001Edge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God individual with liberty and justice for all if you uh board member Cooksey and um as customary at our our normal in-person meetings we we always take it upon ourselves have a moment of silence and and reflection and um I think given the events of uh over the Christmas holidays involving several of our students that um and um the issues that we're facing currently I I think it is uh would be very appropriate to have a a moment of silence and reflection and Remembrance and um at this time so join me thank you for keeping those uh students and staff in your in your thoughts um you have each board member
002has been providing an agenda and um if if you would look over the agenda and if we could get a a motion regarding the approval of the agenda or if there's any items that you want to uh look at um prior to but we uh would entertain a motion to adopt or amend the agenda Mr chairman I would like to make a motion that we amend uh and table under reports B social emotional learning update uh for many factors but uh just a couple to mention um this is um obviously a item that we all have many questions about and I feel like it would just be a better verse to do it in person and there's a lot of people that uh it's probably going to be viewing this online that may or may
003not have a chance to uh uh to watch it with the if we do it in sections or we change it up any other way with discussion and um I just feel like that uh it'd be better to do it all at one time and do it uh on our next uh February meeting so I make that in the form of emotion that we uh we table Item B under reports until the February meeting okay we have a motion to the to adopt the agenda uh accepting um report B uh social emotional learning SEL update that would not be a part of this agenda it would be part of our next in-person agenda we have a motion on the floor regarding the agenda is there a second second we have a second by uh board
004member uh Robinson um all in favor of the approval agenda With The Changes noted uh please say aye is there any going to be any discussion of the motion um any discussion uh actually I'd rather us not to table it I think it would be stronger if we went ahead with our presentation since there's so many questions and I'd rather see it uh be allowed to be back on the agenda also in February okay I'd like to add I've gone back and forth with this today and I am now to the point that I would like to table it because I feel like we need to have the presentation at the same time as our discussion I think it would be more beneficial any further discussion regarding approval agenda all in favor of adoption of
005the agenda say aye is that with or without B that's without B okay I'll say I to that um add to that okay any opposed I I'm a post I'd rather leave it the way it is Matt cookson okay um Matt Cooks who will be uh the one descending vote regarding approval of the agenda but the motion carries so thank you all at this time um we received three submissions regarding public comment and they were um attentive enough to email these early uh given the uh Swift changes in our our meeting platform um public comment is always an instrumental part of our meetings and it's established by North Carolina General statute room 15c-51 and um we have uh three submissions one is from Mrs Katie hinshu the second is from Mrs Julia Carpenter and the
006third will be submitted by Mr Grant Warren and um I would ask that these uh exhibits uh standards exhibits as a part of our minutes that way it can accurately reflect that a public comment did exist in the form of a email submission they were publicly read and they would stand as an exhibit to our approval of the minutes of our uh next month and so I will read these boom and the older I received them the first is from Miss Katie hinchu says good evening board members thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak tonight I want to address the board members regarding social emotional learning on the surface it seems SEL is beneficial in assisting students in their learning environments proponents of SEL will tell you that it helps build relationships between
007students and teachers it teaches children kindness empathy and respect it teaches children how to think rationally and regulate their emotions and impulses we all want our children to exhibit these characteristics while also getting the proper education I am well aware that per session law 2020-7 schools are to implement a school-based mental health plan my issue with social emotional learning isn't what is listed on the presentations in various websites it's with the intrusiveness of the surveys provided by Panorama education these assessments seem to be designed for school psychologists to assess when children have difficulties in school why are all children being subjected to a psychiatric evaluation at school when no behavioral issues are present most children come to school ready to learn and without major behavioral problems introducing these thoughts and ideas plant a seed of
008doubt in our children's psyche what happens if the student has had a bad year what if their parents divorce in fifth grade and they have their problems then but they're adjusted by the eighth grade will their behavior from fifth grade haunt them forever where will that information be when the student applies for college is it appropriate to ask these questions without the parents knowledge it is my understanding that parents are not notified about if or when the surveys will be given this passive agreement approach does not facilitate transparency communication with parents parents should be able to review the survey content prior to it being provided and allowed the opportunity to opt out or opt-in any questions that are being asked of a child related to a child's mental well-being should always go through the parent
009first I'd also like to point out to the board that from April 2014 through January 2019 there was an agreement between Panorama education and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction this agreement allowed Panorama education to conduct studies using the data from surveys given within this time frame for improving curriculum and student outcome in North Carolina Public Schools will the data from these surveys be reported to NC DPI and then to Panorama if so will answers to these questions be tied to the student's identification number what incentives does the district receive for any Distributing and Reporting Panorama surveys these are questions that I hope the board will ask tonight after Miss Anderson's presentation I also hope that the board recognizes conducting Universal mental health screenings own children is a slippery slope and could present many
010ethical issues parents deserve transparency in all aspects of their children's education SEL should not be an exception thank you Katie henshi the second submission is from Miss Julia Carpenter and it starts good evening I would like to address the board and the public concerning the mass policy although the current policy has not received a unanimous yes and Alternatives have been brought up during public comment the policy was voted on as is without any public discussion for the board with the student staff population of well over 4 000 people excuse me 20 cases or less for a three-week rolling average represents less than half of a single percent I think that it's a bit extreme to mask over four thousand individuals based on less than half a percent of said population furthermore we are analyzing which
011schools the cases are coming from for example if the majority of cases were in the high school why do we need to Masters in elementary schools that may have a significantly lower case count the big question here is when does this end Research indicates that coronavirus is here to stay as is the flu strep throat the stomach bug and numerous other viruses we cannot continue masking our children and limiting their social interactions based on case counts a common sense approach would be for sick symptomatic individuals to stay home until they're symptom-free and for help the Asus asymptomatic individuals to remain in school science even suggests that you can be contagious to others two or three days before you even exhibit symptoms so you will never be ahead of the spread the time has come to
012stop quarantined stock contact tracing let's get back to the business of educating our children to quote Stanford professor of Health policy Jay you just have to read that last name for yourself we essentially reorganized our society around the control of a single infectious disease when in fact health is plural a public action that benefits the reduction of one disease might hurt another disease I find it scary that we are letting education fall to the Wayside while trying to dictate how parents will choose to keep their children safe the effects of masking our children in schools will be long lasting students do not need to learn how to cope with a new normal we need to return to some semblance of our former normal by allowing optional masking so now I'm asking that each board member
013consider the current policy if you do not agree with it 100 please speak up before the vote let us know how you feel why are you voting yes if you're voting no what would you propose instead thank you for your time and attention and that was submitted by Ms Julia Carpenter the third and final submission is from Mr Brent Warren my name is Brent Warren I live at 121 CI Chapman Court Taylorsville North Carolina I would like to discuss SEL social education learning to Enlighten you that it is a following of China's blueprint for creating a system of systems it uses for influencing social scores [Music] using a classroom data application called PowerSchool schools and the Department of Public Instruction collect students test scores grades and other quantitative data individual data is matched with the
014student's unique identifier number uin which allows the data to follow the student throughout their academic career as students leave school and enter the workforce with their social security numbers the Commerce Department continues tracking the tracking process how many things have you done when younger that you wouldn't want to follow you into your workplace now as an adult according to Human Rights Watch The Brookings Institute and others who studied China the CCP uses its surveillance system to fulfill three functions collect personal data report on suspicious data and prompt investigations of people the system flags is problematic China uses its system of systems surveillance for social control and ethnic repression here are some questions being asked to students number one on an average school day how long after school are you alone without a parent of adult
015to have you ever had sexual intercourse three have your parents or other adults in your family ever talk with you about what they expect you to do or not to do when it comes to sex have you ever used heroin also called speed crystal meth crank ice question mark have you ever been taught about abstaining from sexual activity have you ever used marijuana what is your religious preference Should students should athletes play on teams that match their gender identity should athletes play on teams that match their birth gender what is your political ideology do you believe there is a genetic advantage in favor of transgender athletes how important do you believe it is that parents get their children vaccinated from what you have read or heard do you partially think certain vaccines do do not
016cause autism at Birth what does this have to do with educating our children these questions are not the business of the school or the state for too long parents have trusted the school system without question due diligence needs to be performed by our school board before SEL or anything else is implemented not just by only trusting administrators or the North Carolina department of public education data mining has its roots in communism and parents of Alexander County had a wall of trust built with the Alexander County School System over the past few years that wall has been destroyed this China surveillance technique divides families and in some cases pits parental teachings against what the state wants the children to believe parents and teachers need to work together to educate our children and not just blindly accept
017whatever is suggested by the state the classroom is for Education not social engineering and that was submitted by Mr Brant Warren so those are the all the submissions I have uh for public comment and I appreciate uh appreciate the uh submissions um we will move on now to the consent agenda Odom I apologize would you clarify for me where those survey questions are located uh they are not in anything that we have distributed to children and I just for my clarification would like to know where Mr Warren said that those survey questions are located um so he'll have to answer that um because I just read Verbatim what he what he drafted it says and I'll go back to the paragraph that perhapses it says according to Human Rights Watch The Brookings Institute and others
018and I don't know who others are who study China the ccps uses its surveillance system to fulfill three functions collect personal data report on suspicious data and prompt investigations of people the system flags as problematic China uses its system of systems surveillance for social control and ethnic repression here are some questions being asked students so it does not specifically say students in Alexander County not at all it says no it just says here are some questions being asked students okay thank you for that clarification yes it does not state that and actually I'm hopeful these submissions will be exhibits as part of our minutes that way uh um that way folks will know what what China asked and what others ask and what Alexander County asks because thank you Ms title yes I would just
019like to say that I think our presentation next month and hopefully it will be next month would clear some of this up for all of us because of course I don't think any of us want some of these questions being asked in Alexander County so I think with our presentation and digging more into this we're going to find out more of what is sel in our County what it's like okay well thank you to to all the submitters and um the comment from board member Ryan um anything else before we proceed to the agenda okay if I could get a motion regarding uh the minutes of the December 14th meeting and all the components of the uh consent agenda have a motion um by board member Loudermilk and a second by board member Ryan any
020discussion okay all in favor of the consent agenda and the motion is presented say aye aye any opposed uh motion carries okay at this time we will uh recognize some Dr Ravis the principal of hidden Elementary for uh headlight uh Elementary School update good evening chairman of Madonna and school board members and I'm sorry that we're having to do this meeting virtually I understand why but I had really looked forward to meeting everybody in person I had a chance to see Miss Ryan when she came by to say hello but um would love to meet you all in person eventually I understand School businesses being flexible business right now so thanks for hearing from me tonight I am Dr Dal Revis the principal at hiddenite and Miss Bishop has a presentation I'll ask her to
021pull it up as I speak to some of the specifics of it while I'm waiting for her to get that up I do want to say too um thank you for what you do this is School Board appreciation month and uh so kind of rotten that we had to meet here uh remotely because it would have been nice to say thanks to you guys in person I know you guys do a thankless job but we do appreciate what you do it's not easy but somebody once said if uh all the work was easy then everybody would do it so thank you for being Who You Are Miss Bishop are we ready to go foreign can we can you pull that up so we can all look at it as I talk through the slides oh
022very good okay I thought we would look at it all together okay so the opening slide just has my name on it so we'll go to the first which just talks about um our student population and we are one of the somewhat larger elementary schools as you guys know with 362 students enrolled right now and we are proud that we have one of the more diverse populations of of the schools lots of diversity and um I would speak to the fact that we have a pretty high EC population I gave you guys those numbers there um including speech we're about at 23 percent who are identified as EC if we took speech out we would have about 15 which is still kind of high for um North Carolina and National Norms which run around 10
02311 12 so 15 percent uh identified for academic needs uh and then if we add in the speech again that puts it around 23 and we have a nice healthy robust population of English Learners and we have an amazing English language teacher who does a great job with those students so proud of our diversity at hiddenite our next slide talks about our staffing and we have 19 homeroom teachers and we are able to offer PE music and art we are one of the fewer schools who has a full-time art teacher and I want to speak to that I think that there's great connections she does good work she's an amazing teacher and that was decided before I got to hiddenite but I'm fully supportive of spending some of our federal money to pay for an
024art teacher at hiddenite and I just think art is so important for children to learn to be able to be expressive in a an appropriate way and then also just tons of connections that you can make using art to connect to literature math all those things so she does a great job we're proud that we have that program at midnight all right next slide we have 10 teaching assistants and you'll see the numbers there seven bus drivers I do want to say as far as teaching assistants go they really have been critical this year you know oftentimes if a teacher's out and we don't have a sub which is lately more often than not then we are able to put teaching assistants in to direct the students learning and we really could not have been
025operating last semester and and even as we've gotten back since winter break if we did not have willing teacher assistants who are very capable of working with the students so we're just proud that we have capable folks who are willing to do whatever it takes to to keep the ball rolling next slide we are also proud that we have one of the more robust after school tutoring programs you may know that we have Federal money that was given us to establish after school tutoring and so we have 52 students in that right now and we're tracking their data to see and right now as a whole they are growing so hopefully that after school tutoring will by the time we get to the years in will show us that the students are benefiting from that
026as as part of kind of a catch-up that we're having to do now because of the pandemic next slide we are talking about our Community Partnerships and we're thankful you guys know we have a lot of major churches in the area who are super supportive of our school and then of course other Partnerships and Partnerships are not as robust and we're not able to have folks in schools these days like we would like to but hopefully we will get back to that one day um and then of course we have a school resource officer that we share supplied by the Alexander County Sheriff's Department so again just grateful for the Community Partnerships that we have foreign next slide I want to talk a little bit about celebrations you guys probably don't follow us on Facebook
027but I would love for you to like the hiddenite elementary school page because I feel like we do a good job of uh publishing what our students are accomplishing and doing and keeping Folks up today and some of our celebrations I mentioned Tas are ready we were proud last semester to offer um lunch and a teaching assistant parade where the kids got to kind of line the halls and cheered the teacher assistants on as they came down the halls and and thank them just for the daily work that they do so that was a little bit of a different Unique Kind of Celebration and we're proud of that some more celebrations that we've had you guys probably remember in December we had several Representatives who were part of your Christmas card contest and we were
028proud of their work something we also did in December that was novel I believe is that we had a hot chocolate party to celebrate our ready growth I ready is one of the diagnostic tools that we use to measure where students are so they take it at the beginning of the year and then of course in the middle of the year so students who grew the most per subject and grade level were invited to a hot chocolate party so I think that was a nice surprise for them this year's Focus next slide please miss Bishop um this year's focus is on engagement and all of our teachers have a goal of working to engage students there's something that um we call kind of ritual compliance where the kids sort of sit in their seats and
029do what they're supposed to do because that's what they're supposed to do but we are striving to have authentic engagement where the students are working in small groups or working on projects or working with Hands-On materials and so on you see some of those pictures there so that is our Focus this year is just having that authentic engagement to get the best out of our students that we can and to do that we have to kind of find out what makes each student tick so next slide please we did a project with some of the teachers they helped me with this and we thought for our presentation since you had invited us to be here in January we would go Allah snow theme you probably can't see but I have some little snowflake earrings on
030so we know that snowflakes are said to all be unique none like any other and so along those lines we ask the students to do a project where they detailed how they are unique so miss Bishop would you play that at this time hi I'm Alex is perfect people like snowflakes each one is unique in the wrong way hi my name is Cadence and I'm unique because I have a different voice than everybody else I'm also unique because I like playing with everybody else like playing different ways and I'm also unique because um I have a different style than everybody hi I'm Alex because my favorite food is chapter hi I'm Lee I love karate and animals I'm unique because I am who I am snowflakes are made with ice crystals and dust um Jacqueline
031I am unique because I can ride a bike oh man my name is Bryson ha I am unique because um I used we used to ride side by sides with my cousins and then my cousin got a dirt bike and then we started riding dirt bikes hi I'm Natalie remember all our souls are like snowflakes different and beautiful hi my name is Ally I am unique and special in my own way I have a hunt for animals and people my hair and my body shake is what makes me unique I am also very fun those flags are used to symbolize purity hi my name is Elliot and I'm unique because my because my family's from Mexico but I'm from North Carolina I'm unique because I'm funny and fun and cool I am a good kid
032I like spending time with my family I might be different but it means I'm unique I am eating because I am super good at fortnite I am unique because my eyes changes from Ludacris I can write very fast I am a very good dancer and I'm also very explicitable I can play I am very good at playing hello my name is Jose and I am unique because I'm named after my grandpa and I love math the temperature and humidity gives the snowflake its shape my name is Siri and we're all unique because I I was born in Mexico not us my name is spelled differently because of this is Spanish my real name is Sarah we are all unique because we are all different people so those were our students the teachers picked the ones
033who they wanted to speak with me about what made them unique and you probably noticed you didn't hear the same thing from any of them so they definitely all are very unique and we just appreciate your support as we continue to strive to bring out the best in each of our students and help them find their own interest and help them tap into that so that they can just grow to be the best students that they can and that's all I have so uh did you guys have any questions or any ideas well thank you for your uh submission and and presentation uh Dr Dal Revis and um next time I will know to to uh engage the full salutation instead of saying Dr Reavis I'll say it's all good it's all good I don't
034know does any other board member have a question or comment for um the doctor foreign okay well thank you so much for your presentation regarding hiddenite Elementary School at this time we'll recognize Dr Betsy Curry the associate superintendent of curriculum and instruction and she will discuss our summer learning program plans you need a board Dr Hefner thank you for giving me the opportunity to share I can now see Ken Bishop's crane which is really really helpful I couldn't see it when um Dr Dale Roberts was presenting but I know everybody is anxious this year and and grateful that we have a little bit of a heads up on summer learning so I wanted to spend a little bit of time letting you know what we would be doing in the summer of 2022. next slide
035please we have several different funding sources for learning recovery as a result of the coveted pandemic we have reading Camp funding which we have always had and that amount is still to be determined this the goal of this Camp is to promote reading proficiency for Rising first second third and fourth grade students this is a kit we have done traditionally for several years now we also have Esther money which is 1.6 million of that extra money over three years needs to be spent on promoting learning recovery from the pandemic this will also support summer learning and tutoring active prep works we have what is called a PRC 176 and we have approximately 133 000 dollars to use for a summer bridge program for the Summers of 2022 and 2023 and an additional 85 818 from
036PRC 177 which is summer career accelerator programs and that will also occur for the next two summers next slide please we'll start first with the rate to achieve camp and give you an overview of this and these slide presentations will be posted on our web page as well or who is this for Rising first through fourth graders who are not demonstrating sufficient progress in Reading because the research shows that if kids are not reading on grade level by the time they're in third grade that they will struggle throughout school so we can make every effort to make sure that they're on grade level this year the camp will only be for three weeks July 25th through August 11th Monday through Thursday 7 30 to 2 45 and by legislation it has to include 72 hours
037of reading instruction and this will occur at every Elementary School for those that student population next slide please what are we doing for our other elementary students well Rising fourth graders in math and fifth graders needing additional support in reading or math we'll also be invited to come and this will be from Esser funds it will do it will be operated during the same time period we decided to do this to support our families with children in multiple grades so that their kiddos would be in summer camp during the same weeks and that would be closer to the end of the summer because we know that summer learning loss is a real thing and we want kids to come in ready to jump right in and hopefully on grade level when they start the school
038year next slide please these are our Middle School opportunities the first one is from Esser and PRC 176 funds remember the 176 funds were the um Bridge Academy funding and that's to help bridge between one grade level and another cd2 will benefits from this are rising sixth seventh and 8th graders needing the additional support and math and reading also those same week 72 hours of instruction the next one is PRC 177 and I have to give a big shout out to CTE director Crystal hope who is largely responsible for this program she has planned this and what's originally going to do this presentation for me at the last board meeting this is going to focus on a Junior Alexander County Career Academy for Rising 7th and 8th graders in a two-week Camp experience it is
039an application process the purpose of the camp is to promote career awareness for middle school students and will include career-ready Labs guest speakers from career fields and Industry tours the goal is to develop a greater understanding of the high school CTE courses more horse opportunities and a more fortified career development plan they have to have a lot of public speakers coming in for this these states will just be August 1st through August 11th Monday through Thursday so it's a two-week experience as opposed to a three-week experience but also running concurrently with the other camps next slide please Alexander Central High School opportunities we'll be using Esther funds to support those students who are in need of who are in need of credit recovery in order to make up for a credit deficit students need a
040certain number of credits to graduate from high school where they graduate with a regular diploma or a minimum credit diploma some of what we've seen is some loss of credits or some students are very close to passing but need a little bit of extra time to engage in a credit recovery class in order to gain that credit towards graduation and this would enable them to move on to the next course in that sequence during their next year and increase the likelihood of an on-time graduation so that would have can be extra funds Crystal hope again with the PRC 177 Career Academy money they will be doing that for Rising 10 through 12th graders two week Camp experience also an application process there'll be a targeted focus on Workforce needs in our community primarily Healthcare and
041trades and it will directly pair students interested in post-secondary employment with local businesses and Native School workers of skilled workers I apologize also August 1st through 11th Monday through Thursday being funded through PRC 177. next slide Alexander Urban College will also be doing Credit Recovery when that will occur we're not exactly sure on that one yet because they're of course on a different schedule than the school system they start earlier and end earlier so we um we'll get that information out through AUC just as soon as we have established who will be teaching and what those courses will be next slide I think that might be the last one oh no we have the days this is just a calendar for the folks at home um to see that in June these are the high
042school opportunities the reason we do credit recovery at the very end of June is to give children a chance to test if they need to and to graduate with their class even if it's a later graduation during that school year so this gives kids an opportunity also to just be fresh out and recover the credits that they earned in the previous year did not quite earn so for two reasons to help them to graduate if they're close to it and they just have a couple credits they have to recover or to give them an opportunity to complete work that they did not complete during the previous semester or the previous school year next slide I did my best to illustrate on this slide what July and August will look like if you look at that
043first week it's Monday through Thursday the read to achieve Elementary then we add in for the next two weeks the career accelerator program and Rising Sixth and ninth graders from PRC 176. next slide that is it I hope you found that information helpful very very mandated to six weeks of Summer School this year that really was tough on kids and it was tough on our staff and we had a tough time Staffing it last year so with a lot of input from principals from coaches and from teachers we feel like this will be a great experience for kids typically we have kids deciding to come to summer reading camp and I think last year everybody including kiddos were a little bumped up foreign well thank you so much for that presentation any any questions of
044the board uh for Dr Curry do you anticipate the number uh this summer to be lower than those served last summer um not because there's a greater need but because it is three weeks and because kids are re-engaging in school but I do think if when I look our middle of the Year data we're showing really really good progress um I would like to speak to something that Dr Daryl River said about I ready that really enables us to hone in on individuals with student needs so that we can know where those gaps are so that we can better fill those gaps during the regular school day but it also will allow us to group those children in the summertime in order to make sure that they're in skill-based groups for example we're not going
045to put a child we might have kindergartners and some of them might need phonemic awareness and some might need some phonics instruction we can really pinpoint where that Gap is and the reading and really Target that instruction so I think we'll have more but I think it's because it's only three weeks I think it's a lot of fun for kids I know we didn't think summer school was fun but our kids look forward to reading camp in particular and you mentioned last summer staffing issues will this remain a voluntary optional route for our staff that chooses to work it yes it will and I do not anticipate that we'll have any problems problem Staffing if the pay is quite good um we do intend to look at a bonus situation but the teachers receive a
046daily rate of pay and we also have paid classified staff members an additional rate of pay the problem with last year was that it was six weeks and teachers were I mean they're still exhausted but what they say is they what I'm hearing from folks is they'll have no problem coming back if they can have that for it that's why they kind of wanted to wait until the end of July beginning of August because a lot of people go to the beach right after school and we know that even though they're exhausted I know being a former principal we had teachers in our building all summer long but a especially at the end of July beginning of August they were already in there beating down the doors you know wanting to be in their room
047I'm excited to see the Career Academy opportunities uh with the middle and high school uh that's something I've watched neighboring counties through the career intact dude last uh several years well even prior to covert when some of that changed but uh having been a part of something through Appalachian I think that's something our County needs and I I kudos to miss hope for organizing that and working on that I think that hopefully that's something that'll go over well and be well received I hope so and then the trick will be to find the funding for it after these two years yeah but I'm excited as well any other questions uh for Dr Curry from the board Dr Curry Could you um just quickly you don't have to go into great detail but the pots of
048money that you talked about in the beginning is that cover what we do or do we bring in money from other sources too the extra just allotted to summer school we also use that money for tutoring this year and so that's really helping us to Target some of those kids that need specific skill gaps and um it is a bit of a struggle to staff but I think in the end teachers really want to do what's good for kids and it's like I say all the time at what point do you take care of you and you know that's just an individual decision I guess is at what point so we are hiring additional people sometimes student teachers and we see teachers if you talk to teachers and principals for the most part they're saying
049we can make it work we can make it work but at what cost and so we're trying to balance that for them that we have a tremendous staff and I think the money is there due to all the federal influx of money now the PRC 176 and 177 is State appropriated money but it's still extra funds but it is a portion of the Esther and the federal funds that the state can tell us directly what we have to spend it on which they're still telling us with it has to be a learning recovery and so in all honesty to get enough people to work to spend the 1.6 million in learning recovery that's going to be a struggle over three years but we have three years to spend that out so looking at how we
050spend it over this summer and how much of it we use for tutoring in the summer we may revisit that and maybe try to amend our budget through a federal program called ccip and and have it directed into other ways that you know we thought about hiring more additional people because that's what we need is additional talented people but there's nobody out there to hire and so you know maybe next year at this time there will be additional people because really if we could get five or six more will really really help the situation you can use extra money to do that but we can't fill the positions we have right now we're just like everybody else in the in the real world any other questions of Dr Curry okay thank you for your uh
051presentation Dr Curry um is there any um committee reports from any of the um School Board Representatives our updates okay okay at this time I'll recognize Dr Jennifer Hefner for the superintendent's report thank you chairman Odom this also is included in your agenda if you want to have a copy of it it's short and sweet this month the first bullet talks about our school system and how we donated 7 644 dollars to the United Way of Alexander County during this past year that puts the school system in the silver level donor category the United Way of Alexander County sincerely appreciates the generosity of all of our Local School Employees and certainly they extend congratulations to them for achieving that distinction of being a silver lab excuse me a silver level donor I as superintendent just
052want to thank all the employees that donated to the United Way because they directly support Children and Families here in Alexander County so I'm very proud of the amount that was collected the second bullet is um just part of a chart of data that I've been compiling for the past two days it is no secret that coveted numbers are on the rise and it has begun to create some issues with Staffing uh you will see the I did a clip and and paste kind of thing just showing staff members that have been out the numbers of Staff members out the past two days as a system that's everybody the schools each department combined as a system we have had 81 staff members out yesterday and 74 staff members were out today and as you know
053Sugarloaf Elementary will be operating remotely through the remainder of the week and some of our other schools are getting close as far as having enough staff to adequately supervise children and I told you that whenever we have more than half of the children out of classrooms or when we don't have enough staff to safely supervise those children in the schools that is when I will call a remote environment for whichever school is involved so today that decision was made for Sugarloaf and then this is just a friendly reminder Monday January 17th is a holiday for both students and staff I encourage everyone to enjoy the long weekend and do your best to stay healthy do you have any questions just one uh the spreadsheet is classroom instructional position that soon correct because we broke out
054School nutrition is a different spreadsheet uh Head Start would be a different spreadsheet before and after school care is a different spreadsheet so those total numbers that I gave you was all those combined but what you see in your report are just the schools and how many at each School were out yesterday and today okay like you're welcome good question any other questions of Dr Hefner from the board thank you okay thank you Dr Hammond at this time we have some unfinished business and we'll recognize our Chief Financial Officer uh Ms Sharon Mahaffey she has some proposed board policy revisions for the second reading um tonight we have two board policies for second reading policy 3100 curriculum development and 3225 technology responsible use there have been no changes since last month and no suggestions and
055I would ask that we approved these on second reading include improved Kim okay we have a motion uh board member Lauer Mill is there a second second by board member Scott Bowman uh any discussion regarding uh the policy revisions all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed motion carries uh and if Miss Mahaffey if you would continue on under the new business caption uh proposed Boe policy revisions uh Miss Mahaffey we have two policy revisions for next month uh policy 40 50 and 4120 and I will ask for input on those and bring them back next month okay uh any questions of Ms Mahaffey from the board regarding uh these uh policies that will um re-emerge next month okay thank you Miss Mahaffey as always thank you okay now's the great time for the
0562022 Board of Education committee assignments um that's a singular role where uh that's one of the only things that a chair really gets to do uh outside of all the other uh board members were were all equal we have we have the same lack of power in our individual capacity but a board chair can um appoint uh board members to various committees and I will read uh the appointments um Award of Honor of the Modern Auto Mill and Randy Robinson board liaison to the Boosters club the uh Scott Bowman or liaison to the commissioner slash legislative that'd be Mr Matt Cooksey budget will be uh Miss Bridget Ryan and Mr Harry Shrum calendar committee would be Mr Amy Robinson census Mr Matt Cooksey Education Foundation uh Matt Cooksey and Ramey Robinson facilities will be Scott
057Bowman and Harry Shrum Head Start will be Mr Marty Loudermilk policy will be uh Mr Matt Cooksey and Miss Bridget Ryan school health advisory would be Mr Ramey Robinson Student Success Center Mr Ramey Robinson teacher of the year would be Mr Marty Loudermilk and Ms Bridge Ryan and transportation um would be Mr Scott Bowman and the board chair can serve his ex-officio on any committee so uh I hope that you all will uh enjoy 2022 serving in these capacities I I know that uh um you will put your all into it as you always have and it would be nice if everybody's if I could Grant everybody's wish for select committees we would have a lot more committees so uh we just did the best we could and um thank you for your service um
058item C is a requirement of the North Carolina uh general assembly and that is the status of the mass mandate and the board is familiar of where we're at at this point uh regarding uh masking through the uh Christmas holiday and then the subsequent return to to class but uh we are currently under a uh status of mandatory masking uh in the school buildings during school so uh I'll recognize uh Dr Hefner or for any update informational update regarding uh this and comments from the board foreign the update that I have is that the numbers have increased drastically as was um obvious on the report that was submitted to you uh over the weekend uh with the covert totals for students and staff you have heard just this week with staff alone in two different
059days that we have been in attendance so if I can provide any other updates or if you have questions I would be happy to okay thank you Dr Hefner um what is the board's uh inclination regarding uh the status of the mass mandate moving forward until next month I make the motion that we continue to move forward the way we are situated okay we have a motion that's amazing thank you Mr Odom okay we have a motion by a board member Cooksey and a second by board member Bowman to maintain uh mandatory masking as we have to this point for another month um I have a motion in a second any discussion all in favor of the motion say aye all right any opposed uh Okay so um board member Loudermilk and board member Robinson
060um motion carries and and those uh um we're too dissenting descending votes so we will as required by General statute we will have this same conversation again next month so at this time I would entertain a motion to remove into closed session to interclose session to discuss Personnel part of North Carolina General statute 143-318.11 A6 so I move second okay a motion um by Miss Ryan and second by Robinson Robertson okay all in favor of the motion say ah aye any opposed we're removed closed session