Board of Education Meeting - August 2 2016 - Part 1

001needs of our system be with us through this meeting provide us guidance and wisdom we thank you for the many blessings that we all enjoy be with those that serve and protect us here and around the world tonight in your holy name we pray amen amen I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stand One Nation God indivisible andice for all [Music] the [Music] the [Music] [Applause] you may be seated and we'll get a microphone and get some introductions L if you could give us your name the school you're from and what grade you're in please Chanel Adams I'm in fifth grade my name is Jaya Dyson I'm in also in fifth grade my name is Amaria rollison I am also in fifth grade my name is Zia

002Davis and I'm also in fifth grade and they're from Snipes Academy of Arts and Design uh instructor is Christa facon is that right Christa glad you're here with us tonight and the principal Cindy tabber there Cindy back there good to have y'all with us tonight we we appreciate y'all coming and singing for us tonight thank you very [Applause] much M Adams would you call the roll please here here thank you item two is approval of the agenda any additions deletions none move for approval second all those in favor please say I I they are approved thank you item three is approval of the minutes item a our special meeting minutes from June the 29th 2016 move for approval second all those in favor please say I I opposed they're approved uh Item B special meeting

003minutes from June the 30th 2016 move for approval second questions comments all those in favor please say I I oppos they're approved item four recognition of achievement there is none listed but we can't let this meeting go by without a special recognition so I'll turn this over to miss felita quadon thank you Dr Markley good afternoon everyone so like Dr Markley said we do have one very special recognition for tonight because our own assistant superintendent of operations is leaving us for retirement on September 1st and that is none other than Mr Bill H and tonight is his final board meeting so T bill I bet you thought we were going to let you slide out of here without embarrassing you didn't you but no way we have to talk about you just a little bit

004we have to recognize Mr H or as Dr holiday likes to call him Colonel so Mr H we want to recognize you for your leadership and your dedication to this district and um I'm getting paid by the adjective so we think that you are one of the most compassionate smart kind generous and thoughtful people that we've ever met you're one of a kind you are most certainly Irreplaceable how can you do this to us we're going to miss you and all the fun that we've had with you over these years and so if you would please come forward we'd like to recognize you for 21 years of outstanding excellent service to New Hanover County [Applause] Schools what are we going to do without you now Bill we're going to do a more obvious a more

005formal one later but like said we couldn't let this one pass a little the mic is the the floor is yours chairman I really didn't any com have I might get carried away talk about Navy guy so you know I'm just bad he was in the department of the Navy and you told me one time what department was that when I when I bugged you that time when I sent you that email and I said remember they make a big deal depart the men's department I I said I'm not going to get him again he really got me they make a big deal out of their birthday the Marine Corps does maybe and uh but u i I sent Bill an email one time you know you realize it is Department to Bo I ow

006myself up he you're right this bab the men's department but uh I was on the board when his name was mentioned 21 years ago I remember the discussion taking place you came from Charlotte correct I remember that Mr cavon Mr Higgins we were the three that were here at the time um and they said a lot of good things about you and it certainly has all proved to be correct but a couple of things that brought back memor to me when I looked up here uh we have a lot in common of course I'm I'm much older than you are couple years but I know Bill one time he flew when he was in the Marine cor the pilot I flew as an air crewman uh the plane he flew went a little faster than

007I was yours was what A6 A6 what Intruders yes Intruder I was in Old p2v which is an anti submarine Squadron we you were a passenger he was the pilot I know just cab off we roast from him not me your your your speed was what your top speed in A6 600 seed we were lucky in a dive hit 200 that but whby Island correct yes I was station at whby Island Washington State there a lot of fishing and different stuff up there so when I heard all this later about Bill I said you he be a good guy except for that Marine Corp thing but I'm going Overlook that at least it was the department of Navy but I really and I'm sure other board members have't like to say because I didn't really

008compar anything but we're going to certainly miss you but you certainly uh deserve it done a great job here um in in every respect U and I appreciate your service here but then also your service prior to coming here uh we appreciate it Miss Cav like I said I really don't know what we're going to do without you because you have been instrumental in so many things and I was just wondering you know in 2020 will'll be redistricting again and I wanted to know if you would volunteer for the process I know how much you enjoy it I've already talk talk about Consulting no I'm very serious you have run that department I always had faith in you I didn't have to worry about anything if there was a problem you took care of it

009a lot of times it never got to the board because it was already taken care of I have never written you an email asking for something that you did not quickly respond you have been a joy to work with and I truly will miss you thank you very much I appreciate that greatly and I want to add too yes he answers our emails very quickly but he's very prompt and very clear when the parents have questions or employees have question he's very good about responding but I want to tell you we had a celebration and that shows this picture over here with the arrow going down in his uniform that was his uniform years and years ago and it was not popping at the themes when he put it back on for don't go there

010that is my suit wonderful achievement because he is a former Marine and you're never a former Marine once you're a marine you're always a marine because I at one time connected we're very proud of we're going to miss you but yes read from afar well all I'd like to say is I am glad I was part of the board that initially hired youa the wisest decisions I've been involved in making you have shown professionalism I really do appreciate it I'm surprised how you didn't say what I heard another Marine say to a saor is thank you for delivering us well they didn't deliver us to a lot of good plac newer to the board but was put in charge of guess you could ES me when it time to go all schools when I first

011came on board and I just appreciate all the time that spent he didn't have to do it he did his time I catch him a few behind running I have to say that I met you and I was things always added 18s on the board seen little thank you very much appreciate it anything you like to say or well I I appreciate this and I don't know how you kept it secret but I saw my wife walk in and I figured something that I saw her bill why don't you introduce your wife so would you stand up this my wife Susan and my well thank you very much it's been it's been quite a journey and it was a tough decision um but I think it was time um I need to there's so many

012people in the school system that uh I need to get out of the way out so I think uh I think the system's going to be very good and U I'm sorry to leave but I'm looking forward to uh to a different different chapter and I did this several years ago when I left the Marine Corps so I know it's a different change and uh I'm just going to have to adjust to it but uh I think it's I think it's time but I really appreciate everything thing that you've done I appreciate you're allowing me to be here and allowing me to be in this job because it's really been beneficial to me it's been great working with all the principls and all the schools and all the kids it's just been really great I

013couldn't have asked for another a greater uh better job than this and I've been Ser in service pretty much from when I graduated from school and just in a service related job military and now here and it's it's great I wouldn't have changed it for anything in the world so thank you very much I really appreciate it thank you I don't want to shake your hand I want [Applause] to did you hear his last C I don't see real well but I hear real good now we will do a a more for a formal reception sometime closer to the end of the month but we couldn't like said we couldn't let this one pass no and thank you for doing that Dr Marky wonderful do you ever catch any ling cod fishing up there cod

014fish cod would be Al did you ever do much fishing Navy you won't quit will you just only only the Navy had time Le your time I had time for fishing okay call to the audience we had no one sign up for an agenda item uh item uh six under administrative Personnel administrative recommendations appendix a Dr Mark all right we we have several administrative recommendations uh first is in Mr hans's shop it is the custodial administrative recommendation uh Mr Thaddius Adams Mr Adams currently serves as an Area Tech coordinator in the technology division previously served as a mechanical technician with a New Hanover County shift technician at Cory a missile systems technician in the Army he has an AA degree in electronics from D University I would recommend Mr Thaddius Adams move for approval second

015comments questions all those in favor please say I iose is Mr Adams here approv I thought so yes please stand up this is Mr [Applause] th second recommendation assistant principal at Gregory recommendation is Dr Rick hman currently Dr hesman is a principal at East Al Mar and ESL teacher at Stanley Community College previously served as a principal at Locust Elementary Adjunct professor at UNCC Charlotte principal at Stanley Academy and AP at conquer he was also the athletic director coach teacher at South Stanley High School his contract will begin on August 11th and be in effect until June 30 he has a ba in Communications journalism from Atlantic Christian and Wilson uh a bachelor's degree in physical Ed from Campbell in buise Creek a master's degree in physical Ed from A&T a master's degree in school

016curriculum supervision from UNCC Charlotte and his doctoral education leadership is from Windgate University I recommend Dr Rick hesman for as assistant principal move for approval second comments questions all those in favor please say I I opposed it's approved all right Mr hesman here all right second recommendation is also assistant principle at uh Gregory is Miss Stephanie Smith currently serving as the instructional coach at Gregory previously served at Forest tals as the instructional coach and partially as a teacher in Reading interventionist she has also served as an elementary title one teacher and math teacher in Spokan and Spokane Washington and a title one teacher in Texas her contract will begin 111 2016 be in effect until June 30th 2018 she has a ba a degree in elementary Ed from Eastern Washington a master's degree in instructional

017design and Technology from New York and administrative licensed executive leadership studies from Gardener web move for approval second comments questions all those in favor please say I I is Miss Smith here I thought so you got somebody with you don't you congratulations that concludes your administrative recommendations thank you next item on the agenda item seven headst start uh Mr Higgins your name a b c d e and f you just want to go let me know when you get through with one and I'll call B and let me know when you're through and we'll call C but uh the Head Start uh report uh from our liazon uh Mr Edward Higgins okay uh to begin with uh I did check I do not have a liaison report uh that's number a uh tonight because we're

018not in school so uh there is however I can report we have 260 students enrolled and we have the required 26 special AE kids enrolled already so we're uh we've met that requirement um monthly expenditure report um I don't you have it up there I assume y'all have also have a copy of it uh as you can see uh clearly getting ready for the uh school year year is expensive uh they have spent already spent $151,000 uh having covered 1300 which is 10% of their budget uh they have not had to do any health support services yet they have been working on Parental involvement uh prek ready uh Readiness and remedial supplies transportation services uh and the indirect cost uh so the total that they have uh spent to date is about $28,000 they have

0191.9 million of their budget still remaining which is a sizable uh portion of it other than the indirect cost uh you can see it's been it's around 13 to 10 to 13% uh well prek Readiness was 20% um then there's the uh uh developmental cost which at this point in time they have incurred nothing in in that so um that is the uh report on the expenditures anybody have any questions on that uh I do have Miss small here Small Smiles here if anybody has a specific question that I cannot answer now with respect to the program information report uh this is a report that is put together for the uh uh area four uh which we are that's where we are out of Atlanta uh it has some general information uh as you can

020see um 260 students or is what we are authorized to have uh if you go to page two we have 147 three year olds and 146 4 year olds uh 240 of them are below below 100% of the federal poverty line uh 26 on public assistance nine are uh status as foster children nine is uh status as homeless and nine are over the income limits um 40 of the students we note are in the second year of the Headstart program uh 31 students left the program uh um and I think I would just have to ask if anybody has a specific question as to why they left uh there's nothing noted here if anybody has a specific question on that that would be interesting because did they leave it because we didn't meet their needs

021or did they transfer count know do you know why they left why why there it notes Here the total number of preschool students who left the program anytime after classes or home visits began and did not reenroll 31 do you have any knowledge about in general why they didn't come back would note that 133 of the uh students are headed to kindergarten EXC um on page four is a breakdown of the uh the enrollment Hispanic or Latino non-hispanic or Latino um you can see that uh what that breakdown is uh 234 their primary language is English 53 primary language is Spanish in the household um one is listed uh see one excuse me five listed as Middle Eastern or Southeast South Asian language which I'm told is probably Cambodian and um then African language is

022one we're providing transportation for children uh and there are four buses um I I find also if you go on to page six now um total number of Staff members regardless of funding source Head Start staff 61 of these the number who currently are former head start or early child Head Start parents four um of these number who left last year five who were replaced five uh there's 190 volunteers um and 32 of those are current current or former head start or Early Head Start uh parents we do not actually have Early Head Start we have just head start this is a this form is one that's required by the federal government so it has some stuff on it that that we don't have to deal with um on average number of hours you can

023see 40 hours a week total number of preschool uh number of preschool child development staff by position uh 15 classroom teachers 15 assistance um if we get over to the next page which is Page what page seven um and I I was you know going through this I was surprised uh we have five of our classroom teachers that have advanced degrees and one of our teacher assistants has an advanced degree we have 10 classroom teachers who have have Balo degrees two of the teacher assistants have Balo degrees and um three of the teacher assistants have uh Early Childhood degrees probably from the community college I'm going guess um let's see let me go on over to most everything else is here yes yes sir my my question is uh you you mentioned 190 volunteers are

024you uh Miss Smiles are you still looking for more volunteers if people wanted to volunteer okay thank you uh if you go to page 11 you will say that we have three uh members of our uh faculty who are listed as being proficient in Spanish and that's the only language that other than English that we have people who are proficient and uh we lost two people uh one changed job fields and the other retired so that's explains the two that we lost um I I would just uh and I don't know how detailed you want me to report on this information but uh um number of children uh number of children who have Medicaid uh 200 uh 84 current at the end of the year we had 291 number of enrolled in state only funded

025Insurance 262 number With Private health insurance 29 number of children with no insurance too uh number of children with an ongoing source of continuous accessible Health Care uh number of children at the end of the enrollment year when you added everything up was 293 although we're limited to 260 kids at any one time so that's the accumulative of the of the ones we've lost plus the ones we have I'm sorry go ahead the two children that have no health insurance how do we accommodate their needs why why are they not covered in one of those categories but they would get assist they could have assistance if if there were a need okay thank you okay uh the other thing is all 260 of the students currently enrolled our list as being current on their appropriate

026preventative and Primary Health Care and U there were what four who have been to the school but are no longer there who did not meet that criteria uh if you go to the next page uh page 16 uh number of children who have been determined by health care professional to be up to date on all immunizations appropriate for their age uh 252 uh that means that there are eight students who were enrolled who are not were not current on their health their immunizations uh over the course of the total year however uh 293 were up to date so I don't how did you why wouldn't it been 260 if you've if 293 for the whole year 293 has to well there there's number of children at enrollment 2052 most everything else has been 260 and

027then you had 33 who left and that came up to the I assume that came to the 293 right do we not have a requirement that they have to be up to date with their shots we do end of but can't we decline having them as a student if they don't have their shots up to date not for religion I understand not for religion but other than that Mand and what are those excuse me could you go up to the microphone I don't think they're picking you up for the for the they want you to come up here broadcast for TV I don't think that they're picking you up it's thank you but for the mandated requirements yes then they do not meet the enrollment CRI requirements therefore they're terminated and a lot of these

028are um um also indicated on their health physicals which looks a little bit different than the kindergarten physical so they have to have the lead hemoglobin and a few other indicators because they're three and four years old versus kindergarten so but we do have a few that do decline on some of those tests um and if they decline for any reason other than religion what happens we send them a warning letter and and and they get 30 days before they get terminated from the program because the whole idea is for health purposes is to have them ready for kindergarten and get those intervention services so that they're medically and health ready for those and do we um how do we ensure that I don't know how to I know we need to be sensitive about

029people's religious preference and and their practice of their religion but how do you determine that yes in fact it truly is because of their religion that they're not getting the shots or or can you we we do very basic because of confidentiality reasons very basic but there's been some discussion with that at a different level at a national level National level yeah so yeah thank you uh with respect back to the uh family and you might want to just stay you might want you might want to just stay there because there may be some other questions uh with respect to the families uh 274 families 79 of these are two parent families 195 of single parent families of the 79 two parent families uh 75 live with parents one lives with a grandparent three are

030in in a foster system system of the single uh parents 177 are the mother Seven's the father three grandparents uh two live with relatives of the grandparents and six are in foster care um as far as employment uh 20% of the parents are employed 50 uh 20 excuse me 20 of the parents um are employed both parents are employed in 55 families one parent or Guardians employed um and in four neither are working uh of the single family parents U 115 the parent or Guardian is employed 80 is not working number of families of All Families uh at least one parent are Guardian member of the United States military that's four um so I mean you know I I I can continue to go through this page by page if you would like I mean

031basically we are serving a very diverse group of people um both uh people of Hispanic uh African-Americans whites uh people from the Caribbean Native Americans uh alaskans so it's a it's a case where uh we are providing a very valuable service to the children of new han County on this and this is a mandated annual report that you must share with your governing body right right work here so rather than just sit here and read it to you sharing information uh Bruce has a question oh I'm sorry excuse me I didn't hear uh Miss Smiles um what Mr hickin what I'm getting from what Mr Higgins is saying is uh there's a lot of detail into the demographics behind this program and I think in a prior meeting uh you showed there had been growth

032and success uh what what are your what's your perspective on Head Start um I mean the it's a three and four year olds and it's a program that serves a lot of children that wouldn't be served otherwise what is your anything you want to add to that I just think it's just critical to understand that we work with the whole child um in the social emotional pieces preparing them for kindergarten Readiness and we're mandated to do the family pieces in the critical mental health and behavior and Health Services so that when they do go to kindergarten they have their immunizations they're ready to go we're we're the first people um the first school early school to touch these little ones and it's just critical that we get them healthy before they start kindergarten they go

033through their Dental mobile not only screenings but Dental exams so it it's just so it's such a more than um we're going to get to the academics they're a large piece of what we do but we we we got to get these families that are of high needs the the well rounded Services before they're ready for kindergarten and that's critical for our area that we're serving do you have a a breakdown of the the 190 volunteers that you have what's the breakdown of the the parents versus community members we don't but I would like to add that piece to possibly our monthly report that we report on with the Lea on I think that that would be an asset yeah I think that would be good information to have because that's something that you know

034we keep talking about is getting that par parental involvement I think that would be I think that's a great idea thank you do you uh do any followup with these students once they get into kindergarten to see if what the Head Start program has done to to prepare them and how they um equate to the other children we we are working on a process for that we're entering our third year but um we will be doing that okay I'm very excited to see that I'm sure with the physical needs and those 40 students that returned to Johnson we have to keep in mind that countywide we have other programs so a lot of those students are filtered into their district schools such as Freeman such as um uh C in their Bellamy districts um and

035so a lot of the three-year-olds that didn't return back to Johnson went throughout our four-year-old program so that's very good news do we have a comparison of the success of Head Start versus the success of our regular preschools not yet ma'am when do we anticipate doing that I mean if we're going into our third year um we we were wanting to get on a four-year plan and start that process after implementing um our uh 3 to three and a half years of our conscious discipline and also our creative curriculum and and to go um once we have our teachers equipped with that and and have a little bit of longevity behind us with some PD professional development with that so that we can have some authentic data how do we anticipate measuring the success of

036One Versus the success of another um we're going to have to start those conversations by mid January lots of ideas is but nothing concrete I think so any suggestions is always welcomed M Governor I think it's important to keep in mind this is just the second year um there were some students who came out last year but they only went through one year of the program this is just the first time that three and four year- old students are now going into kindergarten so I would well four year olds are going into kind but you have we have had them for three year as a three-year-old and as a four-year-old many of them so they're now going into kindergarten um much the same as the North Carolina pre students which have we have had that

037program for years at Mary was was the leader in that so absolutely um you know I I it it's going to be a case of number one identifying which we we'll be able to do who are The Head Start students who are the students who came to the North Carolina prek and who are the students who are either coming without any prek or without or coming from one of the private uh centers and be able to say all right you know how are these students doing how are these students doing compared to this student compared to those students and I think we are just now reaching the point where we will have any uh cohort from Headstart that we would be able to compare to any other group such as North Carolina prek or Smart

038Start or any of those programs so well we've had our preschool for going on 20 years well yeah but not Head Start no so that's what I'm saying it wasn't well there was Head Start but it wasn't under but that's that's what I that that's that's kind of the message I'm I'm communicating that the Head Start program now is in is beginning its third year which means it has now graduated to kindergarten students who have been at Head Start more than a single year some students not all of them some of them may have came in as as as foury old but there are at least some who have come in as as three and now then went to four and now in kindergarten much the same as as North Carolina pre has operated so

039that now we've got a cohort of those students that we can then compare to the cohort of North Carolina pre students compare that to the cohort of students who come from private uh Early Childhood centers and compare that to students who have not been in any Early Childhood Center now you know it'll it it'll be interesting because it is this is still a growing process for us I mean as you said North Carolina pre has been here for since still old well well a good while for a good while so it's it's established and it has has curriculums and processes and all and has a a uh category of teachers who have taught over and over and know what works and what doesn't necessarily work there might be there's going to be a little bit

040of lining so I I would I would caution I I I believe that our Head Start students will do well but they may not quite do as well as May I'm saying may not do quite as well as North Carolina prek because we're still having to get experience in doing it well it's going to be difficult to compare uh say private preschools versus Head Start or North Carolina preschool because uh it may be it most likely is a completely different socioeconomic level well but nevertheless we have found that when we started doing prek as North Carolina prek this when they got to the third grade our students were performing I think we had like 95% of those students were being being proficient whereas it was nowhere near that for those who did not have the

041prek and those who were coming from other programs no matter what the socio economic system was so I I'm not saying we're going to have 95% of these but you know again we're talking about are they prepared to go into kindergarten and then kindergarten first grade second grade and by the time they get to third grade they have the foundations to be successful both in reading math and everything else that we T Test in the third grade so uh we feel like that we are giving them that Foundation that they were not getting beforeand is that fair sat my and I think that my question and I I was kind of emailing you two about the conscious discipline program and is there something embedded in that program to be ble to determine about behaviorally are

042we making a difference um and can that be added to because that's an important aspect of it not just looking at the academic component but the behavioral component are they able to are we are we making a difference I mean I'm looking at those mental health numbers you know 50 some kids who are needing Mental Health Services that's an astonishing number to me at this age and and we're on your ter year two with that and that that will be um measured through our social and emotional um at um component learning area so that um we take those factors into consideration and once we have the coaching after one year I think um we're going to be seeing some numbers looking a little bit different with that but it will be measurable not as capable

043of like learning letters and and of course doing your language and early literacy but we're going to have absolutely yes okay it's very important so that may be something that we can actually that we can highlight the number of next outes when we do outcomes at the end of the year um we can highlight those to see where we're at right so less less about concrete ABCs and one two 3s but more about interventions right okay let's get them ready for that how long how long did U Head Start operate before new han County schools took it over do you recall in new han County I don't have a years many years many many years it it was probably decades would be a good way to describe it yeah we tried we we would have

044been trying to take it over for Shez Don how long a long there were quite a few requests coming from parents and from others requesting and what we were seeing on the testing right because we now have a curriculum that flows in to kindergarten so um there is a connection and we haveif teachers where they were I mean it's not they were doing I guess the best they could but fact was that they but we do remind people that this was a process that we had to go through and it was not just we would like to take over the Head Start program we had to be uh approved so it was a long process we have to be reapproved and we have to be reapproved yes so we have to you're making a huge

045difference yes but so far we're getting good recommendations and good good reports back from Atlanta and that's who we have to keep happy we're on the a list uh all right uh the next thing and when Tabitha called me she said this was almost my meeting um the the next thing is the uh Head Start information uh report uh contains the U no excuse me the written plan I guess is what this is the uh written plan um and you can see I mean it is it is detailed it talks about parent committees the policy committee Head Start start planning and operations uh Communications uh recordkeeping Communications with families monitor in uh and this is shared every year and this is your blueprint at Johnson um prek Center um in alignment with your head start

046performance St standards that are mandated and that's why you're seeing um subtopics such as monitoring and recordkeeping because it's uh taking your head start performance standards and um defining locally how you're going to roll out those services at Johnson mandated to share with governing board only um so I mean I don't know how again how much detail uh proposed prep uh preparation and refunding other funding submissions uh facilities and materials Head Start start equipment toys it's interesting when I went to the state Head Start meeting uh with shanon um when we go back in March March okay geez seem seems like it was a year ago but anyway uh one of the things they were talking about in doing the budget was the fact that taking an inventory you know don't just ask for stuff

047because you asked for it last year I mean if you asked for you know uh $6,000 for uh new play equipment or educational equipment how much of that do you still have and so one of the things they were emphasizing was the fact that you spend some time looking at what you have what you can reuse and not so much that you would cut your budget request but you may be able to put your budget request in other places if you don't have to be buying things so I mean it is there is for the U uh administrators and and others there is an attempt to make this a uh cost efficient not simply gez let's see how much we can spend but uh a cost efficient operation um facilities and materials and Equipment plan

048uh again how that should be uh addressed uh uh program will provide fysical environment and Facilities conducive to learning and reflective of the different stages of development of each child uh if you've been over there you saw they have the county has provided an environmental Learning Gardens where they can grow things um and it's it's it's interesting to watch the kids when they go out to to play I I was over there and they were all running around and you know some had orange vest on some had red vest on and some had green vest on I said what with the vest that's how they keep up with their kids you know when it K comes time to if you if you see a a kid with a red vest and he's gone around the

049corner we know which teacher the teacher knows who they need to be looking for likewise when it comes time to get the kids in uh they they line them up and they know which kids are supposed to come to be with them so I I I I thought that was a I think somebody had seen that somewhere else and that's where it got adopted from but uh I me you know it's it's it's really a a u an attempt to provide a quality environment for all these kids as I've said before but uh safety education and first 30 days school teacher will provide lessons for the children on safety education they have in every classroom you know where you go if there's a fire how you get out they make sure that they they wash

050their hands on a regular basis uh all kinds of things such as that but all that is laid out in these documents as to so that somebody can't say gee I didn't know I was supposed to do that well I mean they are supposed to have got read through these documents and be familiar with them you know how they they handle the food uh one of the things I did raise a question I don't know whether they ever did or not I was over there and they bring the food to the classroom and one of the questions being I raised was well you know when they go to uh most of the uh uh kindergarten and elementary school they're actually going to go to a cafeteria you know when are you going to teach these

051kids how to go into a cafeteria sit down and eat now the discussion was that that was in like April wise over that they were going to try to do that the last month to kind of teach them to do that um I don't know whether y'all ever did or not I hadn't been back to see did they I think they transitioned the fouryear olds to get well there four are the ones that you'd be most interested in and we'll look out uh what true School Readiness skills are we'll look at that so anyway um they they do try to get them ready to go to kindergarten yes absolutely so um and then they also discuss how they recruit the kids uh you know how how they are some standards about who getting in I

052mean it's not just it's not strictly first come first serve uh as I said there were some kids who uh whose parents did make over the uh the uh poverty level income a few and those were IEP students okay so um in any event um the community report let's see where's the community report I flip through too many pages oh uh the community report is uh appendix e and uh it is basically data on um the the funding how many kids they have how much they've spent on transportation and indirect call uh parental involvement workshops offered at and site meetings are as needed uh family resource specialist and parent goal planning policy makers for policy Council parents workshops uh and what they do to do to help Implement that using State and National head conferences

053um Stress Management managing challenge behavior in the classroom classroom appropriate uh practices and Leadership Le childhood um and again the goal is to get children ready to go to kindergarten and this is the snapshot of the previous data that's required um all of these pieces will be on Johnson pre Center's website once we share them with policy counsil on Thursday night and then the last thing is quarterly non-federal share report uh payroll 73,000 uh utilities 7,000 uh non-federal share per Grant 481 th000 uh we have 260 kids 10 in North Carolina prek for a total of 270 students total in the uh in the system um so Mr chairman that is my report thank you m thank you Mr Higgins any other questions for Mr Higgins no I truly appreciate having these reports and having

054them in um on the website as well as the effort that Mr Higgins puts forth to keep us informed because we are truly accountable yeah I agree thank you next item on the agenda item eight uh under information item a national school boards Association conference report Mr Higgins well I know we've been trying to do this for several months well as you can see the the uh the conference was April 9th through the 11th so uh uh yes and i' always I like to come back and I two things I like to report to you but I also know that there's always this kind of you know sense and I want to make sure the Press knows this sense that uh a lot that that elected officials go to these events and don't really go

055to the event they just use as an opportunity to go someplace well I want to make sure everybody knows that when I go I go to go to the event and that's the reason I I I like to uh bring these reports back to the uh to you to let you know that you know what I have gathered out of it but at the same time I would like to encourage other members of the board to attend these things I mean I I enjoy going and meeting with people from all across the country hearing stories hearing things and I think they it really helps because there may only be one real glimmer of facts that you get out of but that may be the one wonderful thing that you that you get and uh so

056you know I just I I want to encourage I mean the last the last slide and I'm Excuse me jumping ahead the last slide shows that there the uh next year's conference conference is in Denver Colorado uh on March the um what is it March 25th through 27th uh I will say up front I will not be attending um but uh I do hope that at least one member of this board does choose to attend if not a couple because I will also tell you that although you you don't pay for it this Board gets double dipping when I go because many of these uh sessions were attended by my wife to pick up the uh material and to make notes and all I don't charge you for it I pay for her to go

057and every Everything pay her pain plane fair and all that and pay her enrollment to be able to get into the uh the event have to pay extra uh but um she does go to some of these things until she gets sometimes until she gets bored uh but anyway uh she does but anyway uh what I want to give you a quick report on this was a title of the sessions looking in the mirror board self- evaluation Innovative learning designed for college career and Readiness that's one of the things I did try to to um uh concentrate on because I knew we were moving towards the uh uh Career and Technical education uh grades a b are incomplete every student succeeds Act the Essa transforming School climate for gay lesbian bisexual and transgender students a

058blueprint for educational leaders um I will say that I got into that one by mistake but it turned out to be rather interesting uh Career Education understanding poverty Early Learning Community Partnerships youth in school governance then the exhibition Hall a couple of statements about that and the General Session speakers uh and looking through the mirror one of the things to emphasize is that this is not an evaluation of board members but the board as an entity looking at itself um to identify its strengths and weaknesses after SE self- evaluation what is the board going to do to improve um how a board functions can correlate to student performance chaotic boards often or boards with low tenure board should be engaged in professional development to improve performance that's that's kind of what I'm was just talking

059about I mean the suggestion that that board members attend things such as the National School Board Association uh board re sheet should include activities designed for team building and the question came up about you know who's doing this and this they said this was actually presented by a school district District in I think it was Missouri but they said that they had been in contact with all the states and that the state school board associations were supposed to be working on developing a a um um curriculum or a program to do this kind of evaluation within their state that would be reflective of rules and regulations that the state has so for example they might suggest you know if um if the expectation is that you get 12 hours of uh education credit uh is

060every school board member in that on that on your board doing that type of things so um they were suggesting that that we contact the uh state to find out exactly where they are and if they are in fact helping to develop a uh u a survey um Innovative learning for career and for college career uh this was an interesting one it was a school district in Texas Mr H will probably appreciate this I think uh they had a high school a technical high school and the reason they had a technical high school was they built a high school and didn't have any students to put in it it was setting empty and so they decided GE what are we going to do with this high school so they decided to make it a Technical

061High School and they it's only been open 5 years and they have 1100 students and they are a district that's just slightly smaller than us they had about 24 25,000 students so um five skills needed by the students they were talking about that we need that you need to teach at a technical uh Career Training School collaboration that has become the big thing how to collaborate uh communication interpersonal skills developing problem solving time management and engaging in leadership they group students as units for their High School experience to develop many of these skills I mean they actually kind of almost like our Lum they moved through the whole school as small groups so they uh you you had a a joint interest and they work together uh it's important to provide middle schoolers with understand

062of career choices we've talked about that before work with local employers to develop a shared understanding of educational goals for students uh they they talked about the fact that there are jobs that sound exciting but there's only openings for five or 10 people you know do you want to be a a uh uh a carpenter where there may be 200 openings but you going to be working out outside or do you want to be a uh uh a political consultant that you may or may not be able to get a job as um they also said that you should include some kind of of art or Fine Arts cultural classes as well as foreign languages as part of the program uh and know why you're teaching what is being taught don't just teach it for

063the sake of teaching it it but know what it is supposed to accomplish uh sure this is with respect to grades this is the uh AB or incomplete I the suggestion was that to encourage students not to feel like their failures don't give them FS give them incompletes and give them an opportunity to complete the work if they can't do a and b work then make it an incomplete and let them work to make it into an A or B it was a general thesis of that uh learning is the result of trial and error yet we punish the error I know when I was in grad school they used to talk about thinking outside the box if you're not willing to take risk uh then you're never destined to to improve school activi should

064not be the grade but for the worth of doing exploring a child's curiosity have students explain and defend no work motivate Stu motivating students will continue motivated students will continue to acquire skills and knowledge consider showing to the public examples of students work to demonstrate what they're learning work with parents in the community to explain the goal of Education students should graduate if they can demonstrate competency in core subjects I attended the every student succeeds act Essa uh US Department of Education has been mandated to change from No Child Left Behind state and local districts are responsible for developing a plan under Essa Secretary of Education cannot mandate what states due ESL classes will be under Title One 95% of the testing requirements still remain the term highly qualified teacher is eliminated teacher evaluation under

065the title two is no longer required and additional funding is to be provided for leas with large ESL populations so I mean that was the gist of that they they went through every I forget how many sections there are I think it's Dr Mar do you remember this like 12 or 13 sections but I mean some of them were inconsequential it's like you know Native Americans and stuff like that that for the most part we did not we do not have enough to be impacted by uh But continuing in that uh title Title Five is entitled 21st century schools and uh provides funding for grants for technology and extended day programs uh title four I'm sorry Title Five allows local flexibility in section 512 permits transfer of funds in title one two and three programs

066uh title six deals with Native Americans and their culture while title seven addresses payments and lure property taxes that that's actually was aimed at places like I guess enlo County that uh uh has a large military Basin non- taxable property title 8 provides for an Omnibus man to work with private schools in the district Title 9 requires States develop a plan to address homeless students next thing as I said I I actually was going to the program next door and went in the wrong door so I ended up in the LGBT student um uh presentation and of course this was prior to the uh for circuit def decision in Virginia but they did point out that Law Courts have split on the issue of transgender students uh they gave the uh case of Johnson versus

067University of Pittsburgh over transition rights uh in that case the Lower Court ruled against OCR in what they were trying to implement belief of presenters that this is an issue that is not going away one suggest would leave was to create privacy areas with curtains between the two Sexes o for the Department of Education have consistently ruled against any schools that fails to allow transister students to use facilities to correspond with their gender identity so I don't think there's anything brand new about that I just uh it's it one of the things that the uh the presenter said that in 15 years um it it's probably going to be common place he did bring up North Carolina and hb2 uh I did not say anything um I have a question yes uh under the second

068bullet it says that uh the decision was ruled against OCR right but then under the fourth bullet it says OCR has consistently ruled against any school that fails to allow so is this saying that OCR is going to get you but the courts might let you free basically I mean University of Pittsburgh OCR ruled against the University of Pittsburgh they took it to court and the district court federal district court in that case ruled in favor of the University of Pittsburgh but you know it's like anytime you deal with we've dealt with OCR in the past uh quality education is not number one on their list I realize that um again going back to Career Education should formally begin no later than the eighth grade but should be addressed in the elementary schools this a

069little bit different approach instead of middle schools they were saying you need to go down into the elementary schools and start talking to students about it and parents they pointed out that students are in debt to the tune of $1.3 trillion for education but they can't find a job um well it's like it's like the thing that we we at the um uh CTE meeting meeting that I attended yesterday was talking about that uh expect uh somebody was mentioning that uh uh people were looking I think it was uh Duke was uh Wallin was talking about that the builders are looking for people who can do building and I'm thinking you know and we've got um U tourism is probably if not the greatest Revenue source is probably at least second and in talking about

070you know where to start the pro the our Career Technical program both those programs are on the downtown campus of Kfar Community College so I mean having a having a building at the north campus would not necessarily served those Pro those programs very well but anyway uh students are in debt to the stent of $1.3 trillion important to actively counsel students on the realities of educational opportunity job opportunities including costs internships job demands and most importantly job availability CE teachers must be committed to help students by in information seeking business part partners and interns and what they were saying was quite often the CTE teachers are the ones who know the industry and they're the ones who know who you talk to who who do you reach out to and so while we would have

071people who might out trying to recruit internships the CTE CTE teachers probably in the best position to be able to do that uh develop in individualized planning sheets with goals and how those goals will be achieved uh incorporate career goals and planning with other courses such as writing math science and art um so it's not uh carved in stone type approach encourage high school students to seek internships in their interest even if voluntary during the summer or other school breaks to see what is required if they like doing the job they did gave an example of a student who thought she wanted to be a nurse until she did an internship and realized that there is actually blood and other things going on when you're being a nurse so uh decided after about a 3-

072week internship or shadowing that was not what she wanted to do understanding poverty uh quality schools begin with leaders who are committed to equity this includes underu this includes understanding the influence of poverty in their students lives poverty for a family of four is below $ 24,23461 000 depending on where one lives that should be one not own lives my typing could do with uh I mean if you live in New York or DC uh it's going to be difficult Educators must separate the effects of poverty on students sense of self from their living conditions uh these are students from low socioeconomic homes not from low not low socioeconomic students uh communicate the belief that students can succeed and that education should be a high priority I think that last bullet is the real key

073of what I got out of this was that you know you got to be positive about it you got to tell the student they can be a success and you got to do everything to make sure they feel like a success uh I think whenever you see some of the uh programs like the Harlem Academy that's really what they they're advocating that education is valuable and you really um encourage that early learning incorporating stem quality Early Learning can help avoid later special education cost and increase graduation rates uh quality prek raises student Readiness from 85 to 95% this was a school system out of Pennsylvania stem jobs expect to increase 17% of the next 5 years encouraging local companies to fund stem camps at the more challenged schools speak to children at early age about

074what they want to do and to encourage them in their education encourage industry to lob legis Lobby legislators for more stem funding you might want to tell the public what stem is oh uh s for uh science uh techy technology uh in a science technology engineering and math mathematics oh mathematics okay I just heard math anyway okay uh Youth and student governance see this is a training of the next generation of board members need to encourage at the state level that for example Maryland has a program that uh is that encourages uh uh students to be involved for every student that is involved there should be five people to help Mentor them to help them understand what the expectations are and and what their their responsibilities are provide tangible supports including a name plate uh

075business cards and for allow them to attend State meetings at the school system's cost be prepared to listen and not judge look for leadership qualities not just the smartest or the member of the student government raise expectations of these students by putting them on committees so that's was suggested how um if you're going to incorporate students into the governance process that's what you ought to do and who do you how do you determine who attends State meetings and gets business cards and well I mean like that you know if depending on how we would set that if we did that how we set it up uh if we had a rep uh a representative I mean like the last time we did we had a representative from each of the high schools and the suggestion

076is that you don't just simply take the president of the student government or the most popular student you take you take just really an ordinary student and how you go about selecting would have to be something we'd have to discuss but as we had them as we used to have them sit you know they would have a name plate like this and have their name on it uh we would give them some business cards um and if there are some uh State training sessions or even uh even like the North Carolina School Board Association meetings or some of the then we would Pro pay for them to be able to go to those just like we do and again the idea being that this helps to velop a cadr of people who understand and appreciate

077what goes into education not just simple what goes on in the classroom but what goes on behind the scenes who can at some point in time uh take our seats and and be prepared and trained to do it uh all right uh next thing is the exhibit hall I just listed a couple of things that I enjoyed talking to people about I'm sorry do you have a question no no oh okay looking at schedule uh couple of things that I talked to the people about propane buses I mean I realize the state buys uh the second time we buy buses and State's not going to buys propane buses but a nice thing about the propane buses is and I would have to defer to uh Mr h on this but uh he was the guy

078was talking about the diesel buses and how much oil they use in the engine and stuff and he said you know they don't really use they use like six quarts in a propane bus as opposed to whatever it takes for a diesel bus how often you have to change it and all so anyway uh talk to the guy with propane buses did talk to the individual with the international back Alo about an elementary school program of international back Alo um talked to uh uh people S A couple of people were there who engage in uh foreign travel we arrange the tours and and everything for students going overseas um I came back I did talk to valita about this uh group that was involved and would help us if we wanted to get into any

079kind of crowdfunding Ventures for the school to help raise money for any programs whether it be the scholarships or anything else I talked to Dr Markley about this the portable planetarium they nice they are um and they're not I mean you know they're rather expensive I guess as a grand scheme of things but uh uh it was nice because I mean they could pull up any day of of the year and you could see where the stars were they could bring a planet in I mean they they had God did one thing and um you would have sworn the planet was going to smack right into you I mean he just started pulling it in and came running in at you like you know uh Mars and uh so I mean it it was it

080was really fascinating and it's portable it's it's uh uh air compressed air raises the thing up and then they've got like a planetarium that just shoots it up on the screen and they can move it around and do all kinds of things and lastly the U uh a group that would arrange for us to get foreign language teachers so lastly mention a couple things about some of the speakers we had three speakers uh Dan Rather Robin Roberts and uh Tony Wagner I did not know who Tony Wagner was until I read the piece on him um very quickly Dan rther said no public work is more essential than service on a local school board that he's a product of public education spoke about the importance of a dedicated teacher spoke about Communications within the community

081and said there are some schools that reach out to parents at Birth with a gift and stay in touch by providing tools for them as the child grows which I thought was a wonderful idea to uh uh in fact actually uh when we were at the state Head Start thing they gave us some there was some paperwork of where your child should be at from age one month to six months from 6 months to one year from one year to two years two years three that you as a parent could kind of evaluate how is your child progressing that I would it caused me to think you know maybe that's something we ought to look at at maybe giving parents at least from New Hanover County at the hospital when they leave that you know

082here's some information and we get a address for them and we you know stay in touch with them either over the Internet or whatever um the fear that stem has diminished the teaching of history and Civics that students are becoming ignorant about government our Constitution and capitalism that's true in general public schools in the United States can match any school in the world so I mean this whole thing about we're 43rd or something according to Dan rathers is just a it's you know you can knit you can select here select here and do but the fact is he says that he would put our schools up against any other schools in the world in general Robin Roberts uh one must put him or herself in a position to be successful and for good things to

083happen uh her story was that she wanted to be a um a uh what was it she wanted to do she wanted to be in the Olympics but she never got in the Olympics but she covered the Olympics so she said in a way she got there after all uh dream big Focus small be able to Define your dreams and don't let fear prevent you you from going out of your comfort zone focus on solutions to a problem not the problem know these child is an individual and help them to see their own potential recruit quality people who want to be Educators see it as a calling not as a job and the last speaker was a gentleman named Tony Wagner from Harvard University and you know I really wish they had put him on

084first because obviously the last speaker nobody ever shows much shows up for I mean you may have 12,000 to hear Dan Rather you probably had 4,000 to hear Tony Wagner but he was probably the most dynamic of the three speakers that they had lined up said that understanding the problem is more important than solution what you know is far less important than how you use that knowledge computers are taking away many mid-level white collar jobs employers want people who can collaborate and solve problem s innovatively it's important to teach students how to engage in problem solving skills four things at harm education awarding individualism versus collaborative teaching uh little Innovation be because leaders are I causes leaders to be isolated favoring specialization most problems cannot be solved by a single discipline the classroom culture a

085culture of educational consumption teacher teaches student absorbs do things to encourage Innovative thinking the fear of failure creates a system of compliance Innovation demands risk failure teaches what does not work so try a new way and lastly as I said I would encourage at least one of you to think about attending the uh nsba conference uh 2017 it'll be in Denver Colorado March 25th through the 27th Mr chairman that concludes my finally concludes my report thank you Mr Higgins any comments questions for invit Mr Higgins is it time to CH okay next and then we'll take a break after uh Item B is the advisory Council for exceptional children uh students the aces report Miss Eep you're on you're all right thank you for um for including this on the agenda this evening um Miss

086cep asked for me to to speak first and give a little bit of an overview of um the collaboration with ases the advisory Council for exceptional students uh first of all I want to thank uh the board I want to thank our Aces members and we have one of our um parent members here as well as Miss G our chairperson um I also want to thank our special education staff for the collaboration they provide um as a part of ases and also uh the new han County Schools administration for the specific support of special education programs um first of all the advisory Council for exceptional students works very closely with our special education department as um being instrumental in bringing us a parent and Community voice uh that's been very important for us to hear

087the concerns of families to hear the concerns of um sometimes concerns of our schools that we don't hear um other than through Community um Avenues and parents as well um and then to also listen to uh some of the concerns of our students as we are um listening to the concerns of families and goals for the future and that and goals for Independence um in addition this gives us an Avenue for discussion and clarification of questions or issues related to our service of students with disabilities um and then we have an opportunity to discuss and articulate the frequently asked questions among our families um many times as we are providing our special education services we assume that many things are understood and are clear from school to school from classroom to classroom um from region

088of um of our district uh to region and it's helpful for us to listen to those and to hear it from the parent perspective hear it from the parent terminology and being able to respond and offer clarification um it's exciting that many of our um family um Representatives or parents on the advisory Council are um involved in other organizations in the community and other support groups and so they're able to carry out that uh common language and it builds that um that common understanding and comp capacity for um understanding our programs uh one of the things that um we've specifically spoken about in the past year and will be a continuing discussion is understanding uh RTI and mtss uh responsiveness to instruction and mtss being the multi-tier system of support um understanding that RTI is

089really our disability determination process and understanding that mtss is really our school Improvement framework for all students that's been a very important uh clarification for our families it's um also very important that we are able to um provide resources and um additional information on how to understand the nuances of both of those um and we could talk for days and days and weeks and weeks and probably months and months about that um that difference the other thing that uh I think is important to highlight about the collaboration between the advisory Council and special education is that the advisory council is very involved in celebrating the achievements of the special education program uh whether it's the individual student level whether it's those um those individuals that make just such a big difference in our schools or

090classrooms or communities um but also in um celebrating the improvements in our data within our special education program and one of those is our continued increase in graduation rate of students with disabilities I can't get too specific on that data um knowing that you know the data has not been completely cleared by the state board yet but um we are expecting continued um increase in those numbers of our students with disabilities and that is the primary uh data source that the federal office of special education programs uses to um gauge effectiveness of special education programs is truly that one um graduation rate so yeah we can't give you the actual number we'll just tell you it's better than last year's which was really good right can't give specifics but um continued growth even over last

091year yes when will that information be out fall the fall September October time frame okay I'd love to share it but I've been told I can't but I'm excited good evening Dr Markle and our all our New Hanover County staff and the members of our school board um and parents and folks that are here visiting here from the community thank you all for this evening for putting us on your agenda I am Don gree and I am the chair of the um advisory Council for exceptional students and I think you have the two-page summary that we submitted relative to our current year that just ended but I do want to go over a couple of the points on that for the benefit of everyone that's here in accordance with our governing document we took on

092three major objectives um this past year the first one being our um diversity of our members on the council we wanted to make sure that we adhere to the onethird um membership being parents of students with disabilities who are served within our school district and we have maintained that and we've gone out of our way to try to attend approximately 30 or more different collaborative meetings within our County and the surrounding counties here in North Carolina networking with other agencies and other representatives to try to bring together as many of the resources that are out there for families with students that have disabilities to come together and have those dialogues to meet the needs um to look at ways to improve things um with this one of the collaborative opportunities um brought us with Kate

093Fair Community College and in the process of that collaboration we were able to have them host one of our parent forums this year and we also acquired two board members um onto our Council which was a pretty good pretty good deal for networking I thought um in addition to some of the other opportunities with networking we also acquired two more parents um to join our Council so we were very pleased with that and with this we were also making sure that all the areas within our County are being represented by the members who are participating on the council to make sure that we are getting those voices um to be able to speak up in addition we hope to continue to add new members who actually um work in the instructional and the support service

094of providing the services to the students and to continue to find people in Industry who would be able to be partners with us um in this process the second thing we wanted to try to stress was making um the awareness in our schools and in our community about Asus um more prevalent and the mission that we have and with that we did again have the parent forums um this year and we try to build on the success um of having that dialogue um by bringing parents back again to share with us their thoughts um to give us um five broad topics and to sit down and have those facilitated discussions we were thrilled to have the participation from our special education and related services department and members there to sit in on the conversations and

095to hear from our families and to have that exchange one of the things that came out of that was that parents wanted to hear more information about the programs that are available um and how they go about getting um the service that they think that their child needs and with that we partnered with the family support network to host quarterly workshops basically where parents could attend to learn a bit more about the process this year we had record attendance um in that session of having the parents come in quarterly to participate and we're hoping to continue that again with the next year um in the um public relations department for new hener County we were fortunate enough to have a video uh session session with um the public relations department and we were hosted in

096a videotaping for the diversity matters program and we've been working also then to ensure that when we have announcements about any workshops or parent forums that we are coordinating that effort to get the word out along that line we are also working um to establish better ties with our Council of ptas not wanting to recreate anything but definitely trying to piggyback on a system that they seem to have worked out with network working with their families where we do have schools that have ptas to be able to get the word out about events and activities that are happening while we know we have about 3,200 kids that are identified and receiving Services excuse me through the special education department we also know that there are many more families out there with kids that are struggling

097that are trying to figure out their way and it would be very important for them to have that information as well at least to be able to start getting some answers or feeling like they can handle it a little bit better our third um objective was to make sure that we do recognize and give recognition to the people who do things very specially for our students with disabilities and their families um the staff and students within our district who do things that are outstanding above and beyond what would be expected we do try to recognize them and so we do host our appreciation te in the spring each year um I think this past year we we realized that our space was a little bit too small so I think we'll have to reschedule that

098to be in a bigger uh location next year but um hopefully we can continue to do that in addition we are going to continue our efforts to Advocate by meeting with as many other community agencies and attending as many programs as we can to share what we're doing here in New Hanover County and looking for ways that we can better meet the needs of the families that are served um one of the one of the I guess the fun things is um is getting involved with some of the other agencies that are out here there is the Tri County collaborative that's going on between Brunswick Pender and New Hanover and many members from New Hanover County schools are participating in that and several people from Asus are also participating in that um in addition we

099are working like I said with the family support network with the quarterly workshops we are also working with the ecac organization um to again reach out to parents to help them through some of the process that they have to navigate we're working with Trillium um Paul's for people and of course I think everybody from Wilmington is is tickled about the the new coffee shop that we have in town at Bose and then its current expansion over uh New Center Drive um it's those kind of opportunities and Partnerships that we're hoping that we can capitalize on and bring more opportunity to our local local Town um Lisa eastep and I are both working um on a parent advisory Council that the state superintendent has started and um that will be meeting quarterly up in r um

100right now I guess the most recent thing that we were doing was looking at the um issues that we have to address with the um Essa and how that's going to be um formulated here in the state so it's it's interesting to learn about more things that are out there um and be able to bring that back to to our hometown um the other thing I wanted to mention is just that with the Council of ptas they were also very kind enough to tell us that um they had used our website information and our links from last year um to be able to push that out to the other PTA so we already know that that works and so hopefully we can build on that um in conclusion here I guess we we need to

101look at what we did learn from this year and with that we did go to three sites we went to Sunset Park Elementary School we went to Murray middle school and Lany high school and in all three of the visits the thing that we came away from learning was that in each case the school administration and the school culture had a significant impact on the service delivery that each school had for their students with disabilities at Sunset Park we learned that they are a first districted year round school so they are building on the benefits that have been seen from having the students have shorter breaks away from the academic setting um to be able to hold them uh with the skill sets they've acquired more easily at Murray Middle School we learned that the

102um Administration there takes into account the schedules for the students with disabilities first and then they populate the schedule with the rest of the students from that Middle School uh ensuring that those students with needs are being met first within within the school setting leany high school we visited um they have the largest population of students with disabilities and we learned there that they also set the schedule accordingly using the um resources that they have to meet the needs of the students with disabilities first with regard to our um new hen County Special Education and related services division we have learned very clearly that regardless of um the service delivery that takes place at the different schools that the department is still responsible for ascertaining that there has been full compliance with the federal and

103state laws this is a tremendous responsibility and it requires that we all adhere to the responsibilities with regard to those laws since it is directly impacting our funding we noted that with the three schools excuse me the three schools that we visited on their continuous Improvement agenda they have on there um for the schools to continue their advocacy efforts both internally and in the district the special education um division as well as Asus has updated their web page and their Facebook page realizing that social media is going to be our our greatest um way to reach our stakeholders we will be um continuing our work with the PT in our district we will continue to reach out to them and as far as recommendations back to the council or back to the school board I'm

104sorry from the council we had suggested before a parent Advocate that we thought it would be a great position to have someone on staff that would be able to help educate parents on the different programming options that are available for their students someone to act like a bridge between the parents and the school staff to provide information and to maintain educational resources and to be able to share the information that is happening in the district such as forums or other educational opportunities um continuing on the on the same thing that that Julie had mentioned we do feel that we've been hearing back a lot from parents that there is a lot of confusion still with the mtss and RTI and understanding what that means so any opportunity to educate the broad population of families to

105understand that mtss applies to everyone and that it isn't until you start moving through the tear that it begins to apply specifically to children who may be struggling also we would like to have if possible for the Asus Council to have more data if possible with regard to the distribution of students who are at the various schools for elementary middle and high school that are students that are at risk and those that are in special education to be able to compare that information to the total populations of those schools to make sure that we are evaluating how our resources are being used and how they are being um deployed to be able to help our students one of the things that we heard back from the parents specifically um that that I know has come

106up as a as a concern is that the alert now system had been used to be able to make um messages out about our activities and with that we understand now that it really is something that's supposed to be used just in emergencies if there is any way to have a workaround that would allow us still to have parents opt in to receive the messages um I think that that would go a long way for us to be able to reach our stakeholders um the alternative is still email and again that though requires everyone to have some kind of computer access to be able to get that okay let's see we are trying to make a work around on that phone piece for the board there's a ruling from the federal government that I think

107he was in one your back it's about the use of alert now it's actually one of the things we're hoping that maybe the educational app will be able to take its place and use that as a as a push out app so it's uh it's going to be a a bit of a headache for for everybody well I appreciate knowing that there there's still the hope that there can be a workaround or something with that or with the app because that's that does seem to be how most parents are able to respond or the caregivers is through the social media thank you uh I just wanted to say U thank you uh to to Don and to Julie uh don is to be commended for the amount of work she's put in this year she

108has um really gone above and beyond in terms of trying to get into the different organizations and groups it's been a real pleasure working with her and uh kind of being dragged along to some of these organizations um not dragged along um invited in I guess I should say um I've I'm involved in a lot of different areas in the school system and I I I feel blessed to be um involved in as many different areas as as I am for those that know me know this is the area that's nearest and dearest to my heart and this is one of our most vulnerable subgroups I can't tell you um how important it is that we look to what these individuals are going to be doing in their future because the future's been very Bleak

109um the unemployment rate for this subgroup is close to 70% so every little gain that we can make makes a huge difference every gain that we can make in preschool in first grade and second grade and so on makes a huge difference the the things that Julie has done to increase the graduation rate it's tremendous um the growth that we've shown it's it's big so the partnership that we're we're we're developing with ases um and the special ed Department it's it's very important and with Kate fear and with UNCW and all these other organizations um we have to continue to grow that one of the the challenges we have and we continue to have is that the service delivery and Don touched on it it does change as you go from school to school um

110we need to have that conversation on how to make it more consistent it's a scary thing for children to go from one school to another and have the way you learn change when you are a specialed student it's hard enough when you are a regular student but when you have special needs it can be downright terrifying and when you're a parent and you are trying to understand the way your child learns it's it's very tough so to have that consistency and to mute some of the site base management that we have I think would be very important for this subgroup um so that is a conversation I would like to continue and that is something that we've brought up uh for the last few years and it's been echoed in our parent forums um and

111it's something that I think we need to continue to talk about to see how we can um continue to um help this subgroup um grow so uh anyway thank you do you have any questions anyone might have any questions um I I think I do I was looking at U some of the literature and there were a number of I think from the parent side concerns about consistency or I don't know who to answer this but is is that u a function of the parents um not being fully educated or a function of we need to do a better job in in some of those areas I think from the standpoint of the parents responding to us and talking with us when they came to the parent forums and so forth it has been that

112they have found that it's been inconsistent if they talk with friends who are from another school what's happening there and how it services are delivered is different and they recognize that I think if you go out and look at any one of the elementary schools and and look at their web pages and so forth what one school has on there as information as resources for parents versus another it's all different it's tailored to what the emphasis is at a given school um some of your schools don't have ptas and so what's going to be out there is going to be very different is information that a subset of families would get from a particular region um so you know it's it's not very hard to see the differences but when you're when you're looking for

113information that you need I think parents are finding that it is inconsistent that's the parent perspective and and I'll add to that uh that's a great question I think um as as Miss greed described you know many parents come in with um with kind of different experiences and they hear about different experiences um we are always able to come closer to consensus and a stronger collaboration the more we educate parents on our services so the contract that we have with Family Support Network work for parents to come in for quarterly training to understand the IEP the individualized education plan for students with disabilities the more they understand each piece and part and the more they understand their role as an advocate for their student many times we come much closer to the collaboration there are

114still some areas of inconsistency and some of that is um created by you know the unique resources every school has or the unique focus and sometimes it's just that student population at that particular school that drives kind of that theme and those resources so it's it's a little bit of both but we um we're finding that we are drilling closer to consensus the more we provide education and awareness and advocacy Asis should be what we're trying to do is help with the education part of the parent education portion in collaboration with some of these other groups support network and then the special Department helping that any other questions comments thank you very much thank you very much for the report and this time we'll take an approximately five minute break approxim