NHCS Board of Ed. Regular Board Meeting | August 3 Re-upload

001you we're ready all right thank you very much good evening everyone and welcome to the august regular meeting of the new hanover county board of education uh i would like to call this meeting to order and if we could start just as a reminder as a remote meeting for board members um all votes will be conducted via roll call and if you are going to speak at any point during tonight's meeting just make sure that you are saying your name as you get started and we'll have to make sure that we're doing a good job of not talking to each other um over the remote it's it's a little bit different so um miss bowie if you could please call the roll good afternoon miss adams here mr boyer miss justice here ms craybill um

002here i'm here mr mcmanus he's muted here i'm sorry miss walker here and mr wildebore i am present all right thank you very much miss bowie uh so we are starting our meeting off this is the first uh with our revised agenda of a work session uh so the first area that we are going to focus on are our board related committees and if this buoy if you could please open up that item so the reason this item is being listed for us to discuss during this work session everybody on the board wants to make sure that our our board committees are having impact they are effective and they are functioning in the way that they need to be functioning to best serve the district and so what just wanted to have a conversation this

003evening around the current board committees that we have talk a little bit about how they are functioning what we can possibly do better and this is an opportunity for us to review if it is necessary to keep all the committees that we currently have are there some committees that we feel that we need to add and we'll start from there so let's just review uh this first document here for board standing committees miss billy if you could just slide down that on for this is the policy um all right so currently according to policy i believe that we have um one of the issues that has been discovered is that the board policy versus some of the committees that we are currently utilizing are not included in the policy um so we need to take

004a look at this uh the budget development committee is one that we all serve on which is an annual committee faculty diversity and inclusion committee miss walker and mr mcmanus are currently serving on family communications committee myself ms craybill student scholarships for future teachers that is a committee that we all serve on annually uh miss buey if you could go down a little bit further please and then the policy committee uh mr bullier mr miss craybill and mr wildebore and then title ix is miss walker and miss craybill so those are our standing board committees um so we'll do a quick review of those um and then additionally we have advisory committees um under the advisory committees these are committees where we have a liaison not necessarily a chair for the committee and there's been

005some confusion around that so i want to talk a little bit about the differences between the board standing committees and then the advisory committees so under advisory we have aces the calendar committee educator of the year gifted advisory council which i believe has a new name now and then the third committee is ad hoc committees the ad hoc committees are committees that when there is a specific issue or problem that has presented itself um it is something that we can address with a temporary ad hoc committee until a solution is reached so let's just start there if we could go to the other attachment miss bowie that lists out the current committees and who is serving all right um miss craybill i'm going to throw this to you because i'd like you to speak to

006you you've been a a pretty a big advocate around standardizing some things if you could just share some of your thoughts on some of the ideas that you have and then i'll pass it around to other members of the board for your thoughts on ideas of how we can for our board of education standing committees how we could possibly improve on what we have okay thanks um um stephanie so um what i noticed when i when i first became honorable actually before we even got on the board in our training that are in our training packet the the committee's uh that information got didn't align with our policy and didn't align with um what was on our website and three of them didn't meet in a line i'm really having trouble hearing her hold on

007how about this can you hear me sounds really digitized i'm not sure what you're saying can you hear me now that's much better whatever that i did um i must be losing some charge on my headset so all right um so what i what i was saying judy was that when i fir when we first got our training um in our packet about board committees um it i noticed that it didn't align with what was on our on our website and also didn't align with what was in our policies so um and and specifically yeah and specifically what i what i was noticing is that some of the committees were not included um on on all three areas and that there was um pretty much a huge difference in how they were i want to

008say marketed on our on our website and in our policy about saying some of the committees you know had um board members names listed some of them didn't some of them had um they had our new hanover county schools subject matter expert listed some of them didn't some of them had descriptions some of them didn't um some of them had community committee members listed some of them didn't um and then there there is a there to me there's a distinction between board advisory and um board liaison because um some of them are internal like we're the liaison to an internal committee and an example of that would be the curriculum committee you know judy that you're on um and and the parks and rec committee that pete is on would be an example of um

009we're a liaison to an outside the board committee so i i just wanted to get you know that language kind of you know tightened up a little bit and i also noted that in some of our committees there's goals some of the committees there's not um we some of our committees we take minutes or group memory and some of them we don't um some committees use an application process for members some of them don't um and i just want i just thought that it would be make more sense if we had um you know for us to talk about of course but like a unified um or similar application process where a person from the community or the school system because you know just because you're in the school system i think that you know

010we should they should be applying also but so that we learn about the individual and what skills they bring and experience they bring to each of the committees um and then we we're going to have to go back at some point and look at our policies so that we can um put in policy that we actually have an application process um and you know how we go about doing that so there was just a couple i mean there was to me there was kind of a lot that we needed to just tighten up on so i um you know wanted to bring that to everybody's attention and then we also need to at some point probably go back and just make sure we're all real familiar with the wording in the policy 2230 which addresses

011board committees about what the chairperson's roles are what each of our roles are what the subject matter expert roles are um so that kind of stuff so that's that's a lot i mean that's a lot to throw on the table an awful lot miss craig bill if i can if i can summarize the two two big things that i pulled out of that you would like to be able to have better definition of members versus liaisons you would like a standardized app you believe that we should have a standardized application process are those two of the two of the big ones that would help at least from the the starting point well and i would like to add a third that we come to some agreement that all of our committees um will be advertised

012if if you will in the same manner with um what the goal is or what a description of the committee and um the goal of that the goals of that committee so everybody's clear on what we're doing application process and marketing of that process but then also um establish mission and goals for all committees yes okay all right thank you uh would someone else like to speak um some of their thoughts on the committee process or improvements needed miss walker i saw you come off me yes yeah thank you i i had a couple questions um we are on edi that when i got on board we were having two meetings a month and that was i think dude a lot to covet stuff so we've gone back to one but we would like to

013have i mean it doesn't say anywhere in the policy about how many times we meet i don't believe i didn't read that um on the edi we'd like to have maybe a second me as a more informal subcommittee type of uh meeting and i don't know how it works as far as like how many how many members constitute a quorum or whether that because i know committees are more informal than they are formal like we are where we go by robert's roles and you know we have a whole list of policies that we follow but um we uh in order for us to be working committee i think with all the things that we're dealing with edi we were considering having that second meeting kind of more a subcommittee informal but i don't know what

014the rules were on that and i don't know if we could clear that up or whether it really is it up to each chair of each committee to do that and stephanie i have the same you know we've had the same discussion you know on title ix as well like what is considered um an open meeting are our subcommittee's open meetings um and all that you know so all of those things that go around with what you just said can i can i make a comment here go ahead let's go ahead and discuss this uh these committees serve a variety of purposes they can't be a one thing fits all and that's what i think you're seeing with all the different descriptions for example on an advisory committee they're the ones that select the members

015not the board we're just sitting there as an advisor uh then when you have a committee like the ad hoc like the edi committee that's something that the board has put together and say yeah we're gonna be making our rules another thing that i heard when she was going through her descriptions it sounds like if anything there seems to be a inconsistency in the website description that can be cleaned up by a certain person somewhere by designating them and going through the process of gathering information after you set up a criteria if you're going to put that on our website so there's several things there is a lot we do need more uniformity as far as language goes but as far as unifying all the different committees because of the different types that just won't

016work because one size won't fit all but there are things that need to be shored up for sure thank you miss justice so are there you mentioned the website the website descriptions specifically are part of that process so so far i have defining members versus liaisons roles and responsibilities application process and marketing of that process mission and goals for committees a common process is it understanding should we be common or should do we need to be different based on the committee needs website description anyone else um their thoughts on our current structure um and concerns that they have about updates or edits that are necessary well i just wanted to say no stephanie walker sorry um i just wanted to say you know we do have that one meeting a month most of the committees

017do and judy's right we do we all are not one size fits all because you know edi has a lot more members than other committees do i just want to make sure that we're when we're meeting we're doing it the way we're supposed to um you know the one meeting we have a month the first monday is usually our main meeting but i we would like to members would like to go back to a more informal second meeting which is we we have several little subcommittees that do work and i just want to make sure that it's okay to do that um because the first one's open to the public i i you know intended to have them in person again um and hopefully that will happen next time so i guess is it up

018to the chair to kind of set some of these rules it does it's not clear in the the main um body of the policy so i just want to make sure that's okay and we're doing it right that makes sense any clarification please so um i i what my experience has been is that we have as as a committee have worked to establish some of those expectations um when when we re-establish the family communications committee the committee as a whole talked about how often did we want to meet what was going to be the structure of those meetings um and and mr scheib if you want to chime in here based on our policy um what that is expected to look like um how the process for each committee should be set up so in

019terms of the open meetings question you know as you know meetings of committees recognized established by the board are open meetings and are required to be open under the law in terms of subcommittees you know your policy doesn't really contemplate subcommittees if um i think we want to talk about what exactly goes on those meetings how many people are there we might not need to call it a subcommittee if it's just a couple members of the committee getting together to talk about you know business and that's probably not an open meeting if um you've got you know a quorum of that committee regularly meeting and the board has in some way acknowledge the of that committee or subcommittee then that that could be an open meeting so we might want to think about that um

020the other thing that i heard you all talking about was differences between liaisons and committee members tell me if i understand correctly that you would contemplate board members being liaisons with respect to advisory committees and members with respect to the standing committees is that right correct okay and and so you're talking about perhaps making a policy change where the liaison role would be defined more clearly and i'm thinking tell me if i'm wrong that that would basically be that for those advisory committees board members there are more in a listening capacity as opposed to um kind of running the meeting and controlling the business of the meeting is that right yeah as members well like members and then we advise when they ask and then we bring back with bring back to the full board

021as opposed to kind of as opposed to running a meeting i think that makes sense oh yeah we're not yeah we're just we're members of the group so right now that's stephanie i have my hand how do we how do we raise our hands to be recognized other than raising my hand in front of your face how do you how do you want us to do that so that we don't on top of each other it would be easier to put it into the chat because i can't see all of the windows right now um i have to okay i didn't know we were using chat okay sorry about that all right not a problem so i i wanted to um i wanted to address colin's um question is that we're not really talking about

022general members we're talking about the um the as far as the committees go that are in the advisory capacity it is the the board member that is been named to that committee by you um slash board chair um and it's my understanding and maybe this is where we're wrong is that we are a participating member of that committee we are just not responsible for um running the meeting setting the agendas and accountable directly for the outcomes that is the responsibility of the new hanover county schools subject matter expert who is charged with running that meeting so that's what my my impression was so if that's not right then we need to have that clarified um and then the the when we are elite when we are a liaison to the um to the outside committees

023like the hannah block and the parks and rec and and those kind of committees that our board member is there to pretty much you know listen but to represent the interest of the school system so is is that not right we are are you talking about committees that are not board of education committees they're yes they well we only have several board of education committees and that's what i'm the the the advisory and the advisory status is are those really board of education committees or are those just committees that a board of education member um has been assigned to because if you if you read what what the the few that do have descriptions it it it tells what that committee is supposed to be doing and um and who is supposed to be on

024it and we're just one you know person named on that so we're not responsible for the outcomes we're responsible for listening and reporting back but on the other committees outside committees we're we're on it but only representing the interests of the school system you know really not to do anything right so if it's an outside committee something not listed in our policy then yes you're just you're a liaison that's not a meeting noticed by the board of education that's a totally separate meeting the advisory committees you have listed in your policy those are committees that we have established and we've set the parameters of those committees and stated you know the terms by which board members will be participating yeah but all right so here's what my question is and maybe this is what i

025wanted to ask you know dr faust or you where it says under b the board will also form advisory committees for specific purposes and um but when you read about what the advisory committees do um they're they're they're just making recommendations to the board but it's not really a board-led anything you know we've just basically invited ourselves to be on committees that the school system already has is that not right not necessarily um look at aces for was not aces anymore um that that name has changed but some of the advisory still listed judy aces is still listed we changed the name last year and that's why we need to change it in our documentation okay but because it was getting too confused with other aces uh i don't want to go into that right

026now but the point is is that's an advisory committee that was originally put together or promoted by the school board itself it became part of the exceptional children's department and parents the parents needed it and they're part of it and so we're there in the sense we created it but we've stepped back now and they're running it so i mean each one of these like the hannah block that's a totally separate thing and we're on it there's a variety of things going on you can't re-cut every one of these because of the circumstances i just feel like i feel like we need more definition that's all yeah i think that um there's definitely room for more conversation here um i i feel like this is looking at the policy of our committee creation process and

027and i almost would suggest an ad hoc to tackle this as far as the process and what could fit into that and what couldn't so that's just something to throw out there as an option um what i would like to just ask at the board and one of the committees that i would like to see as a standing committee that we currently don't have but i feel is very important is a legislative committee we have not in my time here on the board that is something that a lot of other boards of education have and they are the group that looks at the items that are going on at the state level working with i know we all talk with our elected representatives from the house and the senate and our county commissioners you know

028um as much as possible but i do think that there is value in a legislative committee to have um one or two board members that serve as our um you know state rep to to make sure that the needs of our schools our students are being heard consistently and also to follow the updates um that are going very closely to help inform the board we all get emails about the different legislative actions that are happening but i think it's also good to have someone that's really holding responsibility for it to make sure hey this one's really big are we talking about this um so that's just the thought i feel like we should have a legislative committee i'm curious if there are any other committees that board members feel would be necessary yes ms krabill

029i see your hand so um we do need to add in under the advisory committees the school health advisory team committee called shaq because our policy 8720 which is now um it's now um let me find it it's 61 61 40. it says that a school board member will be on that um so that one needs to be listed in there somewhere and then um i didn't know and and in our policy we don't have the curriculum committee listed at all um so we'll need to add that and and i didn't know if we needed to since we worked so closely with um dc virgo if we needed to have an advisory committee um or advisory person you knew on that so as as a member of the policy committee that sounds like that's a

030policy change first off if we don't have shaq on their own curriculum committee those would need to be added to our current policy is that something that we can send to the policy committee to discuss well yeah and i don't pete you know you can jump into it i don't see a problem with us trying to draft something you know based on what we've heard today and then working on it at the policy committee because then we at our policy committee meetings we have um you know the whole senior staff is part of that and can give their input then pete what do you think yeah i agree i think that uh you know if we you know we have the opportunity to make it better make it tighter and you know i also like

031the idea of the legislative uh committee i think that'd be a great thing so we can be right on top of the things um you know that are coming down and we can also voice our concerns and our our requests up to up you know up to the state so i think that's a great idea okay any other comments or suggestions before we close this conversation so um is it's my understanding that um we will bring it back to the policy committee um and i will i'll discuss it with nelson when he gets back that see we haven't noticed the meeting for august the 10th so we could we could put it on that or um you know at least for initial discussion and see what we can bring back out of that for our

032um um august 17th meeting or our september meeting great and in the meantime um i believe i i believe this would be mr smith to you and your department um can we make sure that our website committees are updated properly with the members um because i'm looking at the printout right now and i and i know that some of these are out of date would that be you uh to help get us situated with the website and corrected yes that's correct uh happy to provide those corrections or make those corrections online uh and the answers yes great thank you so that's a good start um so we'll start with the policy committee uh with updating a few of the ones that need to be included and we will go from there and with the possibility

033i think maybe of an ad hoc to look at the process overall uh to be able to move into 2022 with a more effective committee process thank you all right that was our first work session that was effective well miss beckness adams i had a question um just for clarification on what work sessions are meant to do i know that something got added to it but i just thought work sessions were a general time for us to be discussing things that were coming up before the meeting maybe on the agenda or ways that we can save time on our agenda coming up is that we never really defined what they were and so i i would wouldn't mind talking about that to see if we can establish some kind of norm when it comes to

034work sessions sure anybody have any thoughts so to the committee that brought the work sessions forward on the agenda discussion would anyone like to speak to that miss justice yeah that would be me yeah that's exactly miss uh i was rather surprised to see this work set on this work session uh first of all i think it's a great idea we just talked about the committees because that is something we need to but i was under the impression that that would be the kind of thing that you'd put on the agenda and have a second and then do what we just did and that's what i thought this work session was about was to be agenda items discussions uh if they didn't need a vote that day so that we would be not talking about

035it during the regular session uh and spending that time when we could be you doing it for other things um and the same situation and i'm sorry guys um the same situation as far as other items uh so we we didn't intend it to bring brand new topics and then work on them when we were in the ad hoc committee that was not what our understanding was or what our recommendation was i i think today was very productive but in the future could we could we maybe define that we should do it according to the agenda items or you know possibly ones that we will be working on the future that we've already discussed and now we're coming down the line instead of brand new topics just thrown out there because this time was to

036be used to shorten our meetings not to just add more stuff on now if this had been suggested as an agenda item and then a second then this would have you know that that's what we were expecting miss craybill comments yes yes so um it was my understanding from all of our discussion that the work session items were there to um definitely streamline our meetings but to talk about topics that would be coming up um so and but nothing that would be voted on during the meeting that followed the work session because we all agreed um and correct me if i'm wrong we all agreed that we weren't going to be work sessioning and then having a discussion and a vote at the at the meeting at the board meeting that the work session was

037a part of so that everybody had a chance to ask questions of whoever is presenting the information kind of like what we just did here today um and then we go off and we um we we do whatever research that we need to do so that we are ready to actually have a vote at the next following meeting whether it be interim or whether it be regular board meeting and so just for the record i did ask for this topic to be put on a work session and on and i had a second so the i don't think that handling a work session should be any different than handling um an agenda item but this is also an opportunity for dr faust and his senior staff to give us some pre-information about um programs and

038protocols and things that are coming up so that we can think about them digest them and then be ready to to have votes at the following meeting that was my understanding so and i think mr labor might have been um part of that discussion as well so he might want to jump in can i finish about from the ad hoc committee basically we're saying the same thing it's the way it's presented uh because it was either from you know the staff senior staff want to present us things we will be looking at later on or it would be agenda items that we needed more information on it's just a matter of presenting this as an agenda item in the meeting before so we would have known it was coming up not just throw it on

039there i think that being that this was the first one i think we're we're still getting our ceilings underneath us yeah i think we'll we'll get into a cadence of how this works you know the the conversation that kept coming up was the board wants to talk about things that we're not acting on and there's never time to do it and so that's another piece of this too is it's an opportunity to discuss topics that do not necessarily need immediate action so i think this was a productive discussion i think it definitely got us started i want to keep us on time tonight and so i'm going to close this discussion and we're going to go ahead and move on with the rest of our agenda the next item on our agenda is our invocation

040unfortunately due to um we've had a conflict with um our group that was supposed to come a new beginnings church was supposed to i believe was supposed to be our officiant this evening for the invocation they are unavailable unfortunately um so i would like to start this meeting with just a moment of silence on if we could all just close our eyes and we will be back in just a minute thank you and we look forward to having new beginnings at an upcoming board meeting again so we will make sure that we get that rescheduled all right the next item on the agenda is the pledge of allegiance and so if a please turn to whatever flag may be in your home i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and

041to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you next up is the approval of the agenda i would like to first start we due to the fact that we moved to remote i would like to ask for a motion to pull the recognition item off of tonight's agenda we want to make sure that ms kennedy who is being recognized this evening gets her due in front of an audience when we have an in-person meeting so i'd like to call for a motion to remove recognition off of tonight's agenda second or was it mr wildebore i'm sorry mr wildeboard thank you is there a second second by ms craybill thank you miss craybill any discussion all those in favor say aye oh sorry roll call

042miss bowie miss adams aye miss justice hi miss craybill aye mr mcmanus hi miss walker hi and mr wildebore aye thank you very much uh recognition item has been removed six to zero are there any other uh additions or deletions uh for the agenda emotions miss miss adams stephanie walker um yeah i would like to make a motion to add um policy 2310 to the agenda please right um under what what part of the agenda um well it's i guess your choice [Laughter] it's your choice i i mean i i would guess uh let me see i wasn't being cute i meant that it was your choice i guess i guess old business or business old business all right there is a motion to add a discussion around policy 2320 to the agenda uh motion

043performance 23 10. sorry sorry i wrote it down wrong 23 10. um okay first from miss walker is there a second just a second miss justice thank you very much any discussion yes what is the what is the title of that policy for those of people at home who don't know public participation at board meetings and okay all right any other discussion i know we've talked about it before and we need to go ahead and i think resolve instead of talking around it as a group i was just going to suggest i mean we're discussion is for later i think this is just for proving it to be on the agenda right yes okay is that okay so there's a motion in a second to add a discussion around policy 2310 under old business uh

044miss bowie could you please call the roll miss adams aye ms justice aye ms crabill aye mr mcmanus yes miss walker yes and mr will deboer yes all right thank you item is a gender item is agenda add item is added to old business uh yes miss craybill so um i noticed that it's already on our agenda the closed session that um is following but um i didn't know if we needed to um make a note that our policy 2330 we inadvertently left off of closed session when we added work session so i didn't know if we needed to um officially say let's put the closed session in um and then also to add a closed session to the end of the meeting um after announcements so are those is that two so the close

045the closed session um at the beginning of the meeting has been noticed but yes we do need to add an additional closed session for today so i'm at the end so if you would like to make that motion that would be great okay add it to the um add an additional closed session to the end of the meeting after announcements all right so the motion is to add an additional closed session after announcements do i hear a second exactly just will start before any discussion yes um stephanie walker i i um i know that we approved i think we discussed that we had approved our new agenda format last time adding the work session that we had inadvertently forgot to put closed session in there is that what this is meant to do or is

046this an additional closed session this is an additional closed session okay was there any issue with not having that on that format that we chose last time or is that something you don't need to do no our policy allows for us to add closed session um if necessary okay all right thank you all right ms bowie could you call the role please miss adams aye ms justice aye ms crabill aye mr mcmanus hi miss walker yes and mr wildeboard yes all right closed session is added to the end of the meeting is there anything else for the agenda before we vote to approve the agenda okay uh do i hear a motion to approve the agenda with the additions um that have been added a move like managed thank you mr mcmanus is there a

047second second world abortion thank you mr wilderboy i think you got it first any other discussion miss bowie could you please call the roll miss adams aye miss justice aye ms craybill aye mr mcmanus hi miss walker yes and mr wildebore yes all right agenda is approved thank you very much next item on the agenda is a closed session sorry gotta pull up my there we go thank you miss bowie um oops let me pull that up really fast all right uh the next item is a closed session pursuant to north carolina general statutes 143-318-11 a1 3 and six to consider personnel matters and to maintain the confidentiality of personnel records under north carolina general statutes 115 c 319 and dash 321 to prevent the disclosure of student records rendered confidential under the family educational

048rights and privacy act 20 usc one two three two g to consult with the board's attorney to preserve attorney-client privilege information including in the case captioned john doe the new hanover county board of education ed al new hanover county superior court case number 19 dash cvs dash 2745 do i hear a motion motion stephanie gravel thank you miss crabill is there a second second stephanie walker thank you miss walker any discussion ms bowie could you please call the roll miss adams aye ms justice miss craybill aye mr mcmanus miss walker yes and mr wildebore yes motion passes we are in closed session thank you very much we will be back soon all right thank you very much miss baggy all right welcome back we have our six board members back in attendance and dr faust

049and his senior staff we are going to continue with our agenda the next item on our agenda is the approval of the minutes and these minutes are from june 14th june 30th and july 20th these were all special board meetings do i hear a motion to approve all three um so move stephanie craybill thank you miss craybill is there a second becca mcmanus thank you mr mcmanus any discussion um miss adams um do we have them are the minutes included in there the cape your board of trustees meeting too i wasn't sure forget those are included or we just haven't done that yet i don't think we've those have been completed yet okay thanks all right any other questions all right miss bowie if you could please call the roll miss adams i miss justice

050hi miss craybill hi mr mcmanus yes miss walker yes and mr wildebore yes thank you very much minutes are approved six to zero okay uh the next item on the agenda is the call to the audience uh due to the fact that this meeting was moved to remote i would just like to quickly address and thank the public for their flexibility with this change it was for the safety of our community our staff and our board members um and we appreciate those that have been able to flex and record messages for this evening's call to the audience uh so miss bowie if you could set us up for our first phone calls thank you our first call to the audience will be from sandy isles hello my name is sandy isles tonight you will be

051voting to either uphold the rights of all children to receive a safe free appropriate public education or you will vote to prioritize choice our general assembly legislated that all schools should be safe no one has the right to make schools unsafe because they don't want to wear a mask mature leaders do not make decisions based on what they want but based on what is necessary and right and schools have the responsibility to put necessary safety protocols in place mask wearing is the most equitable inclusive effective and least complex solution to protecting and educating all children regardless of race disability or economic status math wearing prevents quarantines and lost instructional time math wearing keeps our kids in school new hanover county school states that in-person education is fundamental to a child's development and well-being which is

052why you are not offering a remote learning option this year also our mission states that you will deliver a superior education in a safe and positive learning environment you cannot provide a superior education if you remove math this will intentionally create a chaotic and disruptive learning environment it will increase quarantines and kids will be forced out of the classroom we don't even have a remote learning option for kids and quarantine we must do everything possible to keep kids in the classroom so that they can learn requiring math prevent coded transmission keeps our kids in school and allows them to learn it also protects their federally mandated right to a free appropriate public education please protect that right thank you next we have christina mercier hello my name is christina mercier and i want to talk

053about masks in school for the fall i am a teacher and am vaccinated and i originally hoped we could drop the mass mandate for this school year however the recent surging cases in the delta variant has changed all that i want the mass mandate to remain in place for the foreseeable future the year-round schools in the area that have returned with relaxed standards are seeing clusters of cases and quarantine this is simply not the time to drop the masks as of monday august 2nd hanover county has a high cova transmission rate and close to 8 positivity rate and that's climbing the surrounding counties have higher positivity rates almost 16 for both brunswick and pender and we know the virus doesn't understand county lines and we were faced with this data last year the board chose

054to keep students fully removed which isn't an option this year so what can we do we can keep masks for all yes most people find them annoying but they are the simplest way to protect everyone please do not make it a family option as an educator i can foresee the issue it will cause in schools at all grade levels there will be time wasted dealing with arguments over why you should or shouldn't be wearing a map this is an issue that should not be politicized you only need to look at data and listen to medical professionals to know that keeping the mass mandate is the correct course as a vaccinated adult i do i know i would not want to be responsible for carrying the virus to a child who is too young to be

055vaccinated yet i will wear the mask to protect others because it is the right thing to do please do not allow new hanover county schools to become like surrounding counties with their exposing exploding positivity rate let's keep everyone safe so we can stay in school this year keep them asked at least for the foreseeable future thank you hello my name is christina our next caller is veronica mclaren brown this is veronica mclaren brown with love our children a consistent clear and child student discipline policy is needed to stop the harm that suspensions do to our four five six and seven-year-old children we need a disciplined policy that establishes excellence as a standard let's call it a gold standard for our children a gold standard policy keeps ages four through seven in school when they make

056mistakes such as stomping their feet crossing their arms and yelling i don't wanna sit down leave me alone the gold standard policy would apply to every single classroom in every single school and it would help ensure more equitable and equal treatment for all of our students it goes standard discipline policy is the correct tool the right tool for educators to use to keep students in the classroom a go standard policy would provide more time for teachers to nurture and teach children sometimes adults at all levels in our school system make mistakes we don't suspend them we provide them with additional resources and support and support to help them become highly qualified educators why don't we do the same thing for our four five six and seven-year-old children when they make mistakes in our classroom suspensions

057harm our children especially our youngest learners stop the harm change the new hanover county school suspension policy to read suspensions will not be used as a consequence for four five six and seven-year-old students except for weapons drugs of serious bodily harm love our children in suspensions for ages four through seven do it now thank you next we have janae von hassell hello this is janae von hasban i'm calling regarding the august board meeting on the math mandates for school i'm calling to speak on behalf of some of our special needs children in favor of choice reason being specifically for my son who is nine years old and non-speaking with his greatest deficits being in his social emotional um development and i've had several speech pathologists and developmental pediatricians who have shared with me the impact

058this is having on kids like my son who are not able to see uh pick up on social cues see faces see lips and mouths moving the impact this is having on speech therapy and the lack of progress children are making many children specifically like my son with these greater deficits who are unable to see faces see how the mouth forms um to create words and he's lost 18 months of being able to have um being able to see faces and and having the appropriate type of connection with his teachers and therapists and other classmates so i understand that we have huge safety concerns here however we've seen sciences dictating through other counties and through all of the data that's being collected that the greatest strength is in screening and in keeping sick children away

059from the school and not in the math wearing within the schools so i think that being really casual about this and assuming that it's just not a big deal for kids to wear the mask is a concern we really need to look at it is a big deal for some of the kids um not only wearing them but having everyone in their presence wearing them it is definitely impacting their next we have debra able my name is deborah abel i'm a retired new hanover county teacher and community member i'm asking the new hanover county school board to vote in favor of mandatory mass for everyone students educators and visitors to the buildings for the fall semester of 2021. please listen to and follow the recommendations of our state leadership as well as the american association

060of pediatrics and the cdc please do not deny the science and the professionals who have dedicated their lives to studying public health and safety we all know our children under the age of 12 are not yet eligible for vaccinations this puts them directly in harm's way when asked to return to the classroom without math children do in fact get sick from covet and they are spreaders of the virus you're setting up a breeding ground for the delta variant to spread rapidly through our county schools and through our communities this is basic science and it doesn't take a phd to comprehend please do not deny science and do not put our children teachers parents and community at risk please make an intelligent science-based decision vote to start the fall 2021 semester with mandatory masks thank you

061our next message is from loretta stackhouse my name is loretta stockhouse i am speaking in support of ending school suspensions for four five six and seven-year-old children webster defines school as an institution for educating children a center for learning learning requires teaching teach to show or explain how to do something learn to gain knowledge or skill in something being taught in the teaching showing and explaining process for learning to take place mistakes and mishaps will occur when these occur or mishaps occur in the learning process teaching showing explaining must be repeated on occasion changes are made in teaching method different examples may be used in hopes of making concepts more understandable similar changes should be made when teaching social skills and unacceptable behavior occurs consequences to these actions are required as with teaching methods alternatives

062to suspension exist suspending students and sending them home interrupts the learning process suspension interrupt successful learning suspensions set students up for failure unacceptable behavior is a teachable moment in school suspension of four five six and seven-year-old children now alternative to suspensions exist thank you our next caller is francesca vernon good evening board members and dr faust i am a parent of a rising fourth grader my name is francesca vernon i know you are hearing from very passionate people about how best to return to school today i am asking you not to listen to us listen and follow the recommendations of the strong school toolkit and the american academy of pediatrics i really hoped this fall would be so much more normal for our children our health department states that we have 6.3 positive and rising

063over the last week there have been 334 new cases of coven 19 one dashboard note over 400 cases in the last week from public health director david howard we've seen our local percent positivity testing rate go from 1.7 at the end of june to 5 at the end of july reported new cases over the last week have more than doubled over last week's case count which also showed increasing trends week over week our county metrics have taken a sharp turn in the wrong direction and we need to prevent this from continuing as you know children under 12 are not yet eligible for the vaccine my pediatrician sent out information stating we know that the constant change in guidance and recommendations is exhausting and at times confusing based on this current surge and available guidance we

064strongly recommend that all children k-12 are masked during the day and during into during any indoor activities i don't like these statistics but that does not keep them from being fact i go back over and over to the fact that pediatricians the medical experts on our children who have no benefit from getting involved politically or otherwise agree that this is the way to keep our children and more vulnerable populations safe so please listen to the experts samantha bunge our next caller is peter rawitch this is peter rauwicz miss varnam will be speaking about her school plan for the management of student behavior tonight i heard a brief preview of it last week i expect she'll be talking about breaking down assumptions when there is problematic behavior in the classroom we assume sometimes that the children

065are being disrespectful or they haven't been taught better or they're not using the skills they have when in fact they may be seeking attention or trying to gain power or control or they're avoiding something they find displeasurable the fact is we don't have any bad four five six or seven year olds we have young children who need our love and support suspending them from school just harms them using this farnam's plan there are clear alternatives to suspensions and our youngest learners can begin to receive the support they need on the first day of school her team-based school improvement plan has educators creating a culture of high expectations providing engaging learning activities and building social and emotional competencies that we can assume all young children already have the board of education can revise policy 4300 tonight

066and end school suspensions for four five six and seven-year-old children except for the possession of weapons or drugs or a violent offense the school teams are being trained this week alternatives to suspensions are being put in place and suspensions now before the schools reopen thank you gail major our next caller is barbara guerrero hi my name is barbara darrow i am talking about 9b and 12a 9b is school plan for management of student behavior and 12a is masking protocol any school suspension for four five six and seven year old except for drugs gun or violent very violent behavior prevents a scar of rejection that can last a lifetime requiring masks for students staff and administration is also preventative and can save a life thank you very much our next caller is angie caney while the

067vice chair falsely claimed that there were no public concerns with policy 5120 we beg to differ an entire press conference was held last week just before the remote meeting to share those concerns the board chose not to attend and ignore the public once again how can we share concerns when you won't listen or even respond to emails and now you refuse to allow the public to speak or even attend your meetings yes nelson we have concerns with policy 5120 and the fact that our students are interrogated without their parents present we have concerns with this policy being used to target specific students and pave that pipeline to prison and we have concerns with equity inclusion and safety in our schools we also have concerns with the time and resources being wasted to target and retaliate

068against advocates for simply sharing those concerns this week's false accusations against activists for encouraging peaceful protests and attempting to educate the public was absurd and showed your lack of integrity and leadership nice try but last time i checked holding public officials accountable was not illegal we will not be scared into silence so that you can make decisions in your secret meetings that are not in the best interest of our children based on the sheer hostility and aggression by other groups that some of you encourage as they attack our lgbtq and students of color our voices are needed now more than ever do not think if it has gone unnoticed that you put victims of sexual assault through reliving their pain once again this week in your heartless mediation if you put forth half the effort

069to protect children for predators that you do in your attention seeking will cry to protect yourselves well we might be making progress you claim that we are dangerous yet it is board members like adams and krable who have placed a target on the backs of victims by publicly blaming and shaming them putting their safety at risk it's been almost three years of being patient and waiting for you to find your moral compass and protect children we are growing tired of waiting thank you our next caller is josie barnhart hi my name is josie barnhart and i'm here to speak on behalf of the math choice for parents this school year the biggest part of child development and particularly in our young people we need to have but a good understanding of both the mental state

070of mind and academic growth for our kids to be healthy north carolina is required by state law to focus on our kids social and emotional needs and when you use a mask that is ignoring what some of our kids are needing parents have the right to access their own child's risk and make the decision that best suits them on july 14th i wrote a petition which i've been shared with you guys as well as all over social media about parental voice in public schools tonight i'd like to read off those things number one mass choice number two the parents are responsible for kova testing and vaccination not the schools number three parents are called prior to a child being questioned by law enforcement number four parents are allowed to demand unbiased teaching number five the

071right to know when a student will be surveyed in class and have the option to potentially opt out and number six parents should be able to see all sel lessons and content prior to teacher implementation and allow opt-out of those lessons as of august 2nd this petition has over 1000 signatures i care about our kids our teachers and our staff i'm going to continue to engage with you and stand up for my kids because they are my most valuable asset tonight i ask that you vote for math optional in new hanover county and allow parents to choose what best fit their overall child needs and not for you to decide for them thank you casey brown mac coil our next caller will be from leslie posey good evening dr faust and members of the board

072this is leslie posey first i want to commend you for holding this meeting virtually i believe it shows your dedication to the health of our community second i would like to read you parts of a news article regarding a piece of legislation these are uncomfortable and restrictive this house bill is a pretty good lesson in mass hysteria created by corporate controlled media anyone who votes for this should be recalled although these sound recent they are actually arguments from the 1980s opposing seat belt laws do you wear a seat belt does that seat belt restrict your rights of course not seat belts save lives masks are the new seat belts we know they save lives when everyone wears them consistently some facts kids are not immune to the delta variant there are already hundreds cleaned or

073hospitalized on friday uncw announced that masks will be mandatory inside all buildings the delta variant of covid is pages you can catch it by walking past an infected person if you are not masked the ongoing research i referenced last month showed a one thousand six hundred percent increase in cova dna levels in the new hanover county sewage in the last two weeks finally many people think that there have been so many changes in mask recommendations it means that scientists don't know what they're doing i would like you to remember science is not the truth science is finding the truth when science changes its information it didn't lie to you it learned more the most recent science shows that we can control the delta variant by wearing a mask please keep our children safe by instituting

074this policy thank you next up we have misty smith my name is misty smith i am a mama to three kids two of which are old enough to be in our school system um i know y'all are super tired of getting my emails because i am super tired of sending them but i'm calling to ask you to make masks optional for this school year i have a little six-year-old uh she's very shy and quiet and all last year her teacher would write home on her progress report please help her to speak up it's so hard to hear her when she's trying to talk to me in the classroom but it's hard enough just to get her to speak out at all much less speak louder she's not like her mama i have my eight-year-old and

075she has glasses and she was so uncomfortable with the masks and glasses and the fogging and just shifting the mask and just so uncomfortable she's so distracted with the mask she had a really hard time focusing what her teacher was teaching her last year these are my no one else's i should have the right to decide what is best for them it's no one else's decision every mama and daddy should have the right to make the best choice for their child so do the right thing and vote masks optional for our county so we can make the best choice for our children thank you our next caller is catherine harrelson i'm calling tonight to respectfully request that the board vote to make math mandatory for all staff and students upon the return to school please

076follow the guidelines and recommendations of the cdc the american academy of pediatrics the north carolina department of health and human services the u.s department of education the abc science collaborative as well as local pediatricians who all strongly recommend that all children in grades k through 12 wear masks during the school day to mitigate the spread of covid19 with the current surge we are seeing a mass mandate is the best way to control the spread of the virus within our schools and to minimize the need for quarantine a main goal for this school year should be to ensure that all students get maximum in-person instructional time if maths are not mandated we will have many students coming to school unmasked if those students test positive all students and staff with exposure to the unmath students will

077have to quarantine regardless of whether or not the exposed individuals were masked there is no remote learning option planned for this school year if we have hundreds of students in quarantine for multiple days or weeks at a time how will those students learn how will they access the lessons they miss how will they make up the instructional time that they have lost union county charter school in monroe recently returned to school without a mask optional policy and because of no masking they have 150 plus students and staff and quarantine school leaders said that if a mass mandate had been in place last week that number would just be those who had tested positive they will be requiring mass going forward but the loss of instructional time for so many could have been easily avoided please

078listen to the experts consider the current surge in cases look to the schools who have made the mistake of going back to school without a math mandate and make the right choice for new hanover county student staff and the retiring community thank you our next caller is sarah corey my name is sarah corey and my two children attend a new hanover county elementary school when school begins on august 23rd i want my children wearing math but this is my choice my husband and i make decisions for our children with maths optional my children can wear a mask so can any teacher staff member or student if they choose to do so i am a pediatric speech therapist and i believe mask wearing can interfere with effective communication and learning in a variety of ways we

079have nearly 2 000 teachers and tas in our district they should be considered the authority on how maths can be problematic in the classroom have their individual voices been heard i understand teachers may want to be anonymous but surveys can gather information about about the effects of math in our school have you done this the board has a freedom freedom to make decisions that are best for our district you need to decide at every meeting if the mass policy should change currently the district's website fails to provide detailed information about covet infection rates individual school enrollment and staffing levels are not provided therefore there is no context for the case numbers and why not differentiate student cases from staff cases our district is so large so breaking down the information will not violate privacy if

080it is grouped into elementary middle and high school totals you had a very hard decisions to make during the beginning of last school year when so little was known and we didn't have a vaccine but this school year can be different please make math optional for all county teachers staff and students teachers can maintain a simple daily record of who is wearing a mask when cases occur this record would shed light on the health benefits of masks thank you cj brown our next call is from katie gates hello board this is katie gates since our cultural climate has been very divided and outspoken let's look to some inspiration from a document that unified our nation at its birth the declaration of independence states that governments were instituted among men to protect our rights and freedoms

081not hinder them government derives their just power from the consent of the governed that is the consent of we the people well we the people of new hanover county want a choice we want health freedom for our children health freedom means the right to wear a mask or not to be vaccinated or not and the cobia 19 virus has an overall survivability of 98.23 percent across all age groups and children survived the virus 99.985 percent of the time during the last school year 900 000 north carolina students were studied and only 23 cases of cobid were noted so incidence of the disease among children is very low mass need to be optional if mass solved our covet problem when we shut down last year and everyone had to wear a map then the virus should

082have been eliminated but it wasn't likely people are confused because the cdc flip-flopped on mask effectiveness telling us to wear one then not now put them on even if you're vaccinated well nothing's changed with the science the virus has been politicized please keep politics and pressure from teachers unions out of your local deliberations and get to the business of effectively teaching our children reading writing and arithmetic school board you represent our community voice and at this point i do see your dilemma there's strong opinions on both ends of the spectrum but you don't have to mandate that everyone or no one wears masks how about choose a solution that gives each citizen each family their god-given alienable inalienable right to choose what works best for their family it's a great compromise by approaching the middle

083ground you the school board doesn't have our next call is from libby dunn hey this is libby dunn i am running for new hanover county commissioner in 2022 specifically to fight for liberty at the forefront of the attack on liberty currently is forced vaccinations and mass mandates for our children america is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave but we are quickly becoming the land of the slave and the home of the afraid can we still claim to be free if we have no right to make medical decisions for ourselves and our kids can we still claim to be brave if we are allowing fear to dictate our every action our children have the right to breathe they have the right to smile and see each other's smiles

084smiles are contagious and that is a good thing our kids have the right to be happy and the right to be kids we as adults should be role models for them teaching them what it means to be brave and what it means to be free i met a lady tonight who grew up in communist czechoslovakia she came out to fight for mass choice for her kid she was very emotional because she knows what it's like to grow up in a communist state and doesn't want this for her kid she said in czechoslovakia kids belong to the state and have no freedom she said americans don't understand what is happening but those who grew up in communist nations no she is not alone there was another lady from czechoslovakia there tonight saying the same thing jonathan

085uzkataki from venezuela also says the same thing immigrants from communist china are speaking up around the country please listen to their stories before it's too late do not be a useful idiot this is not about health this is not about science this is about control give parents the right to choose next up we have barbara anderson good evening school board members and residents of new hanover county my name is barbara anderson i'm calling to ask that you all please keep masks in the schools for staff and students this covet variant of delta is 50 percent more contagious and we're deciding to send children back to school again and discussing this children are getting sick and some are in icu units until young children can get vaccinated their lives are in danger and it is your

086responsibility to protect them your mission as a new hanover county school board member is to provide children with an opportunity for superior education in a safe and positive learning environment where are they prepared with skills to succeed a safe learning environment when you took your oath of office to service a new hanover county school board member you swore to faithfully discharge your duties of often you swore to follow the mission and the policies of this school district your oath is a promise to do no harm to the students of this county we all want our children in the schools to learn that's best practices that is where all children learn best but not when they are in quarantine not when their teachers and other educators are in quarantine i'm calling on each of you to

087make the safest decision involved for all the students of new hanover county i'm begging each of you to follow your moral compass and keep our students safe i'm calling on you to require that the cdc guidelines and the north carolina safe schools toolkit are followed and enforced in our county public schools all students staff district employees and visitors should be wearing masks when in any school building and maintain social distancing everyone should mask up it is our civic duty to protect everyone thank you our next caller is aaron coogan my name is erin cogan and i respectfully request you make math optional for the 2021-22 school year there have been zero scientific studies done on the masking of healthy children policies for education should always be weighed against the very real possibility of emotional stress

088psychological strain stunted social development as well as physiological damage my oldest child suffers from migraines being masked all day in school has increased them he was exhausted and irritable after a school day with a mask on i was informed by his teacher that he would put his head down frequently between the desk shield and the muffling voices it made an already challenging subject seem impossible to the point of shutting down my middle child was picked on and bullied by other kids for needing to pull her mask down below her nose because she was struggling to breathe my youngest child is going into preschool this year and i am concerned about her ability to understand and interact with her peers and teachers she received speech therapy as a toddler and her speech is still immature i

089worry that her being math could stunt her speech or prevent her from improving leaving her at an avoidable disadvantage if parents are equipped with choices everyone wins i believe that those who are in favor of masks should be afforded the right to wear them likewise those who oppose masks for any number of reasons shouldn't be forced to use them a one-size-fits-all approach is never a good idea shrimp for example has numerous health benefits it's rich in protein and many vitamins and minerals however my son happens to be allergic to shrimp and has to carry an epipen eating it could cause him to go into anaphylactic shock and possibly die masks are a medical device and mandating them is unlawful please cast a vote that allows for bodily autonomy and that puts the medical decisions back

090in the hands of the parents not the politician thank you for your time our next caller is natasha longo good evening madam chair fellow board members dr foust and fellow community members this is natasha longo i'm calling in today for two reasons first i ask that you all vote yes for maths choice as i stated when it was time to move to plan a for every pieces of data for every five pieces of data you have that say that masks are beneficial you have the exact same amount that say that they are harmful it is always good to remember that giving the parents the liberty to to you that the liberty to choose is always the right thing to do as parents we are our children's biggest advocate secondly i would like to take the

091time to do something most have not done i would like to thank this board for everything it has done in the past two years in regards to sexual assault victims i came to you in april of 2019 and told you the story of my child who was the sexual assault victim and asked for surveys to be conducted in the following month of that year she came and asked the thing in the past two years this board has helped us rid ourselves from negligent superintendent and vice superintendent you have drafted a title ix committee a title ix director you have put forth policies that will help to protect our children from sexual assault and i cannot thank you enough i do not think that that gets said near as much as it should i want to

092encourage you to continue to do the good work that you have done in the past two years and know that even though some are impatient and not happy with progress that has been made this parent survivor and her child survivor thanks you our next caller is ramsay toby hi i'm ramsey toby and i have a first grader at holly tree elementary last year with our first year in the public school system and despite all the challenges that we faced my child was still able to learn and thrive at holly tree i would like to thank each board member for your continued service to our students i know that you all want the best for our public schools and most of all want equity in our schools so that even the most marginalized demographic of students

093are not left behind in these chaotic times i know that it's been difficult to make very high stakes choices for the children of the county and you don't do it and you do um do it to the best of your ability excuse me um i feel compelled to leave you a message and i'm so thankful for your attention as a parent and active member of our community i want to implore you to mandate universal masking across all schools in new hanover county i am echoing the recommendations from the american academy of pediatrics the foremost experts in child and adolescent health the cdc and even our most respected local physicians i like many of you really wanted my child to start school without a mask this year but the pandemic is far from over at this

094juncture the easiest way to keep our kids in school as much as possible is to universally match several schools and surrounding counties have multiple outbreaks and many children out of school already we can look at our own example with eaton and cottington elementary and easily see where masking keeps kids in school the most marginalized student demographics are the ones most likely to be hurt economically by being out of school due to an outbreak masking doesn't have to be forever but it is something that needs to happen now thank you next up chris sutton my name is chris sutton first thing i thought it was pretty interesting that the losers of last meeting's vote were allowed to basically use the chair's power to cut the list of speakers short at the designated number instead of accumulating

095a list of everyone who wants to speak and then allowing the other board members to take a vote on whether to extend the time it's like y'all lost the vote and have sought a new way to undermine the majority mechanism on the board dr faust i still have not heard back from you about what occurred with the most recent hiring of legal counsel in fact i haven't heard from you about any of the complaints i've brought forward to you since you've made started making a quarter million dollars annually off taxpayers every call to audience we get to hear from people about your lack of communication your contract has been used numerous times to stifle board members from researching or investigating complaints you are the person who is supposed to be who the community reaches out

096to for help when we have a complaint you are the tip of the spear for our grievance mechanism and it's like you've used your position to impede delay and overall just not deal with our problems we the people have the right to know if we just had to hire another attorney in the 11th hour of a lawsuit because farrington smith cannot fulfill all duties needed to needed due to a conflict they are contractors and as such the questioning prior to hiring should have been discussed in open public discussion and not closed session under the guise that it was protected by attorney-client privilege we brought this conflict of interest up months ago and adams and bolier both violated policy to make sure to weigh in on the situation now crable has chimed in saying she feels

097there's no conflict well if there's no conflict then why do we just have to get a last-minute attorney brought in when barrington boasts they have tons of attorneys on staff if farrington and stagner couldn't do some of the work regarding the insurance company then it's because okay our next caller is alan sewell good afternoon this is alan sewell a long time teacher and coach at laney high school calling in reference to the naming of the feel for larry toto i strongly suggest it uh you won't find a man of better character i was informed today that a board member is bringing up something about coach toto atlany high school i want to clarify what i know about that as i remember it and was there through the entire process as i told you the previous

098board meeting larry toto was hired as football coach in 1984. rick holiday had applied for the job and did not get the job in the second year larry toto demoted rick holliday to jv rick holiday was not happy about that rick holliday got his administrative degree came back to laney as assistant principal and athletic director and fired larry toto there was no wrongdoing there was no embezzlement there was no anything so if this board member is saying that there was i asked for proof show proof other than a disgruntled person coming back in a position of authority and being vindictive in firing someone thank you very much our next caller is elizabeth smith i am a 6th grade student in new hanover county and when i'm outside and inside wearing a mask it hurts my

099head and when i'm taking a test or doing schoolwork i can't concentrate because it's a lack of oxygen to my brain so i feel that parents and students should have the choice to wear a master knot my choice is no math i am a fourth grade student and i believe we should not have to wear masks at school because it distracts you and annoys you and instead of preventing people from getting sick it makes you get sick from the germs collecting on your mask from your breath my body my choice i choose no math i'm a ninth grade student in new hanover county and last year i moved here during copenhagen let me tell you that making friends when you're in a new state and having to zoom and wear a mask is horrible not

100only does it majorly affect your mental and physical health but it also affects your learning let me ask you this did you have to wear a mask zoom and go on lockdown when you were in school let me answer that for you no you didn't now you got to go to school and see your friends and learn without any of these restrictions and now we're in school and you're enforcing these on us it is our choice to choose whether we want to wear masks or not not yours you have every right to take the vaccine and wear a mask and we have every right to not wear masks and to not take the vaccine you cannot enforce your choice on us our country was built on freedom so let us have our freedom to choose

101unmask us children children have rights too and our last caller for the evening is christopher sturdy hello my name is christopher sturdy i'm a former high school english teacher who moved here from minnesota for grad school but now considered wilmington called i listened during the last two sessions this people spoke on critical race theory being a former teacher myself i've read some of kimberly crenshaw's work along with bell hooks derek bill and others and after listening to people share their thoughts i realize that we do not agree on what crt is people seem to be grossly misrepresenting the new social studies standards and crt by somehow deriving that teachers will be in our classrooms teaching an odd binary of white student bad non-white student good and this is simply not the case crt originated from

102legal studies and that's most basic definition is thinking about the ways that racism particularly white supremacy anti-blackness and various kinds of racialized inequality is embedded into law and legal practice as well as other institutions i then wondered a little what we would think if we heard that germany voted to pass legislation in their schools where they were no longer going to discuss their holocaust that wouldn't sit right with me much of all people wanting to censor actual us history don't sit right with me you can't talk about us history without examining race or other factors and identity because it is built into our primary documents and our personal narratives if crt is anything it strives to be the most honest conversation we may be able to have in the nation it's undeniable that our history

103is messy back in minnesota i taught with hainesbury's raising a play about the younger family the black family living in southside chicago in the 1950s experiencing housing discrimination due to racial covenants coupled with this text my students looked at primary documents from minnesota itself racial covenants written in housing deeds from the very county i grew up in hennepin county what i'm getting at is this teachers in general aren't here with the new boogeyman to bring wash kids all the news fans are asking for is an honest look at how messy our history is and that messes built into our institutions is documented plain as they in-laws and transcripts of interviews with politicians and then letters written between historical figures i invite our community members too right thank you very much to all of our call

104to the audience participants this evening we appreciate your understanding of the switch for this week and we thank you for your comments all right next item up on the agenda are consensus items do i hear a motion to approve the consensus items as listed and make the motion stephanie walker thank you miss walker is there a second uh second you roll the board thank you mr wildebore any discussion miss bowie could you call the role please stephanie adams aye judy justice hi stephanie craybill miss craybill sorry i hugh mcmanus yes stephanie walker yes and pete wildeboard aye thank you very much consensus items a through j have been approved six to zero moving along with the agenda into old business policies for second reading miss craybill with mr bullier's absence tonight i believe that you

105are going to be taking our policy items meeting those discussions yes thank you for the introduction um before we get um going into the policies for a second reading which um i see crystal is um putting up there i'd like to invite judge jay corpening who just joined our call to um make some comments with regards to policy 5120. welcome judge corpening thank you for being here thanks uh wish we could be there in person right but uh thrilled to be with you all tonight even virtually i can't wait for this to be done you know um so thanks for the invitation um i had talked to the superintendent of a little bit about 5120 and talked to some others about um about concerns that have been expressed by some parents and so i wanted

106to share just a little bit of the context of the big picture connected to 512 with you that might help you as board members understand uh the real big picture that's that's that's a whole lot bigger than than your policy 5120 doesn't and and also let me remind you that i'm i'm here as a guest i'm not your lawyer uh your lawyer is on the call i'm just here to add input if you've got questions try to answer questions because i have been connected to school discipline issues and exclusionary practices for a number of years in new hanover county so 5120 doesn't live in a vacuum it has to be read in conjunction with the mou that you've got with your school resource officers it's called the school resource officer program mou and also read

107it with in the context of our interagency agreement on the handling of school offenses as well it also has to be read in conjunction with our general statutes governing when children can be questioned by law enforcement when children can be arrested taken into custody by law enforcement so all of that in in terms of the juvenile code and our criminal procedure laws uh have an impact on all this i also want to point out that it's important to remember that we have made incredible strides in new hanover county since we began the work on our school justice partnership in 2013 and actually signed our first interagency agreement in 2015. i was actually invited to a statewide school safety summit yesterday in greensboro to speak about our work in new hanover county because it is a

108model across the state for working to keep kids in school and out of court it has actually become the model for the entire state is included in the raise the aids legislation that passed the general assembly in 2017. uh it's trauma-informed work it's about addressing behavior when and where it happens instead of pushing that behavior out of school and ignoring it by sending it to court by by using suspensions and we've reduced court referrals since the school year 2013 2014 to the last year before coveted 2019 20 by 67 so we're not we're not running kids down to the courthouse law enforcement is not running kids down to the courthouse in fact more kids than ever are staying in school and not being referred to to court more and more offenses that happen at school

109are being handled by school officials in fact the greater majority of offenses that happen at school are handled by school officials as disciplinary matters instead of handed over to law enforcement prosecution in fact court report court referrals excuse me are so far down that even with the impact of raise the age in north carolina implemented december 1 2019 my juvenile court days are still not busy because we're doing such a good job not charging kids working with kids and their families and so i felt like it was important to share that good news at the outset of this conversation because good work has been done um i i did read the uh the school resource officer program mou i'm i'm intimately familiar with the interagency agreement because i continue to do that work um they're

110solid documents about the relationship between schools and and law enforcement and you know um mr scheib your lawyer who's advising the board can can talk to you more about about that if you've got questions but the purpose of policies like 5120 is not to set out in great detail you know everything that's in every contract that you have or every mou that you have or or in state statutes i'll comment specifically about two issues that that i heard from some parents on and had a couple of meetings about you know one was about interrogation of students by law enforcement and one was about arrest of students by law enforcement those are those are the concerns so parent notification in case a child is interrogated is required by your your law enforcement mou that said law

111enforcement doesn't have to wait for a parent to question the child for example some of you have had 16 and 17 year olds who are out driving they pull your 16 or 17 year old you don't get a call there are questions that your child has to answer on the roadside there that don't cross the line of being a custodial interrogation that are regulatory in nature which may include have you been drinking for example but law enforcement procedures investigating crimes can't be interfered with by school policy if you've got more specific questions about that mr shive i'm sure can weigh in on that but but certainly it is a positive that that your mou mandates that school authorities notify parents a child is being interrogated there are um there's some myths out out in the

112world about miranda warnings and police questioning um police don't have to automatically issue miranda warnings uh they don't even have to issue miranda warnings if you're arrested it's only if there's what's called a custodial interrogation uh that takes place and that's been the subject of litigation uh for decades in the united states supreme court in our own state supreme court i actually took a miranda case to the united supreme united states supreme court in the late 1990s when i was still in private practice the definition of custodial interrogation has changed dramatically it doesn't mean that someone's under arrest but it means that it would appear to them that they're not free to leave that they that restrictions have been placed on their liver even though they may not be in handcuffs maybe and they have

113words here under arrest haven't been uttered for juveniles it's a little different because for juveniles who are questioning a school setting there's been some evolution of that issue even recently by our court of appeals that more broadly defines what a custodial interrogation is that then triggers parent notification by law enforcement because that for under 16 kids that questioning if it's a custodial interrogation can't take place without parent being there that can't happen for 16 and up it can but if it's a custodial interrogation the miranda rights are triggered and interestingly enough when the parents present the parent can't waive the miranda rights for the child it's the child's right to waive but the parent has a right to be there if it's under 16. then even if you know law enforcement complies or there's an

114allegation that they don't comply with with the the rules surrounding custodial interrogations that are set by our courts then if the child goes to court i have to make the determination that the child's rights were protected and that the statement was totally voluntary otherwise the statement doesn't come into evidence and can't be used against the child so there are there are safeguards set in place by our laws at every step connected to to those those types of interrogations there was some concern that i heard about there's a there may be some circumstances where uh law enforcement would ask the schools not to notify parents for example and you know one of the examples that jumps into my mind is where the child is the victim and the parent's offender right then law enforcement would not

115want to notify the offender that the child's been questioned and so there may be limited circumstances where that's happening on the issue of kids being taken into custody the the really good news is that with the advent of raise the age um once again effective in december uh 2019 law enforcement can't arrest or cite or charge an under 18 student without asking permission of juvenile justice that process is there to protect children every case that's referred to juvenile justice is not sent to court our court counselor's office divert about 51 of all cases referred to their office into evidence-based services for kids instead of sending them to court um so so that's that's i think really good news but then the the rest of the good news is that even if they're asking for what's

116called secure custody for a kid to be taken into custody and taken to detention then they have to ask the court counselor the juvenile probation officer to contact me to ask my permission and we have used an evidence-based detention tool to evaluate whether the child needs to be in secure custody or not for years and we shifted that tool just a few years ago but we have used an evidence-based detention tool for years to evaluate that necessity but it requires multiple decision points before that can happen pre-raise the age our 16 and 17 year olds could just be taken to the magistrate or given a citation given a criminal summons but that can't happen anymore for our under our under 18s there's more good news on the horizon connected to that i've been working on

117some legislation this legislative session on raising what we're calling raising the floor raising the minimum age for juvenile court the minimum age for juvenile jurisdiction in north carolina right now is six years old that's the lowest minimum age in the world not just in the country but the lowest minimum age in the world representative davis has been working really closely with billy laster who's the deputy deputy secretary of public safety in charge of juvenile justice and i and our juvenile jurisdiction advisory committee to try to shepherd this bill through the house and pass the senate unanimously to raise the minimum age to 10. um we are hoping to get a floor vote in a couple of weeks there's some as as always in the general assembly there's some last minute compromises that are that are

118underway but i think they're generally positive and will protect the large number of kids so that means that for our under 10 kids probably unless they commit some of our most serious felonies in north carolina they're not going to intersect our juvenile justice system which means they're not going to be interrogated by law enforcement about crimes they might be questioned as a witness but they're not going to be either interrogated or run downtown i will share with you that as we get back to i hesitate to use the word normal but as we get back to normal with kids in school on a full-time basis our progress monitoring team that exists as a result of our interagency agreement we'll get back to work collecting data looking at trends trying to make sure that the interagency

119agreement is working like it's supposed to work and that kids are being protected and that behavior is being dealt with in the moment instead of delayed because the goal of all of us is for student behavior to change for the better that learning happen when when there's some form of discipline that's required because when that happens and behavior change for the better schools are safer and that's why i was in greensboro yesterday because it does work to make schools safer when we change behavior for the better instead of the worse so happen to answer any questions that members of the board have but that's sort of the bigger picture of 5120 and everything's behind it and a couple of hot button issues that i heard from parents but i'll be happy to answer any questions

120but madam chair i'll defer obviously to you on that issue thank you very much judge corbin and thank you for that information and so much clarification and that's fantastic that you're fighting to raise the age again uh we really appreciate the work that you do on behalf of children across our state especially here in new hanover county is there anyone on the board that has follow-up questions or additional clarification needed from all right it's always good news right appreciate it yes again thank you judge corbin for coming and clarifying and um if i could just ask you to um hang on the line just in case um and uh we're getting ready to um talk about the policies so if you could just hang on for just a minute um for just in case that

121would be awesome okay so um that takes us to let me get i have a hard time oh there it is thank you for putting that back up so policies for a second reading we have um all of these on there the um is there any that anybody wants to pull out and talk about um more in depth or are we ready to go ahead and make a motion to approve them um together i'll make it i got your question stephanie uh stephanie walker yeah are we asking for questions yeah well that those are two or three that we want to pull out um so that we can we can vote on the rest and pull out only the ones that we want to talk about separately do you have one that you'd like to

122do that with well i know the last time that we met yeah last time we met we were discussing pulling the 5120 and 50 70 to discuss but we haven't had the last meeting was what two weeks ago we haven't had a policy meeting yet either so i know you had you know spoken to me about a couple of them that you had wished hadn't i guess come up yet and that you would like to have discussion over so i would like to pull that one 50-70 and i had no idea we would have a judge here to ask questions to so i i admit that i'm kind of taking back that i don't have questions ready even though i think i would have some if i had known i probably would have had better

123better um questions so i i hope that the judges uh i guess prepared to get questions from us if that's okay because i um i would i was just didn't know we would be able to do that um it was a good presentation but um i still not sure whether we should pull that or not i feel like i don't know if parents will have more questions either so i don't know definitely 50 70 then at least i don't know how anybody feels about 51-20 i don't know if it's necessary now but i don't know i'm sorry i am this is judy justice i am feeling the same way stephanie walker is uh about 5120. i really do appreci appreciate judge corpening being here um parents i would like to go ahead and have the

124policy uh in front of the policy committee and have those questions that you have not had a chance yet to ask done before and people can watch the policy committee between now and our next meeting and it's only a couple weeks away uh go ahead and have those questions asked that you were previously going to do that just just just to make sure we follow the process that we thought we were going to be having because i said i love judge corporating being here but i know parents still want to look at this closer and after you have your policy committee meeting then they will possibly some of them will be getting back to us so that we could discuss it further during what we thought was going to be the situation um so um

125i would like to remind us all that at the at the last um meeting we did say that we would um return it back to policy and asked at that time for any one of you to give feedback on what we should even be talking about at policy i did talk with a couple people um but did not talk with all and um i received no feedback directly from anybody in the public about specific comments that they had other than they were concerned about the interrogation um and so that's why judge corpening was invited to clarify that because that work that were that was what the predominant question that um i had been asked and um that nelson had been asked pete do you have any um other things anybody have have weighed in with

126you as part of our policy committee also that was the only thing that i had heard was you know people concerned that their especially their young child or you know their ten-year-old might be questioned without that you know without them knowing and uh you know judge corping i think answered that very clearly today so that that was um what was my hope that hearing not hearing those comments about the arrests and the interrogation portion because we had already approved the mou and the mou was referenced in our policy and so um i think this is just you know my personal opinion i think some people got a little um just concerned with the wording that we took out um and not really realize what what we actually put back in as far as um with

127the reference to the mou that we had already approved so um i was hoping that we would be able to um vote on that now but if that is not um so that that's why i'm asking do do we want to pull it out and do we want to vote to pull that out or do we just um pull it out and take it back to policy which should be um it hasn't it hasn't been posted yet but normally it would be you know august the 10th so we would have to to do that and then then we um would put that again back in for second reading um mr would you weigh in on on the procedure for doing that please yeah i think maybe the cleanest way would be is there currently a

128motion pending to approve the policies for second reading um no no no actually i sort of did but i didn't really make the motion um i was going i was going to make the motion to approve the policies as presented for all of the policies for second reading if that is if though if that motion is made and seconded then anyone who is anyone who is objects to that could then um make a motion to amend to remove whichever policies that they want they don't want to be passed at this time okay so can i entertain can i get a motion to accept all of the policies on for second reading i make a motion to apply to approve all policies for second reading as presented i would like to make a motion to amend

129that to pull out 57 of me and 50 120 please it needs i need a second first and then you can go back and do that yeah is there a second to emotion as is can i make a second or um i'll i'll make a second okay and then now within the discussion ms walker you can thank you well i would like to well is this discussion time or amendment time you can focus walker if you'd like okay thank you i would like to make a message to amen just pulling out 50 70 and 51 20. i i i was thought that the last meeting that we were gonna discuss those at the next policy meeting which has it kind of after the fact so and our meetings have been a little bit strange lately

130so with timing so i just i thought we would have a chance to do that i didn't know there would be someone here to discuss these questions and i'd rather one second there i guess we're having a discussion before it's second but i second this discussion sorry it's okay yes second the amendment uh are there any questions that anybody wants to add in additionally to judge corporating why we have him here i'm sure some of these points are have been on your mind first time you saw it but we're having a discussion right now uh from what the amendment we just did and i want to follow through with the fact and you just mentioned judge corpening he might have caused parents that haven't yet contacted us because they thought they were going to be

131doing at the near policy committee maybe he alleviated some of their concerns or maybe he expanded on some so you know that this has been a very useful experience having him here talking about this particular policy so you know this is why one of the reasons i'd like to go ahead i mean what is the harm waiting a week and then two weeks when we have our intro meeting to doing this because we said we're going to do it originally all right so there is a motion and a second to amend the motion to approve and the motion to amend is to pull 50 70 and 51 20. miss bowie can you call the roll on that for the amendment miss bowie yes miss adams i miss justice ms craybill aye mr mcmanus yes miss

132walker yes and mr wildebore yes all right amendment passes six to zero so now the alternate motion the motion would now be to approve the policies as presented with the exception of 50 70 and 51 20. is there a second i think right yeah okay uh miss justice i think seconded it uh any discussion all right miss call the roll miss adams hi miss justice ms craybill aye mr mcmanus aye ms walker yes and mr wildebore yes all right thank you policies presented with the exception of 50 70 and 5120 which will go back to the policy committee have been approved ms crabill anything else for this item no no i do have those policies written down um to put on the agenda for the upcoming meeting all right thank you thank you very much

133and thank you again judge corpening for being with us here this evening we appreciate it all right next item on our agenda under old business is the school plan for the management of student behavior this farnum ms farnham are you coming to the microphone or are you online yes can you hear me oh yes ma'am thank you i'm sorry i headed this way and didn't have my glasses madam chair members of the board dr faust and senior staff our school teams began the work yesterday in behavior leadership foundations to establish a framework for taking an instructional approach to behavior using data to reflect on current policies and practices and to develop standard protocols for teaching and responding to behavior through a social emotional and equity lens around 65 staff members on nine school teams attended

134they focused on their mission statement visioning their marketing plan and teaching plan and then establishing their guidelines for success as of to date there's no updated data to report as we have don't have discipline data at this time but we'll be sharing again quarterly a review of data and progress next our teams will be building their plans through the stoic model the stoic model stands for structure for success teaching expectations observing and monitoring interacting positively and then correcting fluently the next steps are to apply the stoic model to classroom areas and classrooms at that time they will be continuing professional development in the next week or so and then throughout the fall semester and we will be reporting back um on approximately a quarterly basis to provide data fantastic thank you for that update do

135any board members have any questions or comments miss adams yes stephanie walker i um i do have a couple questions i like that that we are doing this i i think this is going to be a great thing i know i i believe i remember julie saying that our um or miss barnum saying that we really want to our goal is to end suspensions in elementary schools i think that was a goal of our strategic plan that we currently are on and i'm pretty sure it's going to be one for the next one that we're getting ready to approve um i didn't know whether there would be any i know that it's kind of a it's a new timeline so we're not really sure where we're going to be with data yet but i was

136hoping maybe we could even entertain perhaps in the future once we get to a point where training is done and the data looks good that maybe we could to test run some schools about ending suspensions just to see how they go and see how the data goes for that um i don't know if that's something that we could discuss through edi or whether something we could discuss you know as board members to you to you but i would love to hear your thoughts on that um i'm not sure i understand what you mean by test run but i'm certainly um interested in providing or the plan is to to come back and provide data on a quarterly basis that would include discipline data including suspensions okay yeah well i guess sorry to clarify i i

137was just i know our goal is to end suspensions and i know there's there's a big community outreach for that and i know that is something that the we want to do as a board and that you know the district wants to do and we want to do it properly and in the right way with the systems in place but i was i was to be specific i was like thinking we could do maybe um once the program kind of gets gets going we could do maybe a moratorium with a school or two to see how it works with suspensions i didn't know what your i know what your vision was for this program you you mentioned quarterly updates quarterly meaning throughout the school year coming up the 21 22 school year or when you

138think that you feel like the program will show any kind of i guess success is that a good word for that we certainly anticipate progress right away the school teams are being that they've had one day of training of their professional development they will be continuing i would expect we can provide quarterly data throughout the school year meaning every nine weeks approximately and provide that information to you to the board and and i can also um answer that one of the guiding principles that our our teams are covering in this training is to use a suspend just like our policy now says using suspension as a last resort and you know utilizing all of the interventions and all of the resources in the building before doing so and and so i think it's going to

139have a definitely a positive impact on increasing instructional time and keeping students in the classroom not just in the school but in the classroom and um so i'm not sure that i would i think dr faust wants to answer another part of that so a couple things i don't believe that we're ready to do any type of protocol where we're not suspending that was a question i think for for the schools to i guess pilot we're not there yet we've got to train to make sure that they are in what i would also welcome is that any board member who would love to come to the training to be a part of that training so that you will get a more in-depth understanding of what our schools are doing so i definitely would love for

140you to come and take part in all of the training so that you're able to converse with individuals speak with teachers and actually even go to schools and see it in practice because that's the only way that we can actually having an effective model is that everyone is partaking thank you for that i would i would i don't know i would love to get notifications when y'all are doing the training that would probably be helpful for board members to to schedule any kind of visits to see it i mean it definitely would help will uh be helpful because we're we are um as board members and elected people we are definitely between our constituents that really would love to hear updates um and i know that would be an extra uh way for us to

141communicate as well with them um i guess i i wasn't expecting it to happen right away i know work has to be done and i'd so i don't want you all think i was expecting it to happen soon but i would i guess i figured that once the quarterly updates as they go on if you expect to see progress that perhaps we can move towards our ultimate goal which which i believe i heard that uh miss farms say to end suspensions in elementary's schools um it is definitely a topic that our board members are involved with discussing all the time um and i know that there's things that we could probably do to help you guys if we can i was in a meeting last week with this farm when we were discussing this and

142i know there are components of community components and parent components to that that we could probably help with um so please yeah i keep i would say keep us informed and we would love to probably come to some of these training sessions to see it in action um so thank you for for letting us know that thank you and i will make sure to provide those um dates to miss bowie so she can help help you guys schedule that thank you ms barnum thanks for them all right good questions miss walker anything else from anyone else on the board questions or comments all right well thank you very much miss barnum for the information we look forward uh to the uh quarterly updates and thank you dr faust for sharing that opportunity for board members

143as well all right next item on the agenda is the discussion around policy 2310 public participation at board meetings and ms walker being that you brought this up i will send it to you to kick off the conversation thank you so much i um i know that we had a discussion recently or at least i think a press release went out regarding um i i don't i wouldn't i'm not sure if it's a new policy addition or procedure to our call to audience um i just was hoping that i could um i guess i could start with the motion before we have discussion i wanted to make a motion to bring that to policy the next policy committee meetings for board members to be able to discuss and and maybe make additions and or suggestions

144as far as the release of that last announcement i don't think it does the policy does state that bor the board is allowed to do additions or changes for procedure but we as a board haven't had a chance to vote on it or have a discussion over it so i was uh i would like to go and just make that motion that we could send it uh the discussion for the update on policy 2310 specifically part b to the next policy committee meeting for you know additions or suggestions from the board so we can all get a chance to weigh in on it and perhaps even vote if there is a change to the policy so um speaking on behalf of the policy committee um mr um shive would you let us know do we

145need to make a motion or can i just say that i'm i'm gonna put it on the agenda i already have it on my list um for the next policy committee since we're already gathering it um so i put that on as soon as uh miss walker made the made the motion so um not made the motion made the suggestion so do we need to make this a motion or can i just say that i'm going to do it i don't think we need to vote to refer to policy committee i think you don't need to vote to make a change to policy okay so so so just for clarification ms crabble sorry i didn't i was just going to answer to what mr schreib was saying um we we've made some kind of procedural

146change i believe we announced that so i don't know if that was specifically a policy change that we didn't vote to do or whether it's that's why i made the motion to do it but if we don't have to make a motion to do it i just i'm questioning whether we've changed this policy or not yet without a public without a board vote tell me why don't you take care of that i think just to clarify miss walker are you talking about the call to the audience like information that went out this week or last week i should say so yeah so that the the rules of decorum and the expectations for call to the audience um that was something that board members had asked for to be more clear on and so there was

147nothing you know it was just talking about the call to the audience it was just some guidelines yeah i'm kind of um help me out um either either say it out loud or say it out loud and send me a note because um i i'm not quite certain i know what you want us to bring up okay well well well real quick performance justice johnson it we did we got a copy of the the press release or whatever it was that was sent out to the public and to me it wasn't very clear and i don't think we voted if it's if it's a policy change i'm not sure because i know our policy addresses time um and you know not necessarily amount of callers or an amount of people that get to participate in

148call to audience and i know we're trying to make it more streamlined but i i personally didn't feel like the the public whatever declaration that was sent out was clear and i i didn't know if it was a policy change because it really does it because because the policy itself talks about time we have an hour and i know that kind of i know we've all done the math on how many we think you know can go within an hour but i feel like that that it could be it could have been a little bit clearer and i didn't feel like we as a board had the chance to weigh in on it that's what i'm trying to say can i just yeah well um miss adams just just said that they added some things

149to clarifying the decorum um and some other changes and that it was okay in her expectations or belief that they could do that without discussing it with us and basically to me though it seems like if you're adding things you're changing policy and you need to have it looked at by the policy committee and then brought to the whole board um because people have different concepts of what the quorum etc are now if they're somewhere in our policies it says that the chair of person and whoever decided to do this can do that on their own uh i would like to see that but i thought that when we started adding things to policy or taking things away we were supposed to do this in the proper process of bringing it to the policy committee

150having it up in discussion bringing it back to us and then we discuss etc mr shive did you do you feel that the things that were listed for call to the audience were considered a policy change i don't think that anything that was in the call of the audience public announcement was outside of your policy or by your policy or was in contradiction your policy but if majority of the board wants to amend your policy to make it clear um or to address some of you know particulars then you certainly can do that ms crabill yes so um what i'm what i'm hearing is that um we didn't like the op we didn't like the fact that we were not going to get a chance to waive this policy and allow more than 30 people

151to talk which 30 and just let me let me say my point and then um so our policy says we can speak for an hour um any number of people and um but it also says if we have more than ten people sign up they only get two minutes so two into thirty i mean two into sixty is thirty so that's not a change of policy at all um we we have we have been over the past couple meetings saying that we're going to waive our policy to allow for longer time so um am i miss and i'm seeing a head shake so how tell me how i'm misinterpreting i just think that the policy doesn't say anything about the amount of speakers it talks to it speaks to the amount of time and i

152think that if we are going to start first of all going to start saying limiting people that can that can speak that that goes against our policy and i and it's not just that it's the wording of what came out some people were confused with the wording whether it's 25 online speakers does that mean you get to speak you know do the do the um recording or is it people that signed up during called you know signed up online or there was a lot of confusion with the wording and i actually sent it to you guys and i got no response so i really just felt like it's something we could clean up or clear up or make make better and if we are limiting to 30 people then we should say that in policy

153that's what i'm saying though um because it just covers time i um i agree with you on it was a little bit um confusing the way we worded 25 online speakers and five in-person speakers that was definitely um that could have been worded differently but i think still gotten to the same point but so um all right so if i'm hearing correctly then we want this policy to go back to the policy committee and um to um and you all are going to give us feedback so that we know what we're talking about is that correct well i i know i already have but i will be happy to you know i have yours i understand and then you're always welcome to join in or listen you know to the policy committee um meeting so

154that make sure that it's clarified you know that that um i bring it forward or pete um brings it forward you know in the appropriate manner so i have that on the list to add if it's last thing i'll just say is again if it's a if it's a change in policy we need to change the policy if it's not then that's different but i feel like if we're covering time instead of people we need to make that decision and put it in policy that's all i'm gonna say right so time versus people is is your biggest concern well it's not just my biggest concern but it that i mean the policy states one thing and we've just in essence changed that with limiting to a certain number so you just have to decide well

155okay all right i got that our present policy has been an hour is that correct yes and so what we have done i voted the last meeting and i think it was peter knife yeah it was pni to extend it and allow additional speakers a we've been running into many late nights but maybe that's b a is that the more people that speak unfortunately the more difficulty we've had with the audience and so i for one feel like we need to stick with the hour until we feel like we can extend it where necessary because the behavior is unacceptable we need to recapture control and i'm sorry but that's that's the bottom line and we can talk all around it we can talk over and under it but we've got to regain control and respect

156because if we talk to the audience like they talk to us and we said to each other and we cursed and we slammed our desk and we stood up and walked around unacceptable so it's it's we must recapture our control i'm sorry that's as simple as it is and so i say we stay with the hour that's my i've tried to not say a word tonight but listen but i can't stand it i'm sorry no i'm not sure uh hugh we're we're we're not disagreeing with that we're all experiencing that well i think that what this is about is to maintain decorum and we're just trying to put the word into the po or talk about whether we should put these words into the policy journey just said it was not really a policy change

157it was just more of a structure right we're just yeah we're trying to get it clear clear because the wording on this that came out was there's there is some questions we're not i agree with you totally we definitely need to limit it we're just trying to decide how we do it in such a way that it's cleaner does that make sense well it sticks to policy and it's clear exactly what you just said yes don't disagree i don't disagree with you mcmanus yes ms krabill so what i would like to offer if anyone is interested is i did look at brunswick county's policy and talk with their board and um they their board will provide an open forum as part of the board's regular meeting schedule during which 20 minutes will be set aside

158and usually as the first item of business on the agenda so when i read that um i talked with miss stagner and um and it was my understanding from her and maybe colin can you know weigh in is that the state statute just says that we have to allow time there is no there is no time required by the state statutes we as a board get to choose that so um i just want i wanted to get that clarification as we bring this back to policy so um is that correct mr shine yeah the statute doesn't require a set number of minutes i've seen different amount of time from different boards a lot of boards have 30 minutes some have an hour it just it varies okay thank you all right so uh for that

159conversation thank you ms craybill and mr wildebore for bringing it back to policy to board members that would like to weigh in on that please make sure you are sharing your comments and thoughts with miss craybill or not right or pete or nelson or nelson yes thank you or mr bullier yes all right uh next item on the agenda we are moving on into new business and the first item uh on this agenda is masking protocols for 2021 2022 school year um i would just like to start by saying you know this board has been inundated i would say we've probably received seven to 800 emails within the past week around masking this is an extremely divisive conversation people feel incredibly passionate on on every side and um it's not an easy decision for anyone

160on this board and and i would will say you know i wouldn't wish and i've said this before with some of the the conversations that have been related to covid situations i would not wish this job on anyone having to make these these decisions and choices i will say this as a parent of a be fourth grader i really wanted the year to be starting without masks i really wanted to be through the pandemic i wanted to believe that we were going to be back to normal and unfortunately we're not and that is just the reality of the situation what i do know is that we all want our kids in school that message came loud and clear last year a lot of the parents that are asking for no masks are the same parents

161that wanted kids in school last year why because we know having our children in front of a teacher in a classroom that is where they learn best and that's where we want them to be so for me it's a very simple decision um with quarantine rules based on the toolkit if a covid case happens in a classroom if the children are masked there is no quarantine requirement for the children to be exposed which keeps kids in the classroom with the exception of the covid case without masks kids may be home and with a packet possibly on a laptop possibly on an ipad and we know my job as a board member is to make sure that our children are getting the best possible education that to me is being in a classroom in front of

162a teacher and so i would like to make the motion that we require masks k-12 to start the year with the expectation that as a board we continue to re-evaluate look at our numbers look at what's going on in our schools but that is the recommendation that i would like to bring forward and i would like to ask for a second a second stephanie walker thank you miss walker now i'd like to open it up i know all the board members have thoughts about masks and i'd like to give you an opportunity to share some of your thoughts with the audience because we know that this is a conversation that is going to generate a lot of discussion in our community so who would like to start i'll start mcmanus mr mcmanus thank you we're

163either going to be proactive or we're going to be reactive and i think we've experienced the reactive and we'd like to be proactive i was actually lending toward choice until about a week ago it seems the progression has become worse i notice wake county schools has already passed tonight that they will mandate their mask and we can do what we want to do but i think proactively we institute the mask and if we made a mistake with the data not personal opinion but the absolute data if that indicates that we overreacted so be it if it's an inconvenience for a short while then i'll apologize but if it's but i think we need to do that and let the data drive the rest and as you said we monitor it and then if the data

164proves that it's not necessary then we can retract it but i think we need the inconvenience for the safety of our staff in addition to our students as well thank you mr mcmanus anyone else if i could jump in um i yeah i'm sorry mr libor um i definitely am not a big opponent of the basking i had very similar thoughts uh to what mr mcmanus just said i had uh very very strong feelings to you know give the parents choice um i think that's you know as a parent of three children that all went new hanover county i think it's very important that uh you know that we do have the parents and we listen to the parents um you know as you said we had probably 700 800 emails and you know it

165wasn't a clear-cut decision one way or the other and um when when when it comes down to it and we can say well we you know we opted to go um and lean towards student safety um yeah as you as you just said you know instead of having half a class that has to go home you may have one child that it goes home and and hopefully recovers quickly so um i you know i'm all about having students in in the classroom learning um so i think that that's that's the clear choice at this time and i do like the idea of readdressing it uh very quickly and seeing if there is um you know if it it kind of blows by and we can say you know two two three weeks into the school

166year we don't need him anymore or we give the option that might be the way to go then but that's mine thank you thank you mr wildeboer anyone else yes yes stephanie walker um i i agree with a lot of things that everyone has said here um you know not to mention that you know we have a lot of um like we have the american academy of pediatrics that are recommending it we have so many people recommending that we go with the toolkit as well we have recommendations from our staff and from our superintendent as well because we want to keep kids in school we want to raise those literacy rates we want to um you know keep us all safe keep all the kids safe and that's really what we what i lead with

167as well because i feel like i think we don't have a remote option right now especially in the elementary kit schools and i think that it's going to be really hard to to justify you know quarantining a whole classroom it is not going to be a good thing and i just feel like with all these things that have come out lately especially with this variant that is a lot stronger a lot more virulent and has caused some breaks even some breakthrough infections um i would just for me would be too air on the side of caution and i would also agree that we should revisit this when our numbers perhaps are hopefully better and you know backstage vaccinations become more available to the younger kids so that's all i have to say thank you thank

168you miss walker um miss justice or miss craybill um i i would like to just reiterate that i i was for um choice on masks until just recently and i am not an expert in the field by any stretch and i was hoping that we would have some stats from our county health department that showed the um drastic acceleration of cases um in our county um the rapid spread and that perhaps we would hear that there were um several floors on the hospital that were hospitalizations now we don't know you know what the ages are and that kind of stuff but that's all that i would want to say that as we as we review each month that um i would hope that we would um be able to use some data from our county

169to show what our what our transmission rate is all right thank you miss justice uh everything that everybody has said i agree with i know that there are difficulties with communication and developmental stages but you know what the kids will be in school and it's better they be in school and go through this at this point and be able to keep the schools open than to have to go backwards the health department isn't here but i've been keeping very close tabs on what's going on the first i think it was june it was two or three new cases a day we were going down it was looking really good and then this delta variant just went across a crunch country like wildfire yesterday we had 105 new cases it hasn't been like that since last

170winter when things were hitting like crazy and this is just in you know two months in fact it's actually only been in a month um we've got to put safety first part of i'm hearing a lot about choice but you know part of the constitution to preamble an old social studies teacher it says you have your rights but right next to it says you also have your responsibilities and we all need to be responsible for each other we we as board members have to be responsible for the safety of our kids so that is what i am basing my belief on and i certainly don't want anybody sick in some cases for those people that aren't vaccinated and i guess not bringing that topic up is necessarily a good thing or a bad thing but

171those who aren't vaccinated for various reasons if they get this delta variant they could end up in that hospital and very easily die and that's not good and it and the delta variant also is hitting children in ways that the original one wasn't so we really needed to me and i think most people that i know need to err on the side of safety for all of our community especially our kids and the people that work with them so that's what i have to say about that thank you miss justice i appreciate all the board members sharing their thoughts i would like to call on miss barnum if she could take a few minutes and share some of the data also um that we've had some conversations around you know i've been following it very

172closely myself but just if you could share some of the data because i know you've been working very closely with the health department on all of these so you can share some of that please absolutely so i've got data up on the screen and i also want to talk through a couple of points current public health guidance provided to school districts so after months of decline north carolina and the new hanover county area is experiencing a rapid increase in coveted 19 cases and hospitalizations especially among those who are unvaccinated recently the centers for disease control issued an updated guidance for schools and in that it included points such as students benefit from in-person learning and safely returning to in-person instruction in the fall of 2021 is a priority additionally vaccination is currently the leading public

173health prevention strategy strategy to end the 19 pandemic many schools serve children under the age of 12 who are not currently eligible for vaccination therefore the guidance emphasizes implementing layered prevention strategies using multiple prevention strategies together consistently our local health officials are monitoring our community transmission vaccination coverage screening testing and occurrence of outbreaks to help guide the decisions on those layered prevention strategies with the rapidly accelerating viral transmission and the increased contagiousness of the delta variant the cdc on july 27th provided an even more updated guidance to include recommendations for universal indoor masking the health department in new hanover county advises we follow these quote unquote shoulds from the toolkit based on community data one other piece of information that was shared was um knowing that there are breakthroughs so we are also seeing um

174positive cases among individuals who have been vaccinated and as expected because there's never in history this is update from health department never in history of vaccines has there been a 100 percent guarantee but they're urging vaccination for all who are eligible because it gives a level of immunity that you wouldn't have otherwise and chances are the illness will be much less severe so providing this information on the screen we have a total number of cases and the percentage of those cases since march of 2020 that fall in the ages of zero to 10 and then the ages of 11 to 17. as we move on down on the screen on the visual these are the july 2021 breakdown of cases by age and then we see our vaccinations as of july or in july 2021.

175i will also share that the health department provided that only 32 percent of 12 to 7 year olds in new hanover county are fully vaccinated that's only 32 percent over all positive cases more than tripled in a two-week time frame from just over 100 new positives two weeks ago to 383 positives last week and the last full week of positivity the positivity rate of the last full week is 6.4 percent thank you miss farnham um so we have the data we've had our conversations i would like to just add an additional point to this um you know uncw has mandated indoor masking cfcc has mandated indoor masking we have students in our high schools that attend both of those locations um and so i i believe that we are consistent with what our area is

176doing and on that note unless there is any further discussion i would like to take a roll call vote miss adams aye ms justice yes ms craybill yes mr mcmanus yes miss walker yes and mr wild aboard yes motion passes for k-12 masking to start the school year with an anticipation that we will be reviewing data and paying attention to it closely as we go with the hope that we will be able to drop masks when it is safe and we can keep our kids within the classroom for the instructional time thank you very much next item on the agenda thank you very much ms farnham for that presentation as well next item on the agenda policies for first reading uh ms craybill this one is coming back to you okay um so these are

177the policies for first reading um there's a bunch of them we're we're into the 6000 series now so we're we're about three quarters of the way through um is there that this requires no action this is basically just learning what's on there unless there are any that anybody would specifically like to talk about and and or send back to policy so these will be on the agenda for the next 30 days if anyone has any edits questions will these these will be at the policy committee no these these are already sorry these will be on for second reading at the um september meeting so if there's any comments questions concerns please refer them to mr bullier to before presentation for policies for second reading great thank you ms crayville all right uh next item on

178the agenda as we move into our information items uh the laney high school football field this conversation was started um at the last meeting oh yes justin yeah is it possible for us to take a short break oh sure absolutely let's take um let's take a five minute break and we can come back at 8 30 eight that sound good all right thank you you started until i know we can come back from break please all right welcome back moving along uh we next item on the agenda is um for information and it is the laney high school football field uh last month this con excuse me a few weeks ago uh this conversation started in regards to the renaming of laney stadium and uh i'm gonna throw this to mr wildebore for his comments

179first because this was an item that he wanted to bring forward um so mr wildebore would you like to speak to this sure absolutely um as as i mentioned last month i think that you know we looked at the what the people wanted i think i don't have the number in front of me but i think it was about 52 percent i had mentioned uh coach toto's name um and we did go ahead and name the stadium after uh but you know the buccaneer stadium but then i don't think i was actually the one that brought up the thought of the football field i think that might have been misjustice but i didn't apologize i apologize miss justice but but that's fine but uh i think you know several of us know coach johto very

180well and think the world of them so i think it's just a really good idea and i know at this point this is just you know on here so that we can give the 60 days and you know we can hear from people once again to see if you know if they if that's what they truly want all right thank you miss justice i apologize i got that mixed up uh why don't you share your thoughts please well he did a really good job of saying what i probably would have said um not only that it has been brought up about our policy and the name and the way it's structured the policy also says we can vote on anything we want it could be named after ultimately and we could discuss that a lot

181but i think at this point it's sort of obvious oh there you go what do you know um they just pop that right back up uh at this point i really do believe that the public has had their say but we can keep on going i mean another you know more responses is fine but we can't doesn't the policy says we can't name it after a person and um if there are any concerns we will hear them in you know in the next 60 days from the people on staff here who are experts at looking into things that a name might cause a problem with something that in the past we really hadn't had the luxury of having because there's a lot of things we weren't aware of times have changed so um and yes

182i did work at laney while coach toto was there he was well respected um not just that he's loved i i i don't see any reason why we can't why we shouldn't it's up to the public uh go ahead and start the process and do what we're doing now all right uh anyone else like to make any comments regarding this um yes stephanie crabill yes miss craybill well i would just like to call our attention to um the policy where it says that um we would have to be if we are going to name it after a person or something other than a geographic term then we would have to um waive our policy um to do that so i um just wanted to go on record that i don't think this is something we

183should be waving our policy on and i would like to say out loud that i am sincerely concerned about things that we might find so no surprises the um so i am not in favor of naming grass at all really and i'm not in favor of naming grass after a person thank you miss craybill uh mr mcmanus or miss walker neither of you like to weigh in i'd like to just say quickly that if the if the last time the policy was updated um they would have explicitly said you could not name after a person unfortunately it was not specific even though it does say or with words or terms that have meaning to a given school leaves it open to interpretation and also i'm not sure it does say at the bottom and they

184reserve the right to change the name and then it says something about accept it's except when they have to honor contractual obligations so to me that sounds like maybe if a donor came decided they want to donate and they'd name it after that person i'm just saying it it's there's a reason why it was left a little more vague and i think that's for for us as board members to just make the decision and that's what we're here to do so that's all you're saying mr mcmanus any comments i felt like i'd be a hypocrite if we didn't vote to name it after him the first opportunity we had and then we turned around and did it for something less thank you sir um i would like to reiterate miss crable's comments um you know

185i i don't i think there's a reason where step we the sport has stepped away from naming things after people it's nothing personal about miss coach toto i don't know him um i just don't think that we should be waiving our policy to put names on anything anymore and so um regardless of what comes out of this i will be voting against it most likely because i can't support putting names on facilities in new hanover county schools that's just how i feel so all right so this will start the 60-day process of public input no no i'd like to make a motion that we not start the 60-day policy because um that we not start that because it is against our policy all right there is a motion to not start the 60-day policy um

186i will second that motion ms craybill um is there any other discussion all right procedurally i'm just not entirely clear i don't know what we're stopping from happening the way i read the policy is that no sooner than 60 days from now a board member or you know two board members could request to be put back on the agenda for action but there's no requirement i guess there's no nothing else that's about to happen now it's just you have to wait 60 days until something could happen so is but are we but based on our policy we are expected do we need to survey do we just need to let the public weigh in send emails what is the expectation during this time frame because there's been certain times before yeah so there's no requirement

187in the policy to survey it only says that you have to allow sufficient time for public input in common 60 days so um if the if there's you know a motion to not survey then perhaps you make that motion but otherwise there's no action that's about to occur okay so then do i i will i will withdraw myself all right i need to change the wording of my motion then because the way we did it last time was as soon as we made the motion to rename laney stadium then we went into this 60-day comment period and we issued a survey so i am i just want to be clear on what this discussion is actually doing um so yeah so colin can you please help the discussion is not doing anything other than starting

188the timeline from which action could be taken on it at a later date and time um so during this next 60 days the public can email the public can you for whatever means um share their thoughts on naming the field and then once that 60 days is over then the board could take action or the policy i would like to make a motion then um oh well okay which motion did you because there was a couple and then they disappeared and they came when she was with drew her second through her second so my motion is still on the table to not consider naming the grass at laney high school you leave it as is we don't have to name everything and my motion is not to name the stadium grass after anyone or anything

189mr scheib is that an appropriate motion for this discussion uh um i don't know that it's really necessary to take a vote to not do something i'm not trying to make this overly complicated but i think that if if miss you know if any the board members that are opposed to naming this the field i think you could just wait and if it's brought back up and you know after 60 days and you could vote against it at that time okay yeah now i would like to make a motion i mentioned that we um have a survey like we did with the um stadium because that seemed to get off a lot of good responses as far as feedback goes so i move that we create the same type of survey in this case was

190a football field uh at laney buccaneer stadium is the survey this is clarifying is the survey to specifically for a person or if the community wants to name the field the community wants to name the field not specifically for a person the same way we did with it originally because there was a variety of responses okay is there a second second obviously all right mr wildebore any other discussion yes so our our policy doesn't say that we are obligated to name anything at all we really didn't even have to rename laney stadium we could have left a name off so my point is and our policy does not say that we have to survey or that we have to use what the community wants um this is a a school you know the not the

191people who live wherever they live in our in our county to say hey i want to make you name this school field and it's not just a football field it's a soccer field and a lacrosse field so um yes i i'm just concerned that we're that we're wasting too much time on on an issue that has nothing to do with student academic success well that can be debated about athletics and how much it does contribute to student success um but at this point i'd like to call for the vote do you have a strategy miss bowie can you call the roll call the role please miss adams no miss justice oh yes miss craybill no mr mcmanus miss walker yes and mr wildebore yes motion um is a 3-3 which in this situation um the

192motion would fail so there will be no survey for this item okay it will come forward 60 days from now we will address it then thank you very much all right next item under information is the school volunteer program and i believe we are welcoming mr smith to the microphone welcome sir thank you good evening madam chair board members dr phil viewers at home thank you for the opportunity to provide a brief update on the volunteer program and as uh the boe center gets it pulled up there i see it last week the communication and outreach division did take leadership of this program back over from uh from human resources who had helmed it up until this point and so the the bottom line here is that we do anticipate and expect a full return

193of our volunteers into our schools as we open reopen this fall i was able to communicate that to some principals and staff and some training this afternoon they're excited about it um and rightfully so the next slide please we'll just roll through some of the requirements and so again you can read we're looking at universal masking with volunteers that they receive the training the orientation and the background checks level two background checks and i've got a slide that differentiates and describes the difference between level one and level two those training and orientation events take place twice a year the training happens at the beginning of the fall semester and again at the beginning of the spring semester and as we take over the program from hr we are in the process of looking at existing

194policies training procedures et cetera and updating those but i want to reiterate before we get into it that the updates that i'm referring to are really just to be in compliance with updated policy numbers the con and formatting uh the content there is appropriate and accurate for us to to restart the volunteer program and get them back into our schools the next slide please there are a lot of stakeholders in the community obviously that want to engage and participate partner in education some may look at themselves as volunteers some mentors some as partners for the sake of opening the program back up though and this conversation we those do fall under the volunteer program that again we're we are now helming so next slide the annual training and orientation handbook you can read it there

195but these are some of the topics that will be covered at uh at the at the orientation training our volunteer coordinators are starting to be identified by principals at all 45 schools and then my office will work with those volunteer coordinators to ensure that they have the training material they need to train the volunteers and and get them back into the schools and again these are some of those policies and these are all currently accurate those updates that we are making again are are are really just policy numbers at this point okay next slide so when we say level one level two i think you all know but for the public and folks watching a level one volunteers essentially folks that have uh that are gonna be in the classroom supervised uh with nhds employees

196or educators level two volunteers are those that may find themselves uh with with students alone so human resources while while we are helming the the overall volunteer program level two background checks are going to be maintained in human resources and we're working with them so level two background check and it's been the case since 2013 20 background check hr runs that individual who's applying through the background investigation or background investigation bureau for a background check and then there's an additional program called guardian where it's continuously updated to ensure that nothing has hit that system um if they come back approved then they go into the volunteer pipeline if they come back disapproved that again is an hr matter to sort okay next slide i'm sorry if we could go back to go back one slide

197through all right so again background checks uh it's a 20 background check as i mentioned it's been that case uh since hr manages the background uh check process and again guardian is part of bib or the background investigative bureau which consistently updates the roster of level two volunteers to ensure nothing in the system has changed and that they can can can continue to operate in schools okay next slide okay and as i mentioned the updates as we were a weekend to taking over the leadership of this program so we're looking at the training orientation the handbooks the websites identifying those coordinators in the school working with the principals and then ensuring that we're going to create a consistent training and resource opportunity across the schools for the volunteer program as we as we get it

198off the ground this year so those are the highlights and with that i'd love to take any questions that you may have thank you for that yes thank you josh for recognizing my hand in in a slide that a slide or two back where you talked about partnerships and scholarships for folks that might have a hardship in meeting the 20 um you you kind of skimmed over that and didn't say anything so i just wanted you to kind of talk about that just a little bit more because i don't want anybody to feel like they can volunteer absolutely and neither do we and so i know that previously there had been some programs or funds or scholarships that were discussed we'd love to take a look at where the progress is on those and not

199dissuade anyone from volunteering i know that there have been pta or i've been told that pta funds for example and i know that's not applicable across the board have been used to supplement that 20 i think as we get the program off the ground and look for opportunities for scholarships or funds or all hands on deck i think is the name of the program um i'd love to pursue that and i think it's absolutely appropriate because folks volunteers they they want to be in the kids in their children's school i think the la in almost every case that i just described a level two is appropriate that does incur cost and so absolutely i'd love ways to look at uh appropriate ways to alleviate that when necessary i also wanted a follow-up q oh sorry

200miss justice go ahead well uh could you keep us updated about your research into trying to and i hope i'm on yeah into your uh research into finding the funding source and that would be great because it's needed in some schools that don't have us the resources the other ones absolutely yes ma'am and i i think that uh to reiterate as we're looking at the necessary updates to the training manuals the policies uh et cetera that is a that is an august priority for my division and i i can go ahead and advertise september deliverable uh so i'll provide an update as uh you know as as requested next month on that and then also an update on where we are looking at ways to supplement that as we as we take it over and

201wrap our arms around all of those opportunities thank you and so follow-up question josh to to the volunteering um pta parents pto parents parent support organizations whatever they call themselves um at their schools and and just community business volunteers they're all treated the same is that correct as far as discussion that's correct yeah yeah yes that's correct so we are going we really want to it's about the safety of our students and ensuring those those checks and appropriate balances are are in the system so an organization can't be approved we're looking at individuals running individuals and again i can i have to defer to hr in that regard but we're looking at individual screening individuals so folks in the pta or or a partner you know we've got partners in the community those individuals would

202need to be to be in this case level two screened and then embedded so yes it'd be the same uh under under the purview of the same program thank you appreciate it um i have a question for mr smith it is it's a simple question um but just can you tell everybody that's listing out there how they can actually sign up to be a volunteer i i know it wasn't covering the slides and but some people might not know people maybe that aren't parents in the community that might want to volunteer at a particular school absolutely um and part of streamlining streamlining this process is making that process easier online i will say we have a volunteer portal on the website currently it needs to be streamlined in terms of its ease of access and

203the ability to volunteer and get in touch with the right folks at that school so i i could point them there i acknowledging that it is currently sub-optimal and we'll get that addressed and in lieu of being able to find that i'd encourage folks to reach out to the school to identify the volunteer coordinator with the administrative offices in the school make it known that they'd like to do so and then we'd love to help them out and get them the appropriate resources trained background check and then and then in the classrooms because it's invaluable thank thank you thank you mr smith i can tell you i've had a multitude of conversations with parents that cannot wait to get back in schools this year they really miss their volunteer opportunities last year and i'm thrilled

204that your department is taking this over i feel confident that you are going to help us streamline these processes and get more community members family members into our schools to support our kids so thank you thank you all right moving along uh superintendent's report dr faust yes good evening just a quick reminder for one that universal masking will also be required on all of our school buses we just wrapped up summer ignite and that was a great opportunity for our students to have six weeks or 150 hours of instruction and we just want to give a hats off to all those who participated in ignite and all of the individuals who helped support it support principles in getting those individuals so thank you so much our leadership retreat starts tomorrow we are so excited and

205we do invite board members to come by and have an opportunity to see our leaders and this is just not school leaders these are all leaders from supervisory positions all the way up through you'll see senior staff members there also and in presentation mode the district has seen of several changes so of course you'll get to see who those new leaders are and it's great to again just have them all in one building we'll there'll be two days where we're gonna we're gonna definitely make sure that they are excited ready to go empowered and making sure they can make a difference in all of our students lives beginning teacher orientation we've also hired phenomenal teachers and beginning teachers this year and of course it has not been an easy feat to get teachers but it

206was it didn't make it a little more smoother to have the highest paid supplement across the state of north carolina so again we want to thank you and thank of course all individuals who were out working with us if you've seen the tweets if you retweet those we want solid teachers coming to our school to educate our students athletic falls sports season this week is the official start of the athletic season for our fall sports we wish all of our falls sports seasons success and just know that we had a great season this this year um our our students went to the state and we had you know so many that finished first and um so again we're looking for the same same thing so i'll say if these students have some big shoes to

207fill and those who are still in those shoes we want you to just do it again pta and town hall i look forward to meeting with our pta and pto on august the 11th they are one if not only our largest volunteer network and just so that you know that volunteers they contribute nearly 300 000 hours of volunteer work amassing over 3.5 million dollars so thank you again open house snipes and freeman held open houses today august 3rd traditional schools open houses are the week of august 16th from parents to teachers to administrators i know everyone is excited to have students in the building again and we are glad that you have chosen new hanover schools as your priority again i'm just looking forward to the start of a school year we are wanting to

208make sure that everyone knows what the expectations are so again leaders will be there tomorrow and thursday and we'll be setting expectations and again just looking forward to it and again board members we if you can stop by please do and we will look forward to seeing you this week thank you so much thank you dr foust um i was just notified that live streaming has gone down they are rebooting the system as we speak so let's take a two minute pause um to see if we can get that back up oh just kidding we are back up and going so ignore that uh thank you dr faust for that report uh the next item is board chairpersons report um i don't truly have a report all i have to say is that um you

209know we are going into the most wonderful time of the year it's back to school time uh we've already welcomed some of our schools back for our year-round students and our restart students and we are now getting ready for the rest of our students to come back in about three weeks so as our teachers and administrators and staff all get back into the buildings i'm just wishing you all the best as you set up your classrooms and i know that 2021 22 is going to be a phenomenal year for all of our kids and everyone in our new hanover county schools community so thank you very much and good luck all right next item committee reports i don't no one reached out to provide a committee report this evening so i believe we can move

210through that item uh next item on the agenda is correspondence is there any correspondence that anyone would like to share no all right if none we will keep moving a call to the audience we had no additional call to the audience this evening which takes us to announcements and just pull up oh sorry the following board related meetings will be held during the month of august the policy committee will meet on tuesday august 10th at 9 00 a.m the board of education will hold an interim board meeting on tuesday august 17th at 5 p.m and next item on the agenda was the addition of the closed session and you know what let me pull that up on mine i like to ask for a motion to go into closed session pursuant to north carolina general

211statute 143-318-11813 and 6. except for personnel matters and to maintain the confidentiality of personnel records under north carolina general stat sheets 115 c 319 and dash prevent the disclosure student records rendered confidential and family educational rights and privacy act 20 usc 1232g we consult with the board's attorney to preserve attorney client privilege information including in the case caption john doe the new hanover county board of education aid owl new hanover county superior court case number 19 cbs-2745 do i hear a motion thank you mr mcmanus is there a second mr world war ii thank you mr wildebore any discussion miss bowie if you could please call the roll miss adams aye mr bullier i'm sorry miss justice yes ms craybill yes mr mcmanus yes miss walker yes and mr wildebore yes ocean passes we are

212in closed session thank you all very much i hear a motion no move mike thank you mr mcmanus is there a second that can't rule the board thank you for any discussion yeah why don't pete show his face all night long nose dangit he had a hair transplant i know it's what he did miss adams i'm miss justice hi miss craybill yes mr mcmanus he just left oh my word he just left he's got a quorum wait on him miss walker yes mr wildebore yes thank you for not leaving pete yeah i'm sorry very much everyone everyone have a nice evening and we will talk soon thank you very much you