001so far okay thanks um mystery of Shield's info I'm gonna go ahead and get it out so we don't have no more he's got a whole binder here presentation but I need to remind him it's like two minutes all right I've seen it but he says it's good stuff yep okay he didn't give me 10. series thank you okay for the truck yes how are you in here foreign [Music] and if we just sit down now um foreign yes at least until 11. if you need to excuse yourself and go home you can well no here's the next time foreign okay here about what yeah thank you that's good um yeah I think that was just a curry favor with you [Music] um thank you perfect we've got invited guests that was so much fun
002okay ready everybody writing that in good evening everyone the October 2022 regular meeting of the board of education is called to order Miss Bowie will you please call the roll good evening Stephanie craville here Stephanie Walker here Stephanie Adams here Nelson Boyer your Judy Justice here he McManus and Pete wildebear also okay um welcome once again to the New Hanover County Board of education's October regular meeting thank you for joining us in person or in the remote viewing audience we value and appreciate your interests and your participation and your advocacy on behalf of all New Hanover County students and staff for those in attendance would you please take a moment to silence your cell phones we have an unusually heavy agenda tonight as a courtesy to and respect for the time of my fellow board
003members the New Hanover County School staff and the community at large I will try to move through it as quickly and as efficiently as possible that means I will stick as closely as possible to the estimated times to keep discussion focused and on point you can see the estimated times for each topic on the agenda and you can watch the countdown clock in the upper right corner of the large screens to see how much time we have if it is the will of the board and we do not finish tonight we can discuss the remaining topics at another meeting I'd like to remind all of us to treat each other with dignity and respect throughout the whole entire meeting so that no matter what our thoughts and feelings are about an issue or even a
004particular group or person the board can remain focused on completing the governance work so necessary for our students and staff and schools to be successful disruptions to our meetings will not be tolerated just as they are not tolerated at any other of our local government body meetings and rules of common courtesy and professionalism remain in action that said people who are disrupting the meeting will be asked to leave if this happens you can view the meeting via live stream on New Hanover County Schools YouTube channel or later or later on the YouTube channel so now moving into board business is there a motion to accept the agenda so moved is there a second second okay any discussion yes I would like to add to the agenda okay okay all right I would like to add
005an organizational meeting to the agenda okay is there a second there's a second um any discussion oh yes definitely I think we absolutely need this for those up here that aren't aware um this is the way that you uh reorganize the leadership on the board uh I think that at this point our chair because of numerous in the last two months alone behaviors that have been literally an embarrassment to the board that we need to look at possibly that behavior so that behavior includes last two months and properly trying to adjourn a meeting and then conveniently nobody got to see it but we did when she threw a temper tantrum and yelled in the face of other board members um and then she had to get called back she threw away Roger's rules had to
006be called back and corrected I think it was by the lawyer and said we had to return and continue our meeting that was just one event then we also had the disaster with the calendar uh us there's at least four of us up here that wanted to meet in August in order to avoid what's going on right now with the confusion over our current calendar instead she intentionally kept putting it off and putting it off until we weren't able to meet until the middle of September and now it's still to a certain extent a disaster because we haven't come to conclusion and even more com more confusion has occurred and then probably the most egregious event was the current chair attacking a staff member who was assisting students that came to speak to the board
007that is something that as our we are they're well we're the employer of we have one that we have oversight on that's our superintendent but then below that are literally 3 500 people and to attack one of our employees in that manner publicly is an extreme fear puts fear into our other employees for retaliation and other events she has not publicly apologized I think she did Apologize individually that person but she I don't think she's considered publicly apologizing uh that is only one of many events she's yelled at audience members she's violated people's uh constitutional rights she had to apologize for that then she's very consistent in how she handles the call of the audience at one point she'll tell somebody you cannot read pornography and if you do I'll send you out and then
008she turns it around and ignores somebody that reads like three or four pages of it this is a real problem with this board behind the scenes we have been subjected to manipulation lies constant confusion about what's going on almost intentionally and that's why I myself am calling for this now there's seven people up here that experience this on a regular basis and I know at least four of us up here have expressed continually continuously the problems notice the look on her face right this is the kind of stuff that we have to deal with constantly this is a very respected position our schools are the most to me the most important organizations in our community and we need to have role models for our students I see them sitting here now and that has not
009happened since she's been chair in fact it's deteriorated okay any other comments I just have one thing to add I was very concerned and I brought us up with other board members about and the incident that happened in our special meeting I don't want to leave this meeting without saying that I immediately disagree with how it was handled I know she did apologize to this staff member but I just feel like it is not the way to set precedence for this board and I don't think it's a civil way to treat staff so that's all I'm going to add to that um Miss Adams I do not feel this should be added to the agenda because it does not directly impact our students and schools which is what we are doing and I am tired
010of the distraction of these types of behaviors from our board okay any other comments all right um I have a right to follow up according to Robert's Rules we have wasted more time over the last year with the behind the scenes maneuvering that keeps putting things off point of order the board is whether or not to add an organizational meeting that is the question this body is considering okay um Miss Billy will you please call the roll Miss Justice yes Mr McManus no Miss Walker yes Miss crabill no Miss Adams no Mr Voldemort no and Mr bullier no okay so that motion um does not does not pass so we will meet any other items to add to the agenda okay um all in favor of adopting the agenda as proposed say aye aye any
011post okay that we're moving on attended a debt agenda adopted next we have um our presentation no we have our invocation the invocation tonight is being given to us by Socorro Costa from the Latino Community liaison at Christ Community Church thank you welcome thank you [Music] I invite you all to join me in prayer the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. he makes me to lie down in Green Pastures he leads me beside the Still Waters he restores my soul he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me Your Rod and your staff they comfort me you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies
012you anoint my head with oil my cup runs over surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever father I thank you that you are here your spirit is here that you are the Good Shepherd I thank you for each person that is present in this room tonight for whatever the reason they're here tonight I just ask Lord that you would be with each person because you know each one of us you know our hearts you know our lives you know the things that we are passionate about the things that we love so I just pray God that for each person that needs to walk beside the Still Waters maybe because life is pretty chaotic these days or for those
013God who are hurting and broken and need to have their stores need to have their souls restored for those that are walking through the valley of the shadow of death I need to be comforted I pray that you would be all things to each person here that needs to feel your comfort I thank you for each board member that is here I thank you for their willingness to serve the public and to serve the schools and our students our children who we love so so much and I ask tonight that you would lead and guide that your presence that your peace would be in this place because we have a lot of love and we have a lot of passion and sometimes that makes it difficult so I just asked God that your peace would
014reign in this place above all things I thank you that we can trust you and that you will lead in God and direct me pastor in Campos de Verdes pasos cancer nombre amigo controls the Ramos performance sobremi Cabeza images Nosotros videos amen thank you next we have the presentation of colors the Laney Air Force Junior ROTC under the command of Colonel Harrison Smith and master sergeant Bruce C please present the colors [Music] foreign [Music] are you ready [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] thank you now we'll have the Pledge of Allegiance led by our board Vice chair Miss Walker I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much oh
015okay Crystal thank you so now before you leave you you can't get away without being introduced or introduce yourself thank you I'm Alex Vetter I'm the Hoggard High School orchestra teacher and these are my students awesome students I'm Cassidy Thompson a junior and I'm honestly for salad a freshman and we would like to thank the take the opportunity to thank you for inviting us we really enjoyed playing for you this evening got goosebumps it was awesome thank you so much [Applause] I'm marate van kemko and I'm 12th grade I'm Cameron ganat uh many high school afjrotc I'm a sophomore I'm Logan Reese afjrotc I'm in 10th Grade I'm Ileana McDowell jrtc Laney High School I'm in 11th grade [Applause] and um Colonel Smith and master sergeant C if you want to just give a salute
016or wave yet thank you for thank you for bringing your your Cadets to be with us tonight thank you okay so next up on our agenda is recognitions um Russell Clark from our Communications Department will be doing that for us absolutely [Music] good evening board members Dr Faust Madam chair the New Hanover County Board Vice chair Stephanie A.C Walker successfully completed the advanced leadership corpse ALC training offered annually to select local elected officials by the school of government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ALC is an intensive leadership development program designed by the school Center for Public leadership and governance the week-long residential program is a dynamic experience that helps participants learn about their leadership style Inspire others to work toward a shared vision and gain insight into working together to build
017better relationships and Achieve far-reaching results more than 155 local elected leaders from across North Carolina have completed this selective program since its Inception congratulations Miss Walker [Music] foreign I would like to give the floor to board member Judy Justice for a tribute to a former educator hello everyone thank you for coming this evening and I'm just going to remain up here because I'm in front of everyone um recently I believe it was September the 12th a local education icon Florence Warren passed away unexpectedly she had been ill but this is not I think what anybody expected I know I just talked to her a couple weeks previously and I was pretty upset and shocked she actually grew up in Hillcrest she was a graduate of the greatest school Under the Sun Williston in 1963. she
018was one of the first five black graduates of Wilmington of UNCW at the time it was Wilmington College and then she teaching science she started teaching at Williston she was only able to teach one year before they closed Wilson down sadly because of the situation going on on desegregation on a national level here that's one of the responses the local board at the time did they close Wilson down which was heartbreaking for her she talked about that quite sadly and openly she went and taught at New Hanover for about three or four years and worked for the city often on with some educational programs and during that time she actually ran for school board I found out I hadn't known that she wasn't successful so she's got a pretty good amount of votes then she
019went back to Williston and she was there for 35 years and what's amazing about Florence is she wasn't just a fantastic teacher and I know that there's many in here that had her at a teacher but she was also a mentor and a teacher of teachers and she was very dedicated to changing the lives of these kids and instructing and helping teachers be able to do it when she wasn't able to she worked actively in the community for social justice for equity in education I met her here my good this four years ago the first night I was sworn into the board and she was I believe she was still working at the time in the schools and she was absolutely fantastic as far as assisting me understanding what was going on historically um and
020and the relationship that we were still working on here locally to try to bring back bring about the social justice and equity in our schools that we desperately need one of her observations and sadly this is something we as a board need to focus on and something she worked for was that we our schools we segregated over the last 15 years and that was heartbreaking to her and she noticed that it wasn't just along racial lines it was also economic lines and that's one of the reasons we have these struggling schools now and that's what she was working on when she passed I was going out in the community and trying to bring about change so we could change that in our schools so you know that was a very brief tribute to Warren to
021a Florence Warren in 19 I mean 2019 she actually received the Centennial NAACP education award among the many awards she's had and she ended the last couple uh years of her life she was working actively with her church too and a lot of local organizations that brought about a lot of positive change in our community so you know just I would actually like to take a minute for myself and everybody else just to reflect on Lawrence's Contra Florence Florence's contributions to our schools and the great impact she's had on some of the students as I said and definitely the teachers here tonight so I'd like to take a minute thank you so um our our condolences to the family of Miss Warren thank you Miss Justice for that um very sweet speech next up on
022the agenda is approval of the minutes do I hear a motion so moved second um any discussion okay thank you I got that thanks um all in favor say aye aye any post okay the minutes are approved um next up on our agenda is student voice and with us tonight are our student voice leaders and their current student Ally Shala Harper and Mr Johnson if you'd like to join them at the podium okay so this is a little unusual tonight that we don't um this this is a policy for second reading that a new policy for second reading and we usually do all these together with policy but this is going to be the new Landing place for student voice so I wanted to be um that's hysterical the I hope the cameras are getting
023that the um so the um and just in case you're wondering what we're laughing at there there are student out there's adult Ally Who Um recently um resigned from New Hanover County Schools to pursue some other interests um she is with us I'm sure she's watching from Italy in the middle of the night so the normally we do not you know do the policies at this time but I would like to since you're all here give you that opportunity um is there any um discussion do you want to add anything more to your policy based on any of the meetings that you've had okay are there any questions from anybody on the board okay I had one question that um maybe just for you all to um consider at a later point in letter D
024number one b um it's it's highlighted in yellow where it says includes representation from all high schools and middle schools and I just wanted to remind you that middle school students are not currently a part of the superintendent's advisory Council so that will be something that your team will need to work if Mr Johnson and Dr Faust I'm not going to not approve it because of that I just wanted to bring that to your attention um and then the one on D2 you see the red line where we took the assistance of the chief Equity officer out as a selection person that will be something that you all you know will work out and he doesn't need to be your committee picker and um that was all I had one question I I think I've
025read it correctly but we're not at this point saying that the a member would be a voting member of our board because they they were never allowed to be a voting member because it's not in our in our um State Statute so that's why you cannot officially vote um but and they declined the offer to be on the dies with us um in lieu of being members of other committees um is that correct okay all right so um is there a motion to accept to adopt policy four zero zero four as presented moved with pride okay we got a couple shoes in there first you came in second sliding in okay um any discussion all right all in favor say aye aye any post okay so you are approved [Applause] [Music] you guys will have
026this same spot after approval of the minutes on our agenda and anything that you need to report out you don't have to report if you don't have anything um save us five minutes but um but we always welcome your voice and um Mr Johnson will coordinate that for you I'm sure yes yes Mr Johnson did say you know maybe we should put only as needed I mean Mr John did you want to weigh in on that because I know they're on our agenda permanently but maybe sometimes if they don't have anything is that what you brought up yesterday about maybe as needed or is that doesn't need to go on there yes um just to clarify it now I just want to speak to you guys as well um you do have a standing spot
027on the agenda um but there might not always be something yeah um so in that case it's going to stay there but there's not an obligation okay welcome to the team officially okay [Applause] thank you so much you're very welcome okay um next on our agenda is information part one and for those of you who aren't in who aren't um that is something new on our agenda what we are going to start doing is having part of our information where we have invited guests um move that to the front so that our invited guests can can come and leave we value their time for that so first up is um the Novant mou the Health Sciences program Dr Faison um Hello thank you um there has been a couple questions so we actually have um
028Mrs Barbara Burke from DPI with us tonight who is an RN and over the health science division of CTE we also have um Holly Reynolds who is the director of professional development and nursing education and Mrs Amy Acres Chief nursing officer these ladies will we just providing us some information and we're going to start with Miss Burke to just highlight or point out anything that's different with going to Novant versus our lawn care facilities so Ms Burke I'll turn it over to you thank you for allowing me to be here um there's actually no difference between the students completing their clinicals that are in the nurse A1 Training Program at a long-term care facility versus a hospital they still have to check off on the same uh 15 skills that they'll require to show that
029they are competent in performing those skills on our actual live resident or patient it's just that the place that they're performing in it does change they're still supervised by RN who is approved to be there with the students okay all right and um I I don't know Miss Justice do you have a comment you have a question Ms Burke I certainly do have a question I have documents from the 2021-22 school year for the nurses aid training program and I guess it's Nats what they call it nursing fundamentals and practicum practice system I'm not sure how to pronounce that word but the point is there's 64 skills on here and there's only um from understanding your your if they are functioning in a acute facility then they're only able to check off on those 15
030skills and not the required 64. is okay so those skills that first of all the purpose of nursing one training they have to be taught how to be a nurse aide first of all we're not teaching them to test or anything they're taught to work as a nurse aide so those 64 skills that you see are the skills that they have to check off in the lab not all of them they will check off them some of them are taught for example we don't have for your lists in a high school life we don't have stretchers those are not expect to be taught uh to be checked off of on page three of the nursing training summer sheet those are the skills that the students have to check off of and they only have to
031check off of 15 of those skills which includes things like a basic uh complete bed bath feeding uh assistant to ambulate which to have to have a instructor with them to do that so they're not expected to check off on all 64 skills there's an addendum there's a second sheet that you don't have I have the addendum here uh I'm all and I see those skills I believe all together there's 24 of them yes um my concern is in a with our past contracts with the um I guess you call them nursing homes that we can call convalescent homes and other names um this is for long-term care facilities that's the proper term all 64 of these skills weren't checked off previous they were with our nursing I I've got copies of it with our
032with our schools with the programs that we had in place before the contract with Nova Nova they were signed and checked off those skills were checked up in the lab part three of the nursing training summer sheet are the skills that are checked off in the actual facility the students can attend a long-term care they also can do their skills check off at a hospital they have to be on medical units which generally will have a larger population of the elderly an orthopedic nursing unit a rehab hospital for their clinical well aren't they I believe they're doing their clinicals through these programs I'm not an expert but we do have some experts I would like to get more information for them in order to understand why the difference between what's going on this year and
033what has happened in the past and in the past they were using this format and they were successfully going through all these skills required and now you're saying they just need 15. in the past so students always check those 64 skills on in the skills nursing lab either on mannequins or with each other they are only required to do part three of the nurse aide training summary sheet which includes those 24 skills and they have to do 15 of those or more if they can get more okay thank you Miss Birds hang on for us um if you would um and I'd like for Dr Faison and I would just say um that and I'll bring Novant um up here but our students still will be at a geriatric facility it still would be Jerry
034they will be working with geriatric patients um I'm sorry it's not a matter of geriatrics there's a difference between acute and long term okay I will bring up Mrs Reynolds and Mrs acres to address that thank you Miss Akers for being here with us hi I'm Holly Reynolds I'm sorry that's okay um so as was discussed we do have placement in the hospital and we do plan on putting them in our rehab facility the majority of which is geriatric patients for them to get checked off on those 15 skills we have been successfully doing this with Brunswick County schools for a number of years now with no issues we're excited about this partnership with New Hanover County schools and about bringing those students in and don't anticipate having any issues um the students will successfully
035be checked off on those 15 skills with their instructor they would be assigned to those geriatric patients for the purpose of being checked off on those skills okay any questions for Ms Reynolds well I don't know if it's for instance Reynolds or not you want to hear the third speaker and then ask your question just to make sure okay um do you have a third speaker for us tonight okay and does Miss Futrell need to add anything or okay all right I would add one thing that I wanted to add it um we've heard our staff's concerns so we do have a plan in place for this spring where we will have an outside nurse we are working with Mrs Burke to actually bring our students to Novant to do the 10 hours of clinicals
036there keep in mind our students have 40 hours of clinicals we're just asking right now that they get 10 because Novant has a program if our students do their clinical their nursing if they've become a nurse I'm sorry a CNA they will actually pay for them to be a nurse so we don't want to take that Opera opportunity away from our students but we've heard our staff so we have for these 10 hours that the students and this this is the spring this spring right we will have 10 hours they will go we're going to start with 10 hours during the 10 hours where these students are with another nurse at Novant our teachers will be collaborate rating with the nurses at Novant we have not we want to share I want to share this
037with you guys first before we even share it with our nurse but that is our plan because we've heard them but we do not want to take away this opportunity for our students so we've got a plan in place for the spring for that and also any questions about all three of us sure this was brought to us I guess as an opportunity for our students I guess the feedback we've gotten so far that it it's kind of messed with the program that was already doing well um say it again I'm sorry yeah which part didn't you hear you say something about a program is doing well well I'm saying I figured the program was already doing well I think we had a very established program that has been doing well I know we teamed
038with Novant but the feedback that we've gotten well at least so far um and I guess it's just a situation with one of the schools maybe more we haven't heard um but I will move on from that for a second one of the questions was about liability insurance for nurses and um from what the feedback we got was that they don't get coverage the nurse instructors don't get liability insurance and they're not comfortable with that is that correct so and um Miss portrayal Mike can speak more on it if I she shared all of our teachers have a certain amount of insurance no matter if you are the culinary teacher with knives or if you are the fire teacher you have a certain amount we are looking to make sure because Novant has a particular
039amount of insurance that their teachers I mean their nurses our teachers will have to have we are looking to make sure if they do have to have additional Insurance the district will cover that as well okay so that's something new that we haven't heard yeah um Miss Justice yeah I read the document they have to have a million dollars themselves of their own personal liability to work there I do understand that our nurses that were running this program for one of them a decade very successfully if not longer have resigned because not just that but they're expected to go down on their own time and work with Novant without being paid in order to be allowed to be in the hospital and work with the students is that do you know anything about that so
040what we did was I mean first you want to make sure teachers are comfortable so Novant offered that our teachers could come and spend some time so we were going to pay them for um you want to talk about the program we were going to pay them over the summer so they could have that opportunity good evening everyone um yes we were going to pay teachers teachers get curriculum development pay but any work that teachers do outside of their regular Duty we have to pay them for that so it was always the plan to pay out compensate our teachers even for the training was that next summer or this summer it was last summer if they had taken advantage of that opportunity they were going to be paid well and we shared they weren't aware
041of that opportunity because they're the one that had contacted us said that they were going to have to do it without they're without being paid on their own time uh I think that's illegal I don't think we can work people without being paid well I agree but but we always compensate our teachers we have other teachers working this summer and they were all compensated so we wouldn't have treated Health Science teachers any differently and the orientation that Novant requires for them to come and do like four hours they will also be compensated for that as well all through CTE dollars thank you Miss Futrell the um I just wanted to add something in that um since some of these concerns have been coming up I had the opportunity to talk with a number of um
042nurse aide alumni that have gone through these programs that we have all acknowledged are working well and asked them what they thought about the opportunity of being able to go to the hospital and every single one of them said they thought well that might be a little scary but wouldn't that be cool because that's where I'm probably going to work and so I took that to you know and then listening to the opportunity as um as just a more of a a support for what we're doing so I appreciate the fact that you know you guys are Forward Thinking and looking at that and Miss Byrd thank you for coming in um our expert from DPI we appreciate you all so much um for looking out for all of our students in North Carolina um
043and so that we can look out for our students in New Hanover County okay and Mr Barnes said one thing he wanted to share foreign good evening just to speak there was a concern and allegation about possible retaliation for our nurses for any employee if that's ever feeling like that in the interest of transparency and security they can just contact me directly and we'll help them deal with that thank you Dr Barnes appreciate that okay um any more questions another question any comment Miss Walker thank you thank you I was just going to say if this is a year-long mou correct we signed it this year Well I guess we I think we signed it like in the spring actually yeah well it might be worth the I mean evaluating make sure the program is
044working out for students because if it was working before obviously we want to make sure it keeps continuing to be successful and if I guess it's up to the board to look at that mou and make sure that everything's going well we did sign in office sorry yeah thank you okay thank you well I appreciate the time there and the um no action was needed on that information only all right so next up we have um JC Rowe and principal Morrissey and Julie Farnham to give us a little presentation about the fabulous things that are going on at JC row right now good evening I am really excited to stand here and then hand off the mic where'd you go hand off to principal Morrissey um I feel like I've had the great opportunity to
045kind of work alongside her for many many years since she was a special ed teacher and moved through her growth in that and then through Administration so I'm really excited to share I'm going to give you just a little a brief one or two um sentences here and then I want her to be able to jump in and tell you all about what she is able to provide through her leadership within JC Rowe so in accordance with board policy 3470 and 4305 because you know I really like to cite policy I live in the policy manual there may be a period of time in a student's educational career when an alternative learning program placement needs to be provided to address certain social and emotional needs and we also know in that in that placement our
046academic programming is of the utmost importance so students may be transferred to the Alternative Learning Program on a voluntary or involuntary basis and it can be under many different circumstances and involuntary placements are what we offer in lieu of long-term suspension for the majority of our cases and those are a disciplinary reassignment but we have probably a record number of voluntary requests for the Alternative Learning Program at JC Rowe which is something that parents are seeking and our administrators are having those conversations with them so that Miss Morrissey and her team can establish an individualized plan for these students so I want her to jump in and then we'll answer any questions you have so hi I'm Kim Morrissey I am the principal at JC Rowe this is my second year as principal there um
047so the first thing that I've really been focusing on is trying to change The Narrative of JC Rowe I've been in this County for 15 years I'm quite familiar with what people think about it and I think that it's unfortunately because they haven't been exposed to all the great things that we have to offer um the infographic unfortunately you can't see the whole thing but yes so we have a couple different programs there the short-term program um last year 144 middle school students and 95 High School students these were students that were suspended from their home school so they actually came through JC Rowe and got to sit with certified teachers to work on their classwork that really helped with that lost instructional time EC students are also provided their services while they're at jcro
048we do have three EC teachers on staff and para Educators while they're in short term we also do daily SEL lessons we try to focus those around the reasons that the students were suspended or other things that the short-term suspension teacher will notice that's going on in the classroom we do have technology available for all of our students that are there and then it's also an opportunity to make up work a lot of times students that are suspended have gaps they've been suspended before sitting in ISS this gives them an opportunity to make up the makeup work to really get back on track before they go back to their home school then the second part of what we do is our transition in the Alp program that Ms varnum was mentioning so last year we
049had 29 students so it's a great small student to teacher ratio we did add last year a full-time mental health specialist which is huge we also have a full-time counselor and a full-time social worker so part of what we do with that program is we also have daily SEL lessons we do exit projects where the students talk about coping skills they've learned and ways that they can be more successful back in their home school we have transition meetings with the home schools we make sure that they have people in point of contact to go to we also have a full-time behavior interventionist that will pull them for small groups and social skills lessons and then this is also the potential to serve all middle and high school students in the county so that's like a
050great out opportunity for students that are struggling in a Traditional School environment then the long-term program last year we had 57 students we do offer through that program 14 core graduation requirements taught face to face I think the first misconception is that the students are sitting on the computer all day we have certified teachers they're changing classes we did our master's schedule so it mimics the home school so they're used to sitting in 80 minute blocks so we're truly really trying to make that transition as smooth as possible we have also multiple credit recovery options a lot of the times the students that come to us in high school or have been retained or missing some credit so we offer opportunities to work with certified teachers on those things daily SEL lessons for them also
051and small social skills groups then we also have a really strong school-wide Behavior expectations we have daily Behavior charts there's levels that the students move up to earn more Privileges and then we have a token economy system that the students earn Robux and they get to trade that in for treats at the end of the week so then the other infographic I did was just to try to highlight some of the things that we've been doing with community outreach we have a garden group partnership with the Arboretum and they come every Tuesday to work with our students Reverend Jerry Pearson which a lot of people are familiar with in the county has come he volunteers there he's actually working on becoming a substitute because of his work with JC Rowe so that he can offer
052that service also we just participated in the New Hanover County five-day selpd that was our entire staff participated in that last year we had speakers that we've already set up for this year including Cape Fear local banks and the National Guard the first two weeks of school myself and our my assistant principal went and visited all of our students that transitioned back to make sure that they had met someone that they could have a connection with that they had gone to classes and try to have connections with them even though they're not in our building anymore we had an art therapist that we had last year with the grant that we're hoping to maybe get back and then we had a performance in the spring where they did spoken word interpretive dance and and a
053placing we have a fall and spring Community night this fall it is November 16th which is a Wednesday and life points actually helping us sponsor that so we're inviting people to come out and participate in that with us and then our teachers constantly participate in county-wide professional development our core content teachers are teaching all grade levels so my high school English teacher is teaching all englishes just like my math and everything else yet they're still participating in everything else that the county is expecting of them which I think says a lot about the dedication of the staff we have at JC Rowe so I just kind of wanted to share some of the things that we've been doing and start to open up that kind of dialogue about this is a great opportunity for students
054to help get them back on track and to offer an opportunity for them to feel success in a different environment so that they can transition back to their home school and really be successful any kind oh fingers up yeah Mr Boyer uh thank you madam chair Mr wildebear I know you've requested this I'm really grateful that you did because we don't often get a chance to hear from you and and hear about some of the really incredible things we did and that we're doing and you know I just really wanted to highlight that because I think coming out of the pandemic moving forward and you've already said this year your needs have never been greater and this program is really important what we offer these students is absolutely critical and so they need us to
055be our best and I know you are and I'm just really grateful to get a chance to see some good work so thank you very much thank you Mr water board first off I want to thank you for all you and your staff for doing uh I think it's exceptional I can't get the words out that's how good I think it is um but I also uh could you tell talk to us a little bit about some of the all because we have a whole bunch of folks going to be talking we're asking about um you know alternatives to seclusion and I know that that you guys do a lot of great things in in you know instead of seclusion can you talk to us just a little about some of the things you might
056do yes a lot of the things we do is the proactive piece because we're able to have those relationships because of our student to teacher ratio we're able to find out things that I think a lot of the times in a Traditional School you're not able to know so we're able to kind of read students and check in with them a lot more than a traditional school is able to each student talks to adults before they go to class that's part of our program in our home room they go over their behavior points uh chart from the day before with teachers so there's a lot of things in place where we're able to see some things and then step in as needed so because we have the staff that we do and I know we're
057expensive but because we have the staff that we do then we're able to give them those resources that they need and pull them out and do social skills lessons based on what's going on with them or if we found out something happened in one of the neighborhoods the night before then we're ready to kind of have everyone in a crisis type mode to really you know encourage the kids to talk about what's going on and for us to focus on working through those things before we get to the academics so we're able to focus on the whole child piece you know a lot of our students are coming hungry and that's our first thing where all of our teachers know and they all have snacks in each of their classrooms that if a student isn't
058responding then maybe it's something else going along those lines so because of the way our school is structured we're able to take some time away with our other staff members to focus on the kids needs and then allow the teachers to still teach content to the other students that are able awesome thank you Mitch McManus that's really important what you do in your whole staff and I genuinely think there's a definite place for us and I don't want this to sound negative but I think it's a fair question if I recall we spend 83 000 per student at JC Road what follow-up do we have after they finish JC wrote with regards to where they are and what they're doing forming otherwise per student that cost per student is taken in a snapshot kind of
059at a period in time and so I think while last year it may have I'm not looking at the chart but I'm going to go into my into my visual memory I think it may have counted maybe 50 some students and and it's the cost per student but as you can see from the data provided by principal Morrissey she served more students than that so that cost per student is a little skewed because it's got to be taken in a snapshot time frame or else you're trying to move dollars I can't imagine actually trying to create that kind of that kind of visual so it's at it's not quite accurate because the students that she also served were still counted at their home school so what would be accurate I don't know how we would
060calculate that because because our students it's so fluid our students are coming in for we're offering as Miss marishi shared that our students from middle and high school can come in for a short-term suspension alternative so they're not actually suspended they're in an alternative setting for that suspension so she'll have kids five days at a time four days at a time and and then you might have students that come in for the remainder of a semester or they transition in for six weeks and then move to their school it's got to be so fluid to be student-centered that it's really hard to do a true capturing of the cost per student and I don't want to try to step into Ashley's Lane I think she's amazing and I can't calculate that Ms Morrissey can you
061talk about what you and your team did transition to transitioning in at the beginning of this year what you did with the students who had gone back to their their respective school oh when we were doing the visits yes we did set up with the home schools Mr menini is the assistant principal we went and saw all of our students and we met with all of them with an administrator or with a staff member from the home school to make sure that they were aware of who the JC Rowe students were we pulled up their power school we put all the students down we talked about classes they had been to a couple of them we actually did schedule changes while we were there because the student wasn't attending because they didn't like the class
062and so it gave a time for us to help the student advocate for themselves in their home school with people there that they can go to versus kind of just sending them back and then expecting them to have that skill set carried over from the summer and they to do that on their own so that was something different we did this year that I think was really successful Judy Miss Justice oh you want more you've got more to go okay uh yes I was looking at this little informational boxes you gave us I see that the short-term program provides EC students with Services uh what about the transition and long-term program oh yes absolutely I just wanted to make a point that the short term was also receiving Services yes um and the reason I
063pointed that out is because the short-term students are not in my power school so that's part of the reason that the numbers are skewed because they stay in their home power school but we receive a copy of the IEP from the home school and we make sure that those services are still given at JC Rowe Miss Walker how's lunch things about your lunch um lunch is brought in Daily from Hoggard and breakfast is it okay to eat I mean we've had pictures sent to us I mean I'm just curious if it's okay to eat or the students with lunch yes I know they probably do but okay we can talk later I guess I we I the students are fed absolutely we make sure that we have food for the students they eat the lunches
064um they eat breakfast too no student goes hungry no I'm glad about that I just was thinking about quality yeah Mr McManus are we following up with those who graduate I made it made to do a good job with that from JC bro yes sir where they are of their success yeah actually that's another beautiful part I think about us having those relationships last year we had five seniors that started with us and all five graduated and different staff members keep in touch with them all the time a bunch of Staff members went to graduation actual family parties um that's how much we kind of become a part of what the families are it's the first time I worked at Ashley for eight years I never gave out my cell phone number and I give
065out parents my cell phone number at row all the time it's just one of those great opportunities we have to really have a different type of relationship let me cover this and I want to add in that this summer Miss Marcy reached out or maybe it was last spring Miss Marcy reached out and asked to sit down with me and kind of redevelop our process for Alternative Learning programs to have even more connection and braiding of collaboration from the home school and so the process that our principals follow now has a transition to and a transition from the Alternative Learning Program with specific steps that they have to agree to in order to make that referral and that's been really helpful um I think it's an important piece for the student too because in the
066principal and myself are working together on a plan for the student and then the student in the family is aware of that so it's really kind of that partnership that we have going on that we're one team versus JC Rowe versus the home school yeah I just wanted to add in real quickly the um the work that you guys are doing is amazing and the one thing that really jumps out at me all the time is that back to the home school visit because I don't know about you but many of us have had you know family members or friends who have been in a program where they had to go get fixed and then are put back into the environment that maybe contributed to the problem so I think that is wonderful you know
067to make sure that they feel good about that and just you know I've subtited your school before and in it's not an easy place on some days and some days it's just like every other school so I'm happy that you you treat them as such an individuals and meet them where they are so thank you very much for being here with us today thank you thank you all right next on our agenda um Jarrell Lewis and Kelly Lewis and oh Julie varnum you're back up um if you if you're participating um the Title IX Athletics audit I was so excited for Miss Marcy to be able to do that I just like ran away um with with all of my papers and everything um so I'm just doing the introduction and then handing this off
068as you know um our district voluntarily engaged in the in the Athletics audit for Title IX in order to focus on continued compliance with Title IX and I'm really excited that um Jarrell Lewis and um and Kelly Lewis they are not Brothers but I am happy to have both of them come and talk to you about this good evening so uh this evening there is a presentation I think someone's gonna pull it up here so this evening I will be speaking along with Mr Kelly about the Title IX Athletics audit that we performed um back in the spring of 2022. let me go to the next slide so uh this presentation will be brief but we'll focus on three different process of three different parts uh the first is the audit process overview what that
069looked like uh number two is the Title IX regulation itself and then number three are the results from the athletic audit so the audit process overview we utilize a third-party auditor consultant Helen Grant Consulting LLC um that third party reviewed four high schools and seven middle schools all of the schools in New Hanover County schools that have athletic opportunities for them for their students the audit was actually performed in April of 20 um April 18th through 22nd of uh this school year what that looked like included the auditor coming to the New Hanover County schools and visiting uh performing site visits as well and then the data collection was also part of it and so the auditor collected data from the 2021-2020 school uh school year and the data that was collected included official team
070rosters enrollment by gender of each respective School participating in the audit um a listing of all head assistant and volunteer coaches compensation stipends for coaching Duty and if the coaches faculty faculty member or only a coach or non-faculty member uh the data collection also included a questionnaires for coaches and students the questionnaires gave insight about a student perspective participating in athletics as long as in addition to the coaches as well related to some of the Title IX compliance factors and then the last part of the data collection included in-person interviews of the athletic directors at each respective school and coaches as well so for the Title IX regulation itself the federal government the regulation speaks very specifically to how schools must districts must comply with the Title IX regulation and there's two components to that
071one is Equitable opportunity which ensures that the underrepresented sex has an equal opportunity to play in sports and the second prong is Equitable treatment which ensures that athletes are treated equitably when participating in sports So speaking to the first prong Equitable opportunity that includes a three-part test is outlined by a case law and the regulations substantial proportionality test what that means is that the district must show that enrollment in athletics is substantially proportionate to High School enrollment based on sex and our athletic audit focused on that prong number one problem number two to me I'm sorry number two to meet prong number one is history and continuing practice of program expansion meaning that the district has shown in history and can continue practice of adding athletic programs for the underrepresented sex and the last is
072a combination of interest and abilities uh the district shows that the district has reviewed the athletic interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex and sought to accommodate those interests with new athletic teams and sports offerings so again this is how a district may show compliance with an equitable opportunity prong ensuring that the underrepresented sex has an equal opportunity to play in sports moving forward to number two for the Title Nine regulations Equitable treatment I think these are just pieces that most people are familiar with when it comes to Title IX Athletics compliance the Federal Regulations are nicknamed uh this part the laundry list there are a number of factors that are included that must be met to show that uh the district is ensuring that athletes are treated equitably when participating in sports and I
073won't go through every one of the laundry list of factors but these are those factors as shown on the screen foreign the audit was performed in April and we received the results um mid to late summer and I took the time to highlight some of the areas and opportunities for improvement based on the audit itself uh and the first area is the first prong Equitable opportunity particularly related to substantial proportionality the audit found that Myrtle Grove Middle School Williston middle school and Roland Grice Middle School were the only schools that met this particular prong by having student participation their athletes be substantially proportionate to enrollment at the school so for example if a school has you know 47 female enrollment then theoretically the athletes should be around 47 percent female that's what that substantial proportionality
074Test shows and again Myrtle Grove Middle School Williston Middle School enrolling Grace met those uh tests out of all the schools in our district so for next steps to address this concern according to the auditor was for Middle School the district needs to increase a girl's participation or do a combination of increasing the girls roster and then also decreasing the boys roster so some type of roster management to be able to control these numbers and make sure that they're substantially proportionate to the overall enrollment at the school itself for high school the auditor stated that increasing uh girls participation or increasing girls rosters or decreasing boys rosters and also ensuring that there are junior varsity teams for female sports similar to male sports like there's a JV basketball team there needs to be a JB
075girls uh basketball team things like that making sure they're JV opportunities to increase or particip participation numbers for the females uh athletes um the next prong is Equitable treatment and so the otter examined whether New Hanover County Schools provides male and female athletes with Benefits opportunities and treatment that are equivalent in availability quality and kind based on the relevant factors the auditor noted any disparities that were found and then categorized the level of the disparity determine if the disparities resulted in denial of equal athletic opportunity to male or female athletes um in regards to this uh prong the otter found that there were concerns with the availability and use of athletic facilities uh to the detriment of female athletes at hogger Ashley and Laney and specifically related to the weight room and the hitting facilities
076just making sure that at those particular schools those um facilities were being used equitably based on male and female so that was a concern that was highlighted there I think that for next steps and having the athletic director Mr Kelly Lewis have more oversight into work with the local athletic directors to develop procedures to make sure that those facilities are being shared equitably schedules things such as that would be able to address some of those concerns uh number two there were concerns with the availability and exclusive use of athletic facilities to the detriment of female athletes at Holly Shelter Middle Myrtle Grove and Williston Middle School similar to the high school uh specifically related to the weight rooms at those particular middle schools and so next step for that are similar to the high school
077just making sure that we're providing more oversight and having procedures that address how and when these facilities will be used and shared so we can make sure that they're not the time is not being provided to only male athletes and it's being shared with female athletes as well um number three for Equitable treatment uh talking about the quality of life you can go go back to the next slide I'm sorry six yeah um so the last concern that the auditor highlighted that related to Title IX was uh there were potential Title IX violations found related to Hoggard softball and New Hanover High School softball facilities so related to hogger I again the auditor did come and do site visits and uh she stated specifically that there were concerns related to Quality related to the softball
078field at new at Hoggard High School the the entrance the Press Box the home plate The Dugout the stands the bull print the bullpen uh the brick knee wall and netting When comparing it to the baseball facility for the males um in addition to that the softball hitting cage was down I think there was some type of weather damage at the time when the auditor came and so she addressed that concern as well making sure that the hitting facility was up so that it can be used by the softball team uh for New Hanover High School there were quality and cosmetic concerns related to the softball field but specifically related to The Press Box the stands the backstop the batting cage The Dugout locker room um on all that in comparison in comparison to the
079mail facilities the baseball team so these are substantial concerns that could you know be titled non-violations so for this particular uh concern the district myself Title Nine officer would deal is partnering with the operations Mr Eddie Anderson to address these concerns was his division we've already had some of those discussions not sure if you want to add anything specifically or I'll open it up to you if you do I would just like to add that uh after the report the report identified areas of concern but it didn't provide a scope of work and cost estimates for completing those so in operations our goal is we've we've hired a designer that's going to do their assessment and provide those very detailed scope of work and cost estimates for your consideration in the upcoming capital budget thank
080you facility yes so Title IX compliance there's we can't say that we don't have to comply with Title IX because we don't actually own the field that our students play on it's still impacting their educational environment if they're provided with the facility that's lesser than males so it's still Our obligation to address those concerns outlining with the com with the laundry list that Title IX outlines so the district does have a more unique hurdle of New Hanover high schools particularly because we're sharing that space with the city and or the county I don't know for sure uh so we have to partner with those individuals to make sure that we're providing a facility that's um in compliance with Title IX and if we that's not the case then it's still the district studies to make
081sure we provide some facility that meets someone compliance I know we talked about in Hanover softball last year and I'm so so happy that this was done um was this done by private I know maybe I missed it or was it now that there are violations that are shown or is there a timeline that we have to meet in order to get it remedied or what are the follow-ups yeah so the consultant was uh private I guess that was your first question uh the second part of the question the timeline so when there are potential timelines violations related to Quality and facilities and things like that of course that's going to require budget to be able to address some of those concerns so I I don't believe that OCR has an expectation that districts must
082you know provide these fixes by the end of a particular school year their understanding as long as the district has a plan I think that's the most important aspect but sometimes it could be a year to three years to address a particular facility issue it really just depends on the scope of the issue and um I I would agree that particularly related to New Hampshire and hogger there is substantial work to be done so there isn't a you know hard fast deadline but we just need to show that we're working on that and with due diligence Mr McManus thank you Joe I have two questions one parents booster clubs however you want them I was probably going to put it under are they allowed to give the money to upgrade facilities that's their choice yeah
083so um Title IX is definitely concerned with the funding aspect making sure that that money is being spent equitably um you know schools have booster clubs and booster clubs are able to raise funds to the benefit of the school itself or maybe even a particular team that does not violate Title IX in any way the concern would be if a booster club is providing funds to the district particularly your specific team or even more specifically a male team that could create an imbalance if the district is not matching those funds in some way shape or form for female athletes if they are which they generally are the underrepresented sex so long story short boosters can provide funds but it's the district's responsibility to make sure that those funds are being utilized in a manner that
084does not violate Title IX and and that would be the athletic directors or the assistant principal slash athletic directors at each school right it manages that that increases oversight Mr Kelly Lewis uh would be able to provide that goes through you and Mr Anderson no perspective expense how is that prioritize females males I think that's a better question for uh Mr Kelly Lewis to speak about how the budget works at the local schools when it comes to Athletics if the you're saying if well the booster club obviously when we're doing budget we prioritize which is the best of our ability places what we think we know at the time so how do you do that now that you have identified obviously women's facilities versus men's facilities how do you prioritize the expenditure who goes first
085we don't know what the priorities are right with regard to who's getting money right well I don't think that would happen until we have the scope of work done from the um The Firm that maintenance operations is hired and then from that result then our officers would be able to work to to then prioritize where where we're going to start and I know Mr Wilmore had a question what's the timetable for that what is that going to be done in the next six months or years so two because you said two or three years down the road in some cases um and Mr Lewis was talking about having that work completed so the timetable for uh for for me and my team um we're identifying what the specific scope of work is to bring the
086facilities at Hoggard and Hanover into compliance with the audit we're also identifying the cost of work associated with that we will present that to the capital outlay budget committee probably in the January February time frame and then it would go to the full board as part of your upcoming budget like Miss Barnum did you have something you kept looking like you were leaning in I only only wanted to mention that um we would prioritize in our budget process much like we did this past year where we start working on our um asks and then our team the senior staff the cabinet prioritizes and then brings it to the to the board thank you Miss Justice uh yes uh you were talking about the Equitable opportunity and you mentioned three middle schools that they said they
087need to work on but you said it sounded like you were talking about the high schools is it all the high schools have got that issue because you didn't identify particular ones is it all four high schools yes these three middle schools that were if I'm understanding you correctly talking about the Equitable opportunity those three middle schools were the only schools in our district that met that test every other school that has an athletic team did not meet that substantial proportionality test so also high schools all four high schools and the majority of the middle schools did not wow so that District needs the district needs to work on um our rosters to be able to make sure that those numbers are substantially proportionate to the overall enrollment at those others thank you so what
088you're saying is for instance because of football football puts us out of whack because of how many male players actually play football and we don't have a girls team that is as large as a football team and then we also have to consider that sometimes when they get to high school or middle school some of our athletes choose not to play so that I think that kind of puts our numbers out of sync yeah and and with Title IX the Equitable opportunity test like I said there's three ways that you can meet that Equitable opportunity piece number one is the substantial proportionality which only three of the middle schools meet which only three schools meet in the district however number two and number three such as a history and continuing practices program expansion and accompanying
089interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex are another Avenue to meet Title IX compliance when it comes to Equitable opportunity being that we're K-12 it is a bit more unique because you know we have an athletic association that really kind of tells us what sports we're going to be able to offer so the audit did not find necessarily a Tylenol violation because of those other two tests but just speaking about the first test substantial proportionality that is what the audit found that only those three middle schools met but for Title IX compliance wise we're okay to test two or three if that makes sense Mr bullion thank you very much thank you madam chair uh Mr Lewis my understanding that part of this audit uh either Mr Lewis Mr Lewis's uh is that part of
090this audit uh had to do with uh pay for coaches um and assistant coaches for The stipend that they receive so title I think that might be no the non-title nine piece that was uh the equity with regards to pay looked at I guess sure that our female coaches are being paid as Equitable as the mail coaches my real question has to do with the pay for Middle School athletic directors I was told that there is underpaid as Scottie Pippen on the 90s Bulls um I don't know if you can can speak to that um or if there's something similar with regards to what Mr Anderson is doing to sort of look at that and address it yeah I will say this is this is um yeah but we do I I am in the
091request that I have to send them this morning uh that is going to be a request that I put in uh that the Middle School athletic directors would receive an an increase in their stipend because as you know our middle schools uh we sponsor 15 Sports which is more than some of the largest school systems in the state and they are full-time teachers with with no extra Duty for um for athletic growth so that is going to be a request of mine through so Mr Bowyer hold that question until a more appropriate budget time Miss Adam said I see your hand up okay Miss Walker I mean Miss Justice okay um I gotta say for a second I lost it what the question was now uh Dr Faison mentioned football but then there's things like
092softball for the females that that most of the males I don't think that's are any male players on softball so you know and that is a way that there is equitability in the types of sports it's not because there's a there's one group more than another that could be uh involved and active yeah I think the point was that uh football presents challenges to schools in K-12 and higher ed because it is generally only for males and The rosters are are large so when you're talking about substantial proportionality to overall enrollment that's use it very heavily in favor of males um and so I think that's the aspect of it so football does present that challenge here as well that rosters are so large uh that when we're talking about the proportionality it there's going
093to be more male athletes than females generally because the team rosters are just larger based on the sports that are particularly related well okay Miss Walker well I just wanted to say because it looks like you had broken those up into different categories with violations where Hoggard and Hannah Hanover softball girls facilities and I know that was reported a long time ago and I think that speaks to I mean we really do love our Sports here and we're really good at them and I think do we get more participation from for female athletes which I guess softball is the equivalent to to baseball here um but if their facilities were better and their practice places were better you would probably get more participation I think and I know there's booster clubs that support various Sports
094here you know we all we all know about them but um I think if we make it better they will come I think yeah and in addition to that you know um when I was a student here when I was a student here we had females that played on the lacrosse team with the males now we have girls lacrosse in addition to that I believe Mexico let me know if I'm wrong that there's going to be female wrestling as well here um high school was going to have an individual Regional just for the females as a trial run because the High School Association just added female wrestling as a sport for the next school year so then they will have their own Regional and they will have their own state championship as their own support
095that that is for next year and one other thing the High School Association did this year they separated women's lacrosse out of combo state championship they've now taken and they've taken 4A and now 4A women's lacrosse is now going to have their own individual state championship so the state is also making some changes which which gives us more opportunities here at the district yeah I would just piggyback on that you know we could create Sports offerings in the district but the problem that comes is you know who do we play if we don't have anyone else the other school districts that are offering those same sports teams we don't really have much of a competition at all so that's a challenge um but I do think that the state is working on providing us with
096more offerings as well for our female athletes um I think the last slide thank you I'm about done the second to last so I'm sorry eight and so yeah we talked about so I think some additional thoughts that I I found from the audit was that the District athletic directors uh could do a better job at record keeping uh their rosters their their schedules uh their budgeting items so that we can do more proactive audits uh not have to struggle to fund that material so that's another area for opportunity uh for improvement as well making sure that uh we are doing a good job of documenting at the school level okay um do you want to finish your slide and then we'll go well at this point I'm done at this point okay um Miss
097Justice okay and and this might seem silly to some people but I'm looking at the pictures that are going along with this presentation and they don't have nothing to do with sports and offense guys I love to watch see action pictures with sports so in the future whoever put this together get some players going that was me I used the slide from the I'm not technologically savvy one and I use the slides from the communications divisions I did not change the pictures but I think this looks very nice yes um Mr McManus most people when they think of schools and school systems they forget that what we are is a business people really really forget that that the finance and the Personnel is Major absolutely nature and so a lot of people keep that in
098mind as we hope to develop and improve all of it but it is a business very expensive we all had to pull in the same direction all right last comment for Miss Justice thank you we're raising children and educating children not building widgets so you know the very first priority should be our kids and not at the bottom although the bottom line comes from so many sources that's a good one trying to figure that one out alrighty Mr Lewis very much for your time appreciate it and we look forward to hearing back from you when you have more things to share okay next up on our agenda is call the audience but I would like to take a five-minute break before we head into the next hour long session so um it's 6 25 so
099can we come back oh it's 6 27 and we come back by six awesome awesome [Music] foreign [Music] thank you very much [Music] you know is number three [Music] um [Music] awesome videos thank you so much experience today foreign thank you [Music] yourself foreign [Music] foreign I'm ready to get started all right next on our agenda is call to the audience the first person up is Donna gargan folks we're starting Donna garget is up first for call to the audience I did see her here earlier okay okay thank you um next up is Peter rawich mid drink sorry [Music] okay Mr Roberts whenever you're ready I hope you have started to read the school Improvement plans I've reviewed nine schools so far and they were from the list of the 10 schools that use seclusion
100rooms last year the good news is that all of the schools had Upstream goals that is their plans included positive behavior strategies that their staff could use to prevent major disruptions or safety issues in the classroom Alderman Elementary is a good example I counted at least eight goals related to student behavior and social emotional supports part of their plan includes having calm down areas in all classes and having all staff and students use common language to discuss feelings behaviors expectations and redirections best of all the target date to reach these goals is the end of this school year do you have any doubt that they will achieve their goals it's interesting to note that none of the nine schools I checked mentioned seclusion rooms in their school Improvement plans policy 4302-r allows for the use
101of physical restraint which may be needed when a student's Behavior poses a threat of imminent physical harm to themselves or others but what we don't need is to lock our children in padded closets I urge the other board members to follow the leadership of Miss Justice Miss Walker and Mr wildebor vote to end seclusion rooms by the start of the 2023-24 school year and use this year to train the staff in positive behavior Alternatives thank you Mr Roberts foreign be intentionally informed all of us will pay for mistakes of unqualified or unethical officials today's investigation into facilities is important not necessarily critical the well-being and safety of people is critical and a higher priority than basketballs we must remain intentionally informed by ongoing investigations of child sex crimes dating back to the 1990s three decades
102later we are still advocating for facilities and victims the schools where I taught have long been the focus of inequity data and reports suggest it has worsened thus igniting emotional responses in 1994 I encountered a school board candidate going up the stairwell and of Snipes which had a gym but no elevator the library was on the second floor inaccessible to students with special needs who could not come to me I was going down the stairwell to them while balancing a computer monitor and several books based on the candidate's support of the school bond issue I made an emotional decision to consider him but discovered that he lacked the skill set to hold office five years later there still was no elevator you and newly elected members must be capable and accountable to handle continuing and
103future problems without delay intentionally informed delayed um good evening my name is pronounced Malay knee Milani thank you this poem that I will recite tonight is Untitled the past of yesterday is alive and well the practices of seclusion are the new Jim Crow can't you tell watch how the education system pulls strings in blackface new decade same history still a disgrace first we could not attend their schools and now that we do 66 of the 18 of black children are thrown in seclusion rooms the numbers don't lie some of the board do is there no other option besides seclusion rooms no need to dress in costumes for this Halloween you can't hide from the monsters we've already seen ghosts and goblins this is the season for which is Brew children rather sleep in haunted houses
104than be locked in seclusion rooms no child should be locked up like a Monster in a cage the entire city of Wilmington should be outraged I have a couple of quotes this first one it's almost like the slogan where you see something say something Dr Charles fouse w-h-q-r published 9 10 20. that's why I'm here tonight this next quote I'm for truth no matter who tells it I'm for justice no matter who it is for or against I'm a human being first and foremost and as much and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits Humanity as a whole Malcolm X end the policy and stop locking up our children in seclusion rooms thank you thank you [Applause] Melissa Mason good evening thank you my name is Melissa Mason and I started doing all of
105this about 11 months ago and what's been really cool is I've been so inspired and humbled by the hundreds of parents community members who show up to fight for our kids every single month so thank you I'm proud to have taken the lead on exposing the gender support plan that was shared in October 2020 it hides crucial mental health information about students from their parents I'm proud to have informed parents and community members about the obscene literature in our school libraries and I've endured a lot of attacks on my character but that's fine I'm not a politician I'm a mom and I didn't come here to make friends I came here to help our kids our country is divided right now but I believe this community and our parents are united we're United in wanting
106a school board that serves this community not administrators here or in Raleigh we want a school board that works to involve parents not to cut them out of the process school boards are elected because local control of schools is our right and our voice should be reflected in school policy this community is United across party lines across the use about against the use of seclusion rooms this community wants to be able to remove failing administrators parents don't want schools to violate their children's boundaries parents don't want schools to teach kids to judge people by the color of their skin parents don't want schools to hide information about their kids from them or try to parent their kids for them and parents don't want schools to achieve the same outcome for every student by lowering the
107standards for all students we want Common Sense we're United in that and together we'll take our schools back thank you thank you Miss Mason Natasha too Natasha too okay um Marissa horrell they get that right Coral sorry good evening New Hanover County school board thank you for allowing me to speak on the topic of conclusion rooms my name is Marissa horrell I'm in eighth grade I spent my entire School career in this County when I learned about seclusion rooms I was shocked so exciting to think there's something that happens in America in my county in 2022. I can only assume you don't want to intentionally damage children that are in your care I can't imagine you want to hurt kids on purpose as a student in the school district I need to believe that you
108have my best interests in mind so I ask you to remember behavior is a form of communication especially for the younger kids challenging Behavior should make adults ask what is this child trying to communicate a struggling child isn't a monster to be locked away there are a child that needs your help and understanding studies show that seclusion rooms can lead to lifelong trauma correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the whole point of school to raise successful adults while traumatizing young children does not produce sex successful adults it's time to adopt a 21st century approach there are better ways to support children to help them when they struggle no child should be harmed at school if you think what you're doing it's best for the kids yet you allow children in this community to be
109secluded walked away like a prisoner while in the care of their school you need to rethink the decision to be on this board this practice is misguided and outdated and it's not what's best for any child laughs [Applause] Alicia ogendelli good evening love our children support their inner seclusion rooms period we are not advocating for the end of restraints some board members keep lumping those two things together as far as seclusion rooms also cause solitary confinement or not in keeping with the Dignity of a human person they tell students that they are bad people and need to be punished this type of punishment destroys any attempt that has been made to develop a healthy relationship with the child and does not address the direct causes of for the behavior instead it improvise more trauma causing
110more negative behavior seclusion rooms do not teach children more socially desired behaviors clearly children that escalate need teaching on what they can do to control their own behaviors seclusion rooms are not educated at all at best students who is placed in the seclusion rooms might learn what not to do but they do not provide support designed to teach the student what to do it's ISO it's cruel and unusual punishment psychologically to place a child in isolation it can be traumatized into the child and detrimental to their mental growth it may cause long-term effects such as anxiety and depression finally seclusion rooms are in violation of the student's right of autonomy and dignity as a human being and places them in a hostile environment every child needs to feel safe and be safe in school in
111order to thrive I have yet to hear any child say being thrown in a seclusion room was a positive turning point in their life perhaps some of you on the board need to be placed in the seclusion room but be for being Gatekeepers of policies that have proven to be ineffective and psychologically damaging to our children where's the humanity and locking a child in a padded closet shame on you vote to ensu school seclusion rooms like I said there your time is up okay thank you Michael Sheridan I am speaking to the board for the first time I'm here to urge you to end the use of seclusion in New Hanover County schools and adopt more Humane and effective approaches I am speaking from professional experience working with children in a variety of settings what
112I have learned is the use of seclusion to address disruptive behavior often backfires often exacerbating problems that it was supposed to eliminate why would this be so will research on seclusion shows that children can suffer severe psychological harm including significant trauma and even post-traumatic stress disorder they're often left with feelings of humiliation anger resentment Despair and depression as well as distrust of adults in Authority including their teachers this last impact distrust of those in Authority is particularly important to understand at a time in their lives when they need to be developing trusting relationships with their teachers seclusion breaks this vital Bond and sets up a negative feedback loop that benefits no one Trauma from seclusion leads to feelings of Despair and distrust leads to more disruptive behaviors leads to more seclusion the cycle goes round
113and round created a negative environment for all concerned for the targeted child for the teacher and even for the other children witnessing this there are alternative approaches that address these issues and teach children to engage in self-regulating behaviors before a disruptive event takes place Julie varnum has talked with you about two such programs lives in the balance and trauma-sensitive tools training you now have 10 months to train teachers and staff on these more effective and Humane approaches I urge you to do that vote to end seclusion by the start of the 23-24 school year let's make New Hanover County Schools a model for the rest of the state by showcasing our ability to create safe productive and respectful learning [Applause] Hazel Hazel aisles look I really don't want to be here but I am here
114because you need to fix this problem the little girl standing next to me has asked me to read these words to you three years ago I was locked in a closet at school when I was seven I was locked in a seclusion room because I was afraid to say goodbye to my mommy and daddy school was hard for me because I would get overwhelmed and anxious PE would make me anxious and feel overwhelmed because it was loud and there were a lot of kids running around in the loud gym I would try to I would try to avoid going to the PE but teachers would carry me kicking and screaming and make me go when I was put in the closet I was scared mad and upset I even hit hid under a table to
115protect myself but they moved the table and forced me into the room I was screaming and crying I begged them to let me out but they would not let me out please put be being put in the closet did not help me calm down and it made me more afraid of school I told my mom and I switched schools I was still afraid of school because I did not feel safe it is hard for me to trust teachers because I think they might hurt me this year I'm at a new school and I have a very nice teacher she helps me feel safe but I still get afraid I am not a violent or bad kid I am now 10 years old and I am still afraid of school and I never deserve to be
116locked in a closet thank you Sandy Isles when a ten-year-old child has the moral courage to share her story about seclusion but four of you have not demonstrated the moral courage to protect her what will it take to make you care what will it take to make you do something you see the pain in the eyes of families and children yet you do nothing you've seen the data yet you do nothing you have numerous Solutions yet you do nothing you know it causes harm and Trauma yet you do nothing every month for 22 months you find a new excuse on why you will continue to do nothing you have been telling us that we have to wait for the school Improvement plans now you have those plans yet there's no mention of seclusion on the
117agenda let me guess once again you plan to do nothing Mr Rogers once said anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me I have to agree Heroes always help children they do something anything but four of you continue to do nothing the ten-year-old child who shared her voice tonight is my hero she did something she is a hero for all children daily she shows bravery and strength beyond what should ever be asked of her as as does every child who faces their trauma and fear by going to school each day all while four of you sit at the diocese and do nothing Ms Walker Mr wildebear Miss Justice thank you for caring about our children and for trying to do something to protect them I think it's
118about time the other four join you and do something it's time to end seclusion thank you miss crabill our kids at JC Road do not need to be fixed that's horrifying I can't believe you said that oh Robert Bellamy Robert Bellamy my name is Robert Bellamy I'm here in support of love our children every time I come here I write my thoughts only hours and minutes before I speak because I really don't know what to say I just know how I feel and how I feel at that time even at my age that's still the kid in me it was great the kid speaking just a little while ago today that's even the kid to me today I I want to feel like a kid that has been in seclusion and who has been restrained
119so I want to tell everyone what you're doing to me and uh how wrong this is and let you hear why you should stop this cruel practice on kids like me because this is how I feel I hate my teachers I hate you I hate the world I hate that no one understands me I hate my mom I hate my dad for allowing you to do this to me I hate the other kids that laugh at me and tease me uh none of this makes me any better this makes me meaner makes me bad because I hate everything I hate this day I hate that I was treated worse than what I may have done I am not a criminal I hate the school I even hate the school bus I know that I was
120wrong I am not stupid I just need to know that I am still loved you know when a dog poops you still love him when you restrain and lock me up I don't feel loved I feel you hate me so I feel that's what you think of me so I hate you too and I hate more I hate you more thank you very much [Music] Lynn Fulton good evening my name is Dr Lynn Williams Fulton I've been in the education business for about 38 years 28 were spent right here in New Hanover County as a special education teacher and observery evaluator and assistant principal and a principal in my 29th year I got hired by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to become a school transformation coach and work in low performing schools across
121this District I've worked with numerous superintendents principals teachers and students and so I tell you all that not because I want you to guess my age believe me I tell you that to give you context for my following observations in my time and in my experiences I've come to believe there are some basic fundamental elements to Quality schools and quality organizations and it all boils down to the people and when you look at the people you say Okay they've got lots of people that add value to this organization they do positive things in this organization they show common courtesy for one another even in Discord even in disagreement even when they don't agree with outcomes or situations they don't lose sight of common courtesy because they're all working for the same purpose to improve the
122education of children and to say that in 38 years I've been more appalled than I was recently when certain comments on social media came to my attention I can't tell you how appalled I was I've been in some of the most low performing dysfunctional districts you have ever seen and have never ever read or heard some of the comments that I recently did and I was offended not only for Chase Fulton but for the Fulton family because that's my name too thank you Miss Bolton Dr Fulton Alana Davis good evening my name is Elena Davis and I reside pay taxes and vote here in New Hanover County I'm here to ask the board to take this year to train the staff in the 10 schools that put kids in locked padded closets last year in
123positive Alternatives such as living the balance program and end all seclusions by the beginning of the 2023-24 school year I am moved by my faith to pursue justice as the sun sets the Jewish High holiday of Yom Kippur begins and the yomim nuraim or the days of awe come to an end these are the holiest days of the year where our community is called to reflect on and repair our mistakes the Jewish practice of repentance is known as teshuva or return our tradition teaches us that teshuva is not an easy process it demands that we ask for forgiveness from those that we have harmed and most importantly we change ourselves to ensure that these mistakes never happen again we are taught that the sign of two to true to shuva is when one finds themselves
124with the opportunity to commit the same mistake again and make a different choice we are now at a moment where we can continue to make the same mistakes of the past we can continue cruel and ineffective practices of seclusion rooms where we can choose New Paths rooted in safety and care for everyone the school district has 10 months to train the teachers and staff at the 10 schools that secluded children last year on using alternative strategies we acknowledge that a child is who is trying to harm themselves or other people may need for safety reasons to be restrained but children should not be locked in padded closets they should be treated with dignity and respect thank you for your time thank you very much Loretta Stackhouse good evening policy 4300 states that student Behavior policies
125will ensure the Equitable treatment of all students the school board's data shows that is not happening with application of policy 4302r have you read your policy manual lately seclusion rooms were used 282 times in 10 schools between August and March of the last school year 71 children were placed in seclusion 66 percent were Black 47 of the 71 children were black reason enough to end seclusion rooms policy 4300 includes the principles that will apply in managing student Behavior one positive behavioral interventions will be employed as appropriate to improve student Behavior two strategies and consequences will be age and developmentally appropriate when has locking a child in a padded closet improved of child's Behavior when has locked in a child in a padded closet ever been aged and developmentally appropriate some of you are concerned about
126the recent school Improvement plans maybe you should be concerned about creating a policy manual Improvement plan have you read your policy manually lately policy 4302 are needs Improvement vote to end seclusion by the start of the 2023-24 school year thank you thank you [Applause] [Music] foreign thank you for the opportunity to talk with you tonight I'm a retired School social worker and um I do urge you to please end this policy meanwhile I did want to talk a little bit and I'm I'm not going to repeat what's been said but I wanted to encourage you to strengthen the social emotional supports and positive behavioral programs that you have in place and Kudos oh my goodness kudos to JC Rowe and Dr varnum and the program programs that are working and I just hope that social
127emotional programs can be strengthened throughout the district Barbara Garrow good evening I am truly disappointed that you've not put on the agenda ending the use of seclusion rooms I urge you to vote on a policy that uses this school year to further train teachers and alternative methods and end the use of seclusion rooms this school year or sooner other school districts Pender County for example have found successful ways of providing safe spaces other than padded rooms it is horrifying that these rooms are being used in New Hanover County you've made a strategic error by not putting this issue already on the agenda and by not voting on a policy that ends the use of seclusion rooms by the end of this school year current board members who seem to support their use and are running
128for reelection most likely will not be elected to continue to serve on this board after December thank you thank you good evening see this you know what harm seclusion rooms do to our young children you have alternative programs they're working nine out of ten schools one apparently as an online yet have these excellent support programs for these children did you listen to Hazel did you listen to oh God I'm old George bill I can't think of your name I apologize did you listen to first-hand experience of harm this shouldn't be a monthly debate this should be voted now end seclusion rooms they do nothing positive you know the negativity and if you hadn't heard it firsthand before we heard it tonight 10 years old and she had the courage to come and tell you just
129what that did to her do you really want it to continue vote it down now thank you thank you [Applause] [Music] Chase Fulton hi as you heard my name is Chase Fulton and I am the person that sits back in that room in live streams all these meetings every week recently last month board member Judy Justice took it upon herself to go on social media and publicly accuse me of conspiring and trying to censor these board meetings she has taken it upon herself to personally slander into Fame my name she says that the communications department and more specifically me are trying to conceal quote the truth end quote about what really happened during that meeting if you want a full breakdown of what happened you can read the Port City Daily article I am not
130here to talk about that I'm here to talk about the completely baseless and unfounded accusations Miss Justice made about me on her public campaign page Miss Justice the only truth is that your comments are fictitious and libelous firstly you accuse me of editing a live stream Miss Justice you cannot edit a live stream that is the point of it being live you said yourself you worked in television you have all people would know this secondly you repeatedly accuse me of censoring the stream Ms Justice it is not my job to censor anything I set up the meeting I stream the meeting and I end the stream when it is adjourned that is it to think I would risk my job my name and my reputation to supposedly protect another board member or the image of
131the district is absolutely ridiculous furthermore for someone to question my Integrity the way you have without any actual evidence of misconduct or any knowledge of who you are even accusing is appalling and I would expect more from a member of our Board of Education Miss Justice I want you to know you are not a victim I am a victim a victim of your lies a victim of your slander any victim of your bully I will continue to do my dog my job diligently as I have always done thank you [Applause] next up John Rutter so a month ago I talked to you guys about Transportation issues finally what five days ago you created a solution but is it really a solution um your policies are trash your administration's trash your leadership is trash it's that
132simple Your solution is to double up kids middle school and high school kids on a bus together what could possibly go wrong there you've got the the risk of bullying abuse and like I said in my email that maybe some of you read God forbid sexual abuse but you guys are good at covering that stuff up this is absolutely obscene parents are still not being given information from your school administrators and what are you doing about it nothing kids are not getting home until late in the evening what are you doing about it nothing you there's the excuses we get are we've got to drive our shortage have you done anything to incentivize hiring more drivers did you ask for more funding no your decision was to just double up on the drivers that you
133do have [Music] that's absolutely ridiculous you're overworking them you're underpaying them and you're putting our kids at risk I've spent the last month talking to parents from across the district your transportation department in an effort to fix this moved at least one bus stop closer to a registered sex offender it's on a website check it out I've seen better planning from PV ones with one day in the damn Army than I have from your Administration this is absolutely ridiculous you sit up there and half of you have this smug ass look on your face you want us to maintain your rules of decorum but you guys don't even maintain them you're rude you're disrespectful and I've spent the last month listening to more parents than most of you have this needs to stop Tiffany fullwood
134okay Leslie Posey thank you oh you're coming I'm sorry good evening I am Tiffany fullwood chair of the social emotional health and learning Committee of the New Hanover County Special Education PTA our committee drafted the following statement which was adopted unanimously by the SEPTA board of directors on September 21st 2022. New Hanover County Special Education parent teacher Association believes that schools must do everything possible to ensure all children can develop learn and participate in instructional programs that promote high levels of academic achievement and social emotional development to accomplish this schools must make every effort to structure safe environments and provide a behavioral framework incorporating the use of behavior intervention strategies based in Neuroscience social emotional learning compassion and respect that apply to all children all staff in all places in the school as such New
135Hanover County SEPTA supports prohibiting and preventing seclusion mechanical restraint chemical restraint and dangerous restraints that restrict breathing in New Hanover County SEPTA supports reducing and preventing the need for the use of physical restraint in schools every effort should be made to prevent the need for the use of physical restraint and any behavior intervention must be consistent with every child's basic human rights to be treated with dignity and to be free from abuse physical restraints should never be used except in situation where child's Behavior poses imminent danger of physical of serious physical harm to self or others immediately following the first use of physical restraint the school team must develop a plan that appropriately meets the students needs applies appropriate interventions and thereby eliminates the further use of physical restraint thank you thank you Leslie Posey
136good evening I would like to clear up what I perceived as some misunderstanding at last month's town hall meeting Christina Mercier spoke about the fact that there are certain expectations being communicated between central office administration and the schools after she spoke several board members responded with stories about how often they visit the schools and how welcome they feel that was not the point and I would like to clarify in the past year Mrs Mercier and I have heard from teachers at a number of schools that after the monthly administrators meeting their principals told them in faculty meetings that teachers and staff are not allowed to attend or speak at the Board of Education meetings without approval from their principal many were told there would be repercussions from a sometimes unnamed level teachers are being directly
137threatened if they speak about local educational concerns in public this is coming from senior Administration via their principles verbally so there is no paper trail I urge you to consider if an atmosphere of retaliation not to mention removal of First Amendment rights is how our schools should be run thank you Miss Posey Denise janone [Applause] good evening I am Denise younon president of the New Hanover County Special Education PTA the only SEPTA in North Carolina I want to thank you on behalf of our staff debt and especially our student advisory committee for passing student voice into policy this is a wonderful achievement our student advisory committee is currently made up of six remarkable New Hanover County School students in grades five six seven and eight some of the advisory committee members attended the student voice
138Roundtable in June the experience affected them profoundly all the students have been focusing on student voice for months if we stop and think for a moment student voice is the opposite of seclusion and restraint student voice respects our students and honors their Humanity student voice creates a space for respectful collaboration and problem solving student voice cherishes the human rights and mental health of our students seclusion and restraint destroy our students the statement I'm about to read was drafted by the New Hanover County SEPTA student advisory committee and adopted unanimously by our board of directors this is drafted by the students New Hanover County SEPTA supports New Hanover County student voice and believes in New Hanover County School students if students are not able to share what the problems are then most problems will never be
139solved students can come up with their own solutions to solve their problems with the support of adult allies it is important for students to have a voice in school district policies because everything that happens in schools affects students the most New Hanover County SEPTA supports the New Hanover County School school student voice policy as it was developed by our students through feedback with New Hanover County School Board committee and as it reflects the original needs and intentions of the students thank you again thank you for passing that policy 15 minutes here good evening each month as I sit here or watch online it is my hope that I will see and hear evidence that you are knowledgeable about not just some schools students and employees but all of them within the past few months I've
140heard the international school at Gregory referred to as Gregory School of Science math and Technology I've heard a board member be surprised at how overcrowded the high schools are and I've heard Mary Mosley compared to JC Rowe when in reality the suspension program left Mosley in 2016. I have said this before and I will say it again in order to effectively represent all of New Hanover County Schools you must be in the schools you must visit them and interact seeing statistics on spreadsheets and making decisions based only on that is an injustice to those you serve behind each number is a human what does an overcrowded High School look like maybe you should go at class change or lunch time and see how the staff and students make it work does paperwork say in average
141class size at a school is 24 that sounds wonderful Until you realize that the number comes from ulcer certified people in the building whether they have classes or not I know many of my middle school language arts classes had 35 or more students in them I never had a class that was close to 24. what schools don't have nurses or a library the only way you know this is to visit all schools regularly and while you're there it is imperative you speak with the teachers and staff many employees are still reluctant to attend board meetings in person due to pushback from their principals who are getting pushback from their superiors that means that it may take time to build a relationship with the employees much in the same way we expect teachers to build relationships
142with their students but once you do these teachers and support staff can provide valuable insight into what the school students or staff need most and if in your mind you're thinking about schools you don't want to visit because you're scared of the location or the student body maybe you should ask yourself why then you expect others to go there every day and teach and learn that however is a discussion for Another Day represent all schools and all students with Fidelity thank you thank you Angie painting [Applause] the victims of sexual assault and their attorneys have spent the last two days in court fighting your attorneys who purposely intend to MP Justice the latest New Hanover County School attorney Steve Rawson paid for by our tax money ask the court for a stay order pending the
143outcome of a three-judge panel in the question of whether or not to dismiss 10 of the 14 victims of Michael Kelly who we already know by his own admission is guilty this would potentially delay this case further for another two to four years dragging these victims through the courts something that is ill-advised by a highly qualified forensic psychologist who has submitted testimony that this would have a devastating impact on the victims to continue these delay tactics it is unconstitutional under judicial economy which only allows the court to delay action when all other attempts of appeal have been exhausted which is not the case Michael Kelly was convicted of 59 felony counts of sexual abuse of students at Laney High School in Isaac bear on June 25th 2019. there have been more than 50 depositions over
14470 thousand pages of legal documents 60 to 80 80 he Witnesses and interviews one of which we've lost to suicide and others who are at risk of being lost Decades of abuse four and a half years of broken promises multiple Predators victims hearings corrupt accomplices no accountability to move forward in these Court proceedings a resolution on the facial challenges not needed because whether 14 victims are allowed or four the facts still remain in this case nothing is contingent on this three-judge panel ruling and the victims are asked in simply to proceed so they can move on with their lives to quote the plaintiff's council Justice delayed is Justice denied it is past time for this school board to cease denying the victims of these heinous crimes Justice some who protect pedophiles over children are still
145employed by this District stop obstructing justice and give these survivors the closure they deserve and if this board doesn't care enough to make those choices in closed session then perhaps the voices of the community behind me can join mine thank you Miss keaney Emily pigeon good evening my name is Emily pridgeon I'm a career development coordinator at Ashley High School I sent an email to this board on September 16th about what is happening with our health science programs and specifically our nursing fundamentals teachers I appreciate Mr McManus and Miss Justice responding and adding it to your agenda tonight our county is losing our health science teachers specifically our RN nursing fundamentals teachers because they have been mandated to train students at novon Health instead of their Community long-term care facilities recommended by ncdpi these programs
146are some of the most successful in our County and nothing was broken with them over summer you lost an RN at Hoggard who was replaced by a non-rn teacher at the beginning of the year the Laney teacher resigned and has not been replaced and there is no interest in her position then on September 14th Miss Gambino at Ashley High School retired resigned after being told she'd be written up for insubordination and on an action plan towards termination for not attending trading at Novant we have one applicant and she is not qualified to teach nursing fundamentals I just returned from a conference where I heard over and over again how Irreplaceable our teachers are especially in CTE right now so why are these teachers being pushed out the rest of the teachers will leave if this
147mandate or policy remains in place you will lose your health science programs I already cannot promise students a program next semester I'm asking this board to value our teachers as the educational experts these plans and trainings have been developed without the consultation of the teachers including the frequently asked questions that was provided to you this evening teachers asked for a nurse refresher course and more in-depth training than six hours of on-site training your own Insurance Specialist recommended against this training at Novant Health the one meeting teachers were given with senior leadership they were basically told this is what you will do partnering with Novant Health can be accomplished and your time is up in so many other ways thank you Shields buck oshields foreign Shields I'm a lifelong resident of New Hanover County I've been
148involved with the county schools for 70 years I was a county commissioner for 1974 through 86 so I helped finance a lot of the things that got done in the Hanover County I'm here today with an intense interest in the Title IX recommendations that have been presented to you and I would like to request that a written copy of that and what the specific recommendations are for the high schools especially at Harvard that's the one I'm primarily concerned about uh be provided to me uh I'm aware of how Title IX works my wife and I from March of 89 through 95 Battle of North Carolina High School Athletic Association to get fast-pitched softball in North Carolina it took serious six years to do that but the United States Department of Agriculture of Education office of
149Civil Rights was a great assist I've prepared notebooks that I presented to the chairman I think she's passed them out uh in regard to these facilities at Harvard that were anticipated being built in 1999 I know that's 23 years but you're inheriting some of the things that didn't get done it should have been done but weren't done so I'm going to ask you to review those documents you will not understand them you can read them but there's only three people in the position to know about what I have presented to you Mr Eddie Anderson Mr Ronald Sparks and myself so what I'm asking is that you prepare a committee or somebody that we can sit down and talk about these things before the uh you take any actions on thank you thank you Mr O's
150Shields um April Farr hello I'm April Farr I'm one of the officers of the New Hanover County Democratic Party I'm speaking today to urge you to revise the 22-23 school calendar back to what the calendar committee wanted before the process was interfered with by the superintendent the superintendent's revised counter causes many issues which are a detriment to our students they need the first semester to end in December which doesn't require significant adjustments twenty percent of our Traditional High School students take AP courses in the second semester ending the semester in December adds 13 instructional days for those taking AP courses for obvious reasons relating to exam performance and mental health EOC exams should not be after the holiday break overlapping cfcc classes in January along with the exams at the end of semester causes undue
151stress that inevitably interferes with exam performance they can't be in two places at once this is one of many examples of the superintendent's decisions and interferences resulting in bad implications for our students in this case by disregarding the overwhelming recommendations of the calendar committee made up of principals students teachers and staff and given the last two days of court I want to thank Judy Justice for being the only one of the original Seven board members to support investigations into child sexual abuse in New Hanover County Schools if we had heated we wouldn't be in court now thank you for upsetting people with the truth and taking abuse for it we see you and we support you thank you Margaret Gambino good evening my name is Margaret Gambino I am one of the three registered nurses
152that has recently resigned I have been training nurse aides for 20 years at Ashley High School and prior to that I trained nurse aides at Cape Fear Community College in addition I've also served as the New Hanover County nurse aide program coordinator for the last 20 years during my tenure at Ashley I launched the nurse aid program in 2003. and I have successfully run that program for 20 years I'm here tonight to bring your attention to concerns I have regarding the Novant Health mou for health science as an expert in the field of Nurse Aide education I am concerned why I was not consulted regarding this decision do any of you know what it is like to bring a teenager into a clinical setting there is no long-term care unit at Novant Health any beds
153that the hospital May deem long-term care is a nursing home resident in need of acute Medical Care when we questioned our license and liability we were literally told we all have a license to lose that was by a CTE administrator how many more nurses are going to leave this County because of this new policy I'm the Third more are going to follow me I can promise you that we still have not received any information or update on liability insurance as promised thank you Miss Gambino [Applause] Madam chair I just would like little yield back my time to Donna gargetting she's going to get to go um at the end we're going to add her back in okay all right thank you well thank you I'll just like to say that I was going to say
154something else tonight but I'm not based on what's going on here tonight and I think that you guys should spend more time working together to get things done especially the ones that are up for re-election there's a lot of upset people here and a lot of the problems that are being presented tonight can be solved within about 20 30 minutes of just talking to each other I mean if you guys can't problem solve in 20 or 30 minutes but student voices can then there's a bigger problem I wish that you guys could just learn how to talk to each other communicate effectively use the people I mean Mr McManus you said that education is a business and if this was a business I would be afraid to invest in it I wouldn't I mean transportation's
155an issue food at JC Rosen issue seclusion and restraints and issue academic achievements and Issue four high schools are in trouble and people are just not happy and I don't think necessarily they're not happy with the schools they're just not happy how you guys are dysfunctional you know it's it's very toxic staff is leaving and they're not leaving like you know one about they're leaving people want to be here but they're not feeling wanted so I just urge you guys to work together because education is elevation and every child needs that that's the product we're trying to turn out an educated child thank you thank you Mr Marty the last gift for tonight is Chris Sutton first I'd like to say Miss Gambino and Miss Pridgen are prime examples of why called audience should have
156went before discussions like the Nova mou imagine how different y'all's discussion would have been tonight if you got to hear from those ladies before you all had that discussion with nobody secondly Judy I appreciate you trying to tackle the issue that occurred a dangerous presidents did get a set at this last meeting we had someone reprimand a teacher while she sat in the audience you even called her out by name the problem is when you knew you didn't have the votes you should have swiveled you should have turned this into a policy violation discussion because instead you forced Every Other Board member here to decide between kicking the chair and doing this instead of focusing on the problem okay it's just one of those things um of course my phone locked bad timing right uh
157let's see here teacher was reprimanded for the actions without due process she didn't have the ability to defend herself if she would have tried to speak up you would have had her rejected just like you've had other people rejected okay same thing with the rules of decorum simple basic rules of decorum when she called for a point of order you should have yielded the floor you yielded it Nelson Bollier tonight so obviously you understand it you did that you didn't do it for him you've got to be equal no bias this is why you should have been removed as chair and speaking of you Mr Bollier last Town Hall you stated I brought up the fact that you were contacted by Lynn Schumacher about the investigation the sexual assault cover-up right I I brought it
158up and said you did not go to law enforcement when did you go to them a month days weeks the thing is you didn't do your job you went to who the superintendent the deputy superintendent the people implicated in the sexual assault cover-up that's who you went to and you wonder why we keep laying this at your feet I'm sick and tired of having these conversations with you you yet again didn't stick up for her for the point of order you yet again didn't even go on the record today stating that what she did is wrong you could have voted no to removing the chair and still stuck up for the teachers okay that concludes Carlton oh I'm sorry Donna sorry thank you for coming back thank you October is dyslexia and ADHD awareness month
159did you know these learning differences make up 80 percent of our exceptional children population this is the same population often underserved but corrected for Behavioral issues this is the same marginalized population that is being secluded this is the same population where IEPs are violated this is the same group of Learners that need specialized tools so they can succeed when will the board take a hard look at the data and vote to end seclusion and restraint putting a child with attention issues in a padded room is not the solution the lack of urgency and best practices are so concerning as a parent and a Community member I have asked before and I'll ask again that you approve teachers to take the specialized training such as Orton Gillingham during their work day my non-profit is paying for
160these trainings but many teachers that are willing to take the 30-hour training can't fit it in their schedule without these teachers taking that training we're furthering the Gap dyslexia can be remediated and I'm requesting the further partnership to put the solution in place I want to empower this board to make these decisions you can decide tonight to further the education of our teachers and to end seclusion and restraint thank you so much thank you thank you okay that does end our call to the audience thank you all for coming and voicing your concerns next up is closed session and we will enter I need a motion to enter into closed session pursuant to um the statutes that cover Personnel matters and confidentiality um around family education rights is there's emotion is in favor say aye
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