001on tuesday july 13th at this time i will go ahead and call this meeting of the new hanover county board of education to order our first order of business is a moment of silent reflection and as we move into that i would just like to briefly say my thoughts and prayers are with the victims of the surf side building collapse this past week so with that we will have a moment of reflection thank you very much next on our agenda is the roll call ms bowie would you please call the roll stephanie adams nelson boyer here judy justice here stephanie craybill here he mcmanus president stephanie walker here and pete wiltobor also president thank you miss bowie a quorum is present the next item on our agenda will be the pledge of allegiance if everyone
002will stand and face the flag i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice thank you very much everybody the next item on our agenda is approval of the agenda do i hear a motion for any additions or deletions mr mr vice chairman i would like to make uh i'd like to move to add a discussion of the formation of a new transparency committee to the agenda the motion before the board is to add a discussion about a transparency committee before the agenda is there a second second um there's a motion by mr wildeborer second by miss justice is there any discussion uh well i think at this point at the name we might need to look at that
003somewhat just because it's a it's it could apply to a lot of things and we were talking about i think i hopefully it's a community advice so maybe community advisory committee or something along those lines okay i'm willing to i think we can slash or something chair is this a discussion or a vote i think this is a discussion on whether or not to add the item to the agenda not on the merits of the item or the name so do we have we have a motion and a second any further discussion well i think it's about the name hello beyond the name i think it's a good idea for us to look at this topic because it's been brought to me by several people community of various various backgrounds when it was mentioned to
004me and i mentioned it to them it seems like a good idea we don't have i mean this is a huge county and we have 26 000 students and many many people involved and also community members who no longer have kids in school it's hard for us to get information about what's going on what we're doing what's going on in the schools and the more information we have the better so for me it's just a matter of learning more from the public and finding out what we're doing and what we could do so that's that's what it's about to me thank you miss justice any further discussion hearing none all those in favor say aye aye aye aye any opposed motion passes six to zero uh any further additions or deletions to the agenda uh
005yes i would like to add to the agenda uh i'm i had to move a discussion on what many including myself i believe it's a violation of a of actually his name's chris sutton he was here last meeting a first amendment rights by having his speech cut off during the call to the audience on june the 8th the purpose of the discussion is to reach a consensus on how to remedy this apparent violation if we agree it is a violation there's a motion before the board is there a second second any further discussion hearing none i will opt for a roll call vote ms would you please call the roll mr bullier i vote no miss justice yes miss craybill no mr mcmanus no miss walker yes mr wildebore yes motion fails three two three
006moving on uh do i hear a motion to approve the agenda as amended so moved there's a motion for mr wildebores or a second second there's a motion from mr wildebore a second from miss walker uh all those in favor any further discussion all those in favor please say aye aye aye he opposed motion passes six to zero the next item on our agenda and this is very exciting uh for our county and certainly for our schools uh recognition of achievements and i will ask our new communications director joshua smith to come to the podium for that honor good evening board members dr faust and guests on behalf of the communications and outreach division it's my pleasure to present the following district accomplishments to the board and to honor and celebrate these outstanding new hanover
007county students and employees our first recognition of the evening comes from a school that has seen no shortage of state championships earlier this year we recognized their women's lacrosse team for winning a state championship and just last month we had their championship softball team here it's with great pleasure this month we recognize hogart high school girls doubles tennis state champions macy morrison and elizabeth valman coached by michael bowen unfortunately they couldn't join us this evening but congratulations to the viking athletes and coach on their state championship laney wrestling is no stranger to state championships either coach andre adams saw much success as a wrestler for the buccaneers during his time as a student athlete these days his accomplishments are coming from the students he coaches on the map last year coach andre had two state
008championship wrestlers continuing the tradition of excellence in wrestling in the 2021 wrestling season coach adams again saw one of his wrestlers bring home a title and coach the 4a wrestling state championship team at this time we'd like to recognize mark samuel two-time 120-pound wrestling state champion coach andre adams assistant coach leonard buddy harrison and the 2021 state 4a laney championship wrestling team comprised of the following and i'm going to try to get their names right because i know moms and dads are watching again they can blame me comprise of the following yeah all right and then come up when you're recognized outstanding all right when you're recognized go ahead and walk up and receive your uh your award sebastian babe [Applause] kanan barner [Applause] devin bell emanuel bell charlie bishop [Applause] fisher beechly avery bonacore
009and i'm assuming they're related tyler bonacore it's an assumption on my part [Applause] lucas carpenter [Applause] thomas gibson jaden harrison dylan howell [Applause] connor johnson [Applause] jonathan parra [Applause] the jarvis pool mark samuel [Applause] daniel schoff [Applause] noah thomas [Applause] jacob rosen jalen horle sean miller sarvis [Applause] and finally landon philaden [Applause] congratulations again to buccaneers wrestling the following recognition has been awarded to our finance division led by mary hazel small to karen mccall financial analyst and ashley sutton executive director of finance the government finance excuse me the government finance officers association of the united states and canada has awarded the certificate of achievement for excellence and financial reporting to new hanover county schools for its comprehensive annual financial report for the fiscal year ending june 30th 2020. an impartial panel judged the report to
010meet the program's high standards including demonstrating a constructive spirit of full disclosure to communicate its financial story and motivate potential users and user groups to read the report congratulations to the finance division yes [Applause] the final recognition of the evening comes from our communications and outreach division which i'm absolutely honored to join the national school public relations association awarded new hanover county schools communication and outreach division with three awards of excellence and two awards of merit for work produced and written in-house by our team congratulations to the current members of the communications and outreach division caress clegg and chase fulton and to former members brandon chope and ann gibson [Applause] and that concludes our recognitions thank you i've done it the excuse me the next item on our recognition is the introduction of the cape
011fear community college board of trustees member from the new hanover county board of education at this time i would like to recognize our trustee representative at cape fear community college this representative has a strong interest in maintaining and improving the climate of cape fear community college as a premier college option in our region and across the state our representative has devoted background as a devoted background in social work and a long leadership of philanthropic history within our community she has served on the new hanover county disaster coalition new hanover county resiliency task force community counseling services and has served as the new hanover county naacp president since 2010. few people in our community have been as vocal and consistent in their advocacy work for new hanover county and the greater wilmington area as miss deborah
012dix maxwell [Applause] it is with pleasure i on behalf of the board of education can recognize her as the board's new hanover county trustee representative at cape fear community college miss maxwell the floor is yours and we thank you for your service sign up you might regret that [Laughter] no but thank you very much for the honor and the privilege to serve the students faculty and members of new hanover county board of education and the schools i will do the best that i can do which you know i will thank you very much thank you thank you miss maxwell before we conclude our recognitions um i will confess uh to some some pain in my right arm from shaking the hands of these state champions and for that reason you know we put off on
013recognizing the biggest hand of all the coach of new hanover county laney high school state champions andre adams would you please come up here and say a few words about these [Applause] champions thank you everyone um it's our honor to bring this back to new hanover county and delaney high school these young men worked very hard to make this happen and we're just we're proud to be a part of the port city wilmington area new hanover county schools and we're looking forward to work hard and do it again thank you coach adams thank you very much okay that concludes our recognition of achievement if you will bear with me i need to find our closed session announcement um i believe miss adams could probably just memorize this she's done it so many times but at
014this time i will entertain a motion to go into closed session pursuant to north carolina general statutes 143-3 3 and 6 to consider personnel matters and to maintain the confidentiality of personnel records under north carolina general statute 115c to prevent the disclosure of student records rendered confidential under the family educational rights and privacy act 20 usc two 1232-g to consult with the board's attorney to preserve attorney-client privileged information including in the case caption john doe the new hanover county board of education at all new hanover county superior court case number 19-cvs-2745 is there a motion don't move there's a motion for mr wildebore's our second second there's a second from his justice any discussion hearing none all those in favor say aye aye any opposed we are in closed session i have board members back
015to the dice please everybody back for guys please oh are the microphones working all right thank you everybody i apologize for the delay uh while you are seated here i would remind you that we are still under the governor's order and the north carolina safer schools tool kit which says that face coverings will be required where for all workers teachers guests other adults and children five years or older at all at all times when indoors the school kit also states that base covering requirements apply in all public schools as well as any indoor school sponsored event where students and children will be present we still have some children in the building given that i ask that you maintain your masks and keep those on while we have students in the building per that toolkit thank
016you very much all right and with that we are moving on to the next item on our agenda uh that will be our call to the audience sorry i'm sorry your next item on our agenda is the approval of the minutes is there a motion to approve the minute mr vice chair uh somebody had brought my attention that there was nothing there was something missing in the minutes and i didn't know if it could be explained to the audience what gets in the minutes and why what might be missing yeah can you hear me okay yeah talking to your microphone i'm trying to man it's waiting lay in i mean what gets in the minutes i think um is my question because uh people were wondering why there were things missing from the minutes what
017normally goes in the minutes is it just think motions that are made well really close enough typically we include the motions and any um recap of the discussions that are a part of the um meetings okay generally not called audience things or it's in i'm sorry it's actually in the minutes the call to the audience it's left i know what you're referring to there is a section says called audience at the very end but it's missing something i can tell if if there's a motion to approve the agenda or to approve the minutes then we can have discussion about whatever's missing so is there a motion to approve well you don't approve it until we discuss what's missing it doesn't make sense or maybe i might be wrong but that's what my i thought that's
018why we we can address the minutes after we don't approve of them until there's something in there what would you like attitude that's what would you like added to the minutes well just going down here to i guess this is item 16 on the minutes sorry item 16 on the minutes it says call to the audience i'm sorry about that that's okay when no i'm not taking it off but when i talk i will take it down excuse me mr vela could you thank you okay um when you look at item 16 i believe this is called to the audience on the minutes the non-agenda items it says the following participate in the call of the audience for non-agenda meetings there's two names but it is left off that um chris sutton came up and
019he was removed i think that needs to be added to the minutes [Applause] from shouting and clapping please refrain from shouting and clapping thank you very much please refrain from shouting and clapping thank you miss bowie would you please amend those minutes thank you very much i think that we should wait to add those we need to vote on them one by one or we need to vote on them as a whole because other people might have them so you might want to consider before you direct miss buoy to start changing okay well can we vote on those minutes one by one please is there a motion to approve the first set of minutes yeah i motion that we approve the minutes we need a second there's a motion who's the second excuse me okay
020you say that one more time that was a little confusing okay there's the motion i'll second i didn't what okay say it again i made i made the motion that i that we needed to add that to the minutes okay there's a motion to add that to the minutes is there a second thank you all right there's a motion and a second any discussion to add chris sutton was removed from the meeting there is a motion and a second any discussion hearing none during call to the all those of favor say aye aye aye aye all those opposed motion passes six to nothing so i we need to make um a motion i need to make a motion to change the let me get back to my sticky note the um in section 14 d
021for the ad hoc committee on board meetings update um we er erroneously referred to polish policy 2300 when we were actually talking about 2330. okay there's a motion for another minute change is there a second second okay there's motion and a second all those in favor say aye aye all opposed motion is agreed to six nothing okay any other changes okay with that i'll entertain a motion to approve the minutes is amended there's a motion for mr wildebore is there a second second there's a second from miss cray bill all those any further discussion okay all those in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed motion passes six to nothing okay moving on to item number seven on our agenda call to the audience there is one opportunity to address the board of education
022at its regular meetings board policy 2310 public participation at board meetings states each speaker will receive three minutes to present comments however if more than 10 people sign up to speak each speaker will be limited to two minutes the maximum amount of time for public comment per policy will be one hour speakers remaining at the end of the hour period may be recognized the new hanover county board of education transitioned back to in-person only call to the audience participation during its march 2021 regular board meeting remote participation is no longer offered as we move forward as a district trying to improve communication we're thinking of ways to be creative and innovative and our family communications committee has been at the forefront of that effort and to that end i would like miss crabill to make
023a brief announcement at this time so um thank you mr boyer the new hanover county school's office of communication and outreach has been working with the family communications committee to explore those innovative ideas like you said so to that end in early august um august the 7th is the date that we are targeting we plan to hold an event called a work session where members of the community can sit down with individual board members and provide the opportunity for everyone to have some respectful dialogue together at the table we're still working through the logistics of what that looks like but so save the date august the 7th our second event is a back to school pta council meeting it is a meeting that occurs every year and this year the pta council is going to
024invite the uh and pta council is made up of the the president and treasurer of um every school that is a pta we are going to invite um the leaders of our ptos and any other parent support organization at the school so that no school is unrepresented and will invite the principal and a parent leader at schools that do not have parent support organizations for any number of reasons so that is going to be on august the 11th so if you are a parent support organization leader at your school be on the lookout for some information dr faust will be there with us to provide like a little mini you know town hall and so we look forward to hosting more of those as we come the family communications committee in the past has alternated
025a monthly meeting and a town hall meeting with focused topics and focused audiences so and that has worked well so we want to continue doing that and making sure that we have all the updated back-to-school information um that is timely and applicable to the school where your child is attending so thank you for the opportunity to share that and i hope you all mark your calendars and get alerts that's why that was made now instead of doing the call to the audience instead of doing that at the end for announcements we wanted to make sure that people had information before they went home miss justice moving on to the audience we have 50 speakers signed up um and we only have a lot of time for 30 speakers so what i would ask from all
026of you is to if you were speaking in a group consolidate get with a group if there's five or six or seven of you here and you want to pick two or three people to represent you i will i will send my cell phone number directly to people who do not get to speak you can call me you can discuss your issues with me so absent emotion to absent emotion excuse me abs absent emotion to extend absent emotion to experience i move to extend the call to the audience from the normal hour accommodate every speaker for two minutes and to also do that to also do that all at the beginning of the call of the audience and not have a second session which we have in the past and it's not even split up
027this time there is a motion and a second is there any discussion well that's why we were put here we need to listen to them that's why they came and i i respect your life [Applause] 50 people to sign up they should be allowed to speak so they've been here for hours some of them really you have sir you are out of order please maintain some level of decorum this is not a battle zone this is a board of education meeting we we have a motion has been made and seconded we will discuss is there any conversation surrounding the motion yes um i do want to hear from all of the people that are here but um 50 people times two minutes is a hundred minutes which is um at minimum an hour and a
028half and um i thought that our board was committed to um making our meetings more shorter shorter and more streamlined um that's your ad hoc committee miss justice so um we're not going to be able to get very far if people are booing us and who are not even letting us have a chance and are making faces while we're sitting here so those were my thoughts yeah we're spending time doing this now we do have any further discussion anybody else mr mcmanus mr wildebore yeah i think it is incredibly important to get to the business of the district i think it is very important that we maintain some semblance to policy [Music] okay i will call for a roll call vote miss bowie mr boyer no miss justice yes miss craybill no mr mcmanus [Applause]
029[Music] yes stephanie walker yes and peter [Applause] i'm sorry mr wildebore yes motion kick motion carries four to two the first speaker for a call to the audience is veronica maclaurin brown miss brown my remarks are in the form of a prayer i pray that no school board member or educator believes that a four five six and seven-year-old child should be thrown out of school for improper language disrespect to staff or insubordination because such a belief should be inconceivable i pray that you treat the ending of a suspension as a non-partisan issue four five six and seven-year-old students know nothing about politics but they do know when they're being loved and nurtured in our classrooms i pray that you revise the discipline plan to reflect the expectation that educators demonstrate exceptional student management skills in
030our classrooms rather than failure i pray that you understand that some teachers are still learning how to manage students and some students age four to seven are still learning how to follow rules we keep our teachers in the classroom and pay them while they are learning to become exceptional well keep our children in the classroom while they are still learning to follow the rules and teach them to be exceptional i pray that you understand that using suspensions in the classroom especially with our four five six and seven-year-olds is like throwing gasoline on a fire it does more harm than good i pray that every board member would vote to end suspensions especially especially for our youngest learners because keeping students in school is positively associated increased student achievement walking god's pathway love children in suspensions
031for all four to seven year olds amen the next speaker is miss elizabeth faye dunn miss dunn at the last meeting stephanie adams said ask yourself what am i fighting for is it our kids or is it political ideology what are we truly afraid of i'm fighting for our kids i'm fighting for our community and i'm fighting for our future i am afraid of increasing racial tensions and american hatred and decreasing reading and math scores as of 2019 north carolina had only 31 percent of 3rd through 8th grade students at or above proficiency in english and math this is down from 61 in 2013. what are we doing to reverse that trend diversity and inclusion training the new standards do not solve racial inequality they deepen it they do not put the focus where it
032should be on teaching our kids the skills they need to succeed the new argument for crt is that teachers are simply trying to teach true history why would anyone be against that we are not against the truth teach about slavery not only in america but around the world teach how the republicans fought to end slavery in america and that slavery still exists in muslim countries around the world teach about jim crow and the wilmington massacre but do not teach that america is systemically racist when in fact america is one of the least racist and most diverse countries in the world if you want to teach your kids at home that they should hate america and judge everyone on the basis of their skin color that is your right but do not teach it in our
033schools with taxpayer dollars and without parental consent teachers should not use their platform and access to kids to teach them political ideologies do not implement new standards that received an f grade from the fordham institute whereas washington d.c and california received an a it sounds like the north carolina state board of education has some work to do and there is absolutely no reason for new hanover county to implement these standards please follow brunswick county's lead and issue a policy against biased teaching and divisive political theory and do not implement this i will i will politely ask everybody to refrain from cheering and clapping please thank you very much our next speaker is denise yanone my name is denise yanone i'm a child advocate and retired learning specialist focusing on student mental health is crucial because
034mental health is directly related to the behaviors of all our children for many students who are affected by the often unbearable stressors of poverty there is an unavoidable connection from poverty to physical social and emotional distress distress leads to behaviors that can result in destructive negative discipline studies have shown that negative punishment worsens children's behaviors and ability to learn increases failure and fuels the school-to-prison pipeline poverty is often the root cause of low literacy rates and student behaviors reflecting severe distress poverty traumatizes children who are suffering from hunger homelessness lack of sleep and health issues most adults could not function if faced with such enormous problems children are overwhelmed and powerless to change their situation one serious source of low literacy damage to the brain and nervous system as well as learning and behavior problems
035hearing and speech problems and decreased ability to pay attention is toxic exposure to lead pain according to nc child five to ten percent of new hanover county school children have tested with unacceptably high levels of lead in their bodies in 2019 eight percent of new hanover county children were born with low birth weight 38.5 of our children were living in poor or low-income homes twenty percent of our children live in food insecure households six percent of our children had no health insurance this resulted in 38.4 percent of our third grade students failing to attain reading proficiency i repeat in 2019 38.5 of our students were living in poor or low income housing and situations and 38.4 percent of our third graders were not proficient in reading it is time to stop punishing our already traumatized
036children we must change our negative discipline policy to a cohesive district-wide mental health policy and give every child the equitable assistance comfort and compassion they are over our time provide i think we're over positive behavior intervention not suspension our next speaker is lindy ford miss ford i give up my time to jonathan uzagatti my name is jonathan i'm from caracas venezuela i want to stop the timer stop the timer please stop the timer please stop the timer stop the timer please stop the timer people have traditionally been allowed to do this so colin the board can establish rules with respect to public comment has the board previously allowed members of the public to see their time to to others present we have i'd recommend you follow your previous practice okay we have not done that
037this year um can i ask a question of our attorney sure so in our um in our policy which the community the community expects us to uphold um in public participation at board meetings it it tells us that a speaker if there's more than one then you should be combining and then if you combine then the combined person gets three minutes to do that and at any time the board may establish additional procedures to ensure that public comment sessions proceed in an efficient and orderly manner and i don't think that this is an efficient and orderly manner by everybody no excuse me and if you look down more in our policy it says disruptions by any person or persons of a public meeting will be subject to actions in accordance with gs 143-13-17 so i'm
038this is all i am telling you remember nobody's saying anything she's the only one that said you're the only one who's saying this to not allow me to speak because you might be afraid what i have to say that's the whole problem that's what the fellows are saying dialogue between the board and the audience is not permitted dialogue is not permitted [Music] excuse me excuse me excuse me excuse me i will call for a motion to waive policy to allow for this person to speak is there a motion we've done this before the lawyer said we could do this i don't think it requires a vote to waive policy so we can we can we are we can let him speak if we have done that in the past yes thank you start the clock
039please at one minute and 50 seconds once again my name is jonathan oscary i'm from caracas venezuela i came to this country and let me tell you something this is one of the greatest country in the world i put my kids in the school in one time i took him out why because i saw a lot of things happening in school that now a lot of people started to notice one time i got an email from the teacher telling me that my kids were gonna receive an award when i got to the school every child was receiving the same award that to me looked like something that i saw in my connected country venezuela when everybody become equal i'm not for that type of thing that's what i came to this country this country is
040not a racist country it might be was one once upon a time but right now it is not we got to make sure not to teach kids critical race theory all that going to do is divide these kids in a school and i beg you to please reconsider that start teaching kids more math reading science not to teach kids things like this because all they're going to do is divide this nation we're going to teach kids to hate this nation one day they're gonna come up and put in in presidency a communist president by having all these kids learning all this diversity in how much like these fellows back there hate this nation i want you to beg you to please stop pushing these things into children and start teaching them things like science math
041and reading and writing not to teaching things like this critical race theory this boost is garbage thank you so much our next speaker is loretta stackhouse i'm here today in support of love our children in suspension of four five six and seven-year-old children children in pre-k to second grade babies babies are being suspended from school actually sent home from school what could babies do to receive punishment of suspension adults arrive at work daily reflecting unacceptable behavior as if they had nails for breakfast got up on the wrong side of the bed or did not get enough sleep last night and no one sends them home unacceptable behavior for children should be treated as a teachable moment punishment may be needed but not to the extent of suspension before punishment teach alternative behavior out of school
042suspensions do not improve behavior out of school suspensions have negative consequences the school board included the policy to end suspensions of four five six and seven-year-olds in the 2016 to 2020 new hanover county strategic plan the plan expired without implementation of the policy we're requesting the board reinstate the elimination of suspensions in the new five-year strategic plan with implementation taking effect immediately thank you [Applause] our next speaker is peter rauch mr rawich at the march 2nd board of education meeting policy 4300 on student behavior policies was passed seven to zero some of you expressed concerns that you couldn't change the out-of-school suspension part of that policy until there was a plan to train teachers and administrators on alternatives to suspending our youngest students well two months ago julie varnum presented you with a new management
043of student behavior plan that does just that so it's time to change the policy tonight two of the elementary schools open in two days and the other 24 open in august so let's start off the new school year right by amending policy 4300 section 35 of robert's rules of orders is called rescind amend something previously adopted so you can say something like i move to amend the motion relating to out-of-school suspensions which was adopted at our march meeting and once that motion passes you can say move to add the following words to policy 4300 suspensions will not be used as a consequence for four five six and seven-year-old children except if they bring a gun or drugs to school or commit a violent assault no more excuses love our children and suspensions now our next
044speaker is gail major hello board dr faust my name is gail major i'm before you today speaking for the first time i was here in april but i had to leave because i was teaching and the meeting went on until 10 o'clock the board and my and many administrators are familiar with me via my e-mail correspondence since april of 2021. i've long been a child advocate in the educational system where i have been a pta parent a teacher and an administrator you have my credentials on files so show that will show you that i am what is called hq hq highly qualified it's a very big honor for a teacher to have that when you go from state to state my training is specialized in literacy most of it in the young child preschool to
045third grade my training is also in the mind of the child the development from birth until third grade i'm presenting my call to you as you mr dr faust is a leader i look at a school system holistically and by that that means i research it to see how it functions in all administrative acts aspects as it relates to new hanover county this requires internal information from prrs or board of ed meaning policy and curriculum easy to find and and the stakeholder or and school administrators most external information is and should be acquired through the stakeholders in our community often the symbolic school culture is one of being welcoming inclusive informative and transparent i have made some strides i thankfully with some of your administrators and i thank you for that uh we why modify
046our curriculum and the seo your time is up thank you very much thank you very much i'm sorry sir you're not you're not next to speak you're not next to speak you're not next to speak if he would if he would like to donate his time he just did he is not next to speak ma'am [Music] let me know who's next to speak next to speak is barbara guerrero okay schools are one of the primary social and public institutions in this country over a hundred years ago school attendance became mandatory school mattered too much to be a matter of choice schooling lifted earnings and reduced future unemployment needed are counselors and social workers that can support teachers and children in behavior management and successful strategies for all children to learn the absence of this support
047system leads to the easy way out for teachers and principals that do not want to deal with children they see as problems kicking out four five six and seven year old children is detrimental to the child the family and to society other states and north carolina school systems have stopped this practice the damage of suspension forever leaves a scar that most likely cannot be healed forced absence from school impacts children's learning and future success in chill in school and their development of necessary social skills is impeded leading to truancy dropping out of school and forever foreclosing the potential of successful and productive lives it is a responsibility of the new hanover county schools to put the teachers and student support system in place for these young children not failure and if you do not do
048this the failure is yours and society bears the brunt of inaction the way to correct this wrong is to adopt the policy of no school suspensions for four five six and seven year old students unless there are dire circumstances then fund the necessary support structures to achieve this policy thank you very much for your time [Applause] i have been requested to take a brief five-minute break i have all board members back to the dice please can i have all board members back to the diodes are we all back before we continue i just want to remind you guys about the quorum please let's i know there's emotion out there i can feel it i can see it we all know it but let's set an example for our kids please yell scream afterwards yell and
049scream afterwards please outside let people speak let them have their two minutes and then i will call the next speaker thank you our next speaker is pat bradford miss bradford good evening i am pat bradford for the past 21 years i have been the wrightsville beach magazine's owner publisher and senior editor i come tonight to condemn the duplicity the deceitfulness the double dealings that are going on we the people are being lied to from the top down in this state from the north carolina department of education all the way to you guys and we are seeing you put your agenda above the education of our children and our grandchildren have you seen the report evaluating the quality of the social studies radicalized standards in civics in u.s history for k-12 adopted this year in the
050spring by all 50 states and the district of columbia if you don't know we got a big fat d minus in civics and an f in u.s history our state was rated inadequate reports online d minus and an f it said specifically north carolina schools need to articulate what students should know instead of asking them to exemplify critique distinguish compare assess classify did you know the glossary of the drafted north carolina social studies standards contains systematic racism including white privilege and systematic discrimination gender identity look it up it's online in the fall do we really want to be teacher second grade children gender identity we must return we must return to focusing on teaching reading writing and math it's time to say no to these social studies standards board members we want unity not division
051to quote north carolina lieutenant governor mark robinson on these social studies standards we're not going to sit down and take it [Applause] anymore thank you our next speaker our next speaker is rick wilkins hope you guys have a better night than what you've had so far i've spoken here a few times before but what's glaring here is there aren't any numbers up there any charts rising up there's absolutely no enthusiasm here what we have done for our children there's nothing here that shows success over the last 5 10 15 years we heard numbers from the second speaker i don't need to memorize them you all are accountable for them and you are professionals that can achieve and do better we expect it of you i wish this form was a lot less raucous but that's
052what it's gone to that's what it's leveled i'm going to tell you a little golf story a 20 year old book in the beginning of this book the world is flat a very liberal man named thomas friedman said i don't know if i should aim for the hewett-packard building or maybe the microsoft building but gosh i don't think it hit as far as cisco he was playing our new golf course 12 story 14 story 29 story buildings you know where he's been i bet you guessed seattle yeah probably silicon valley not even close nelson banglagor india 20 years ago our children are fighting a competition that's international and they need absolute top level top teaching top experience that you all purport to have show it to us let us come here next week and see
053the last 5 10 15 years how you're going to obtain the goals we honestly believe you weren't elected because you're a bunch of frauds we believed you were going to help us and help the children now stop this malarkey stop acting and hiding behind hammering and how many minutes and get your job done so our kids go on to be successes okay thank you nelson the next speaker is jamisha waddell jamisha waddell okay we'll come back uh katie gates good evening the controversial north carolina social studies standards with the latest round of unpacking documents were adopted on july 8th updated standards include teaching racism xenophobia nativism extremism and marginalized groups and since as we've heard the fordham institute assess north carolina's social studies standards and graded us with an f in history and a d
054minus in civics shouldn't we be more focused on literacy and teaching our kids objectively in u.s world and ancient history last month the brunswick county board of ed passed a policy against bias teaching and divisive political theory our lieutenant governor mark robinson calls the standards divisive and politically charged new hanover county ought to delay such last-minute poorly constructive and divisive standards we're not locked into adopting these standards because terry stoops from the john locke foundation says school district leaders are free to adopt an existing curriculum curricula locally or opt for a combination of both catherine truitt state superintendent has said the standards are not grounded in the discipline of history they lack specificity they are scattered organizationally they are challenging for teachers to understand and are devoid of historical context fordham institute states that north
055carolina ranks as having the worst k-12 history in civics curriculums in the southeast united states there is no mention in the standards of civil war just domestic conflicts there's no mention of world war one or world war ii just mention of international conflicts there's no rigorous march through the constitution so i believe that vague and generalized concepts and these standards leave the door wide open for our schools to abuse the teaching of civics and history by using that time to end space to teach sel social emotional learning and critical race theory concepts like equity and implicit bias they indoctrinate and categorize our kids and they divide not unify thank you thank you for your consideration the next speaker is matthew hamm jr matthew hamm jr the next speaker is miss sandra isles every month for
056the past year i've spoken before you asking for honesty transparency and to keep our children safe i've spent hours reading policy following committee meetings and educating myself about how our board works it's no surprise i am concerned that dr faust waited until one hour and 45 minutes before tonight's meeting to respond to my agenda request asking the board to discuss the release of board materials to the public this was only after i commented on facebook today that he had not responded according to the star news mr boyer does not feel the public can understand the board materials and prefers not to release them five days prior to a meeting claiming it would lead to incorrect discussions among the public which is very which is a very curious twist because releasing accurate information solves that problem
057our ability to understand is irrelevant to the release of public documents maybe the board is really worried that parents will be angry when they read policy 5120 and find out law enforcement can request parents not be contacted if their five-year-old is interrogated or taken into custody how does this keep children safe maybe they are worried we will call out their inhumane defense of seclusion and restraint and their support of five-year-olds being locked in rooms or that they have never expressed concern over discrimination when they hear 98 of seclusions involve disabled children do you believe our disabled students deserve this treatment or maybe they just don't want us to ask them to keep the mask mandate until all children have access to the vaccine maybe they don't want to hear concerns from parents of children who
058cannot safely attend school otherwise especially since remote learning is not an option i really can't understand why mr boyer would not support full transparency and release of public documents unless he and some board members are afraid of an educated public participating in meetings or maybe they're afraid of accountability so i ask what are you afraid of is it really that we can't understand or that we see through your words thank you [Applause] the next speaker is steve sheffield steve sheffield okay the next speaker is before you start the clock i want to thank dr faust for bringing emma to this meeting because there are untold numbers of hearing impaired folks who haven't been able to understand what's been going on here in times past emma is here from jacksonville her husband is a marine corps
059veteran we want to thank you emma thank you thank you dr faust appreciate it um [Music] let me reset his clock can you please reset his clock well i'm i'm glad to know that robert's rules are in order first i want to define theory a supposition an idea to justify a cause of action critical race theory supposes there is an oppressor white people and an oppressed black people that theory is based on the original sin theory that africans were sent to america as slaves and just so we know the truth africans sent their african brothers and sisters to other countries muslim countries 1 200. all right please quiet please in the audience quiet please in the audience please be quiet in the audience since we are following rules of order i'd like the time put
060back on the clock can you please reset the time for one minute thank you critical race theory [Applause] that's why it's called rules of order political race theory runs counter to the equal protection clause of the constitution and america's anti-racism laws it leaves all doors open to massive lawsuits which the board of education doesn't have the right to expose us to i'm going to cede the balance of my time to addison polanza that would be 30 seconds chair [Applause] mr chair just want to note that board policy does not provide for speakers to cede their remaining time to other speakers thank you board policy does not permit you to cede that time i'm sorry sir board policy does not permit you to cede that time that's correct sir well i'm going to scoot to the
061end of my prepared remarks the seeds of hatred are being sown in the critical race theory curriculum that's not right for our students don't do it if under armour can fight for a phrase a catch phrase that i will protect this house we should protect the children your time has expired john mcintyre the next speaker is john mcintyre no you may not the next speaker is gail herring my name is gail herring and i'm here to stress to you one of the hottest issues in america right now and it's this the social studies and history curriculum being taught in our public schools and the training that has been required for our teachers there are millions of us representing all races across america that are banding together to stop this indoctrination of our children it is
062state-sanctioned racism and this whole equity diversity and inclusion sensitivity training required of teachers is also steeped in marxism let's not confuse what is meant by equity that is a call to action to replace equality and it's a communist term that means redistribution from all over the country including here here's what we're finding lesson plans and teacher training that teach unconscious racial bias implicit racism gender selection education and systemic racism so do your homework and read about kimberly kimberly crenshaw's work one of the architects of critical race theory it's a call to action for a revolution against america thank goodness for the courage of four states that have banned it 17 more that are in the process of banning it and brunswick county board of education has restricted it even though our radical leftist board of
063education at the state level recommends it if you allow this type of curriculum regardless of what you want to call it into our classrooms here be prepared for all the unintended negative consequences that will result because parents are awake we are watching and we are dialed into what's happening in the classroom thanks to mark robinson our wonderful lieutenant governor we are arming parents in this county with questions to ask and demands to make when meeting with teachers next month as children return to school and make no mistake we'll be asking teachers about the training they received and how they intend to use it crt is a march to chris to communism and i quote karl marx as we tear all our statues down keep people from their history and they are easily controlled mark my
064words we are going to take this country back our next speaker is leslie posey good evening i have a very simple request tonight in your plans for reopening schools it is imperative that masks be mandated why it's my turn to talk about yours why there are the rate of infection in north carolina increased 12 last week contrary to pronouncements by people such as mayor sappho the pandemic is not over researchers are tracking the volume of covet 19 dna particles in sewage in several parts of north carolina this research shows a major spike of infections in wilmington last month this data concludes asymptomatic cases because anyone sheds anyone infected sheds the virus in their stool therefore it is more accurate than just positive tests the delta virant has now present in all 50 states and is
065approximately 66 percent more contagious than previously identified variants virtually all recent hospital and icu admissions in the u.s have been unvaccinated patients with the delta variant a new variant lambda has been identified in peru early research shows it may be partially resistant to current vaccines our elementary children cannot be vaccinated less than 50 percent of adults in new hanover county have been vaccinated and approximately one-third of those who could be vaccinated refuse covit is one of the fastest mutating viruses humans have ever encountered the reason you only need to be vaccinated once for measles is that the virus hasn't ever mutated covid has mutated into five increasingly infective variants in 18 months any unvaccinated person could become patient zero to a mutation that would be immune to the current vaccines the more people who are
066infected the higher the risk of mutation so what is the solution mask time is expired [Music] the next speaker the next speaker is tony mcgee mr mcgee quiet please well it's um it's good to be it's good to be here uh one of the things i wanted to say number one is uh of course brunswick county passed a resolution against divisive type of teaching but the other part that i want to talk about is the fact that well number one i grew up in this area so i've experienced racism i experienced inferior education and one of the things that i despise about some of this stuff is the fact that it appears to me that whoever's coming up with it going to try to create a permanent underclass of black people i despise the fact
067that we're going to try to tell black youngsters that they cannot learn and so you know what they can't learn because the white man put it together the white man designed it the white man created it and therefore your poor pitiful self you can't figure it out i put all of that that's garbage here's what i'm saying you give a student an opportunity the basic skills to learn and think and any black child can do anything i ran into a man's here tonight scholars with a goal and you know the tragic thing about we need these things right here they've got to teach kids how to challenge their minds provide literacy established growth and thinking this is supposed to be happening in the public school we shouldn't have to have thank god for them but
068we shouldn't have to have them to come and do it we should learn that in the public school millions of dollars are being spent that's what should be happening you know people can shout and say oh yeah catcalls or whatever but the bottom line is if our education system cannot train our young black children to think and think for themselves then it is an absolute failure and it rises right up in the responsibility of this board furthermore you know mark robertson said something that i thought was really powerful he said that they're going to stand against these ideas as well now listen there's always going to be disagreements about things and i get it and i understand it i don't know everything i don't understand everything but the one thing i do understand is this
069i learned thank god for the marine corps because the public school system in new hanover county failed me miserably i barely got out of high school but one thing they brought discipline and the idea that i can learn rocky jeter webb the next speaker is rocky jeter webb critical reason theory has no place in our public schools it is a marxist racist spring washington theory it's indoctrination it is a racist worldview that applies marxism's theory of economic class conflict to race it's a theory that derives from marxism it says all of america and the entire world is a battle between the races critical race theory says every white person is racist has white privilege and that blacks are second-class citizens critical race theory says america is fundamentally racist excuse me irregularly racist it seeks to
070turn us against each other and if someone has a different skin color scan seeks to make us hate that person critical race theory is bigoted it's a lie and it's every bit as racist as the clansmen in white sheets we need to have things that draw us together not things that tears depart if y'all vote for this agenda i will spend the rest of my life making sure you never hold another public office again and take the mass off of our children the next speaker is barbara anderson robert anderson i do not see excuse me excuse me excuse me i do not i do not see excuse me excuse me i will excuse me i will ask the parliamentarian are these speakers otherwise sign up to speak i do not see timothy joyner signed up
071to speak barbara anderson is signed up to speak i do not see timothy excuse me excuse me excuse me mr vice chairman we can figure this out simply yes i just have a question excuse me barbara anderson actually in attendance is barbara anderson even here so otherwise we have other people that have asked the same thing is barbara anderson here i can't hear anything excuse me excuse me excuse me sir if these speakers are otherwise on the listed to sign up to speak they have to wait for their turn if they haven't been and the speaker that is here is signed up and wishes to see their time and not try to duplicate their time that's what we allowed earlier yes so you nobody can duplicate their time board policy states that if you cannot
072communicate your message to the board within the two minutes you can email after that however if you are not signed up to speak and somebody who is here and signed up is willing to cede their time you may take that time that's correct [Music] miss anderson barbara anderson is not present may she still s exceed her time through somebody else your policy doesn't specifically speak to that have you allowed that in the past excuse me your policy does not specifically speak to that is that something you've allowed in the past i've never had a situation where somebody was not here seated i think i mean i think it would be a reasonable rule and this is the pleasure of the board to require the speaker to be present in order to see their time excuse
073me please excuse me please we're wasting time yes if i i've actually asked the parliamentarian that exact question it was totally back opposite about 10 minutes ago so you can't do it that way so you have a i have a uh email so we didn't have to take their time and i said no so we got to have it both ways then we have to give it to the other side mr mr vice chair in the past and we've already had it tonight if a person is not here we move to the next person a person not present cannot see their time i think that'll be a reasonable rule that'll be reasonable [Applause] a person not present cannot see their time that's what we said a person not present could not exceed their time is
074ms anderson here to seat her time excuse me excuse me we will come back to miss anderson we will come back to miss anderson should she arrive you may speak for her then thank you should miss anderson come to this meeting she will be invited to speak provided we are still in the call to the audience portion at that time she is allowed to seed her time since she no that's not what it says that that is not what it says that is not what i am saying we will move on to the next speaker okay thank you thank you thank you [Applause] thank you thank you moving on [Applause] thank you [Applause] we are going to take a break we are taking a break we are back in actually lost control that's for sure
075mr bison is it on it yes mr wildebore i'd like to make a motion that we adjourn until next tuesday the motion is to stand in recess until tuesday of next week we can't hear it all i could not couldn't even hear mr wildeboro's motion the motion is to stand in recess until next tuesday is there a second second there's a motion there's a motion and a second all those in favor say i i i excuse me chair all those in favor please say aye aye [Music] the motion passes six to nothing this board stands in recess until tuesday of next week you