JC Board of Education Meeting - May 9, 2023

001call our meeting to order Miss dance we have all board members present appreciate everybody being here we'll begin first with the invocation from Mike Wooten and the Pledge of Allegiance for Terry Tippett each and every day lift them up or how to spray the whole decisions we make another of your son's name Jesus Christ of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you I've now entertain a motion to go in a closed session and I'm sure I make a motion uh entering close enter close session for the pursuant the general statute 143 318 11a uh one three and six to prevent the disclosure of confidential Personnel files under General statute 115c-321 to consider matters relating to initial

002employment of an individual employee and to consult with the board's attorney in order to preserve the attorney client privilege Okay I accept that as a motion do I have a second by Mr Wooten any discussion all those in favor please indicate by saying aye aye 7-0 thank you foreign call us back into order you're a good looking group we're excited you're here we're honored to have you here we have a few things that we need to do before we get to our recognitions I do want to make sure we're starting early and I want to make sure that the people that we're recognizing the young people are here um are we good with the first one okay just I'm glad we're starting early but I don't want to leave anybody out but before we get

003started we do have a few things that we we need to do first of all I need to move into the approval of the minutes I'll entertain a motion to approve the regular session minutes of April 11 2023. so Move Motion by Mr Johnson do I have a second second second by Mr Wooten all those in favor please indicate by saying aye aye 7-0 also the closed minute meetings that we viewed here in closed session from April 11th 2023 I'll entertain a motion to approve Mr Carroll made the motion do I have a second second by Mr Donovan all those in favor please indicate by saying aye aye 7-0 thank you now quickly for our adjustment to our agenda uh Miss Antoine any adjustments that has been removed and there's just a few I don't

004think they are controversial things just a few things I'd like to talk about so I have a motion do I have a second second by Mr Johnson any discussion uh the issue I have with it it does open us to some controversial issues and I think the last I remember last time we had open discussion it did get out of hand so I I don't know that it really serves any good purpose any other discussion if another discussion I'll call for a vote all those in favor of adding open discussion at the end of our agenda for tonight would you please indicate by raising your hand to all those opposed raise your hand five okay okay Mr Wooten adjustments Mr Tippett Mr Donovan none Mr Carroll none Mr Johnson no okay all right I will

005turn the program over to our special recognitions and I miss miss first let me first share with the members of our families who are here tonight if your child is here to be recognized you please feel free to move around the boardroom this is your boardroom so you are welcome to come stand behind our board take photos move around wherever works for you we're going to call our kiddos up in individual groups so whenever they stand up please also feel free to take their seats so you're not standing around it's wonderful that we have this many kids in the room with us tonight but make yourself at home if you want to get a better picture just come on back around now and we're gonna yeah you can come all them around yeah the families

006gonna take pictures they can't all right and as they get settled we're going to start our meeting off tonight with students who have excelled in Career and Technical education competitions CT CTE director Mr Reno palumbit will introduce you to these outstanding students students when your group name is called please come forward and stand on either side of the podium we'll then ask you to go around and shake hands with our Board of Education and then you'll get a special pin from me which is on behalf of the CTE department when you are finished thank you good evening Dr Bracey Madam chair Andrews Vice chair Tippett members of the board and Mrs Coronado it is my pleasure to bring you this evening some of our outstanding Career and Technical education students and teachers we will be

007starting with students who placed first or second in the state competitive events of their career in technical student organization along with work based learning and industry-aligned curriculum and instruction Career and Technical student organizations are an integral component of high quality CTE programs students practice and refine employability and career skills through application and engagement in real world Hands-On Minds on experiences many of the students we are recognizing this evening have the opportunity to advance to National level competitions we will start with Deca an association for marketing students Joanna Fox from Clayton High School placed first in buying and Merchandising operations and research thank you from Smithfield Selma High School Judy Reese placed second in Human Resources management and shirelle McDaniel Jacqueline Garcia Roja and Joseph Evans placed first in Innovation plan [Applause] next we will recognize

008family and consumer Sciences students who competed in FCCLA from Archer Lodge Middle School Olivia ween and Audrina Higgs placed first in sustainability challenge level one [Applause] from Cleveland High School tegist Seiler placed first in entrepreneurship level 3 Lacey Morris placed second in job interview level two angia escamilla placed second in promote and publicize FCCLA level 3. [Applause] from Clayton High School Hayden McKinney and Madeleine Fontaine placed second in National programs in Action level two Barrett Sullivan placed second in nutrition and wellness level two Alana Vance and Uriah Harris placed second in sustainability challenge level two Alina Hussein placed second in sustainability challenge level three and Megan Anderson placed first in teach and train level three [Applause] thank you from Corinth Holders High School Haley UTech placed first in teach and train level two [Applause] from

009innovation academy Elena Overton placed second in professional presentation level one and Petra Hegel placed second in sustainability challenge level one foreign from South Johnston High School Anna Olive placed second in fashion Construction level two Katie Lee placed second in fashion Construction level three lay LaSalle's placed first in fashion design level 3 and Audrey Dunn placed first in repurposed and redesigned level 3. [Applause] from Swift Creek Middle School Kaylee Goins placed first in entrepreneurship level one and Kinsley Brown and Maddie Woodard placed second in event management level one [Applause] so let's give all of our Deca and FCCLA students [Applause] and we'll need one moment to reset for the next group of students we we appreciate all of you so very much and we're so proud of each and every one of you thank you for

010coming and sharing with us tonight thank you foreign thank you any parents want to take pictures you're welcome to line up behind the board to take pictures or advisors all right you can probably tell at this point who our next group is our agricultural education students who competed and participated in FFA so we'll start from Clayton Middle School and students when when you're I'll when your school is fully complete being called and you'll walk around and shake each of the board members hand and you'll also be receiving a pin from Miss fur okay yeah so if you could raise your hand students when your name is called thank you from Clayton Middle School will Hartman Kaylor Larson Addison wall Schmidt and Natalie Dominguez martinina Martinez placed second in Middle grades exploring biotechnology and Megan Valadez

011Kaylee Pruitt Avery walschmidt and Brianna Pagan Lopez placed second in Middle grades exploring biotechnology quiz Bowl there you go [Applause] thank you from Meadow School Ashland Lee Eli Holmes Aubry Miller Kaylee Young play and Kayla Young placed second in Derry judging Junior [Applause] from South Johnston High School Abigail Pelton Jody Matthews Kaden McLean Lydia Nord and Olivia Nord placed first in farm business management junior team and Adam Miller Charlie Davis Renfro Jackson Durham Brittany badgett Victoria badgett and Sarah Holloman placed second in North Carolina in virathon kimsey Bagley Anna Wells Nolan doack and Yasmine Garcia placed second in FFA quiz bowl and Morgan Simpson was elected by ncffa to represent the state as a national delegate [Applause] but are you aware you'll be fine you'll get all the attention from West Johnston High School Ava

012wood placed second in beef production proficiency award and Francine uh dozen placed second in research poster competition [Applause] oh oh sorry sorry about that so we would now like to bring before you so that was our student competitors we would now like to bring before you several Career and Technical Educators who have been recognized for their hard work and dedication in leading their program and profession Ms Shirley Devon a family and consumer Sciences teacher at Cleveland High School was recognized by FCCLA with a mentor advisor award [Applause] Miss Amanda Fisher currently a career development coordinator but formerly a business teacher at West Johnston High School was recognized as the North Carolina FBLA advisor of the year congratulations next we have three outstanding CTE teachers from Corinth Holders High School Miss Jackie Harrell a technology teacher

013will be honored this summer at the technology student association's National leadership conference as the TSA advisor of the year [Applause] Mr Jared Parks was recognized by the North Carolina agricultural teacher Teachers Association as an outstanding early career teacher with the teachers turned the key award [Applause] our last teacher recognition is agriculture teacher Mr Matthew Barnhill who was selected as our Johnston County Public Schools CTE teacher of the year in their letter of recommend recommendation one of his administrators shared students are challenged by questions that are self-designed or presented by Mr Barnhill and then explore the answers through Hands-On instruction and lab activities students are engaged and responsible for their own learning this approach allows students to formulate their own questions and discover the answers through practical application as Mr Barnhill States more time is focused

014on doing to learn than direct instruction it's beautiful to watch Mr Barnhill will advance to the regional level of the North Carolina Center for the advancement of teachings CTE teacher of the year program please join me in congratulating Mr Matthew Barnhill [Applause] beautiful lastly on behalf of the CTE Central Services team I would like to thank you the Johnston County Board of Education for all you do to support the Career and Technical education program here in Johnston County thank you I'm now going to turn it over to Josh plisko District director of Athletics to recognize student athletes hey Reno just uh yes point of clarity beef production can you talk about that a little bit yes what would you like to know about beef production so the benefit of being a CTE director is I'm

015an expert on CTE funding policy and procedures and instruction but unlike my colleagues in the core side I'm not expected to be an expert in all of the content areas that we support would we have an AG teacher so this is Dane Williford our CTE program specialist who supports Agriculture and trade and industrial education so beef production is a SAE award as a supervised agriculture experience so this is a young person that raises cows probably right here is going to be Angus beef cows and they get an award for you know what they do with her cows feeding more than just taking care of them so yeah thank you guys Mr politisco you're going to talk about some beef too oh I'm going to talk about a little bit of Athletics some baseball some home

016runs and you could get a beef hot dog it might be red I have one of the playoff games tonight but you could get some here tonight uh so uh board thank you for having me here tonight to recognize our athletes a special time of year very busy time of year and some of the athletes that'll be recognized tonight are have been named to the east west All-Star Game to represent across the whole state the Eastern side in their chosen Sports and for the cheerleadings there's been a change the cheerleaders you'll hear tonight the two that are going to represent us are Juniors and very interestingly the hope of that is that they learn leadership skills and do some of those things while in Greensboro to bring it back and be team leaders next year

017so that was really a good thing that the coach association did and we were happy for that without further Ado our first cheerleader Anna piatek if you want to stand up here yeah and um to help us celebrate uh Ann at piatek here tonight her family is here Miss Jenna salz is here as well principal Cleveland High School she's an 11th grader it's her second year as a varsity athlete she's been all region in Allstate before her coaching comments is she's an all-around wonderful student an athlete who excels in everything she does a beautiful flyer an amazing tumbler very proud of all her accomplishments and look forward to see what the future has in store for her and we're very excited to see her come back from learning stuff at Greensboro and sharing that with

018her fellow cheerleaders and she does have Ambitions to be an NC State cheerleader and we're going to support her wholeheartedly in that and best of luck to that Anna thank you [Applause] uh our next cheerleader Brianna Garner could not be here today because Corinth Holders High School is preparing for the final round of the stunt competition uh they made the finals at Green level tomorrow um and Coach Langley they are practicing currently right now but we did want to let Brandon Gardner know that we're very proud of her and miss rounds is here as well to support her as a 11th grader Breeze an incredibly hard worker who continues to improve her skills every day over the last two years she's become a great main base and she has improved her tumbling technique and advanced

019the level of her skill each and every day we look forward to next year her as a senior leading our team at up and corintholders all right let's give her a round of applause uh Jay Sean's not with us today but he'll be representing Cleveland High School football at the East West All-Star Game and he is no stranger he's the second two-time All-State individual at 29 touchdowns over his career at Cleveland High School and that's three years so just about every ball game he scored in every regular season game over the past three years Cleveland did win so he's very proud of that when we talk to him uh and he's a remarkable young man that'll be continuing uh his college and athletic career at Winston-Salem State University and we wish him all the luck

020being a ram up there and we'll definitely support him [Applause] Clayton High School Maddox DG ovani he had to help us celebrate him tonight for the boys East West All-Star team come on up Maddox to help us celebrate him tonight we have principal Hubbard here as well as coach asmussen and Nadia Clayton High School coach is also coaching the East West game as well if we remember from a couple meetings ago so very nice to see two comets up there in Greensboro this year representing um he's a 12th grader four-year Varsity Letterman and three-year starter three-year-old conference selection two-year-old region selection and fall 2022 gnrc defensive player of the year the coach's comments he's a very accomplished Club player even before entering High School Maddox became the anchor of the Comet back line for the

021past three years his ability on the field speaks for itself through all his conference and Regional selections with that being said what I'm most proud of is his maturation as a leader and a young man who would put on the needs of others before himself and he was great to coach his future plans are to attend Leeds mccraig College up in the mountains and continue his soccer and academic career let's give a round of applause for Maddox [Applause] in a way yeah yeah here uh Kayla to go on this side here and then you know he's right there okay and then our um our other boy that could not be here today is in a dual team tennis match representing North Johnson High School in the second round chance Davis he wished he could have

022been here but we're definitely cheering him on as he is at Green Central tonight um he was a 12th grader with 52 goals and 14 assists um coach said he's just an unbelievable young man from up in Kinley and we're really looking forward to seeing him in Greensboro as well that's uh Mr chance Davis [Applause] and our our last two we have for tonight are on the east west girls all um All-State team for girls soccer um from Cleveland High first yanelli Sanchez her parents and family are here tonight as well as Miss Sals to representative from Cleveland she had 49 goals five assists this season and they are still playing they got a game tomorrow and she might crack 50. um so we're going to be cheering for it oh she said this has

023not been updated that was from last week so she's at 52. is that 52. so very good very good uh yes I'm I'm glad she's counting and I want you to email me the final at the end of the year okay um so coach obviously said she's an awesome all-around player who can do it all a strong presence on the field her future plans are to attend Methodist University and play soccer and let's give a round Applause for you Nelly [Applause] and next we have Kaylee Pastrana here her family's here tonight to celebrate her as well as coach and athletic director coach Allison vetral um and principal Miss Jenna Schwartz is here as well she's a 12th grader Kaylee um she's been a four-year letter winner for your captain for your starter four-year-old conference election

024three are all regional selection 20 goals and 11 sis this year to help name her to the east west team um coach coach vetral's comments is Kaylee's knowledge of the game is incredible her work ethic goes above and beyond she is a supporter of her teammates and helps them in every aspect of the game she plays the game with such heart and competitiveness that is hard to match Kaylee represents West Johnson very well and will be truly missed we are looking forward to watching her in action at the East West game she has future plans to attend Shaw University to play soccer and further her academic career I'd also like to say well I was at West Johnson I have the privilege of knowing her family that's here today and everything that through everything Kaylee

025I'm very proud of you and congratulations and always if you need anything let me know let's give her a round of applause [Applause] at this time I'd like to turn it over to miss Caitlin Furr right now we're going to move on to our students who are here for character education if you're here being recognized for character education please come stand on either side of me and then parents if you want to get their photo please feel free to go behind the board you are welcome to do that and I know our first student is not here with us tonight that is Miss Kayla Longmire a 9th grade student from Choice yeah stay right here baby you're fine you can stand too stand right here I got questions for you don't don't let me forget

026okay our first student is Miss Kayla Longmire a ninth grade student at choice plus Academy and she's not here with us she said she loved and respected you all but she has a job interview at this time and she went missing it so let me tell you a little bit about her um Dr Julia Boykin is her principal at choice plus Academy and he extended his well wishes as well we wish her all the best in her job interview Kayla is being recognized for demonstrating responsibility she is a shining example of how to appropriately respond to taking responsibility for your education she remains focused on completing her coursework to keep her on track toward graduation she holds herself accountable by coming to school on time attending all of her classes and working hard daily Kayla

027always responds to her teachers and fellow students in a respectful manner she has a bright future and has proven that any student with a desire to do well in school can achieve great things with the appropriate amount of support next we have Madeline Zavala a sixth grade student at innovation academy where Miss Crystal Gregory is principal Madeline is being recognized for demonstrating dependability while she displays many of the character traits Madeleine is a great representation of what dependability is as a sixth grader she is a quiet leader but it is clear that she has what it takes to shine each day she always shows kindness towards her peers and teachers and all that she does Madeline is always the first one to help a struggling classmate with whatever they need she holds her friends accountable

028for their actions and always encourages them to be their best selves even when content is difficult if her classmates need extra support she is the first one to volunteer her time to help them out she always has a smile on her face and never lets anything bring her down congratulations Madeline [Applause] next is Miss Alicia Anderson a super senior at Johnston County Career Technical and Leadership Academy where Miss Sheila Singleton is principal Alicia is being recognized for demonstrating self-discipline Alicia came to ctla as a shy introverted first-year student who gradually transformed into a beautiful butterfly Alicia never gave up she is an asset to the ctlaic family and an excellent role model for her peers the faculty and staff treasure the moment shared with her and how she brightens any space she enters thanks Alicia

029for bringing the bright being the bright light at ctla she graduates on May 18th and has already accepted a position to join the team at Novo Nordisk she will continue her education at ECU pursuing a degree in industrial technology while working at Nova congratulations Alicia and next is Amanda don't let me pronounce it wrong formosana just like that a senior at Johnston County Early College Academy where Mr Robert Daniels is principal Amanda is being recognized for demonstrating Integrity Mr Daniel said Amanda is a leader in many aspects of the school framework and respected by staff and her peers she works with the same dedication in front and behind the scene in multiple school activities she is known for aiding students in times of need and is always available and advocating fairness for all if one

030speaks of Courage Amanda stands for what is right even if it is not the popular posture taken by others she is full of honesty and she goes out about her daily routine looking for ways to help others congratulations Amanda and next is Tristan Wright a sixth grade student at JCPS Virtual Academy and Mr right I got questions where were you going looking that sharp and where are Jehovah's Witnesses you look you know the expression clean is a two dollar bill that's you right there so you look nice I just had to tell you Tristan is being recognized for demonstrating respect he was nominated for this recognition by his teachers but all of the same sentiments were echoed by his peers this young man has displayed respect in multiple situations this school year he is a

031true leader and a role model for the other students and has maintained consistency with being a dependable and respectful student his dependability integrity and responsibility have really gone above and beyond his classmates hold him in high esteem he respectfully ensures that his peers are treated and treat each other with fairness he displays compassion for the thoughts and feelings of others and it is evident in the positive relationships he has with others congratulations Tristan foreign and next up is the we're continuing with our new celebration which is our PLC of the month these Educators have been named their professional learning community of the month and they've had a special celebration at their school sites already this week the May Elementary PLC of the month is the second grade team at Glendale Kenley Elementary this team has

032had a huge turnover this year and despite being short two teachers they have worked extra hard to make sure everyone is on grade level substitutes included and are as prepared as possible for students they work extremely hard to group students based on need regroup frequently and have all of the data to support your needs despite all of the all of their challenges the students are growing and are so excited for the group activities in m-class testing this PLC is a fantastic example of putting the needs in students first congratulations to this team [Applause] next is the 7th grade math PLC at Selma Middle this POC Works to make sure all lessons are standards based they plan common assessments and discuss how to include engaging activities into each lesson Mr week and Miss McFarland worked all

033work well together as a team sharing ideas and creating resources needed for their lessons additionally this PLC is very intentional in planning lessons and continuously reflects on student data to improve learning congratulations in the high school POC of the month is the math 1 PLC from Corinth Holders High School the nomination stated our math 1 PLC consistently plans each and every day the immediate lunch news extended plcs and engage in Daily conversations to ensure each student is receiving clear and consistent support our math 1 team analyzes data weekly using it to address instruction and meet the needs of all Learners from day one they work to flex students and regroup classes at regular intervals based on students data and needs this team demonstrates shared leadership and is a true team they can they all contribute

034to the success of the team and worked in Grid together let's give these Educators a round of applause [Applause] and next Miss Linda Edmondson is going to bring you our employees of the month good afternoon Madam chair Dr Bracy another board members I am delighted to be here this evening to recognize two of our valuable employees here in Johnston County Public Schools Mr Brian vetrano wanted to be here tonight for this special recognition but he's a little bit under the weather but I am delighted to be here in his absence first I'd like to recognize the classified Employee of the Month Mr Bill hennett Mr hennett so just to let you know I've known Mr hinnett a very long time I worked with him way back when I was principal at Cleveland Elementary School he

035helped with multiple projects up out there at Cleveland and when I found out I was recognizing him tonight I could not have been more proud so the other thing I want to share with you before I even read these little statements about him is that when Mr hinnett found out that he was being recognized tonight he wanted to know could he bring his team to be recognized and he had to be reminded Mr hinnett your team is very valuable but tonight is about you so that just speaks to the type of character that Mr hannett displays so most people know him as Mr Beale but everyone knows him as a dedicated worker Mr Beale has no concept of doing anything halfway he is constantly searching for new approaches to make Johnston County Schools the best

036it can be he takes tremendous satisfaction in not just what he does but also in passing on his expertise to other employees on a daily basis he demonstrates amazing character leadership and heart his commitment to making the schools the best they can be has not wavered at the school level Mr Bill is an amazing employee whose communication and positive attitude allows us to better connect and understand those at Facility Services Bill may be the flooring Foreman but he's so much more to Johnston County Public Schools he's a kind soul and artistic Master a respected mentor and an Adept teacher who is delighting customers subordinates peers and Leadership bill has been moving Johnston County Public Schools from good to Great his entire career congratulations Mr Bill hinnett thank you and then I will travel around at

037the same time next I'd like to recognize are you okay next I have the honor of recognizing our certified Employee of the Month Miss Cindy Pettigrew Miss Cindy Pettigrew is from North Johnston Middle School Sandy Pettigrew is an experienced Dynamic and passionate educator during a 35-year career as an educator she has spent the past 20 years at North Johnston Middle School where she began as an exceptional children's teacher before serving as the media coordinator as media coordinator she collaborates with staff members and students to create a learning environment that is engaging and cuddle of the books team to a first place finish in the district and Regional competition before advancing to the state Battle of the books competition this month she also serves as a teacher in our after-school Jaguar Academy program to assist students

038in Reading as an active member of the school Improvement team for many years she provides positive feedback and seeks to be a problem solver and solution maker she serves in other roles in the school and completes numerous tasks behind the scenes to assist Administration staff and students Cindy Pettigrew is deserving of the recognition of Johnston County Public Schools employee of the month congratulations Miss Cindy Pettigrew foreign and that's the last of our special recognitions for this evening you have in your board packet another very extensive list of events happening in our County between now and our next Board of Education meeting one of a couple things of note we've had some folks ask about it already so they can mark their calendars for our 2023 JCPS retirement celebration that is being planned for June 14th

039in this room from 2 to 5 PM it'll be a floating ceremony so we hope you'll be able to come celebrate with us and then you also have the dates for our graduation schedule we can faintly hear pump and circumstates playing in the distance it's about that time for our students so be sure to mark that on your calendars as well and see if you can make it out to some of those events thanks guys thank you well it's great to celebrate isn't it it's great to celebrate the accomplishments of our young people and our teachers and staff and we're just so grateful to all of them and uh Kristen I mean Caitlin thank you so much for this extensive list that you've given us it really does help to get our calendars out and

040and make sure we're at these events we'll move forward with our meeting again I'd ask for updates from chairman of committees and I'll start with Mr Wooten for finance thank you madam chair we did have a a finance committee meeting April the 27th of this past month and uh finance committee is made up of Mr Donovan and Mr Tippett and I and um Dr Bracey gave us a proposed budget along with the help of Mr Stephen Britt and I'd like to thank all the the Departments of the school system that contributed to Mr Britt and compiled all the information to get this together we got a it's we got a a great budget we got a lot of challenges we've got a lot of priorities built into this budget so tomorrow we'll share the budget

041we've got a special session um is it Thursday or Wednesday it's tomorrow at three at three o'clock is is open meeting it's a public meeting it is here you don't have to come you're welcome to come here but it's live stream so you can pick it up live stream on our website so um if you're available at three o'clock tomorrow you'll see the priorities of the school system and also the challenges of the school system so um thank you madam chair thank you uh Mr Carroll anything from the legal committee no report Mr Tippett the policy committee um there are a couple of things um board members you have something that you have the list on under consent items policies first read second read just as a note on the policy committee meeting scheduled for

042Thursday has been canceled for this week we were looking at a student code of conduct policy and and the goal was to pretty much rewrite the policy however what we will be doing is revising what we have pretty much um we get some input from administrators on what we need to do the board had a working session and met with Dr borkin from over at um choice plus there's some things there that we may we want to incorporate into the policy however we we need to see how that program is going to operate next year if it's going to operate the same or what's going to happen so I'll rewrite of the student code of conduct is not going to happen for the next school year but there will be revision based on input from

043the administrators a couple of things I do want to know for the Public's uh interest excuse me the policies policies again the policies have been on there you see it the new Palace is a taro non-policy and that meets the federal guidelines and things that we have to do to have a separate policy for to address Title IX also there is a new policy on first read now um especially for our our public we're adding proposing a new level of volunteers we have level one volunteers level two volunteers already level two volunteers are able to supervise students we're adding a level three volunteer which will be um it'll be done by references um same background check it would also have to be approved by the board and this is the group that will do overnight

044chaperone things um away trips long-term volunteers um and it's just kind of a different another layer to to try and protect our our students I know there's going to be some folks that are unhappy with that because that's going to affect some of our coaches our band people and all kinds of folks but again we're trying to get another level in there so I I encourage the public to go on and look at that make any comments Dr Pierce will bring those comments to the committee uh board members if you had any comments as well on that but again it's a different level and it's going to be kind of kind of difficult to start start with and uh bringing all those different positions before the board for approval but again that's the thought process

045behind it so make sure you take a look at that as well and then the other thing I will mention is school assignment policy the thing is added to a school assignment policy is that it eliminates uh dual enrollment for charter schools and private schools home school students will still be allowed non-dual enrollment in Johnston County Public Schools but the private and Charters would not be allowed anymore um and make sure you go there's a couple of key things that I want to make sure that our public understands again get your comments in Dr Pierce will bring them um and you can keep up with the first resucking re-police he's on the on the website thank you Mr Tippett uh Mr Carroll anything from the bond committee uh the bond committee is not meeting yet

046but we are beginning to ramp up as uh Facility Services puts uh the next round together and legislative committee Miss Anton we had a legislative breakfast this month and I would like to extend a very warm thank you to miss Dublin Miss dance and facility services for doing an extraordinary job and Dr Bryce too for organizing and helping get that all together it was a very well attended event we had a lot of general assembly legislators there we had the cabinet was there we had local Commissioners that also attended we spoke about unfunded mandates certified staff pay the accountability model Charter funding SRO funding and Esser funding so it was kind of a robust debate there's a lot of input from all sides I thought it was very well done we did not have a

047legislative committee meeting this month and hopefully we can get one scheduled for next month thank you we're going to move forward with our meeting and then we'll come back to public comment at six o'clock okay Dr Bracy thank you very much chair Madam chair I recommend that the board approved consent items numbers 1 through 15. I'll entertain a motion to approve these items motion by Mr Wooten a second by Mr Carroll any discussion I'll come back to you sorry all those in favor indicate by saying aye aye 7-0 sorry Mr Carol I skipped right over you um well that's approved 7-0 Mr Carroll we do have one advisory appointment for West View Elementary School Mr Carroll Madam chairman with the board's approval I recommend the following advisory council members through the Westview Elementary School from

048a three-year term from 23 through 26 and that is Carly Carter and Tina Verdin it's a motion I'll take that as a motion I'll entertain a second second second by Mr Donovan any discussion all those in favor please indicate by saying aye aye 7-0 okay uh Mr um Dr King good evening board members uh CIA department has three items uh tonight one item for Action the other two items will be information items we'll begin with the action item that item is EC curriculum proposal tonight board members I'm excited to have Miss Jennifer McClure our executive executive director for exceptional children's and Miss Roxanna Wells our exceptional children's curriculum specialist and they will come forward and present uh just brief EC curriculum proposal for extended content standards classes evening Dr Bracey woman Andrews and vice chair

049Tippett and board members the first item that we have is the curriculum proposal for extended content standards these are our students that are served primary thoroughly extended content classes and our low-function autism classes I've got Miss Wells here with me she did a lot of leg work with this of putting this proposal together I did something wrong all right so currently we've been using the starfish share of functional academic program it is not a curriculum that we've been using and it is primarily an assessment program a lot of our teachers were having to bring in their own items to help assist with providing this instruction through that program they were partnering with Mundo payday which was an online data system where they could keep their progress monitoring information and address the functional academics through but

050they were not addressing the actual standards so whenever it presented itself that they were part and ways I'm sorry you're doing a great job is there a way we can see this on our iPad okay if you give me give us give her five seconds you're gonna email it to us okay that's fine I'm sorry it's so much easier for us to see it here than especially of those of us who are a little bit older than some of the other people in the world is it possible to send it to miss dance and she uploads it on e-board is great so earlier this year we were notified by Sarah Fitzgerald that Monday payday was no longer going to be part of that program and that they were going to charge us um a rate

051that we decided to go ahead and look at other Alternatives that would better meet the needs of our classes and our teachers and so miss Wills went to work um and so she actually started by surveying our teachers about what they felt about Sarah Fitzgerald very few loved it um it is an assessment program it does keep data it does help when we're looking at kids you know are they still extended content kids or do they need to move to a gender curriculum however a lot of them feel like that they did not like it and it didn't meet their needs um so 95 percent of teachers were having to incorporate additional resources into their classroom to be able to teach the standards and these range everything from boom cards things I bought off of

052Amazon teacher pay teachers some were actually using the the program that we're proposing tonight that they had gone out and purchased on their own but there was a lot of variety in the materials that were being used in these classrooms and so it was not it's not continuous across the district for our classes um so we did some research and a lot of the districts across North Carolina use the United unique learning system which is part of n2y program um and the bundle that we actually looked at consists of um lessons that are aligned to the extended content standards in all areas math Ela science social studies and life skills it is a research-based program that does have an unlocked data management system that actually will help teachers in writing their IEP goals they have

053printable and online lessons that are available for students interactive adaptive lessons and books online games they have Behavior Support weekly current events so that covers part of the social studies standards as well as picture communication cards a lot of our teachers use these communication cards and this will actually help provide the cards that go with the lessons so they are relevant to the lesson um this is all the different areas that they do incorporate and with this program you can do one area or you can do all a combination and so we looked at what we felt like all of our teachers needed which included the curriculum units for all the different areas the weekly current events which is called news to you and then also the L3 skills which is an online resource that

054promotes lifelong learning with age-appropriate games and activities it's not just a constant teach and it's actually interactive things that the students can do during their independent time um we also reached out to the company and asked them could they could share with us other districts within North Carolina that use this program and this is a list of those districts and Schmitz Wells actually visited Wake County and saw it in action as well as some of our teachers that have come from other districts were able to share the program with us as well um they shared two different quotes with us the first one was a one-year bundle and then they actually shared a three-year bundle which is what we're proposing today of 248 104.78 which includes the curriculum the news to you the L3 skills

055cymbal sticks which is the Petra cards and then positivity which is a behavior management program that they offer um positivity it's a comprehensive proactive evidence-based strategies to empower self-regulation of behaviors and so our recommendation today is that we purchased this three-year program including those items for all of our ECS classes in Johnson County Public Schools to be implemented at the beginning of the 23 24 school year this includes training for our teachers includes all of the resources that we would need to put this in all of those classrooms do you have any questions this this isn't a question oh Ms McClure what does the training look like for the teachers um right now we have Londa potentially two different training sessions which are scheduled to be virtual um they do offer face-to-face trainings as well

056this is over the summer um no we would like to do that at the very beginning of the school year during the required work days we would like to do elementary as a group and middle high as a group and these we've proposed them on our calendar for training on days that other teachers would be in training there's a our generated teachers typically are in trainings that don't apply to these teachers as much myself along with another curriculum specialist would continue to they they continue to build support in even after training so then we would continue to communicate with them and if there were needs out in our district and that's what I do I go out and retrain and assist teachers and assess and model lessons can you tell so it sounds like symbol

057sticks the little cards that go with this and maybe news to you might have some paper curriculum or is there other popular paper curriculum or workbooks or anything else that comes along with this it's all it's all um internet internet based cloud-based um it's all printable in color it comes in color and even with the symbol sticks they can develop their own like they can get a take a picture of someone's backpack a student's backpack and like upload that and put the word there and then um you know it could it could be as personalized as you want it to be as the teacher wants it to be or they can print from the library and also there is a um there's a library of books that also comes along with this there there's Hamlet

058there's lots of literary text and it will bring it down it will the reading will come in three levels and so there's a there's a Profile assessment that comes up front and it can bring a text the news to you or a book all the way down to almost nothing but pictures and that and that again is digital right because it's all digital and assessments can be given to students individually online for the lessons and the materials can also be printed and do our teachers or EC teachers have enough resources to print these things and have them in their classrooms available because a lot of these students need that you know tactile tangible things um they would need to be printed so whatever would needed I mean paper and color ink would be a need

059in the classrooms or in the schools do the parents have access to these materials as well such as the books or any of the digital content anything that's assigned to a student in their online account then they can do that outside of the school setting as far as I know this is an action item so I'll entertain a motion a motion okay motion by Mr Donovan do I have a second second second by Mr Tippett any other discussion I'd propose I don't know what the motion is exactly I don't know the motion would be to approve what we have here what the statement is on the it's the purchase of the three-year program right right for 200. yeah um I don't know if we can put a friendly amendment in there that would say that

060we provide printing services for the EC teachers to accommodate the tech being printed out I don't know if there's an extra provision of printing that we can get the teachers because I hate to I hate to pass this and then not have them have the ability to print it out because they're limited on their copies Mr Brew we've got plenty of funds with us or don't we and no teacher should have to worry about that with our current funds but that's standard right with all of our copy machine contracts that you know we they we just pay for the paper right okay so what you're saying is is that they don't just going into the weeds of things this won't come out of their dedicated amount of copies that they have for their classroom is

061that what you're saying Michelle okay and are you guys saying that it won't come out of their allotted amount of copies every month if they need something pretty and provide that any other discussion okay I'll call for the vote all those in favor of approving the purchase of this for three years it's a three year program yes um please indicate by saying I'm 7-0 thank you the next item I have is for information um Adam we hope that we have everything in place to bring this back for a vote very soon um so this is behavioral support for our exceptional children's classrooms um so I've shared with you just some information some things that we've been working on for the past few months gathering information um and basically our fake obligation is the Ida guarantees

062that every child with a disability has the right to a free and public free appropriate public education that is provided at the public expense in Conformity with an IEP special education provided for in four in the IEP specially designed instruction or SCI is at no cost to the parents and to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability Additionally the Federal Register defines SDI as adapting as appropriate to the needs of an eligible child under this part the content methodology or delivery of instruction to address the unique needs of a child that result from the child's disability the faith components that we must include that and are found in the North Carolina policies govern students with disabilities or specially designed instruction as defined in the previous slide using research-based methods and programs to

063the extent practical designed to address the unique needs of the individual child and at no cost to the families a methodology is defined as a set of methods used in the particular area of study or activity a methodology may be included may include a formalized set of evidence-based practices examples of these could be the early start Denver model ABA or applied Behavior Analysis or structured teaching the idea Ida does not require that the IEP identifies specific methodologies that the district will use the U.S Department of Education stated that there is nothing in Ida that requires an IEP to include specific instructional methodologies the decision to of whether to whether to a child needs specific methodology belongs to the AP team if the IEP team finds that a specific instructional methods are necessary for that child

064to receive Faith the IEP should specify the instructional methods in the IEP if search certain instructional methods are needed to deliver Faith the district must provide them on contrary to that is evidence-based practices and everything based practices is what DPR actually recommends so this these are defined as instructional or intervention procedures or set of procedures for which researchers have provided an acceptable level of research that shows that the practice produces positive outcomes for children youth and or adults with ASD or Autism Spectrum Disorder the ncaep concludes that Focus intervention practices that meet certain criteria are considered evidence-based practices and so these include discrete trial training visual supports video modeling reinforcement prompt and functional communication training and so the national Clearinghouse on autism evidence practice or the ncaep the national professional development center on autism inspected

065disorder and the national Autism Center have conducted systemic reviews to determine which practices are effective in improving positive outcomes for students with ASD and so I have included to the North Carolina the public Department of Public Instruction guidance um in your presentation as well that just talks about the role of methodologies and evidence-based practices which where this information come from within this presentation so the difference in these so ABA or apply behavior analysis is just one type of methodology that may be appropriate for a child the goal of ABA is to improve social skills by using interventions that are based on principles of learning theory ABA focuses on how behaviors change or how are affected by the environment as well as the how the learning takes place the term Behavior refers to skills and actions

066needed to talk play and live ABA practitioners can work with school staff and District staff Behavior specialist program Specialists autism Specialists to determine classroom and individual students Strat student strategies to create positive classroom environment conducive to learning also Ada is not autism specific bcba and RBT so we have two different individuals that can work with students to provide this service what's the difference in these an RBT is a paraprofessional who works one-on-one or in small groups with clients and their families dealing with learning Behavior challenges our RBT is required to work under the immediate supervision of a bcba in order to collect data and Carry Out treatment protocols and behavior plans the bcba is actually a board certified Behavior Analysis and it's a professional who studies behavior of children and adults including those with developmental

067disabilities brain injuries and or emotional or social issues and creates plans to improve the change or change problematic Behavior and so how do we implement this in the classroom so teachers with the guidance of RBT or an obese and obese CBA team learn to identify signals that precede the behaviors the purpose of behaviors understand reinforcements and consequences modify the classroom environment to promote appropriate behavior and review and remain open to creating a new plan so teachers use tried and tested Behavior reinforcement strategies about by scientific data designed to promote positive behavior and to sue negative behavior this creates optimal learning environment for the individual student who may be exhibiting problem behaviors in the entire class teachers who learn how to use ABA in the classroom can see real improvements not only in the student Behavior

068but also in the learning outcomes So currently we have we are contracted with behavior consultant Psychological Services out of Greenville and they provide one bcba that normally comes to our campuses about four to five days a month our current contract with them is for 85 thousand dollars by no means are they able to meet all of the needs of our teachers they work with our autism and our Behavior Specialists to hit some of our high needs um we did do a little bit of research we reached out to DPI again about private provider guidance that comes to in our schools and this is just something that they shared with us through their guidance that's also linked in this presentation um so sometimes we do get requests for private ABA therapists to serve their patients during

069the school day and there's many issues that are raised by this practice one of those is being liability issues so injury to the child or the provider or other people within the classroom Equity among private therapists so if we let an ABA in are we going to let a private music therapist in are we going to let other private therapists come into the classroom our facility used policy that Johnson County actually has in place now prohibits visitors within the classroom during the school day to provide services also potential competing behavior intervention plans in the school environment and then background checks that we would be required to provide on the providers also it has the potential to remove students from the JCPS educational program for some part of the day the implication of educational need which

070is an IEP team decision and the school system financial obligation and then so also in the guidance that was provided for a private providers was they provided an example board policy and that board policy says that the use of students time at school by non-school Affiliated organizations to promote implement or execute projects with no relationship to instruction is prohibited diverting student time from instruction other educational activities can be construed as violating his or her right to a least restrictive environment the purpose of the school day for instruction other activities related to the educational program and that's just a sample board policy that they propose um so our recommendation is that this proposal so this proposal is intended to add additional Behavior Support as part of the end District services that Johnson County Public Schools can

071offer to its students we we are proposing to employ a full-time bcba to work with the school staff our Behavior Specialists and our autism Specialists to provide ongoing training for an oversee research base and evidence-based practices in Johnson County Public Schools classrooms including but not limited to Aba related strategies we would also employ five full-time rbts to work directly with teachers and students to assess design model individual and classroom-wide strategies included but not limited to Aba style practices that are consistent across the district these RTS will be available to liaise directly with the private ABA therapist as a way to help families ensure continuity between school and private Services as needed the additional staff would work with our 21 autism classes or 44 extended content standards classes and our 20 serious emotional disability classes across

072the schools excuse me um so effective programming for students with autism spectrum disorder includes um these items so the IEPs are written to address the unique needs of an individual child which may include the use of methodologies and or EBT ebps and are based on data Personnel who instruct and support students with ASD are trained in this disability and are qualified Personnel are knowledgeable regarding content research and education of students with ASD Personnel are trained in and apply an array of research-based methodologies and on ebt's ebps that address the unique needs of the individual student and methodologies and or ebps are implemented with Fidelity the IEP team can articulate the rationale behind the selection and use of methodologies and or EVPs are there any questions you were talking about a policy is that something that

073you're proposing as a policy I'm I'm not proposing the policy I'm just saying that was a sample that they provided for us in their guidance as why we wouldn't allow any private therapist to come in and do Services during the day currently there's no policy against it no we only have a facility use policy at this time this was supposed to address the parents that had concerns about or had requested to have one-on-one they're outside ABA therapists come in and work with their students inside the classroom is that right yes and I don't see where there's any one-on-one provided in this plan so a one-on-one will be a decision of the IEP team so that's not something that we as as a district office or a board can make for every student and could a

074parent put or could the IEP team put into the IEP that they they want even if it's declined if they want a one-on-one ABA therapist brought in they could request that an IEP team could discuss it look at the data supporting it or not supporting and then the IP team would make a decision we have a lot of we have a lot of one-to-one still I don't know what has changed since I was here but we have do we do we still have a lot of Wonder ones throughout the county we do have a lot that are with students for various reasons either medical behavioral and if the school assigned a one-to-one then that's that one-to-one should be trained in Aba what is it our your bcba so the bcba and RBT are people right

075an ABA is a myth and you're like I know that the RB what is rbts are just are the five therapies they they would work with that one-to-one that we might have assigned to that autistic kid who needs ABA and that and that and that um one to one through the county would be offering ABA service if that was Dean if that was Dean by the IEP team yes and it may be that they look at different practices and it's not eight oh no all right I'm just trying to be clear the one the ones that we already use are they where we have yes these people would work with those one-to-ones because we said teachers and and training teachers and staff I'm assuming those those um the one-to-ones that we already have employed in

076the county the ones because because like you said I mean there's lots of times their parents request uh one to one a lot of times it's approved lots of times it's a nine sometimes it's for a half today half day sometimes it's for for more than that and again it depends on the service delivery model that accounting uses um I mean I don't think all counties use self-contained autistic classes anymore there are a lot of counties that do not have autism specific classes so I think that that that that's one of the key things the only thing I would ask you um when you come back um for the bcba um if you could make sure that the board knows um the the specific certifications that person has in different behavioral modalities and and also

077look I've been there denounced that there's a lot of behavior techniques that are not certified because you pull from you pull from about five of them that they work with that student so there's different things and I understand that um uh but but that that would I wouldn't that's that's something that I would like to see when you when you come back with with the The Proposal um and how exactly that that um bcba is gonna I have to get any acronyms here I have that BCA bcba is going to work with our our teachers and and because I'm I guess it's going to be implemented into the behavioral plan I guess we're gonna I guess if you when you do the FBA and the VIP on the student that behavior plans will include those

078behavioral modalities if it's ABA if it's whatever it is that Nations through a behavior goal within the IEP right and then and and for and that will also be available for our students that are inclusion that may need something as well is with this model these people would help train teachers within the school so it actually would be beneficial for the whole classroom Mr McClure the the biggest concern for me is the underground support for the teachers yes it's obvious that we need more help in the classrooms absolutely right now we currently have three Behavior Specialists and three autism Specialists right so hiring five people to cover 21 autism classes 44 extended extender content classes and 20 serious emotional disability five people is not enough um is there plans for an expansion or to get

079more people in yes I would like to look at the first year see how we're going and then determine where our expansion needs to be okay I know in the past when we talked in our work session we were at least going to look at some schools that did allow ABA therapists in the school did we do that we an attorney from pointers hospital and I I work closely with Miss McClure on compliance issues and things like that in special ed and there are let me just say this for the board's information being completely transparent it is not that you can't allow private providers in the classroom that is an option however the the situation is this one you need a policy that tells your administrators that it needs to be a board decision so

080for example hypothetically if an issue came up and you asked me about that right now my advice to you would be you don't have a board policy that allows it given that DPI tells administrators that they encourage against it and given the liability issues that Ms McClure has cited from a legal perspective for the board I would say until the board decides that they want to bear that liability then it's not for I wouldn't tell an administrator to go ahead and start doing that does that make sense so I feel like that's a decision that a board has to make there are some boards that may have made that decision against dpi's guidance or against advice I think what what Miss McClure has structured is trying to to meet both needs she's trying to find

081a way to meet the need that is precipitating that request in a way that is at minimal exposure for the board so that there are employees now we know they're getting we know we're having criminal checks for them we know that we know that they're not marketing for a private company while they're in the classroom trying to serve a child and I'm not saying that they all do that I'm just saying that's a possibility because you're you're bringing in a private company to serve kids you know in the classroom so we can we can control against some of those exposure issues that DPI raised us concerns if we hire people with the tools that we want our people to have instead of bringing it up you know making kids accessible during a school day to

082their private people with the tools does that make sense it does and I think that's what I was getting to is your recommendation is a policy specific for the board my recommendation my my I don't want to give you legal advice at the podium because I don't want to avoid I don't want to somehow damage your attorney-client privilege but I think what what Ms McClure is looking to propose is something that that acknowledges that there are benefits to Aba as one type of Behavioral methodology and that there would be benefit to your District if you had people in the district who had that expertise and those tools but it would be better if they were your employees and not opening the doors to outside private folks coming in that exposes you to these other concerns

083so it's an attempt to try to address the need that's been brought up while also addressing the concerns or the liabilities that are presented by open-end doors to a bunch of private therapists so just coming from a place of understanding sure the only thing prohibiting us from doing it right now is a lack of policy and the hurdles that I think Miss McClure mentioned were a facility use issue and not having any type of oversight over the private employee yes am I correct in saying that yes and you don't have a facilities use policy that prohibits it but you have a community use of facilities which is slightly different wording that makes reference to when the community can use your facilities and then you have one that's visitors and those are your policies that are

084the two policies that are most closely aligned I don't have them in front of me but I think they're 50 20 and 50 30. and if you look at those and in those policies it talks about not opening the doors to private or outside Community folks in a way that can disrupt the the educational process at all and that's a possibility because you don't know how many private providers are going to get in a classroom and you don't know how much of the your educational program that child might have to step away from for ABA therapy purposes so that those things come into play but it is true you could adopt a policy and then if you do if that's the decision of this board then I will write I will do the best I

085can to protect you against those concerns but that is an option and you know I'm going to ask I guess Terry because he would be the most familiar on the board with it is there something to be said when we have like an ABA therapist or any type of therapist I would assume and I could be wrong that the familiarity with a particular therapist is part of what's most beneficial am I incorrect in saying that let's just say John Smith or Jane Doe is my therapist you know I may be able to bring some in with that same certification but John doer and Jane Smith I have that familiarity am I right in assuming that or am I just completely incorrect either way it's it's probably happened it's probably some of some of both I

086mean it's a fair statement um and then it and then you get to the fact is is the and Fairfield to chime in here uh then you get to the point whether is it the is it the behavior modality that's working for the student or is it because he knows that person that's working for the student so I mean that that's all the that's all the things you go through it's it's it's probably some of both uh the question that I would have I mean I don't I don't know this a person I don't think it's a policy issue if if Miss McClure and and Dr King say recommend this then certainly that it's doable but what the point is my point is is the thing that the issue with the I with the IEP

087and then what you just said um if you're being taken away from an IEP uh you can't allow that to to not enable the student to meet the other goals on the IEP and that that's and it may happen it may not happen I'm just saying that that's that's one of the things that concerned me and the thing the thing the concern is the number of I don't I don't know how many students we're talking about you have five thousand wasn't your head I have over 6 000 EC students I mean student students that have requested Aba requested to their IEP team that the school has not motivated me up but I know of about five maybe right and and that's the again it's and and I believe correct again correct me if I'm wrong

088because I haven't been on the front line in a while but don't we still use private uh folk we still contract with private groups for for speech are considered they contract the risk and so they go through the same requirements that our actual employees go through as well okay but but they're still considered a private and we don't I'm getting back to the policy question you brought up because we don't have a pilot you say we don't we don't have policy we don't have a policy for that because we we use that through the I can't more policy number it is the one that we contract third party contract sure so there's there's a distinction to be what Miss McClure is proposing is that you hire people that would be your staff so that removes

089some of the concerns about having somebody you don't have control over coming into the classroom the same would be true with your your contracted so right now you contract for some ABA service with a group out of Greenville and that that group would there they they're treated as employees because you contract with them so as part of your contract with them you can require them to have this kind of um criminal background check you can require them to provide this level of documentation you have control over that when they're your contractor the third group of people that have been asked about in terms of these of specific requests for private providers to come into the classroom this is not our employee not someone we contract with it's my private therapist that I go see at

090night now I want I'm asking the district to provide access to that therapist to work with that student during the day for x amount of time so that's a third group they're not we have zero we don't employ that person they're not an agent of ours for all intents and purposes they're a visitor to that classroom and so we don't have as much control over them right right I mean I understand that and again that was my question because when you mentioned whenever we don't have a policy I mean I know that we I knew that we were Contracting with yes yes outside groups and the thing with the thing that the request has been made for ABA to have your personal private and if I'm in any personal private it could be your personal

091tutor it could be anything anybody that you want to bring in and follow that student around all day I mean I think if you if you have if you allow that then it opens would we be I don't want to say um what do we have to but would we be expected to to do that for other that's one of the group's other things that the DP Pi guidance raises is okay so if I what if I come in and I say well music therapy is very good for my child and I want you to make my child accessible during the day to their private music therapist the question then becomes how does the board distinguish between what therapies it deems worthy of having access to kids during the day versus ones that we that

092we may not so that's just one of the issues DPI raises so correct me if I'm wrong no matter if it's a Aba therapist or music therapy it would have to be part of the IEP correct for it to be okay so for us to provide it it's part of the IEP right so when you're talking can I bring in my therapist you're you're already in a situation where the T the IEP team has met and I don't know that it's always the case because I can't speak to every specific individual child's IEP in your county but presumably if the parent thought that was necessary they could make that request that the IEP meeting as you asked for and the IEP team has decided that that methodology is not necessary for that child to receive

093an appropriate education and and in response to that the parents saying okay well then will you let my person come do it since you guys don't think it's necessary and you're not going to provide it and and um I guess my question is hypothetic hypothetically speaking if you had a private person come in in the IEP team said that this person needs this service this student needs this this service a private person comes in when I probably if a private person fails to show up for a day two days three days so if the IEP team decides that that service is necessary you're not bringing in their private therapist the district would be responsible for that service so if that's what the so if the IEP team decides on it we we are required to

094find somebody to do it but to back up one step to Something Jennifer said earlier that I think is important to point out is that generally speaking you can't all these decisions are made on individual students when you're talking about IEP team decisions so it's impossible to say one thing that covers everybody but generally speaking we decide what the child's needs are and what kind of services they need so we would decide that they needed Behavior Services and they might need that in the form of modeling or whatever we it is it's not impossible but it's unusual that an IEP team would then specify what brand of behavior service was necessary right and so why would a IEP if I if the IEP doesn't say we need this service can we legally bring a person

095can you legally bring a person in to do that not another service so what you would be doing that would be a board decision and that that's really that's the Crux of the issue you're dealing with we have already determined that the service is not necessary for the child to receive an appropriate education through the IEP team the parent is asking us it's really about access to the kid for the parents private person if you know if you take it out of the context of ABA and make it a dentist you know team decides that you don't need dental work and the parent and and somebody says okay you don't think I need it will you during the school day when my child is in your care will you make my child available to my

096private dentist in the classroom that's just that's just an example but we're all there what they're really asking for at that point is whether we are willing to provide access to the student for their private service and and if Okay um with the IEP team meets and this this happens frequently we don't you know that IEP teams a parent won't request something that's denied that parent has the due process to go to DPI and to the federal civil several whatever it is yeah they actually have they have two routes to to test that decision yeah is is there a cause for doing that for the parent now so it depends a parent can do either of them on their own it's frequently the case that a parent would find an attorney to do that because

097the there are two Avenues one would be a state complaint to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction that's a much less formal much easier thing for a parent to do on their own the second would be a due process action that looks much more like a lawsuit and even though they can most parents would hire an attorney to to do that route okay but the DPI route is typically what parents go through that's what I always that was what I always saw when parents didn't because there wasn't a charge for that they could get assistance through DPI office essentially we have the same format to look at it but but it would okay I was just curious if there's a charge for parents uh because there shouldn't be a chair there should not be

098a charge for a parent to question whether their kid is getting Services they need or not you excuse me for clarification when you're talking about the IEP team you've been using the term we make the decision who is on the IEP team who what consists of the IEP team so we'll all know who has input into those decisions so the IP team includes an Lea from schools typically an administrator from the school the special education teacher a regular education teacher the family the parents um the student if they are of age and also any related service Personnel speech ptot any of those so it's important and parents are involved in in the whole process as we go along yes and there is a requirement that we consider information that the parent would bring so if

099a parent arrives at a 9 what the private report says but they are required to consider it in their decision making and we also have on IEP teams somebody who is capable of interpreting educational evaluation results they often they often are the same one person can occupy more than roll one one rule on the team yes sir so just getting back to the recommendation your recommendation is just to go this is just for going to go get an RFQ request for quote and you're planning to bring that back to us in June okay in the agenda work session it was requested by Brian Johnson that you bring forward another County's policy or guidance I know Davidson County was pointed out to me by a parent is using this has used this successfully where they've allowed

100private therapists into the classroom with their student to provide them the one-on-one care that they need to meet their educational goals is facilitating meeting the education goals this isn't as separate and apart this isn't a piano lesson this is not a dental appointment it is using a therapist to meet the education goals we do have counties that have used it for over a year successfully if we have a policy that institutes where are we talking about a level three a new type of guidance for overnights Outsiders to be with children I can imagine a level three would also be sufficient in terms of weeding out any problems of outside providers um the the DPI life I don't know if I said this or not but the DPI has already stated their advice on this so

101a parent going and petitioning the DPI if they're not getting the service that they've asked for doesn't seem very likely to go anywhere it's very expensive to hire an attorney and most parents don't have the funds to do something like that if they can't get their child served this is going to be if we allowed these private services to come in it is at no cost to the district typically it is the um Health provide health insurance that covers that cost so we aren't out on on a limb financially trying to do that the program you brought to us at States 600 000 ask and we're not sure it might be more might be less um but in the work session again Mr Britt said that there is he can he can find financing for

102a year for that so there's no long-term planning to make that sustainable so these kids might have some help for a year that was what said at the work session this money would come from the EC budget this is what was said at the work session when it was brought up do we have long-term funding to care to facilitate this it was said for the first year we do and Mr Britt said we could go back to the Commissioners the following year to try and secure funding for that that is what I heard for this this yeah I recall them saying it was coming out of her funds so I don't know I just asked where it was identified and that was the answer I got right or wrong it just was the answer I

103got so I don't know that there's long-term planning and then there was talk about expanding this program from five to ten uh again at the work session uh again so you're looking at doubling that cost and are we really serving the families that came to us that with this initial request their request was they really want someone one-on-one we have all kinds of vacancies inside our EC programs I had an EC teacher reach out to me talking about they haven't had a dedicated ta that is supposed to be there helping all year they've had Subs filling in we already don't have the staff is this what we need to be focusing on do we need to be focusing on those staff positions problem again with them bringing their person in is what happens if the

104insurance gives out and then they are without that person if we add it to the IEP it is Our obligation by law that we provide that person I thought you said that we can't add it to the IEP I'm getting mixed messages on this and with respect board members I think I'd want to just associate myself with the with the statements of of the attorney our role is to bring you the best recommendation that we can develop based on the law and what we feel like is best practice that's what we've done here we recognize and we respect the fact that at some point in the future maybe even this evening this board might direct us to take a different action right if that were the case and a proper vote were taken we would

105certainly you know work to implement that directive we cannot however in good faith based on the ex based on the information that we've received from our attorneys based on the information that we've received from DPI come to this board and recommend that we Implement a program like what is being used in other counties I we really don't know what the decision making was in those counties but based on all the information we have we don't feel like it's in our in the best interest of this school district and our students and and our staff to make that recommendation tonight in if you make that directive if you take that vote we will certainly move in that direction our job is to bring you what we believe is the best possible uh recommendation and and that's

106what we've done tonight we are certainly glad however to operate as the board directs thank you Dr King Alex I do appreciate you being so candid about that just looking we are in the information gathering stage and the information presentation stage so there's no action going to be taken tonight and we are approaching summer and I would appreciate and humbly request that by July we have the other side of this and what I mean by that is by July that's 60 days you've given us your recommendation or the practices and potential policy that you will believe most beneficial however we do have parents advocating for what they believe is best for their kids so I would like to see the other side of it and what I mean by the other side is a policy

107that would either reflect Davidson County or whatever County I don't want to call a specific County out because I don't know but a county who does allow these private therapists because you are correct also and it's our decision to make so with that being said you know I know I asked for it in the pre-agenda meeting and I know that you know in conversation with chairman Andrews it was obvious that policy was not going to be drafted in seven days but I'm not asking for a policy a specific policy in 60 days but I'd like some framework you know I have no problem with bringing more resources into the district you know whether it be 5 10 15 20 if those resources benefit these kids and I don't think that any parent is going to

108you know wave a red flag not wanting resources for their kids but if there's something specific that parents are asking for and we are going at length and we are going at length I think there's been like 10 slides added since our pre-agenda board meeting then I want to see six I mean Dr King I didn't I about to say I didn't see these in the pre-agenda how many I I counted about six yeah they weren't in the pre-agenda right you didn't share any slides but like I said if you had time to add the slides then I would like for someone to make time to develop the other side of this to give me the I appreciate you I appreciate you nodding your head I do um thank you if I could get the

109other side of this so I can make the decision and the other six I'm sure they're not gonna want to just hear one side of it and see the presentation for one side they want to hear your recommendation whereas again there's a game we want to see both sides of it I don't think anyone would disagree with that and you'll go forward though and get your quotes So that at least in okay yeah and I'll go I'll go as far as um as saying if we do have a county that would welcome us to at least see their program as far as what they would allow I'll take the day off and go check it out I don't mind but I would love to see the other side of it is a program that they

110have I think this is allowing individual people outside therapists yeah to see what it looks like but we kind of get what Kevin's or doc Mr Don is saying he just wants to see it working to see what he thinks so he can make and that's where I'm coming from too I want to see the other side of it I would like to see how it works and then we make the decision yep and I'm happy to do that I wasn't elected to make the decision you all were elected to make the decisions so if you would if you want to see here's what a policy could look like here's what you you could do then we can lay that all out for you I'll provide all the information that you want greatly appreciated thank

111you and I think I think the the key thing is to make sure you because you you really can't you can't compare other counties until you know if they have the same EC Service delivery model that we have because that that's the key Point um that may not offer EC Services the same way we do we're I mean if they allow a private person to go in where is that is it going to regular class is it going to um to electives is it in the self-contained classroom all day I mean it's got to be you and those things I don't know I mean I I have no idea um so I mean I think that's that's you know uh a fair uh I think I'm being fair when I say that that you know

112I don't have a problem with this if we could get that information if I don't if I don't know who switched out the Countess is doing it but if there's another County that allows a private ABA therapist or private therapist period in their easy program then just see what their EC Services Service delivery model is um if if it's because I know a lot of folks are getting away from self-contained classes and and you may have that that person following that kid through the regular day which obviously is going to look a lot different than having a whole bunch of people in a self-contained classroom I mean so you you know just just to get a handle on on what it how they're being used and what their limitations are and and if they're going

113through uh the same training the same things as a staff person just stuff like that we we appreciate you bringing the information it's exciting to me to see that your your um your plan here is to bring people in with a variety of method of of knowledge on how to serve our children because obviously everybody is unique and different and so I appreciate that and we look forward to having you come back in June with that regardless of what regardless of where this conversation goes I mean I like the fact that what you're proposing is something that I think is needed for an easy program I mean I think I think that's you know you need this Behavior therapist and behavior techniques for EC in regard that's totally different than what we're talking about here

114but I I like what you're proposing for our County uh there's you know if it's two separate things there's two separate things but I like what you're proposing so I mean it's just I'm anxious to hear the certifications that that person has more appreciate it thank you so much we're gonna I'm gonna take a pause here for public comment um we're just a um for public comment if everybody's good with that is our crowd right here good you want to take a fight I'll hold you to five minutes it's it's 606. we will come back together good everybody did pretty good coming back except for Mr okay welcome back tonight we have 10 speakers signed up for public comments citizens who have been signed up to address the board during the public comment session will

115be recognized in the order in which they signed up each speaker will have three minutes to present comments to the board however the public comment session will not exceed 60 minutes total except by a majority vote of the board the board suggests that specific Personnel or student matters be addressed to the school principal the Johnson County Public School System official responsible for the program or facility or to the superintendent citizens who address the board shall not use language that has obscene profane threatening contains fighting or inflammatory words or otherwise disrupted to the orderly conduct of our business any person who willfully interrupts disrupts or disturbs an official meeting and who upon being directed to leave the meeting by the presiding officer willfully refuses to leave the meeting may be found guilty of a class II

116misdemeanor pursuant to North Carolina General statute 143-318.17. our first Speaker of tonight is Cara McCarter that's the same last name right close I'm close enough hi and I apologize in advance if anything I'm saying is a little bit redundant because I know that we all just a lot of discussion just took place we welcome your comments um but I wanted to follow up regarding my request and other parents requests to have outside therapists allowed in our classrooms um but I'm grateful that are easy to getting the much needed attention and support that it deserves I'm hoping that you all will still consider allowing outside therapists um I was able to speak with the EC director after the last board meeting when I was here and go over my concerns with her um but I was

117given a lot of the same reasons that were discussed tonight about why we can't implement this and so there's some things I wanted to kind of clear up um we are no way are asking to have ABA therapy take place in their class we're not asking for them to be removed from the class to have their sessions we're not asking to have additional therapies we're strictly asking to have their therapist act their one-to-one guide to use the ABA techniques and apply them to help them Reach their IEP goals um because the fact of the matter is a one to one Aid can help these children but when you have children that are self-harming and bashing their heads on the floor in their wall that in and of itself is a lawsuit and the fact that

118none of these children have gotten severely hurt is a blessing and one-to-ones aren't necessarily trained in that where these ABA therapists can recognize their triggers de-escalate and play offense versus defense with these kids because they're not going to reach their IEP goals if they're not in class if they're not learning because they're self-harming or they're hurting other students um you know so many parents have removed their kids from our Public School Systems because their needs aren't being met my son is currently on a modified schedule where he goes to an ABA Clinic twice a week to help meet his needs and his principal and his teacher are phenomenal helping that but still even after the last time I was here a TA drug him by his feet back into his classroom why he's five why

119is that allowed why why is a TA grabbing my child by his ankles and pulling him into the classroom the principal and the teacher were incredible they rectified the situation immediately and I'm glad that they handled it properly but it still should never have happened this is in addition to other things that have happened to him and many others children it costs us nothing to do this I don't understand why we wouldn't at least consider it on a trial basis or like Mr Johnson said let's get some data from the other districts that are already doing this let's see what can we Implement a trial run in our districts we've got so many other volunteers that are allowed into our schools surely we can Implement a policy that would abide by the privacy of the

120other students while helping those in need with the therapist I mean not every child is going to need this request so we don't have a situation where there's 15 adults and 10 kids in the class that's not realistic and you heard Miss McClure say about five families that she's aware of we can't meet the needs of these five children that would make a life-altering impact for them thank you so much the next speaker is Brittany akeley okay tonight you heard a proposal to add five behavior therapists for the entire County while this is a start this is the bare minimum yes adding this much needed training for the teachers but is also asking them to add another title to their plate this is not an answer to our concerns as parents the reason why we

121are asking for our personal therapist is because they have an established relationship with our children my son's therapist has been with him for months he trusts him he has a close relationship his therapist can see when he's starting to get upset and step in before he starts self-harming they are providing a safe environment for him I told you two months ago that we removed him from the school because he wasn't safe but this therapist has been through training to specialize in safety and knows how to de-escal de-escalate his meltdowns before they happen it was mentioned that allowing his personal therapist would interrupt his learning this therapist isn't there to take him out of the class they're there to be next to him at all times and monitor and work on his behavior comparing this service

122to a music therapist or a dentist is frankly insulting a dentist isn't there to prevent my son from slamming his head on the wall 20 times a day they are there to help him make and make it through an entire school day not a modified three-hour day we've had a one-on-one for my son provided by the school this person didn't have training they didn't have experience with ABA they weren't qualif a qualified individual we're asking this request because we want the best for our children and you should want the same thing thank you so much the next speaker is Bennett Chapman uh hello everyone my name is Ben Chapman I want to thank you for the members of this board as well as the administrative staff for the work you do guiding public education I'm

123the beneficiary of Decades of public education here in North Carolina and I'm truly grateful for you making it possible for educators in Johnson County to do their jobs the reasons I've returned are the same as when I came to in January it is to encourage you to adopt policy 6220 as amended which since it was on the consent agenda passed so I appreciate it thank you um I'm also here to stand up and speak up for lgbtq youth in Johnson County and to encourage you to broadly consider proactive policy protections for transgender and non-binary students since I last spoke here Ohio organized a small event in Smithfield on March 31st for the international transgender day of Celebration a few dozen members of the community gathered and we listened to some speakers talk about their experiences

124as transgender non-binary and gender non-conforming johnstonians we recognize that this celebration was an important at this particular moment when transgender Americans are being framed as a threat to society we wanted to reach out locally and reassure transgender people living in Johnson County that we stand by them we support them and that they are fully realized members of our community these policies that you're considering today represent a good first step but I want to encourage each of you to think about the next steps you will take for me the next steps would be to research of the policy adopted by Orange and Durham County in the last three years I think each of them have that's been referred to as a gender supports policy the detailed policy offers guidance and protections for students and staff in

125the lgbtqia plus community as members of the Board of Education in Johnson County you have a responsibility to represent the interests of all parents and create a welcoming environment for all students while gender diverse people are a minority of the population their concerns should not be ignored and we should not tolerate discrimination bullying and harassment but tolerance is the floor a gender support policy would make these youth feel welcome by intent and through policy thank you for your time and I look forward to working with you thank you the next speaker is Erica Hall hello board members Dr Eric Bracey I'm here as a representative of down home NC we are a working class organization in our chapter and office are located in the heart of Smithfield I come here tonight to thank every teacher

126that works for Johnson County Public Schools as we all know it is teacher appreciation week and each teacher should be uplifted recognized and celebrated further dedication to our school system I would also like to thank Stephen Britt for his thorough budget presentation from April 27th there are so many challenges I want to discuss tonight but I can't address them all in three minutes so Mr Britt sent me a complete Excel spreadsheet displaying the allocation of school supplies this discretionary budget is distributed to the school administration's across Johnson County and is not limited to school supplies so this budget has been used for furniture and Equipment software library books postage travel Printing and binding fees rentals or leases field trip expenses food purchases extended summer employment stipends athletic equipment band equipment and much more so while

127I'm so grateful for this funding and the commitment of each principle to ensure these needs are met In fairness some systemic problems still need to be analyzed as I preface I am not attacking any principal or Administration they all have a lot of responsibility to ensure their support they support their schools as best as possible this is a teacher's message regarding the needs for more funding to replenish classroom supplies so as a teacher of over 20 years in Johnson County Public Schools I've been able to see the needs of our students and teachers I've been fortunate to have parents over the years who are willing and able to provide supplies for our kids ranging from basic items such as paper towels and tissues to classroom supplies such as paper and pencils still even with parent

128donations every year I spend my own money to supplement classroom needs as well not all schools or teachers or students or as fortunate as I've been and many are struggling just to meet basic needs please make changes to give us what we need and help our students be successful so the discretionary budget is practical and it's needed however it's saturated with much more significant purchases so all teachers should be able to have an allotment of money each year instead of the responsibility of funds being shrouded by larger expenses in the budget so under resource schools and the unstated expectation that educators will spend their own money on supplies and equipment will and has driven them away from their profession so we have met with our County Commissioners Butch Lauder Patrick Harris and Tony Braswell and

129discuss the upcoming budget timeline we want to meet with Lynn and possibly the finance committee of this board to discuss this initiative further and seek a resolution to ensure that teachers are financially supported each year regarding basics um and I just wanted to say again thank you to Dr Bracey Mr Britton the finance committee for giving out the information that they did um I would be very grateful if you met with us in the future a little bit like closer than later because the budget is coming up and um thank you for listening to me and thank you our next speaker is Susan Wilson here okay uh Chris next speakers Christina Arena good evening everyone I am also from down home Carolina and I have a son in the Johnson County School District and I

130also have a daughter who graduated two years early from Triple S High School Sama laude so I have been a very active part of the Johnston school district for many years uh I am here today to acknowledge the board's efforts while drawing attention to funding disparities I would like to highlight the issue of certain teachers not being allocated enough funding to cover essential supplies which is a concern that must be addressed from talking with various principals and teachers in the district I have found that the money teachers receive varies depending on school and principal some principals say they are able to give up to a hundred dollars to their teachers but would like to be able to give more due to have due to having to cover other expenses for the school General supplies aren't

131always the top priority teachers from some schools have stated that they've only received fifty dollars for classroom supplies it's clear that teachers and principals desperately need more funding to ensure that their students have access to the resources they need to succeed here are some additional points to consider providing an additional 350 dollars paid directly to our teachers would make a huge difference in the quality of Education that students receive it's important to recognize that our County Teachers spend their own personal funds on classroom supplies and I would like to share some words provided to me by one of our teachers in this County I'm a third grade I'm a third year teacher in Johnson County I love my job and my students I want them to have a safe and welcoming space to learn in

132unfortunately like many other educate Educators I struggle to provide the bare necessities my students need to get through the day I constantly have to beg and rely on donations from parents to keep my classroom stocked with snacks facial tissues pencils and copy paper which can run into hundreds of dollars every year I spend around seven hundred dollars out of pocket every year for parties rewards school supplies and educational materials so my students can get their needs met I ask you today to please consider a 350 budget given to every teacher and that's including the EC teachers in our County to help relieve some of the financial strain that goes along with this job I shouldn't have to choose between filling up my gas tank and snacks for my classroom she says thank you for your

133time teachers should not have to go into debt to provide their students with the necessary learning supplies so we want to make sure with the commendable funding requests that there is a specific line item for essential school supplies so this issue doesn't get overlooked you can help teachers do their best when you provide the supplies for success thank you very much thank you thank you so much the next speaker is Elizabeth Lynn hello everyone my name is Elizabeth Lynn I'm a resident of Clayton North Carolina and I have a young son that will be attending school next year um in Johnston County Public Schools I'm representing down home NC and advocating for our local teachers I completely understand the importance of providing essential supplies for the classrooms and I commend the board for making a

134historical budget request to ensure that our schools are fully funded the proposed budget includes an increase of 1.7 million for discretionary funds and that is a step in the right direction but it is unfortunate that many teachers still have to spend their own money and request donations from parents to ensure that students have access to basic materials it is crucial for our education system to prioritize the needs of our teachers so that they can focus on what's important educating Our Youth and this is why I would like for you to consider within the proposed funding increase a specific line item of nine hundred thousand for discretionary funds to ensure that each teacher receives 350 dollars directly in order to provide essential supplies for the classroom our chapter has been out in the community and has

135been able to collect 400 petitions from local residents who support our teachers getting supplies through the need that they need with this additional line item and I would like to invite all teachers and community members in support of this to our chapters kickoff um that will be at the Smith Collins Park this Thursday from 5 to 8 P.M um you can come out to learn about our organization and find ways that you can um support the community and our local teachers so thank you for your time thank you so much it's five to eight pm at the Smith Collins Park thank you our next speaker is Margie and is it radel radel foreign as a veteran teacher in North Carolina I am desperately concerned about the current teacher shortage teaching after the pandemic has brought

136many challenges including coveted learning loss social emotional issues and the amount of extra paperwork and trainings piled upon teachers including 85 hours added to the school year for K-5 teachers with the letters science of reading training I really think the general assembly is labor trafficking our elementary teachers with us how can you sign into law a mandatory training that requires 85 hours of time to be spent on it without giving teachers time during their working hours to complete it not to mention that the state is not paying teachers to complete this training I am thankful that our school board is compensating teachers a bit for completing each unit but it's not from the state teacher burnout is the highest I've seen in my 20 years in education the pepsic commission's pushing the pathways to Excellence

137plan will be the last straw on the camel's back for many of your current teachers Pathways to Excellence will become Pathways to teacher Exodus having teachers essentially compete with student test scores in order to deserve or earn a higher pay will destroy the professional learning community that our district has worked so hard to cultivate teachers need to work together and collaborate on best practices to enhance student learning several of you have responded to my emails and I appreciate that support and especially you supporting teacher retention and your concerns with the pathways to Excellence plan we need your United voice speaking out for your teachers please ask the general assembly to kiss our salary guide kiss it keep it so simple and adjust the guide to reflect the cost of living increases it's teacher appreciation week

138and I'd like to thank Dr Bracey for treating all Johnston County Teachers a special cake today that was beautiful thank you for that very sweet of you also in honor of teacher appreciation week I urge all stakeholders parents Business Leaders to take a good look at the North Carolina salary guide which is woefully stagnant if you compare the top of the teacher salary guide in 2008 to the top of the teacher salary guide in 2022 it has only increased by 1450 dollars only one hundred and three dollars per year at a snail's pace for over a 14-year span and it's still six thousand dollars below the Two Bills currently introduced federally which would make the minimum teacher salary across our country starting at sixty thousand North Carolina needs to do better I know three amazing

139teachers on my second grade team that are not coming back for the next school year if three out of nine on my team are making this decision already it makes me wonder how many Johnston County teachers will return with me for the next school year make a public statement in favor of higher pay for teachers at the state level if Johnston County can publicly publicly commit to a better pay scale without setting up more Hoops for teachers to jump through I know other counties will follow your lead the time is now thank you and we do appreciate you we do want to uh again say it's it is teacher appreciation week and I know the board we um we so greatly appreciate the work of our staff throughout every day our next speaker is April

140Lee um good evening Dr Bracy chair Andrews Vice chair Tippett and board members I'm here to speak about several things that some folks have already spoken about tonight but it's good to hear it again and again um the first thing I want to speak to you about is the teacher responsibilities Margie touched on this but I've heard this over again over and over again and I remember passionately speaking to you about this last year as well I also remember being very teary sitting in the back of this boardroom as I listened to our administrative staff working in central office talk about all of the different responsibilities that were being passed to teachers including letters training and different trainings for all kinds of programs that were coming at us and already feeling so very very overwhelmed

141as an educator uh and I know that my fellow Educators feel the same way I'm asking our district to consider the workload that we are asking our teachers and of our teachers and our instructional assistants we are asking employees to do a lot on their own time and yes we pay them for many things now but our staff are sacrificing time with their own families their own time to relax and recharge from a very stressful but highly rewarding job I encourage administrators on all levels to treat teachers and instructional assistants and classified staff as professionals and act with empathy and understanding be mindful there are districts paying for master's degrees right next door and they also have significantly higher supplements and when you consider those things with the heavy workloads that we have sometimes pay

142is the deciding fact term um the other thing I want to talk about is that teacher supply money so 1.7 million divided between 46 schools their discretionary funds that go generally into the general fund of each School covering costs like when you're not a title one school Saturday early in evening Academy EOG test prep materials tutors parent night expenses cafeteria classroom Library furniture replacement Library funds to purchase books because that's no longer a line item either athletic equipment there are all kinds of things that that money can be used for and very often it doesn't leave a whole lot left for classroom teachers usually classroom Supply money from school to school it varies of course but runs anywhere from 50 to 100 dollars per teacher and sometimes includes instructional assistance in the elementary school but

143that money also includes the tax that has to be accounted for and the purchases usually have to be made from FSI for most items and that does not go very far we need to designate specific funds for classroom needs so that our teachers and our instructional assistants don't have to continue paying out of pocket for classroom supplies thank you so much for your time thank you our last speaker is William Worley board members and Dr Bracey I'm here today to ask for some support and help for our school I've been a teacher at Early College Academy for 13 years we are a five-year High School of close to 300 students from the first semester of their freshman year our students are taking a mixture of high school classes and college classes we have no physical

144facilities of our own every High School class we teach is in a college classroom in one of the buildings on campus it is definitely fair to say that our ability to work cooperatively with JCC is a key part of us being able to do our jobs and this is where I'm asking for your support and your assistance we have been struggling for several years now in three main areas room keys room requests and scheduling on April 6th just as buses were unloading students around 10 30 a.m We went on a full lockdown as a result of a tip that there was a student with a gun on campus the situation turned out well in this case but it was actually fortunate that we were not yet in our first block classes when that happened because

145many of us do not have the ability to lock our classrooms despite repeated requests Through The JCC key procedure we find it increasingly difficult to get keys for the classrooms our teachers are teaching in as a result we typically cannot lock our rooms in the event of a lockdown this should not be each semester we must request classrooms for the following semester JCC sits aside only four guaranteed classrooms for our use during our 11 to 4 50 PM school day despite the fact that we have 10 classroom teachers at our school getting classrooms for all of our upcoming classes is increasingly difficult and it is not at all unusual to be bumped from a room that you've been teaching in for a few weeks because someone at JCC has decided they need the room more

146we have been using a science lab in the lightly used LC building for over a decade our science teachers have their chemical Closet in that building they share that lab space between the two of them this year JCC has told us that we can no longer have that lab we have been told that we will have to move our chemical closet to another building in addition JCC has told us that our two teachers and the two science teachers from ctla will be expected to share this one lab for the semester this should not be finally we've all experienced the move to an increasing number of online classes during covid JCC strongly moved in that direction meaning our students are increasingly forced to take online college classes our experience is that many of our students do

147not do well with online college classes but it has been difficult and frustrating to try to get JCC to plan for and schedule more face-to-face classes for our students during our school day this should not be and this is where I ask for your help we need an advocate we need a voice from high enough up the JCPS food chain that the folks at JCC will listen and make some changes we have as a system hundreds maybe thousands of students at from JCPS at JCC it would seem as though we are good for their business we just need them to be good for our business thank you so much for the information that concludes our public comment we appreciate each of you who took time out to come and share with us I will ask

148Dr King if I could to come back up and I believe he has one more item of information [Music] oh thank you ma'am um a few weeks ago the state superintendent of Public Instruction shared some data some Statewide data relative to early literacy and that is data that speaks to the work that is done within the outcomes of the work that we do primarily with our kindergarten through second grade students as you all know that work is critical as it sets the tone for the ability of those students to become literate citizens so in response to the state's release of early literacy data we thought this would be a good opportunity to share our District's early literacy data and also take an opportunity to share with the board and the community some of the structures

149and strategies that we use to support the learning of our youngest Learners as it relates to literacy so this after this evening uh Miss Anna kaikendahl our curriculum and instruction officer will share information about our early literacy outcomes for 2022-2023 thus far foreign good evening board members and Dr Bracey as Dr King said I have the distinguished privilege to go over some really exciting data points with you all tonight so in Johnston County Public Schools we are making great strides in increasing the literacy proficiency levels of our youngest learners we use the science of reading approach which focuses on the five different components of phonemic awareness phonics vocabulary fluency and comprehension with the support of the Johnston County Public Schools Boards of Education we have adopted three robust curriculum at the elementary level that have

150allowed us to focus on what we know to be of critical importance to our youngest Learners when it comes to the science of reading you'll see on our first slide we showcase our first curriculum which is hmh into reading and this curriculum is used specifically to increase reading comprehension and writing through building Proficiency in language comprehension by way of vocabulary background knowledge language structures verbal reasoning and literacy knowledge the audience for this particular curriculum is K-5 students the state of North Carolina and Johnston County Public Schools utilize m-class which is a universal screener that measures the development of the reading skills of all students in grades K3 through the Dibbles assessment these two graphs show the overall composite scores for kindergarten first second and third grade students excuse me the first graph Compares our middle

151of year scores from the 2021-22 school year to our current middle of year scores the second graph that you see shows our progress this school year from the beginning of year to middle of year and you can see in all instances there is an increase of students who are at grade level which is shown in green and students who are above grade level which is shown in blue so that is quite an achievement our second curriculum that we want to look at is fundations and that curriculum is what we chose to increase reading comprehension through building building Proficiency in word recognition through phonics and fluency the first graph again Compares our middle of year scores from last year to our middle of the Year scores from this year and the second graph right beside it

152shows our progress this school year from the beginning of year to the middle of the year and again you can see in all instances there is an increase of students who are at grade level again in green and who are above grade level which again is in blue and finally our third curriculum that we wanted to Showcase is hegarty hegarty is the curriculum that's used to increase Proficiency in phonemic Awareness in pre-k kindergarten and first grade also Johnston County public schools has decided to use hegarty for the two past years in second grade as an adjustment to core instruction based on the data that we've accrued and the these data sets show the specific data collected around that phoneme segmentation scores in m-class which is again what hegarty curriculum specifically targets so as before in

153all instances there is an increase of students who are at grade level and who are above grade level you can also see in this particular data set the dramatic increase in proficiency from the beginning of the year for this school year to the middle of the year another early literacy support that you all have supported is the hiring of Elementary learning facilitators for this current school year and for next school year these Elementary learning facilitators are assigned to two to three elementary schools throughout the district and visit each assigned School site one to two times per week these learning facilitators Have Been instrumental in the implementation of these literacy curricula they have provided PD sessions they have co-taught lessons they have provided non-evaluative feedback for teachers and have undergone extensive professional learning so that they

154have a firm grasp of each one of these curricula and how they should be implemented with Fidelity in the classroom because their singular focus is to help teachers improve their classroom practice their impact can really be seen in this data as well and finally here's the data to which Dr King eluded you can see Johnston County Public Schools versus North Carolina early literacy data and this data set really shows that we are right on Pace with the state of North Carolina data for our beginning of your data matter of fact at the beginning of the school year you can see our kindergarten Learners were actually Four percentage points below the state in terms of kindergarten Readiness but in just a few short months Johnston County Public School staff has caught up in our kindergarten data

155increased by 30 percentage points what a celebration especially for Teacher Appreciation Week our teachers and all instructional staff our administrators everybody this is such a boon to all of them working together as a team and you can also see for first through third grade we have outpaced the state in our middle of year data in first grade we are two percentage points higher than the state in second grade where two percentage points higher than the state and in third grade we are four percentage points higher than the state because of our focus on utilizing those curricular resources that adhere to the science of reading we've been able to instruct our youngest Learners in the most effective of ways and finally I wanted to make you all aware of an exciting opportunity to support our Young

156Learners as they continue to grow in their literacy proficiency as you know we're having reading camp this summer and we're instituting a reading buddies program wherein adults are invited to listen to Children read to help build student fluency and comprehension if you are available to help or to support we would love to have you and of course the specific information on how to register sign up including the dates and the times and the locations are in that link right there thank you any questions it's good to celebrate it is it is a great reason to celebrate any discussion thank you so much uh Dr Pierce I believe it's you all right we have information in our folder about this don't we it should be linked to your presentation okay and you should have a handout

157in your folder as well yes yep all right board members I'm going to go ahead and let you know that we have learned that the best way to communicate anything is to let everybody hear it one time so we are starting a recording again right now and this exact recording is what will be shared with all of our classified employees about this proposal so that everyone hears the exact same proposal just so you all know how we're going to communicate this out so um we have received feedback from our instructional Assistant Group we have received feedback from our driver onlys we've received feedback from administrators we've received feedback from board members we've received feedback from parents and we all know that the one thing that is the biggest thorn in our rear end is what

158bus drivers right and so we have tried our very best um to put forth and look at all of our options and so before we get started it has been an unbelievable job that our transportation department that our teacher assistants that our school nutrition assistants that our office staff that our driver onlys have done to get us to where we are to date this year every single day you've got people up early that are subbing um you know that are just pulling off getting our kids to school and so what we're going to propose to you tonight is looking at some data and looking at a way to potentially restructure our current Transportation proposal and process here so that we can get rid and I hate to say it that way but so we can

159get rid of that policy of Duty to drive and so just for some information up front we currently have 253 total buses rolling every day thirty thousand three hundred twenty nine miles um that is one thousand seventy seventy six runs um 43 midday and 154 EC runs and 374 total employees helping us do that every single day I think it's interesting and that we need to share seems like a little over a year ago I stood in this Podium we were somewhere around the 80 Mark of driver onlys we went to a 1750 an hour model for driver onlys and if you look up there today we have 147 driver onlys we learned something through that process and I'm going to share that today with you we learned several things one is that money did

160make a difference okay two what we learned is is that if you pay one person to drive a bus a certain rate you should pay everybody to drive a bus a certain rate and I think we should admit that um and then I think the third thing that we found through this process is is that there are more people willing to drive a bus than we actually realize if you give them a choice versus if you make them do it and there's one best thing that I want to share we also learned that we have 1189 staff members that are being required to drive a bus and we only need somewhere around 400 staff members to pull off driving buses so we are putting another 700 employees cramming up our bus classes that we're not

161able to get people in who want to drive and so that's we're causing ourselves some problems so with all that said I want to be as transparent as I can be this is the policy that we're all hoping that we can come back into this boardroom and have a cake for it as well to say this thing is gone and so this is our duty to drive policy it was it's been in place for a long long time if you remember back August 1st of 2022 when we did the drivers only plan we went back and our intent was that we'd get enough driver only is that we would only need a few dual employees and today what I'm coming with you is is that we did a new survey and what we learned is

162there's a lot of people who are due employers who said do not take my bus away from me don't take my bus away from me and so we did a survey in early March we received 521 responses and just so you remember we sent the survey out to 1189 employees each time that you see this we've received 521 responses 244 of the staff that responded do not drive or monitor a bus currently um so just so you you know notice there there were 200 that are drivers that filled it out 77 at our monitors and 244 that don't drive a bus at all um we we really wanted to try to figure out what is what is the issues with the bus why do you not want to drive a bus and that was one

163of the questions that we've never asked before and it was it was some interesting that we got back one with size of the bus was one reason that people didn't want to drive uh bus discipline was a concern the length of their day uh was shared um missing class time a lot of Tas instructional assistants other employees that are driving buses are having to leave before the school days over with students and then lack of child care uh was was an area that was shared as well um so then we asked another question if given the option would you choose to drive an AM route PM route Am Pm monitor monitoring Am Pm or opt to drive not to drive and as you see overwhelming on the first survey 155 employees said they would opt

164out out of the ones who completed they don't want to drive at all you see that most of them been the remainder want to drive in the morning and then you see so on 31 in the afternoon and then drive am and a at PM there was 30 that responded in the survey that would love to do am npm routes so I'm going to tell you we got that survey and said this doesn't help as much so we put out another survey uh and and full transparency we put this survey out the Wednesday before spring break all right we all knew it was not great timing uh but we were trying our best to push and crunch numbers so we could get to this point um on that survey we received 426 responses of the

165same 1189 that we put out and the purpose of this survey was to see if staff would be interested in driving based on potential incentive packages and so for lack of better words if the money's there if you need to drive a bus could we see if you're interested in driving 180 people that filled it out said they didn't drove or were monitored currently 179 were drivers and 67 were monitors and so in front of you in your packet because I knew you wouldn't be able to see this and on the slide you'll see some of the options and it's it's a heavy read it was different options based on financial payment so if you worked a 40-hour week um and you got this hourly rate this is what you can make and then we

166incentivize that and I'll get into a few more of those pieces and then they also have the option to option out I don't want to drive I don't care how much money you put in front of me I don't care what the uh what options I got to choose I don't want to drive a bus so this slide references what the staff said that completed that second survey so we had 172 instructional assistants that said after that second survey that these are the things they would be willing to do they would be willing to be driver on these or be dual role am dual role PM we had office support 21 staff filled out said they would be willing 30 School nutrition and two custodians for a total of 225 staff on our second survey

167said they'd be willing to help Drive and so when we got this survey I don't mind telling you we looked at it and went are we seeing we only got 400 some odd people responding but are we seeing enough to drive and so here's the next slide um and I don't mind telling we have studied this slide I've shared this slide with with the Bean Counter I've shared it with everyone to say what are we missing we've talked to HR um we we when we got this slide and looked at it if you if you look by area and that's where we dug down even further if you look by area the Clayton area uh the Cleveland area the current area when the people that those instructional assistant school nutrition assistance custodians office people how

168they responded by the areas they work in if you look across Clayton we currently don't have enough to drive buses in the morning and based on this we'd have a surplus of people to drive our buses in the Clayton area we would not have enough in the afternoon currently based on the ones that presented this and and you see all the way down so am drivers people that were interested PM drivers people that were interested on the survey and then the number of buses we have that we need during those areas is that third column and then you see our the green means that's where we have a surplus and then the PM is where we have the negative now I'm going to tell you I hope that I can stand up here one day

169and tell you we have a surplus of drivers I may never get to say that again but based on this survey with only 426 I think share with you responded we have people who said they were willing to do it with the incentive packages that were put in front of them at the time we also are looking at restructuring by having just a monitor position so you don't have to have CDLs but if you want to help monitor on buses and so we did that survey as well that is something we feel like we're going to need to communicate better with our staff because they've never seen that role in our district they always think to be a monitor you had to have a CDLs so if they understand they don't have to have a

170CDL to do that role there may be more interest but at the end of the day we did still end up having a negative we need 46 monitors a day these are on our exceptional children buses and we still had a shortage of 25 in the AM and 32 in the afternoon but that is the data that came from that and then last but not least in this proposal we would have a sub pool of drivers and based on the data we've done this is the number of Subs we would need in each area every day if we were fully staffed and the model was carried out we need about 41 Subs in our district to carry out our buses every day and based on the first run of this survey which we didn't give

171a lot of information to said here's the money what you think about it not really what it would mean if you were sub we ended up with 30 less you know we we need 32 more staff to pull that off so we're here today to make a proposal to reverse the hiring process currently we hire staff to do school-based jobs and then say you have to drive what we want to do is say do you want to drive and then what job would you like to do in our schools and package it so that you sign you you signed up to drive and that way that's what they want to do we're not putting people on buses who don't want to be on buses um we would offer a set number of positions based on

172the buses needed you saw the slide before where it said Clayton Cleveland certain number of buses need in each area and we will pay the dryers at a higher hourly rate and add a monthly safety and attendance bonus and if we could can we click on that link that says pay um there real quick so part of the recommendation is oh Lord I'm sorry hopefully you can click on it on your device but part of that part of that is is that we are looking at doing a driver only can you see it on your device okay um and so the and the other thing just so you know when we did driver only it was 1750 if you worked zero years or if you worked 30 years and so now we have an actual

173pay scale where you would start out at 1826 an hour and it would go through if you were doing a dual roll job it would be 18 26 an hour that means you would get that for driving the bus and for your teacher assistant or custodian or School nutrition if you were just going to be a monitor what the rate is and then an hourly ta rate which that's an increase from where we currently are now as well that is based on a 4.25 percent state pay increase um and Mr Britt have I missed any key points in the okay um what I do want to share that I think is very important to pull this off we must absorb this by taking away 45 of our vacant teacher assistant positions okay that's an instructional

174assistance and just so you know we currently have 195 vacant instructional assistant positions so no one would lose their job um we've we've had these vacant for years and what we actually would hope would happen with this is by absorbing those we'd fill all the rest of them so we wouldn't have because then you could hire people that doesn't want to drive a bus that is how this is being paid for and I want to be as transparent as I can in that process if we can go back to the slides um staff would be eligible for a monthly attendance and safety bonus we would pay 150 for the am or 150 for AM and PM for 300 if you drove both so you could get up to 300 or 150 based on perfect attendance

175and no accidents and then to jump start this to show how much we really want to get out of this policy we would offer a one-time sign-on and retention bonus for people to fill these positions of twenty five hundred dollars we would pay it monthly during the upcoming school year and so once the positions are filled and we can see we can sustain this model we would ask for you all to remove policy 7445. I do think it's important to share the other side to share the risk um and uh you know with a smaller driver pool we've seen this in other districts okay there are situations when you have less people that can drive buses and you get a sickness a flu a covet or something that happens you end up with buses sitting

176because you didn't have a larger driver pool you know schools are going to have to be flexible with their staff hours and what I mean by that is as we match up a position with a school so let's say there's a person that works at an elementary school and they want to work they work at the front desk and they want to work a.m we're going to have to work with the principal and say okay so can they come and work the front desk starting at 9 00 A.M can we work that out and let them work longer in the afternoon if you've got somebody can cover the seven o'clock the two hours until nine a.m so we can make this happen um it may be that a teacher assistant wants to do it and

177instead of getting one teacher assisted allotment you get two halftime allotments you know what I'm saying so one of them is going to work four hours as a TA and drive a bus and then you get another four hour ta and a bus so they still get a fool but they might get it in two four hour increments and I want to make sure that's out there and uh when positions of drivers become vacant we're going to have to rehire them as drivers first because that's a driver that we're losing and then match it with a dual position um and I like I want to put this last bullet in I don't know if we're going to have to do this because the next steps are really going to solidify if we do but we

178may need to require all staff and what I mean by all staff are classified school-based classified staff to remain to be a dual employee as far as monitors until we find out if there's people interested in doing that position because we've got to pull off and have monitors on those buses so it may be that we need to quite require that until we find out if this process and they don't need a CDO to do that no sir um so next steps with your approval we will start by sending an interest survey to all school-based staff we will then contact the current drivers to do a commitment letter and sign up for the positions by area and so if you're currently driving we want to give you the first opportunity at these Opera at the

179incentive packages that are there we would then open up remaining positions to staff in the district based on years of employment with Johnson County schools and then we would also start advertising for vacant positions you would see our buses and things all over the road again advertising and it is our hope to have this finalized by the end of June if not sooner I do want to share one last thing before questions I have another um not on there does it seem like I have another slide it is okay I have another slide that talks about bell times um and to pull off the plan you've seen to change the bell times for those schools will allow us to park another 10 to 12 buses okay and it only changes their school start times as

180little as 10 minutes in the morning for elementary five minutes in the afternoon for um in the afternoon for elementary 15 in the middle for morning middle and PM 25 minutes for the middle schools those school principals have been contacted and they will be the last schools that are not on our true staggered Bell the principals shared with me that most of them are very very excited because it puts their Elementary ride with just Elementary and their middle riding just with the middle which helps with bus discipline and that is something that's completely sustainable I don't know what factors you took into consideration when formulating that change in schedule but I just want that is completely sustainable based on enrollment and geography and everything correct sir okay all right and the staggered bill was for

181the Four Oaks Elementary Middle Benson Elementary Middle um was Meadow included no Meadows is not included in that list you should have Four Oaks Elementary Four Oaks Elementary Benson Elementary and Benson Middle right they're in yellow yes and that's the changes I think that Dr Chris I think the only thing as I said we're discussing when we're in the finance committee the the biggest concern I have is the 45 ta positions that we are potentially losing however I understand we don't we don't have those filled anyway and I think just so we all understand and as it was explained those those are going to be looked at and if if we need those and if we can hire those during the next school year I think we have funding um from some funds to do

182that for the next school year and then and then we'll look at budget needs the following Square year to keep those positions is that all right we're gonna go talk about a slide tomorrow if this were here so it's one of the thing is if if schools need our principals need those ta positions at one of those 45 positions they're still we can still make them available um in the future next year right because we're not I mean we're not going to fill them this year I mean I mean it's not going to happen this year if we had we know 990 something vacancies I mean it's but better so we're while we're using those 45 positions we can still make we're gonna we can still make those available if they're needed in the future

183as it might was my understanding next year next year I I got three times under brace you I got you I got you that would be a new budget right Dr brace how we um I didn't get the last number you've given to us before but we only need 400 and what drivers I understand only need 242 buses with the change of times and if you look at 242 buses you could do that with 242 drivers of AM and PM or you go at 484. um if one drove just am one drove just pm and you already have 147 full-time correct so you really you're looking at possibly 90 only 95. uh correct yeah so based on this that would be AM and PM which a lot of them don't do right but based on

184the incentive packages as you see right this could be uh life-changing right especially for people that are having to work two and three jobs already right it's a significant increase um but also when you look at the fact that we have 1189 individuals that work in our school system that we require to drive a bus if we can like you said Target just the ones just get the ones who drive the bus look how that's when you're going to fill your positions you're gonna you know you have a better opportunity to hire more people who just want to come service teacher assistance in our school system you know which is wonderful because that's what we need and I guess Mr Britt financially the risk is now you no longer required to drive a bus people

185could be interested in being just teacher assistants only and not having to do both not worried about it for 23 24 because we could cover it because we're still living in the Esser world but after that it could get interesting in a good way it's a good problem to have I'm gonna ask you something I already know the answer to but prc27 you still gonna Max that out correct okay all right prc27 for everybody at home is a teacher assistant allotment from the state and do you have a uh a minimum a maximum number of Subs if we have so 41 is what we are hoping for um and I think I think right now we're looking at putting out 45 of those positions um just knowing that they're they're taking that job um knowing

186that they're probably going to drive every day and so we'll probably just say show up you know show up be ready to drive are these sub drivers aware of the new iPad and all the new software for the turn by turn they would they may not be yet but they would need to be advertised yes yeah what Mr Donovan's talking about is uh we now have turn by turn we it's not a Waze device but it's basically having GPS in your bus and we'll soon to have Scott scan on scan off for our parents and we'll present all that information once that's up and going for our parents it's possible but I think we're really wanting to try to get subs by area so they drive the same routes Madam chairman I'd make a motion

187we approve this so we can have a robust discussion second okay I have a motion by Mr Carroll in a second by Mr Wooten I don't know what's coming but any discussion yeah the discussion I believe that this is going to help um with employee morale I think we have suffered tremendously under the current policy and I think this is a very good step in the right direction together appreciate your hard work to get this together and Mr Watson too Watson thank you and all of your staff I'm sure there was a it was a group effort to get this information and these survey information back this is very good work thank you all for trying to come up with something that will solve a Years Years problem we've had in this kind of thing

188and we look forward to the day where we can take that policy out I'll tell you no other discussion I asked for the vote all those in favor of this recommendation by Dr Pierce would you please indicate by saying aye aye 7-0 thank you okay with no further business I'll I'll entertain a motion to adjourn uh motion by Mr wooten's second by Mr Carroll all those in favor aye thank you very much thank all of you foreign