permitted under nchs double A rules it doesn't make sense to me to allow
092a broader inter reputation for gender identity for middle school athletes and allow transgender girls to participate on girls teams part of the original intent of Title IX was to give girls opportunities to compete fairly and equitably girls have always wanted a chance to Excel and advance in Fair competition against other girls in a chosen sport compete at local state and National levels earn recognition and scholarship money for those most gifted allowing transgender women who are biologically male to compete against in places female athletes at a disadvantage actually discriminating against their opportunity to excel at their sport there's also the issue of safety and privacy in locker rooms where girls may feel threatened anxious or even unsafe if exposed to male anatomy in a transgender woman I urge you to honor and respect our girls who
093just want to play sports [Applause] thank you Evie Edwards a professional cyclist and a competitive Runner is a lifelong Democrat who supports gay marriage nonetheless she has spoken out that she has faced attacks from transgender activists and threats of loss of scholarships due to her public stance in defense of women's sports there is a generation of women who will not have the same opportunities as I've had said Edwards if we are forced to compete against males at the local and Regional level those opportunities for women will disappear the next generation of valuable female role models that Inspire tomorrow's Champions will be lost Workforce diversity decreased because ninety percent ninety six percent of female CEOs played competitive Sports girls will lose this opportunity to gain medals podiums public recognition and opportunities to compete scholarship opportunities and
094Elite College scouting self-esteem but most of all hope women fought long and hard for Title IX which was designed to stop discrimination and provide equal athletic opportunities for biological women allowing biological males to compete in girls Sports reverses nearly 50 years of advances for women the message to girls is you deserve equal opportunities except in sports biological girls deserve equal rights to experience the thrill of victory in New Hanover County organized Sports allowing males to compete in sports disadvantages girls and destroys their athletic opportunities the immense physiological differences between men and women can be seen in the story of Jennifer Thompson a North Carolina powerlifter [Applause] before I start I just want to say I just want to say this the speech is rated CT for critical thought compliance she may find some elements distressing
095logical questions and critical thinking throughout foreign [Music] Fancy on the inside everybody's fancy everybody's buying your body's fancy and so is mine boys are boys from the beginning girls our girls are from the start everybody's fancy Everybody's Fine your body's fancy and so is mine only girls can be the mommies only girl excuse me only boys can grow up from you the daddies yes sir everybody's fancy Everybody's Fine your body's fancy and so is mine if you were born a boy you stay a boy girls are girls I from the start if you were born a girl you stay a girl and grow up to be a lady I think you're a special person and I like your ins and outsides everybody's fancy everybody's fine you're by these fancy and so is mine boys are
096boys and girls are girls let's go Brandon thank you [Applause] Frozen okay [Music] water please thank you okay good afternoon I'm here to beg you to please you to please focus on our school's real issues if you want to improve learning for our children the main issue for our teaching staff is poor leadership from the top which is the responsibility of the board since by law you are supposed to provide oversight of that leadership due to that poor leadership from central office many of our best teachers continue to leave our district what what are they Young wow let's take a break here we're taking five minute recess Miss Justice we'll give you your two minutes back okay what do you think are sit down we have a five minute recess okay five minute recess [Music]
097[Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] it get over there how many wives ah let's get some more [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] years [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] take them out loud [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you girls apologize [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] everybody happens [Music] foreign [Music] um this is not what's best for the children [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] if I could ask everyone to please return to their seats return to the seeds please [Applause] [Music] return to your seats thank you [Music] please return to your seat so we can continue the meeting this is a warning overall we do need to have decorum and order in the building we need to get ourselves back in control please we have adults in this room we need to act like adults we also have students
098and children who we need to think about we are going to continue Justice will get two full minutes we would ask board members to return to the diocese thank you for returning to decorum we would like to hear all the rest of the folks that carry on with their business oh please those in the back corner please I know you're still talking would like to have order thank you very much Miss Justice we will give you back your full two minutes thank you thank you you may begin okay good afternoon or evening I am here to beg you to please you please focus on our school's real issues if you want to improve learning for all of our children the main issue for our teaching staff who are the most important people in the building
099besides our children is poor leadership from the top which is the responsibility of the board since you by law are supposed to provide oversight for that leadership due to that poor leadership from central office many of the best teachers continue to leave our district in record numbers they were overworked and underpaid here are some historical perspective after hearing from some Brave teachers telling us about the problems in the fall of 2021 the board conducting a survey of our teaching staff the result was that about half said they did not feel valued and that they were overworked we then set up a task force to come up with a solution two meetings were held and they came up with no Solutions then in late spring of 2022 the ncdpi biannual teacher working conditions were completed 70
100of New Hanover County School teachers said that they disagreed with the statement that there is an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect in our district the other districts across the states averaged only 25 percent of disagreement the results of teachers feeling overworked underpaid and under respected is that we are losing more experienced teachers and record numbers before the current Administration was in place we lost 104 teachers or seven percent that then during the two 2021 school year 120 of 71 of our teachers left which is 9.5 percent of our teaching staff despite having one of the largest teaching supplements in the state along with living in one of the most desirable areas Statewide the district's averaged an eight percent loss of teaching staff again please do your job and provide proper oversight when it comes
101to that leadership so we can keep our best and most experienced teachers and all of our students receive a quality education and enough with these dog and ponies I was trying to distract what really needs to be focused on you guys actually your campaign should have been ashamed [Applause] Mulaney Cooper is she still here is here good evening Miss poem is called pipeline to more lies one two three four five six-year-old black girl placed in handcuffs New Hanover County enough is enough your tactics to mishandle our children are planted in division beginning with the elephant in this room racism you can't hide the truth for the stenches too deep your institutions were never made for people who look like me the system's way to increase the pipeline to prison comes easy when you make these
102heinous decisions look into the numbers their clear as day black children have been mistreated and the situations keep on repeating it's written in the hidden history proclaiming CRT in this heavy climate of Oppression how can our children absorb any school lessons you think they're not cognizant of the senseless killings happening to our people being labeled three-fifths by the founding fathers never made you an equal there is a better way to handle these decisions dismantle this inhumane system of racism your attempt to stifle voices with the call to the audience shows a college approach and the lack of Interest sitting in these board seats to keep them warm is callous while you plot to bring our children harm violence is pounding down a door in Mississippi in 1955 made me tell would have given her life
103to see her son alive the new Jim Crow is destroying the world you can't control white terrorism but you can handcuff a six-year-old black girl she threw pencils not bullets held candy not a gun will you ever return to Being Human you have an option to make a decision love our children and stop the division I fear I may have integrated my people into a burning building Dr Martin Luther King Jr happy Black History Month [Applause] thank you good evening thank you for listening to us tonight the reason I'm here is I want to share with you some observations of my teaching experiences as a part-time professor at UNCW I teach a course where I have my students read Dr King's letter from a Birmingham Jail it is interesting to discuss with them the details
104of a time when people were treated unfairly simply because of unchanging biological human traits such as skin color or ethnicity and while it might seem like that something in the past I fear that we might be making the same mistake again today I am aware that policy 3620 gives transgender female athletes the opportunity to compete against biological female athletes while this might sound like a good idea in theory I have to wonder if this will truly result in equality for all students certainly in most areas of life a student's gender or biological sex should have no impact on their success outcomes sex should not be a factor when applying to college getting a driver's license however it seems that there may be circumstances under which differences in biological sex could matter and could result in
105inequality for certain groups I find it interesting that while everyone would unanimously agree that we should never accept unequal treatment of a person on the basis of something like skin color we seem to be permitting unequal treatment of a different group of people on the basis of their biological sex why is one unchanging biological trait different from others I don't see how someone can rightly reject unequal treatment on the basis of skin color and then turn around and permit unequal treatment on the basis of biological sex I know that the Board of Education members you all have a passion to do the right thing and to treat students fairly however I'm afraid that in your desire to achieve equality you may wind up actually achieving the exact opposite if policy 3620 is not changed thank
106you Dale herring [Applause] [Music] I'm here from the generation that fought for and ushered in Title IX in 1972. I haven't now I have an 11 year old granddaughter that is a good athlete and enjoys participating in two sports I want her to enjoy the Privileges of that original Title IX the opportunity to compete on a Level Playing Field with other biological females without the interference of boys that she must compete against or with and especially the privilege of privacy in her locker room but I'm not here to debate science or anyone's rights to the board you are elected for such a time as this to help us respectfully navigate issues like the one we're facing tonight take a motion out of it and focus on responsibilities not rights as adults and especially you who
107sit on this board we are not responsible to children we are responsible for children and there's a difference responsibility for children means we set realistic boundaries middle school children cannot vote drive a car buy beer I hope and various other tasks for a reason our responsibilities for children in this age group is to keep them safe and to prevent them from making any kind of choice that they're not mature enough to handle due to due to Title IX amendments in North Carolina when transgenders now reach high school and college they do have the opportunity to compete with the gender of their choice but our state did not make Provisions for a pathway to sports for transgenders in middle school there are approximately 1.5 million students in North Carolina's public high schools and at this point
108only nine transgenders have been approved at the state level to compete with the gender of their choice the application process is rigorous and it's rigorous for a reason and the burden of proving acceptability falls on the student their parents or Guardians and their doctors it's a big step but I Inc we all Unconditionally Love all of our children and I want to emphasize this is not about acceptance but rather age appropriateness thank you [Music] [Applause] thank you hello my name is Malia Cassell I'm a junior at Eugene Ashley High School Ray Bradbury once said you don't have to burn books to destroy a culture just get people to stop reading them this quote has never been more relevant and important than at this time around the country millions of books are being ripped away from
109young people books are what help us to empathize with others explore different perspectives and most importantly to developing children find voices that they identify with to take these opportunities away from anyone is outrageous how are we supposed to have a diverse culture filled with beautiful unique people if we are only allowed to learn or access perfect perspectives of one group Banning books goes against the principles of free speech and open communication this in turn stifles creativity critical thinking and intellectual growth by exposing our students to a wide range of views and ideas we're helping them to develop their own opinions and to become informed citizens the board's job is to ensure that the public school system prepares students for the real world and guides us to become the most access successful adults we can be
110by Banning books and closing off certain ideas from students you are failing in your job to help us become knowledgeable empathetic and educated adults therefore I'm asking and imploring each and every one of you here to not steal these books and opportunities away from us I'm also asking every person student and child in this room and in our County to go out and pick up a Banned Book because they are the books that will tell you the truth and the shame that the world prefers you not to know but you must know and that is the only way that we can all grow and bring about true peace in our world thank you [Music] [Applause] I know the power of the word of God so I'm going to pray Isaiah 11 2 over you in
111Jesus name I pray and release the spirit of the Lord over you I pray you encounter Holy Spirit in a way you never knew possible and your lives have changed forever I pray the spirit of wisdom over you the wisdom of man is foolishness to the Lord so I pray you seek God's wisdom ask God for wisdom and he will give it to you I pray and release the spirit of understanding over you that you understand there is a war raging against our children and family unit and you are each in a position to do something about it I pray and release the spirit of counsel over you that you would seek Godly counsel before making decisions and not be swayed by those yelling the loudest or by the ungodly destructive woke agenda I pray
112and release the spirit of Might over you might is not bodily strength it's strength of mind it's being brave and courageous actually Fearless not backing down from doing what is right in the Lord's sight I pray and release the spirit of knowledge over you God has perfect knowledge so I pray you seek him when concerns are brought to you knowing truth and facts and recognizing lies and deceit and I pray and release the spirit of the Lord over you that you will have reverential off of Jesus Christ knowing he is the king of kings and Lord of lords and it's in Jesus name I pray this amen thank you [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] good evening tonight I'm here to speak in favor of amending policy 3620 and to do Middle School participation in sports according
113to birth certificate as we know Title IX was passed in 1972 as part of the education amendments act and women have had the opportunity to participate in sports programs equal or similar to those that men had but on separate teams the physical advantages as we've alluded to a little bit tonight that males have over females in long and heart capacity bone and muscle density and strength necessitate the separation of biological males and females and Athletics to ensure fairness and safety um as you might recall the trans female the biological male that was spoken of earlier on the Cherokee County volleyball team severely injured a female player after spiking a ball into her face and the injury she sustained were significant and long-term allowing biological boys to play on girls teams is really unfair physically uncompatible
114potentially harmful and precludes our girls from achieving athletic Excellence especially when in individual sports like track and field and swimming a male's belief about his gender doesn't erase his physical advantages over female athletes and every biological male on a Podium does displace a deserving girl policy 3620 as it stands misrepresents title X that was implemented to protect female sports so I do totally agree that dignity and respect matter for everybody but so does fairness safety and biological reality thank you [Applause] Rachel there you go my name is Rachel Dole I'm a minister in Wilmington on the website our school system tells students quote You Are Not Alone our Title IX office is here to protect you from sex discrimination as well as those impacted because there is no place for discrimination in New Hanover County
115schools end quote if we allow transgender students to be misgendered we are mistreating and discriminating against them choosing to be honest about who you are is a difficult choice for a transgender person because others often mistreat them but make no mistake the only choice a transgender person makes is whether to be honest with others about who they are Title IX a Federal Regulation says quote no person shall on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in be denied the benefits of be treated differently from another person or otherwise be discriminated against in any Athletics offered by a recipient end quote yet the board is suggesting Middle School transgender students be treated differently than others by having to be on a team they do not identify with and individually go before a group of adults
116for review the letter of the law does not specifically address transgender athletes but the spirit of the 50-year-old federal law protects all students right to participate equally in sports middle school is hard being honest about who you are as a transgender person is hard students should be allowed to play a sport without having to deny a part of themselves our school system says quote all students and staff can be equally valued treated with respect and provided with Fair Learning and Development opportunities end quote keep policy 3620 as it stands so we can do what we promised [Applause] good evening since January 26 2021 anyone that wanted to be in the military could be in the military including trans people I find it real strange that at the top of the priority list is this policy
117we have Title One schools continuing to suffer we have six year olds in handcuffs we have seclusion and restraint but excluding a couple of students is at the top of the priority list you guys were hell-bent on breaking calendar law but yet we are two million dollars over budget and that has yet to be properly discussed but this policy needs to be changed tonight in order for the success of the masses to happen I find that real strange that you can serve in the military and be trans and get the training you need to be successful all across the globe but here in New Hanover County the top of the priority list is making sure a couple of children cannot participate in sports you guys are elected officials elected officials however long the meeting takes
118to conduct business and listen to us is how long it takes if you did not want the job you shutting around and got elected you should have stayed home but this is supposed to include everyone not to exclude anyone it is public education it is publicly funded it is for everyone I don't see how it's any different tonight servant excluding a couple of children to feel I don't know your ego or whatever is quite disgusting as a public official thank you [Applause] [Music] thank you everyone that does end our call audience for the first first part we will continue on with our overview of Career and Technical education uh at this point Mr wildebear yes ma'am um can you be thinking about a time where we can take like a real break so that we
119can um just kind of regroup yes ma'am board chair members of the board a superintendent Dr Faust good evening Career and Technical education is continuing to build a program Without Limits to provide opportunities for our students in New Hanover County Schools I'm sorry we have water in the back please we would like to hear this thank you I'm sorry I apologize Begin Again good evening thank you I was saying that CTE is continuing to build a program Without Limits to provide opportunities for students in New Hanover in New Hanover County Schools well I don't think it's working um nevertheless last school year we had um over 15 000 students enrolled in our classes we had over 6 000 in middle school over 9 000 in the high school but we had an unduplicated enrollment of
1209 000 individual students so our enrollment Still Remains strong so research shows that students who concentrate in CTE courses by taking level two and level three courses are more likely to graduate and I can say that we have proved that true in New Hanover County that CTE concentrators graduate at the rate of 98 and that is a four-year cohort or five years if they're at a Cooperative Innovative High School [Applause] thank you so last year we had 1096 students that were CTE concentrators and those are listed there in the schools that those students graduated from CTE Pathways we have over actually it's over 28 we added some new ones we have about 30 now and in parentheses you will see our current student enrollment and we have about 168 unique courses that we offer here
121in New Hanover County and so what I would like to do at this time is show you just a few of our um Pat CTE Pathways because often CTE is the first step on the career ladder for our students and in our classes they got they gain Real World skills so here we see automotive services so whether a student is working under a vehicle or working on an engine they're gaining those Real World skills and skills in maintenance and light repair we have also leveraged a partnership with capital Automotive Group for a youth apprenticeship program students going through this program can begin their careers as automotive service technicians and as service writers as well so computer science and I.T we have students earn 533 credentials in Microsoft and in our Adobe Academy and students these
122are industry standard credentials when students earn these certifications they are actually ready to become Digital Arts digital artists and be graphic designers and even web Masters and so for drafting architectural and Engineering we have students who credential in AutoCAD Inventor and rivet these students can actually become surveyors that's something that we've heard from our advisory Council and for people like city of Wilmington saying we need surveyors they can also become civil drafters and construction managers at least puts them on the path so here you see in culinary arts we have Real World skills in motion we hosted our first annual cupcake challenge this school year and Harvard took home the trophy of course we had business and industry people to come out and be representative and represent as judges um Health Science we have students
123on certified in the CPR and first aid and in nurse A1 according to the U.S Labor Bureau there were 1.3 million individuals serving as certified nursing assistants so we are we're impacting that number and firefighter technology and Emergency Management we have students who are being having certifications earned in state has to be State Fire Marshals also in the National Incident Management System certifications 244 to be exact this will get students on the path to be working Emergency Management and as firefighters and um well we kind of changed this just a little bit but one notable mention is that we have started a teaching and training pathway which is in line with the um vision of the board to make sure that we have um Educators for the future of our students to receive high quality
124education and with hospitality and tourism we're in the process of garnering Partnerships with Hotel ballast and block a runner yeah okay so here's the slide here where we have that we have over 2 000 professional industry credentials earned last school year we have 760 thus far but we are still counting so we have these credentials listed here by program areas one other notable point that made um that we wanted to mention was we are number four in the state for work keys credentials I thought that was worth mentioning um because work keys is part of the accountability accountability model but we had 144 Platinum 142 in gold and silver 142 we are certainly proud of those students that earned us the ranked number four in the state entire state of North Carolina so at middle
125school we actually are very proud to say all of our Middle School Pathways align with our high school Pathways we have expanded Middle School we have a second agriculture pathway we have put in health science in our middle schools we have expanded to have um skilled trades at the middle school so the first time students who have Automotive is not in the Middle School and we also sent you a video because we wanted you to understand the context of what Paxton Patterson was we have installed a Paxton Patterson Lab at Murray Middle School it is going so well that we received an invitation recently to have a showcase by the vendor they want to bring other districts here to see what we're doing with Paxton Patterson and good news is we have more Labs on
126the way we're going to install two additional full Labs next school year at um Noble and at let's see it was at Noble and Williston so we're really excited about that we're also going to put in learning management systems at the other four middle schools so that every Middle School will have a little piece of Paxton Patterson so and we're looking to expand those in the future so the um so as you can see on the slide here that when students these packs and Patterson labs they do everything from fly drones to bake cupcakes and it helps with critical thinking problem solving and Real World skills and of course employability skills so I just said that we can keep going and I just said that thank you and so um also with Paxton Patterson we
127want to expand because the CTE we can do fifth grade career awareness and we want to bring this down to the elementary schools and we would like to Pilot at some elementary schools some modules we will provide the instruction and we will provide the actual supplies so it's like a little TurnKey package and we're proud to say that we are partnering with our elementary school in their career fairs and um guess what we're going to also expand Pastor Patterson to the high school so we're really excited about ctec having building skills and don't let the name fool you because it's a variety of skill sets that they will learn and we can either hire those students straight into our own maintenance program and we're going to also expand at career Readiness we're going to have
128the Health Sciences and just a little taste of the building skills and hopefully stem in the future and so more good news just full of good news tonight thank goodness um Novant Health Nova Health and Cape Fear are partnered with um with our school system Kate fear is going to provide instructor and Novant Health said we would buy the classroom equipment and the supplies and we're going to bring this program back to New Hanover High School and so we're really happy about that all right we've also been partnered with a non-profit called spark NC where our students learn um leadership skills and they have been participating in ethics and Leadership conferences and we're going to continue that with District C this summer and offer camps where our students can um participate and it's sort of
129like project-based learning but it's with our local businesses as well okay and with this Wilmington Chamber of Commerce there's a career leadership development Academy we have 42 students in the court cohort I am not going to steal the thunder tonight because very soon you're going to hear from the students themselves so you have to wait on this one and so on March 31st we're asking you to save the date we're going to do a C3 exploration event we're going to bring out career meaning we're going to bring out our industry people we're going to have colleges there and we're going to bring Community people and also at this event it would be a hiring fair so if your student or your child need a job ask them to come and maybe they can pick up
130a little work here okay and so CTE internships we have expanded these there was a time when we were only doing them at one school but now we've experienced students being from the Sheriff's Office to Live Oak bank and we have some of those are paid technology student help desk is in our schools NC State ports we've leveraged a partnership with them and even with Wilmington fire department where they're going to pay our students for internships and uh thank you if you don't have any questions or if you do I'll try to answer them why Mr Gervin come up we have another surprise for you um tonight that we're praying it goes very well we want to show you um we'll let you see it for yourself excited to hear about the Elementary fifth grade
131career fair so you can you talk a little bit what your vision is because I want to help make that happen for all of our kids in New Hanover County well sometimes my vision can be bigger than the resources that I have even human resources I'll confess that Dr Faust is saying um so um I would love to partner with all other schools and um our work based quote learning coordinator Mr Nixon is here he's working very hard to work with all of our schools then make sure that our CTE high school students are at those uh Career Fairs so that students can see older students doing that and so we're just looking to we're just going to make it happen without the earlier they get exposure the better thank you very much anybody else
132no thank you very much for your presentation and for your hard work [Applause] foreign so we'd like to take just a moment to share some pretty exciting additions to our programs to our CT programs and one of those new exciting additions we have is our transfer VR program that we're utilizing in our schools I will say this we are in the infancy of this new program so we're still learning a lot about it ourselves but we're excited about what this can bring to our students at the middle school and high school levels one of the things that we can see with these tools we have a lot of different options and different career exploration paths we can share with our students at the middle school and the high school level one of the things we
133have that's really exciting for our middle school students is that career exploration piece so some of the things we can do with our students working with manufacturing skilled trades warehouse stores hospitality and tourism Public Safety Automotive these are really great tools for our middle school students because it gives them a great taste of different career paths these are a career path that lead directly into programs we're offering at our middle schools but they're also leading directly into path career paths that we are incorporating at a high school level as well some of the more in-depth programs we have available for our students we look at our career exploration Precision measurement plant safety plant robot troubleshooting Automotive fundamentals the automotive fundamentals is really cool because we can have our students actually perform routine maintenance on vehicles
134they can put the vehicles on the lift they can change the oil they can change tires they can change brakes so it's a really neat experience for our students to give them an opportunity just to see what this to give them just that taste of something new something they may not have thought about that might be interesting to them so we're really excited about being able to offer this for our students how we doing Pat keep talking keep talking yeah [Music] so as you can see it's a lot more exciting with it on than um nobody's watching Pat you're good we're waiting I just wanted to give a plug for the career development and Leadership Academy that you all are doing in combination with the actually being hosted by the Chamber of Commerce and every
135month they go on a field trip to a different industry that is neat is hiring people and I am one of the as the the CTE representative I'm on those field trips I'm gonna tell you what these kids are bright and very interested in all the different kinds of things the questions they ask yeah a lot of adults in this room wouldn't be asking so I just wanted to you know commend you and let folks know that um when you said you were bringing it to the middle school level we are doing it um robustly and fun funly yeah very you know it's a good opportunity so the I'm looking forward to expanding that all right Pat we go here we go now we got it I gotta come on over Pat you get to
136do this this is cool oh that's awesome yeah I'm trying um okay are we changing oil here all right and as the students utilizing this you guys can't hear it in here but um she does have an instructor speaking to her and communicating with her kind of walking her through the steps we got it yeah we see it oh yeah we see it okay good thing I'm sure don't walk around too much there it is yep you found it don't forget your glasses [Music] you're close there we go there you go you got it hold on now your hands are protected this waste oil drain tank will catch the overload we're about to remove from the car and also storage the envelope safely until it can be disposed up responsibly I've already positioned it and
137locked the wheels the oil usually spills out at an angle not straight down so we should be good here we're going to use this socket wrench to loosen the oil drain plug before we remove the plug by hand this isn't a job you should ever use power tools for use the grip button on your controller to pick in the wrench to the drain plug on the car look up you see that blue there you go there we go you're on to it twist the wrench counterclockwise to loosen the plug this is a ratcheting socket wrench so you can wind it back and push it again keep turning you're almost there that's right that does it on a real car you should always make sure you use the correct size wrench so you don't strip the
138plug now you can set this wrench back on the cart [Laughter] [Music] now and you can set this wrench back on the cart he's really patient you can twist and remove the drain plug with your hand s now I'm just going to twist and remove the drain plug with your hand now you squeeze it that's it now you have the drain plug in your hand the oil normally takes a while well done completely sometimes several minutes a lot of technicians move on while the draining finishes but I'll just speed it up for you put the drain plug back now thank you you're real close there you go put the drain plug back now the oil drain plug needs to be tightened to spec I've already set this torque wrench to the correct setting in this
139case 18 foot pounds bring the torque wrench to the drain plug on the car twist the wrench clockwise to tighten the plug until the torque wrench clicks now you can set this wrench back on the cart yeah yeah I think now you can set this wrench back on the cart the oil filter removes contaminants from the oil to help keep the engine clean we change the oil filter whenever we change the oil use the grip button on your controller to pick up the cup wrench as you all can see Miss great crabo loves this um but we were told to call time yes because she's a great work she's an expert [Applause] thank you all so much for allowing us this time tonight thank you thank you and thank you thank you I'll be bringing
140my car to you next week all right we do have our principles ready I believe to go and then we'll take our break is that correct our principles coming forward now and then we'll take a break right after that ladies and gentlemen thank you for being here tonight good evening Dr Foust school board members members of senior staff the high school principals of New Hanover County wanted to clarify the circumstances that resulted in multiple concerns that were brought forward by families and about attendance during the EOC testing as high school principals we collaborate on dates to administer our teacher made exams we have not historically administered our teacher made exams during the same week as EOC and CTE exams because these tests require certified teachers to be assigned to test Administration responsibilities testing for EOC
141accommodations Proctors Hall monitors supervising students to do to do those responsibilities for those EOC and CTE exams so EOC and CTE exams require different levels of testing security and accommodations and more staff are involved in that process it's really a very large logistical accountability process we've got some pretty incredible assistant principles and testing coordinators at the district level that that help make all that happen um by having these teacher made exams the week before the last week of the semester this allows us to have staff available to take on these responsibilities for EOC testing which by state law must be Mis administered the last five days of the semester uh these EOC exams are considered instructional days and according to General statute 115c 378 article 26 on attendance student attendance must be taken when school
142is in session so New Hanover County Schools policy on attendance is aligned with that General statute and this fall we implemented a new New Hanover County Schools policy 4400 the new attendance policy this policy states that if students Miss more than 10 days of a school for a uh 10 days of school for a course they will be in Jeopardy of not receiving course credit I do do an attendance failure our EOC exam days are still School instructional days and attendance is required more students attended school on these EOC days than in the past as a result of these new expectations and attendance accountability compounded with Clarity communicated to families about the expectations on attendance during exams the high school principals communicated this to families in advance of eocs EOC testing through school messenger voice
143calls and emails on EOC test days if students were not taking EOC or CTE tests students were assigned to classrooms and spaces in the building with certified teachers to maintain EOC CTE testing security students were able to complete assignments study for upcoming exams and had access to teachers if they were not in testing responsibilities no new instruction was assigned because exams had started we realize in hindsight that we were not prepared to provide more meaningful instruction to students during these EOC CTE testing days these These are instructional days and instruction is required and attendance is required we are working with the district to establish a structure that will support engagement of all students during this testing time moving forward students will continue to have the opportunity to complete assignments uh and makeup work we are
144also exploring opportunities for College and Career presentations Service Learning job shadowing and Community speakers to engage students that are not testing during exam days thank you for this opportunity to clarify some of the circumstances regarding attendance during those EOC testing days we have any questions any questions from the board I I'm gonna ask you a question because I am the policy um chairwoman so feedback from me from parents have asked this question and I'm gonna put you on the spot to answer I guess um for our students if you get 11 days is the interpretation of the policy that no matter what they will fail if they miss 11 days in a semester no ma'am okay so there's a procedure for that we have attendance councils at each of the different schools and we're reviewing
145those situations in those circumstances that students have to be absent and so those those counsels are meeting to review those throughout the semester and at the end of the semester to determine if students should get credit or not get credit um and then even after that that process is is not over um you know we we're not in the business of not giving kids credit for classes that's not what we're about that's not what we want to do but we we do want to make sure that we are holding true to the policy um and that we are working together as a school to support students uh to get them to attend because we know if they're not in school they're not getting in the work they're not getting the information we've got what they
146need and we can give it to them we just want to get them there so there's a process for that okay thank thank you all for being here and I appreciate the work that you guys are going to look forward to um for next time at the end of this semester coming up but that was one of the things and I know Dr faskin probably you know work on this but on our inner city visit a lot of those people that were with us you know um would like to volunteer their time you know to you know for the job shadowings for you know in engaging not assembly kind of stuff but so you do have a lot of support um and Dr Foust can you know help be that manager but the thank you
147for um working on that and considering that and I'll Echo I'd like to thank four of you for being here tonight and for all you do uh is there anything that we or the community can do like is it that maybe if we got more Proctors that were free teachers up would that would that be you know helpful or is that not something I appreciate you asking that absolutely uh no we'd love to have you guys uh welcome to come into the building and help with that process uh and we we know we've got to reach out to our community to help us in making that happen uh so getting those volunteers and going through the right process success for volunteers to come and help yes we'd love to have support with hallways and managing
148students and making sure that we've got a secure environment for those tests any other questions if not again thank you very much for being here tonight thank you thank you we'll take a five minute break by my watch it is 7 33 we'll return at 7 38. it's a five minute break [Music] foreign [Music] thank you okay all right now [Music] all right with me okay um see you here foreign [Music] um okay friends [Applause] [Music] um foreign I could ask the board members to return to the dice like to go ahead and start up it is 38 after foreign [Music] if we could get the board members back please it is now 38 after it's actually 39 after let's be respectful of the time please [Music] we got three we need no we got
149four okay all right if we get that order please we will continue we have four board members here our next uh continue we have four board members back at Astros arrested board members come join us we will carry on where we left off our next item is seclusion and restraint is Farnham so I'm going to offer a clarification um seclusion and suspensions which is what the request was exclusion and suspension I'm sorry I'm just reading it here yep yep that's okay that's okay to give you a little bit of information I'm just in comparison the data that's been pulled not all of our first semester first semester data has been aggregated and re-aggregated so what I wanted to provide you was a comparison of through December which I think is is Miss Mason's request so
150with regard to seclusions First cumulative data through December of 2022 equals 58 incidents of seclusion keep in mind those are likely duplicated count of student so they're not that many students because there are less than 10 students in particular groups I'm unable to break those down by demographics any further because of [Music] protections of identifiable information in comparison same time frame in the previous school year foreign the incidence of seclusion by the end of December equal to 142. so 58 this year 142 last year for comparison suspensions and I'm specifically speaking of out of school suspensions and these are incident totals again they are duplicated counts of students so cumulative data on suspensions through December of 2022 is 1093. compared to December of 2021 at 2378. okay 1093 as of last month last year 2378.
151specifically though uh in this particular school year and that data because I didn't pull that as of December I pulled that as of semester data so it's going to be a couple off um K2 suspensions equal 21. and because those counts are much less than 10 I won't break that down by demographics either um but I will share with you that overall the um counts of I don't know I've got lots of pieces of paper here each of the 21 incidents involving kindergarten through second grade students comply with policy 4351 with regard to drugs and alcohol assaults and threats or other policy 43 33 threats to safety so I don't know if you have any questions I do I might it's nice um so there was definitely a drop um do we know what caused
152that drop so I think there are multiple factors this is the first school year that our schools are implementing their policy or the policy implementation for the school plan for the management of student behavior and they went through um that protocol of completing that school plan for the management of student behavior that really aligned with preventive factors and specific to their own School Improvement plan so I think that is um that's a big component to that anyone else yes Miss Mason sorry me it's it's me um so was there was there specific training based on the school or did was there General training across the district so that there's like consistency between the schools yes so um we consistently Implement um multiple layers of training so each school has the opportunity to request Behavior Support
153coaching and Behavior Support observations and intervention support prior to that though our teams that work with our students who have more significant risk factors in the area of behavior and emotional development participate in training through our special education and related Services Department that involves our teachers of intensive Behavior Support Services coming together on a monthly basis using evidence-based practices implementing those intervention plans monitoring that data so that happens on the whole in addition schools participate in different levels of training some of that's trauma informed some of that is you know implementation from leadership for the foundations of behavior leadership and implementing those multi-step processes in developing their safe and supportive School culture Barnhart I have a follow-up you're probably not going to be able to share this data right now but I would like to
154know if you're allowed to share how many of our teachers have been injured due to either a student interaction of sorts but I've heard instances were going to emergency room going to medec and so I think that's also good information for us to know so that wouldn't be data that I have on the student support side but I'm sure that that's something we can discuss as a senior leadership team Ms crabill I mean I just wanted to commend you and your staff and on down to the schools on the level of training and the level of fidelity that you have implemented what you told us you were going to do a year ago or more than that because it is not an overnight turn it's like steering the Titanic away from the iceberg and I
155think that's to your question Miss Mason that that is one of the reasons why the numbers are going down because folks have really had to look intentionally at their own schools the training that you provided and the expectations that you provided at their beginning of the year leadership conference for principals I just think I think that's one of the reasons because they have you and your department and all the principals have taken it to heart and are really work in it you know at all levels of the school so thank you for doing that and and leading that effort for us Mr McManus yeah conclusion for a long time in the implementation and the workshops that you did over summer my math life was a 93 suspensions yes 1093. I think that's amazing and what
156else as far as I do I do thank you again for all your hard work uh I know you come every day ready to go and work hard so thank you so much we will continue with third grade literacy uh Dr Faison and Miss Hill please Mr Wilbur I think okay let's uh Dr face if you could hold off for one second I I did skip over Head Start I guess so let's I'm sorry my fault so I I had emailed because I we didn't have on the agenda we just added it but the Head Start report from ending in December of 2022 this was from Johnson Pre-K Center there was 260 enrolled they had two areas to review and the audit was closed and all issues were corrected and reviewed Pre-K registration so if
157you're three or four years old February 1st was the kickoff for that um this I roughly we just talked about this a few days ago we served just over a thousand students which is amazing and so we have those enrollments open both in English and Spanish and a few let's I'm skimming as I go um the Community Partnerships I'm going to highlight that as Cape Fear Museum was in school field trips for clothing study they went to Brooklyn Arts Music Academy and the Ogden PTA volunteers Foster grandparents UNCW nursing programs and Pender County Head Start nursing and Smart Start and then kind of echo what you said at the beginning an awesome thing that a few of us were at a few days ago for the app seed that was a grant that was able
158to provide over 300 Pre-K students a device that will be able to track progress so when the students log in they're going to be able to collect data of what they know and you know sometimes when you're playing and clicking numbers tracking it but to kind of help translate that to fill the Gap because we know how data is important to see where students are growing and so while we only have 300 with this grat Grant and budget season this is important um the staff is available with us with the grant so that is good to know that we're not having to find that money since uh money is tight but to see where that where that works and hopefully expand it for all of our students to have access to it so and if
159Dr Faison needs to fill in I'm going to let her talk her about the map scene so well thank you so much I just wanted to add to that too is that it's an 18-month Grant and the students get to keep those devices and take them home with them and the um the school is planning on having a parent night so that the parents learn how to use the device as well and the reason that we're using it the um it's probably about as big as one of their um maybe not even as big as an iPad but it's it's a screen that a lot of you know students may already be using and it the enthusiasm of those kids in there just giggling and knowing their numbers and connecting their letters was really inspiring
160to see so um whoever whoever put that together and I forget who would probably Dr Faust will just go ahead and give him the credit um yeah and and Dr Faison um for making those Community partner connections but it's um it's gonna be awesome you know the things that those little kids are going to be able to do I was there for myself and it was awesome ladies for the at this point we will ask uh Dr Faison and Miss Hill to come forward please I will Begin by sharing some data with you in Ms Hill we'll talk you about how I'll just jump in and say that um our current Pre-K students are a strategic plan third graders so our strategic plan has 90 of our third graders reading um on grade level by
1612027. those are the students we saw yesterday in pre-k so we have to start you you can't start in third grade you have to start at the foundation at the beginning so I just wanted to highlight that so we were charged um to look at what would a 10 increase be for third grade reading for our district so I'm just going to share some data with you and then Mrs hill our curriculum specialist for literacy will come up and tell you what we are doing oops wrong slide I'm sorry it's the yeah I apologize it's the 10 increase slide so while we switch slides I do I do want to share with you just give you some context of the 115 districts in the state we are number 18 in third grade reading so you're
162going to see that we are 54.6 um most of the districts ahead of us are in the 50s there are a couple of outliers on the top district is actually a district with um maybe a little over 2 000 students but most of the districts at the top of the reading start in third grade reading are around the 60 50 so I just wanted to share that with you while we were waiting on the SATA so when you look at this trend data for six years you see where we were covet was real the covet loss is definitely a factor you see and that's not for just us of course it's for everyone you can notice that there is we don't have 1920 we do not have data because of covet So currently we are
163where you see 54.6 this is all in relationship third grade reading third grade reading for some factors that I want to highlight for you in that data first the reading standards change in 1819 the state about every five to seven years the state changes their standards and in 1819 they did this and we were supposed to actually test um the 1920 year but that was a covet year so we did not so when we did come out of a test and whenever we do tests we always across the state expect to see a dip the state also changed and we went to move to five achievement levels levels So currently we have five four and three we do not we and then we have non-proficient a lot of you may remember when we had four
164three two one so we also had hurricane Florence in 2018 and I'm telling you this it might sound like wow 2018 but those were those third graders so these are some of the things and that impact that sixth grade data now last year's third graders they were at 54.6 total overall proficiency we had um levels fours and fives which the state considers College and Career ready level five is comprehensive they understand reading in a comprehensive level level four thoroughly level three sufficiently and then you have not proficient foreign we were charged to look at moving our current third grade what does that look by 10 so the students that are and I don't even say so again I apologize the students that are actually in our third grade now I just want to give you
165some context of who those students are they are they were pre-K in Hurricane Florence we shuttered the doors on them when they were in kindergarten because of what covet in their first grade year they began remote instruction and some transition to the first grade in-person instruction in first grade second grade year was their full year of face-to-face instruction so just think about that the first year of for face-to-face just traditional instruction so what does the 10 increase look like if with our current students right now last year we tested 1886 students the number proficient was 10 28. you see we have 54.6 2B at a 10 um increased by 24.25 we would need to be at 60 and you see the numbers there and I won't read the slides to you of course we round
166up so of course that would be like 60.06 this would get us that this would have us um in 2024 um to 2025 a 60 proficiency rate I want you to know that the current um there's one District in our state now that is at 60 rate and they're number four that's how big of a it is it is a significant challenge we are definitely not saying it is not doable but it I want you to know we don't move numbers in a district at a lightning speed so please keep that in mind Mrs Hill will come and tell you what are we doing for our third grade reading and you're going to hear her say a lot about the foundational skills in what we're doing because remember our current Pre-K students are our third
167graders of 2027 so we cannot start in third grade we have to start now do you have any questions about the data before we switch slides I do my question would be I mean you said this is not not doable but this would be like the fourth district what would you anticipate if you if you think this might be a stretch what do you anticipate for a more reasonable goal if this is not it I'm not saying you know the reason why it's hard to identify this goal now is because covet loss is so real and this will be the only the second year we really will have test scores after covet so this year will tell us a lot about how quick these kids are closing the gap so it's kind of hard at
168this point because last year was just our first full year not saying it's not doable not saying that you know I we just don't know you just really don't know what the learning loss that the kids face if you think about their the um things they went through and last year was their first full year of instruction face to face with a teacher so um is kind of hard to predict what you know the normal things are out the window and I know people think covet but we're still with covet right now the kids there is not over for them not when it comes to learning loss and we have to remember that all right well I'm gonna turn it over to our reading Guru Mrs Hill good evening thank you so much for the
169opportunity to talk to you a little bit about what we're doing to support third grade reading um I love literacy and I'm excited about it so I'm going to try to contain myself um when I share the good work that I think we're doing so far because like Dr Faison said it's not just about the current third graders it goes above and beyond that right because we know we have third graders in our classroom now that we want to close those gaps to help get them to proficiency so we're going to work as hard as we can to close those skill gaps for them because of the learning loss and so we'll share a little bit about what we're doing across the district for that so as Dr vazen shared we all know our strategic
170plan goal I am sharing the good news with everyone I talk to about this is our goal we're working towards 90 of our third graders at or above grade level by 2027 and in the 20 and in the Strategic plan there were two strategies that were identified to help move this goal forward the first first was that we want to make sure that we're implementing and sustaining a high quality curriculum that's grounded in the science of reading and so that means that it incorporates those five pillars of literacy so phonemic awareness phonics vocabulary fluency and comprehension so we want to make sure that the resources we give our teacher are grounded in the science but also while we can give high quality resources all the time we want to make sure that the Educators in
171the ability are equipped with the knowledge because we know they are the ones who truly make the biggest difference with our students so we also want to make sure that we're enhancing and empowering all of the educational leaders in our schools our administrators our teachers and our school support staff staff so that they can deliver that high quality instruction in every classroom so as we look at our strategic plan just some of the things that we're doing as a district to lead this work and move it forward first and foremost is our district literacy plan and we're required to submit this to DPI for approval every year it's a part of SB 387 which is the excellent Public School act and this is basically just a guideline for our K3 instruction it tells us kind
172of what our non-negotiables are when it comes to our instructional block for literacy So within that we say all of our K3 schedules have to have 120 minute literacy block for our students it also talks about the curriculum that we're using and making sure that that curriculum is grounded in the science and I'll share a little bit about that in just a second it also talks about we've got to make sure that we addressed these issues at our core instructions so that all students are getting that but we also know that students come into our classroom and diverse needs and so we need to also make sure that we're meeting those individual needs in whole group instruction but also in small group instruction and so if a student's not on grade level what are we
173doing to support them and move them forward and then lastly it gives our our district some guiding data decision-making rules and that's really important we do a lot to check in on our students progress we assess them three times a year with Dibbles and while we want to make sure we get that data we have to make sure we use it so we put guidelines in for timely and consistent reviews so that that data goes into action so while we have this for K3 and we submit it to the state we also decided that we needed to do something similar for our fourth and fifth graders and so in our best practice document we created similar guidelines for them as well now the other piece that gets submitted to DPI is our literacy intervention plan
174and this is about how do we meet those needs for those students who are still at risk they're not on grade level yet right and that yet is so important and so we want to make sure that we have um uh resources again that are grounded in the science of reading research based and we want to make sure that all of our schools have access to that because we are a large district and our district is transient and so if we've got a an intervention that's working well for one school we want to make sure that if a student moves they get access to that intervention there as well so this intervention plan really allowed us to ensure that all schools have access to those research-based interventions and it also gave guidelines for how we
175do those interventions so the intensity and the duration of those so that was consistent as well and then how do we progress Monitor and check in with students so that we make sure we're responding to that in a timely way if it's working we want to keep doing it but if it's not we want to revise and look and see what else that student might need so when we talked about and identified in our plan about aligning our core instruction you know that first strategy in the Strategic plan the first thing that we've really kind of moved forward with is making sure that we are teaching those foundational skills in a explicit and systematic way so I'll talk a little bit about letters in just a second but the learning that our teachers are doing
176in letters talk so much in that first volume about an explicit and systematic instruction and so we needed to ensure that all of our students are getting that and so the first step for us and this has um probably three years back we decided every school needed to have systematic phonics and then we said if we were going to have systematic phonics it had to be the same program again because we're transient but also because we wanted to expand down to pre-k and our Pre-K students filter into all of our elementary schools and so we do foundations pre-k through third grade and that's a little different than most districts one we're exposing our Pre-K students to those letter sounds the alphabet and those keyword sounds that they're going to see in kindergarten to make them
177kindergarten ready and give them a leg up when they walk into one of our kindergarten classrooms and then the other side we expanded to third grade and we did this really in response to covid because we knew our kids had not had full years of foundational skill instruction and so we purchased that last year for all of our third grade classrooms but we know our current third graders also need that work and it's really Advanced Phonics that they're working on um so we do foundations pre-k through third grade and then we also do hegarty pre-k through third grade as well hegarty is our explicit systematic phonemic awareness program and this really came from our teachers so as our teachers were completing letters unit 2 which is all about phonemic awareness one of the things they
178said is foundations covers phonemic awareness but it's not explicit we need something a little more targeted and so our schools some of our schools purchase hegarty on their own they piloted it and they told us about the success that they were having and so we purchased it for everybody last year so Pre-K again exposes our students to that phonemic awareness kindergarten first and second are teaching it in their core and then third grade uses it as an intervention and then lastly we also saw that with foundations our students were doing a really good job of applying those skills in the foundations block but when it came for them to apply those that decoding um skill in real text they were struggling and so we needed to provide a resource that allowed them to transfer that
179skill to authentic text and so one of the things that we purchased is decodable text for them and decodable text is this text geodes it's 80 to 90 percent decodable and it follows the scope and sequence of Foundations and so if students are learning about digraphs and Foundations they're going to be able to read a book that has a bunch of diagraphs so they can practice that decoding so that was really important so K2 we are working to align that instruction now we also I'm sure you all have heard we are working towards a curriculum adoption for our core instruction for K5 when it comes to comprehension vocabulary and that's one of the things as we've gone through letters our teachers again are saying our curriculum doesn't match the science and so what are we
180going to do about it so as we're on that path to curriculum adoption we also can't wait we also have to give our teachers resources right now and so one of the things that I've created this year is this unpacking the standards document and it takes all the standards for ELA K5 and it breaks it down to get to one make sure that our teachers know the standards they have to know a lot of things and so we want to make sure the standards are right in front of them what are the skills we need to equip our students with at each grade level but then we also wanted to provide resources that were aligned with those standards so it was easy for them to plan during this in between time so we've supplemented in
181that way as well now that kind of covers that first strategy high quality curriculum but we also want to make sure that we're empowering and equipping our Educators and so it's really important that we're making sure that um all of our educators are getting that knowledge and the science of reading that's one of the things that we're seeing educator prep programs they're not coming out of college with that with that knowledge and so are all of our Pre-K elementary teachers and administrators are working through the letters course um we also are continuing to to provide PD in the resources that I just shared about so if there's a resource we want to make sure everybody feels comfortable with that resource and then we're just trying to listen to the teachers on an off day that
182they don't have letters training we're trying to offer optional PD if they just want to learn more and so as teachers are telling us what they need we're trying to respond to that when we can and then um we offer plenty of school support monthly instructional coach meetings and MTS for instructional coaches and our mtss coordinators and that's really to ensure that they have PD when they return back to the school that they can deliver to their teachers and really a lot of that work has been applying what we've been learning in letters so that they can have classroom application and then um we attend and support plc's and then the last column is the one that I'm most excited about it's that data review one of the things that I've really enjoyed being able
183to do is create these literacy profiles with our um schools at the end of last year we create I created a literacy profile for every school and it wasn't just about this is the data that we and this is what we know about your students it's what we're going to do about it and how we can respond and support our students across that process and so we'll continue to build literacy profiles every Benchmark and we will build our Moi one this Friday with our instructional coaches which I'm really excited about um so just really quickly our letters um you guys hear a lot about letters in our district we are really on the back end of letters for our teacher cohort we started in October of 21. um and they're actually going to finish this
184June and letters is truly it is a time commitment it has been a sacrifice of our teachers and um it is a lot of work but the other thing that we hear from our teachers is that it's been worth it that the knowledge that they're getting from this course it's what they didn't get in their college prep course and so um just you can look at the numbers but our Pre-K is a one-year course and in each of the letters course they have an online component so that's a self-paced online course that they're doing they attract they attend live trainings and then they also have a like a classroom application which is called bridge to practice so you can see Pre-K it takes about 38 hours to do that across one year and we've had
18573 participants complete that course and then for K5 that's a two-year commitment we have 829 participants and that's a total of about 87 hours and then our administrators that's a one-year course and we've had about 56 participants one thing I just want you to know about those numbers is that our district is going above and beyond what's required by DPI so DPI gave us funding for the majority of our teachers but we wanted to make sure our mtss coordinators all of our instructional coaches if a support staff member wants to complete the letters course we're providing them that access to it and our APS we're making sure our APS are going through that training as well so we're really making sure everyone gets that knowledge and then here's just truly a big celebration because like
186I said letters it's tough guys it is like a graduate level course and our teachers not only are they completing it but they've taken it very seriously and we should be very proud of the work our Educators have done for this so just take a look at our pre-test you can see pre-k this was like done before they completed any of the course their average percent on that test was 59 and then it's not right now our district average is 89 percent and then it was really similar for elementary for volume one two guys eighty percent is what we go is like what our a dream is and so the fact that our teachers are leaving their units at 89 we should be very um please so thank a teacher when you see them for
187their work and letters and then lastly I just want to share some student data that I really think shows that we're on the road um and so this is actually taking us back to last year and to 2122 because I think it's important that first year of letters while it was hard and it was chaotic the impact was already seen and so when we started last year you can see the national is it is that dark blue the state average is the yellow and then where the light blue New Hanover County started below the national state average at the beginning of the year on our Dibbles Assessments in every grade level but when we ended the year we were above every single one and in kindergarten especially we went we were 10 below the national
188and state average and we ended 10 above so I just really I am so grateful for our teachers dedication because while this work has been hard they are moving it into practice and they're taking it seriously and so I'm really um excited for that growth and then when we look at this year and this isn't a comparison of cohorts of of students but it's really well it is a comparison of cohorts but it's um and so you can see just where our proficiency has gone from last year compared to this year and so taking a look at first grade right last year 42 percent of our uh first graders came in proficient this year 50 of our first graders came in proficient and that is the goal that every year our kids come in more
189proficient so we don't have to make up that Gap and so that we can get closer to 90 percent um and so truly our next steps is we're we're going to continue to adjust our instruction based on our letters learning we're going to continue to seek our teachers input because they are the the experts and they're the most knowledgeable they're doing this work with their students every day so we're going to continue to revise our district literacy plan based on their recommendations we're going to continue letters we're not done at the end of this year all new staff or staff who want that learning we're going to give them access to it and we're going to frequently look at our data and move forward to respond in a positive way 90 feels like a lofty
190goal but I truly believe it's possible because I think we can be strategically urgent in the work that we do in our classrooms even this last half of the year and that's it does anybody have any questions from the board from his health I don't have a question I just experiments anyone else this Barnhart my only question would be how um how quick of a transition do you think I mean I know our teachers have a lot of training right now so we are mindful of that but as we transition to that new reading curriculum what is the time frame for that I know that's been a question asked of me when I go visit school so I'd love to know what the big picture is yeah so we are actually face and you feel
191free to jump in at any point but we um we actually put the RFP bid out um we got those proposals and so actually a team of of teachers and administrators are meeting tomorrow to go through those first and initial submissions so it should be a fast-moving process um this spring so hopefully by the by the end of the spring we will know and we will be able to bring a curriculum to you guys and I'll just add that one of the things that we have um is very important with this is the professional development for the teachers so that is part of the whole process for us because we have to make sure that our teachers feel comfortable with this we are moving actually faster than we actually want it to but our teachers
192requested this they have received this training in letters and to not have a curriculum that allows them to teach the way they know it's best for students is not something they're satisfied with so we're moving at a faster pace at their request Walker thank you thank you I guess my question is and thank you for the presentation in place for the student because I know that we have some schools that probably need more and because all the data is together we don't get to we don't get right and that's okay but there are students that make maybe ones or twos on eogs and maybe that are recommended for retention I mean are there plans for that I don't see it in the dead yeah so our inner our intervention Matrix which is part of our
193literacy intervention plan clearly outlines if a student struggling with this skill these are the resources that you're going to use and the duration and the intensity that you do that at and how also to intensify so if we're giving a tier two intervention in phonics instruction because we know that's a need for a student then if after a certain amount of time where progress monitoring at and that student's not making enough growth we're going to intensify that plan for them to see or change the intervention as well so we do have through our mtss process we have a very strategic plan for our students who aren't on grade level but I think it's also important to know that as we look at our data we also look at school and classroom data and our data
194decision making in our in our district is that if 40 or more of the students aren't proficient it's a core problem and we're going to address that at the core so we really work with our teachers to address that there as well I just wanted to um give you some feedback the um first of all this is a testimony to the highly qualified teachers that we have so any teachers who are watching give yourself a round of applause and a pat on the back because we couldn't teach with we couldn't teach the kids and make that growth if we did not have the teachers that were highly committed so that was an excellent statistics to share but I also too I love the word strategically urgent you know that we have outlined this plan um
195and you guys put a lot of thought into it and you're methodically moving right forward and I love how you use the plan do check act cycle you know using the scientific method as it applies to reading because you know just how how can we always get better but what I wanted to tell you was so I'm in Harris Teeter and I don't know how I got talking with my checkout lady but maybe I had a school board thing on or something and she was a teacher in another County but worked at my Harris Teeter and was asking me about how we got so good at letters and um so it was like oh well you know the line is building and I'm talking about our letters program so um she is probably going to
196be coming to our County and is going to be looking for a substitute teacher job so I told her how to do that but I just thought that was a credit to you that other people are taking notes on how well we are doing so thank you it was controversial in the beginning and it was tough and we plowed through um perseverance and did all the right things and so thank you for leading that effort thank you Miss Hill thank you very much for your time tonight and thanks for all you do we will continue on our next item is our consensus items we do have an amended Personnel report and uh is there any I would entertain a motion to approve the consensus items unless anybody wants to pull anything off I would like
197to ask some questions about the speech language therapy one okay so we'll pull that off speech language which is uh to do f okay we'll pull F off consensus items we do have a motion from Miss Bradford to accept the with the exception of uh letter uh f is there a second Miss Mason thank you second all a favor please respond by saying aye aye all post okay we will discuss uh letter F contract Amendment for speech language Therapy Services Coastline Therapy Group LLC your questions yes and this spawns because we heard I had a conversation about LPI and so um I'm just kind of gaining some consensus and making sure we're on the same page from me looking at this we are increasing the amount of speech there is best that we are having
198for our students and what what kind of capacity is it speech therapist speech pathologist like what are the groundings of these individuals coming into the school yes so that's a great question um yes we do have an increase the con increase to the contract amount we also though have um less speech language Pathologists employed with us right now so um I've pulled a couple of years of data and in the 2021 school year we had 34 employed and then we still contracted with three full-time and seven part-time in the 21-22 school year we increased to 36 that we were able to employ and again we will employ um those in good standing that are interested in full-time employment uh this is definitely a hard to feel uh role so in 2122 we increased to 36
199but we still at that point in time had seven contractors two full-time and five part-time in this school year we have only been able to fill 30 of our speech-language pathologist positions and we are operating 15 contractors which at an FTE or a full-time equivalent is about 8.5 so our contract amount is increased but we do have some vacancy savings so some savings from vacancies in the speech language pathologist and speech therapists equals speech language pathologist yep um so we do have a definite increase in our contracted Services we have less speech language pathology candidates over time and that's no different across we're no different from other districts across the state in the nation in fact we're in a better situation than most rural districts um and one thing we have learned post pandemic is
200that we have um less speech language Pathologists interested in face-to-face services for example within the school setting and we have less contractors interested in face-to-face preferring virtual therapies and that is a bit of a learning curve and a mindset shift for us because we are all face to face in the school setting with our students and the vast majority of our students that are experiencing speech services are our youngest students with developmental speech delays that are then able to be strengthened and Fade Out from those services so we have not necessarily found that to be a match at this time and that was my follow-up was the age range that we're seeing the most need and it's the younger kids so thank you that was it any other questions I thought I would entertain a
201motion to pass a contract Amendment for speech language Therapy Services I make a motion to accept the second second Mr Bradford all in favor please signify by saying aye aye or opposed one thing we did fail to do before we carry on is is to put where exactly we're going to have the additional call to audience uh it's not in there where would we what's the will of the board as far as where we would hear the additional folks um I believe the motion that I made was at the end of the meeting so after we get it all done before we you know do committee reports all that kind of stuff so okay all right that sounds good at this point we are at the closed session um what's will the board we want
202to hold a closed session I don't think we need closed session at this point because we haven't even had a chance to discuss what we pulled off so I guess I made a mistake in putting it in front of policy I meant it to be before we discussed or after we discussed policy 36 I mean 36 20. 36 20 which would be our next item yeah okay so we will carry on we will skip uh the closed session at this point carry on with uh policy 3620 and I believe Miss Bradford was the one that requested that be pulled off so we will start the conversation with Miss Bradford thank you Mr chairman after sitting through the policy committee meeting I have changed my mind and I moved to strike and replace the proposed amendment
203to policy code 3620 extracurricular activities and student organizations under Item B 5 5B 1A additional rules for specific activities and interscholactic Athletics I want to strike the proposed language that the policy committee came up with and insert the following students participating in Middle School athletics May participate only on the team consistent with the gender on the student's birth certificate unless in violation of North Carolina state law second okay look okay so we have a first and a second we had a motion from uh Bradford to strike and replace and we had a second from Miss uh Barnhart to do that now we open uh conversation uh about that so we will start strike and insert not strike I'm sorry strike and replace strike and desert sorry insert which Graybill I would like to make an
204amendment to that motion or I would like to make a motion on top of that motion before we discuss it that we the this entire board take Title IX over an overview training for Title IX Federal Regulation because it appears from the discussion among board members and among our audience that we don't understand the entirety of the Title IX um foreign the entirety of it and I think that we need to understand that um before we can make policy changes to that so my motion is to before we make any changes to the policy that we have training on the Title IX Federal Regulation in its entirety motion and innocent right we do but she's amending your emotion so I am amending your motion that is it's not to change the motion but it's to
205um so to miss Bradford's motion is considered a main motion uh there can be amendments to that motion you know up to two um what what I understand is crabill would be proposing as a motion to postpone is that is that the to postpone discussing that motion until we have training on the Title IX regulation in its entirety motion would take precedence over the the main motion so the board would need to deal with Ms crabill's motion which would require a second it's debatables and it could itself be amended okay so we have a motion from Miss crabill second Miss Walker I believe to postpone the conversation until after a Title IX uh training in the entirety at this point we will have opened the I will I think you already made your your discussion
206and I just want to add for those of us on the board who might be confused is we do have training on February the 16th where we will get training on the Appellate decision maker training so that and all of us have to have that some of us have already had it once but we need to have a refresher um and that is not what I am recommending that we wait for because that's coming up soon but um this training that I'm talking about is to be either done by you know Jarrell Lewis by you know Farrington Smith or by another organization that specializes in Title IX um law and um the regulation because we are in between you know from the Trump Administration to the Biden Administration there's executive orders out there um and
207that would help us understand what we're doing and what how we're confusing because we are confusing that we are neglecting to to understand is that Title IX talks about harassment and bullying and misconduct Title IX talks about the fairness and equal opportunity for women in academics and Athletics and Title IX also talks about other protected classes and we this policy and what we're trying to do is infringing into that third category and I think we need to understand that okay thank you would anybody like to speak against that motion and I dug in from the letter and it talked about Title IX protections and memorandum from the Department of Education I believe that we are fully able to do this without any further training and I I I I just I respect the member to
208my left's opinion but it is her opinion there's a lot of opinions out there and we can my name is Stephanie you can go ahead and say it we can debate this all night and we will never come to an agreement but there you know the the the the the Federal Department of Education released an internal memorandum from its acting general counsel that Stakes out the view that sex and Title IX refers only to biological sex and that schools do not violate the law by refusing to allow transgender students to use restaurants locker rooms or participate in athletics consistent with their gender identity so I will vote no for that would anybody else like to speak in favor of Miss crabill's yeah I would like to I just feel like um this came through policy
209with these words now all of a sudden we've not had a chance to look at any of these new words and in my opinion I don't know what that means in according to North Carolina law I agree I think we need training I think a lot of us need to understand because this is a very important decision we could be open up to lawsuits to uh civil rights complaints and I think that we're just going to just be switching words you know at the last minute it's not going to be helpful to this board and if we're doing things properly that means going through policy then that's where if anything it needs to go back to before we even make a decision at all so I mean if we're not going to go for training
210which I think we absolutely should then then it must go back to policy because I don't think we should just be making policy on the Fly Like This okay anybody else like to speak against it against the training against your your motion okay yes because we just had one Mr McManus I think if you read you read the rest of that they come back and include in them as being part of Title Nine Jason you help me out I'm not familiar with the the letter that you're referencing um I I don't have a copy of it in front of me I do know that there was uh notices of interpretation issued under the Trump Administration um that may or may not have been rescinded by the Biden Administration so I don't know the date of
211the letter or under what administration it was issued I'm not I'm not just looking at Mr the letter to Mr McManus I went and dug out the memorandum from the Department of Education from the acting General Council from 2021 and that's what I'm referring to and to Ms Walker's point I'm just taking this back to the status quo before this policy was changed in June of 2021 it's not new language it was on the book for a long time board members could ask you to turn your mics on please thank you why don't you just say over just strike at all then I just don't understand that I mean if that's your motion I just don't I don't I mean it came through policy and I think it's being changed again and I don't think
212it's right to do that I feel like we should talk about it more and we definitely should know what we're talking about like I know our attorney has given us a a council on this already and I think that what was said and I hope I don't over speak here um we were advised that you know if you're going to do a policy that strikes it we're probably gonna be open up to lawsuits and if we put a unless we put a process in place well that looks to me like the process I don't think this is appropriate so point of order yeah should I not should I stop yeah it's it's excuse me we have to be recognized by the chair yeah again uh point of order we had and it is um what
213council was what told us in uh closed session is not to be discussed up here okay well that's fair but at the same time I just feel like to the point of this we're we're doing we're changing words all the time I just don't think it's proper procedure okay miss crabill one more time so number one if Mr McMahon has got a letter and only shared it with one board member and I'm not saying that's what happened I'm just saying Miss Bradford is is suggesting that Mr McMahon has got a letter shared it with her she's now reading it and changing her mind so if that's the case then that's wrong um number two is that um either we go into closed session right now so that um Jason um our attorney can guide us
214or if Mr Lewis is on the line if we can invite him in to give no okay um so I think we need to go into closed session because it's obvious we don't understand what we're doing we're all pulling up the we're all the I am having a very hard time with making a policy decision when we don't understand the entirety of the law okay and so I recommend I'd like to make another motion on top of my other motion why can't I to go into closed sessions you're out of order why because I said you are well I can appeal that let me pull let me pull this up and pull an appeal your decision to say I'm out of order I want to know why I'm out of order because you cannot make
215a motion on top of motion on top of motion yeah but board members from a procedural perspective you know there's a motion to postpone that's on the table it's been made and seconded um if a if a board member wanted to make a motion to go into closed session prior to doing that a member could make a motion to lay the question on the table temporarily so that the board may enter closed session and then return and upon return you'd be coming back to Ms crabill's motion to postpone so can I make the motion or somebody else have to make motion I would recommend that someone else make them I will make the motion to lay this on the table until we've been in closed session to discuss this we have a motion to go
216into closed session let's let's start that one lay it on the table um we do need a second for that laid on the table until after yeah okay we have a second second okay uh the majority has to to so we'll take a vote Miss uh great um Miss Bradford no Miss Barnhart Miss crabill yes Miss Mason yes Mr McManus yes Miss Walker yes and Mr wildebear yes so it passes we lay it on the table so now we're going to entertain a motion to go into closed session I make a motion to go into closed session to protect attorney-client privilege the motion would be to go into closed session pursuant to General statute 143 318.11 A3 to consult with the board's attorney and preserve the interior client privilege thank you I would like to
217make that motion yeah but first we have a second from this uh Barnhart all in favor please think if I was saying aye aye aye all opposed 7-0 we're in closed session thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign series each other foreign thank you foreign words foreign you see you tomorrow foreign thank you very much foreign thank you foreign thank you people alrighty that was good oh yeah foreign yeah ladies and gentlemen ladies and gentlemen back in Open Session uh we left off at Miss crabill's motion to um postpone the debate until um training is there any further discussion on that ocean Mr Woodward I have spent a lot of time the reality is this is still a gray area I mean we have a board an old board that was split by
218you know separate with political parties and it's not it's not a one-size issue and so while I will absolutely undergo training I don't think it's necessary to be able to make an informed decision on this topic thank you anyone else like to discuss it I just like to add one more point is that um there is no organization um or or job that we work at or are a part of where we do not strive to educate ourselves in the best way that we can to be thorough in our decision making and all of us know how to read all of us know how to research but all of us are not capable at this point to understand a complex Federal Regulation such as Title IX because there are there's nobody up here who's talking
219about the three different factions that I outlined and we're getting all confused in the difference between the two this policy that we're even trying to talk about is about middle school and yet we continue to talk about high school it doesn't apply we're talking about Middle School and I think that if we had a person a professional Title IX expert either from the OCR from from our own school system from Farrington Smith or from um there's an excellent lawyer her first name is Elizabeth I can't think what her last name is who speaks to the ncsba at every law conference about Title IX there are a lot of experts in our field in this field that can help us understand the nuances and just because we read and interpret doesn't mean that we are interpreting
220it correctly so that is all that I want to add is for us to be professional and get all the training we can to make the best decisions for all of our students thank you the motion in front of the table on the table right now is to uh delay the discussion of the debate and to get uh further Title IX training Miss Bowie um I would like you to call the roll please on that I am correct yes you're right thank you that was a good restatement Miss Barnhart no Miss crabill yes Miss Mason no Mr McManus yes Miss Walker yes Miss Bradford no and Mr wildeborg no as defeated so we go back to miss barnhart's um Miss Bradford I say that twice I apologize Ms Bradford's motion uh would you like to
221restate your motion please sure I moved to strike and insert in policy code 3620 extracurricular activities in student organizations under Item B additional rules for specific activities number one inter Scholastic Athletics adopted June 8 2021 we're going to strike the language that is there and insert students participating in Middle Middle School athletics May participate only on the team consistent with the gender on the student's birth certificate unless in violation of North Carolina state law and do we want to put an effective date on that or are we going to leave that open um we had a first we need a second is there a second well we already did yeah we already did I'm sorry it's a long time ago I guess so we have a first and second Mr McManus so to make sure
222I understand this correctly if this passes tonight those students involved in a present sport would have to quit is that correct we do have some students that we're aware of nobody knows I don't know who they are but I mean so they would have to be they would have to turn in a uniform tomorrow really what we want to do that's getting awfully low folks I mean that's kidding that's that's amazing I would like to make an amendment says the floor okay I apologize Mr Smith you have a fork go ahead I would like to please him in that to send it back to policy to be worked on again because I just feel like this is making it off the cuff and we need to talk about it some more the wording and we
223need to consider our students that is what we're here to do so I would please like to make an amendment to the motion to send it back to policy so we can work out more details second thank you all right so we have a second a first and second to send it back to policy is there any discussion on that who would like to speak in pi in favor of that I just have a question because I'm the policy chairperson this is a split situation so I would like to know what detail and direction do you want me to come up with in policy because I don't have very many options and so to put it back to policy I'd like to know what you want to get out of it Mr chair can I
224answer that well I watched the policy committee meeting and I didn't I personally felt that there was not enough information you guys were making policy and you were adding words like we're going to have a panel and we're gonna now it now it's come here and now it's changed again and I and I feel and I really do feel like a detail was brought up about our current students right now and I think they have to be considered and I feel like that is super important here because after all that's what we're here foreign Miss Bradford every person I talk to about the gesture that was made to the policy committee that we go with the high school option every person I talked to said no way no way no way there wasn't one person
225in this County that spoke up and said I want to go that route we'd have to put on extra staff we can't put on any extra stuff we're cutting stuff that option became immediately moot when when the lights went off in this building exactly that went moot it's not it wasn't an option so there's nothing else to discuss trying to take it back to the status quo it was before it was changed in 2021. that's you're not you're not suggesting the status quo you're suggesting on the birth certificate you're suggesting you are amending what is is currently there it's not removing it that's what I'm saying so when I watch the policy committee to Ms barnhart's point I I felt like even with the information that was given it wasn't considered and now all of
226a sudden there's new changes that none of us have been able to look at the board that you need to speak through me not to each other um well Ms Barnard asked me a question and she was looking at me and asking she asked if you could ask a question but I have a question for you if I could um would you feel better about this you know maybe passing a policy to this evening if it did have a time you know a effective date maybe the beginning of next year why now I'm not sure I'm totally disgusted with what was just recommended that we're going to throw kids under the bus is one thing to have a make a decision just another thing cut somebody and watch them bleed that's not necessary these kids
227were allowed whether I agree or not these kids were allowed to try out under the policy that said they could now we're going to change the policy so we're going to tell kids that can't drive that are 17 and they turn their licenses in tomorrow Mr wilbourne one second yes ma'am you're only allowed to speak twice until after everybody gets a chance to speak so I'm sorry I'm sorry go ahead so going back to policy number one Miss Bradford is a member of the policy committee so she is usurping the whole rest and using her policy committee standard status to change to miss barnhart's Point what do you want her to do it's not up to you as the chair it's up to the three of us to talk about that this is not your
228policy and several of the things that I brought up that we have all talked about were dismissed very dismissively and very smugly and so I don't feel I mean I'm going to say the same things when we go back to policy but the thing is we have a procedure we have a policy committee whose job it is to bring forth these things and not to usurp the policy and make changes on the Fly that we have not had a chance to read and our central office staff and our legal counsel has not had a chance to review we we had to talk about that at the policy committee meeting because we got ahead of ourselves so I just think it is not appropriate for us to be creating policy from the dice that is why
229we have committees and so this is the second attempt by you miss Bradford and I'm going to go ahead and call your name out it's the second attempt by you I can call out a name of my of my colleague my colleague to the right one two three seeds down is attempting to usurp our policy Mr chairman I spent some time in the last week trying to determine if there were any students that this would affect if it went immediately with girls Sports the answer was no because of the federal law that requires we can't tell you those things we can't put it out there but I would not yuck a kid out of the middle of a sports game and say you can't play I researched it I feel confident in what I have
230here that it would not hinder any child in the middle of a sports game it's ridiculous to think that I that I would but I appreciate that that you're upset about that but it we don't have anything that this would affect I wouldn't be wouldn't have made it this way we're just we're a divided board we're a divided community and those that oppose just want to drag it out as long as they possibly can in hopes that something will happen we're divided we need to go ahead and change the policy if it goes back to the policy committee it'll be right back here the same way it is and a month will have gone by is this a delay tactic I believe it is I missed all right last one Miss Walker thank you um
231I just want to say they're not things they're children and it they do need to be considered in this case and I I feel like I agree with Mr McManus in this case there are real lives and real people and I don't I feel like on one hand we're saying that uh where we pass this is not going to affect kids right away it absolutely will we've already established that so there's one reason to send it back to consider at least more choices that we have to not hurt these children that are playing right now yes sir oh go ahead I just wanted to throw this in as well is that our ethics policy 2120 and our training that we had with the ncsba said that board members are not supposed to be investigating situations
232that we are supposed to give our feedback to the superintendent and the superintendent and his staff will do the investigating so I I I'm really we're really borderline on asking questions to meet our personal and our religious and our political beliefs and not following our own board policy 2120 and that's not a board Norm that you voted not to follow it is our policy that we do not investigate the superintendent that is what we charge him with yes I I followed board policy I'm going to actually answer that I mean you're you're on one hand saying you're asking us to get additional training and so if somebody looks in you know reads stuff themselves I can't believe that that would be against you know investigating going as as the video shows as following a bus
233or investigating a a school that's not in my opinion that so all right so in front of us right now we have the motion yes yes sir Mr chair if I can raise a procedural point of clarification Ms Walker's motion was framed as a motion to amend it has the effect of a motion to postpone which still takes precedence over the main motion but the effect would be to postpone consideration while it's referred back to policy committee okay and do we I'm sorry do we get a second on that yeah okay Miss crabill okay let's vote on Miss Walker's motion to send it back to policy Miss Bowie Miss Mason no Mr McManus yes Miss Walker is he um where are we at um Miss Bradford no Mr wildebor no Emma Barnhart no that's defeated
234we will carry on with Miss Bradford's motion and would you state it one more time so we are all fresh with it I moved to strike the proposed language and policy code 3620 extracurricular activities in student organizations under Item B additional rules for specific specific activities number one interscholastic Athletics that was adopted June 8 2021 striking paragraph 5b1a and inserting the following language students participating in Middle School athletics May participate only on the team consistent with the gender on the student's birth certificate unless in violation of North Carolina state law I'd like to we have first and second on that I'd like to make an amendment you've done one I'll go ahead and remind you I'd like to put an effective date on that of beginning of next school year do I have a second
235second there we go first and second so the motion again is to follow Miss Bradford's wording but to make the effective date instead of immediately beginning of next year um I just think that that in case there are any students that are playing right now I do I understand Mr mcmaster's Point um and I think that that would be give them an opportunity to maybe use a grievance policy if they so choose down the road um is it is there anyone that would like to speak against that this cradle I would like to amend that motion to say that the students that are currently playing are grandfathered in and that this policy goes into effect for the sixth graders beginning school year 23-24. so you're saying only for sixth graders huh are you saying only
236for sixth graders or anybody I'm saying that any any transgender student who is currently playing is grandfathered in and this policy goes into effect that goes into effect for all students entering Middle School in the year 23 24. so that we're not kicking anybody out and we're allowing them to finish and then if this policy passes then it goes into effect next year beginning with the sixth graders okay is there a second to that there's a second for me okay so we have a first and second to um grandfather grandfather and anyone who's currently playing and um also start the policy for everyone in sixth grade is there a discussion back and forth on that yes ma'am Mr wildebeer when I was in college I coached and I raft at a rec league and I
237coach volleyball one year there was a team I lovingly called them the Misfits because they didn't have a coach and I was a collective from all the kids in the organization and two of them were boys I had a sixth grader and a seventh grader Jack and Patrick and they were awesome first game we played crushed it and we had a late Comer in the season another boy who signed up didn't have a team to play with so they put him on my team because the other two boys were on the team we just wanted everyone to play and every single game that season my team killed every single other team in the league sixth grade boys killer overhand serve one of them went on College play on college ball the other teams in the
238league were seventh and 8th grade girl team volleyball that would come to the rec league to play an off-season and the result of that season was the reckley did not allow those kids to play because it created an unfair Advantage it was done with the best intentions okay and I say this I love those kids I was their coach man so this is not an easy thing this is not a religious thing this is not a political thing this is something that when we're writing policy we have to look at the Fallout for the effects of our decision and I say this in both ways this is not an easy decision but I cannot in good faith say that I'm providing accountability and overlooking that unintentional consequences they're just six great boys right versus eighth
239grade girls who cares I saw it firsthand and they had to change the rule because of that oversight and what I fear is by allowing this there's at some point going to be a Tipping Point we're not going to know when it is how many it's going to be but when it comes we're going to say Oh shoot what did we do and that's what I worry about and so I it's not in a way to be ugly or but it's this is a very sensitive topic and I understand that I think if we're looking at accountability looking at biology is the least subjective way to do it okay Ms Walker oh so um I would just like to say this policy has been in place for almost two years now and no complaints um
240I don't understand what this change is unless it's something political because we haven't had any issues the current policy aligns with Federal Title IX law and our training students are protected class of individuals revoking it will open us up to potential litigation board members um they're proposing well we're going to strike this part because yoga has took out the panel which is a very good thing to do um but as far as I've been told no other board members have reached out to any athletic coordinators and talked to them about what's going on and how they're doing the process and the fact of the matter is their parents are involved and we're ignoring that whole conversation as well and the last thing I just want to say is like we really are talking about children
24111 12 and 13 year olds and I want to speak to the lgbtq students and their families right now because regardless of this discussion regardless of some of the ugly language that has come out of this this meeting tonight you absolutely do matter so do not think that is not true and I want to say we know about depression and suicide rates of lgbtq students we did a survey this last year that absolutely told us that there are issues that are going on right now and I will just say you need to know that there's a very strong community that supports you guys don't forget that and if you need help you can you will you can get help so I just want you all to understand that I don't want you to think that
242you were just nothing because you're something thank you Miss Walker Miss Craig but would you restate your motion please can I add one more comment first one more comment the I just want for those of you who are familiar with the Halo Hoops organization um founded on religious beliefs they pray at every before every meeting every game and they are allowing transgender students to play in their league so I just needed to say that the um my motion is crap oh my motion is to grandfather in any transgender students that are currently playing and beginning in the 2023-2024 incoming sixth grade class this policy would go into effect okay okay and we had a second so it's a two-parter please call the roll do we Mr McManus yes Miss Walker yes we have Miss Bradford
243no Mr wildebor no Miss Barnhart no Miss crabill yes and Miss Mason no as defeated for three which goes back to my motion to amend uh Miss Bradford's motion uh to to begin next year I believe I did have a second um with that uh wording that Ms Bradford had is there any other um discussion on that if not please call voting on the amendment this is voting on the amendment what the we're voting on your Amendment my Amendment which is to delay the um the beginning of that until the beginning of next year Miss Walker yes that was yesterday right correct not not for the total thing right it was right right because this is an amendment we're voting on she's looking at me funny again the the motion on the table right now
244is to delay until the beginning of next school year it's in fact because Miss Bradford's motion is the primary motion right right you're voting on an amendment to miss Bradford's primary motion she's just clarifying that it was the amendment not the total motion right okay and you said yes and I said yes to that Amendment Miss Bradford I'm gonna abstain point of order I don't think we're allowed to abstain I believe we give me one minute and I could pull up your board policy on voting because it's my impression in Robert's Rules of Order that you have to have a conflict of interest in order to abstain so you would have to State a conflict of interest policy 2342 a board member must vote on all issues unless the member has a conflict of interest
245or is unable to remain impartial in a Judicial matter before the board and can I actually change my motion at this point can I redirect redact my motion and change it no I guess we can yep no no okay all right no Mr wildebear yes Miss Barnhart yeah Miss Graybill yes Miss Mason yes and Mr McManus yes that does pass six to one and we're back to again correct six to one we're back to the the motion in front of us from Miss Bradford and that is once again please thank you strike thank you strike and insert strike the proposed language in policy code 3620 extracurricular activities and student organizations under Item B additional rules for specific activities number one interscholastic Athletics adopted June 8 2021. striking the proposed language and policy committee Amendment 5B
2461A paragraph 5b1a inserting the following language students participating in Middle School athletics may only participate on the team consistent with the gender on the student's birth certificate unless in violation of North Carolina state law discussed this already so miss will you please call the roll Miss Barnhart yes Miss Bradford yes Miss Graybill no Miss Mason yes Mr McManus Miss Walker no and Mr World of War yes passes four two three Mr chair before we move on there's an there are several other changes to policy 3620 that we have not discussed tonight and I wanted to make sure that everybody knew that um several were made by the ncsba which we voted the policy committee to include and we also if you go to section B additional rules for specific activities number one interest collect interscholastic
247Athletics in the third paragraph in the last sentence the last two words we voted to strike or scrimmage and that didn't make it to the in the assembly so my motion is to strike those words or scrimmage second um I'd like to pull off item policy 3300 okay we have the policy 3300 pulled off which is school calendar and time for learning are there any other policies that need to hold off if not I would entertain a motion into remaining column 720 40 78 20 and 2302 I make a motion a second close second person second all in favor hold on hold on I'm sorry the um policy 4720 before we get to that the the policy committee recommended what they did but I would like to pull that one off too so that we
248can individually vote on that 47 20 I'm sorry 47 20 and 3 300. again [Music] okay we will look at 3 300 First okay so in in policy 3300 let me get to it the um when we when we were talking um in the in the calendar I mean in the committee um I am fairly certain that in section B where it says the calendar committee will draft school calendars that we inserted the board advisory calendar committee as described in policy 2230 will draft the ensuing the ensuing school year and we did that because we wanted to make certain that everyone knew that the um that policy is describes the makeup of the calendar committee and made clear that the it was a board advisory committee and not a board committee yes okay and then
249so two things we have to and that we in letter b the first sentence should read the board advisory calendar committee as described in policy 2230. we'll draft the school calendars presented for approval and going with that we need to add in cross-references board committees policy 2230. so I moved to put those in to this before we approve it by saying aye aye 4720 survey of students um I concur with everything that was written in there but I wanted the whole board to draw their attention to the fact that we were making every survey that we have and opt out versus an opt-in that is a 180 flip from what our previous policy was so I just wanted that to come to the board so they would make sure that they had understood what was
250added in there any questions on that I do have a question do you mean every survey had to be an opt in survey meaning parents had to say you you have to have permission with every single survey that's that's opt-in she did opt out okay did I say it the wrong way yeah you did I'm sorry because what it says in here is that the parent or eligible student must be given the opportunity to opt out which means that students are not in which means that it's opt-in yes I am questioning I don't believe that the we're not going to get clear data we're not going to get true data we're going to get skewed data if only certain people and in fact we may not even get any usable data because we already we
251heard from the principal at that meeting that it's really hard to get the information back that teachers have to use their time you know to call and email to even get surveys back so it's it just seems to me that it's a it's a it's a way of hindering the school system to get information that they need to do their jobs yes Walker thank you um I um I guess my question is why is every single survey have to be that way what was the logic behind that because I feel like staff they give surveys it's I know it's this is probably pointing at the survey we did last year which we got a lot of good data from but but then there's a lot of surveys that the school does all the time so
252I don't know I don't know why this is always opt-in and I I'm going to speak to you know I remember because I was one of those teachers that had to because when we had you know sixth seventh and eighth grade we had to get with all of the um parents and it was sometimes you know a pain in the neck to have to do it but I mean it was important because we want to get parents that you we want to get make sure parents are aware of what's going on I guess for lack of better work um so okay so are you making a motion here miss crabo or are we just going to discuss okay okay all right very good okay Mr chair okay before we vote can I just ask is
253it appropriate to ask the staff well how much this is gonna cause for issues I mean are there some surveys that are done for for for Grants or I mean I don't I don't know what this is going to do for that is there any kind of implications for everything to be opt-in can anybody answer that I don't know I don't really know what um surveys you guys give I mean I'll answer to either name um yes there are certain um situations and certain funding that requires us to have a certain response um and then there there would also need to be some discussion at a point about making sure that there's a distinction between surveying students with regard to certain curriculum materials and then whether initial questions at the beginning of some types of
254programs are formative assessment or survey so I think that's going to need to be a discussion moving forward is that something that we need to codify or um we just in ordering it as we go in in order to um Implement policy I would be more comfortable if that is clarified because there are some programs that we Implement that do require um pre-tests but are really not about an instructional skill level but about a healthful living curriculum standard and some of those might be misinterpreted as survey when they're really pre or pre-assessment in order to measure for post assessment and again we do those for projects that we have grant funding for would it would it be worth descending this one back to policy to discuss further with the ex with our experts I would
255say can I make a motion to do that I will make a motion a motion and I'm gonna just gasping farm would you you're saying that you would feel more comfortable if we send back to policy to go well I'm saying I feel more comfortable being compliant with the policy if there was a greater understanding of specifically what is considered to be surveyed versus what might be formative assessment or pre-test or pre-information on Grant funded programs okay we have a motion do we have a second second okay um all in favor please signify this is a motion to send it back to policy to um give greater depth to the policy and more understanding uh we have a first we have a second all in favor please signify does anybody have any more discussion just
256anybody have any more discussion besides me I don't want to be well is there any more discussion though from your point okay as I said let's uh uh say anyone everyone who feels it should go back to policy please signify by saying aye aye aye anyone opposed okay it'll go policy 4720 will be referred back to policy um and hopefully Ms Farnham can give us uh you know exactly what she needs to help her thank you all right at this point we are done with policy consensus so we'll go on to approval of alternative school calendars for the 2023-24 school year and we will get Dr Faison to come forward please [Music] so I will just highlight a couple things that we are really proud of that we were able to do with the calendars
257this year first and foremost all of the calendars have August the 23rd as a district PD day and that will allow everyone to be a part of when we kick off our professional development for the district so that was the specialty schools have often felt left out on those things so we're really happy about that and um all of the spring breaks align with the traditional calendar besides of course C-TEC and wex who are with the cfcc so really um I think we have some calendars here here that will really help our families but at this time unless there's some questions I ask that you approve the specialty calendars so the schools can go about their planning does anyone have any questions about either or any of the threes me calendars in front of us
258take a second to come over if not I would entertain a motion to approve so moved it's Barnhart approves so many emotions Bradford yes do we have a second second thank you Miss Mason all in favor of approving the three calendars please signify by saying aye all opposed carries seven zero thank you thank you board uh we are moving now we would be moving to committee reports but I believe this is the point where we will have anyone else who would like to speak we'll be speaking uh so miss Bradford thank you thank you yes it is late sorry yes it is Bradford please uh okay you know the drill is Bailey bring still here going once not going to drag this out Mildred Whitaker foreign Gail major don't see her Catherine Madison don't see
259her John two he's gone Aubry Andrews we could do this the other way if you've signed up just raise your hand Eden Avery please come forward protect our children that was one campaign slogan of the newly elected board members speaking as a social worker mental health professional former educator and parent please understand that what you just did was not protecting any of our children it was harmful the debate you have opened up allowing such vile language to be spoken by yourselves and members in this space was disgusting frankly I don't have that written but I had to interject that we know it's really not about sports the unlawful and harmful impacts of the policy that you just voted into place have been made clear we have heard the heartbreaking statistics about how vulnerable lgbtq students
260are and we know that just having these debates and the policy that you just voted in makes them even more vulnerable yet sadly this obviously has had no impact for some of you and how you are making decisions so I ask what about the other children in the room maybe even your own children who have been listening to you listening to the words spoken here today because we know that all children are listening to us and what are we saying to our children when they hear adults use hateful inflammatory language to describe their gay and trans peers what are we saying to them when elected leaders choose to rely on personal biases gross misinformation and scare tactics to enact policies which are discriminatory and Target already vulnerable groups when you do that you are indoctrinating
261our children in hate well I'm I came here tonight to tell you that we were delighted that four of our schools did not 42 of our schools did not seclude a single child I came here tonight to say that that suggests that 42 schools successfully used positive behavior interventions and supports to help our children with that that were in crisis I came here to say kudos to our teachers and our staff and our administrators for working to create a supportive school classroom climate which is a gold of the 2.1 New Hanover counties strategic plan I stand Here and Now sad disappointed when I'm sitting there I'm thinking of what it was for me as an African-American and grew up in a segregated South where I was not even allowed to go to a library that
262was in 10 minutes of my house and the reason that people had those ideas of Oppression and had me not be able to go to the water fountain that said white on it and my mother had to teach us when we were traveling because it was life-threatening to make sure we didn't go into a bathroom that said white rather than black there was no Humanity there when I sat there tonight and I listened given my experiences I felt that there was no Humanity in that conversation you have said that you want to create a more supportive school and classroom climate do it time is up thank you Tracy Bannon not here Donna Garrett your get Donna get I'm sorry I'm tired toxic inflicting trauma this is how my 13 year old sums up her school
263experience here's a list of things that keep me up at night the image of a six-year-old girl in handcuffs at school haunts me and it should haunt all of you bullying harassment and discrimination in our schools the high rate of seclusion and restraint that continues to Target are special ed students with IEPs and black students the lack of strong policies to protect our children from cyber bullying I'm concerned about the focus on our LBG LBGTQ students your reasoning for updating the policy is nothing more than a campaign promise at the expense of our students and the missing piece of your reading program is acknowledging the one in five students that have dyslexia all of these are a hundred percent preventable but it's going to take each of you to put our children first to think
264about the most vulnerable population that is protected by disability law and Title IX and to uphold these laws by protecting the schools and providing the right resources and students and treating them with respect and dignity you will have a better outcome with relationships collaboration and problem solving than you do with control conflict and physical violence we need to change this mindset let's end seclusion and restraint and put best practices in place I challenge each of you to do the research let's address cyber bullying head on with strong policies I'm after prevention because the escalation of cyber bullying is leading children down a dark path to self-harm our students teachers and parents are counting on you to keep themselves training and commitment thank you thank you George fallasset George felicit Earl Glover Chad Whitaker Chad Whitaker
265Ellie Klein [Music] Mr Robert Bellamy I'm here in support of our children and keeping babies out of handcuffs and restraints I want to explain my actions and what I think is in the mindset of a six-year-old girl I wrote a poem our school resource officer really scared me in my innocent little world I am only a six-year-old girl I acted out and was locked up in handcuffs the resort officer was big and really really tough and because I didn't calm down on time he treated me rough I mean really rough my mommy was upset and cried enough is enough enough is enough the resource officer only took it as a bluff so he huffed and puffed thinking it was okay to put a six-year-old girl in handcuffs those cuff really hurt my wrist my mommy
266told them I did wrong but there was better ways of handling things like this my mommy is still pissed she says seclusion and restraint should never have been on any list she said my future is at risk and that kids are on the pipeline to prison when you treat them like this my mom still insists that's why she told me to hold up my fists another child at risks another black child being dis disrespected physically affected this has got to be corrected so stop trying to neglect it board members Mr superintendent what's your objective I was here tonight and I saw officers when I saw the uh incidents that was going on over there in the corner I don't think anyone should have been handcuffed but I think it should have been more controlled just
267like they control their little girls does it take um the last name I have is Betsy seaweed it's Betsy here did I miss anyone going once going we can't uh thank you at this point we have our committee reports I did not receive any committee reports but would anybody like to share oh okay yes ma'am it's Bradford she's not still here thank you um the January 23 curriculum committee meeting report um under the supervision of Dr Patrice Faison Chief academic officer led by Dr Lowe DeWalt director of curriculum and instruction this meeting focused on the literacy intervention plan dear to my heart one of my starred notes was that they were discussing teachers focusing on basic fundamentals that are best for kids leading the discussion which included addressing reading deficiencies and student buy-ins was our
268own Marine Hill who was who is our lead teacher in Reading who was here earlier tonight at the podium and Jennifer Brewer Lead Teacher m t s s for those of you who don't know mtss stands for a multi-tiered system of support a framework with a tiered infrastructure that uses data to help match academic and social emotional Behavior assessment and instructional resources at each and to each and every student's needs mtss is designed to help schools identify struggling students early and intervene quickly it focuses on the whole child the previous meeting in September had focused on the learning targets for students including visual tools the next meeting is May 22nd where we will hear from CTE I'm looking forward to more career Readiness this meeting is open to the public and online any other committee
269meetings thank you Mr Bradford um if not any correspondence did anyone would like to share no we do have several announcements the policy committee meeting will be meeting on Tuesday February 14th 10 a.m at the Board of Education Center on 1805 South 13th Street the general public will have the option to view remotely on nhcs-tv YouTube and the March regular board meeting will be held on Tuesday March 7th 5 p.m at the Board of Education Center also 1805 South 13th Street the general public will have the option to view remotely at the nhcs.tv YouTube station hey Scrabble do we have a date for the agenda review we do miss Bowie so would you like to follow the same schedule that you had for um that we had for this meeting so therefore that would be
270on Tuesday February the 28th I share correspondence with you earlier this afternoon in regards to planning two meetings on that day as soon as I hear back your response and I can proceed with scheduling those meetings I will get back with you on the second one but that will be the 28th I'm sorry yes ma'am thank you very much um unless we have anything else we will I don't believe we need another closed session so at this point I would entertain a motion to adjourn to move to adjourn Miss Mason Mr Bradford all in favor please signify by saying aye aye we are adjourned you wanna stay here I'll sign in you sign or you just want to take it back okay all right okay so I like everything at your side so foreign [Music]